Thomas Baylies

Thomas Baylies (1687-1756) was a Quaker ironmaster first in England, then in Massachusetts.

Origins and family

Thomas Baylies was the son of Nicholas Baylies of Alvechurch in north Worcestershire. On 5 June 1706, he married Esther, daughter of Thomas Seargeant of Fulford Heath, in Solihull in a Quaker ceremony at which 38 winesses were present. They had eight children. [Mary Richmond Baylies Allen, "Reminiscences of the Baylies and Richmond families" (c.1880). ] Esther's sister Mary married Abraham Darby I. [Arthur Raistrick, "A Dynasty of Ironfounders" (1953; Sessions, York 1989), 3. ]

Coalbrookdale

By 1714, Baylies had joined his brother-in-law, Abraham Darby, at his Coalbrookdale ironworks, becoming a partner with him and John Chamberlain. Together they built a second blast furnace at Coalbrookdale and secured the rights to build a furnace at Dolgûn near Dolgellau and taking over Vale Royal Furnace in 1718. However, Darby died in July 1717, before any progress was made with either project, and the partnership was dissolved. [Raistrick, 39–44.]

Vale Royal Company

Baylies took over the Coalbrookdale Company's right to Vale Royal. Lacking sufficient capital, he formed a new parternship with Charles Cholmondeley of Vale Royal Abbey, Richard Turner of Pettywood and William Watts of Newton near Middlewich. Turner was concerned in a coalmine at Thatto Heath near St Helens and persuaded his partners to build a furnace at Sutton (there). They also built a forge at Acton Bridge and intended to (but perhaps did not) build another at Dean Mill in Haydock. Baylies moved to Marton near the works. The original capital of £5000 was doubled when the second furnace was planned. Baylies had difficulty in paying up the capital of his share, now reduced to one-sixth, because it was still tied up in the stock at Coalbrookdale. His difficulties were made worse by Mary Darby's death following soon after that of her husband. The company suffered substantial losses, forcing Cholmondeley to make an assignment of his estate for the benefit of his creditors, blaming his troubles on the obstinacy of Dick Turner. [P. W. King, 'The Vale Royal Company and its Rivals', "Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire" 142 (1993), 7–11.]

Later Activities in Great Britain

It is not clear how long Baylies remained a partner in the Vale Royal Company; certainly he was not its clerk. In 1723, he was employed by William Wood to negotiate a lease of an iron ore mine at Frizington in Cumberland, and he may have had some involvement with his works there in 1728. However he was living in Stourbridge in 1729. [The National Archives, PC 1/4/107/6. ] Between 1730 and 1735, he may have even been concerned in the management of the Culnakyle ironworks at Abernethy of the York Buildings Company.Fact|date=July 2008 In 1735, he became the manager of a furnace near Neath, perhaps Bryncoch Furnace, which belonged to a Quaker Company form Bristol. [Shropshire Archives, 6001/3190, letter of 30 Apr. 1735. ]

Massachusetts

Baylies (with his son Nicholas and daughter Esther) emigrated from London to Boston, Massachusetts, arriving in June 1737. The following year, he brought over his wife and his daughters Mary and Helen. He settled at Attleborough Gore (now Cumberland, Rhode Island), where he was an ironmaster under contract (of 1738) with Richard Clarke & Co. of Boston. Little is known of his time in America, but he and his wife (who died on 7 May 1754) were buried in a family burying ground beside the Taunton River. [Allen, 8. ]

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