Josias Jessop was a canal engineer, and second son of William Jessop, one of the great canal engineers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
17 Facts About Josias Jessop
1.
2.
Josias Jessop was trained by his father, and worked under him on his early projects, but proved his abilities during the construction of Bristol harbour.
3.
Josias Jessop died fourteen years later, a little before he reached the age of 45.
4.
Josias Jessop's father ensured that Jessop was well trained in the career that he knew well, and they worked together on several schemes, with the father supervising the son.
5.
Josias Jessop failed to raise the full capital required to build the line, and so the Jessops revised the plans to cover the 9 miles from Croydon to Merstham.
6.
Josias Jessop was responsible for setting out the line, and its levels were checked by George Leather as the trackwork proceeded.
7.
Josias Jessop was required to be there full-time, although he was still officially "under the direction of his father".
8.
The younger Josias Jessop was solely responsible for the design of the Prince's Bridge, a swing bridge over the entrance to the harbour.
9.
Josias Jessop continued to work for Bristol Harbour until late 1810, overseeing various jobs, including the purchase of a steam dredger.
10.
The existing section became known as the Eastern Branch, and Josias Jessop surveyed a 7.5-mile extension with 6 locks, which ran from Garthmyl to Newtown.
11.
Josias Jessop's plans were accepted in July 1814, but there were delays in obtaining an Act of Parliament, as a result of opposition to the plans.
12.
However, an Act was obtained in 1815, and Josias Jessop oversaw the project between then and 1819, when construction was completed.
13.
In 1805, Benjamin Outram, the owner of the Butterley Company, died, and the Jessop family moved from Newark to Butterley Hall, so that William Jessop, the younger brother of Josias, could take over as manager of the company.
14.
Since 1794 they had manufactured cast iron plate rails for tramways, but in 1813, experimented with I-section edge rails, and Josias Jessop used these rails on his next project, an 8-mile railway which ran from Mansfield to the Cromford Canal at Pinxton.
15.
Josias Jessop was consulted on harbour works, recommending an extension to the east pier at Newhaven harbour in 1819, which was completed the following year, while is 1823 and 1826 he reported on Plymouth Breakwater, in the first instance jointly with Thomas Telford, George Rennie and John Rennie, and in the second with William Chapman and John Rennie.
16.
Josias Jessop surveyed the route in 1824, and proposed a 33-mile line, which would use a series of steep inclines powered by stationary steam engines to raise the level by 990 feet on the Cromford side, and drop it by 250 feet to reach Whaley Bridge.
17.
Josias Jessop died on 30 September 1826, after a short illness.