A LIST OF WILLIAM SYMINGTON'S ENGINES FOR MINING AND OTHER INDUSTRIES
The following list is a summary of the engines built for William Symington for use on mines and for other industries in Scotland, England and Jamaica. This list is likely to be incomplete.
From: Dickinson, H. W. & Jenkins, Rhys, James Watt and the Steam Engine 1927 [1]
WANLOCKHEAD
1789
40 inch cylinder for Gilbert Meason (Rennie to Watt, 28 October 1789)
LONDON
1792 (Rennie to Watt 3, 14 January, 7 March 1792)
Walker, Colourman, Coldbath Fields (Charles Walker)
Hare, Brewer (Richard Hare junior, Harford and Co., Brewers; Richard Hare died in 1826 in Walcot, Somerset) [2]
By 1795
Trueman Harford, Brewers at Limehouse
Paper mill at Dockhead
Kent's Directory of London and Westminster, & Borough of Southwark for 1794 contains the following entries:
Harford & Co. Brewers, Fore street, Limehouse
Walker C., Colour Manufactory, 7, Baker’s-row, Coldbath-fields
YORKSHIRE
By 1795
Hunslet, Leeds
From: Harvey and Downs-Rose 1980, Compiled from Carron Company Invoice Books [3]
WANLOCKHEAD
For the Wanlockhead Mining Company:
Bay Mine, also known as the Whytescleuch engine: 1789 ordered; completed September 1790; dismantled 1799
Cylinder 44 inches diameter, 8-foot stroke
Beltongrain engine: erected in 1800. Incorporated the cylinder from the Bay mine and also parts from a Watt engine on the Margaret mine
SANQUHAR
1791
Pumping engine for Robert Barker, Knowhead (or Knowehead) pit (on the Sanquhar Muir, in the hills to the east of the Sanquhar township)
LEADHILLS
1792
Scots Mines Company ordered a Symington pumping engine from Carron for the Humby vein; assembled 1792; dismantled 1796
KINNAIRD
1792 engine ordered for pit Number 10
1796 a winding engine
A winding engine at Cuttyfield (James Bruce's Kinnaird estate)
OTHER PLACES IN SCOTLAND
1793
Alexander Dickie of Crombie Point: a pumping engine at Torryburn, Fifeshire
Colonel Fullarton of Fullarton near Irvine: for his blast furnace
1794
Pumping engine for the colliery at Redding Rig or Redding Muir (south of Westquarter, Falkirk), also 1801 and 1805, consignee Alex. McVey
George Milne of Lochill: [4] rotative engine for his works at St Clement’s Wells near Musselburgh
1796
James Miller of Craigend: rotative engine for his distillery
1797
A second engine for Kinnaird
Robert Bald (mining engineer) Colliery, Alloa
1799
Matthew Sandilands, Couston (parish of Bathgate); also 1800, pumping engines
1803
Mungo Smith (land owner and coal mine proprietor, died 1814) of Drongan, east Ayrshire: ordered a winding engine
1804
Carronhall colliery
1805
James Haig, Sunbury Distillery, Edinburgh (James Haig Junior; he died at Sunbury in 1824)
1806
Matthew Young, Dunmore (North of Falkirk)
James Miller, Callendar colliery, a lifting engine
1808
New Dysart Coal Company, a winding engine
LONDON
1791
Hare’s Brewery, Fore Street, Limehouse
Chas Walker Colour Works, Barbers Row, Coldbath Fields
Parts for those engines were supplied by Carron Company [5]
1793
Hector Campbell, paper maker, Dockhead, London
YORKSHIRE
1793
Coupland and Wilkinson, paper makers and distillers, Leeds
1796
Burrow and Copley, textile merchants, Hunslet, Leeds
JAMAICA
Several engines:
1800
James Mitchell of Moreland Estate, Jamaica, for a sugar mill [6] (James Mitchell died in Richmond, Surrey in 1806)
[1] Page 318
[2] Richard Hare had a phobia of being buried alive. He stipulates in his will that "my body be kept unburied and my coffin uncovered after my death until my colour be so changed that no doubt can exist of the vital spark having become extinct" NA PROB 11/1708/345
[3] Harvey, W.S. and Downs-Rose, G., William Symington, Inventor and Engine Builder. Their list is taken from Carron Company Invoice Books, SRO GD 58/6
[4] George Milne was lessee of St Clement’s Wells Distillery until 1809
[5] SRO GD58/6/22 Invoice to William Symington 6 July 1791
[6] SRO GD58/1/36 Carron to James Mitchell 12 November 1800