William Jessop

William Jessop (23 January 1745 – 18 November 1814) was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Early life Jessop was born in Devonport, Devon, the son of Josias Jessop, a foreman shipwright in the Naval Dockyard. Josias Jessop was responsible for the repair and maintenance of Rudyerd's Tower, a wooden lighthouse on the Eddystone Rock. He carried out this task for twenty years until 1755, when the lighthouse burnt down. John Smeaton, a leading civil engineer, drew up plans for a new stone lighthouse and Josias became responsible for the overseeing the building work. The two men became close friends, and when Josias died in 1761, two years after the completion of the lighthouse, William Jessop was taken on as a pupil by Smeaton (who also acted as Jessop's guardian), working on various canal schemes in Yorkshire.

Jessop worked as Smeaton's assistant for a number of years before beginning to work as an engineer in his own right. He assisted Smeaton with the Calder and Hebble and the Aire and Calder navigations in Yorkshire.

In his later life, Jessop became increasingly inflicted by a form of paralysis, and 1805 marked the end of his active career. He died at his home, Butterley Hall, on 18 November 1814. His son Josias became a successful engineer in his own right.

Legacy Jessop was in the unusual position of bridging the gap between the canal engineers and the railway engineers who came later. His name did not gain the lasting fame that it deserved because of his modesty. Indeed, some of his works have been wrongly attributed to engineers who acted as his assistants. Unlike some engineers, such as George Stephenson, Jessop did not stoop to undignified wrangles with fellow professionals. He was highly regarded by almost all those who had worked with him or for him.

List of Jessop's engineering projects the Aire and Calder Navigation the Calder and Hebble Navigation (1758–1770) the Caledonian Canal the Ripon Canal (1767) the Chester Canal (May 1778) as a contractor with James Pinkerton the Leicester Navigation (1791–1794) the Barnsley Canal (1792–1802) the Grand Canal of Ireland between the River Shannon and Dublin (1773–1805) the Grand Junction Canal (1793–1805), later part of the Grand Union Canal the Cromford Canal, Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire the Nottingham Canal (1792–1796) the River Trent Navigation the Grantham Canal (1793–1797), the first English canal entirely dependent on reservoirs for its water supply Engineer of the Ellesmere Canal (1793–1805), detailed design undertaken by Thomas Telford) the Rochdale Canal (1794–1798) the Sleaford Navigation (1794) the West India Docks and Isle of Dogs canal, London (1800–1802); John Rennie was a consultant on the Docks project the Surrey Iron Railway, linking Wandsworth and Croydon (1801–1802), arguably the world's first public railway—albeit horse-drawn the 'Floating Harbour' in Bristol (1804–1809) the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway (1807–1812; the first railway in Scotland authorised by Act of Parliament) harbours at Shoreham-by-Sea and Littlehampton, West Sussex