Cornelius Vermuyden

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Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and the Disastrous Venture in Somerset

The achievements of the great Anglo-Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden in the Cambridgeshire fens are well known and documented – with varying degrees of accuracy – in many places. So, to a lesser extent, are his land draining adventures in such places as Dagenham, Canvey Island, Windsor Great Park and the levels of Hatfield Chase in Yorkshire. We explored his little-known venture into lead mining in Derbyshire here in Ouse News a few years ago.

His adventure in Somerset has been little remarked upon – mainly because it didn’t just fail; it didn’t even start. Here’s what happened..:

Vermuyden had an eye for the future. While working in the fens, he was quietly investing some of his money in land in the Somerset levels. These huge areas of low-lying land were practically worthless as they were – but if drained, their values would rocket. Vermuyden was confident he could drain these levels quickly, effectively and above all affordably. So confident was he of success that he built a house for himself and his family in Highbridge; he would stay here when in Somerset managing his new estates while keeping his town residence in Westminster.

Practically all the land was common land; so whilst Vermuyden had purchased a lot of it, he could do nothing with it which might prejudice the commoners’ rights. His first task was to have the rights of commoners extinguished – so he put it about that he would be seeking Parliament’s leave to enclose the land.

He also appealed directly to Oliver Cromwell for support. ‘I shall be ruined if deprived of my right, long since purchased at a dear rate’ he wrote in his letter. His opponents fought back, saying that whilst he claimed to have spent £12,000 on the purchase of 4000 acres of Sedgemoor, with the connivance of his friends in high places, he had actually only parted with £6,000. None the less, the Attorney-General appeared to rule favourably on the legality of Vermuyden’s plans.

Among the local landed gentry, the plans met with enthusiastic support. One such neighbour, Sir Ralph Horsey wrote to him ‘I hear you are going about the enclosure of Sedgemoor. I am glad of it and you are assured of my best assistance’.

He then persuaded an MP, Major-General Packer, to sponsor a bill for presentation to Parliament ‘Touching the dividing of a Common (Sedgemoor)……… with the Consent of the Freeholders and Commoners’. The only drawback was that Vermuyden hadn’t actually consulted the commoners, still less secured their consent. When the bill was presented, opponents pointed out fairly forcibly that the commoners had not, and did not consent – and the bill was thrown out.

With that, poor Vermuyden’s hopes of a wealthy retirement vanished. By now he was an old man and, finally beaten, he retired to his big house in Channel Row, Westminster and spent his last years in obscurity.A sad end to a remarkable man; as an engineer, a colossus of his time but ultimately defeated by his inability to manage his business affairs. His family’s efforts to rationalise his interests after his death is another story; we will look at it some time! Stephen Foote

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