John Buddle Snr was born 1743, he became a school master at Chester-le-Street and is stated to be a person "of great intelligence and possessed of considerable literary and scientific attainments and kept up a correspondence with Hutton, Emerson and others..."

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On the 8th May, 1768 he married Ann Reay at St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street.  At which time he was probably living at Kyo.  The first of their children, Margaret was born in 1768, so presumably their marriage was a shotgun wedding.  Five children followed Margaret, with the first Ann born in 1771 being buried in Jan 1775.

 

Whilst living in Kyo, he became a colliery viewer at Silvertops Bushbaldes Colliery.  He subsequently became manager of the Greenside Pit near Ryton.  Ryton then became his home, his daughter Eleanor married Smart Atkinson there in 1803 and Mary married Whitfield Burnet there in 1804.

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He became the manager at Wallsend Colliery from 1792; at which time his son John Jnr became his underviewer. He had a creative & scientific mind and invented a method of cast iron (to replace wooden) tubbing used to remove underground water from deep coal mines, further enabling the development of Wallsend Colliery, one of the major collieries in the Tyne basin and further assisting other deep collieries in the district.

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No record has been found of his death, however it is recorded that his son succeeded him as the Manager of Wallsend Colliery in 1806.