Cornelius Vermuyden
1130310
217827636
2008-06-07T21:38:39Z
02Firth
6156701
Added information about the English Civil War - added about son and Eastern Association.
Sir '''Cornelius Vermuyden''' (born [[Tholen]], [[Netherlands]], 1590; died [[London]], October 1677
<ref>See Harris, 1953. Many sources give his dates as 1595-1683, but Harris found a burial record, though no birth record.</ref>) was a Dutch [[engineer]] who introduced Dutch reclamation methods to Britain, and made the first important attempts to drain [[The Fens]] of [[East Anglia]].
==Life==
Cornelius was the son of Giles Vermuyden and Sarah (nee Werkendet) and was born in 1590 on the Isle of Tholen in Zealand, Holland.<ref>[http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BELGIUM-ROOTS/1999-08/0935614817 Rootsweb: Belgium-Roots-L The Draining Of Hatfield Chase<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
After training in the Netherlands, Vermuyden's first known activities in England were in the Thames, repairing a sea wall at Dagenham and the reclamation of [[Canvey Island]], [[Essex]], between 1621 and 1623, financed by the Dutch haberdasher [[Joas Croppenburg]]<ref>[http://www.castlepoint.gov.uk/General.asp?id=SX9452-A77FC5D3 Reclamation of Canvey Island]</ref> to whom he was related by marriage.
This or perhaps work at [[Windsor]] brought him to the notice of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], who commissioned him in 1626 to drain [[Hatfield Chase]] in the [[Isle of Axholme]], [[Lincolnshire]] for which he received one third of the land. To finance the draining he sold shares in this land to [[Huguenot|French]] and [[Walloon]] protestant refugees who performed most of the work<ref>[http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/online/water/collections/hatfield-chase.phtml Hatfield Chase]</ref>. A commission was established to compensate those who had the right of pasturage and one third of the land was used for this. The king kept the remaining third to himself.
The operation was seen by locals, particularly those who were not compensated, the fowlers and fishermen, as an attack on their livelihood, and the fact that Dutch workers were used led to hostility, with frequent attacks on the workers. In 1630 they took out lawsuits, and discontent continued until the end of the century<ref>[http://longford.nottingham.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=(AltRefNo=='HCC') Hatfield Chase Corporation]</ref>.
Vermuyden was knighted in 1629 and became a British citizen in 1633.
The work in Hatfield Chase was only partially successful as the straightening of the [[river Don]] and outlet into the [[River Aire|Aire]] caused flooding in [[Fishlake]], [[Sykehouse]] and [[Snaith]]. As a result of a lawsuit in 1633, he dug the Dutch River which provided a direct route from the Don to the [[River Ouse, Yorkshire|Ouse]] at [[Goole]], depleting most of the land that he had acquired in the Chase, though the same year he bought {{convert|4000|acre|km2}} of land in [[Sedgemoor]] in Somerset and [[Malvern Chase]] in [[Worcestershire]] and entered into a partnership in the lead mines in [[Wirksworth]] which he drained by means of a [[sough]].
[[Image:Fens-OMC-2.jpg|thumb|The Fens in eastern England]]
In 1634 Vermuyden commenced on the work for which he is most remembered, the draining of the "Great [[The Fens|Fen]]" in [[Cambridgeshire]] and [[Norfolk]]. This area of marshland was drained by a labyrinth of rivers which had been inadequately maintained since before the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537 which had most of the responsibility for keeping the channels clear. Vermuyden's plan was bold, including the construction of the major channel, the [[Old Bedford River]], named the [[Bedford Level]] after [[Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford|Francis, Earl of Bedford]] who was the chief Adventurer. This channel, {{convert|70|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|21|mi|km}} long from [[Earith]] to [[Denver, Norfolk|Denver]] was completed in only 2 years. Eight other channels were either created or improved. The operation was judged as substantially complete in 1637, but attracted criticism partly because of its limited aim to provide "summer lands", leaving. the winter floods to still occupy the land.
The adventurers had been offered {{convert|95000|acre|km2}} as the reward for their work, but this was thrown into confusion by the king who had the decision reversed and himself declared as the chief undertaker taking {{convert|52000|acre|km2}} and leaving the other parties with only {{convert|40000|acre|km2}}. This was firmly opposed by many including [[Oliver Cromwell]] who had been representing the opponents of the drainage scheme, and nothing more was done for a number of years. In 1637, Vermuyden wrote a "Discourse Touching the Draining of the Great Fennes" for the king, though it was not published until 1642, which laid down the principles of the drains and the "washes" - areas of land allowed to flood in periods of bad weather to absorb the extra water which could not find its way to the sea.
During the [[English Civil War|Civil War]], parliamentary forces deliberately flooded the region once again to prevent [[Cavaliers (royalists)|Royalist]] advances. By this time there is some evidence that Vermuyden had changed sides and he (or one of his sons, Bartholomew) acted as a colonel of horse in the parliamentary army, alongside [[Oliver Cromwell]] in the [[Eastern Association]] army.<ref>A Parliamentarian "Colonel Vermunden" was mentioned by the newsbook ''Mercurius Civicus'' in July 1644 (Issue 62, British Library Thomason Tracts E.4[3])</ref> In 1649 Vermuyden was again appointed as director by the adventurers to improve the drainage of the Bedford Level. The work was completed by 1652 by some of the Walloons who had moved from Lincolnshire to establish a new colony at [[Thorney]] and Scottish prisoners-of-war captured at the [[Battle of Dunbar (1650)|Battle of Dunbar]], and resulted in the digging of the [[New Bedford River]] (with a large area of wash between it and the Bedford River) and the [[Forty Foot Drain]]. It also established [[Denver Sluice]] to stop tides and flood water from depositing silt into the Ouse to the east of Ely. However it did not include his projected "cutoff channel" which was designed to take flood water from the southern rivers, the [[River Wissey|Wissey]], [[Little Ouse]] and [[River Lark|Lark]], away from Denver and this proved an ongoing cause of flooding not finally cured till 1950.
Despite the initial success of the reclamation, the drying of the land caused the [[peat]] to shrink greatly, lowering the land below the height of the drainage channels and rivers, and the reclaimed farmland became susceptible to flooding once again. By the end of the 17th century, much of the reclaimed land was sporadically underwater, and would remain so until the advent of steam-powered pumps in the early 19th century.
Vermuyden's relationship with the other adventurers was never easy and by 1655 they had parted company altogether. Several other initiatives came to nothing including a proposed treaty between England and the [[States-General of the Netherlands]] made to Cromwell, and efforts to drain his areas of Sedgmoor and Malvern Chase. He had 13 children and his son Cornelius became a founding member of the [[Royal Society]] in 1663.
==Trivia==
A school in Goole<ref>[http://www.vermuydenschool.co.uk/ Vermuyden School]</ref> and a comprehensive [[Cornelius Vermuyden School and Arts Colleg|school on Canvey Island]] are named after him, also a pub (Vermuyden Hotel) in Goole.
His family motto "Niet Zonder Arbyt" (translation: "Not Without Work") lives on as the official motto of South [[Cambridgeshire]] District Council <ref>[http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/cambs.html#south%20cambridgeshire%20dc South Cambridgeshire Crest]</ref>
Vermuyden and his work are mentioned in a negative context in the [[Lincolnshire]] legend of the [[Tiddy Mun]].
==References==
*''Sir Cornelius Vermuyden'' (J. Korthals-Altes, 1925; Williams and Norgate, London)
*''Vermuyden and the Fens'' (L.E. Harris, 1953; Clever-Hume Press, London)
*''The Draining of the Fens'' (H.C. Darby, Cambridge University Press, 1956)
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://home.planet.nl/~farjo001/fen_uk.htm In search of the great Dutchman Cornelius Vermuyden, who reclaimed the Fens, including walking tour]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vermuyden}}
[[Category:1590 births]]
[[Category:1677 deaths]]
[[Category:Dutch engineers]]
[[de:Cornelius Vermuyden]]
[[nl:Cornelis Vermuyden]]