William Weston was the son of Samuel Weston, the engineer of the Oxford Canal.
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 US 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 US and was a consultant to the Erie Canal Commissioners.
Sometime after Weston returned to England, Weston 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.[3]
His notebook, donated to the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, includes among 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".[3]
Weston married Charlotte Whitehouse of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, in 1792. Their daughter, Sophia, was born in Albany and later, in England, married a Staveley.[3]
References
^A biographical dictionary of civil engineers in Great Britain and Ireland. By A. W. Skempton
^Calhoun, Daniel Hovey (1960). The American civil engineer: Origins and conflict. Technology Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
^ abcPamela (Theophilus) Gardner (2010). Billingsley, Brampton and Beyond ... in search of The Weston Connection. Matador/Troubador Publishing Ltd.