business on his own account,
making many guns, both of brass and iron, some of which are still
preserved in the Tower.[7] Other workmen, learning the trade from him,
also began to manufacture on their own account; one of Baude's
servants, named John Johnson, and after him his son Thomas, becoming
famous for the excellence of their cast-iron guns. The Hogges
continued the business for several generations, and became a wealthy
county family. Huggett was another cannon maker of repute; and Owen
became celebrated for his brass culverins. Mr. Lower mentions, as a
curious instance of the tenacity with which families continue to follow
a particular vocation, that many persons of the name of Huggett still
carry on the trade of blacksmith in East Sussex. But most of the early
workmen at the Sussex iron-works, as in other branches of skilled
industry in England during the sixteenth century, were
foreigners--Flemish and French--many of whom had taken refuge in this
country from the religious persecutions then raging abroad, while
others, of special skill, were invited over by the iron manufacturers
to instruct their workmen in the art of metal-founding.[8]

As much wealth was gained by the pursuit of the revived iron
manufacture in Sussex, iron-mills rapidly extended over the
ore-yielding district. The landed proprietors entered with zeal into
this new branch of industry, and when wood ran short, they did not
hesitate to sacrifice their ancestral oaks to provide fuel for the
furnaces. Mr. Lower says even the most ancient families, such as the
Nevilles, Howards, Percys, Stanleys, Montagues, Pelhams, Ashburnhams,
Sidneys, Sackvilles, Dacres, and Finches, prosecuted the manufacture
with all the apparent ardour of Birmingham and Wolverhampton men in
modern times. William Penn, the courtier Quaker, had iron-furnaces at
Hawkhurst and other places in Sussex. The ruins of the Ashburnham
forge, situated a few miles to the north-east of Battle, still serve to
indicate the extent of the manufacture. At the upper part of the
valley in which the works were situated, an artificial lake was formed
by constructing an embankment across the watercourse descending from
the higher ground,[9] and thus a sufficient fall of water was procured
for the purpose of blowing the furnaces, the site of which is still
marked by surrounding mounds of iron cinders and charcoal waste. Three
quarters of a mile lower down the valley stood the forge, also