Author: TELFORD, Thomas
Biography:
TELFORD, Thomas (1757-1834: ODNB)
The famous engineer was born 9 Aug. 1757 at Glendinning, Eskdale in Dumfrieshire, the second son of a shepherd, Thomas Telford (d 1757), and his wife, Janet Jackson (d 1794). He received a basic education at Westerkirk parish school and later educated himself in literature, architecture, and general science. In about 1772, he apprenticed to a stonemason, but having been ill-used by his master he ran away to Langholm where he found employment as a manual labourer. He then moved to Edinburgh and, in 1792, to London, where he made the acquaintance of notable architects Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers. Now patronized by William Pulteney, he obtained masonry commissions in several parts of England. Years of successful projects followed, in road, harbor, canal, bridge, and aqueduct design and construction. Most of his publications are technical, but he did create some imaginative literature. He published a brief poem in Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine (May 1779). In 1784 in Hawick’s The Poetical Museum he published “Esk-Dale. A Poem”. Its preface reads: “Thomas Telford, author of the following Poem, was bred a mason at the village of Langholm, on the banks of the Esk; a young man of no education but common reading, assisted by some few books lent him by the neighbouring gentleman.” The poem appeared in 1795, in an expanded version, as Eskdale. A Descriptive Poem, printed by J. and W. Eddowes of Salisbury, “at the Request of some Friends who had the Kindness to take an Interest in it.” Several of his friends were men of letters, including the Rev. Archibald Alison, Thomas Campbell, and Robert Southey (qq.v). Telford was a member of elite institutions, the Geological Society of London and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He died, unmarried, on 2 Sep. 1834 at 24 Abingdon Street. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. (ODNB 31 May 2023; T. Telford, Life, ed. J. Rickman [1838]; A. Burton, Thomas Telford [2015]) JC