Iron and the Leonards in England and America
We first encounter an ironworking Leonard by name just south of the Beauvaisis at Le Vaumain in France, where Robert Lienart was an iron founder in 1503.[1]
“The Ironworker Leonards are clearly shown in the Westminister Denization Rolls of 1544 to have come from France in the persons of:[2]
Lenarde, James, born in Picardie, aged 26 years. In England 19 years. Unmarried. 1 July 1544 (Weston, Denization[3] Roll 36 Henry 8).
Lenard, James, born in Picardy, in the King’s forge at Newbridge 1 July 1544 (Weston, Denization Roll 36 Henry 8)
Lyonarde, John, French born, “a finer.” In England 30 years. 1 July 1544.”
There are records of various Leonards in the Weald of Sussex in the 1500s and on into the 1600s. Martin Quinton alias Leonard was a fyner in Frant and Burwash, mentioned in forge accounts at Etchingham and Robertsbridge. His sons John, Henry, and Jordan are also mentioned in forge records. Lawrence Leonard, a grandson, was an iron founder at Hawkhurst and Brede; and Lawrence’s son Richard was the creator of the famous fireback picturing himself as an iron founder among his tools.
Martin’s son Henry had a son born at Fletching in 1591 who possibly could have been Thomas, but the records do not include the son’s name. Henry was baptized at Etchingham on 1 January 1562.
By the late 1500s and early 1600s, the Leonard ironworkers moved to the west of England, per Elizabeth I’s encouragement. Thomas Leonard’s children were born in Somerset and Shropshire, and possibly in Staffordshire and Monmouthshire. Church records begin at Trevethin in 1654, well after James and Henry were documented to be in America.
Records do indicate that there were Leonards in Monmouthshire after 1654, as well as in various towns with forges in Staffordshire and Shropshire such as Kinver and Cleobury Mortimer.[4] There were Leonard ironworkers in Bilston, Staffordshire, in the early 1700s. Correspondence between a James Leonard in Bilston and the Taunton Leonards in the early 1800s indicated the Leonard family had a proprietary interest in an ironworks in Bilston heavily mortgaged by an earlier generation. The expense of a lawsuit to recover it discouraged pursuit of reclaiming ownership. As late as 1838, a Thomas Leonard, finer, married Ellen Jones at Lower Mitton, with John Leonard, fyner, presumably his father, witnessing the marriage.
The first ironworks in America was established in the Jamestown Colony on Falling Creek in 1621 by John Berkley, his son Maurice, and 20 skilled workmen imported from England, but on 22 March 1622, John Berkley and all his workmen were slain and the ironworks destroyed in an Indian massacre. No further efforts to refine iron in the Virginia Colony were made in the 1600s.
The first successful ironworks in America occurred in Massachusetts. John Winthrop, Jr., son of the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, saw the need for a domestic source of refined iron in the new colony and set about to actualize it. Bog iron deposits had been found and noted as early as 1628 in the Boston area.[5] Winthrop and his men did a reconnaissance of every major bog between Marshfield, MA, and Cape Elizabeth in ME.[6]
In 1641, Winthrop set sail for England, where he rounded up a group of investors (undertakers) to finance the undertaking in Massachusetts, acquired the necessary skilled workmen and materials, and chartered a ship, the An Cleve, to transport the workmen and materials back to Massachusetts in 1643.[7] By December 1644, they had established a single furnace bloomery in Braintree and began operations.[8] In 1645 Richard Leader replaced John Winthrop as the Undertakers’ choice of a managing director to oversee operations.
The Braintree operation soon ran into trouble. The bloomery was badly situated. It was short of water, and the dam overflowed on other people’s land. A forge needed to be constructed, which was done nearby in Braintree proper. But overall, Leader needed to construct a bloomery furnace and forge ten miles north of Boston in a section of what was then Lynn, now Saugus. Although begun in 1646, the ironworks at Lynn, including a blast furnace, two fineries, a chafery, a big hammer, and a smith’s forge, was complete by 1650. It was named Hammersmith by the workers there, after a forge in England.
Henry Leonard is first mentioned at the Saugus Ironworks in 1649, fined for being a common swearer.[9] A deposition made by Henry in 1655 implies he was in Lynn 9 years previously, or 1646.[10] James Leonard was paid at Lynn in 1651, including reimbursement for moving his goods from Providence, RI. In 1645, a James Leonard was granted 25 acres in Providence, but the name of James was crossed out in the document.[11] So we don’t know for sure whether James came earlier to America and settled in Providence or not.
“Henry and James Leonard were also skilled workmen at Lynn. They and their descendants were afterward identified with many colonial iron enterprises. The family name is the most noted in the annals of the New England iron industry. Rev. Dr. Fobes, in referring to the Leonard family in his Topographical Description of Raynham, with its History, written in 1793, says that ‘the circumstance of a family attachment to the iron manufacture is so well known as to render it a common observation in this part of the country, ‘Where you can find iron works there you will find a Leonard.’“ Henry and James Leonard are said to have learned their trade at Pontypool, in Monmouthshire. They were forgemen.”[12]
The Lynn forge became known as Hammersmith, named by the workmen there after a forge some of them had worked at in England. This naming tradition of forges continued with the Leonards, when they named a forge “Whittenton” after Whittington forge in Staffordshire, England, Chartley after another forge in Staffordshire, and Brummagen, a local term for Birmingham in Warwickshire.
The ironworker families recruited from France in the 1500s have been traced to England in the 1600s.[13] Amazingly, some of the same surnames appear on the roles of Hammersmith and Braintree -- Vinton, Leonard, Pray, Pinion, Tyler, and Russell.[14] This is further evidence that ironworkers passed on their skills within their families, frequently worked at some of the same forges, and knew each other.
“Where you can find iron works, there you will find a Leonard.” Dr. Perez Fobes, 1797.
Many Leonards followed James in ironworks. At least five of James’ six sons were ironworkers, and the sixth may have been one also (he died in his 20s). Their sons followed in the family tradition, as did many in the fourth and fifth generations after James. It’s been difficult to identify all of the Leonard ironworkers, in that early records pinpoint the owners and shareholders (investors) in ironworks, but not usually the men who were working there.
As Ralph Davol noted in “Two Men of Taunton,” the Leonards became powerful by iron -- “Vulcans among their fellows. Wherever they found bog ore, -- in “Scadding’s Moire,” Stony Brook Meadows, Chartley, Middleboro, or Littleworth Brook, -- the ever-increasing family dammed the streams, made their charcoal, set up their bloomeries, and dug over the soil impregnated to this day with iron.”[15] “The iron was absorbed in their blood. They were a sturdy, strong-fibred, and gristly clan. There are probably today more of their descendants in the Old Colony than of any other family. They and their posterity were of sound, efficient stock, well suited to bear the climate and endure all other hardships; marrying early in life...”[16] This characterization is probably more grandiose than any of us would use today, but it certainly sounds better than “truculent and profane.”
Teaching one’s sons a trade by which they could earn a decent living and later support their elders is certainly an old tradition in human affairs. This was all the more important in the days before regular schooling and books where technologies and processes were documented for all to see. Direct repetitive experience was essential to the learning process of the times. So it is little wonder that so many fathers passed on the art of the iron refining trade to their sons and sons-in-law.
Ironworks in the 1600s and 1700s were the forerunners of the mills found along many New England streams in the 1800s. In early times, mills were buildings devoted to a single purpose, such as milling grain or sawing wood. Ironworks usually combined several processes in the production of iron. With the advent of interchangeable parts and mass production, the model presented by ironworks became more widespread as mills housed a chain of processes and became ever larger. Some Leonards became millwrights and engineers, designing early factories and their waterpower-driven machinery, while others drifted into specialties involving knowledge of working iron, such as moulding, stoves, farm implements, and gunsmithing. Some drifted into manufacturing, such as the Leonard refrigerator company in Michigan. In short, early ironmaking grew into a range of occupations, specialties, and products as iron and its alloys was found useful in more and more manufactured goods.
Government attitudes changed as well. The attitude of the British Government toward the burgeoning colonial iron production changed as competition became significant. “The English Parliament, when they heard that the Americans were engaging in the manufactures, prohibited in the 1750s, on penalty of 200 pounds, the erection of any mill for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnaces for making of steel, in any of the colonies.”[17] As you’ll see below, that didn’t stop the Leonards from doing all of these things.
Below is a list, by no means complete, of early American forges that Leonards developed or where Leonards worked. A more thorough examination of the iron works records at the Old Colony Historical Society and other sources would turn up many more.
Braintree Forge, 1643. Braintree Forge started before the Saugus Iron Works, but was poorly situated and was a failure as a blast furnace to refine iron from ore. The initial foundry and forge at Braintree, first set up in 1644, was not financially successful and became a satellite of Hammersmith, refining pig iron to wrought iron. James was evidently there, in that his first four children were born in Braintree. In 1659, James offered to lease the Braintree forge (note that this was after he had in ironworks in Taunton up and running in 1656, so he may have commuted back and forth). Apparently, the proposed lease was never put into effect. 3 James may have worked there until 1671 (ECL).
Lynn (Saugus) Iron Works. 1645. “About the year 1646, two very capable foremen left the Hanbury ironworks at Pontypool, and migrated to the New England Colonies; these were James and Henry Leonard, descendants of John Leonard (Lyonarde), a Frenchman who arrived in England in 1514 and had constructed some of the early water-driven blast furnaces in the Wealden district of South-east England. The Leonard brothers found employment at the Lynn ironworks in Massachusetts Bay, the first of its kind to be established in New England, but being expert forge builders and iron makers, they were later engaged to erect the second New England ironworks at Braintree (Mass.). The brothers were most successful. Henry Leonard and his sons went on to New Jersey to establish another ironworks, whilst James Leonard build the third New England ironworks at Taunton (Mass.) in 1656: this became known as Leonard’s celebrated ironworks and it continued working in the possession of descendants of the same family for two hundred years; some of the equipment for the original Taunton forge was imported by James Leonard from Pontypool and other workmen left Monmouthshire for Massachusetts at the same period.”[18],[19]
Actually, Henry and James were first employed at Hammersmith in what was then Lynn, now Saugus, Massachusetts.
Hartley wrote: “At this stage, of course, we are far from Hammersmith and Braintree, although still short of the complete story of the Leonard ironmaking ventures. This is not the place to handle what is in many respects the very epitome of the American success story. The Leonards rose in the world. They took on offices in government, militia, and church. In many, indeed in most cases, they acquired more and more property and became “first families” of the towns to which their work carried them. The constancy with which the men of the family stuck to the ironmaker’s trade borders on the incredible. Perhaps this much, at least, may be in some measure chalked up as part of the Hammersmith legacy.”[20]
In the following paragraphs the various ironworks in which Leonards were involved are listed, along with some of the Leonards who owned and/or worked there. There were undoubtedly other forges in which Leonards were involved, many additional Leonards were ironworkers. It would take a substantial amount of research and a whole book to do justice to the topic of Leonards and ironworking. What you see here is just an initial sample.
Ancient Iron Works at Taunton. This was the original James Leonard forge - bloomery work on the Two Mile River in a part of Taunton that later became Raynham. “Raynham Forge was a two-hearth bloomery. The two hearths, normally designated as “East” and “West,” seem also to have been referred to as “finery” and “chafery.” This suggests a division between roughing out and finishing operations, with the two heating units working in sequence rather than in tandem. Both were used, in the early years at least, in conjunction with one big hammer powered with water from a pond created by damming the Two Mile River. Whether the hammer and other heavy iron equipment came from Hammersmith or from England is not clear. The forge building was presumably crude. There was also a charcoal-storage house and at least one house for the accommodation of the workers.”[21] The forge was in operation in 1656. George Hall was the first clerk and manager until 1669, then his son John Hall, then Capt. Thomas Leonard. The forge made about 20 to 30 tons a year of bar iron made directly from ore. Later, the forge made anchors under the ownership of Theodore Dean, a Leonard descendant. The forge was abandoned about 1865. It was demolished about 1890.[22]
James was the original master workman there.
Thomas- was foreman, manager, and later, treasurer of Taunton Iron Works 1683-1713 (ECL)
James put Thomas in charge of East Hearth in 1675 (ECL).
James put James in charge of West Hearth in 1675 (ECL).
James helped son James purchase Uriah’s share of forge in 1699 (ECL)
James placed Stephen as master workman at West Hearth (ECL)
John was an ironmonger and worked at Raynham (ECL).
Samuel became master workman on the East Hearth when his father died (ECL) and also clerk and manager of the works (ECL).
Stephen took over the West Hearth at Raynham when his brother, James, bought the Whittington ironworks, installing his son Zephaniah in charge when Stephen moved to New Jersey (ECL).
Zephaniah had control of the West Hearth for a number of years, but had a falling-out with Samuel, resulting in a long lawsuit.(ECL) Samuel owned half of Raynham Forge (ECL).
After Samuel died, his brother, Elijah, took over, and got the forge heavily in debt, causing it finally to be sold to the Deans (ECL).
Josiah Dean (Josiah4, Mary Kingsley3, Abigail Leonard2, James Leonard1) became the sole owner of Ancient Iron Works in 1777 and continued as such until his death in 1818 (ECL).
Whittington (Whittenton) ironworks, on Mill River, Taunton (later Raynham) was built by James Leonard in 1670. It was a “bloomerie with one hearth.” Second and third hearths were added in 1694 and 1737.[23] This was the location of James Leonard’s personal ironworks, as opposed to the stockholder-owned Ancient Iron Works . Three sons worked there: Joseph, Benjamin, and Uriah It continued in family for over 100 years. It used bog iron mined in vicinity of Scaddings Pond (“Moire”) and along the Mill River up to Winneconnet Pond.[24] . Starting in 1737, higher grade New Jersey ores were used.[25] It was in the possession of the Leonards until 1807.[26] Then, Crocker, Bush, and Richmond, who had been Samuel’s assistants in the iron business, built a story on the mill and converted to making cotton yarn.
Joseph Leonard was a master workman at Whittington forge (ECL), inherited a one-third interest, and later came to own a half interest (ECL)
Benjamin worked at Whittington until his father died (ECL). He owned a share at the new hearth at Whittington (ECL). His son, Benjamin, also worked there (ECL).
Thomas was paid for work here.
James bought out Uriah’s share, giving him half the Old Hearth and a third of the New Hearth at which Benjamin worked.
James received one-half of his homestead at Whittington from his father in 1749 (ECL).
Samuel was iron master at Whittenton (ECL)(Emery).
Abiathar, Zadock, Apollos, and finally Samuel[27]
Forge on the Two Mile River, half a mile above the Old Forge. Seth Leonard sold to Israel Washburn the privilege of erecting and building a furnace there for crafting hollowware in 1757. He later sold his son Edmund one-sixth share in the ironworks there.
Chartley iron works built on Stony Brook (Cowesitt River? - ECL) in Taunton North Purchase (Norton, later called Chartley Village, West Norton) where Tremont Street crosses Mine Brook.[28] Works were built by James Leonard Jr. and Capt.Thomas Leonard. Initially, the foundry was only a bloomery producing bar iron. Construction started 1696, in operation by 1698. George Leonard bought James’ share of Chartley on 28 Oct 1707 (ECL). In 1713 George Leonard became the sole owner of these works and greatly enlarged them. Joseph was master workman at Norton Forge, which his father had started (ECL). These were the noted Leonard iron works of Norton. It used bog iron ore.[29] It burned down in 1741 (ECL).
Bloomery at the Taunton line, on Three Mile River, near the present site of North Dighton furnace, built by Richard Stephens in 1695. I’m not sure if any Leonards were involved in its building or operation. It continued in operation until about 1800.[30]
Baylies Iron Works, Westville, Three Mile River, 1739. It was located above the Stephens’ bloomery. The forge was set up by Boston merchants Bollan and Laughton, but run by Thomas Baylies and later his brother Nicholas and thereafter by Hodijah Baylies. The anchor for “Old Ironsides” was made here. Ironworks were sold to John West in 1809. It is not known if any Leonards worked here.
King’s furnace. It was built on Littleworth Brook, on the eastern part of Taunton in 1724 and 1725. It produced hollowware. It was rebuilt in 1816, where it employed about 30 men and continued in operation until the 1840s. It is not known if any Leonards worked here.[31] Elkanah Leonard had a small interest in it.[32] Raynham Forge had to purchase ore there when the lawsuit between Zephaniah and Samuel tied up Raynham’s supply from elsewhere.
Hopewell Iron Works. It was a bloomery only. It was built on Mill River near the Danforth Street bridge in Taunton in 1739 and 1740 by Capt. Zephaniah Leonard. Uriah Leonard worked here in 1764 (ECL). It made bar iron from bog ore. It was succeeded by a rolling and slitting mill erected by John Adam in 1776 and 1777. In 1782 the property passed into the hands of Samuel Leonard and others of Taunton. It produced nails from imported Swedish and Russian iron. Deacon Lemuel Leonard managed the operation for a while. It was finally unprofitable.[33]
Small Foundry below Whittenton Mills, Taunton. Built in 1845 by Deacon Lemuel L. Leonard for casting stoves and small ware. Later, Deacon Lemuel and his son, Lemuel Mason Leonard, built a large foundry on Wales Street in Taunton and removed from Whittenton in 1865. The Leonard Co-operative Foundry Company was organized in 1877 and reorganized in 1891 under the name of the New England Stove Company. (ECL)
Old Colony Iron Works, Taunton. It was built in 1824 by Horatio Leonard & Co. (Emery) In 1827 they commenced making iron with bituminous coal rather than charcoal. It manufactured iron for nails and shovels.
Trout Brook forge in Middleborough. It was started by 2Thomas and Philip King. Thomas purchased King’s share in 1700 and put Elkanah Leonard was in charge (ECL). Benjamin Leonard worked at Elkanah Leonard’s forge (ECL). Philip Leonard ran lawyer Elkanah’s iron works, while Elkanah and Zebulon ran the store. The forge was known as the tack factory on the railroad between Middleboro and Taunton (ECL). George became the operator in the late1700s (ECL). Nehemiah (followed his father George) as operator, later selling it to his brothers (Nehemiah was Elisha Clark Leonard’s father) (ECL).
Bloomery forge built at Bridgewater in 1722. It was converted to a gun factory by Hugh Orr in 1738. It is not known if any Leonards worked here.[34]
An ironworks was erected at Plympton, now Carver, in 1730, with a blast furnace and in operation until after the 1760s. There was mention that Leonards worked there, but no specific names have been found.
Ironworks at Danforth Dam, Attleboro. A rolling and slitting mill was operated by Thomas Cobb and two of his sons in the 1760s and following decades. Thomas married a daughter of Capt. James Leonard, Lydia Leonard, and learned the iron business at Chartley. Thomas Cobb’s sons, Thomas Cobb and Jonathan Cobb, operated the mill in the later 1700s.
A slitting mill for slitting nail rods was erected at Milton about 1710 (?).
Judge Peter Oliver’s Slitting mill and forge was erected by Oliver in 1751 on the Nemasket River near Muttock, Middleborough, and abandoned in 1830. It was said to be modeled on a slitting mill in Canton. It later became a shovel factory. Leonards worked here: Joseph, as did his son, Archippus, Benjamin, Joseph, and probably others.
“New Forge” built on the Nemasket River, Middleborough, in 1762, burned in 1785, and bought by Capt. Benjamin in 1796 (ECL). Partnership with Lt. George Leonard (Benjamin’s brother), Abiel Washburn, and Abner Bourne. It later became Abiel Washburn’s shovel works.
Forge at the foot of Stones Pond on Trought Hole Brook in Easton. Originally known as Brummagem,[35] more commonly referred to as Capt. Eliphalet Leonard’s forge. Capt. Eliphalet Leonard gave it to his son, Jacob, in 1782, then his son, Isaac, who sold it in 1802 to Timothy Mitchell and Giles Leach.[36] This eventually became the Ames works in 1800.
Capt. James Leonard bought the forge in 1720 or 1721 and installed his son Eliphalet as master workman there (ECL).
“Shovel Shop Pond Dam” Forge, Easton. It was built about 1792/3 Eliphalet III. It was not very successful. It went bankrupt in 1801 and was sold to Oliver Ames in 1803.
Forge at Marshall Place, Easton. It was on the road east from Washington Street Methodist Church. It was built was among the first to make steel. The mill was erected by Eliphalet Leonard, Jr. about 1775 or 1776 on land he bought in 1765.[37] He erected it due to the extreme scarcity of steel during the Revolutionary War, which he needed for the manufacture of firearms. It was later operated by Eliphalet’s son, Jonathan. The furnace was capable of making 3 tons at a batch. It was enlarged in 1808 to make 10 tons a batch.
Tremont, Wareham, “The Old Washington Works.” Dam and works built by Benajah and his brothers Rowland and Ichabod.
Canton. A foundry was erected by Jonathan Leonard in 1813. It made 100 tons of steel a year.
Canton. Steel was made by Leonard & Kinsley by the German method. Later by Dunbar & Leonard. (Was this Jonathan’s works from 1813?)
Canton. Charles Sargeant Leonard opened a forge in 1823 that burned down in 1826.
Stoughton, now Canton, Forge on Massapoag Brook. Uriah Leonard started this forge after moving from Norton (ECL). His son Walley worked here, and it’s likely sons Nathaniel and Uriah also worked here. Also, it appears Walley, son of Walley, and Uriah, son of Walley, also worked at this forge.
Mansfield Forge - Ephraim Leonard had a forge here.[38]
Russell’s Mills, Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Ralph Russell was to have joined Henry and James Leonard in the Taunton venture but declined and set up an iron works in Dartmouth. No Leonards are known to have worked there.
Rowley Iron Works, at Rowley Village, now Boxford, near the Topsfield line. Henry Leonard had a sixteenth share of the works. Construction was begun in 1671. The forge had 3 hearths with water-power driven bellows. It was called “Bromingum Forge.” In 1673 Henry took off for New Jersey, leaving a bundle of suits and debts and giving up his lease. Henry’s sons Samuel, Thomas, and Nathaniel took over working the forge. During this period the forge burned down, the suspicion being that Nathaniel was responsible. The sons left temporarily, but by 1679 had returned.[39]
Lenox, Massachusetts, and Fairhaven, Vermont. Gamaliel Leonard worked at a forge in Lenox, MA, and later erected a forge in Fairhaven, VT.
New Haven, Connecticut, Iron Works. It was the brainchild of John Winthrop, Jr., and started in 1657. They hired a number of Hammersmith employees, but no Leonards were known to be involved. It was abandoned in 1680.[40]
Upper Mill Brook, Laysville/Lyme, Connecticut. Capt. Samuel Southworth from Bristol and George Hall from Taunton partnered in the erection of a bloomery here in 1737. It operated from 1741 until about 1793. Seth Leonard and Deborah Hall, sister of George, moved to Lyme about 1741, perhaps in connection with the ironworks. (research by WCL).
Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Connecticut. A number of furnaces and forges were in operation in Northwestern CT, apparently started by John Adam and his partner, Samuel Forbes. Adam was a son of John Adam and Abigail Leonard. Abigail was the daughter of Zephaniah Leonard of Easton, leading one to suspect that the Adams father and son learned the iron refining business from Zephaniah.
Whippany, Hanover twp., New Jersey. Stephen Leonard moved here in 1722. He had all his forge tools (will). There was a forge there. Joshua, his son, succeeded him as the master workman there.
Tinton Falls Iron Works, near Shrewsbury, Monmouth Co., NJ. It was begun by James Grover in the early 1670s, later sold to Col. Lewis Morris, who in 1675 employed Henry Leonard and his sons Samuel, Nathaniel, and Thomas to operate the iron works.
Later Ironworks in America
Elijah Leonard ran away from home before completing his apprenticeship in iron refining. He worked for several ironworks in the Lake George area before migrating west to Taberg, north of Syracuse, where he built a small ironworks. He later purchased an ironworks in Constantia, NY. In 1829 he became superintendent of the Normandale Forge in Ontario, Canada, which employed over 400 men. In 1834 he established an iron works at St. Thomas, Ontario, in 1838 moving it to London, Ontario. Elijah, Jr. and his brother, Lewis, ran the iron works at London, Ontario (Elijah Leonard & Sons Iron Co. The firm later became E. Leonard and Sons and continued in operation under the Leonards until 1945.
Job Mason Leonard (Job4, Samuel3, James2, William1?) organized the East Bridgewater Iron Company in 1850, sold his interest in it five years later, and organized the Mt. Hope Iron Works in Somerset, MA, in 1855. He later combined these with the Old Colony Iron Works. The ironworks at its height employed over 500 people. After his son decided to pursue another calling in 1904, Job said, “If a Leonard cannot run these iron works, no one else shall” and shut down the plant, which employed about 500 people.[41]
Other Leonards employed in the iron business:
Joseph is said to have been an ironworker, but we don’t know where.
Joseph was a bloomer (ECL), but we don’t know where he worked. Judge Oliver’s forge?
Nathaniel was a blacksmith and tool maker. He lived in Chester, VT.
Benjamin Leonard was an iron worker in Dorchester, MA.
Harden Leonard was a nailer.
Jacob Leonard and Shepard Leonard were blacksmiths.
Enoch Leonard and his brother, Phineas, built a forge in Westminster, MA.
Solomon Leonard was an iron moulder in Fullersville, NY.
Simeon Lewis Leonard was a blacksmith in Osterville, MA.
Nathaniel Leonard was a nail manufacturer in Dighton, MA.
Elbridge Gerry Leonard was an iron founder in Providence, RI.
Joseph Warren Leonard was foreman (or forgeman?) at an ironworks in Phoenixville, PA, and at Troy, OH.
Jonathan Leonard built a foundry in Meriden, CT.
John B. H. Leonard was a metal smith in RI and CT.
Andrew Leonard was a forgeman in Dorchester, MA
Ellis Leonard was a blacksmith in Foxboro, MA.
Oliver Leonard was an iron dealer in Taunton, MA.
John H. Leonard was a blacksmith in Providence, RI.
Frederick N. Leonard was an iron moulder in Westmoreland, NY, as was his son, Charles.
Nathaniel Bradford Leonard was an iron founder, and his son, Manlius Bradford Leonard, was a moulder.
A Sidelight: The Leonards as Bankers: Why hold silver or gold when you could hold something valuable, like iron?
There was a shortage of specie -- money in circulation that could be used as cash -- in early New England. A mint for coining silver money, pine tree shillings, was established in Boston in 1652, but the amounts of coinage issued were small. Paper money was first issued in Massachusetts in 1690, but again, in very small amounts. There were no banks. Iron, given its relative price stability, availability, and desirability was used from the late 1600s through the 1700s as a store of value and a medium of exchange, principally for business transactions, but also to pay wages and salaries, settle estates, and erase debts. The record books of various Leonards starting with Thomas in the archives of the Old Colony Historical Society show the various accounts of bar iron held by members of the Taunton, Raynham, and Middleborough communities, with transfers between and among accounts as payments were made, credits established, loans were made, and debts were settled. Thomas and Samuel kept ledgers of balances, credits, and debts. Among the papers were various notes that, in effect, were checks. When the debt was settled or the transfer was made, the signature was cut out.
Here are some examples:[42]
“Ensigne Thos. Leonard, pleas to pay Bar: Tipping nine shillings &three pence in iron as money. Taunton 16: 1st, 1685-86. from yr. friend, Richard Williams” This is an order from one of the promoters of the iron works, who draws on his account to pay his grocery bill.
“Ensign Thomas Leonard. Please pay ye bearer hereof one hundred of iron yt is due on Mr. Shoves act. to my wife your friend. Taunton ye 16 of ye 1st Mo. 1685-86. your friend, Walter Deane.”
“Thomas Leonard, clarke of the Iron Works of Taunton: Sr paray pay to Joseph Crosman, one hundred of iron as money, & this shall be your discharg: this ye 13th Janura 1683. Tanton-’84 Hezekiah Hoare.”
“Loving ffriend, John Cary. these may inform you that if you please to Credit Richard Burt as much as comes to a hundred of Iron, I will be Responsible to you & Rest your Lo’g ffriend. Tanton Dec. 30, 1683-4. Thomas Leonard.”
“Ensine Lenard, I pray you let Mr Greene have four shillings more in iron, as money, and place itto my account. June 20, 1684. James Walker.” This was payment to the local schoolmaster.
“Captain Leonard: Sir, I would intreate you to pay James Tisdale yesum of 2-7-6 in iron at 22s. per hund. and make me Deptr for it on ye acount of ye Credit Mr. Danford gave mie on yourbook. Your ffr’d. Tanton ye 23 March 1688-9. Increase Robinson.”
Rev. Samuel Danforth, the fourth minister of Taunton paid his “servant mayd:”
“To Captain Thomas Leonard, Sr I would pray you to pay Elizabeth Gilbert (my late servant mayd) the sum of thirty shillings in iron at 18 sh. pr Cent: to her or her order-& place it to my account... pr yr friend and servant. Dated Tanton, Mar 11, 1703-4. Samll Danforth.”
A filial business letter transfer “money” from the Chartley Iron Works to the Old Iron Works from George3 Leonard, clerk at Chartley, to his father, Thomas2, clerk at the Old Iron Works and the accounts to whom they should be paid:
“Loving ffather, my humble duty and my wives to you remembered, and our due Respects to all the Rest of our Relations, hoping you are all in good health as blessed be God we all are. I have now sent a tun of Iron by obadiah Edy, and would intreat you or brother Elkanah to take a little care of it: there is 29 bars ffor Mr. Pool of Boston, being ffifteen hundred & half; and ten bars for Mr. Henry Kimball, ffour hundred & a half: yours to serve. George Leonard”
The account books and “checks” are archived at the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton.
Other Notable Leonards in America
Of course, not all Leonards were iron workers. Many were lawyers, clergymen, or farmers. When later President John Adams in his younger years visited Taunton as a circuit-riding lawyer, he found five Leonards among the justices before whom he would appear.[43] He was not pleased. From his diary: “June 8, 1762. Went to Taunton Court, the land of the Leonards; three Judges of the Common Pleas. Of that name each of them has a son who was or at (Harvard) college. The Hon George, the 1st Justice, seems to be arbitrary. He committed two old gentlemen who were nearly 80 years old to the custody of an officer for only speaking loud. A check, a reproof, an admonition would have been enough. He was unwilling that the Sessions should adjourn for an hour to take the verdict of the jury upon a presentment for riot but would have the jury kept together all night till the Court should sit again the next morning. No other Court in the Province superior or inferior would have thought of keeping the jury up. He broke in abruptly on Bob Paine.[44] He did not think it right to run out against the King’s witnesses. For his part he did not like to hear it 3 or 4 times over. Thus the haughty tyrant rules the country.” (ECL) The three Judges referred to above were George, his brother Ephraim, and cousin Zephaniah. George’s father was also a Judge. The King’s Attorney in the County was Daniel Leonard, son of Ephraim.
There are many summaries of James Leonard descendants that would be interesting to explore. A substantial number were members of the clergy, for example, and analyzing and summarizing their distribution by sect and contributions would make a fascinating study. Almost all of the Leonards of military age during that period served in the Revolutionary War. I wanted to include a summary list of them, but lacked space. The same is true for those who served in the Civil War. Health and longevity among the Leonards would make another interesting study. These and other topics are left for future Leonard family researchers.
[1] Leblond and Tremblot, eds. Documents notartes, 357, quoted by Brian Awty in an undated manuscript.
[2] Denizations and Acts of Naturalization, Huguenot Society of London Pubs. 8:152. Quoted by Bowman, p. 8.
[3] Denization - English law. The act by which a foreigner becomes a subject of England, but he has not the rights either of a natural born subject nor one who has been naturalized.
[4] “The earliest and longest lived forges were at Cleobury. These must have been built at the same time as the first blast furnaces, around 1570.” http://www.discovershropshire.org.uk/html. Two of Thomas Leonard’s children were baptized in Cleobury Mortimer,.per Barton, “Pre-American Ancestry of our Leonard Ironworkers.”
[5] Bill Barton, “The Establishment of the Iron Industry in America,” http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bart/LEONARD1.htm. 4/8/2007, p. 1.
[6] Bill Barton, “The Establishment of the Iron Industry in America,” p. 2. Quoted from the Winthrop Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 425-6.
[7] One of the undertakers was Thomas Foley 1617-1677, one of a set of brothers who were entrepreneurs owing iron and mine works from Staffordshire to Monmouthshire. Barton speculates that the Foleys were perhaps responsible for recruiting James and Henry to the Massachusetts Bay Colony venture.
[8] Whether the ironworks at Braintree was the first to produce iron in 1644 or whether the Saugus/Lynn ironworks had that honor in 1643 is not clear. Barton quotes sources for both dates.
[9] The Leonards were often in trouble with local authorities. See Tod Shacklet, “The Leonards of Lynn: A Case Study of the Integration of Outsiders Into a Puritan Community, manuscript, 9 June 1997. Shacklet quotes Stephen Innes as describing the ironworkers who came to New England as having “a long, and apparently well-earned, reputation for stout-hearted truculence and profane living.” See Stephen Innes, “Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England,” New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, p. 252.
[10] Bill Barton, “Pre-American Ancestry of Our Leonard Ironworkers,” http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bart/LEONARD2.htm, downloaded 4/8/2007, p. 1.
[11] Barton, Pre-American Ancestry, p. 2.
[12] Swank, p. 112.
[13] Letter from Brian K. Awty dated 23 March 2007 enclosing a draft of the section on the Leonards.
[14] Robert E. Bowman, “Glimpses into the English and Continental Origins of Certain Braintree and Saugus Ironworkers of about 1650,” The Essex Genealogist, May 2000, pp. 1-16.
[15] Ralph Davol, “Two Men of Taunton, in the Course of Human Events, 1731-1829,” Taunton: Davol Publishing Co., 1912, p. 58.
[16] Davol, p. 59.
[17] Sanborn, Genealogy of the Families of Kings, p. 16.
[19] “The Early Pontypool Ironworks,” p. 9. Chapter on the Hanburys of Panteg. Philip Hanbury b. 1582 came to Monmouthsire about 1608, settled at Panteg, only one mile from the Pontypool ironworks.
[20] E. N. Hartley, “Ironworks on the Saugus,” Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957, p. 276
[21] Hartley, p. 274.
[22] Swank, p. 114.
[23] Hartley, p. 275
[24] Swank, p. 116
[25] Hartley, p. 275
[26] Hartley, p. 275
[27] Hall, Ancient Iron Works in Taunton, p. 19
[28] Chartley was the name of a forge in Staffordshire, England, owned by the Foleys. Source: http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/htt/584.aspx.
[29] Swank, p. 116
[30] Swank, p. 117
[31] Swank, p. 117
[32] Hartley, p. 275
[33] Swank, p. 117
[34] Swank, p. 121
[35] Birmingham UK Archives, www.birminghamuk.com/brummagen.html: “Brummagem (originally Bromichan or Bremicham) is a name in Brummie dialect for the city of Birmingham in England. The origins of the word date back to the time of Middle English, and it is known to have been in widespread use by the time of the Civil War” (164 0-60). This would seem to indicate a Leonard connection to the area. Also, Leonards whose Y-DNA indicates a common ancestry with James have lived in the area for several centuries or more and flourished as gun barrel makers.
[36] Hartley, p. 275
[37] William L. Chaffin, “History of the Town of Easton,” Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1886, pp. 278-9.
[38] Davol, “Two Men of Taunton,” p.
[39] Hartley, pp. 294-296.
[40] Harley, pp. 286-288.
[41] Hurd, p. 654.
[42] These are quoted from Capt. J. W. D. Hall of Taunton, MA, “Ancient Iron Works in Taunton,” read before the Old Colony Historical Society, July 1884, pp. 9-17. The original pieces of paper are in the archives of the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton.
[43] Davol, Two Men of Taunton, p. 65.
[44] Robert Treat Paine, another Leonard descendant described at length in Davol’s “Two Men of Taunton.” He was later a representative to the Continental Congress with John Adams and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.