Samuel Homfray

SAMUEL HOMFRAY (d. 1822 ), iron-master, the younger brother of Jeremiah, became, after 1789, the sole manager of the prosperous Penydarren works . About the year 1793 he discovered the method of making the ‘finers metal,’ the leading feature in the manufacture of bar iron, by improving the quality and increasing the quantity made. He was one of the chief promoters of the Glamorgan canal, which proved so convenient for the transit of the heavy manufactured iron to the port of Cardiff instead of by the mule and pack-horse method. This was opened in 1795 and cost £103,000, of which he subscribed £40,000. He then became the chief promoter of the tramway from Penydarren to ‘ Navigation,’ (today Abercynon ) a distance of nine miles, on which Richard Trevithick accomplished the wonderful task of hauling five wagons, carrying ten tons of iron and seventy men, at a speed of five miles an hour. This was the first locomotive engine to run successfully upon a railway, and won the 1,000 guineas bet made by Homfray against Richard Crawshay, 21 Feb. 1804. Homfray was the chief instigator of the suit, at Hereford Assizes, 1795, of the commoners against the Dowlais Company, when the defendants again won. Homfray incurred £300 damages in the libel action brought against him by William Taitt of the Dowlais Company in 1807. In 1811, at the Hereford assizes, Homfray and his partners in the Penydarren iron-works again sued the Dowlais Company for fouling and choking the Morlais brook with cinders and slag.

Samuel m. Jane , daughter of Sir Charles Gould Morgan (see Morgan of Tredegar family ), 1st bart., of Tredegar Park , and this enabled him to obtain a lease of mineral land of about 3,000 acres upon very cheap terms at Tredegar , in conjunction with Richard Fothergill (q.v.) and Matthew Monkhouse ( 1800 ). Here again, as his brother did at Ebbw Vale , he was able to work off some of his superabundant energy by establishing the Tredegar iron-works with such success that during 1809 the Monmouthshire canal carried 9,105 tons of iron from their works, a quantity greater than that of any of the other dozen or so of the Monmouthshire iron-works except that of Blaenavon . In 1806 he issued an address as a candidate for a seat in Parliament for Brecknock , but withdrew before the election day. He became high sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1813 and, in June 1818 , M.P. for the borough of Stafford. He d. 22 May 1822 in London and was buried at Bassaleg . His eldest son, SAMUEL HOMFRAY (b. 7 Dec. 1795 , d. 16 Nov. 1882 ) was high sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1841 and alderman of Newport (and mayor 1854-5 ).

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