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1848, August 12th
Died, at Tapton House, Staffordshire, aged 67, Mr. George Stephenson, civil engineer, K.L., F.G.S. - a rare example of the rise of humble virtue, talent, and industry, to the most envied station in society. The deceased was born in a cottage, situated between Wylam and Close House, near Newcastle, on the 9th June, 1781. His father was fireman of the pumping-engine at Wylam colliery, and the boy was sent to the pit at an early age, being employed as a "corf bitter," at the wages of sixpence a-day. When about fourteen years of age, his father removed to the neighbourhood of Walbottle, a little nearer to Newcastle, and the youth soon after became a "brakesman" at Black Callerton colliery. When about eighteen, he was taught by an old schoolmaster to read, write, and cast accounts, and he defrayed the expense of his education by mending the shoes of his fellow-workmen, an occupation in which he became very expert, and to which he afterwards added shoemaking and last making. When in his twenty-first year, he removed to Willington, becoming brakesman upon an incline attached to a ballast wharf; and he then married his first wife, Fanny Henderson, with whom he had become acquainted at Callerton, and by whom he had his only son, the present Mr. Robert Stephenson, M.P., born December 16, 1803. In 1804, he removed to Killingworth, having been engaged as brakesman for the colliery of the Grand Allies, at West Moor. Not long after, he succeeded in discovering and removing a defect in a new steam-engine, which had eluded the skill of all the engineers of the neighbourhood, and his success in bringing the engine into working order was so complete, that he was in a short time entrusted with the entire management of the machinery belonging to the colliery. He was afterwards sent down the mine to see whether be could effect any saving of the labour required to draw the coals from the deeper portion of the workings, and he speedily made such alterations as reduced the number of horses in the pit from one hundred to fifteen or sixteen. From the oft-recurring explosions of gas, of which he was a witness at the colliery, his attention was drawn to the subject during his leisure hours; and at the very time Sir Humphrey Davy was pursuing his investigations, and before that philosopher had come to any determination upon it, Mr. Stephenson discovered, by independent experiments, that explosive mixtures will not pass through small apertures or tubes. His first safety-lamp was made by Mr. Hogg, a tinsmith in Newcastle, and it was tried at Killingworth colliery on the 21st October, 1815 - some days antecedent to Sir Humphrey's earliest announcement of the lamp which bears his name. Both gentlemen, accordingly, had their partisans; Sir Humphrey was feasted in Newcastle and honoured with a magnificent testimonial, and Mr. Stephenson's friends rewarded their protege's exertions by a gift of £1,000, which, with a silver tankard, were presented to him in January, 1818, at a dinner in the Assembly Rooms, at which C. J. Brandling, Esq., presided. Previous to this date, however, he had constructed a LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE*, which was tried for the first time on the 25th July, 1814, and although it is impossible to award him all the praise due to the invention of that wonderful machine, which has revolutionised all former ideas of commercial intercourse, has annihilated distance, and everywhere become the herald of enlightenment and civilization, it cannot be doubted that his improvements in its manufacture have placed his name in immortal connexion with it. His progress thenceforth was rapid : in 1821, he was engaged by the promoters of the Stockton and Darlington Railway to make the surveys for that undertaking; and in 1824 he established an engine manufactory in Newcastle, where, in the following year, the first locomotive was constructed according to the present principle of traction. In 1829, his connection commenced with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and his achievements upon that line over ignorance and prejudice, as well as over the greatest physical obstacles, may be said to belong to the history of the country. With the assistance of his son, he afterwards constructed the London and Birmingham, the Manchester and Leeds, and many other railways, not only in England, but in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and his fame as an engineer is as wide in its extent as it probably will be unlimited in its duration. Mr. Stephenson was to the last a man of plain, unassuming manners, neither ashamed of his humble origin nor forgetful of his early associates; and a few months before his death, in answer to a gentleman who was desirous of knowing what honorary initials he was entitled to use, he replied that many honours had been offered him at home and abroad, which he had declined to accept, and almost the only title which he held, and certainly the one of which he was most proud, was that of "President of the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute." An interesting biography of Mr. Stephenson, by Mr. S. Smiles, was published in 1857, and it contains a very striking portrait of the deceased, engraved by W. Holl, from a full-length picture by Lucas. [In July and August, 1845, the Midland, the York and North Midland, the Newcastle and Darlington, and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway Companies, severally voted the sum of £2,000, to be expended in the purchase of a service of plate for Mr. Stephenson, and in the erection of his statue on the high-level bridge across the Tyne. It is little to the credit of these great companies that their resolutions were never carried out.]
* The first locomotive that I made was at Killingworth colliery, and with Lord Ravensworth's money. That engine was made thirty-two years ago, and we called it 'My Lord.' I said to my friends that there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, provided the works could he made to stand. In this respect great perfection has been reached, and, in consequence, a very high velocity has been attained. In what has been done under my management, the merit is only in part my own. I have been most ably seconded and assisted by my son. In the earlier period of my career, and when he was a little boy, I saw how deficient I was in education, and made up my mind that he should not labour under the same defect, but that I would put him to a good school, and give him a liberal training. I was, however, a poor man ; and how do you think I managed ? I betook myself to mending my neighbours' clocks and watches at nights after my daily labour was done, and thus I procured the means of educating my son. He became my assistant and my companion. He got an appointment as under-viewer, and at nights we worked together at our engineering. I got leave to go from Killingworth to lay down a railway at Hetton, and next to Darlington ; and after that I went to Liverpool to plan a line to Manchester. I there pledged myself to attain a speed of ten miles an hour. I said I had no doubt the locomotive might be made to go much faster, but we had better be moderate at the beginning. The directors said I was quite right, for if, when they went to Parliament, I talked of going at a greater rate than ten miles an hour, I would put a 'cross on the concern.' It was not an easy task for me to keep the engine down to ten miles an hour, but it had to be done, and I did my best. I had to place myself into that most unpleasant of all positions - the witness-box of a Parliamentary committee. Some one inquired if I were a foreigner, and another hinted that I was mad. But I put up with every rebuff, and went on with my plans, determined not to be put down. Assistance gradually increased - improvements were made every day - and to-day, a train, which started from London in the morning, has brought me in the afternoon to my native soil, and enabled me to take my place in this room, and to see around me many happy faces. which I have great pleasure in looking upon. - Mr. Stephenson's Speech in Newcastle, June 18, 1844.
Source: LRLSources
LRL - Local Records by John Latimer. Published in 1857. Provides a "Historical Register of Remarkable Events", ordered by date - continues the work by John Sykes for the period 1832-1857.
LHTB - The Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences Connected with the Counties of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham by M.A. Richardson. Published in eight volumes (five on history, three on legends) in 1844.
