Cornelius Vermuyden
Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (* 1595 in Tholen , Netherlands ; † April 1683 in London ) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods in England and was responsible for the drainage of the Fens in East Anglia .
From 1626, King Charles I employed the dike engineer Vermuyden to drain Hatfield Chase on the Isle of Axholme , Yorkshire . This hired Dutch workers, which aroused resistance from the local population as the project simultaneously destroyed their fishing and hunting grounds. In 1629 he was knighted for his services and became an English citizen in 1633. Until 1637 he worked on the drainage of the Great Fens in Cambridgeshire . However, these were flooded again for military reasons in 1642 during the English Civil War . From 1649 Vermuyden directed the renewed drainage. In 1653 he led a diplomatic mission for a political union with the Netherlands, which was unsuccessful.
His son is Cornelius Vermuyden (1627–1693).
literature
- AW Skempton: A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: 1500-1830. ICE Publishing, London 2002, ISBN 072772939X , p. 739 ff.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vermuyden, Cornelius |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vermuyden, Sir Cornelius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch-English engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1595 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tholen , Netherlands |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 1683 |
| Place of death | London |