Sir Cornelius Vermuyden

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Sir Cornelius Vermuyden

1595?-1683

Dutch-born English engineer responsible for a number of drainage and land reclamation projects. Vermuyden went to England in 1621 (he later became a naturalized citizen) to repair the Thames embankments. In 1626, he received a commission from King Charles I to drain Hatfield Chase in Yorkshire, and spent the better part of the 1630s draining the Great Fens in Cambridgeshire. He later reclaimed the area after much of it was flooded during the English Civil War.

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