1589 - 1677 (~ 87 years)| Name | Cornelius (Cornelis) Vermuyden | |
| Prefix | Sir | |
| Born | Jan 1589/90 | St. Maartensdijk (Martin's Dyke), Isle of Tholen, Zeeland, The Netherlands  |
| Gender | Male | |
| Biography | The entry for Vermuyden, Cornelius in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 58 by Albert Frederick Pollard states that Sir Cornelius Vermuyden had a daughter, Elizabeth who married Sir Thomas Peneystone under the name of Elizabeth Fairmedow. This is not correct and is part of the Fairmedow legend, propounded when it was noticed over two centuries later that a Sir Cornelius Pharmedo was naturalised in 1633 by the Scots parliament (Acta Parl. Scot. v. 58). It was suggested that this was Sir Cornelius Vermuyden with an anglicized form of the name Vermuyden. It was actually a completely different man - Sir Cornelius Fairmedow, whose surname was spelt in many ways. There is a separate entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for Sir Cornelius Fairmedow under ?Fermedo, Sir Cornelius (c.1600-1638) by S. P. Cerasano. He was a playwright and a gentleman pensioner who had been knighted on 25 September 1628 at Windsor. Sir Cornelius Vermuyden was knighted some months later at Whitehall on 6 January 1628/9. The two men were actually living in London during the same period but Sir Cornelius Fairmedow died in 1638 while Sir Cornelius Vermuyden lived for almost another forty years. The Elizabeth Fairmedow who married Sir Thomas Penyston (1626-1674) 2nd Baronet of Leigh, was born about 1630 and baptised on 12 July 1630 at St Stephen, Coleman Street, London, and was the daughter of Sir Cornelius Fairmedow (?1638) and his wife Dionysia Stonhouse. Because of the later confusing of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden with Sir Cornelius Fairmedow, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography also states that ?In his old age Vermuyden seems to have married a second wife, Dionysia Stonhouse.? However Dionysia Stonhouse, the mother of Elizabeth Fairmedow, was the wife of Sir Cornelius Fairmedow and not the wife of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden. In his 1953 book "Vermuyden and the Fens: a study of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and the Great Level", Lawrence Ernest Harris debunks the 'Fairmedow legend' and describes how it arose. | |
| History | 1623 | Dagenham, Essex, England |
| Cornelius Vermuyden's reputation for successfully draining flooded land in the Netherlands was recognised by the Essex Sewer Commissioners who contracted him to repair the breach in the Thames riverbank at Dagenham and Havering. Vermuyden began by raising the banks of Dagenham Creek through which a rivulet (known as the river Beam) flowed on its way into the river Thames. Across the mouth of this rivulet Vermuyden erected a clow, or sluice which was a strong gate, suspended by hinges, which opened to allow the outflow of the inland waters at low tide and closed against the incoming waters of the Thames when the tide rose. | ||
| History | 1623 | Canvey Island, Essex, England |
| Sir Henry Appleton, who was the chief landowner on Canvey Island, and a syndicate of other local landowners agreed with Joas Croppenburg, a wealthy London haberdasher, to the drainage of the island?s 4,000 acres. The syndicate agreed to convey to Croppenburg one third of Canvey on the condition that he would foot the entire bill for drainage. The sea walls were completed in 1623 under the guiding genius of Dutchman Cornelius Vermuyden. | ||
| Residence | 1625 | London, Middlesex, England |
| Drainage engineer | ||
| History | 24 May 1626 | Hatfield Chase, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England [2] |
| King James I (then succeeded by his son Charles I) had feudal as well as royal superiority in the level of Hatfield, with less division and opposition of interests, and fewer persons whose consent it was necessary in the first instance to obtain. The verdict on the inquest had placed the tenants at the mercy of the crown, and it was presumed, if the crown took no advantage of their forfeitures, that it might be easy to satisfy them "The feudal superiority of the crown was not confined to the limits of the chase. It extended over the neighbouring manors of Wroot, Finningley, and over the whole Isle of Axholme, where, as well as in the chase, there were large tracts of fenny ground, which it was proposed at the same time to lay dry." On the 24th of May, 1626, articles were signed between the crown and Vermuyden: "Whereas the king is seised of a certain chase called Hatfield Chase and Ditchmarsh, of the manor of Wroote and Finningley, of the isle of Axholme and of divers lands, wastes, etc. and certain other persons are seised of lands lying near those of the king; and whereas certain lands lying on each side of the river Idle, and others abutting northward on the Don and Aire, and others abutting southward on the Trent, containing 60,000 acres, or thereabouts, are subject to be surrounded and drowned with water, in such a manner that little or no benefit can be made of them unless they are drained: and whereas Cornelius Vermuyden, of London, esquire, has engaged that he will do his endeavour to make them fit for pasturage and tillage by draining, and that he will begin within three months of the completion of an agreement between the king and such persons as claim interest in these lands,and finish with as much expedition as possible: - it is now covenanted, that of the lands so to be recovered, Vermuyden or his assigns shall enjoy one-third part, to be set out according to an exact survey made by his majesty's surveyor-general, or in default, Vermuyden to divide it into three portions, and the king to choose two. All the materials and implements wanted for the work are to be imported duty free. He is to be allowed to make what banks or water-courses he please. Convenient ways and passages are to be made; and land not exceeding three thousand acres, may be left to receive the extra water. Vermuyden is to have liberty to take land wanted for the works from the people living near the chase, paying for it what four commissioners shall assign, of whom two are to be nominated by the lord high treasurer and two by Vermuyden. Within three years after the completion of the works, they are to be surveyed by six commissioners, three to be named by the lord treasurer, and three by Vermuyden, who shall make an estimate of the yearly cost of maintaining them: and Vermuyden engages to transfer to a corporation, to be established for the perpetual preservation of the works, lands of a yearly value sufficient for the maintenance of them, to be held in trust for him and his heirs until default of reparation. Finally, the king engages to agree with persons claiming common, and to facilitate in every way the endeavours of the undertaker" Three Beharrel brothers from Holland came over with Vermuyden to assist in draining Hatfield Chase (A dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom) | ||
| Residence | Aft 1626 | Sandtoft, Belton In Axholme, Lincolnshire, England |
| Vermuyden joined the 200 or so French Protestant (Huguenots) Dutch families that settled in Sandtoft. A chapel was erected and services were alternately performed in Dutch and French. A house built by Vermuyden still exists (acc. to "Lives of the Engineers - Vermuyden - Myddelton - Perry - James Brindley" by Samuel Smiles pub. 1904) built chiefly in 'stud-bound' timber around a quadrangular court. The eastern front was the dwelling-house. The other three sides were stables and barns. Another house was built by Matthew Valkenburgh on the Middle Ing, near the Don, which became property of the Boynton family. Sir Philibert Vernatti and the two De Witts erecter theirs near the Idle. | ||
| History | Abt 1649 | Great Fen, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Drainage of the 'Great Fen' in Cambridgeshire which became known thereafter as Bedford Level was originally financed in 1637 by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford. His heir William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford contracted Vermuyden to the second work phase with its principal engineering achievement of constructing two major channels, the Old Bedford River and the Forty Foot Drain. The engineering work was completed in 1653. | ||
| Died | 15 Oct 1677 | St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, Middlesex, England |
| Person ID | I3500608848 | Red1st |
| Last Modified | 30 May 2012 | |
| Father | Gillis Vermuyen, b. Bef 1566, St. Maartensdijk (Martin's Dyke), Isle of Tholen, Zeeland, The Netherlands , d. 18 Sep 1598, St. Maartensdijk (Martin's Dyke), Isle of Tholen, Zeeland, The Netherlands (Age ~ 32 years) | |
| Mother | Sara Cornelisse Werckendet, b. Bef 1575, St. Maartensdijk (Martin's Dyke), Isle of Tholen, Zeeland, The Netherlands , d. St. Maartensdijk (Martin's Dyke), Isle of Tholen, Zeeland, The Netherlands | |
| Family ID | F1345703134 | Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family | Catharina Lappe, b. Bef 1604 [3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Married | 16 Nov 1623 | Rotherhithe, Surrey, England |
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| Last Modified | 30 May 2012 22:00:39 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Family ID | F1345703137 | Group Sheet | Family Chart | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Photos |  | Sir Cornelius Vermuyden after M. van Mierevelt Valence House collections |
| Documents |  | Map of the Isle of Axholme in 1626 before the drainage by Vermuyden Scunthorpe Telegraph, 25 Mar 2003 |
| Map of the Isle of Axholme in 1626 before the drainage by Vermuyden From Rev WB Stonehouse and Reads History of the Isle of Axholme | |
| Map of the Isle of Axholme in 1626 before the drainage by Vermuyden From "The Manuscript in a Red Box." believed to have been written by John Hamilton first published 1903. This edition 1966 by Fair Books of Grimsby. Historical Preface by Peter J Hills BA Lecturer in History, St. John's College, York. Unabridged. | |
| Map of the Isle of Axholme in 1639 after the drainage by Vermuyden From History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme by Rev WB Stonehouse |
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