LOCKMAN, [SSNE 7566]
Text source
David and Andrew Lockman were early examples of the Scottish ‘iron’ merchant-entrepreneur, buying and selling bruk [industrial] complexes to the Walloons and Germans who have become more associated with this activity. They and a third brother were merchant burgesses in Köping, near Västerås in the region of Västmanland at the beginning of the 17th century, along with a small community of other Scots. Andrew got into trouble in Stockholm on suspicion of illegal trading of iron to Germany contrary to the king’s orders. Nonetheless, by the mid 1600s, for a period of about five years, Andrew Lockman was the Crown’s leaseholder of the iron districts of Norberg and Västerbergslagen. He constructed a new bar iron hammer at Skinnskatteberg and reconstructed another killinghammare at Gunnilbo. In addition, Andrew built French blast furnaces at several places in Västerbergslagen, for example at Hällsjön and at Vik in the parish of Söderbärke, in association with other ironmasters. While Andrew was busy with this project, David Lockman built a rennwerk at Hagge bruk, which he later on sold to brother Andrew. The Lockmans were symptomatic of those merchant-entrepreneurs who managed to cooperate with the bergsmän (combined farmers, ironmasters, and hammer-smiths) to make a significant contribution to the iron industry despite being in the shadow of the larger merchant-entrepreneurs like Willem de Besche and Louis De Geer. They built blast furnaces and hammer forges at their own expense, leaving much of the actual work to the bergsmän, sharing the production with them and making their profits on selling the iron on the international market. As the large-scale Wallonian iron-dynasties began to emerge, Scots too could be found alongside them.Stockholms stads tänkeböcker från år 1592. Del XIV, 1624-1625 (Stockholm: 1979), pp.78-79 and 484-485 - 25 and 27 May 1624; O. Björnänger, Köping, dåtid-nutid (Köping: 1974), 45, 48. I am reliably informed that details of the Lockmans’ business at Hagge bruk are to be found in the records of the complex kept in the archives of Håksberg in Ludvika. I would like to express my thanks Dr Maj-Britt Nergård for passing on to me these references and other information regarding the Lockman brothers. Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.185-186. NB. Georg Haggrén offers the following useful definitions related to the iron industry: järnbruk relates to an industrial construction with at least one bar-iron forge; brukskomplex usually denotes two or more ironworks under the same owner; bruksbygd is an area with a collection of works; brukspatron defines those owners of complexes who were partially resident within them [sometimes also bruksägare]; hammarpatron refers to an owner of a works that did not have its own blastfurnace; bruksförvaltare sometimes referred to brukspatron, but could also relate simply to the manager of a works.
Service record
- SWEDEN, KÖPING, VÄSTERÅS
- Arrived 1624-01-01
- Capacity IRON MERCHANT, purpose TRADE, COMMERCE, MERCANTILE