Ralf Hogge

Ralf Hogge (his name has also been rendered "Ralph" and "Huggett") was an English iron-master and gun founder to the king.

[1] Working with French-born cannon-maker Pierre Baude and for his employer, parson William Levett, Hogge succeeded in casting the first iron cannon in England, in 1543.

After Levett's death, Hogge went into business for himself, producing cannons with the process he had helped perfect.

The revolution in English ironfounding had brought a humble tradesman to the status of country squire.

This event was immortalised in verse as: In the village of Buxted, East Sussex, "Hogge is assumed to have built Hogge House in 1583 and recorded his name and the date in the form of a cast iron rebus over the door.