Hatchard in Pimlico

 

 

 

In 1992 the bi-centenary of the 'invention' of coal gas for lighting celebrated William Murdoch's 1792 Cornish gas lighting experiments. It has always been accepted that there were a number of experiments with coal gas for lighting before Murdoch and this is the story of one of them.

In 1828 a letter appeared in the popular press that made claims for an experimental coal gas lighting scheme which took place in London, in 1789 - three years before Murdoch.

The writer of the letter was a T. Hatchard.  He said that in 1783 he had been employed to write the 'fair copy' of Lord Dundonald's patent for tar manufacture. Dundonald, is an important figure who made a substantial contribution to industrial chemistry including the manufacture of tar from coal. The text of his patent gives plenty of hints on ways of manufacturing gas from coal - so this part of Hatchard's story could be true.

Hatchard said that in 1789 his next door neighbour was 'an elderly man called 'Campion' who had 'lost large sums in Bristol making mixed metals'. He can be identified as John Champion, one of the Bristol and Anglesey brass manufacturing family whose son had experimented, and failed, with the manfacture of coal tar. . He was very elderly and had a history of financial misfortune. It is not clear what he was doing in London but Hatchard said that he 'had a 'comfortable annuity allowed by his society (of Friends)'. Were tbey really neighbours? Hatchard's address was 'Brewer Street, Pimlico', while Champion's was  5 New Buildings, in Princes Row or Warwick Row. These streets were at right angles to each other so they could well have lived in adjoining houses.

They set up 'a fire place and chimney' in  Hatchard's back garden 'over the fire I placed an iron pot .. which held about a half bushel of coals .... to which I attached a tin cylinder .. the smoke when lighted produced a column of bright flame .. which burned for six or seven hours'.

Hatchard was working for an architect, who, he said, contacted Trinity House,  to ask if they were interested in using the process.

This, unnamed, architect has not been traced but it was well known that Trinity House were looking for a new fuel for lighthouses.. A delegation of Elder Brethren came to see the 'light by means of vapour issuing from coal'. Champion was granted 20 guineas by them but the idea was taken no further.

Hatchard said that Champion had also approached a 'Birmingham manufacturer' who wanted a share of the process but that Champion broke negotiations off.  Champion did indeed write to Matthew Boulton in Birmingham and told to him about the 'trial made by Trinity Corporation' and offered him a half share for £300 pounds. He later met Boulton to discuss it but heard no more, although he offered to explain further.  After that, 'Mr. Campion being about four score' the matter was dropped and in 1794 he died, still in Pimlico.

Is the story true? Hatchard's account fits, almost too neatly,  with the archival evidence. But how could he have made up a story which is verified  by items in Boulton and Watt's correspondence books and Trinity House Minutes - neither of which anyone had access to until a few years ago..

Several others  must have known about these experiments. John Champion told his nephews, Nehemiah and Charles Lloyd, both prominent and wealthy industrialists.  The Trinity House witnesses probably included Captain Cotton whose son was manage one of London's first gas making plants at Huddart's Limehouse  Ropeworks.  Most importantly Matthew Boulton knew about a gas lighting scheme that took place two years before, his employee, William Murdoch's, experiments in Cornwall.

After the 1828 letter nothing more was heard from Hatchard. The Mirror printed a  tactful reply from Humphery Davy's brother, John, and declined to print a letter from 'Verax' impugning the veracity of Mr. H's statements on every point'. It was no doubt felt that an importunate inventor, hoping for are in, what was by 1828, very considerable profits should  be shut up quickly. After  all, Hatchard, had, by his own  account,  stolen the ideas from the Earl of  Dundonald who was still alive in 1828.

Who was 'T.Hatchard'?  In the 1780s a family of that name  lived in the Westminster area.  One of them, John, about the right age, was apprenticed to a bookseller and founded the Piccadilly bookshop. His father, Thomas, was probably a carpenter. In 1821, a Henry Hatchard was a carpenter and undertaker on Millbank and by the 1840s several Hatchards in the Westminster area were described as 'sculptors'. 'T. Hatchard' could have been one of this family - perhaps Thomas Hatchard had several sons - apprenticed to a bookseller, an architect and a carpenter.

There is another twist to this story.  In 1794 Henry Hatchard, the Millbank undertaker, adopted a baby,  distantly related to his wife, Sarah. The child, also Henry, was  the son of Thomas Sugg, ironmonger of Hoxton and relationships with  his natural parents continued.  Sugg, manufacturers of gas lighting appliances from the earliest times, are very well known. In the 1840s Hatchard and Sugg were undertakers of York Street, Westminster and perhaps it is not too much to suggest that William Sugg, the ironmonger,  supplied a line of coffin handles to  Hatchard undertaker cousins - others were 'sculptors' - in fact monumental masons.

It is not easy to say whether, or not,  this relationship with a well-known supplier of gaslighting appliances makes T. Hatchard's claims to have invented gas lighting in the 1780s more, or less, suspect. Something was going on! 

 

Sources

The two relevant letters are in The Mirror on 28th May and 21st June 1828. Other material comes from the archives of Trinity House, the Boulton and Watt Archive at Birmingham Reference Library and material held at the City of Westminster Local History Department.  Material on John Champion is from Joan Day's Bristol Brass. Thanks to the Trinity House Archivist and to Mr. Christopher Sugg.