Shadrach Fox (died before 1725) was the

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a large ...

who preceded

Abraham Darby Abraham Darby may refer to: People *Abraham Darby I (1678–1717) the first of several men of that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a new method of producing pig iron with ...

Coalbrookdale Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge. This is where iron ore was first s ...

. Shadrach was probably the son of Captain Thomas Fox, who appears in the accounts of

Philip Foley Philip Foley (12 May 1648 – December 1716) was the youngest of the three surviving sons of the British ironmaster Thomas Foley (1616–1677), Thomas Foley. His father transferred all his ironworks in the West Midlands (region), Midlands to him ...

in 1669 as buying tough

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silic ...

, In the 1690s, Shadrach was renting the Coalbrookdale ironworks and supplying shot (for

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

) to the

Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence ...

. He had some dispute with the

Company for Making Iron with Pitcoal A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

. His brother Thomas Fox had worked that company as founder near London, casting grenado shells and shot for the Board in 1693, after which Thomas became warden of the Fleet Prison, in which he stored 'bombs and grenado shells', probably ones empty of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

. In 1701 he placed his brother in charge of another

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

, at Wombridge to which Isaac Hawkins supplied a large quantity of coal and ironstone, which suggests that they smelted iron with coke. Unfortunately, Coalbrookdale Furnace blew up, not later than April 1703, and Thomas died not long after. Coalbrookdale Furnace remained derelict until it was restored by Abraham Darby in 1709. After leaving Coalbrookdale, Shadrach had an interest in a corn mill near London and worked as a

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

casting shells for contractors, probably supplying the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

. He was then recruited to go to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

to enter the service of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

. He travelled by way of

Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...

, but died in the course of his first winter in Russia, leaving a destitute widow in England and several children, of whom his son Mesech served as a soldier and later sought to recover his father's property (but there was none).R. A. Mott, 'Coalbrookdale in the early years' ''Trans. Shrops. Arch. Soc.'' 56 (1957–60), 82–93; N. Cox, 'Imagination and innovation of an industrial pioneer: The first Abraham Darby' ''Ind. Arch. Rev.'' 12(2) (1990), 131.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Shadrach English ironmasters Foundrymen Businesspeople from Shropshire Year of birth missing Year of death missing