John Grundy, Jr.

John Grundy Jr. (1719–1783) was an English civil engineer, who worked on a number of drainage schemes, canal projects and dock works. He lived in Spalding, Lincolnshire, from 1739. Part of his legacy was his Report Books, seventeen volumes containing copies of his reports and other supporting documents from most of his projects, which in some cases are the only surviving records of major civil engineering projects. They were re-discovered in 1988.

John Grundy was the son of John Grundy, Sr. and Elizabeth Dalton. His father taught mathematics and was a land surveyor, who later became a civil engineer. John was born in the Leicestershire village of Congerstone, where he was baptised on 1 July 1719. The family moved to Spalding in south Lincolnshire in 1739, after his father became engineer for the drainage works at Deeping Fen. He joined the Gentlemen's Society in December 1739, and started work on his first known engineering project in the same year. This was for a sluice at Pinchbeck, where the Blue Gowt Drain joined the River Glen. His father probably supervised the project, and the two engineers worked on plans for improvements to the River Witham in 1743, which although they were not implemented at the time, formed the basis for subsequent work. He married Lydia Knipe in January 1743, and they had two daughters, Mary and Lydia, who survived into adulthood, and four other children who died as infants. His wife died in 1764, and he was married again in 1766, to Ann Maud, the widow of the vicar of St. Neots.

He remained based in Spalding for the rest of his life, and died there on 15 January 1783. In his will, he ensured that his widow was well provided for, and left £1,000 to each of four grandchildren. He also bequeathed his books and manuscripts to Rev. J. G. Thompson, who was his eldest grandson and later became the vicar of the parish of Belton, near Grantham.

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