- Kingsmill Eyre
Kingsmill Eyre (23 May 1682-1743) [ [http://www.eyrehistory.net/newsarum/people/p0000004.htm#I46 Eyre History. ] ] was Secretary of
Chelsea Hospital , a garden designer, and thepatent ee of a process for making iron.Family
Kingsmill was the youngest of five children of Samuel and Martha Eyre of New House,
Whiteparish ,Wiltshire . [ [http://www.eyrehistory.net/newsarum/people/p0000004.htm#I46 Eyre History. ] ] [Thomas Smith, "A Topographical and Historical Account of the Parish of St. Mary-le-Bone (1833), 48. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xw4NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=+%22Kingsmill+Eyre%22&source=web&ots=To51mnv2IY&sig=znMqkpQpK48l_yqfbfCfW5VXfTw&hl=en#PPA48,M1] ] His elder brother wasRobert Eyre , Solicitor-General in 1708-10 and thenChief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1725-35.Career
His mother was looking for a place of employment for him in 1702, and sought the help of
John Locke , the philosopher. He had served 8 years (including time inHolland ) as an apprentice to a Mr Chitty, a merchant, supplying stores to theNavy Board . [John Locke, Mark Goldie, and Esmond Samuel De Beer, "John Locke: Selected Correspondence" (Oxford University Press, 2002), 302. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pkQmwTA9c8QC] ] The outcome of this has not been discovered.Somehow, Eyre entered the circle of
Robert Walpole . The point of contact may have been his brother Robert. This led to Eyre's appointment as Agent to the Four Companies of Invalids ofChelsea Hospital in 1716, a post in the gift of Robert Walpole as its treasurer. This was followed in 1718 by his appointment as Secretary to the Commissioners of Chelsea College.In this period, Eyre (according to a recent suggestion) was responsible for laying out the garden at Walpole's
Norfolk mansion at Houghton. He may also have designed other gardens during the 1720s. [Andrew Eburne, 'Charles Bridgeman and the Gardens of the Robinocracy' "Garden History" 31(2) (Winter, 2003), pp. 193-208. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1587295 JSTOR subscription required] ]During the 1720s, Eyre became involved in the ironmaking project of William Wood, whose son had obtained a patent for a method of making iron in a air furnace using mineral
coal in 1727. This was followed by another to Wood himself in 1728 for something similar, but the enterprise collapsed because Wood was unable to perform what he promised. [English Patents, nos. 489 and 502; M. W. Flinn, 'William Wood and the coke smelting process' "Transactions of Newcomen Society" 34, 1961-2, 55-71; J. M. Treadwell, 'William Wood and the Company of Ironmasters of Great Britain', "Business History" 16(2), 1974, 93-112] How deeply Eyre was involved is not clear, but in 1736, he took out a similar patent in his own name. [English Patent, no. 553. ]References
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