In the 1620s, he became a partner in a network of ironworks in south Staffordshire, which were undoubtedly the source of the family's fortune.
[1] According to the folktale, "Fiddler Foley", he went to Sweden where, posing as a simple fiddler, he succeeded in discovering the secret of the slitting mill, which was enabling the price of English nails to be undercut.
[1] Richard Foley married twice, and was able to set up several of his sons as gentlemen or in other prominent positions.
By his first marriage: By his second marriage to Alice (died 1663), daughter of William Brindley of Willenhall, he had a large family:[3][2] Foley's own pretensions to gentility were not recognized by the College of Arms, his right to use the arms he claimed being denied at the visitation of Worcestershire in 1634.
[2] The story is also told in the 1902 novel, "Nebo the Nailer" by Sabine Baring-Gould.