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In 1685 John Hanbury (1664-1734) took over his father's estate and iron works at Pontypool and made it a highly profitable centre of industry. He designed a rolling mill which turned iron bars into plates of exceptional thinness and evenness at an unrivalled cost. In the 1720s he and his innovative agent, Edward Allgood (1681-1763), added a large tin-plating works. He was MP for Gloucester and later for Monmouthshire. Richardson was the leading native-born British portraitist of the early eighteenth century, an influential writer on art, and a great collector of Old Master drawings. His portraits are straightforward and unpretentious.