Born 1745. Died 1814.

This engineer forms the connecting link between the first and second generations of civil engineers in this country. To the former belong Smeaton and Brindley, while the latter are headed by the great names of Telford and Rennie.

The father of Mr. Jessop was engaged under Smeaton in superintending the erection of the Eddystone Lighthouse, and his son William, the subject of this memoir, was born at Plymouth. When he had attained the age of sixteen his father died, leaving the guardianship of his family to Smeaton, who thenceforth adopted William as his pupil, determining to bring him up to his own profession. Young Jessop remained with Smeaton for a period of ten years, enjoying, during this the busiest part of Smeaton's active career, many opportunities of acquiring an extensive knowledge of the business of civil engineering. After leaving the service of Smeaton, Mr. Jessop was engaged for several years in improving the navigation of the rivers Aire and Calder, and of the Calder and Hebble in Yorkshire. He was also employed on the river Trent in Nottinghamshire, and he appears to have been principally occupied on these works for some time subsequent to his leaving Smeaton.

A few years before the retirement of the latter, which took place in 1791, his pupil began to obtain active employment, and we find him about the years 1788 and 1789, reporting on the navigation of the Sussex Ouse, and the drainage of Laughton Level in the same country, being called on, at the same time, by the Commissioners of the Thames and Isis, to advise on the works they had undertaken, and were about to execute, for the improvement of this important navigation.

In the three following years (1790-2) his professional employment greatly increased. He was now actively engaged in prosecuting various important canals in connection with the great central navigation of the Trent. Amongst these were the Cromford Canal, penetrating amongst the mountains of Derbyshire into the rich mineral districts of that wild and romantic country; the Nottingham Canal, which connects the Cromford with the Trent at Nottingham; the Loughborough and Leicester navigation, connecting the Ashby Coalfield with the navigable part of the Soar and with Nottingham, thus opening an important communication with the Trent on the one hand, and with Nottingham and the whole south of England on the other. In addition to this system in connection with the Trent, he projected and commenced at this time the Horncastle navigation, which, besides acting as a valuable drainage for this part of the fens, was productive of great benefit to a large district, by bringing it into communication with the river Witham, which is navigable to the sea in one direction, and in the other through Lincoln to the Trent.

But a larger and more important work than these last named, which Mr. Jessop was at this period engaged on, was the Grand Junction Canal, which, joining the Oxford Canal at Braunston, in Northamptonshire, connects the whole inland navigation with the metropolis, by means of a comparatively direct line ninety miles in length, traced in a diagonal direction across the two formidable ranges of hills peculiar to the secondary formations of England.

This canal communicates with the Thames by its main line at Brentford, and by a branch starting five miles above at Bullbridge, stretching to Paddington, from whence the Regent's Canal proceeds round the north side of London to the Thames at Limehouse, thus completing the connection between the main line and the lower part of the river. The execution of this canal necessitated the construction of many heavy works, consisting of tunnels, deep cuttings, embankments, aqueducts, reservoirs, and weirs. Of these works one of the most famous is the Blisworth Tunnel, 3080 yards in length, cut through the inferior oolite and the shales of the lias. Its internal width is 16½ feet, the depth below the water-line to the inverted arch being 7 feet, while the soffit or crown of the arch is 11 feet above the same line. The cost of this great undertaking, with all its branches and attendant works, amounted to about two millions sterling.

During the execution of this work, Mr. Jessop was also called into Ireland, and was taking an active part in carrying on the public works which had been undertaken by the authority of Parliament in that country.

The year 1793 originated several great projects, in furtherance of which Mr. Jessop's aid was secured. Amongst these were the Grantham Canal, supplied by vast artificial reservoirs, and extending from the river Trent, through a rich pasture district of the new red sandstone, winding for many miles through the broad and fertile vale of Belvoir, up to Grantham at the base of the Lincolnshire hills, the furthest point to which it is possible to penetrate in this direction.

The Barnsley Canal, which opens up an immense amount of mineral wealth in the Yorkshire coalfield, and brings it into communication with the river Calder, and the Dearn and Dove Canal; and finally, the Great Ellesmere Canal, which completes a communication between the Severn and the Mersey, and ramifies in numerous directions amongst the rugged hills and valleys of North Wales.

In the carrying on of this last named undertaking, Mr. Telford was likewise engaged under Mr. Jessop. Two of its most important works are the great aqueducts of Chirk and Pont-y-cysylte, the former of which carries the canal over the river Ceriog, at an elevation of 70 feet, while the latter carries it across the Dee at an elevation of 127 feet. The grand peculiarity in these aqueducts consisted in constructing a water-tight trough of cast iron for carrying the canal across the arches, instead of an immense puddled clay trough, as was the practice until that time in use. The execution and management of the numerous works here mentioned occupied the greater part of Mr. Jessop's time during the next few years. But the commencement of the present century was the signal for another torrent of speculation, which, in addition to canals, began now to be directed towards docks and railroads. The promoters of the first great public dock establishment employed Mr. Jessop to conduct their works, and he had the honour of completing the great project of the West India Docks, with their numerous accompanying details, in a manner which alone entitles him to rank among our most eminent engineers.

On the completion of these docks his professional services were engaged by the citizens of Bristol, to effect a great and comprehensive measure of harbour improvement, designed to place the port of Bristol at once in the foremost position with respect to commercial advantages. This was the conversion of part of the river Avon into an immense floating dock, capable of accommodating 1400 vessels. Mr. Jessop was also at this time occupied in constructing the Surrey iron railways, which consisted of a double tramroad, from the Thames at Wandsworth to the town of Croydon, with an extension from Croydon to Godstone and Merstham; they are principally remarkable as being the first public railroads constructed in the south of England. The whole of these tramroads were afterwards bought and taken up by the Brighton Railway Company. Mr. Jessop was likewise connected with the Caledonian Canal, which he was specially called upon to survey before its commencement, and of which he continued to be the consulting engineer for many years.

In concluding this brief notice of Mr. Jessop's life, it remains only to be said that with him exclusively originated the idea of taking advantage of the immense floods to which certain districts are subject, by storing these waters up for the gradual and regular supply of his canals. In addition to this he shares with Mr. Telford the honour of first using iron in the construction of the troughs of aqueducts, and for the heads, heel-posts and ribs of lock-gates, as adopted on the Caledonian and Ellesmere canals.—Memoir of William Jessop, by Samuel Hughes, C.E.