When I grow a rose named after a person, I know it has to have been named after someone of importance. Researching the name of a rose invariably leads me through history and teaches me more than I ordinarily would ever learn. That, my friends, brings us back to why I think of my favourite history teacher when I am tantalized by my roses.
There were three Abraham Darbys. The first was the son of Quakers John Darby, a yoeman farmer and locksmith, and his wife Ann Baylies. In the early 1690’s Darby apprenticed to Jonathon Freeth, a fellow Quaker and a manufacturer of brass mills for grinding malt. The young apprentice grew to change England. His invention of coke smelting enabled the mass production of brass and iron. As important as this invention itself, was the fact that coke replaced charcoal with coal. In 1709 Britain was running out of charcoal and Darby's revolutionary method was important to Britain’s future. He founded the world’s first metallurgy laboratory, and developed the process of sand molding which made it possible for iron and brass to be mass produced. Gone now, were the days of individual casting. He received a patent for sand casting in 1708. Years later, In 1779, his grandson Abraham Darby III, would create the first iron cast bridge to cross the River Severn in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire England, designed by Architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard.
“What’s in a name?That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Abraham Darby
Abraham Darby bud
Queen Elizabeth
John Cabot
Scentimental bud will open tomorrow
but double delight may open today
I promise you a rose garden.