Cornelius Vermuyden

Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (1595 – 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Vermuyden was commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire. In the 1650s, he directed major projects to drain The Fens of East Anglia, introducing the innovation of constructing washes, to allow periodic flooding of the area by excess waters. Early life and education Cornelius was the son of Giles Vermuyden and Sarah Werkendet. He was born in 1595 in Haestinge on the Isle of Tholen in the Zeeland province of the Dutch Republic. He trained in the Netherlands as an engineer, learning Dutch techniques for controlling water and draining marshland.