James Brindley's friendship with Josiah Wedgwood

Brindley's friendship with Josiah Wedgwood

Brindley had a workshop in Burslem, Staffordshire, which brought him into frequent contact with John and Thomas Wedgwood and their more famous nephew Josiah, already an influential master-potter and campaigner for better transport. Josiah's biographer comments upon the intimate and friendly relationship that sprang up between the Wedgwoods and Brindley, while Josiah's own letters frequently refer to the engineer's ability and integrity. Wedgwood wrote in 1767: 'I am afraid Mr Brindley will do much and leave us us before his vast designs are over. He is so incessantly harassed on all sides, that he hath no rest for his mind or body'. It was Wedgwood who introduced Brindley to the eminent physician Dr Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin.

After Brindley's death Erasmus Darwin wrote:

So with strong arm immortal Brindley leads
His long canals and parts the velvet meads;
Winding in lucid lines, the watery mass
Minds the firm rock, or loads the deep morass;
While rising locks a thousand hills alarm,
Flings o'er a thousand streams its silver arm;
Feeds the long vales, the nodding woodland laves,
And plenty, arts and commerce freight the waves.

Nymphs, who erstwhile on Brindley's early bier,
On snow-white bosoms shed the incessant tear;
Adorn his tomb! oh! raise the marble bust,
Proclaim his honours and protect his dust!
With urns inverted around the sacred shrine,
Their ozier wreaths let weeping naiads twine;
While on the top mechanic Genius stands,
Counts the fleet waves and balances the sands.

Josiah Wedgwood: a contemporary engraved illustration.

Josiah Wedgwood:
contemporary engraved illustration

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