SG Heritage Dictionary

Flint [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. In natural history, a sub-species of quartz, of a yellowish or bluish gray, or grayish black color. It is amorphous, interspersed in other stones, or in nodules or rounded lumps. Its surface is generally uneven, and covered with a rind or crust, either calcarious or argillaceous. It is very hard, strikes fire with steel, and is an ingredient in glass.

2. A piece of the above described stone used in firearms to strike fire.

3. Any thing proverbially hard; as a heart of flint

Flint [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A massive, somewhat impure variety of quartz, in color usually of a gray to brown or nearly black, breaking with a conchoidal fracture and sharp edge. It is very hard, and strikes fire with steel.

2. A piece of flint for striking fire; -- formerly much used, esp. in the hammers of gun locks.

3. Anything extremely hard, unimpressible, and unyielding, like flint.

Flint Encyclopedia Britannica

FLINT is a calcedonic variety of silica found in the form of irregular concretionary nodules of varying size, chiefly in the Upper Chalk beds and in other similar limestone deposits. The mode in which flint originated is not altogether satisfactorily explained; but as traces of some of the humbler marine organisms are almost invariably found in the nodules, it is assumed that the silicious matter was partly derived from these organisms themselves, and that they formed nuclei around which soluble silica accumulated. From the prevalence of silicious spiculae of sponges in tho nodules, it is affirmed by Dr Bowerbank that all flints had, for their primary nuclei, the silicious framework of the sponges which flourished in the depths of the sea during the Cretaceous epoch. Flints occur in the chalk in stratified order, and the various beds are possessed of a uniformly distinctive character. In some cases they arc found in continuous layers, at other places they occur as isolated nodules. In the county of Norfolk, huge flints termed “potstones,” of a pear-shaped outline, measuring as much as three feet in length by one foot across, are obtained; and these are imbedded in the chalk at right angles to the horizontal layers of small flints. Flint is a compact homogeneous substance, externally coated with a white silicious coat, and frequently hollow in the centre. It has a dark steely grey, almost black, sometimes brownish colour; it is faintly translucent, and it breaks with a conchoidal or glassy fracture. In composition it consists of almost pure silica, partly in the crystalline or non-solublo quartzy form, and partly in the non-crystalline soluble state. It contains traces of lime, iron, and alumina, and when the proportion of lime present is large it passes into chert. ...

FLINT, a maritime county of North Wales, the smallest but one of the Welsh and English counties, has an area of 264 square miles, or 169,162 acres; and (excluding the detached hundred of Maelor, which is divided from Denbighshire by the Dee, and bounded N. by Cheshire and S. and E. by Salop, lying 8 miles to the S.E. of the rest of the county) its boundaries are the estuary on the N., Cheshire on the N. and N.E., and Denbighshire with the Clwydian range to the S. and S.W. The greatest length of the county from S.E. to N.W. is 26 miles, and its breadth is from 10 to 12—Maelor being 9 miles by 5. The chief part of it is situate on the Coal-Measures and other members of the Carboniferous rocks group. A hilly tract of 50 miles breadth separates the Anglesey Coal-Measures from the Flintshire coal-field, which is again separated from that of Denbighshire to S.E. by the elevation of Mountain Limestone and Millstone Grit between Gresford and Hope. The latter runs continuously along the southern edge of the coal strata, followed, except in the extreme south, where we have the Wenlock rocks, by the Mountain Limestone. The extreme west and east, as well as the detached hundred, of the county is on the New Red Sandstone. Symonds says,—“The coal measures may be traced along the shore from Flint to the Point of Air; and the route from Flint to the west of Holywell crosses the Millstone Grit to the Mountain Limestone.” The Wenlock rocks, of considerable altitude, forming the northern limb of the Berwen mountains, extend to within a mile of the shore of the Dee, near the western limit of the county, the margin still west being composed of the alluvial flat of Rhuddlan marsh and part of the vale of Clwyd. To the south the water-shed of the Berwens divides Flintshire and Denbighshire for some distance,—Moel Fammau, a member of the range common to both, rising to 1845 feet. This is high for Flintshire, though Buckley and Halkin mountains, with the rest of the hill system north and south, indicate a generally mountainous character. A narrow alluvial tract to the east lies parallel to that already mentioned in the extreme west, and both are connected by a fertile strip of reclaimed land on the south shore of the estuary. The hundred of Maelor is flat, fertile, and highly picturesque.

Flint has some lovely valleys, such as those of the Clwyd, partly in the county, and the Alyn, and dingles and ravines, such as the course of theWepre brook from Ewloe Castle to the Dee. The chief rivers are the Dee, Clwyd, and Alyn. The Dee, entering the county near Overton, divides Maelor from Denbighshire on the west, and, after passing Chester, bounds it also on the north. The Clwyd, rising in Denbighshire, enters Flintshire near Bodfary, and after a brief northward course, joins the Elwy near Rhuddlan, past which they flow in one channel into the Irish Sea near Rhyl. The Alyn, a Denbighshire tributary, enters Flintshire near the base of Moel Fammau, winds between Cilcen and Mold,—with an underground course of half a mile, like fabled Alpheus, near Hesp-Alyn,—and then bending south to Caergwyrle, re-enters Denbighshire to join the Dee. Of Flintshire lakes, unimportant compared with those of neighbouring counties, Llyn Helig near Whitford is the chief.

Sloping seaward, with a mild climate, a moderate elevation and shelter, and sufficient irrigation, Flintshire is well adapted for agriculture. Three-fourths of its area is under cultivation, as follows:— [table]

Of green crops, turnips and swedes are the chief; mangolds are little grown. To every 100 acres of cultivated land the proportion of horses is 4 , 5, of cattle 42 ’ 4, of sheep 100 ’ 8, and of pigs 11 ’ 8,—the cattle and pigs being about the same proportion as for Denbighshire, while the horses and sheep number only about one-half. Stock and dairy farming are keenly pursued by the Flintshire farmer, who crosses his native cattle with Herefords and Downs, his native sheep with Leicesters and Southdowns. Flintshire farms are of more than average size, and their occupiers are intelligent and progressive. In the thickly planted mining population they find a ready market for beef and mutton, as well as for cheese and butter.

With this important increment to their agricultural population, the census of 1871 gives Flintshire a population of 76,312, or an increase in ten years of above 6500. In 1801 the number was 39,469, so that the increase during the century has been nearly double. Flint is now one of the most densely peopled counties for its size, ranking the third in numbers of North Wales. Its collieries, of which there are 27 of note in the county, producing an annual average of 500,000 tons, begin at Llanasa, and run south-east through Whitford, Holywell, Flint, Halkin, Northop, Buckley, Mold, and Hawarden. Much of the yield is exported. Lead is raised in Halkin mountain, and in some nine or ten mines of note about Mold, Holywell, Prestatyn, and Talacre, near Llanasa, the average annual produce being about 1200 tons. The town of Holywell has been reckoned the headquarters of the “lead ore ticketings.” In some cases it is smelted on the spot. Elsewhere it is sent to Bagilt, Flint, or Chester for that purpose. At Dyserth zinc is worked to a limited extent, and copper in Talargoch mine. Flintshire has also calamine mines; and in addition to frequent smelting works, large manufactories of oil, vitriol, potash, ⅛c., employ the dwellers near the coast, while coarse clay-potteries, the products of which go by train and rail to Connah’s Quay, occupy those around Buckley. Little ironstone is now raised, the seams being thin and the yield low; but an important source of industry is the large limestone quarries, eight in number, which produce a quantity of building stone, burnt lime, and small stone for chemical works about Halkin and elsewhere.

In 1873 the county was divided between 3510 owners, of whom 2048, or 58 per cent., possessed less than one acre, or much the same proportion as Denbighshire (see vol. vit p. 77). The average size of properties was 40£ acres, the average value per acre £2, 13s. 8∣d. More than one-third of the county is owned by 13 proprietors, viz., Lord Hanmer (Hamner Hall), 7318 acres; Captain Conwy (Rhyl), 5526; Mostyn Trustees, 5460; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 6908; Sir Piers Mostyn (Talacre), 4186; Sir Hugh Williams (Bodelwyddan), 4011; Lord Kenyon (Gredington), 4004; River Dee Company, 3679; Duke of Westminster (Halkin Castle), 3338; P. B. D. Cooke (Gwysaney), 3204; Earl of Denbigh (Downing), 2938; Edmund Peel (Overton), 2897; W. R. Hughes (St Asaph), 2119. The county petty sessional divisions are—Mold; Northop; Hawarden and Broughton; Caergwyrle; Holywell; Caerwys; Rhyl, Prestatyn, and St Asaph; and Hanmer. Flint borough has its separate commission of the peace, the borough magistrates holding their petty sessions at the town-hall for the borough district. The whole county constitutes one lieutenancy, and there are no highway districts. The principal towns are Flint, Mold, St Asaph, Rhyl, Holywell.

Flint (said to be derived from a corruption of the documentary term “Castellum apud Fluentum” into “Apud le Flynt”) is the capital and sole corporate town of the county, a seaport and contributory borough, 173 miles from London, on the south of the Dee estuary, between the sea and the hills inland. It has some good houses, and has recovered its decadence of twenty years ago since the establishment of vast chemical works, which make it the seat of great alkali manufactures, by Messrs Muspratt Brothers, Huntley, and others. Its chief imports are sulphur and other chemicals; its exports coal, soda, potash, copper, and various chemical products. The church is not remarkable; but there are good parochial schools and several nonconformist chapels. The footways of the town are flagged, and there are other street improvements. Until five years ago the county jail occupied (as at Haverfordwest) an angle of the Edwardian Castle on the edge of the estuary; it was then removed to Mold—where, however, the new and costly jail has been closed by the New Prisons Act, and Flintshire prisoners are now sent to Chester Castle. The old Flint jail has been bought by the Messrs Muspratt, and turned to good use as a “working men’s club.” It was in Flint Castle that Percy betrayed Richard II. to Bυlingbroke in 1399. In 1643 it surrendered to the Roundheads, and four years later was dismantled. Its constable is still appointed by the crown, with duties limited since the Municipal Corporations Reforms Act to the care of the ruins,—a square court with towers at the angles abutting the sea, and a massive round tower with a drawbridge. Flint was made a borough by Edward I., and chartered by Edward III. and Edward the Black Prince, as earl of Chester. Since the Reform Act it is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. It is the nomination place for the group of contributory boroughs, viz., Flint, Caergwyrle, Caerwys, Overton, Rhuddlan, which with St Asaph, Holywell, and Rhyl returns one member of parliament. In 1871 the population of Flint was 4269, as against 3296 in 1851.

Mold is a well-built town on the Alyn, in the south-east of Flintshire, the centre of a great coal and lead district, a terminus of the Chester and Holyhead branch railway, the assize town of the county, and the great locale of county business. Its restored church of the early 16th century is one of the finest in the diocese; and the Bailey Hill is the site of an ancient fortress stormed in 1144 and in 1322. The population of Mold is 12,237 by the last census.

St Asaph, one of the four Welsh sees, and a cathedral town, lies near the confluence of the Elwy and Clwyd. Founded originally by Kentigern, bishop of Glasgow, and named after his successor Asa, or Asaph, it still possesses, outlasting the buffets and vicissitudes of ages, its plain yet massive cruciform church. The population in 1871 of that part of the town which is situated in the county of Flint was 2806.

At the same census the winter population of the flourishing watering-place of Rhyl is given as 4229; but its summer average is from 10,000 to 12,000,—railway and water facilities bidding fair to eclipse the ancient neighbouring borough of Rhuddlan, which was once of such importance that Edward I. held his parliament in it, and the Statutes of Rhuddlan were passed there. Population of Rhuddlan, 5525.

Holywell depends for its prosperity on its lead mines and lime-works, its copper, brass, and zinc, and its lead smelting. At the last census its population was 9980. It has a railway station on the Chester and Holyhead line, two miles from the town, and within a hundred yards of the Cistercian abbey of Basingwerk. Closer still is St Winifred’s well, the exquisite late Perpendicular chapel above which has been restored. Other places of antiquarian interest are Caerwys, on the Mold and Denbigh railway— with its streets at right angles and other indications of Roman occupation; Hope, or Hope Estyn, near Caergwyrle; and Overton, in the detached part of Flint. Bodfary retains the tradition of Roman occupation. There is a fortified British post at Moel-y-Gaer, near Northop, and a roadway at Halkin, near Whitford.

The history and antiquities of Flintshire are of some im portance. Maes-y-Garmon, a mile from Mold, is the scene of the bloodless victory of the Britons under Germanus and Lupus over the Picts and Scots in 430 a,d., remembered as the “Alleluia victory.” Bangor Iscoed, “the great high choir in Maelor,” preserves the site of the monastery suddenly and totally destroyed with more than 2000 monks by Ethelfred of Northumberland in 607. Watt’s Dyke and Offa’sDyke—supposed to have run, the former from the coast near Basingwerk, past Halkin, Hope, and the Alyn gorge, towards Oswestry, and the latter from Prestatyn southward towards Mold, Minera, and across the Severn over the Long Mountain—perpetuate the names, one of a local hero, the other of a great Mercian ruler. At Cynsyllt, or Coleshill, is the scene of a second defeat of Henry II. by 0wain Gwynedd about a mile from Flint, the first having been at Coed Ewloe, where a lone tower remains to recall the tale. Tumuli, maenhirs, and inscribed stones are frequent in Flintshire, the most remarkable of the last being the “Maen Achwynfan” of the 9th to 12th century near Pantasa, and the 14th-century cross in Newmarket churchyard. Most of the Flint castles are Edwardian, that at Caergwyrle bespeaking an earlier Roman and even British occupation.

Flintshire is well provided with public elementary schools, viz., 68 voluntary and 4 board schools, and Church of England Sunday-schools. It belongs to the diocese of St Asaph.

On the history of the county may be consulted Archaeologia Cambrensis, 3d series, vol. iii.; Thomas, History of the Diocese of St Asaph, 1874; Pennant’s Tour in Wales·, Nicholas, Annals of Welsh Counties and County Families; Notes on the History of the County Town of Flint, by Henry Taylor, town-clerk of Flint, 1875; Murray’s Handbook of N. Wales, 1874.

FLINT, Timothy (1780-1840), an American clergyman and writer, was born in Reading, Massachusetts, July 11, 1780. He graduated at Harvard College in the close of 1800. Settled as a Congregational minister in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, he pursued scientific studies with interest; and his labours in his laboratory seemed so strange to the people of that retired region, that some persons supposed and asserted that lie was engaged in counterfeiting. This led to disagreeable complications, which resulted in his leaving his parish and becoming a missionary in the valley of the Mississippi. There could have been no discipline better adapted to correct his natural sensitiveness than his work at the West in those days, where he came into contact with many rough people and peculiar social habits. His observations on the manners and character of the settlers of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were recorded in a very picturesque work called Recollections of Ten Years passed in the Valley of the Mississippi, Boston, 1826. This book passed to a second edition, and excited so much interest as to be translated into French as well as reprinted in England. Indeed, it was the first account of the Western States of America which brought to light the real life and character of the people. Flint had acquired this knowledge of the young communities of the West, not only by his journeys among them as an itinerant preacher, but also by having been for a short period teacher and farmer on the banks of the Mississippi and Red Rivers. The success which this work met with, together with the failing health of the writer, led him to relinquish his more active labours for literary pursuits. His subsequent publications were as follows :— Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot, 1826,—a novel, the scene of which is laid in Mexico at the period of the revolution in which Iturbide was overthrown; A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States in the Mississippi Valley, 2 vols. 8vo. Cincin., 1828; Arthur Clenning, a novel, 1828; George Mason, the Young Backwoodsman, a novel; Indian Wars in the JYest, 1833; Memoir of Daniel Boone, 1834. In addition to these works, Flint published several translations from the French, and essays in the London Athenaeum, the Western Review, and the New York Knickerbocker, of which last two magazines he was at different times editor. His style was vivid, plain, and forcible, and his matter interesting; the spirit of his writings was always humane and genial; the Quarterly Review, in a notice of his first book, says: “These pages reflect a sincere, humane, and liberal character, a warm and gentle heart, and hardly even a prejudice which is not amiable.” He was very industrious, and had acquired such a power of abstraction that he prosecuted the labour of translating the Biographie Universelle in a room where other persons were engaged in work or conversation, being so absorbed in his work as to lose all consciousness of where he was or who was present. He died in Salem, August 16, 1840. His works on the Western States are still among the best we have on the subject.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 325
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Flint glass Webster's Dictionary 1913

A soft, heavy, brilliant glass, consisting essentially of a silicate of lead and potassium. It is used for tableware, and for optical instruments, as prisms, its density giving a high degree of dispersive power; -- so called, because formerly the silica was obtained from pulverized flints. Called also crystal glass. Cf. Glass.

Flint-hearted [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Hard-hearted.

Flintheart [\N] Webster's Dictionary 1828

FLINT'HEART ,

Flintheart [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Having a hard, unfeeling heart.

Flintiness [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

The state or quality of being flinty; hardness; cruelty.

Flintlock [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A lock for a gun or pistol, having a flint fixed in the hammer, which on striking the steel ignites the priming.

2. A hand firearm fitted with a flintlock; esp., the old-fashioned musket of European and other armies.

Flintware [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A superior kind of earthenware into whose composition flint enters largely.

Flintwood [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

An Australian name for the very hard wood of the Eucalyptus piluralis.

Flinty [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Consisting of flint; as a flinty rock.

2. Like flint; very hard, not impressible; as a flinty heart.

3. Cruel; unmerciful; inexorable.

4. Full of flint stones, as flinty ground.

5. Flinty-slate, a mineral of two kinds, the common and the Lydian stone.

Flinty [Superlative] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Consisting of, composed of, abounding in, or resembling, flint; as, a flinty rock; flinty ground; a flinty heart.

King James Bible KJV Bible

Berean Standard Bible BSB Bible

8 KJV and 11 BSB verses contain “flint”

Exodus 4:25

Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched it to Moses’ feet. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.

Deuteronomy 8:15

Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;

He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.

Deuteronomy 32:13

He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

Joshua 5:2

At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel once again.”

Joshua 5:3

And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

Job 28:9

He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.

The miner strikes the flint; he overturns mountains at their base.

Psalms 114:8

Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a fountain of water!

Isaiah 5:28

Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

Isaiah 50:7

For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame.

Ezekiel 3:9

As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

I will make your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their presence, even though they are a rebellious house.”

Zechariah 7:12

Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

Wisdom of Solomon 11:4

When they were thirsty, they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the flinty rock, and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone.

1 Maccabees 10:73

Wherefore now thou shalt not be able to abide the horsemen and so great a power in the plain, where is neither stone nor flint, nor place to flee unto.