John Wilkinson

The ironmaster known as "Iron Mad" Wilkinson (1728-1808), who bought Brymbo Hall and its estate from the Assheton-Smith family in 1792 for £14,000 in order to mine the coal and ironstone under it, sank pits there, and had a blast furnace at work by 1796 — the beginning of what became the Brymbo Steelworks.