“Several attempts have been made to run iron-ore with pit-coal: he (the Rev. Mr. Mason, Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge) thinks it has not succeeded anywhere, as we have had no account of its being practised; but Mr. Ford, of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, from iron-ore and coal, both got in the same dale, makes iron brittle or tough as he pleases, there being cannon thus cast so soft as to bear turning like wrought-iron.” A son or grandson of this Richard Ford was foreman and manager in the engine department of the works, which flourished greatly till he resigned his office, nearly half a century since. The late John Cox Ford was a son, and A. J. Ford, recently of Madeley, a grandson. Of later members of the Darby family we may speak in part from personal knowledge. Like their ancestors, they were members of the Society of Friends, although not by any means the straitest of the sect. Whilst adhering to the grand cardinal doctrine of the Inner Light, they indulged their own ideas of the extent to which the strict discipline of the body should control their tastes. They were birth-members, but lax in their opinions, and did not live by strict Quaker rule. On one occasion, when a disciple of the old school got up as was his wont to deliver himself in meeting, one of the younger and more lax of the members rose and said, “Friend N—y, it would be more agreeable to this meeting if thou wouldst sit down.” Francis Darby, of the White House, had great taste, loved high art, and filled his rooms with costly paintings, which he felt a pride in shewing to his friends. Others indulged a forbidden love of music and luxury, contrary to the faith and discipline of their fathers, without otherwise breaking through bounds or committing faults to justify the advocates of the truest code of Quaker rule to disown them. Richard Darby, like his brother Francis, did not adhere to the Quaker style of dress, either in the cut of his coat or the shape of his hat, the latter being usually a white one of the most approved fashion. He was a popular public man; one whose services were sought, and whose sympathies were readily enlisted in public movements of the day, such as the emancipation of the slaves, and others relating to questions of civil and religious progress. His name was well known through the length and breadth of the borough, and we have seen small farmers and labourers around the Clee Hills brighten up at the mention of his name. William Henry and Charles Darby, the sons of Richard, are proprietors of the Brymbo iron works, and their sister, Miss Rebecca Darby, who resides at the house her father lived in, is the only one of the name now living in the Dale.