Matthias Dunn

Matthias Dunn (bap. 1788, d. 1869), was a mining engineer in northeast England and one of the first government inspectors of mines. He was known for encouraging safe practices in mines.

Dunn was baptized at St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Birtley, Co. Durham, on 10 December 1788, the son of Robert Dunn (c.1729–1822) and his second wife, Agatha (Agnes), possibly née Hunter (d. 1790). His father was a viewer at Lumley colliery near Chester-le-Street.

In 1804, Matthias Dunn was apprenticed to Thomas Smith, colliery viewer of Lambton Colliery, Durham. In 1810 he was appointed assistant viewer at Hebburn Colliery, also in Durham, under the supervision of John Buddle, where he oversaw the day-to-day running of the colliery. It was common then for viewers to do consultative or surveying work at collieries other than those to which they were contracted so Dunn gained further experience by accompanying Buddle on visits to some of the other collieries with which he was involved. In 1813 Dunn became resident viewer at Hebburn. His concern for mine safety was enhanced from his experience retrieving the bodies of the 75 victims of the flooding of Heaton colliery in 1815 and later observing that the explosion at Harraton Row pit in 1817 where over 40 people lost their lives was due to a hewer who refused to use a safety lamp. (Dunn and the Rev. John Hodgson had tested the first Davy safety lamp at Hebburn Colliery in January 1816.)

Dunn might have expected to inherit shares in the collieries owned by his family and be manager there, but the will of his Uncle Matthias who died in 1825 did not provide for this, perhaps because Dunn wanted to be able to continue his freelance work. Thus for the next 20 years or so he worked at many collieries in Britain and some in Europe.

He leased and became a partner in several collieries including Stargate near Ryton, Co. Durham and Prestongrange, East Lothian,(now the site of the Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum) where, in 1830, he sank the first deep shaft in Scotland using Buddle’s cast-iron tubbing to line the shaft. This was a first use in Scotland as it was later by him in Ireland at one of the Castle Comer pits in Kilkenny. The Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts in Scotland subsequently awarded Dunn its first honorary medal for his work at Prestongrange.

In 1831, Dunn was appointed viewer by the Hetton Coal Company, Durham, but he still had freelance work, which led to tensions with management. His apparent lenient handling of striking miners at the colliery in 1832 further strained relationships, especially as he disagreed with the treatment of the men by John Wood the underviewer and he was dismissed at the end of 1832.

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