William Crawshay II (27 March 1788 – 4 August 1867) was the son of William Crawshay I, the owner of Cyfarthfa IronworksinMerthyr Tydfil, Wales.[1]
William Crawshay II became an ironmaster when he took over the business from his father. He was known as the 'Iron King'. He was considered a hard master by some, and his employees took part in the protests that led to the Merthyr Rising of 1831.
He was responsible for the building of Cyfarthfa Castle (now a museum) in the 1820s. In 1847, he retired to Caversham ParkinOxfordshire (now Berkshire), where he died 20 years later. After a fire in 1850, Caversham Park was rebuilt by Crawshay to a design by Horace Jones[2] who much later also designed London's Tower Bridge.
His son, Robert Thompson Crawshay, carried on the South Wales business.