1. Benjamin Hick was an English civil and mechanical engineer, art collector and patron whose improvements to the steam engine and invention of scientific tools were held in high esteem by the engineering profession; some of Hick's improvements became public property without claiming the patent rights he was entitled to or without their source being known.
Benjamin Hick was born at Huddersfield, and christened in the Independent, dissenter's chapel at Highfield, his parents moving shortly afterwards to Leeds where he was educated.
Benjamin Hick made steam engines, textile and other machinery; here he was entrusted with the installation of several large steam engines and offered a partnership when his apprenticeship expired.
The offer was declined and Benjamin Hick moved instead to Bolton in 1810 to work for Smalley, Thwaites and Company as manager of Rothwell's Union Foundry on Blackhorse Street.
In July 1820 Benjamin Hick joined other leading industrialists Isaac Dobson, Thomas Hardcastle and Peter Rothwell together with engineer and brother-in-law, Joshua Routledge to form the Bolton Gaslight and Coke Company, providing gas for public buildings, street lamps and industrial lighting.
Benjamin Hick joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in the same year, proposed by Joshua Field, Joseph Farey and James Jones.
Also with Rothwell and the Dobsons, Benjamin Hick was a prominent member of the Black Horse Club, that met "to discuss not only business matters but the most interesting topics affecting that period".
Together with many other leading figures from the Bolton area, including those from the Black Horse Club, Benjamin Hick was a promoter and with Peter Rothwell an original shareholder of the Bolton and Leigh Railway that opened 1 August 1828 with the naming of the locomotive Lancashire Witch by Mrs Hulton, wife of the vilified William Hulton JP, High Sheriff of Lancashire and collier.
In 1837 Benjamin Hick was, among other local figures including Thomas Ridgway, Edward Bolling, John Hargreaves elder and Jr, a member of the Provisional Committee of the Bolton and Preston Railway.
The line opened 22 June 1843 after Benjamin Hick's death, following some problems in its construction, and merged with the North Union Railway Company 10 May 1844.
Locomotives built by Benjamin Hick were of the best quality, Edward Bury considered them "extremely well made" and they were used by the London and Birmingham Railway for the very first scheme of standardisation of parts.
Benjamin Hick Disraeli was a visitor to the Ashworth mills in 1843.
Benjamin Hick was inventor of the self tightening collar, used universally in hydraulic presses.
Benjamin Hick was an accomplished draughtsman and it is stated that he introduced almost a new era of elegance and design for the exterior forms of steam engines and larger works.
Benjamin Hick designed a heating system for Richard Lane's The Oaks, an imposing Ionic villa conceived in 1838, and home of Quaker, Henry Ashworth.
Hick's grandson, Benjamin Hick was architect of changes made to Lane's Exchange and Library, New Market Place about 1871, his grandfather was among the 80 shareholders of all political and religious persuasions.
In 1814 Benjamin Hick married Elizabeth Routledge sister of his companion, Joshua Routledge, an engineer and ironmonger living in Bolton, and former manager for Fenton, Murray and Wood.
Benjamin Hick's father-in-law, William Routledge, was a blacksmith and Wesleyan lay minister at Elvington, a village about 8 miles south-east of York in Yorkshire.
Benjamin Hick had five children, two sons John and Benjamin who he trained as engineers; on 10 April 1833 they set up their own manufactory, B Hick and Sons, at the Soho Foundry, Crook Street, Bolton.
Benjamin Hick was linked by his mother-in-law Hannah Goodyer, nee Schwenck, to the Naval surgeon and novelist William Gilbert, father of William Schwenck Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan, his first daughter from his marriage to Hannah Goodyer was named in a similar fashion; Helen Schwenck Benjamin Hick.
Benjamin Hick was regarded as "one of the most liberal of the provincial patrons of Art", generous in his support of the British school, in particular a friend of Henry Liverseege who painted several works for Hick, and "on terms of intimacy" with many artists.
Benjamin Hick obtained designs for the project, but did not live to see them through.
On 9 September 1842, Benjamin Hick died suddenly at Bolton from a "disease of the heart", age 52.
Benjamin Hick was an affectionate husband, a kind father, and a sincere friend; alike distinguished by eminent ability, and uniform integrity; genius, in whatever art or science displayed, even found in him a liberal patron; Benjamin Hick was benefactor to this town, where his worth will be long appreciated; and his loss deeply deplored.