Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles: Chapter 5
CHAPTER V. JAMES WATT - LINEAGE AND BIRTHPLACE - BOYHOOD AND APPRENTICESHIP.
James Watt was born at Greenock, on the Clyde, on the 19th of January, 1736. His parents were of the middle class, industrious, intelligent, and religious people, with a character for probity which had descended to them from their "forbears," and was cherished as their proudest inheritance. James Watt was thus emphatically well-born. His father and grandfather both held local offices of trust, and honourable mention is made of them in the records of Greenock. His grandfather, Thomas Watt, was the first of the family who lived in that neighbourhood. He had migrated thither from the county of Aberdeen, where his father was a small farmer in the time of Charles I. It is supposed that he took part with the Covenanters in resisting the Marquis of Montrose in his sudden descent upon Aberdeen at the head of his wild Highlanders in the autumn of 1644; and that the Covenanting farmer was killed in one of the battles that ensued. The district was ravaged by the victorious Royalists; the crops were destroyed, cattle lifted, dwellings burnt and many of the inhabitants fled southwards for refuge in more peaceful districts. Hence Thomas Watt's migration to Cartsdyke, where we find him settled as a teacher of navigation and mathematics, about the middle of the seventeenth century.
Cartsdyke, or Crawfordsdyke, was then a village situated a little to the east of Greenock, though now forming part of it. Crawfordsburn House, still standing, was the residence of the lord of the manor, and is a good specimen of the old-fashioned country mansion. It is beautifully situated on the high ground overlooking the Clyde. In former times a green slope stretched down from it towards the beach, along which lay the village, consisting of about a hundred cottages, mostly thatched. Cartsdyke was, however, in early times, a place of greater importance than Greenock. It had a pier, which Greenock as yet had not; and from this pier the first Clyde ship which crossed the Atlantic sailed for Darien in 1697. What little enterprise existed in the neighbourhood was identified with Cartsdyke rather than with Greenock and hence Thomas Watt's preference for it, in setting up there as a teacher. He, too, like his sire, seems to have been a sturdy Covenanter for we find him, in 1683, refusing to take the test in favour of prelacy, and he was consequently proclaimed to be a "disorderly schoolmaster officiating contrary to law." He nevertheless continued the teaching of the mathematics, in which he seems to have prospered, as, besides marrying a wife, he shortly after bought the house and garden which he occupied, and subsequently added to his possessions a tenement in the neighbouring village of Greenock.
From the nature of his calling, it is obvious that he must have been a thoughtful and intelligent person; [1] and that he was a man of excellent character is clear from the confidence he inspired in those who had the best opportunities of knowing him. When William and Mary were confirmed in their occupancy of the British throne, shortly after the Revolution of 1688, one of the first acts of Mr. Crawford, of Crawfordsburn, the feudal superior, was to appoint Thomas Watt baillie of the barony — a position of local importance, involving the direction of public affairs within the limits of his jurisdiction.
A few years later, the Kirk Session of Greenock, having found him "blameless in life and conversation," appointed him an Elder of the parish, when it became part of his duty to overlook not only the religious observances, but the manners and morals, of the little community. Kirk Sessions did not then confine themselves to ecclesiastical affairs, but assumed the function of magistrates, and almost exercised the powers of an inquisition. One of their most important duties was to provide for the education of the rising generation, in pursuance of the injunction of John Knox, "that no father, of what estate or condition that ever be may be, use his children at his own fantasie, especially in their youthhead; but all must be compelled to bring up their children in learning and virtue," — words which lie at the root of much of Scotland's mental culture, as well as, probably, of its material prosperity. In 1696 the Act was passed by the Scotch Parliament which is usually regarded as the charter of the Scotch parish- school system; and in the following year the Kirk Session of Greenock proceeded to make provision for the establishment of their parish school, which continued until the Town Council superseded it by the Grammar School, at which James Watt, the future engineer, received the best part of his school education.
After holding the offices of Presbytery Elder and Kirk Treasurer for some time, Thomas Watt craved leave to retire into private life. He was seventy years old, and felt infirmities growing upon him. The plea was acknowledged, and the request granted and on his retirement from office the Kirk Session recorded on their minutes that Thomas Watt had been found "diligent and faithful in the management of his trust." He died at the age of 92, and was buried in the old kirk-yard of Greenock, where his tombstone is still to be seen. He is there described as "Professor of Mathematics in Crawfordsdyke." Not far from his grave lie, "mouldering in silent dust," the remains of Burns's Highland Mary, who died while on a visit to a relative at Greenock.
Two sons survived the "Professor," John and James, who were well settled in life when the old man died. John, the elder, was trained by his father in mathematics and surveying; for some time officiating under him as clerk to the barony of Cartsdyke, and afterwards removing to Glasgow, where he began business on his own account. In the year that his father died (1734) he made the first survey of the river Clyde; but he died shortly after, and the map was published by his nephew. James, the engineer's father, was bound apprentice to a carpenter and shipwright at Cartsdyke, and on the expiry of his term he set up business for himself in the same line at Greenock.
About the beginning of the last century, Greenock, now one of the busiest ports in the kingdom, was but a little fishing-village, consisting of a single row of thatched cottages lying parallel with the sandy beach of the Frith of Clyde, in what was then known as "Sir John's little bay." Sir John Shaw was the superior, or lord of the manor, his mansion standing on a height overlooking the town, [2] and commanding an extensive view of the Clyde, from Roseneath to Dumbarton. Across the water lay the beautiful north shore, broken by the long narrow sea-lochs running far away among the Argyleshire hills. Their waters, now plashed by the paddles of innumerable Clyde steamers, were then only disturbed by the passing of an occasional Highland coble; whilst their shores, now fringed with villages, villas, and mansions, were as lonely as Glencoe.
Greenock was in a great measure isolated from other towns by impassable roads. The only route to Greenock, on the west, lay along the beach, and when strong winds raised a high tide the communication was entirely cut off. Greenock was separated from Cartsdyke, on the east, by the Ling Burn, which was crossed by a plank, afterwards supplanted by an old ship's rudder and it was about the middle of the century before a bridge was built across the stream. The other provisions of the place for public service and convenience were of a like rude and primitive character: thus, Greenock could not boast of a public clock until about the middle of the last century, when a town clock was mounted in a wooden steeple. Till then, a dial, still standing, marked the hours when the sun shone, and a bell hung upon a triangle summoned the people to kirk and market. Besides the kirk, however, there was another public building — the Black Hole, or prison, which, like the other houses in the place, was covered with thatch. Before the prison were placed the "jougs," as a terror to evil-doers, as well as a few old pieces of cannon, taken from one of the ships of the Spanish Armada wrecked near Pencores Castle. The Black Hole, the jougs, and the cannon were thought necessary precautions against the occasional visits to which the place was subject from the hungry Highlandmen on the opposite shores of the firth. [3]
The prosperity of Greenock dates from the year 1707, shortly after the Union with England. The British Parliament then granted what the Scottish Parliament had refused — the privilege of constructing a harbour. Before that time there was no pier, — only a rude landing-stage which Sir John Shaw had provided for his barge in the "Little Bay;" but the fishermen's boats and other small craft frequenting the place were beached in the usual primitive way. Vessels of burden requiring to load or unload their cargoes did so at the pier at Cartsdyke above referred to. When the necessary powers were granted to make a harbour at Greenock, the inhabitants proceeded to tax themselves to provide the necessary means, paying a shilling and fourpence for every sack of malt brewed into ale within the barony; ale, not whisky, being then the popular drink of Scotland. The devotion of the townspeople to their "yill caups" must have been considerable, as the harbour was finished and opened in 1710, and in thirty years the principal debt was paid off.
In course of time Greenock was made a custom-house port, and its trade rapidly increased. The first solitary vessel, freighted with Glasgow merchandise for the American colonies, sailed from the new harbour in 1719 and now the custom-house dues collected there amount to more than six times the whole revenue of Scotland in the time of the Stuarts.
Here James Watt, son of the Cartsdyke teacher of mathematics, and father of the engineer, began business about the year 1730. His occupation was of a very miscellaneous character, and embraced most branches of carpentry. He was a housewright, shipwright, carpenter, and undertaker, as well as a builder and contractor, having in the course of his life enlarged the western front of Sir John Shaw's mansion-house, and designed and built the Town-hall and Council-chambers. To these various occupations Mr. Watt added that of a general merchant. He supplied the ships frequenting the port with articles of merchandise as well as with ships' stores. He also engaged in foreign mercantile ventures, and held shares in several ships.
Three months after the death of his father, to a share of whose property he succeeded, Mr. Watt purchased a house on the Mid-Quay Head, at the lower end of William-street, with a piece of ground belonging to it, which extended to the beach. On this piece of ground stood Watt's carpenter's shop, in which a great deal of miscellaneous work was executed — household furniture and ships' fitting's, chairs, tables, coffins, and capstans, as well as the ordinary sorts of joinery; while from his stores he was ready to supply blocks, pumps, gun-carriages, dead-eyes, and other articles used on board ship. He was ready to "touch" ships' compasses, and to adjust and repair nautical instruments generally while on an emergency he could make a crane for harbour uses — the first in Greenock having been executed in his shops, and erected on the pier for the convenience of the Virginia tobacco-ships beginning to frequent the harbour. These multifarious occupations were necessitated by the smallness of the place, the business of a single calling being as yet too limited to yield a competency to an enterprising man, or sufficient scope for his powers.
Being a person of substance and respectability, Mr. Watt was elected by his fellow townsmen to fill various public offices, such as trustee for the burgh fund, town councillor, treasurer, and afterwards baillie or chief magistrate. He also added to his comfort as well as to his dignity by marrying a wife of character, Agnes Muirhead, a woman esteemed by her neighbours for her graces of person, as well as of mind and heart. She is said to have been not less distinguished for her sound sense and good manners than for her cheerful temper and excellent housewifery. [4] Such was the mother of James Watt. Three of her five children died in childhood; John, her fifth son, perished at sea when on a voyage to America in one of his father's ships; and James, the fourth of the family, remained her only surviving child. He was born in the house which stood at the corner between the present Dalrymple-street and William-street, since taken down and replaced by the building now known as the "James Watt Tavern."
From his earliest years James Watt was of an extremely fragile constitution, requiring the tenderest nurture. Struggling as it were for life all through his childhood, he acquired an almost feminine delicacy and sensitiveness, which made him shrink from the rough play of robust children and hence, during his early years, his education was entirely conducted at home. His mother taught him reading, and his father a little writing and arithmetic. His mother, to amuse him, encouraged him to draw with a pencil on paper, or with chalk upon the floor; and his father supplied him with a few tools from the carpenter's shop, which he soon learnt to handle with expertness. In such occupations he found the best resource against ennui. He took his toys to pieces, and out of the parts ingeniously constructed new ones. The mechanical dexterity which he thus cultivated even as a child was probably in a great measure the foundation upon which be built the speculations to which he owes his glory; nor, without his early mechanical training, is there reason to believe that he would afterwards become the improver and almost the creator of the steam-engine.
The invalid thus passed his early years almost entirely in the society of his mother, whose gentle nature, strong good sense, and unobtrusive piety, exercised a most beneficial influence in the formation of his character. Nor were his parents without their reward; for as the boy grew up to manhood he repaid their anxious care with obedience, respect, and affection. Mrs. Watt was in after life accustomed to say that the loss of her only daughter, which she had felt so severely, had been fully made up to her by the dutiful attentions of her son.
Spending his life indoors, without exercise, his nervous system became preternaturally sensitive. He was subject to violent sick headaches, which confined him to his room for weeks together; and it almost seems a marvel that, under such circumstances, he should have survived his boyhood. It is in such cases as his that indications of precocity are generally observed; and parents would be less gratified at their display if they knew that they are usually the symptoms of disease. Several remarkable instances of this precocity are related of Watt. On one occasion, when be was bending over the hearth with a piece of chalk in his band, a friend of his father said, "You ought to send that boy to a public school, and not allow him to trifle away his time at home." "Look how my child is occupied," said the father, "before you condemn him." Though only six years old, it is said he was found trying to solve a problem in geometry.
On another occasion he was reproved by Mrs. Muirhead, his aunt, for his indolence at the tea-table. "James Watt," said the worthy lady, "I never saw such an idle boy as you are: take a book or employ yourself usefully for the last hour you have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, catching and counting the drops it falls into." In the view of M. Arago, the little James before the tea-kettle "becomes the great engineer, preparing the discoveries which were soon to immortalize him." In our opinion the judgment of the aunt was the truest. There is no reason to suppose that the mind of the boy was occupied with philosophical theories on the condensation of steam, which he compassed with so much difficulty in his maturer years. This is more probably an afterthought borrowed from his subsequent discoveries. Nothing is commoner than for children to be amused with such phenomena, in the same way that they will form air-bubbles in a cup of tea, and watch them sailing over the surface till they burst. The probability is that little James was quite as idle as he seemed.
When he was at length sent to Mr. M'Adam's commercial school, the change caused him many trials and much suffering. He found himself completely out of place in the midst of the boisterous juvenile republic. Against the tyranny of the elders he was helpless; their wild play was most distasteful to him he could not join in their sports, nor roam with them along the beach, nor shy stones into the water, nor take part in their hazardous exploits in the harbour. Accordingly they showered upon him contemptuous epithets; and the school being composed of both sexes, the girls joined in the laugh. He shone as little in the class as in the playground. He did not possess that parrot power of learning and confidence in self necessary to achieve distinction at school and he was even considered dull and backward for his age. [5] His want of progress may, however, in some measure be accounted for by his almost continual ailments, which sometimes kept him for weeks together at home. It was not until he reached the age of about thirteen or fourteen, when he was put into the mathematical class, that his powers appeared to develop themselves, and from that time he made rapid progress.
When not quite fourteen, he was taken by his mother for change of air to Glasgow, then a quiet place without a single long chimney, somewhat resembling a rural market-town of the present day. He was left in charge of a relation, and his mother returned to Greenock. But he proved so wakeful during the visit, and so disposed to indulge in that habit of storytelling, which even Sir Walter Scott could afterwards admire in him, that Mr. Watt was very soon written to by his friend, and entreated to return to Glasgow and take home his son. "I cannot stand the excitement he keeps me in," said Mrs. Campbell "I am worn out for want of sleep. Every evening, before retiring to rest, he contrives to engage me in conversation, then begins some striking tale, and whether humorous or pathetic, the interest is so overpowering, that the family all listen to him with breathless attention, and hour after hour strikes unheeded." He was taken back to Greenock accordingly, and, when well enough, was sent to the Grammar School of the town, then kept by Mr. Robert Arrol. Under him, Watt made fair progress in the rudiments of Latin and Greek; but he was still more successful in the study of mathematics, which he prosecuted under Mr. John Marr. It was only when he entered on this branch of learning that he discovered his strength, and be very soon took the lead in his class.
When at home the boy continued to spend much of his time in drawing, or in cutting or carving with his penknife, or in watching the carpenters at work in his father's shop, sometimes trying his own hand at making little articles with the tools which lay about. In this he displayed a degree of dexterity which seemed so remarkable that the journeymen were accustomed to say of him that "little Jamie had gotten a fortune at his fingers' ends." Even when he had grown old he would recall to mind the pleasure as well as the profit which he had derived from working in his shirt-sleeves in his father's shop. He was, in fact, educating himself in the most effectual manner in his own way learning to use his hands dexterously; familiarising himself with the art of handling tools and acquiring a degree of expertness in working with them in wood and metal, which eventually proved of the greatest value to him. At the same time he was training himself in habits of application, industry, and invention. Most of his spare time was thus devoted to mechanical adaptations of his own contrivance. A small forge was erected for him, and a bench fitted up for his special use and there he constructed many ingenious little objects, such as miniature cranes, pulleys, pumps, and capstans. Out of a large silver coin he fabricated a punch-ladle, which is still preserved. But the kind of work which most attracted him was the repairing of ships' compasses, quadrants, and nautical instruments, in executing which he exhibited so much neatness, dexterity, and accuracy, that it eventually led to his selection of the business he determined to follow, that of a mathematical instrument maker.
The boy at the same time prosecuted his education at school; his improving health enabling him to derive more advantage from the instructions of his masters than in the earlier part of his career. Not the least influential part of his training, as regarded the formation of his character, consisted, as already observed, in the example and conversation of his parents at home. His frequent illnesses brought him more directly and continuously under their influence than is the case with most boys of his age and reading became one of his chief sources of recreation and enjoyment. His father's library-shelf contained well-thumbed volumes of Boston, Bunyan, and ‘Thee Cloud of Witnesses,’ with Henry the Rymer's ‘Life of Wallace,’ and other old ballads, tattered by frequent use. These he devoured greedily, and re-read until he had most of them by heart. His father would also recount to him the sufferings of the Covenanters - the moors and mosses which lay towards the south of Greenock having been among their retreats during the times of the persecution. Then there were the local and traditionary stories of the neighbourhood, - such as the exploits of the Greenock men under Sir John Shaw, at Worcester, in 1651, [6] — together with much of that unwritten history, heard only around firesides which kindles the Scotchman's nationality, and influences his future life.
We may here mention, in passing, that one of the most vividly-remembered incidents of James Watt's boyhood was the Stuart rebellion of the ‘Forty-five,’ which occurred when he was about ten years old. Watt himself is so intimately identified with the material progress of the nineteenth century, that it strikes one almost with surprise that he should have been a spectator, in however remote a degree, of incidents belonging to an altogether different age. The Stuart Rebellion may be said to have been the end of one epoch and the beginning of another; for certain it is that the progress of Scotland as an integral part of the British empire, and the growth of its skilled industry — which the inventions of Watt did so much to develop appeared as if to spring from the very ashes of the rebellion. Like other low-land towns, Greenock was greatly alarmed at the startling news from the Highlands of the threatened descent of the clans. Sir John Shaw had the trades mustered for drill on the green in front of his mansion, and held them in readiness for defence of the town, in case of attack. Greenock was otherwise secure, being protected against the Highlands by the Clyde; besides, the western clans were either neutral or adhered to the house of Hanover. The Pretender with his followers passed southward by Stirling, and only approached Greenock on their return from England, — a half-starved and ill-clad, though still unbroken army. They halted at Glasgow, where they levied a heavy contribution on the inhabitants, and sent out roving parties to try their fortunes in the neighbouring towns. A small detachment one day approached Greenock, and came as near as the Clune Brae; but the townspeople were afoot, and on guard; signal was given to the ships of war moored near the old battery, and a few well-directed shots speedily sent the Highlanders to the right-about. The alarm was over for the present; but it was renewed in the following year, when the rumour reached Edinburgh that Prince Charles, hunted from the Highlands, had landed at Greenock, and lay concealed there. The consequence was that a strict search was made throughout the town, and Mr. Watt's premises were searched like the others; but the Pretender had contrived to escape in another direction. Such was one of the most memorable incidents in the boy-life of James Watt, so strangely in contrast with the later events of his industrial career.
During holiday times, the boy sometimes indulged in rambles along the Clyde, occasionally crossing to the north shore, and strolling up the Gare Loch and Holy Loch, and even as far as Ben Lomond. He was of a solitary disposition, and loved to wander by himself at night amidst the wooded pleasure-grounds which surrounded the old mansion-house overlooking the town, watching through the trees the mysterious movements of the stars. He became fascinated by the wonders of astronomy, and was stimulated to inquire into the science by the examination of the nautical instruments which he found amongst his father's shop-stores. For it was a peculiarity which characterised him through life, that he could not look upon any instrument or machine without being seized with a desire to understand its meaning, to unravel its mystery, and master the rationale of its uses. Before he was fifteen he had twice gone through with great attention S'Gravande's ‘Elements of Natural Philosophy,’ a book belonging to his father. He performed many little experiments in chemistry, and even contrived to make an electrical machine, much to the marvel of those who felt its shocks. Like most invalids, he read eagerly such books on medicine and surgery as came in his way. He went so far as to practise dissection; and on one occasion he was found carrying off for this purpose the head of a child who had died of some uncommon disease. "He told his son" says Mr. Muirhead, "that, had he been able to bear the sight of the sufferings of patients, he would have been a surgeon.
In his solitary rambles, his love of wild-flowers and plants lured him on to the study of botany. Ever observant of the aspects of nature, the violent upheavings of the mountain-ranges on the north shores of Loch Lomond directed his attention to geology. He was a great devourer of books; reading all that came in his way. On a friend once advising him to be less indiscriminate in his reading, he replied, "I have never yet read a book without gaining information, instruction, or amusement." This was no answer to the admonition of his friend, who merely recommended him to bestow upon the best books the time he devoted to the worse. But the appetite for knowledge in inquisitive minds is, during youth, when curiosity is fresh and unslacked, too insatiable to be fastidious, and the volume which gets the preference is usually the first which comes in the way.
Watt was not, however, a mere bookworm. In his solitary walks through the country he would enter the cottages of the peasantry, gather their local traditions, and impart to them information of a similar kind from his own ample stores. Fishing, which suited his tranquil nature, was his single sport. When unable to ramble for the purpose, he could still indulge the pursuit from his father's yard, which was open to the sea, and the water of sufficient depth at high-tide to enable vessels of fifty or sixty tons to lie alongside.
But James Watt had now arrived at a suitable age to learn a trade and his rambles must come to a close. His father had originally intended him to follow his own business but having sustained some heavy losses about this time — one of his ships having foundered at sea, — and observing the strong bias of his son towards manipulative science and exact mechanics, he at length decided to send him to Glasgow, in the year 1754, when he was eighteen years old, to learn the trade of a mathematical instrument maker.
See Also
- Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles
- Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles: Chapter 4
- Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles: Chapter 6
Foot Notes
- ↑ Among the few household articles belonging to him which descended to his son, and afterwards to his grandson the engineer, were two portraits, one of Sir Isaac Newton, and the other of John Napier, the inventor of Logarithms.
- ↑ The mansion house of the Shaws is now principally occupied as manorial offices. The fine old garden and pleasure-grounds have been presented by Sir John Shaw to the people of Greenock as a public park for ever. It is now called "The Watt Park," and a more beautiful spot (bating the smoke of the busy town below) is scarcely to be found in Britain.
- ↑ In 1715 the Greenock and Cartsdyke men kept strict watch and ward for eighty days against a threatened visit of Rob Roy and his caterans. The conduct of these unruly neighbours continued to cause apprehensions amongst the townspeople until a much later period, especially during fair time, then the great event of the year. The fair was the occasion of the annual gathering of the people from the neighbouring country to buy and to sell. Highlandmen came from the opposite shores and from the lochs down the Clyde, men caring little for Lowland law, but duly impressed by a display of force. Their boats were drawn up on the beach with their prows to the High Street, the north side of which at that time lay open to the sea. The Highland folk lived and slept on board, each boat having a plank or gangway between it and the shore. On the first day of the fair Sir John Shaw, the feudal superior, convened the local dignitaries, the deacons and the trades, and after drinking the King's health and throwing the glasses amongst the populace, they formed in procession and perambulated the town,
- ↑ Some of her neighbours thought her stately and unbending, and that she affected a superior style of living. In the ‘Memorials of Watt,' by the late George Williamson, Esq., Greenock, are to be found many curious and interesting details as to the Watt family; collected partly from tradition and partly from local records. Of Mrs. Watt's "superior style of living," compared with the custom of the period, the following anecdote is given;— "One of the author's informants on such points, a venerable lady in her eightieth year, was wont to speak of the worthy baillie's wife with much characteristic interest and animation. As illustrative of the internal economy of the family, the old lady related an occasion on which she had spent an evening, when a girl, at Mrs. Watt's house, and remembered expressing with much naïveté to her mother on returning home, her childish surprise that ‘Mrs. Watt had two lighted candles on the table.' Among these and other reminiscences of her youth, our venerable informant described James Watts mother, in her expressive Doric, as a ‘braw, braw woman - none now to be seen like her.’" p. 128-9.
- ↑ The truth in regard to young Watt's first years in the public school is, that, owing doubtless to infirm health, to the suffering and depression which affected his whole powers, he was prevented for a considerable time displaying even a very ordinary and moderate aptitude for the common routine of school lessons; and during those years he was regarded by his schoolmasters as slow and inapt. Although to some minds facts of such a nature may be conceived to mar the romance of a great man's history, yet, seeing they rest on authenticity which cannot be impugned, there appears no reasonable ground on which it may be thought that they ought to be passed over as if they had not existed, or were altogether unfounded.— Williamson's 'Memorials of Watt,' p. 130.
- ↑ The Shaw baronetcy was the reward of the feudal superior's services on the occasion. The banner carried by the tenantry in the civil war was long preserved in Greenock, and was hung up with the other town flags in one of the public rooms.