James Watt junior
James Watt junior | |
---|---|
Born | 5 February 1769 |
Died | 2 June 1848 Aston Hall, Warwickshire | (aged 79)
Nationality | British |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 45 |
James Watt junior, FRS (5 February 1769 – 2 June 1848) was a British engineer, businessman and activist.
Early life
He was born on 5 February 1769, the son of James Watt by his first wife Margaret Miller, and half-brother of Gregory Watt. He was educated at Winson Green near Birmingham, by the Rev. Henry Pickering. His father was unable to find a better school, though dissatisfied with his son's progress.[1][2]
At age 15 Watt spent a year at the
In Manchester
In 1788 Watt returned to England and a position in the textile trade in
The
It was through Cooper that Watt joined the Constitutional Society, and then went to work for Richard & Thomas Walker.[1] Cooper, Jackson and Walker were radicals and abolitionists, prominent in founding the Manchester Constitutional Society in 1790.[9] The whole radical group resigned en masse, in 1791, when the Literary and Philosophical Society refused to send a message of sympathy to Joseph Priestley, driven from his home in the riots.[10]
In France
Watt went to Paris on a sales trip in France with Cooper in March 1792, at the time of the
In Paris Watt used letters of introduction from Priestley. He met the chemists
At first Watt was in favour with the revolutionary leaders, and defended the
Later life
Returning to England in 1794, Watt gave up on plans of emigration to America: they had been very real in 1793, when Cooper was preparing to go, and Priestley was still encouraging him late in the following year.[23] At that point Watt was watching closely the treason trials, in particular that of Thomas Hardy, about which he corresponded with Thomas Beddoes. Thomas Walker took heart from Hardy's acquittal by a jury, and felt able to speak out once more against the government.[24]
Instead of leaving, Watt became a partner in the Soho Foundry firm of Boulton & Watt. Over time, he shared responsibility with Matthew Robinson Boulton for its management.[25] Watt took on the daily operations and organisation of the Foundry, with Boulton being more concerned with planning.[26] One problem was breaking into the steam engine market of the industrial north: Peter Ewart and Isaac Perrins had been tried as representatives, before the more satisfactory James Lawson was found.[27] The younger generation of Watt and Boulton by the later 1790s had become serious adversaries of those firms who had reacted by infringing the company's patents in the north of England.[28]
Like others in his firm and family, Watt gave enthusiastic support to the
Watt later gave some technical assistance to
Watt moved into
Watt died unmarried, at Aston Hall, on 2 June 1848.[20] An Australian author claims that he fathered seven children with a Margaret Redfern,[34] but birth and death records show that she lived in Belfast, and her husband was an Andrew Watt.[35][36][37] She was the sister of William Redfern, and mother of William Redfern Watt.
References
- Jenny Graham (2000). The Nation, the Law, and the King: Reform Politics in England, 1789–1799 (two volumes). University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-7618-1484-9.
- A. E. Musson and E. Robinson, The Early Growth of Steam Power, The Economic History Review New Series, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1959), pp. 418–439. Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Economic History Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2591464
- Eric Robinson, An English Jacobin: James Watt, Junior, 1769–1848, Cambridge Historical Journal Vol. 11, No. 3 (1955), pp. 349–355. Published by: Cambridge University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3021128
- Williams, Robert (1995), Accounting for steam: The accounts of the Soho factory, Accounting & Finance Working Papers, vol. 95/14, Wollongong, NSW: University of Wollongong, retrieved 16 September 2012
Notes
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28881. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ISBN 978-0-7190-0370-7.
- ISBN 978-0-7546-3177-4.
- ISBN 978-1-84760-006-6.
- ^ Robinson p. 350.
- ISBN 978-0-521-28759-3.
- ^ R. Angus Smith, A Centenary of Science in Manchester (1883), p. 233; archive.org.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-0370-7.
- ISBN 978-0-203-16933-9.
- ^ a b c Robinson p. 351.
- ISBN 978-90-277-1686-6.
- ISBN 978-2-296-41713-7.
- ISBN 978-0-7546-3718-9.
- ^ Peter M. Jones, "Living the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, James Watt, Matthew Boulton and Their Sons" The Historical Journal 42, 1 (1999) pp. 157-182.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-0370-7.
- ^ Robinson, p. 352.
- ISBN 978-0-571-26667-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8264-3453-1.
- ISBN 978-0-415-07741-5.
- ^ a b c Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 60. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Robinson, pp. 354–5.
- ^ Jones, p. 179
- ^ Graham, p. 513 and p. 637.
- ^ Graham, p. 626 and pp. 650–1.
- ^ Williams 1995, p. 5
- ^ Williams 1995, p. 7
- ^ Musson & Robinson (Steam), p. 434.
- ^ Musson & Robinson (Steam), p. 430.
- ISBN 978-90-277-1686-6.
- ISBN 978-0-262-01675-9.
- ^ Annual Register, 1829. 1830. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-7546-3177-4.
- ^ "Fellows Details". Royal Society. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ISBN 9781875961184.
- ^ "Andrew Watt + Margaret Redfern – Our Family Tree". www.ourfamtree.org. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ "Margaret Redfern, sister of surgeon William Redfern" (PDF). Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ "redfern family in ireland/eng - Genealogy.com". www.genealogy.com. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Watt, James (1736-1819)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 60. London: Smith, Elder & Co.