Thomas Brassey

Thomas Brassey
Thomas Brassey aged 45 in 1850.
Born	7 November 1805 Buerton, Cheshire, England
Died	8 December 1870 (1870-12-09) (aged 65) St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England
Occupation	Civil engineering contractor
Spouse(s)	Maria Harrison
Children	Thomas, Harry, Albert
Parent(s)	John and Elizabeth Brassey

Thomas Brassey (7 November 1805 – 8 December 1870) was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built one in every twenty miles of railway in the world. This included three-quarters of the lines in France, major lines in many other European countries and in Canada, Australia, South America and India. He also built the structures associated with those railways, including docks, bridges, viaducts, stations, tunnels and drainage works.

As well as railway engineering, Brassey was active in the development of steamships, mines, locomotive factories, marine telegraphy, and water supply and sewage systems. He built part of the London sewerage system, still in operation today, and was a major shareholder in Brunel's The Great Eastern, the only ship large enough at the time to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable across the North Atlantic, in 1864.

The Brassey family traced themselves back to a Norman ancestor from the town of Brécey in Lower Normandy who crossed to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. Initially their home was at Bulkeley, near Malpas in Cheshire, where they lived for nearly 600 years. At some time, and certainly by 1663, the family moved to Manor Farm in Buerton, a small settlement in the parish of Aldford, 6 miles (10 km) south of Chester. Thomas Brassey was the eldest son of John Brassey, a prosperous farmer, and his wife Elizabeth.

Thomas Brassey was educated at home until the age of 12, when he was sent to The King's School in Chester. Aged 16, he became an articled apprentice to a land surveyor and agent, William Lawton. Lawton was the agent of Francis Richard Price of Overton, Flintshire. During the time Brassey was an apprentice he helped to survey the new Shrewsbury to Holyhead road (this is now the A5), assisting the surveyor of the road. While he was engaged in this work he met the engineer for the road, Thomas Telford. When his apprenticeship ended at the age of 21, Brassey was taken into partnership by Lawton, forming the firm of "Lawton and Brassey". Brassey moved to Birkenhead where their business was established. Birkenhead at that time was a very small place; in 1818 it consisted of only four houses. The business flourished and grew, extending into areas beyond land surveying. At the Birkenhead site a brickworks and lime kilns were built. The business either owned or managed sand and stone quarries in Wirral. Amongst other ventures, the firm supplied the bricks for building the custom house for the port which was developing in the town. Many of the bricks needed for the growing city of Liverpool were supplied by the brickworks and Brassey devised new methods of transporting his materials, including a system similar to the modern method of palletting, and using a gravity train to take materials from the quarry to the port. When Lawton died, Brassey became sole manager of the company and sole agent and representative for Francis Price. It was during these years that he gained the basic experience for his future career.