Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
Traditionally on New Year’s Day, I post about how well I have done in all my metrics on writing for the year, and review the books I’ve read. I am going to save that for a few days as I am taking a few days vacation from the grind of writing. I’ve prepped these Biographies as set them and forget them, so I can concentrate on the really important things at the end of the year, Bowl Games 🙂
Robert Stephenson
October 16 1803-October 12 1859
Alongside his father George, Robert is one of the founding fathers of the locomotive age. Born at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the only son of George Stephenson. At the time, George was working as a brakesman on a stationary colliery engine. In 1804 the family moved to a cottage in West Moor. In 1805 Robert had a sister for a short few weeks. Then in 1806 Robert’s mother Fanny died of Tuberculosis, and George’s sister Nelly moved in to care for Robert.
George had received no formal education and he was determined to get such for Robert. George had Robert reading books at a young age that were well above his level, and Robert was learning to read technical drawings. Studying together, both father and son learned and improved their education. They built a sundial and hung it above their door, so that the cottage became known as the Dial Cottage and is still preserved as a monument to them. In 1812 George was promoted to enginewright at Killingworth Colliery. With such better wages, Robert was sent to a primary school run by the Rutters in Longbenton until he was eleven. Then Robert was able to go to a private academy, Doctor Bruce’s in Newcastle. While there he became a reading member at the Literary and Philosophical Society. He may have had much less of an education then today’s engineers receive, but for the times, he was on the cutting edge.
When finished with the Bruce Academy he apprenticed to Nicholas Wood at the Killingworth Colliery and also a period at the University of Edinburgh where Robert met George Parker Bidder. Robert started to work with his father on railway projects, the first for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. In 1823 he set up in partnership with his father, Michael Longridge and Edward Pease to build locomotives situating the company out of Newcastle. Robert Stephenson and Company founded in 1823 was the first company to manufacture railway engines. The first trains built were called Locomotion No. 1, Hope, Diligence, and Black Diamond. Locomotion was used for the opening of the Stockton and Darlington line.
In 1824 Robert went to South America for there years as an engineer in the Colombian Gold mines. He might have had a falling out with his father at the time. He returned in 1827 to get down to the work of building the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. His father was in Liverpool working at the railway, so Robert took charge at the company in Newcastle. To build a locomotive for the Rainhill Triails, they produced Rocket (DWW-The Stephenson Rocket is famous!) The Stephenson company won the trials and with the opening of the Railway, they began to build for other railways as well. It was necessary to extend the Newcastle facilities.
In 1829, Robert married Frances Sanderson in London. They lived in Newcastle. She died in 1842 and they did not have any children. In 1830 Robert designed Planet, which was much more advanced then Rocket. Once again there was friction between the father and son, but Robert’s new design was much more powerful than the previous one. In 1833 Robert was given the chief post for the London and Birmingham Railway. Now Robert moved to London to live. The new railway was completed in 1838 and Robert was responsible for the tunnel under Primrose Hill. To get trains from Euston Station to Chalk Farm, Stephenson devised a system to draw the trains up by rope near The Roundhouse. Still in use toady as an Arts Centre. It cost £5.5 million to build the railway, over six times what it cost to build the L&MR.
In 1838 Robert was summoned to Tuscany to build the Leopolda railway. From this he laid the ground work for the Faentina railway. All these railways also needed bridges, and Robert was known for this as well. His father had built the Gaunless Bridge. For the London to Scotland branch of the railways, bridges over the Tyne and Tweed were designed by Robert. The High Level Bridge at Newcastle upon Tyne, the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed and the Britannia Bridge across he Menai Strait on the line to Edinburgh was designed by Stephenson. A design based on his Conwy railway bridge. Expensive to build but also used in Canada and twice in Egypt. He did suffer failures, though. The Dee bridge, where he employed girders that were too long, collapsed and five people were killed.
So well known in the field, Robert’s advice was sought all over the world. Such countries as France, Spain, Egypt (consulting on the feasibility of the Suez Canal), Switzerland. He built the Alexandria to Cairo railway from 1851 to 1853. He also served in Parliament for Whitby from 1847 until his death. He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1855. George had died in 1848 and Robert died in 1859. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Queen Victoria allowed his cortege to pass through Hyde Park and 3000 tickets were sold to spectators. He had accumulated nearly £400,000 to leave in his will. He was one of the leading engineers of the age.
Previous Notables (Click to see the Blog):
There will be many other notables coming, a full and changing list can be found here on the blog as I keep adding to it. The list so far is:
General Sir Robert Arbuthnot
Harriet Fane Arbuthnot
Richard Harding Evans
Joseph Antonio Emidy
John Ireland
William Gifford
John Wolcot (Peter Pindar)
Amelia Opie
Sir Joseph Banks
Richard Porson
Eva Marie Veigel
Edward Gibbon
James Smithson
William Cowper
Richard Cumberland
Richard Cosway
Jacob Phillipp Hackert
Maria Foote
Sir George Warren
John Thomas Serres
Wellington (the Military man)
Horatio Nelson
William Vincent
Cuthbert Collingwood
Admiral Sir Graham Moore
Admiral Sir William Sydney Smith
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville
Howe
Viscount Hood
Thomas Hope
Colin Mccaulay
Baroness de Calabrella
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Napoleon Bonaparte
Packenham
Admiral Israel Pellew
General Banastre Tarleton
Henry Paget
Francis Leggatt Chantrey
Stapleton Cotton
Sir Charles Grey
Thomas Picton
Constable
Thomas Lawrence
James Northcote
Cruikshank
Thomas Gainsborough
James Gillray
Sir Joshua Reynolds
George Stubbs
Joseph Priestley
William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk 9th Duke of St. Albans
Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland
Horace Walpole
John Thomas ‘Antiquity’ Smith
Thomas Coutts
Rowlandson
William Blake
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Sir Marc Brunel
Marquis of Stafford George Leveson-Gower
George Stephenson
Nicholas Wood
George Parker Bidder
Edward Pease
Thomas Telford
Joseph Locke
Mary Shelley
Paul III Anton, Prince Esterházy
Thomas Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton
Henry Herbert Southey
John Nash
Matthew Gregory Lewis
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Thomas Hope
William Beechey
Henry Holland
Sir Walter Scott
Lord Elgin
Henry Moyes
Jeffery Wyatville
Hester Thrale
William Windham
Madame de Stael
James Boswell
Edward Eliot
George Combe
William Harrison Ainsworth
Sir Harry Smith
Thomas Cochrane
Warren Hastings
Edmund Burke
Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond
Juana Maria de Los Dolores de Leon (Lady Smith)
Duke of Argyll, George William Campbell (1766-1839)
Lord Barrymore, Richard Barry (1769-1794)
Lord Bedford, Francis Russell (1765-1802)
Mr. G. Dawson Damer (1788-1856)
Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish (1748-1811)
Lord Foley, Thomas Foley (1780-1833)
Colonel George Hanger (c.1751-1824)
Lord Hertford, Francis Seymour-Ingram (1743-1822)
Lord Yarmouth, Francis Charles Seymour-Ingram (1777-1842)
Earl of Jersey, George Bussey Villiers (1735-1805)
Sir John , John Lade (1759-1838)
Duke of Norfolk, Charles Howard (1746-1815)
Duke of York , Frederick Augustus Hanover (1763-1827)
Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc de Chartres, acceded 1785 as Duc d’ Orleans (1747-1793)
Louis Philippe, Duc de Chartres, acceded 1793 as Duc d’ Orleans (1773-1850)
Captain John (Jack) Willett Payne (1752-1803)
Duke of Queensberry, William Douglas (1724-1810)
Duke of Rutland, John Henry Manners(1778-1857)
Lord Sefton, William Philip Molyneux (1772-1838)
Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour (1759-1801)
Sir Lumley St. George Skeffington Baronet (1771 – 1850)
Lord Worcester, Henry Somerset (1766-1835)
Lord Worcester, Henry Somerset (1792-1853)
Hon. Frederick Gerald aka “Poodle” Byng
The Dandy Club
Beau Brummell
William Arden, 2nd Baron Alvanley
Henry Mildmay
Patronesses of Almacks
Emily Lamb, Lady Cowper
Amelia Stewart, Viscountess Castlereagh
Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey
Maria Molyneux, Countess of Sefton
Mrs. Drummond Burrell
Dorothea Lieven, Countess de Lieven, wife of the Russian Ambassador
Countess Esterhazy, wife of the Austrian Ambassador
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