Excerpt from The Wilkinsons: Family of
Ironmasters
by Frank Dawson
(a biography in preparation)
....
Two questions emerge, now that a substantial sum of money is
available and a group of Subscribers formally identified to carry the
work forward. If Wilkinson, with Pritchard, conceived the
revolutionary idea of an iron bridge in the first place why did he not
at this stage undertake the iron work of the bridge himself? And was
Abraham Darby, a comparative youngster, capable and confident enough
to cast the huge spans that Pritchard’s design demanded even with
all the experience of the Coalbrookdale Company behind him?
Wilkinson’s position is not difficult to explain. Concurrent
with the bridge planning is the introduction of Watt’s New Steam
Engine and the rapidly expanding demand for iron cylinders and
castings from Wilkinson’s works, in addition to steady government
orders for his guns. He is at full stretch to supply existing demand
for iron products on top of which his brother is about to leave
Bersham for France, increasing his supervisory and management
responsibilities. He is shrewd enough to see that compromise is
required, that his influence must be behind an iron bridge but
that someone else would build it.
The Darbys were the obvious choice. Their works were close to the
proposed site for the bridge and they had generations of experience as
Ironmasters; and there was a tenuous link with them going back more
than twenty years to Isaac’s arrival in the district and his
lease of a Darby furnace. There might even have been an element of
patronage in Wilkinson’s approach to young Abraham the Third
though exactly how he came to be proposed and chosen as the bridge
builder is not recorded.
From the beginning there is evidence of an anxiety in the Darby camp
that the money would not be enough and that they were engaging in
frontier technology the cost of which could not be precisely forecast.
Abraham’s fears are not articulated in so many words in the
minutes but the subscribers are at great trouble to reassure him. Yes,
they concede that if there is opposition to the Act there will be more
expense, and they will defray that cost. Yes, certainly any further
subscriptions received should be paid to the Darbys.(9)
How far the reassurances were successful has to be in doubt as a
consequence of an entry in the Minute Book three months later which is
surprising and irregular. A meeting is recorded as taking place on 22
January 1776 at Abraham Cannadines which is Wilkinson’s Broseley
meeting place.
“It was agreed that a new subscription paper be prepared
with a new preamble setting forth that the several subscribers advance
a proportion of their money subscribed towards obtaining an Act of
Parliament for building a bridge from Benthall to Madeley Wood at the
place first agreed. It was likewise agreed that no opposition or
intention of an opposition was or is intended to be made to the
erecting a bridge over the Severn at the Sheepwash by any of the
proprietors of the intended bridge from Benthall to Madeley Wood.”
(10)
No list of persons present is given. The minute is not signed. There
are no other minutes. Moreover the handwriting of the first long
sentence looks suspiciously like John Wilkinson’s flowing well
formed hand. The handwriting of the remainder is clearly by someone
else.
What is happening here? A new subscription paper called for,
allocating only a proportion of the money already subscribed
to the original bridge; and another bridge proposed lower down the
river, to which no opposition or intention of an opposition was or
is intended, by the Subscribers presumably?? It can only be
designed to put pressure on someone, but whom? And who exactly is
applying the pressure? Are the Subscribers now split?
The next two meetings make things a little clearer and provide
further evidence that Abraham Darby continues to be worried about
costs. On 25 April 1776 they discuss ways of limiting the competition
to the bridge in the form of boats and ferries; and in the important
meeting of 15 May 1776 a further charge on the Proprietors is agreed
to repair approach roads though this had been specifically included in
Abraham Darby’s overall responsibility when he was given the
money more than six months previously. But that is not all. Two
further minutes come as a shock.
“It was agreed to rescind minutes entered into with Mr
Darby for erecting an Iron bridge over the Severn between Benthall
and Madeley the 17th October 1775”
and,
“Agreed that an advertisement be inserted in the next
Birmingham and Shrewsbury newspapers to be continued three times,
that any person willing to undertake the building of the intended
bridge from Benthall to Madeley Wood, one arch 120 feet span, the
superstructure 18 feet in the clear and the centre 35feet above low
water, the proposals to be sent to Thomas Addenbrooke before the
20th June next.”(11)
Abraham Darby clearly wishes to be free of his commitment to build
an iron bridge and the committee agree to release him. At the same
time they choose to go ahead with a bridge as planned and to the
original specifications but since iron is not mentioned they seem
prepared to consider a conventional design. There is a further
development at the next meeting on 28 July 1776. Presumably no
satisfactory tenders have been received by the deadline of 20 June and
there have been further discussions resulting in a modified plan for
the bridge again produced by Pritchard(12). This plan has
not survived. How far it differed from his original is not known, but
the committee now agree
“…that advertisements be inserted in the Birmingham
and Shrewsbury newspapers for persons to undertake the stone and
brickwork…”(13)
There is now a ten week gap in the record. It would be invaluable to
know how the decisions and dealings of the committee up to this point
affected the relationship between John Wilkinson and Abraham Darby
III. They were so far the only Ironmasters involved with the resources
to erect an iron bridge. It is also important to remember that Abraham
Darby III was only twenty-five years old, not yet fully come into his
powers, not yet confident perhaps to treat with a man like John
Wilkinson, forty-eight years old, a shrewd businessman and a very
experienced Ironmaster. It may be that the later appearance of Richard
Reynolds on the committee of subscribers was a studied move on the
Darby side to support young Abraham. Reynolds had earlier been totally
responsible for the Coalbrookdale Company and was a highly respected
figure in the area. He was also an Ironmaster with business knowledge
and experience to match Wilkinson.
It is not difficult to imagine the frustrations surrounding
Wilkinson at this time, urgent in his enthusiasm to see the iron
bridge built, unable to commit more of his energies and resources to
it, determined to see the project through and casting around for a way
to get it started. From what happens next it seems clear that he found
a formula to persuade, perhaps even to compel, Abraham Darby and the
Coalbrookdale Company to undertake the work and to get on with it
quickly.
....
(Footnotes 9-13 refer to the Minute Book of the
intended Bridge between Madeley Wood and Benthall 1775-98,
Shropshire Records & Research, SRR 6001-3689.)
© copyright F. C. Dawson, 1999. All rights
reserved.
To contact Frank Dawson,
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