Telford, THOMAS, engineer, was born in Westerkirk parish, Eskdale, Dumfries-shire, on 9th August 1757, the son of a shepherd; and during the intervals of his attendance at school young Telford or Telfer (so he was registered) followed the same calling, diligently employing his leisure moments in the perusal of whatever books were within his reach. At fourteen he learned the trade of a stone-mason at Langholm. In 1780 he removed to Edinburgh, and in 1782 to London, obtaining employment under Sir William Chambers on the erection of Somerset House. In 1784 he was appointed to superintend the erection of the resident commissioner's house at Portsmouth dockyard, a work which afforded Telford the opportunity of mastering the details of construction of docks, wharf-walls, &c. In 1787 he was appointed surveyor of public works for Shropshire; and his two bridges over the Severn at Montford and Buildwas gained for him the planning and superintendence of the Ellesmere Canal, to connect the navigation of the Severn, Dee, and Mersey (1793-1805). In 1790 he was appointed by the British Fishery Society to inspect their harbours; and in 1801 he received a commission from government to report on the public works required for Scotland. As a consequence the construction of the Caledonian Canal (q.v.) was entrusted to Telford, who also executed more than 1000 miles of road in the Highlands, Lanarkshire, and Dumfriesshire, and about 1200 bridges, besides churches, manses, harbours, &c. His next great work was the road from London to Holyhead, including the erection of the
Menai Suspension Bridge (see BRIDGE), and the last was the St Katharine's Docks (1826-28) in London. Among other works by him are, of bridges, the Conway, the Broomielaw at Glasgow (1833-36), and the Dean in Edinburgh (1831); of canals, the Macclesfield, the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction, the Gloucester and Berkeley, the Weaver system, the great tunnel (1¾ miles long) on the Trent and Mersey; of harbours, Wick, Dundee, Peterhead, Banff, Fraserburgh, Fortrose, Cullen, Kirkwall, and Aberdeen. He was the first president of the Institute of Engineers; he supplied the nucleus of a library, and left towards it its first bequest of £2000. By Southey he was termed 'the Colossus of Roads' and 'Pontifex Maximus.' He died at Westminster, 2d September 1834.
See Life by himself (1838), which contains some specimens of Telford's homely poetry in its appendix, with its accompanying folio atlas of plans; and Smiles's Lives of the Engineers (vol. ii. 1861).