John Wise — Unrecognized Engine Builder and Contemporary of Newcomen and Watt

NOTES

• Society of Genealogists (hereafter SoG), Mf 1240, St James Bulkington, bishops’ transcripts of registers 1660–1809 (microfilms of originals at Warwks CRO).
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• The details of William Wise are from Chelsea Waterworks Accounts Ledger No. 17 (March 1741–March 1742), held in the London Metropolitan Archives (hereafter LMA) under Acc. 2558/CH2/24, f. 50. The Wise Baptism data is held by The National Archives (hereafter TNA), RG 4/2791, Bedworth (Independent) Births and Baptisms 1688–1837. Information from searchable database only.
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• SoG, Mf 1480, Holy Trinity, marriages 1561–1753 Coventry (microfilms of original register at Warwks CRO).
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• Allen J.S., ‘Some Early Newcomen Engines and the Legal Disputes Surrounding Them’, Transactions of the Newcomen Society (hereafter TNS) 41 (1971), p. 193.
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• Barton D.B., The Cornish Beam Engine (D. Bradford Barton, 1969), p. 137.
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• SoG, Mf 1463, St Mary, Walsgrave on Sowe, registers and other church records (microfilm of original regsiter at Warwks CRO).
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• Allen, pp. 188, 194.
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• Glencross R M, (ed.), Calendar of Wills — at Bodmin: Part 2, 1700–1799, British Record Soc., Index Library 59 (1932).
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• Ibid.
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• White A.W.A., ‘Early Newcomen Engines in the Warwickshire Coalfield 1714–1736’, TNS 41 (1971), pp. 203–16.
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• Rolt L.T.C., Allen J.S., The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen (Landmark Publishing, 1997), pp. 146–50.
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• White.
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• SoG, ‘The Apprentices of Great Britain, 1710–1774’ (typescript). These volumes index the Inland Revenue apprenticeship books at TNA (Class IR1). TNA references are 1R1/42, f. 92; IR1/48. f. 75; IR1/49, f. 227 respectively.
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• Allen, p. 191.
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• Allen J.S., ‘Bromsgrove and the Newcomen Engine’, TNS xliii (1974), pp. 183–98.
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• Rolt and Allen, p. 153.
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• White, pp. 207–10.
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• Boucher C.T.G., ‘The Pumping Station at Hawkesbury Junction’, TNS xxxv (1964), pp. 59–68.
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• An account of the Chelsea Waterworks and a reference to John Wise is given in H. W. Dickinson, Water Supply of Greater London (The Engineer, 1948), p. 57.
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• Torsten and Peter Berg (translators), RR Angerstein’s Illustrated Travel Diary 1753–1755 Industry in England and Wales from a Swedish Perspective (Science Museum, 2001), pp. 3, 4.
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• Rolt and Allen, p. 150.
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• LMA, Acc. 2558/CH/1/9, p. 159.
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• P. Belford, ‘Five Centuries of Iron Working: Excavations at Wednesbury Forge’, Post- Medieval Archaeology, 44·1 (2010).
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• LMA, Acc. 2558/CH/1/9, p. 183.
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• S. Grudgings, Jarrit Smith’s 1751 Newcomen Engine (SGMRG/Lightmoor, 2012), Section 3·11.
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• Ibid. Malcott supplied brasswork for the 1751 engine, see Section 3·8 for details.
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• Cleve H., Crossley D., The Iron Industry of the Weald, Wealden Iron Research Group, 2nd edn (1995).
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• Rhodes J.N., ‘Early Steam Engines in Flintshire’, TNS xx (1942), p. 219.
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• Fuller reckoned Bowen the best moulder in the business; quoted in J. Hodgkinson, ‘The Iron Industry in the Weald in the Period of the Seven Years War, 1750–1770’ (MA dissertation, Brighton University), p. 96 (source WIRG website, accessed 5 June 2012).
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• Rogers K., The Newcomen Engine in the West of England (Moonraker Press, 1976).
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• LMA, Acc. 2558/CH/1/9, pp. 232–33.
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• LMA, Acc. 2558/CH/1/9, pp. 154, 15427.
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• Grudgings S., ‘Draining the Kingswood Coalfield — Some Historical Perspectives on the Kingswood Colliery Drainage Levels’, BIAS Journal 41 (2008), pp. 31–48.
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• LMA, Acc. 2558/CH/1/9, p. 183.
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• The Chester Master coal interests in Kingswood have their origins in the post Civil War division of what was previously a royal chase between the local entrepreneur/gentry. The family’s involvement lasting until the disposal of their interests in the area in 1873 to Handel Cossham’s Kingswood Coal and Iron Company. The boundary between their interests and those of the Duke of Beaufort were defined by the Coombe Brook.
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• Friends of Trooper’s Hill website, <www. troopers_hill.org.uk> (accessed 5 June 2012).
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• Maule’s 1803 Map of the Parish of St George and that part of the Parish of Stapleton called Kingswood held by the Gloucester Archives under GA 2700 QP 12/6/1 shows four engine houses close together in the Blackswarth area between the Fire Engine public house on Two Mile Hill and the river, now the feeder canal.
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• Grudgings, Jarrit Smith, appendix 2.
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• SoG, bishops’ transcripts.
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• Rogers, p. 24.
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• Harris T.R., Arthur Woolf: The Cornish Engineer 1766–1837 (D. Bradford Barton, 1966), pp. 16–17.
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• Barton D.B., The Cornish Beam Engine (D. Bradford Barton, 1969), p. 137.
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• Patent No. 571, 21 October 1740, in the Chancery: Rolls Chapel: Specification of Surrender Rolls held at the TNA Kew under series reference C73. Wise was issued with patent no. 571 on 7 August 1740 (the October date is thought to be the publication date) and lists him as being ‘of Sow, in the county and city of Coventry, engineer’, original not seen.
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• Jenkins R., ‘Joseph Hornblower and the Compound Engine’, TNS xi (1932), pp. 138–55.
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• It would be satisfying but is unlikely. Watt resided in Scotland until 1774 and only made a few fleeting visits south of the border. Wise’s will was proven in 1775 and so he must have died in or before that year.
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