1821.] Memoir of John 
JOHN RENNIE, ESQ, 
In Stamford-street, Blackfriars, 61, John 
Rennie, esq. F.R.S. the celebrated engineer, 
alter a long illness, from which he had partly 
recovered, but suffered a severe and unex¬ 
pected relapse. Mr. R. was the third and 
youngest son of Mr. George Rennie, a re¬ 
spectable farmer near Linton, in the county 
of East Lothian, where the subject of tnis 
memoir was born in 1760. He lost his fa¬ 
ther when about 7 years old ; and his elder 
brother George, in conjunction with his mo¬ 
ther, undertook the education of the younger 
children. He received the rudiments of learn¬ 
ing at a neighbouring village-school, where 
the famous algebraist, Mr. Peter Nicholson, 
was also educated ; neither of these sons of 
science, however, owed much to their first 
teacher,—reading, writing, and the elements 
of arithmetic, being only taught, at his school. 
Tire house adjoining Mr. Rennie’s farm was 
for some time occupied by Mr. Andrew 
Meickle*, an ingenious mill-wright, no less 
esteemed for his great talent than respected 
for his candour and private worth. Mr. M. 
had long been connected with the family of 
the Rennies, and by way of evincing his re¬ 
spect for them, he undertook to teach young 
Rennie his profession. He remained with 
him six years, during which time he became 
complete master of the business, as far as 
regarded the construction of mill-works. 
He assiduously devoted himself to his busi¬ 
ness, and as modelling was taught by Mr. 
Meickle, he was seldom without a model of 
a wheel in his pocket. 
Mr. Rennie having acquired considerable 
proficiency, be quitted Mr. Meickle, and com¬ 
menced business as a master mill-wright in 
Scotland; but ambition and perseverance 
being the leading features of his character, 
he soon perceived that the occupation of a 
mill-wright in that country was far from af¬ 
fording lucrative prospects. 
About this period (1783) Mr. Watt had 
just began to apply the steam-engine to mill- 
work, and the Albion Mill at Blackfriars’ 
Bridge was projected. Mr. Rennie now ap¬ 
plied to Messrs. Bolton and Watt for em¬ 
ployment, which he obtained at the fixed sa¬ 
lary of a guinea per week. The Albion 
Mill was accordingly undertaken, and Mr. 
Rennie’s department was to manage the mill 
and grinding part, neither of which Mr. Watt 
or any ot his assistants perfectly understood. 
Mr. R.’s attention and integrity gavg great 
satisfaction to his employers, and the Albion 
Mill being completed, he continued to super¬ 
intend and put the whole in order. The 
machinery of Whitbread’s Brewhouse was 
soon after constructed under Mr. Rennie’s 
* Mr. Meickle has. made several important 
improvements in the construction of water¬ 
wheels, and has brought the art to consider¬ 
able perfection. Mr. Meickle was at that 
time one ol the first practical mill-wrights 
in England. His work was executed with 
great accuracy, so that at an early age Mr. 
Rennie could not have had a better tutor. 
Rennie , Esq. 373 
directions, and an opening thus presented for 
him to commence business on his own ac¬ 
count. About this time, Mr. Smeaton, the 
celebrated engineer, died, and left a chasm 
in that department of science; and a more 
favourable combination of circumstances for 
Mr. Rennie’s establishment could not have 
presente I itself. A new power for mov¬ 
ing machines had just then been invented, and 
Mr. Rennie was protected by, and connected 
with, the inventor and patentee. He was 
next noticed by Mr. Robert Grazer, the pro¬ 
jector of many useful works, who introduced 
him to the canal business, and made him 
thoroughly acquainted with the methods of 
carrying bills for canals and bridges through 
Parliament. 
From the year 1704 to the day of his 
death, Mr. Rennie was at the head of the 
list of civil engineers, and became connected 
with every undertaking of magnitude,— 
canals, bridges, harbours, wet docks, and ma¬ 
chines of every description, were executed 
under his direction, and at the same time be 
employed several workmen as an executive 
mill-wright. The Bell Rock Light-house, 
on the same plan as that on the Eddystone 
Rocks, constructed by Smeaton, may, per¬ 
haps, be considered as the masterpiece of his 
great genius. Among his public works, the 
Breakwater at Plymouth, Ramsgate Har¬ 
bour, the London Docks, and the Waterloo 
a*»d Southwark Bridges, will not hastily be 
forgotten: hut they form only a small part 
of his numerous undertakings. His indefa¬ 
tigable industry is almost without parallel, 
and on going to France for a short time in 
1816, he declared it to be the first relaxation 
he had taken for nearly thirty years. His 
habits of business were very early; he fre¬ 
quently made appointments at five o’clock in 
the morning, and was incessantly occupied 
till nearly nine at night, and frequently later. 
In the estimates of his work he was often 
too low; but in the execution of them he 
spared no expense which might add to their 
solidity and durability. He never occupied 
himself in literature, and consequently has 
left no record of his talents as an author; 
neither had he any of those failings so fre¬ 
quently attendant on great genius. Order, 
regularity, and real business, were alike his 
maxims and practice; by them his success 
became unprecedented, and he accumulated 
a considerable fortune. He excelled parti¬ 
cularly in the management of those he em¬ 
ployed, by which he was both obeyed as a 
master, and respected as a superior. 
Mr. Rennie, at the age of 25, married a 
Miss Mackintosh, by whom he had nine chil¬ 
dren, six of whom are living; and it is sup¬ 
posed that two of his sons will succeed him 
in business—one as a general engineer, and 
the other as a mill-wright. 
Mr. R.ennie was a Fellow of the Royal 
Society ; and had he courted further honours, 
lie might probably have attained them— but 
he was a man of business, not of ostentation. 
A Scotchman by birth, he inherited the saga¬ 
city and industry characteristic of his coun¬ 
try, 
