TELFORD, Thomas (1757-1834). Engineer.
Autograph Letter Signed ('Thomas Telford') to Rowland Hunt, Chairman of the Ellesmere Canal Company, 2 pages 4to with integral address-leaf, Shrewsbury, 16 October 1795. A good technical letter concerning work on the Ellesmere canal, and giving an account of the revenues earned by the the passenger packet boat for the past three and a half months.

'I here inclose you a letter which Mr. Turner¹ sent to Ellesmere by Mr Potts², and which it is proper that you should have in your possession, as he may perhaps refer to it at the general meeting.
 'I am going over to Chester in the beginning of the Week, after which I shall be able to give you a more particular statement of the earnings of the Boat, in the meantime I have here sent you an abstract or the amount of each Month.

Rec.d in - July	103..11-3
August	119..3.2
Septr.	109..16.10
Octr. 13th	40..9.5
	______________
	£373..0.8
	______________
Paid on acct. of working the Boat	56..16.2
	______________

 'I shall likewise be able to state to you what heavy goods have been carried upon that part of the Canal - and we shall very soon be able to lock down into the Mersey. Mr Fletcher ³ is indefatigable. John Telford [a distant kinsman] and him have taken every possible pains to sett that part of the Canal agoing.
 'I shall say nothing further relative to the ?G....ylt business, as I understand that Mr Kynaston² was to see you'

The Ellesmere Canal, intended to link the Rivers Severn, Mersey and Dee, was one of the greatest engineering undertakings of its day. The Company was founded on 10 September 1792, and at the inaugural meeting almost a million pounds was raised from shareholders. Rowland Hunt was elected chairman, and it was he who was to give a memorable address (later published) at the opening of the immense Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on 26 November 1805.

Although the engineer William Jessop was officially appointed as engineer to the Ellesmere Canal, and Telford given the designation 'General Agent, Surveyor, Engineer, Architect and Overlooker of the Works and Clerk to this Committee', the latter gradually assumed a larger role and the elder engineer rather faded from the picture, so much so that Hunt, in his inaugural oration for the aqueduct, was able to praise Telford 'who, with the advice and judgment of our eminent and much respected Engineer, Mr. Jessop, invented, and with unabating dilligence carried the whole into execution', adding that Telford 'constructed the wonderful Edifice that supported us'.

The first part of the Ellesmere Canal to be opened, in the year of this letter, 1795, was the relatively straightforward, in engineering terms, section from Ellesmere Port (originally Netherpool) and Chester, known as the Wirral Line. Telford had designed the two packet boats that immediately plied successfully on this section.
________________
(1) William Turner of Whitchurch, who had made an early survey of the canal line, and who drew up the initials plans for the Pontcysyllte aqueduct.
(2) Potts had prepared the materials for the Act of Parliament
(3) Probably J. Fletcher, engineer of the Chester Canal.
(4) Probably John Kynaston (later John Kynaston Powell), MP.
[No: 26620]