Background
Lemuel Cox was born in 1736 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the youngest son of William and Thankful (Maudsley) Cox.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Lemuel Cox
Edit ProfileCareer
Not much is known of Cox’s early life. As early as 1765 there are records to show that Cox and his brother Jesse, "wheelwrights all of Boston, ” purchased land in that city. He was a Loyalist, and in 1775 for that reason he served a term of confinement at Ipswich. His name is numbered in Boston’s quota of some two thousand adherents of the King who left Massachusetts temporarily. Later he removed to Taunton, Massachusetts, returning to Boston about 1789 and living there till June 1792 when he moved to Medford before going abroad.
Cox first came into prominence in 1785-1786 as the master workman under whose supervision was constructed between Boston and Charlestown the first bridge across the Charles River. Its length was 1, 503 feet and its width forty-two feet, and it was especially adapted to withstand tidal currents and ice. Its opening on June 17, 1786 was celebrated with great pomp by a large civil and military procession, including both branches of the legislature, with Cox himself occupying a prominent position. Broadsides were published upon the occasion, one of them being a poem of forty stanzas of which the following is a specimen: “Now Boston, Charlestown, nobly join, And roast a fatted Ox ; On noted Bunker Hill combine. To toast our patriot, Cox. ”
Cox was also the architect and builder of the Essex Bridge from Salem to Beverly, a bridge which stood second only to the Charles River Bridge in its size and in the caliber of work involved. Success with these two undertakings and others in Massachusetts and Maine resulted in his being asked to construct the great bridge at Waterford, Ireland, which was built under his direction and supervision in 1793. For many years a bridge in Ireland, near Dublin, bore his name inscribed upon its piers. His stay overseas resulted in a number of works requiring great mechanical and engineering skill. He returned to Massachusetts, and died in Charlestown.
He seems never to have acquired great wealth. “In 1796, ” says Joseph Barlow Felt in his Annals of Salem, "he [Cox] had a grant of 1, 000 acres of land in Maine from our legislature for being the first inventor of a machine to cut Card wire, the first projector of a Powder Mill in Massachusetts, the first suggestor of employing prisoners on Castle Island to make nails, and for various other discoveries in mechanical arts. ”
Achievements
-
Lemuel Cox became prominent for designing and building the bridges. One of his best works was the bridge across the Charles River, a piece of work which at that time was considered very remarkable. As an inventor, he was remembered for developing a device that simplified the preparation the yarn for spinning.
Connections
In 1763 Cox married Susannah, the daughter of William and Sarah (Sale) Hickling.
