Surrey Archaeological Collections
Surrey Archaeological Society, 2003. (updated 2023) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221. How to cite using this DOI
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- ADS Collection: 379
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221
- How to cite using this DOI
SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
The hard case of Sir Polycarpus Wharton
K R FAIRCLOUGH
In the last decades of the 17th century, Polycarpus Wharton, the son of an important Ordnance Board official, was by far the most important supplier of gunpowder to the government. He produced at several sites including Chilworth mills in Surrey, the largest gunpowder manufactory in England, and was so well thought of that he was asked by the Ordnance Board to help develop and improve the quality of gunpowder production. Yet growing financial problems meant that in 1698 he ceased production, and subsequently petitioned the Board about debts which he claimed were owed to him and his father. So severe were his problems that he spent some time in a debtorâs gaol, and the evidence suggests that he never recovered financially. This article attempts to recount what is known of his life and career, but cannot explain his quarrel with the Ordnance Board.
