| William Jessop |
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Jessop was born in Devonport, Devon in 1745 , the son of a shipwright known to leading civil engineer John Smeaton through his work on the Eddystone Lighthouse . When his father died, William Jessop was taken on as a pupil by Smeaton (who also acted as Jessop’s guardian), working on various canal schemes in Yorkshire . After working for some years as Smeaton's assistant, Jessop increasingly began to work as an engineer in his own right. In 1790 , he founded (with fellow engineer Benjamin Outram ) the Butterley Iron Works in Derbyshire to manufacture (amongst other things) cast-iron edge rails – a design Jessop had used successfully with flanged wheels on a horse-drawn railway scheme for coal wagons in Loughborough , Leicestershire ( 1789 ). His projects included:
From 1784 to 1805 Jessop lived in Newark in Nottinghamshire , where he twice served as town mayor. William's son, Josias Jessop (d 1826) was also a noted canal engineer; he also is credited with surveying and building the Cromford And High Peak Railway . For a detailed biography see Hadfield, C. and Skempton, A. W. William Jessop, Engineer (Newton Abbot 1979). |