﻿Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlix. (1905), No. 15. 



XV. Notes on the Wilkinsons, Ironmasters. 

 By Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S. 



Received and read, April 4th, igoj. 



Recent references to Henry Cort have produced re- 

 marks about "another Lancashire gentleman who should 

 be numbered among the makers of the iron industry. 

 Mr. Wilkinson, of Buckburrow Forge and Castlehead, 

 Grange-over-Sands, and his sons, about 1745, commenced 

 with Mr. Watts (should be Watt) to use steam engines 

 for blast instead of water. Afterwards migrating to 

 Staffordshire, they were the first to smelt iron with coal, 

 using Watts' engines, and were also the first to build iron 

 vessels to carry goods."* 



It is true that the Wilkinsons began their career as 

 ironmasters within the County of Lancaster, but they 

 were not born in the County, nor did they attain their 

 greatest fame while in Lancashire. The founder of the 

 family was Isaac Wilkinson, who occupied a farm either 

 in Cumberland or Westmoreland (probably the former), 

 and had also employment in a hematite iron furnace or 

 forge. He has been described as being a mere labourer, 

 working for 12s. a week, and eventually for 21s. a week ; 

 but as Mr. A. N. Palmer, of Wrexham, points out in his 

 "John Wilkinson," these were at that period the wages of 

 a skilled workman, perhaps even an overlooker ; and the 

 fact that his signature in 1750 was in an excellent com- 

 mercial hand, suggests that he had had a good education. 

 Stockdale in his " Annales Caermoelenses," states it was 

 about 1740 that Isaac Wilkinson settled in Lancashire, in- 



* Manchester Guardian, March 2ist t 1905. 

 June 2nd, zpoj , 



