Yeoman, Thomas

SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering

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b. c. 1700 probably near Northampton, England

d. 24 January 1781 London, England

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English surveyor and civil engineer.

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Very little is known of his early life, but he was clearly a skilful and gifted engineer who had received comprehensive practical training, for in 1743 he erected the machinery in the world's first water-powered cotton mill at Northampton on the river Nene. In 1748 he invented a weighing machine for use by turnpike trusts for weighing wagons. Until 1757 he remained in Northampton, mainly surveying enclosures and turnpike roads and making agricultural machinery. He also gained a national reputation for building and installing very successful ventilating equipment (invented by Dr Stephen Hales) in hospitals, prisons and ships, including some ventilators of Yeoman's own design in the Houses of Parliament.

Meanwhile he developed an interest in river improvements, and in 1744 he made his first survey of the River Nene between Thrapston and Northampton; he repeated the survey in 1753 and subsequently gave evidence in parliamentary proceedings in 1756. The following year he was in Gloucestershire surveying the line of the Stroudwater Canal, an operation that he repeated in 1776. Also in 1757, he was appointed Surveyor to the River Ivel Navigation in Bedfordshire. In 1761 he was back on the Nene. During 1762–5 he carried out surveys for the Chelmer \& Blackwater Navigation, although the work was not undertaken for another thirty years. In 1765 he reported on land-drainage improvements for the Kentish Sour. It was at this time that he became associated with John Smeaton in a major survey in 1766 of the river Lea for the Lee Navigation Trustees, having already made some surveys with Joseph Nickalls near Waltham Abbey in 1762. Yeoman modified some of Smeaton's proposals and on 1 July 1767 was officially appointed Surveyor to the Lee Navigation Trustees, a post he retained until 1771. He also advised on the work to create the Stort Navigation, and at the official opening on 24 October 1769 he made a formal speech announcing: "Now is Bishops Stortford open to all the ports of the world." Among his other works were: advice on Ferriby Sluice on the River Ancholme (1766); reports on the Forth \& Clyde Canal, the North Level and Wisbech outfall on the Nene, the Coventry Canal, and estimates for the Leeds and Selby Canal (1768–71); estimates for the extension of the Medway Navigation from Tonbridge to Edenbridge (1771); and between 1767 and 1777 he was consulted, with other engineers, by the City of London on problems regarding the Thames.

He joined the Northampton Philosophical Society shortly after its formation in 1743 and was President several times before he moved to London. In 1760 he became a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and in 1763 he was chosen as joint Chairman of the Committee on Mechanics—a position he held until 1778. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 12 January 1764. On the formation of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, the forerunner of the present Institution of Civil Engineers, he was elected first President in 1771, remaining as such until his illness in 1780.

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Principal Honours and Distinctions

FRS 1764. President, Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 1771–80; Treasurer 1771–7.

JHB