William Symington 1764-1831

I have prepared this site in recognition of the contribution of the steamboat pioneer William Symington, my four times great grandfather. My line of descent is from his eldest son, James Symington 1789-1862.  Considered by many to be the "inventor of the steam-boat" it is more appropriate to recognise William Symington as the individual responsible for the first effective steam boat, the paddle steamer Charlotte Dundas of 1803. Furthermore, he was the first to demonstrate working examples of steam powered transport on both land and water.

Much of this material included here is unpublished and has been drawn from documents prepared by William Symington himself and from other primary sources not previously explored.

Any inquiries or feedback would be most welcome. My best contact is via email: graemesymington@bigpond.com

In March 1803 William Symington made a triumphant public demonstration of the first effective steamboat, the Charlotte Dundas on the Forth and Clyde Canal. For his seminal role in the introduction of steam navigation alone, William Symington deserves to be remembered in the ranks of the great Scottish engineers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. After years of experimentation, he produced the first effective steam tug, the Charlotte Dundas of 1803 but sadly he received little recognition in his lifetime. His first experiments at Dalswinton in 1788 took place during a remarkable time in world history: George III was king; Robert Burns was a tenant farmer at Dalswinton; the year 1788 marked the birth of Byron, the prelude to the French revolution, the disappearance of La Perouse and the landing of the first fleet at Sydney Cove.

The first commercial steamboat was Robert Fulton's Clermont of 1807. Fulton had closely examined William Symington's steamboat and had borrowed on his ideas. Henry Bell introduced his passenger steamship in 1811. Bell had the opportunity to examine the Charlotte Dundas when her machinery was being fitted near the Carron Ironworks.

The first biography of William Symington was produced by his son-in-law Dr. Robert Bowie, husband of his second daughter Margaret. In 1833, Bowie published his "BRIEF NARRATIVE, Proving the Right of the Late William Symington, Civil Engineer, to be considered the Inventor of Steam Land Carriage Locomotion; and also the Inventor and Introducer of Steam Navigation." 

John Rankine 1812-1870, the son of William Symington's eldest daughter Elizabeth, published his Biography of William Symington in 1862. This work was serialised in the Falkirk Herald.

William Symington's life and work has been thoroughly researched by the late Bill Harvey and Geoff Downs-Rose who published their definitive biography, William Symington Inventor and Engine builder in 1980. This elegant and scholarly work captures the essence of the man and his work and there are but few inaccuracies. However, there are some significant omissions which I intend to rectify in this dissertation. There had been contradictory accounts of William Symington's steamboat experiments which Harvey and Downs-Rose resolved through their careful research. Details of William Symington's family however were quite sketchy. I had alerted Bill Harvey to the existence of James, William Symington's first and illegitimate son, who had been overlooked by previous biographers. Another son, John, died in childhood and had been totally forgotten. 

William Symington's son William 1802-1867 emigrated to Australia in 1855 and settled in country Victoria. He brought with him some important relics, including a model of the paddle steamboat Charlotte Dundas, an extract of his father's 1801 patent and a series of drawings, prepared in 1828, which illustrate his steamboat experiments and also several other inventions which are less well known. It had been an enormous pleasure to discover these long-forgotten drawings which I have since donated to Museum Victoria for preservation and safekeeping. Some of these drawings are reproduced in the biography by Harvey and Downs-Rose. I shall reveal these and other drawings here, along with certain other important artefacts which were held by Symington descendants.

William Symington prepared a Petition and a Memorial which were submitted to Treasury in 1826. The Petition was illustrated by sketches relating to his steamboat experiments. Dr. Bowie wrote that those drawings could not be retrieved. However, following clues within Dr. Bowie's Brief Narrative, I was delighted to be the first to locate and retrieve the Treasury Petition and those key drawings which had been sequestered so long ago within the National Archives in London. The evolution of William Symington's concepts of steamboat design and construction, from his first experiment at Dalswinton in 1788, to the triumphant demonstration of the paddle steamer Charlotte Dundas in March 1803, can be traced through these original drawings.

My interest in William Symington began when I was quite a young boy. My grandmother took me to the old Melbourne Museum which was then situated within the State Library building in Swanston Street. To a small child, the Museum in the 1950's was a wondrous place, full of marvellous things - animals of the jungle, exquisite dioramas and the exotic- a sawfish and a fowl with extraordinarily long tail feathers come to mind.  Not far from the entry was a glass case which contained a model of the Charlotte Dundas, painted black, attended by the ghostly plaster bust of my ancestor. Suspended overhead from the ceiling in the same section of the Museum was the flimsy skeletal frame of an ancient biplane, devoid of the fabric which had covered its wings. This relic of early aviation was the first powered aircraft to be built and flown in Australia (J.R. Duigan 1910). These fascinating and unique items were on public display in an age when the relics themselves were enough to arouse interest through their intrinsic value. These days, museums have a different philosophy: the public must be guided and educated by some theme or other, with the individual objects forming a part of that narrative, otherwise they are consigned to the store-room. This has been the sad fate of the Symington relics and the Duigan biplane. [1] 

My interest was re-kindled in 1976 when I met Nancy Symington at Bacchus Marsh, a sleepy town in country Victoria. Nancy was William Symington's great grand-daughter, descended from his son William and the sole survivor of an extensive sibship. A.E. Creelman, an amateur historian, was my patient in the neurology ward at the Austin Hospital at the time and he brought it to my attention that Miss Symington was his neighbour in Standfield Street. He lived across the road from her.  At the time, I had very little knowledge of my family history and wished to confirm my ancestral linkage with William Symington. I arranged to meet her through Mr. Creelman and was well received by this kindly lady who was then advanced in years. Nancy was a slight figure, reserved and quietly spoken, but well informed. She had a wealth of material about her family and I was able to copy many of her photographs, which are reproduced here in the section on family history. She recalled that there were some drawings which been passed down from her grandfather. On a subsequent visit, she produced a parcel of drawings, wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. She unwrapped the parcel on her kitchen table. To my astonishment, an exquisite coloured drawing of the Charlotte Dundas was revealed, along with a number of other drawings, including plans for a mine engine at Wanlockhead from James Watt which was dated June 1785.

The following year I would further my studies in neurology in London and was appointed as a Neurology Registrar at the National Hospital, Queen Square, where I had the opportunity to search the National Archives for William Symington's long lost submission to Treasury.

This review is divided into two sections: one relating primarily to William Symington's inventions and steamboat experiments, and the other to his family history which had not been well documented and recorded.

BIOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW

William Symington was born in 1764 at Leadhills, a remote mining village high in the bleak Lowther Hills of Southern Lanarkshire. An imposing obelisk stands in his memory on a rise overlooking the village. His father, John Symington, was a mechanic who worked on the mines at Leadhills. William learned his craft as an engineer at Wanlockhead, under the guidance his elder brother George, a mechanic who worked on the massive pumping engines on the lead mines. In 1786 William and George produced a working model steam carriage and in 1787 he took out his first patent for "A Steam Engine, on Principles Entirely New." He was then employed by the Wanlockhead Mining Company, managed by Gilbert Meason who became his mentor. In the summer of 1786, under Meason's guidance, he enrolled in the medical school at Edinburgh University, where he attended professor Black's lectures in chemistry. In the 1790's he was appointed consulting engineer to Carron Company at Falkirk, a position previously held by the illustrious John Smeaton, the designer of the Eddystone lighthouse. In 1791 he erected a pumping engine for James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, for a coal mine on Bruce's Kinnaird Estate. He managed the Kinnaird colliery after Bruce's death in 1794 and lived on the estate until 1802.

William Symington is mostly remembered for his contribution to steam navigation; he designed the machinery for Patrick Miller's experiments with steam propulsion in 1788 and 1789 and from 1800 he conducted experiments for Lord Dundas which resulted in the celebrated paddle steamer the Charlotte Dundas of 1803. To his enduring disappointment, his development work on steam boats was terminated prematurely when the management of the Forth and Clyde canal placed an embargo on further experiments for fear of damage to the banks of the canal. The Duke of Bridgewater had placed an order for eight steam tugs for his canal but his order was rescinded after he died on 8 March 1803. Later in life he would ruminate on this missed opportunity. He spent considerable time and money in attempting to gain recognition and financial reward for his part in developing an effective system of marine propulsion with the steam engine.

From Kinnaird, he moved to Parkhouse in Falkirk and in 1806 to Westquarter, which was then a picturesque estate of some 300 acres, to the east of Falkirk, where he lived until 1808. During that time, he leased a coalfield from William Forbes of Callendar. That venture was not a success. His son John died at Westquarter in 1807. Thereafter he resided somewhere in the Falkirk township.

Seeking financial reward and compensation for his contribution to the introduction of effective steam navigation, in 1822 he submitted a Memorial to the owners of steam packets in Great Britain and in 1824 he prepared a Memorial and a Petition which were submitted to Parliament.

In 1828 he prepared a set of drawings which represent his steamboat experiments and also various other inventions. Most important were his drawing of the "Original Steam Boat" which referred to the vessel tried on Patrick Miller's lake at Dalswinton in 1788, and, most notably, the drawing subtitled "Steam Boat Invented by William Symington Civil Engineer in 1800 and Exemplified by a Series of Experiments in the Forth and Clyde Canal near Carron Iron works in the Years 1801, 2, & 3, under the Patronage of Lord Dundas."

In 1829 he moved to London to live with Dr. Bowie, and died there in 1831.

His first child James was born in Wanlockhead in about 1788, the illegitimate son of Ann Millar. William Symington would marry Elizabeth Benson in about 1793. Her father worked for the Carron Ironworks and is remembered for his poetic reply to Robert Burns who had protested in verse after being turned away when he arrived on a Sunday at Carron, seeking a tour of the ironworks. Their eldest daughter Elizabeth married John Rankine of Bantaskine and her son John Rankine published the 1862 William Symington biography and produced a finely crafted model of the Charlotte Dundas. The second daughter, Margaret, married Dr Robert Bowie who became a vigorous supporter and championed William Symington as the "inventor of steam navigation" in his "Brief Narrative." William Symington junior published extensively to proclaim his father's inventions, notably in the pages of the Mechanics' Magazine. Andrew, the youngest son, a clockmaker, built the model of the Charlotte Dundas which is now held in the Melbourne Museum. William Junior and Andrew inherited their father's creative flair and were responsible for a number of inventions.

PERSONAL

An original portrait reveals him as balding and brown-eyed. The Symington family were keen curlers and as a young man William was a member of the curling societies at Leadhills and Wanlockhead. 

He was a migraine sufferer: in his correspondence with Forbes of Callendar he wrote that he had been incapacitated by severe and protracted headache. Later in life he also suffered from a severe rheumatic condition and there is some evidence that he became alcohol dependent.

A family friend described him in his later years as "a fine thoughtful quiet old gentleman with whom I had many pleasant conversations, mostly with respect to his early inventions and his early life as an engineer." [2]  James Dickson, an engineer in London who had known William Symington for over thirty years, wrote to the Mechanics' Magazine, describing him as "a very clever and intelligent man, and fully capable of what has been said of him." [3]

Although it is well known that William Symington was buried in the churchyard of St Botolph's Aldgate, many years later his remains were re-interred elsewhere, in an unmarked grave. His final burial site has now been ascertained and can be seen in the section on his death and burial.

CONTROVERSY

William Symington had a classmate at Edinburgh University, James Taylor, who introduced him to Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. Taylor's descendants were to claim that Taylor was the originator or "inventor" of steam navigation. 

William Symington's son William and his son-in-law, Dr. Bowie very adequately despatched those false claims by their staunch support in the daily press and, in particular, in their submissions to the Mechanics' Magazine.

In his "Brief Narrative", a work derived from Symington's Memorial which was presented to Treasury,  Dr. Bowie proclaimed William Symington to be "the father of the Steam Navigation of the present day." William Symington's contribution was afforded due recognition by the foremost authority of the day, Bennnet Woodcroft, in his classic 1848 work, "Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation."

STEAMBOAT DESIGN

No working plans for his steamboat experiments survived, but the fine coloured drawing which William Symington produced in 1828 depicts his ultimate concept, exemplified by the paddle steamer Charlotte Dundas. Illustrated by the original sketches which I uncovered, I shall demonstrate the evolution of his concepts of steamboat design, from the original 1788 Dalswinton vessel to the Charlotte Dundas of March 1803.

[1] The Age 8 October 1910, page 13

[2] Glasgow Museum of Transport manuscripts, letter from JA Lyon to Professor Sir William Thomson, November 23, 1890 

[3] Mechanics' Magazine, September 14, 1833, Volume 19, pages 463, 464 

Engraving by Thomas Oldham Barlow R.A., circa 1850, held in the National portrait Gallery, London. 

                       Barlow's Engraving is after a crayon drawing made from life in 1830 by David Octavius Hill R.S.A.

CONTENTS

TIME LINE

A DIRECTORY OF KEY PLACES WITH MAP COORDINATES

SELECT LIST OF REFERENCES

PERSONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHIC NOTES BY BILL HARVEY

1825 SYMINGTON PETITION TO TREASURY

DR. ROBERT BOWIE'S BRIEF NARRATIVE

1841 SYMINGTON TESTIMONIAL PAMPHLET

1841 COMPILATION ON STEAM NAVIGATION BY BOYDEN BOYDEN

1845 LETTERS TO THE FIFE HERALD BY ROBERT RUSSELL

1861 TESTIMONIAL

1862 JOHN RANKINE'S BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON WITH BIOGRAPHIC NOTES ON JOHN RANKINE

EARLY NEWSPAPER REPORTS

LIKENESSES OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON

POST-MORTEM BUSTS

STEVENSON'S BUST

DEATH AND BURIAL

SYMINGTON MEMORIAL AT LEADHILLS

ENROLMENT AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 1786

MODEL STEAM CARRIAGE 1786, WITH NOTES ON EARLY STEAM CARRIAGES IN GREAT BRITAIN

WILLIAM SYMINGTON'S PATENTS
1787 PATENT

1801 PATENT

1802 DEMONSTRATION OF HIS MODEL STEAMBOAT AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION

THE GRANGE COLLIERY

1804 CALLENDAR COLLIERY VENTURE 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH WILLIAM FORBES OF CALLENDAR

1815 WILLIAM SYMINGTON v HENRY BELL

ROBERT WIGHT, FRIEND AND ADVISER

SYMINGTON VERSUS JAMES TAYLOR

1825 PETITION TO H.M. PARLIAMENT

1828 PETITION TO THE ADMIRALTY

NOTES ON SOME EARLY ATTEMPTS AT STEAM NAVIGATION

WILLIAM SYMINGTON'S STEAMBOAT EXPERIMENTS

EXPERIMENTS FOR PATRICK MILLER

THE DALSWINTON STEAMBOAT 1788

EXPERIMENTAL STEAMBOAT 1789

EARLY STEAMBOAT CONCEPTS AND TRIALS

EXPERIMENTS FOR LORD DUNDAS

STEAMBOAT CHARLOTTE DUNDAS 1803

TRIALS OF THE CHARLOTTE DUNDAS

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHARLOTTE DUNDAS

INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED IN BUILDING THE CHARLOTTE DUNDAS

ORIGIN OF THE NAME CHARLOTTE DUNDAS

MODELS OF THE CHARLOTTE DUNDAS

THE DEMISE OF THE STEAMBOAT CHARLOTTE DUNDAS, WITH NOTES ON JOHN AITKEN OF DARROCH

SYMINGTON ENGINES FOR MINES AND OTHER INDUSTRIES

FIRE ENGINES AND ENGINE HOUSES AT LEADHILLS AND WANLOCKHEAD

WATT AND PIRATE ENGINES

JOHN SYMINGTON OF LEADHILLS AND HIS SONS GEORGE AND WILLIAM, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANTIPATHY OF JAMES WATT

OTHER INVENTIONS:

SYMINGTON'S DIVING BELL AND HIS PROPOSAL TO RAISE THE ROYAL GEORGE

SYMINGTON'S CHRONOMETER

BLAST FURNACE

MINE VENTILATION

CURLING

LEADHILLS

WANLOCKHEAD

KINNAIRD AND JAMES BRUCE, WITH NOTES ON CARRONHALL

FALKIRK, PARK HOUSE

FALKIRK, WESTQUARTER

A CATALOGUE OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS AND RELICS

LETTERS FROM WH RANKINE OF FALKIRK, DAVID BELL OF GLASGOW, ROBERT RANKINE OF MELBOURNE AND WILLIAM SYMINGTON OF BACCHUS MARSH

FAMILY

THE ORIGINS OF THE SYMINGTON FAMILY

THE SYMINGTONS OF MONKSHEAD FARM

WILLIAM SYMINGTON'S PARENTS AND NEAR RELATIVES

WILLIAM SYMINGTON'S FATHER, JOHN SYMINGTON OF LEADHILLS, AND ELDER BROTHER GEORGE 

ANN MILLAR AND BETTY BENSON

DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON AND THEIR FAMILIES

WILLIAM SYMINGTON'S CHILDREN 

JAMES SYMINGTON 1788-1862

ELIZABETH SYMINGTON 1794-1846 (AND JOHN RANKINE 1790-1848)

JOHN SYMINGTON 1796-1807

GRIZEL SYMINGTON 1798

MARGARET SYMINGTON 1800-1878 (AND DR. ROBERT BOWIE 1788-1869)

WILLIAM SYMINGTON 1802-1867

ANDREW SYMINGTON 1803-1878

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON'S DESCENDANTS

Many of William Symington's descendants emigrated to Australia. Notably, his son William 1802-1862 emigrated in 1855; descendants of his eldest son James and youngest son Andrew also emigrated. His daughter Margaret emigrated to Melbourne with her husband Dr. Robert Bowie and their children in 1851. Robert Rankine, the only grandchild of William's daughter Elizabeth Symington and John Rankine also settled in Melbourne.

James Symington 1788-1862 was William Symington's first child. Born in Wanlockhead, he was illegitimate. His mother was Ann Miller.  William subsequently married Betty Benson at Falkirk. Their children were: Elizabeth 1794-46, John 1796-1897, Grizel born 1798, Margaret 1800-1878, William 1802-1862 and Andrew 1803-1878. John died in childhood and Grizel also must have died in infancy or in childhood.

THE FAMILY OF JAMES SYMINGTON 1788-1862

James 1788-1862 had eight children:

John Symington born 1817-1888 

Ann Symington 1821-1889

William Symington 1824-1890

Catherine Symington c. 1826-1891 

Margaret Symington born 1827

James Symington c.1828-1908 

Helen Symington 1833-1876 

Agnes Symington  c.1835-1923 

JOHN SYMINGTON 1817-1888, the eldest, was a stonemason in Muirkirk. He married twice and had fifteen children. His family remained in Scotland. Many worked at the coal mines. A number of his descendants became medical practitioners. The most renowned descendant was the eminent pathologist Professor Sir Thomas Symington, a truly great man, who became head of the National Cancer Institute. An avid golfer, he retired to Troon.

ANN SYMINGTON 1821-1889 married William Russell, a carpenter, in 1846. With their four children, they emigrated to Victoria in the Earl Grey in 1856.

WILLIAM SYMINGTON 1824-1890, the second son, emigrated in the Great Australia soon after his father died in 1862. He founded a grazing dynasty on the Mitta River in North-East Victoria. His property Berringa Park was renowned for the quality of its beef cattle.

CATHERINE SYMINGTON 1826-1891 remained in Scotland. She married James Young, carpet weaver, in Kilmarnock where they raised six children. 

MARGARET SYMINGTON was born in Sanquhar in 1827. She appears to have died in infancy or in childhood.  

JAMES SYMINGTON 1828-1908 was the first of the family to emigrate. He worked as a land surveyor and made his fortune on the Beechworth goldfields and acquired considerable property in the Beechworth region. In the early 1870s he became a grazier in North-East Victoria where he settled alongside his brother William and the daughters of his sister Ann Russell.

HELEN SYMINGTON 1833-1825 emigrated in the Earl Grey with her sister Ann. She had a most unfortunate life in the Colony of Victoria.

AGNES SYMINGTON 1833-1923 emigrated to Victoria in the Marco Polo in 1857. She married J.L.H. Darton in Beechworth. She and her husband were teachers. They had eight children, notable among whom were Charlie and Aggie who would inherit the Symington property Berringa Park.

THE FAMILY OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON AND ELISABETH BENSON

ELIZABETH SYMINGTON 1794-1846 married John Rankine of Barns in Falkirk in 1811. Their eldest son John 1812-1870 wrote the 1862 Biography of William Symington and produced a much-acclaimed model of the steamboat Charlotte Dundas.  Her only grandson, Robert Rankine, emigrated to Melbourne. He served in the A.I.F. and was awarded the D.S.O. for his part in the landing at Gallipoli.

JOHN SYMINGTON 1796-1807 died at Westquarter aged eleven.

GRIZEL SYMINGTON Born in Kinnaird in 1798, there is no further record of her. She must have died in infancy or childhood.

MARGARET SYMINGTON 1800-1878 married Robert Bowie, a London general practitioner. They had nine children. In 1851 they emigrated in the Athenian with their children. Dr. Bowie was appointed as Psychiatrist Superintendent at the Yarra Bend lunatic asylum. 

WILLIAM SYMINGTON 1802-1867 emigrated with his family in 1855 in the good ship John Bright. They settled in Bacchus Marsh, on the road to the Ballarat goldfields, where he established a brewery.  His collection of relics forms the basis of much of my discussion.

ANDREW SYMINGTON 1803-1878 was a clockmaker in Kettle, Fifeshire. He had six children and many of his descendants are in Australia. His youngest son James was a watchmaker who was single and died at Oban in 1919. Andrew's eldest son, William 1839-1917, accompanied by four children, emigrated in 1884 with his second wife Isabella Thomson. Sailing in the Bann they settled in New South Wales. Two sons from his first marriage with Helen Adamson, Andrew 1862-1886 and John 1863-1960, also emigrated. John set up a general store at Junee in outback New South Wales. John's son Norman became a specialist in infectious diseases in Sydney.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

NANCY SYMINGTON 1893-1987, great grand-daughter of William and the last surviving grandchild of William Symington 1802-1867 of Bacchus Marsh, allowed me to study her treasure trove of Symington relics. She had preserved an important collection of original drawings by William Symington with some engine plans from James Watt which are now held in the Melbourne Museum. Nancy generously passed on the drawings by William Symington of his steam boat experiments and his various other inventions, which are reproduced here. Photographs of Bacchus Marsh Symingtons and of their residence and Brewery at Hopetoun also came from Nancy. Nancy's great niece DIANA COOKE also kindly provided original documents from William Symington.

SHEILA WALL of Honiton, grand-daughter of Rev. James Symington 1842-1921 of Leadhills, and a descendant of the Symingtons of Monkshead, kindly let me copy family photographs and a rare circular relating to the erection of the Symington monument at Leadhills.

BETTYE WOOTTON, descendant of William Symington's eldest daughter Elizabeth Rankine, allowed me to examine the Rankine model of the Charlotte Dundas and gave me access to various Rankine family documents and artefacts.

JEAN MCCABE and her family most generously enabled me to copy photographs from her extensive collection of photographs of descendants of William Symington 1824-1890 of Berringa Park, Huon Lane and of the family of Peter Symington of Teviotdale, her grandfather. Jean was proud of her Symington ancestry and was a marvellous source of information. Her parents, Peter and Nellie, were first cousins. Jean died in 2003 at the age of ninety. I am grateful to MARIE CHURCHER, Jean's cousin, for pictures of her father DOUG SYMINGTON and his family.

GEOFF. MCLEOD, the youngest son of Margaret McLeod 1892-1978, grand-daughter of William Symington of Berringa Park, kindly let me copy his mother's post card collection which related to her time at Berringa Park. Maggie McLeod's post cards can be found within the section on William Symington 1844-1898.

BILL SIMMONDS of Huon Lane sent me photographs taken by his father of the removal of the goods shed from the old Huon Lane railway station. BERYL INGLES provided views of Huon Lane from the 1920's and photographs of the family of LOUISA THOMAS, post mistress at Huon Lane. JILL HUON of Wangaratta, a descendant of the Huons of Bungoona, most generously provided many pictures of her antecedents, some of which featured early Symingtons who were neighbours at Huon Lane.

Several descendants of Dr. Robert Bowie have generously assisted me in my research. KEN SIM, formerly of Cosgrove, a descendant of Margaret Amelia Bowie, provided photographs of Bowie's wife, Margaret Symington and members of the family of her son William Symington Josef Bowie. I thank ALISON RICHARDSON and BELINDA PETERSON who provided helpful details of the Bowie family tree. KATHLEEN KAVENAGH of Beeac also kindly provided portraits of Bowie descendants.

I am much indebted to Bill Whitehead of Birmingham who very kindly retrieved for me a number of documents in the Boulton and Watt Collection which relate to William Symington and his brother George, including an unpublished Memorial to steam boat owners dated 1822.

Nancy May Symington at her home at 11 Standfield Street, Bacchus Marsh, 1977

Great grand-daughter of William Symington and the last of her generation