George Augustus Lee (1761 – 5 August 1826) was a British industrialist. His

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

was an early iron-framed building, and he pioneered the use of steam power and gas lighting in industry.

Early life

He was the only son of the actor-manager

John Lee John Lee may refer to: Academia * John Lee (astronomer) (1783–1866), president of the Royal Astronomical Society * John Lee (university principal) (1779–1859), University of Edinburgh principal * John Lee (pathologist) (born 1961), English ...

. The authors

Sophia Lee Sophia Lee (1750 – 13 March 1824) was an English novelist, dramatist and educator. She was a formative writer of Gothic fiction. She and her sister Harriet also wrote a number of ''Canterbury Tales'' (1797). Life and literary production She ...

and Harriet Lee were his sisters. In the 1780s he was a clerk at

Peter Drinkwater Peter Drinkwater (1750 – 15 November 1801) was an English cotton manufacturer and merchant. Born in Whalley, Lancashire, he had a successful career as a fustian manufacturer using the domestic putting-out system, and as a merchant based in Bo ...

Northwich {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

in Cheshire. In 1791 Drinkwater appointed him as manager of

Piccadilly Mill Piccadilly Mill, also known as Bank Top Mill or Drinkwater's Mill, owned by Peter Drinkwater, was the first cotton mill in Manchester, England, to be directly powered by a steam engine, and the 10th such mill in the world. Construction of the fou ...

, a new cotton mill in Manchester. He left the following year, to be managing partner in the mill in

owned by George and John Philips, Peter Atherton and Charles Wood. The company was later known as Philips and Lee.

The Salford mill

Lee's character was described in an obituary: "Mr. Lee became early imbued with a love of the sciences, and was afterwards remarkable for the extent and precision of his acquirements in them. He had a quick and almost intuitive perception of the advantages to be derived from applying to useful purposes the great inventions that distinguished the era in which he lived, and the rare faculty of directing them, with energy and perseverance, to the fulfilment of extensive and important designs."George Augustus Lee
''The Annual Biography and Obituary, Volume 11''. 1827 – Great Britain. His friends included William Strutt and

William Murdoch William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and inventor. Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten yea ...

, and recent advances in technology were utilized. Aware of the advantages of the steam-engine soon after the improvements of

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...

, Lee installed steam power for the cotton-spinning machinery. A new mill, based on designs by

Charles Bage Charles Woolley Bage (1751–1822) was an English architect, born in a Quaker family "Bage Way", part of Shrewsbury's 20th century inner ring road which links Old Potts Way to Crowmere Road, was named for him. References 1751 births 182 ...

and William Strutt, was erected from 1799 to 1801: it was an iron-framed building, the second such building in Britain after

Ditherington Flax Mill Ditherington Flax Mill (promoted as the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings), a flax mill located in Ditherington, a suburb of Shrewsbury, England, is the first iron-framed building in the world, and described as "the grandfather of skyscrapers",

. He knew of the experiments in gas lighting by William Murdoch, and in 1805 gas lighting was introduced, the first for a cotton mill. There was steady improvement of the machinery. Steam was used for heating the building, and a sick scheme was organized for the workforce.Page 401
A. W. Skempton, ''A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: 1500-1830''.

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

2002. The obituary describes his business abilities: "In his mercantile dealings, he was influenced by coolness and solidity of judgment, by a high sense of honour and probity, and by enlarged and comprehensive views of the general principles of commercial policy." The company survived well the period of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. The mill was regarded as a model enterprise; it was one of Manchester's sights, and industrialists and scientists visited it.

Family

In 1803 Lee married Mary, daughter of the Revd John Ewart of

Troqueer Troqueer is a former village and a parish in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway on the west side of the River Nith. The eastern-side was merged with Dumfries to the east in 1929, and today eastern Troqueer is a sub ...

; they had five children. She died in 1811. He continued to run the business until his retirement. He died, not long after retirement, at his home in

Cheetham Hill Cheetham is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, which in 2011 had a population of 22,562. It lies on the west bank of the River Irk, north of Manchester city centre, close to the boundary with Salford, bounded by Brou ...

on 5 August 1826. His eldest surviving daughter, Mary Ann, married in 1829 the politician William Ewart, a cousin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, George Augustus 1761 births 1826 deaths 19th-century English businesspeople People of the Industrial Revolution