Sir Edward Banks (4 January 1770 – 5 July 1835) was an English civil engineer and pioneer of steam ships. Born at

Hutton Hang Hutton Hang is a hamlet and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was less than 100. Information is included within the parish of Spennithorne. About 4 miles east of Leybu ...

near Richmond, North Yorkshire. After spending two years at sea, Banks began as a

day labourer Day labor (or day labour in American and British English spelling differences, Commonwealth spelling) is work done where the worker is hired and paid one day at a time, with no promise that more work will be available in the future. It is a form ...

in 1789. He worked under the engineer

John Rennie the Elder John Rennie FRSE FRS (7 June 1761 – 4 October 1821) was a Scottish civil engineer who designed many bridges, canals, docks and warehouses, and a pioneer in the use of structural cast-iron. Early years He was born the younger son of James ...

on the

Lancaster Canal The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria ( historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never complete ...

and

Ulverston Canal The Ulverston Canal is a ship canal that connects the town of Ulverston, Cumbria, England with Morecambe Bay. The waterway, which is entirely straight and on a single level, is isolated from the rest of the UK canal network. It was built so th ...

and rose to the chief control in his partnership Jolliffe & Banks, contractors for public works. Banks and Jolliffe were responsible for building bridges, dockyards, lighthouses and prisons. Among his undertakings were

Staines bridge Staines Bridge is a road bridge running in a south-west to north-east direction across the River Thames in Surrey. It is on the modern A308 road and links the boroughs of Spelthorne and Runnymede at Staines-upon-Thames and Egham Hythe. The brid ...

, the naval works at

Sheerness dockyard Sheerness Dockyard also known as the Sheerness Station was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the Sheerness peninsula, at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent. It was opened in the 1660s and closed in 1960. Location In the Age of Sail, the R ...

, and the new channels for the rivers

Ouse Ouse may refer to: Places Rivers in England * River Ouse, Yorkshire * River Ouse, Sussex * River Great Ouse, Northamptonshire and East Anglia ** River Little Ouse, a tributary of the River Great Ouse Other places * Ouse, Tasmania, a town in Au ...

, Nene, and

Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Che ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. They were the builders of the Waterloo,

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, and

London bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

s. He owed his fortune principally to these contracts, which he took under the nominal superintendence of the Rennies. Edward Banks first married in 1793 to Nancy Franklin with whom he had five sons and three daughters. She died in 1815 and Banks married again in 1821 to Amalia Pytches, William John Joliffe's sister in law. Banks lived in Adelphi Terrace,

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

. He also owned rural estates centred on Oxney Court,

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

and Sheppey Court,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. With William Joliffe, Banks was also an investor in the

General Steam Navigation Company The General Steam Navigation Company (GSN), incorporated in 1824, was London's foremost short sea shipping line for almost 150 years. It was the oldest shipping company in the world to begin business with seagoing steam vessels. Foundation ...

in 1824. In June 1822 Banks was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

for building the Waterloo and Southwark bridges. He died at Tilgate,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Gilbert East Jolliffe, on 5 July 1835. The story that whilst working as a day labourer upon the early 19th century

Merstham Merstham is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It lies 25 miles south of Charing Cross and 2 miles south of the Greater London border. Part of the North Downs Way runs along the northern boundary of the town. Mers ...

tram-road, he had been struck with the beauty of the neighbouring small village of Chipstead, choosing to be buried there for that reason in its quiet churchyard, is a myth as suggested by

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...

;

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

''Topographical Dictionary'' says he chose it as the Jolliffe family were patrons of that church, in-law relations and his business associates.'Parishes: Chipstead', in ''A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3'', ed. H E Malden (London, 1911), pp. 189-19
Available online at British History (The University of Portsmouth and Others)
Accessed 20 March 2015.

References

1769 births 1835 deaths 18th-century English people English knights People from Richmondshire (district) {{england-bio-stub