Joseph William Wilson

Joseph William Wilson  11.10.1829.- 05.11.1898.

Joseph William Wilson was the son of the Reverend William Wilson (1791-1867).

He married his cousin Harriet Ann Moore (27.7.1830-05.02.1913) on 17.1.1857. 

An account of Joseph is found in Harriet's Family Sketch. 

He wrote a small book “Legends of the Wolfston Family” , a semi-fictional story about the Wilson family.

Joseph finally lived at Elmhurst, Kenley, Surrey, now 7, Zigzag Road, Kenley, Surrey.

They had eleven children-

1. Joseph William Wilson (1851-1930), who married Mabel Isabel

Hanson (1855-1939).

2. Ambrose John Wilson (1853-1929) who married Julia Mary

Lawrence (1857-1909) and Irma Rowntree (1870-1938).

3. Edwin Wilson (1855-1915) who married Elizabeth Dover (1857-

1927).

4. Harriet Mary Wilson (1857-1937).

5. Walter Noel Wilson (1858-1924), who married Edith Eames (1865-1910).

6. Ruth Wilson (1860-1950) who married Joseph Arthur Arkwright

(1864-1944).

7. Maurice Wilson (1862-1936) who married Maria Brena Bloyd

(1862-1931).

8. Basil Wilson (1864-1936 ) who married Katharine Maynard (1869-

1933).

9. Ernest Moore Wilson (1865-1951) who married Kate Adelina

Lawrence (1869-1949).

10. Edith Amy Wilson (1868-1951).

11. Norman Octavius Wilson (1870-1940) who married Margaret Louise White (Born 1872).

Excerpt minutes proceedings of The Institution of Civil Engineers

Vol CXXXV Session 1898-99 Part 1

JOSEPH WILLIAM WILSON, son of the Rev. William Wilson,D.D. Vicar of

Walthamstow ,Essex, and later Vicar of Over Worton, Oxfordshire, was born on the 11 th October , 1829. He was originally destined for the Church, and was entered with that intention at Wadham College, Oxford. However, as a lad, he had evinced a strong inclination towards engineering and his father was persuaded to place him as a pupil under his cousin, Mr.(Afterwards Sir) Charles Fox, of the firm Fox and Henderson, Birmingham. At the expiration of his pupilage Mr. Wilson acted for them as an assistant engineer on the construction of the Exhibition Building of 1831, having charge of the machinery employed in the preparation of the large quantity of timber required for the structure. He introduced several important improvements in those machines. After this, Mr.Wilson, in partnership with his brother in law Mr .S .H.F .Cox, erected and opened at Birmingham the Oldbury Engineering Work, where from 300-400 men were employed in turning out important pumping and other engines and machinery, including large quantities of stamps and other apparatus for use in the Californian gold-fields. After a few years his health temporarily gave way, and he retired from the Oldbury Works and established himself at Banbury ,

where, as consulting engineer to the timber works there, he had further scope for the exercise of his inventive genius, and in 1855 he patented the well-known circular gouge and disk-paring tools for timber machinery, for which he received, from the hands of the Prince Consort, the Medal of the Society of Arts.

In 1857 Mr. Wilson came to London and commenced to practise as a consulting engineer, carrying out, latterly in conjunction with his eldest son, various pier, water and other works at Starcross, Hampton, Hunstanton, Teignmouth, Shoreham, the Isle of Wight, High Wycombe, Westward Ho and other places.

Mr.Wilson had always taken special interest in the mechanical as well as in the theoretical training of his pupils, having pattern and fitting shops attached to his offices in Westminster, and in 1872, in order to further develop this idea, he persuaded the Directors of the Crystal Palace to inaugurate their School of Practical Engineering. There he and his sons devoted themselves to providing for students a personal training in the combined theory and practice of the earlier stages of their professional career. Mr. Wilson possessed in a high degree the faculty of winning the affection of his pupils as well as of imparting to them his varied professional experience; and he lived to see many of them rise to important positions in the engineering world.

After occupying for twenty-six years the position of principal of the Crystal Palace Engineering School, Mr .Wilson contracted a chill in Scotland in August last, from the effects of which he gradually grew weaker, and finally passed peacefully away at his residence at Kenley, Surrey, on the 5th November, 1898, in the 70th year of his age. Mr. Wilson was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 2nd February, 1869, and was transferred to the class of Members on the 14^thJanuary , 1879. He was also a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute, and a Vice-president of the Junior Engineering Society.

In August 1898, Joseph and Harriet went to Mulcahy , a fishing Village in East Scotland.

Joseph was taken ill and brought back to Elmhurst in an ambulance railway carriage on 15^th.October, he died on 5^th.November.

Harriet moved out to Peak's Hill Cottage, Purley on September 1910 with Aunt Mary.

There was a memorial window to Harriet at St Mark's Church Woodcote near Purley. (Window since gone.)