William Weston

Background

William Weston was born probably in or near Oxford, England.

Education

He may have been a youthful pupil of James Brindley (1716 - 1772), pioneer English canal engineer.

Career

Little is known of his professional engagements in his native land except that in 1790 he was engineer of the monumental stone bridge which spans the Trent at Gainsborough, and of a turnpike road there. In 1792 he contracted with the Schuylkill & Susquehanna Navigation Company, of Pennsylvania, to serve for five years as engineer of its canal, already begun, which extended from Philadelphia up the valley of the Schuylkill to Reading and thence to the Susquehanna (years later known as the Union Canal). Arriving in the United States early in 1793, he served this company for about two years, until it became insolvent. During this period he absented himself, with the company's permission, to engage in surveys and examinations of three other canal projects: in the summer of 1794 the elder Loammi Baldwin secured him to plan the Middlesex Canal, connecting Charlestown, Massachussets, with the Merrimack; George Washington, then president of the "Patowmack" Company, induced him in 1795 to examine and report on the locks under construction at the Great Falls of the Potomac; and he spent parts of 1796 and 1797 as engineer for the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company in New York State. The last-named project, the precursor of the Erie Canal, involved the creation of a water connection between the Hudson, central New York, and Lake Ontario, via the Mohawk River and Oneida Lake. After Weston had, apparently, severed his connection with the Schuylkill & Susquehanna Company he devoted himself for parts of two years to this New York State enterprise. In 1799 he made for the City of New York an examination of possible sources of future water supply. He recommended damming the Bronx River north of West Farms, and regulating its flow by raising the level of the Rye Ponds (now part of the Kensico Reservoir). He also proposed an interesting dual distribution system, to be put into effect after the water was brought to a reservoir at or near the City Hall Park. Among Weston's last American activities were those in connection with the "Permanent Bridge" crossing the Schuylkill at Market Street, Philadelphia. As designer of the pier foundations, one of which extended to a then unprecedented depth, practically forty-two feet below the water surface, he remained in active communication with the construction company for two years or more after his return to England about 1800. Little information is available regarding Weston's subsequent activities. He seems to have settled in Gainsborough, the home of his wife. In 1813 or 1814 he was offered the position of chief engineer of the projected Erie Canal, but declined it on account of his age and family responsibilities. He died in London.

Achievements

• Weston's standing as an engineer in the United States may be judged by the obvious respect paid to his professional opinions by leading American public men, including George Washington, Robert Morris, Elkanah Watson, Philip Schuyler, Richard Peters; also, by the salary and fees he commanded - certainly large for his day. From the Schuylkill & Susquehanna Company, for example, he received £800 for seven months' service a year, £370 for his examination and report on the Potomac locks; nearly $800 for the New York water supply report; and later an offer of $7, 000 to become chief engineer of the Erie Canal. His contributions to American engineering have not been sufficiently appreciated. He showed embryo engineers how to design and build lock canals. He gave advice in connection with the first important American turnpike. In his report on a water supply for New York City he suggested practice far in advance of his day with respect to artificial filters for drinking water and advocated twenty-four-inch cast-iron water pipe some years before any cast-iron pipe had been used in the United States. He proposed the first river regulation in the country. His deep coffer dam for the Permanent Bridge was the first in America and probably was not equaled in boldness anywhere for years. His printed reports include, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation (1794), and a second report the same year - both are included in An Historical Account of the Rise, Progress and Present State of the Canal Navigation in Pennsylvania (1795); Report on the Practicability of Introducing the Water of the River Bronx into the City of New York (1799); Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company, Report of Engineer (1795). The Baldwin collection at the Baker Library, Harvard University, contains manuscript letters and drawings of Weston relating to the Middlesex Canal.

Connections

He was married.