The Beginnings of Canals: Sir John Leveson-Gower and the Disadvantages of Canals

Description:Sir John Leveson-Gower (1694-1754), Earl Gower, was a prominent social and political figure in the House of Lords. Notable amongst his papers are letters relating to Parliamentary Bills promoting the development of navigable waterways. As these letters demonstrate, from the early eighteenth century there was a growing interest in improving the efficiency of transport, particularly for supplying materials required for trade and industry. Many people at this time were involved in schemes to make rivers navigable in order to transport supplies by water. However, these initiatives faced opposition from local landowners and politicians who were concerned that canal proprietors would monopolise the waterways for financial gain.

A letter dated January 9th 1719 from a man named Robert Wilmot refers to a Bill promoting the navigation of the River Derwent. He begins ‘I humbly presume you find some of the Corporation of Derby are Hurrying on a Bill this sessions, to make the River Derwent there navigable’.

Wilmot complains to Sir John that ‘several Gentlemen and my self have Good Estates adjoyning to the River, and they neither think fit to consult us about it, nor shew us this Bill’. He goes on, stating that ‘their former Bills were prejudiciable to us, and rather calculated for the imaginary Advantage of a very few persons in the Corporation than for the Generall Good of the Town or County’

Wilmot’s letter reflects contemporary concerns surrounding the navigation of rivers for the use of trade in the early eighteenth century. Wilmot opposes the River Derwent Bill, protesting that ‘they always had Trent a Free-Navigable River but Five Miles from Derby, and now made so at three Miles distant’. He disputes the usefulness of navigable rivers for trade. Drawing on the example of the River Trent, Wilmot suggests that the men supporting the Derwent Bill ‘understand the notions of Trade so well, that they seldom kept one Boat on it, and now none’.

Appealing to Sir John as a landowner interested in ‘the Generall Good of the Town or County’, Wilmot concludes his letter by requesting Sir John’s influential public support in opposing the River Derwent Bill. He writes ‘if the Bill comes into the House of Lords, I hope such Reasons will be offer’d, as to induce you, and your interest, to be against it’.

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