William Weston (engineer)

William Weston (1763 – 29 August 1833) was a civil engineer who worked in England and the United States of America.^[1] For a brief period at the end of the 18th century, Weston was the pre-eminent civil engineer in the new United States and worked on the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company, the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Companies in New York, the Middlesex canal in Massachusetts, the Schuylkill Permanent Bridge at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Potomac navigation.^[2]

• His notebook (donated to the Institution of Civil Engineers, London) includes, amongst other things, a diagram of 'centring at Sawley Bridge', the costings of a guard lock, a diagram of a canal bridge and costings of 'Gainsboro' Bridge'.
• William, an Englishman, was son of Samuel Weston, the Oxford Canal engineer: he married Charlotte Whitehouse of Gainsborough in 1792; daughter Sophia Weston (who later, in England, married a Staveley) was born in Albany.
• Sometime after William Weston returned from America he commissioned a porcelain service, which came to light circa 2005. Possible connections of William Weston to William Weston Young and Lewis Weston Dillwyn - financial backers of the potter and ceramic artist William Billingsley - were then investigated.

The bulleted information is sourced from the book Billingsley, Brampton and Beyond ... in search of The Weston Connection by Pamela (Theophilus) Gardner, pub Matador/Troubador Publishing Ltd., 2010

Career

William Weston is first noticed with his work on Trent Bridge, Gainsborough between 1787 and 1791.

In 1792 he sailed from Falmouth to the United States of America to start a five year engagement as Engineer to the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company in Pennsylvania.

Among others, Weston trained (in 1794) Benjamin Wright later chief engineer of the Erie Canal and Loammi Baldwin chief engineer of the Middlesex Canal.

He returned to England in 1801, but retained his connection with the United States and was a consultant to the Erie Canal Commissioners.

Summary of works

The bridge at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Weston's only known work in England

• 1791 Trent Bridge, Gainsborough
• 1795 Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company
• 1798 Delaware and Schuylkill Canal
• 1793 Conewago Canal, Pennsylvania
• 1796 Middlesex Canal, Massachusetts
• 1796 Potomac River Locks
• 1798 Western Inland Lock Navigation, New York
• 1796 James River Canal
• 1801 Schuylkill River Bridge

References

1. A biographical dictionary of civil engineers in Great Britain and Ireland. By A. W. Skempton
2. Calhoun, Daniel Hovey. The American civil engineer: Origins and conflict. Technology Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960.

External links

• An Historical Review of Waterways and Canal Construction in New York State by Henry Wayland Hill, published 1908 by the Buffalo Historical Society.
• Report of the directors of the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation by Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, Philip John Schuyler, William Weston, Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company, published 1796, 20 pages.
• Transactions, Volume 16 by Newcomen Society (Great Britain) Published 1937, William Weston and his Contribution to Early American Engineering.
• The Water-Supply of the City of New York 1658-1895 By Edward Wegmann, published 1896, 310 pages, page 9 mentions William Weston.
• Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers : 32 Profiles of Inspiration and Achievement by Richard Weingardt, William Weston pages 4–8. Published 2005, 165 pages.