He made drawings or tracings of the
machinery as well as he could, though this was a branch of art
quite new to him; and after remaining at the place long enough to
enable him to verify his observations, and to impress the
mechanical arrangements clearly and vividly on his mind, he again
left the miners, reached a Swedish port, and took ship for England.
A man of such purpose could not but succeed. Arrived amongst his
surprised friends, he now completed his arrangements, and the
results were entirely successful. By his skill and his industry he
soon laid the foundations of a large fortune, at the same time that
he restored the business of an extensive district. He himself
continued, during his life, to carry on his trade, aiding and
encouraging all works of benevolence in his neighbourhood. He
founded and endowed a school at Stourbridge; and his son Thomas (a
great benefactor of Kidderminster), who was High Sheriff of
Worcestershire in the time of "The Rump," founded and endowed an
hospital, still in existence, for the free education of children at
Old Swinford. All the early Foleys were Puritans. Richard Baxter
seems to have been on familiar and intimate terms with various
members of the family, and makes frequent mention of them in his
'Life and Times.
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