One of three plaster busts of William Symington made from a post-mortem impression. This bust was brought to Australia by his son William (1802-1867) when he emigrated in 1855 and is now held by Museum Victoria.

William Symington died in London on Tuesday 22nd March 1831 at 44 Burr Street, Lower East Smithfield, the home of his daughter Margaret and her husband Dr. Robert Bowie. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Botolph, Aldgate. According to the London burial register, he was 68 years old but this may not be accurate. [1] He may have been in his 68th year: in his 1824 Petition to Treasury, William Symington said he was born in Leadhills in 1764; a plaque erected to his memory in the Church of St Botolph suggests he was born in October 1763. However, no record of his birth has ever come to light. 

He was buried in an unmarked grave without a gravestone. The long prevailing assumption has been that the remains of William Symington lie where he was interred.  That is not the case. There was a major removal of remains from St. Botolph's churchyard late in the nineteenth century which has since passed from memory and recognition.

HIS DEATH 

At the time of his death, William Symington was destitute and totally dependent on his family for financial support. In 1828 he had moved from Falkirk to London suffering from a “painful and dangerous disease.”  [2] [3] In his final years he had become an invalid and was confined to his bedroom, where he died. The nature of his final illness is unknown.

The "Brief Narrative" which Dr. Robert Bowie published in 1833 to establish William Symington's claim as the originator of steam navigation contains a moving account of his demise: [4]

Mr. Symington’s health had long been in a declining state; and it was evident for weeks, not only to those around him, but even to himself, that his end was fast approaching.  As it drew nigh he exhibited the utmost fortitude and resignation; and even on the last day of his existence he afforded an instance of magnanimity, and goodness of heart, deserving of record. His son-in-law, with whom he resided, was at that time, with three of the family, labouring under a dangerous and malignant fever, and it was dreaded the disease might affect the other inmates of the dwelling. Less mindful of himself than of those who were dear to him, Mr. Symington endeavoured to encourage his daughter to bear up against her calamities, and to look forward with hope to the termination of the malady which was placing the lives of so many of the domestic circle in jeopardy. To his wife and son, who were likewise standing by his bed side, he also attempted to offer consolation. Invoking blessings on all around him, he besought them not to grieve on his account; for that whatever he might formerly have done to benefit others, he was now a useless sufferer and wished to be at rest. Requesting his infant grand-daughter, [5] to whom he was much attached, might be brought to him, his wish was complied with; and taking the child in his arms, he blessed her, and prayed she might be a blessing to her parents, whom he trusted might yet both be long spared to protect her. A few hours afterwards, and on the 22nd of March 1831, he expired, in what might truly have been termed the house of sorrow and severe affliction. Thus died an ingenious and ingenuous man. 

A death mask was arranged and three plaster busts were made from this impression. [6] One of these busts was taken to Australia by his son William in 1855 and is now kept at the Melbourne Museum.

[1] London Metropolitan Archives Register of Burials P69/BOT2/A/016/MS09232/005; London Church of England Burial Register for St. Botolph Without, Aldgate

[2] His submission to the Admiralty, dated 4 March 1828, is addressed from 44 Burr Street, Lower East Smithfield

[3] Rankine, J. and W. H., Biography of William Symington, Civil Engineer; Inventor of Steam Locomotion by Sea and Land. Also, A Brief History of Steam Navigation, with Drawings. A. Johnston, Falkirk 1862

[4] Bowie, Robert, A 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. London 1833

[5] Isabella Bowie, aged four years

[6] Lyon, J. A., Letter to Professor Sir William Thomson 23 November 1890. Glasgow Museum of Transport Symington file 

                                                         THE FUNERAL AND BURIAL

At the time of the burial there was an epidemic of enteric fever (cholera) in the district. [1] Consequently few would venture into the neighbourhood and only four people were present at the burial. Only his son William and two friends of the family, Mr. John Andrew Lyon and his father Robert Lyon attended. [2]  Mr. A. Veasey conducted the service. In 1890, Mr. Lyon described the burial in a letter to Professor Thomson. John Andrew Lyon 1809-1899 was active in a number of social and political reform movements. [3]  Dr. Robert Bowie himself was gravely ill with the fever and was not expected to survive.

On 25th March 1831 William Symington was buried in the south-western corner of the churchyard, at the intersection of Houndsditch and Aldgate High Street, directly opposite the end of the Minories. [4] [5]

William Symington died a pauper and would have been buried in a simple wooden coffin. A lead casket would have been beyond the means of his family.

THE MEMORIAL PLAQUE IN ST. BOTOLPH’S ALDGATE

In 1903 the Lord Mayor of London unveiled a marble tablet inside the church to the memory of William Symington. This sad plaque which commemorates the brilliant engineer and inventor who died in penury is to be found on the vestry wall. [6]

[1] Webster, John, An Essay on The Epidemic Cholera: being an inquiry, into its new, or contagious character; including remarks on the treatment; as likewise, tables of the average rate of disease and mortality, recently occurring in London 1832 page 205 48 deaths from cholera were reported in London in 1831, eight before March

[2] Lyon, J. A., Letter to Professor Sir William Thomson 23 November 1890. Glasgow Museum of Transport Symington file

[3] Obituaries for John Andrew Lyon South London Press 2 December 1899 page 5 and South London Mail 9 December 1899 page 7

[4] Lyon, J. A., Letter to Professor Sir William Thomson 23 November 1890. Glasgow Museum of Transport Symington file. See Appendix below for a transcription.

[5] Letter from David Hill, 19 Eton Place, Hillhead, Glasgow to Robert Rankine Esqr. Melbourne dated 28 February 1913

[6] Johnson, Malcolm, Outside The Gate St. Botolph’s and Aldgate 950-1994, Stepney Books 1994 page 91

NEWSPAPER REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON

There is a disappointing dearth of death entries for William Symington in the newspapers of the day. His death was not reported in the London Times. However, the following entry was published in several papers: "On the 22d ultimo, at 44, Burr-street, William Symington, civil engineer, a native of Leadhills, Scotland, and the first who successfully propelled vessels by stream." [1] [2] [3] 

A memorial service was held at St. Botolph’s church to commemorate the centenary of the death of William Symington and in the report in The Times on Monday March 23, 1931 he is described as the “father of marine engineering.” It was observed however that he had died in poverty and that he was buried “in some unknown spot in the churchyard.” [4] This article was headed “SYMINGTON’S BURIAL PLACE” yet those attending the service were totally unaware that his remains had been removed from the graveyard at St. Botolph’s nearly forty years earlier. The memorial service at St. Botolph's was conducted by the vicar, Rev. J.F. Marr on 22 March, with wreaths placed under the Symington plaque in the vestry.

The burial register at St. Botolph’s reveals only that William Symington was buried on the 25th March, 1831 and that he was 68 years of age, and a resident of Burr Street. [5]  There was no monument to his memory in the churchyard. [6]

[1] Morning Herald (London) 7 April 1831, page 4

[2] English Chronicle and Whitechapel Evening Post 7 April 1831 page 3

[3] Western Times (Devon) Saturday 16 April 1831 page 2

[4] The Times, Monday, Mar 23, 1931; Issue 45778; page 8 col E 

[5] London Metropolitan Archives St. Botolph Aldgate, Register of Burials, 1829-1847

[6] Letter from J. Edwin Jones, clergyman of the parish, dated December 8th, 1887 and published in the Falkirk Herald Wednesday 6 June 1888 page 4

REBURIAL

In his 1862 Biography of William Symington, John Rankine observes: "His mortal remains rest in the churchyard of St Botolph, Aldgate, London, so that he owes not even a grave to the land of his nativity." Three decades later, his remains were removed from the churchyard.

The church and churchyard of the Parish of St. Botolph-without-Aldgate dates back to the 14th Century. Burials in the churchyard were discontinued in 1853. 

Sixty years after William Symington was buried in the churchyard, the corner of the graveyard where he was buried was cleared of all remains to allow for roadwork. The crypts under St. Botolph’s were also cleared.

In 1966 here was a major transfer of remains from the churchyard of St. Botolph’s to the Greater London Cemetery. [1] This transfer was to allow for widening of the roadway on the Northern boundary of the churchyard and a memorial at that Cemetery acknowledges the reinterment. 

However there had been a long forgotten earlier transfer of remains.

Changes to the St. Botolph’s churchyard had to be approved by the Bishop of London. The documents recording these changes, known as faculty papers, are held with the Church Register in the London Metropolitan Archives. A faculty for 1890 allowed for part of the churchyard to be used for road widening [2] and this was followed in 1891 by a faculty which allowed for the conversion of the churchyard into a public garden and for the removal of remains. [3]

Little further attention has since been directed to the whereabouts of the final resting place of William Symington or to marking his grave with an appropriate memorial.

THE FINAL INTERMENT

Applications for a faculty to remove bones and coffins from St. Botolph’s are detailed in the proceedings of the Consistory Court of London which were published in considerable detail in The Times and summarised in an Editorial published on 21 November, 1891. [4] These reports reveal the ultimate fate of the remains of William Symington.

The corner of the churchyard where William Symington was interred had to be excavated to widen the Houndsditch on the grounds that the thoroughfare was too narrow and unsafe. The remains were transferred in boxes and were stored for a while under the church in the North crypt.

The transfer and fate of these remains is recorded in the proceedings of the Consistory Court of London [5] and reported in The Times:

On August 20th 1890, the Court authorised alterations to the churchyard to enable widening of the adjoining roadway. [6] A strip of land from the West side of the churchyard, including the South-western corner, measuring 261 square yards was to be sold to the Commissioners of Sewers for £3500. [7] The western wall and railings of the churchyard and also the North and South corners were to be set back, along with the iron gates leading from the churchyard leading into the Aldgate High Street.

Colonel Josiah Harris objected in person to the transfer of remains. He objected to the desecration of the churchyard where his relatives were buried. [8] His grandfather John Harris had been buried in the same part of the churchyard in about 1801. Josiah Harris, a chemical engineer, was baptised at St. Botolph's in 1823 and his father, John James Harris, a watchmaker, was a church warden.

The excavations disclosed a vault containing 40 or more coffins and a very large quantity of buried remains in the loose soil of the churchyard, which filled 123 large chests. Each box measured 4ft. by 1ft 6in. by 1ft. 6 in. internal dimensions and each was estimated to contain the osseous remains of 12 persons.

A faculty was obtained in February 1891 to authorise the deposit of the bones and coffins in the crypts of the church.  The coffins were removed and placed in a crypt on the West side of the church under the tower and the remainder of the bones was deposited in boxes in a crypt under the North aisle.

The Medical Officer of Health for the city of London argued that the remains in the crypts posed a risk to worshippers who could be exposed to potentially dangerous “effluvium” emanating from the remains.

However, a churchwarden, Dr. Cotram, also a medical man, observed that the bones in the crypt were “as clean and dry as any that might be seen in an anatomical museum” and he observed no effluvium whatsoever from them and that the remains were not the least dangerous.

The vicar and church wardens had petitioned in favour of removal of the remains to the City of London Cemetery at Manor Park, Ilford. 

Dr. Tristram, Chancellor of the Diocese of London, was to confer further on the matter with the Bishop of London. 

Meanwhile the boxes of bones and the coffins remained in the crypts of St. Botolph’s while awaiting transfer for reburial.

Potential conflict with ecclesiastic law was created when the churchwardens applied direct to the Home Secretary seeking permission to remove the remains from the crypts without a faculty and on sanitary grounds and received the opinion that a faculty from the Consistory Court was not required.

The legality of transfer of remains from consecrated churchyard ground to an outside cemetery was discussed. But practical considerations prevailed.

Ultimately, after much deliberation, the Chancellor accepted that the remains should be removed on sanitary grounds “on medical and other evidence” and decided that the Court had jurisdiction and the authority to order the remains to be removed to a consecrated portion of the Ilford Cemetery. The faculty to remove remains was finally decreed on 20 November, 1891.

The new burial site was to be marked by kerbstones and by a stone indicating the origin of the remains [9] and the Faculty decreed “the said site will be surrounded by a kerbstone and that there should be erected in the centre of the site a monumental stone.”

THE LAST BURIAL PLACE OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON

After some delay, the remains were removed from the crypts of St. Botolph’s and transferred to the Greater London Cemetery where they were reinterred in a mass grave.

These remains had been reshuffled again such that the City of London Cemetery received a total of 369 coffins and boxes from St. Botolph’s on 9th April, 1892. [10]

The remains of William Symington and numerous forgotten parishioners were reinterred in an anonymous grave situated in square 244 of the City of London Cemetery. [11]

Square 244 is located in an unmarked patch of grass on the East side of St Dionisis Road. The OS map reference to the burial site is: Latitude, Longitude:  51.556296,0.049331.

No monument was ever erected.

[1] London Metropolitan Archives St. Botolph’s Aldate Church Records MS 21545/26 

[2] London Metropolitan Archives St. Botolph’s Aldate Church Records Faculty 20 August 1890 Box 23 Number 177 MS 18319/32

[3] London Metropolitan Archives St. Botolph’s Aldate Church Records MS 18319/6 Box 23 Number 194

[4] The Times, November 21, 1891, page 9, column B

[5] Parish Register St. Botolph’s Aldgate

[6] Consistory Court Of London, The Times, Aug 19, 1891; page 6, col A

[7] London Metropolitan Archives St. Botolph’s Aldate Church Records Box 23 number 177 MS 18319/32

[8] Consistory Court of London, The Times, Nov 21, 1891; page 7, col E

[9] The Times Saturday November 21, 1891 page 7

[10] City of London Cemetery Records

[11] Haywood, William, Plan Book of the City of London Cemetery Volume 3 Squares 197 to 307 1856 

This fascinating relic is an early ambrotype of the death bust of William Symington. Comprising a collodion glass plate negative on a dark background, this photographic technique was introduced in 1851. In all probability, his son William Symington (1802-1867) had the picture made before he emigrated in 1855.

BURR STREET, LOWER EAST SMITHFIELD

William Symington died on 22nd March 1831 in the home of his daughter Margaret and her husband Robert Bowie in Burr Street, London.

In the 1830's Dr. Robert Bowie lived at 44 Burr Street, Lower East Smithfield, in the Parish of St Botolph Without, Aldgate, Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Running diagonally in a South-Westerly direction, Burr Street was situated to the East of the Tower of London and St. Katherine's Dock which was constructed in 1827. Immediately to the South of Burr Street was Hoare and Company's Red Lion Brew house, established in the 17th Century. William's local inn may have been the King George, situated at 25 Burr Street, on the Corner of Nightingale Lane.

Robert Bowie was practising from 44 Burr Street as early as 1830 (The World, London, 27 January 1830). Until the early 1840s, Robert and his brother William practised from this address as surgeons and apothecaries. By 1841 Robert Bowie and his family were living at Vallence House, Dagenham. William Symington's widow, Elizabeth, lived with the Bowies until her death in 1844. The Bowies emigrated in 1851.

Appendix

         St. Mary le Strand Bleach Works,

                                        72 Leo street, 

                                     Old Kent Road, 

                                          London, SW

Nov. 23rd 1890

J.A. & W. Lyon

Dear Sir,     

By a paragraph in the “Times” of yesterday I learn that a marble bust of William Symington was unveiled at Edinburgh. By your taking part in the ceremony I conclude you take considerable interest in the life of W. Symington.  I am especially interested in the Bust for the following reasons.  Previous to the death of Mr Symington he lived for several years with his son-in-law Dr Robert Bowie at Burr St. Lower East Smith-field, whose family and ours were constant visitors with each other.  We lived at Clapton but as I was almost daily in town I was very often at Burr St. where I had tea before going home.  My recollection of Mr Symington is of 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; the difficulties he had to contend with, and the many disappointments he had; he when he thought all was going well at Dalswinton Mr Millar gave up all interest in the invention; how the canal proprietors would not allow him to run his steam boat as it would wash away the banks; how Fulton had the boat started to see how it worked; and how he was about the Carron works whilst he, Symington, was getting his machinery made; how when he came to England he was going to or did commence action against Watt for an infringement on his patent condensing engine, but found that the same idea had arisen in both their minds without any knowledge of each other; how when quite a young man he was applied  to try to clear a valuable mine at the Leadhills from water and in which he succeeded where other engineers had failed. Now as to the question of the Bust, in 1830-31 there was in the Wapping district an epidemic fever, which not only carried off many of the inhabitants but nearly all the medical men who practised in their neighbourhood.  Dr. Robert. Bowie and his brother William (his partner) were both ill and not expected to recover.  When Mr Symington died, I should say, of old age, my father or myself called daily at Burr Street to see if we could do anything to help the family in their distress, and my father got a young Scotch Doctor to come and assist in attending to Dr Bowie’s patients.  On Mr Symington’s death, my father learned that there was no likeness of him any where, and he at once procured a modeller who made a plaster cast of Mr Symington before he was placed in his coffin.  For many years we had the plaster Bust; it was lent to one of Mr Symington’s family for some reason or other and to be returned, this has never been done, but now I see of the marble bust it brings the whole matter to my recollection.  I may mention that in consequence of the epidemic hardly anyone would go into the neighbourhood of Burr St, and the only persons who attended at the burial were his son W. Symington, my Father, and myself.  Mr Symington was buried in Aldgate Church yard, in a corner just opposite the end of the Minories, and I think there was a small tablet placed on the side wall of the first house in Aldgate, but I am not quite sure – When Dr Bowie went to Australia we lost sight of him and all the family.  I cannot trace thro’ whom the relationship of Mrs Dickie exists. 

Yours faithfully 

J.A. Lyon. (signed)

To Professor Sir William Thomson, Glasgow 

“PLAN A” of St. Botolph Church Aldgate indicating the line of the old frontage to Houndsditch and the High Street at the south-west corner of the churchyard

Plan A of the churchyard is contained in a petition dated 14 February 1890 from the vicar, Rev. Hadden and church warden to Dr. Tristram, Principal Officer of the Consistory Court of London with a proposal to sell part of the Burial Ground of St. Botolph’s Aldgate. London Metropolitan Archives St. Botolph’s Aldgate Church Records Box 23, Number 194 MS18319/6

Plan of the Crypt of St. Botolphs’s March 1891

The remains of William Symington were contained within the 123 boxes of bones stacked in the north-western corner of the Crypt

London Metropolitan Archives St. Botolph’s Aldgate Church Records Box 23, Number 199 MS18319/6