Dud Dudley

Dudd (Dud) Dudley (1600–1684) was an English metallurgist, who fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War as a soldier, military engineer, and supplier of munitions. He was one of the first Englishmen to smelt iron ore using coke.

Dudley was the illegitimate son of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley of Dudley Castle, and grandson of Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley. Dudd was the fourth of Lord Dudley's eleven children by his 'concubine' Elizabeth, the daughter of William Tomlinson (she died 3 July 1629). Strictly, he was called Dudd Dudley otherwise Tomlinson. His eldest brother was Robert Dudley of Netherton Hall. Dudd married Eleanor Heaton, (1606–1675), on 12 October 1626, at St. Helen's Church, Worcester.

Lord Dudley (though he had a legitimate son, and a granddaughter by him, as well as four legitimate daughters and numerous grandchildren) seems to have attended to the up-bringing of his natural children by Elizabeth Tomlinson; he educated and provided for them. On the other hand, he failed to support his wife and legitimate children, even after he was imprisoned and ordered to do so by the Privy Council in 1597. Dudd was raised at Himley Hall. As a youth, he began his study of the various processes of iron manufacture at his father's iron works near Dudley. His speculations in the improvement of iron production were encouraged by his father, who gave him an education intended to enhance his practical abilities.

In 1618, at the age of 20, Dud left Balliol College, Oxford, to take charge of his father's furnace and forges on Pensnett Chase. Later he referred to 'wood and charcoal growing then scant and pit-coles ... abounding', so began to use the latter. He turned the coal into coke, a hard, foam-like mass of almost pure carbon made from bituminous coal, and later claimed to have perfected the use of coal instead of charcoal for iron production.

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