William Edgeworth
{{short description|Irish civil engineer}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
William Edgeworth (1794?–1829){{cite book|author=A. W. Skempton|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: 1500–1830|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeOMfpYMOtYC&pg=PA207|access-date=3 May 2012|year=2002|publisher=Thomas Telford|isbn=978-0-7277-2939-2|page=207}} was an Anglo-Irish civil engineer.
Life
He was the son of Richard Lovell Edgeworth and his third wife Elizabeth, making him one of a very large Anglo-Irish family, including the novelist Maria Edgeworth. His father moved to Ireland to take care of an estate near Edgeworthstown. William Edgeworth's practical interests initially followed those of his father, such as surveying; he moved into cartography.
Edgeworth was involved in the construction of the Church of Ireland parish church at Collon in County Louth,[http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/1740 Dictionary of Irish Architects, Edgeworth, Richard Lovell]. where he worked with Daniel Augustus Beaufort (father of Richard Lovell Edgeworth's fourth wife). Others were William Fletcher (killed there in the building work),{{Cite web|url=https://www.dia.ie/architects/view/1742|title=FLETCHER, WILLIAM * - Dictionary of Irish Architects|website=www.dia.ie}} and Samuel Jones, brought up by William Edgeworth.[http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/1741 Dictionary of Irish Architects, Edgeworth, William].{{Cite web|url=https://www.dia.ie/architects/view/2858|title=JONES, SAMUEL [2] - Dictionary of Irish Architects|website=www.dia.ie}}
File:Parish Church, Collon, Co. Louth - geograph.org.uk - 1293224.jpg, founded 1811, on which the Edgeworth family worked.]]
Edgeworth's surveying work in Ireland included soundings in the River Inny and the mapping of bogs.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/12453/eppi_pages/309073|title=Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers On Ireland|website=www.dippam.ac.uk}} Irish Bogs Commission was active in the period 1809 to 1814, and under an Act from 1774 there was funding for county maps from grand juries;{{cite book|author1=Helen Wallis|author2=Anita McConnell|title=Historian's Guide to Early British Maps: A Guide to the Location of Pre-1900 Maps of the British Isles Preserved in the United Kingdom and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RanXw3Sv1aUC&pg=PA73|access-date=3 May 2012|date=6 April 1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-55152-6|pages=73–4}} Edgeworth reported on issues of bog drainage and reclamation.{{cite book|title=The Fourth Report of the Commissioners|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8C9bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA20|access-date=3 May 2012|year=1814|page=20}} His 1813 map of County Longford was noted,{{cite book|author=Royal Irish Academy|title=The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DyhRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA63|access-date=3 May 2012|year=1802|publisher=George Bonham|page=63}} and was followed by a map of County Roscommon with Richard Griffith.{{cite book|author1=William Edgeworth|author2=Richard Griffith|title=A Map of the County of Roscommon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8U7bHAAACAAJ|access-date=3 May 2012|year=1817}} He worked also with William Hampton{{Cite web|url=https://www.dia.ie/architects/view/2367|title=HAMPTON, WILLIAM - Dictionary of Irish Architects|website=www.dia.ie}} and John Brinkley.{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/memoirsrichardl07edgegoog|title=Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, esq.|first1=Richard Lovell|last1=Edgeworth|first2=Maria|last2=Edgeworth|date=7 December 1820|publisher=London, R. Hunter [etc.]|via=Internet Archive}} Unlike some other surveyors in Ireland at the time, he encountered little opposition to his work; he took a tactful and communicative line with local people.{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyireland.com/volumes/volume9/issue2/features/?id=260|title=historyireland.com, "An eye on the Survey"}}
William Strutt, a connection of his father's through Lunar Society who became a close friend,Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men (2003), p. 377. gave William Edgeworth introductions to Peter Ewart and George Augustus Lee.{{cite book|author1=R. S. Fitton|author2=Alfred P. Wadsworth|title=The Strutts and the Arkwrights, 1758–1830: A Study of the Early Factory System|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qGS7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA178|access-date=3 May 2012|date=1 November 1968|publisher=Manchester University Press ND|isbn=978-0-678-06758-1|page=178 note 3}} He paid a visit to Lee's mills in Manchester.{{ODNBweb|id=16285|title=Edgeworth, William|first=J. J.|last=Mason}}
Later Edgeworth was employed by Alexander Nimmo. This took him to County Galway and County Waterford. He worked on the Glengariff road.{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/cu31924013454701|title=A study of Maria Edgeworth, with notices of her father and friends|first=Grace A. (Grace Atkinson)|last=Oliver|date=7 December 1882|publisher=Boston, A. Williams|via=Internet Archive}} Henry Habberly Price engaged him to do a survey of the River Tees, in north-east England, in 1825–7, on behalf of the Tees Navigation Company; this work was later used by the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and for conservancy by William Bald.[http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/Pages/AdvancedSearchCatalogueDetail.aspx?SearchType=Param&SearchID=02e37440-5590-45ff-9b52-36c2d24794d6&ItemID=167574 Durham County Record Office Catalogue]. He carried out an early railway survey of 1828 in Ulster (Armagh to Newry), done in fact two years before that.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bygonesandbyways.com/folders/transport/railways.htm|title=RAILWAYS|website=www.bygonesandbyways.com}}
Edgeworth was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1829, and was a member of the Royal Irish Academy{{cite book|author=Royal Irish Academy|title=The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=71nNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR15|access-date=3 May 2012|year=1800|publisher=s.n.|page=15}} and the Royal Astronomical Society.{{cite book|author=Royal Astronomical Society|title=Memoirs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wBVbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA421|access-date=3 May 2012|year=1829|publisher=Blackwell Scientific|page=421}} He corresponded with William Rowan Hamilton.{{Cite web|url=http://www23.us.archive.org/stream/lifeofsirwilliam00grav#page/282/mode/2up|title=Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, knt., LL. D., D. C. L., M. R. I. A., Andrews professor of astronomy in the University of Dublin, and royal astronomer of Ireland, etc. etc.: including selections from his poems, correspondence, and miscellaneous writings|website=www23.us.archive.org|year=1882 }}
Edgeworth died, unmarried, at Edgeworthstown, 21 April 1829.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpR6uNPmV1EC&pg=PA922 |title = Visitation of Ireland|isbn = 9780806305431|last1 = Howard|first1 = Joseph Jackson|last2 = Crisp|first2 = Frederick Arthur|year = 1973| publisher=Genealogical Publishing Company }}
Charles Babbage wrote, as illustration of economic doctrine, about a "money pump" devised by Edgeworth.s:Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/454{{cite book|first=Anthony|last=Hyman|author-link=R. Anthony Hyman|title=Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1985|isbn=978-0-691-02377-9|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YCddaWqWK2cC&pg=PA174 174]}}
Notes
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External links
- [http://sources.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=%22%20Edgeworth,%20William%22&type=subject National Library of Ireland]
- [http://revpatrickcomerford.blogspot.co.uk/2011_08_31_archive.html Blog on Collon Church]
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Category:Irish civil engineers
Category:English civil engineers
Category:Members of the Royal Irish Academy