The Life, Times, and Scientific Labours of the Second Marquis of Worcester / To which is added a reprint of his Century of Inventions, 1663, with a Commentary thereon.

“My second humble offer, disposable by your Lordships, is at my own cost and charges, but under your Lordships’ name and approbation, and out of the accruing profits of my Water-commanding Engine, to cause to be erected a competent ordinary, affording as well wine as meat, for one meal a day, for forty indigent officers, such as the calamity of the late times has brought to so pressing necessities, as none of your Lordships, I am confident, but is very sensible thereof, especially of such persons who (had not their zeal to their King and country transported them) might have lived plentifully of their own; yet if your Lordships’ commiserating eyes look not speedily upon them, may follow the destiny of some others of quality, yea colonels, and never were under my command; yet I never made distinction when his Majesty’s honour or service was interested, or his well-deserving subjects suffered, and were within my power of relief, for whose burials it hath been my good fortune to pay; they not leaving behind them to the value of an angel; and I humbly conceive this act of charity, worthy your Lordships’ owning, since your Lordships’ cheerfully passing the act of my Water-commanding Engine enableth me thereunto; and I most humbly offer this little testimony of gratitude, to be under your name thus employed. And I intend there shall be so good order given therein, within 6 months, as that there shall be a stipend given to a person to read unto them during their meals, either of military affairs or history, the better to avoid frivolous discourse tending to quarrels and quaffing.

“Thirdly, in favour and benefit of the commonalty as well as your Lordships, and for the general good and honour of this most famous City of London, I most humbly offer, under your Lordships’ name and protection, to cause a fair causeway to be made, upon which, without disturbance, two carts may pass one by the other for 2 miles together, at 4 of the greatest avenues to the City, as the Lord Mayor and Aldermen shall best advise; and at the end of each of the four causeways, an Hospital and House of Correction to be erected and endowed, with a perpetuity of £500 a year to each house; and this pious work to begin within two years, and to be finished within seven.

“Fourthly—and, indeed, I should have begun with it, according to the true rule—a Jove principium—I do humbly offer, in honour of this House, to cause £1000 a year, for ten years, from Michaelmas come twelve-month, to be allotted towards the building of Paul’s, according as his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, and now Bishop of Winchester, together with the Dean and Chapter of Paul’s shall set forth, and may continue:—a memorable gift from the House of Lords. And thus, I humbly conceive, to have offered an acknowledgment of thankfulness both to his Majesty, and to your Lordships, Spiritual and Temporal, and for the Honourable House of Commons, for passing the Act of my Water-commanding Engine; and to improve this my humble thankfulness, shall be my daily exercise and study, no ways meaning that what here I suffer shall set a period thereunto, so as your Lordships will be pleased to set your helping hands to remove some misconstructions and personal inconveniences, which, if not diverted from my mind, and from a too generally received opinion, though upon false grounds, and not appearing otherwise than false; I beseech your Lordships to be so tender of a member of yours, as to contribute to the vindicating of me therein, whereof no ways doubting but that your Lordships will remove such an absolute remora to all my intended services; and, therefore, I will presume to lay my case openly and cheerfully before you, not doubting but that at your Lordships’ intercessions, his most gracious Majesty (having given way that I should speak thus before your Lordships) will vouchsafe a concurrence, and suffer himself to be disabused, and such false and malicious opinions to be eradicated out of his princely mind, as have been endeavoured, by either envy, malice, or ignorance, to be rooted therein, and so certainly have obstructed the natural influence of grace and favour, which could not otherwise but have been the effects of so great a Sun as shines within a throne of so much goodness and majesty. Now, whether my merits have been considerable, I beg leave here to set down not as a trumpet to proclaim them, but narrative-wise, modestly, yet truly, for your Lordships’ better information, accusing myself in some things with the same candour and freedom as to vindicate myself, in others, desiring to stand or fall by your Lordships’ just judgment, and his Majesty’s gracious proceeding thereon; no further relying even upon his Majesty’s most gracious act of general pardon, than in compliance with others, his Majesty’s subjects, have taken it out, yet with so great a reluctance, through the clearness of my heart, not to have deserved for it, that the Lord upon the Woolsack was forced to chide me to it, through his tenderness of my good, and, as I humbly conceive, a further apprehension than I could have of a necessity thereof; for which his tender care I acknowledge thankfulness, yet, at the same time, I must humbly ask leave to stand upon my justification, humbly praying to be rightly understood, for I do it not out of pride or vain glory, but purely—Me defendendo,—and if any body—Se defendendo,—kills another, the law quits him, much more will your Lordships pronounce me not guilty of arrogance, though I should arrogate to myself a praiseworthy desert, and not, through too much modesty, be mealy-mouthed, and not discover what of right appertains to the blessed memory of my dead father, and even my own commendations, crying with Virgil,—Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves; sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves; sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves; sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes. Know, then, my noble Lords, that herein I speak not to derogate from the merit of the Roman Catholics from their duty and love to their Sovereign, we having all of us, with an unanimous resolution, nemine contradicente, that is to say, no one gentleman of quality throughout the whole nation, but has stuck to the cause, adventuring his life, and lost his whole fortune therein; yet give me leave to aver it, boldly, that all the Catholics of England assisted not my father, or me, to the value of £5, without real security for it, and such, indeed, as at this time lieth heaviest upon me; and this I aver as in the presence of Almighty God and your Lordships. In the second place, my Lords, how came the then Marquis of Hertford, after his defeat in the west, with recruits to his Majesty at Oxford, but by my father’s means and mine. The forces that I sent with him had cost me £8000; and £2000 my father lent him, ready money. How came Sir John Byron’s regiment of horse to be first raised, but by £5000 in gold, given him by my father? How came the Forest of Dean to be reduced; Goodrich strong castle to be taken; Monmouth itself, with its garrison, to be surprised; Chepstow, Newport, and Cardiff to be taken, and secured for his Majesty, but by my forces and my father’s money? How came Raglan Castle to be first fortified and last rendered, but by £50,000 disbursed therein by my father?

“How came his Majesty’s army to be considerable before Edge-hill fight, but by the men I brought, and how was his Majesty recruited at Gloucester side, even after the defeat given by Waller to my men? God forgive those of the King’s party, who were the occasion that 1500 were surprised, and I not despatched from Oxford until the day after; yet, my Lords, at 14 days warning I brought 4000 foot and 800 horse to the siege of Gloucester, paying them £6000 down upon the nail at Gloucester, besides my troop of Life-guard, consisting of 6 score noblemen and gentlemen, whose estates amounted to above 3 score thousand pounds a-year, most of whom I furnished with horse and arms, which of a sudden they could not do themselves; for I was then master of 34 horses in my stable, for the worst of which I have refused £100, and above 40 others lonely worth £50 a horse. I kept a table for the said troop, not only at Gloucester side, but all the way to the west, without so much as making use of free quarter, but all upon the penny; for General Raven complained of me to the King, who graciously and smilingly reprehending me publicly, I desired to know my accuser, and called my Lord-General Raven, afterwards made Earl of Bradford, before his Majesty, who, objecting that it was of ill example and made them to be thought the more burdensome; my humble reply was, that I yielded to his Excellency to be the better soldier, but still to be a soldier of fortune, here to-day and God knows where to-morrow, and therefore he needed not care for the love of the people; but though I were killed myself I should leave my posterity behind me, towards whom I would not leave a grudge in the people, but whilst I could serve his Majesty upon my own purse and credit I would really do it, and afterwards leave it to such as his Lordship.

“I confess I raised this troop without my father’s consent first asked; his Majesty’s peremptory commands and the shortness of time requiring, and I confess his Lordship checked me for it, and said I had undone myself thereby, and [I] replied that 5 or £6,000 would not undo me; the horses being all my own already, and the arms, by accident coming to Bristol afforded a sudden and cheaper means for it. My father answered, that he did allow that 6 nor £16,000 would not undo me, but the consequence would be that the love and power I had in my country would be perspicuous; although I should have thanks from the King, yet others, though his Majesty’s well-wishers, yet, through envy, they would hate me for it: which I confess I have found too true, and my services have been more retarded by those who called themselves the King’s friends than obstructed by his enemies.

“Pardon me, my Lords, if I detain you a little longer, descending to some particulars as near as I can call to mind; and beginning first to tell your Lordships that I was not privy nor present with his Majesty at Greenwich, when he first took his resolution for the North, and removed without the Queen to Theobalds, from which he was pleased to write me a lamentable letter by the hands of Sir John Byron, averring that he had but £600, and £300 of which was given to defray his horses, which the Marquis of Hamilton, then Master of the Horse, refused to do, fearing to displease the Parliament; but upon such a lamentable complaint, and pressing necessities of my dear master (yet no ways advising him unto the journey), I sent him to Theobalds. 

£3,000

“My Lords, being conscious of this, and many things forgotten by me to set down, I was become proof against anything the King’s enemies could do against me, since by their principles I knew I deserved it; but, since his Majesty’s return and happy restoration it hath almost stupified me to have been so laid by as not to have had any promise made good to me, for which I had his Majesty’s royal word, hand, or even the Great Seal of England; but, of the contrary, I humbly beseech your Lordship’s leave to set down what, with all submission to his Majesty’s will and pleasure, flesh and blood cannot but resent, yet so far only as shall stand with the duty of a loyal subject and the unquenchable zeal of my real heart towards my King and country, and a most humble submission to your Lordships’ better judgment, casting myself wholly at your disposal and favourable construction of what I shall set down, according to the old saying, that—losers may have leave to speak.”

In this proposed address to the House of Peers, the Marquis of Worcester offers some introductory remarks bearing on his parentage, education, and travels; but the burden of his speech is a detailed account of the severe losses himself and his family sustained, consequent on the Civil War, combined with his father’s and his own liberality to Charles the First personally. His proposed plan of laying his case before the House is prefaced with a singular offer on his own part, under four different heads:—

1st. He proposes to raise an auxiliary troop for his Majesty’s Life-guard.

2nd. To cause to be erected a complete ordinary for forty indigent officers.

3rd. To cause a fair causeway to be made, for two miles together, at four of the greatest avenues to the city.

And 4th, to cause £1,000 a year, for ten years, to be allowed towards the building of St. Paul’s.

Then follow items of the various and vast sums expended in the Royalist cause.

His allusion to the Act obtained for his Engine, in 1663, fixes the date of this document at or soon after that period. The amount expended in the Royal cause by his father and himself was so enormous, that it is difficult to understand on what ground he considered he bettered his claim to some compensation, by burdening his statement with four separate offers, calculated to absorb far more than he could ever expect to obtain through a monarch so needy, extravagant, and dissolute as Charles the Second.

Whatever may have been the Marquis of Worcester’s previous private engagements, there is every reason to believe that from the time he was protected by Act of Parliament, he vigorously put forth all his energies to promote the works at Vauxhall, where, aided by Caspar Kaltoff, he soon had one of his “stupendous” engines in operation.

James Rollock, an “ancient servant of his Lordship’s” (as he styles himself), who made some pretence to being a poet, wrote “a Latin Elogium and an English Panegirick, both of them composed through duty and gratitude.” He informs us that, he “hath for forty years been an eye-witness of his great ingenuity:” adding, “I think it not amiss to give further notice in his Lordship’s behalf, that he intends within a moneth or two to erect an Office, and to intrust some very responsible and honourable persons with power to Treat and Conclude with such as desire at a reasonable rate to reap the benefit of the same Water-commanding Engine.”[K] About the same time would also appear to have been issued large posting bills, one rare and curious specimen of which may be seen in the Library of the British Museum,[L] setting forth a short address to the King, followed with the usual “definition” of “A stupendous or a Water-Commanding Engine, boundless for height or quantity.” We have thus very clear evidence that he was employing every possible means at command to impress his claim on public notice.

Then, as regards the Engine itself, it was required by the Act of Parliament, “that a model thereof be delivered to the Lord Treasurer or Commissioners for the Treasury for the time being, at or before the 29th day of September, 1663,” and the same to be “put into the Exchequer and kept there;” a requirement which he was certain to obey punctiliously, not only to avoid dispute, but because nothing was easier for him to perform, through the agency of Kaltoff.

Another remarkable point referring to his Engine is that he concludes the 98th article of his Century, which alludes to it, by saying:—“I call this a semi-omnipotent Engine, and do intend that a model thereof he buried with me.”

And lastly, there was his practical demonstration on a large scale. As early as May 1654, we have an intimation of his being in treaty for works at Vauxhall. Not long afterwards we find his workman Kaltoff settled there, and in one of his Petitions he explicitly mentions having spent “£9,000 on buildings and improvements,” and at least “£50,000 in trying experiments and conclusions of art in that Operatory:”[M] thus actually curtailing his personal comforts to fulfil his engagements with all those persons who confided in his promises to perfect his novel undertaking.

His works and Engine were examined and noticed in 1663, by the French traveller M. Sorbière; in 1666 or 1667 by the eminent mathematician Dr. Robert Hook, whose cynicism unfortunately thwarted his judgment; in 1669, by the Grand Duke, Cosmo de Medici; and we find it still in existence in September, 1670, being then alluded to in a letter written by Walter Travers, a Roman Catholic priest.[N]

We have, therefore, certain evidence that the Marquis of Worcester’s Engine was in full operation for at least seven years, and that one of the conditions of the Act of Parliament obliged him to deposit a model in the Exchequer. His own estimate of its value may be judged by his gladly giving up for the promised tithe of it to the King, his claim on Charles the First equal to £40,000, in lieu thereof.[O]

His Lordship’s invention was never offered by him as a merely amusing trifle; it was not a curious model which might or might not possess some practical advantage; and it was not of a nature of which he was but partially aware, and which it was left to others to apply. It is even possible that as early as 1628 he had set up his Engine in its most simple form of application; and that, improved upon through thirty-five years of study and experimenting, the Engine of 1663 was a master-piece of workmanship and contrivance for that age. His invention was no longer a secret, he had done all that any inventor could possibly be required to perform to establish his claim to be considered as a true and first inventor. His right did not depend on the vague notice first put forth in his Century, but on the actual Engine made, and, for not less than seven years, constantly worked for public inspection at Vauxhall. Any one so disposed could have obtained the same examination of it that was conceded to Sorbière and to Cosmo de Medici. Dr. Hook does not condescend to state what he saw of it; he set out for Lambeth with the intention of going to Vauxhall, but the laughing philosopher may have settled the problem in his own mind, to his own entire satisfaction, without taking any trouble on a supposed foolish errand. We speculate in vain whether among the visitors stimulated by curiosity, or invited by intending shareholders, there were such men as Sir Samuel Morland, the King’s Master of Mechanics; Rupert, Duke of Cumberland; Dr. Sprat, the historian of the Royal Society; Bishop Wilkins, the author of “Mathematical Magic”; the Honourable Robert Boyle, Sir William Petty, Lord Viscount Brouncker, and other distinguished personages.

Without positive facts to guide us we are ever in danger of misjudging a bygone age, and in the present instance it would be imprudent to hazard an opinion on what is no less true than strange, that the Marquis of Worcester entirely failed to arouse public inquiry into the merits of his invention: being treated throughout with an indifference, which, to modern apprehension, appears wholly inexplicable. Yet, so inconsistent is human nature, that the same age which burned and drowned so-called witches, which believed in the transmutation of base metals into gold, put faith in the curative effect of sympathetic powders, and the King’s touch for bodily distempers, saw portents in meteoric phenomena, and considered astrology a sound science, could yet look with stolid indifference on this germ of the steam-engine, unimpressed by what was publicly exhibited, written, printed, and for at least four years made the subject of its inventor’s daily conversation. Books and pamphlets were constantly being published, filled with mysticism, gravely recording the day-dreams of fanatics and impostors, and letters lent their aid to promulgate such fables; yet here was a new agent at work, of such potent power that its like had never been seen, which nevertheless men saw, heard, and listened to in dumb astonishment, with the infantile simplicity of the poor Indian, ignorant of the value of the gold or diamonds strewn in his path.

The early associated scientific men may have been perplexed on finding an individual coming forth, in the sixty-second year of his age, to propound a new doctrine. The suspicion was natural; the cause appeared evident; his project might be a chimera, or an absolute delusion. No one ever so remotely suspected his own want of wisdom. Had the Marquis suddenly dropped from the clouds, or sprung from the earth, he could not have been in himself a much greater phenomenon than he appeared to the virtuosi (as the learned were called) of his day. Such a prodigy had never been heard of, and perhaps will never again appear, as that of a secluded scholar, studying all his life, suddenly coming to light with unheard-of knowledge. If true, he was a Leviathan, and compared with him all must have acknowledged a sense of painful inferiority. The Marquis on his part appears to have acted with unsuspecting confidence and modesty, as one quite unconscious of the intellectual disparity between himself and the professors of mechanical science in his day. However, he neither sought nor formed new acquaintances; he seems to have rested satisfied with his early associates, or his own immediate connexions; so that no one was gratified by his condescension, or induced to proffer advice, through any application on his part. Indeed he mainly looked to the Crown for efficient support; but the luxurious and gay monarch sought only youth and beauty, the banquet, the ball-room, or the tennis-court, and was not to be disturbed in his pleasures by aged philosophy propounding mechanical experiments, and smoky steam-engines. The King carried “Hudibras” in his breast, and might perchance have a copy of the “Century” in some remote cabinet. Need we be surprised that his Lordship’s confidence in succour from such a source was every way misplaced? His treaties with the business world, it is to be feared, ran counter to all accepted forms, the talented philosopher being no plodding trader; so that act as he might for the best, it nevertheless appears to have been his uniform misfortune neither to acquire friends nor conciliate enemies, a posture of affairs not uncommon to fallen greatness.

It is most unfortunate that he did not survive to complete his intended publication of a larger work than the “Century,” presenting his hundred inventions with illustrative engraved plates. But in common candour let it never be overlooked, that we have before us a promise published in 1663, long preceding the devastating plague, which almost depopulated the metropolis in 1665, and the terrible conflagration of 1666, which laid waste the city of London; and that it was in the midst of such accumulated public calamities his health appears to have suddenly given way, aged, harassed, disappointed, and dismayed, when he was prematurely called to his long rest.

Neglected by contemporaries, modern writers have rested satisfied with a detail of some three or four years of his political career in Ireland, and a notice that he possibly possessed some mechanical ability, as giving a sufficiently comprehensive view of his character through a life extending over sixty-six years. This lax course, on the part of his biographers, has favoured the opinion expressed on the Continent, that the invention of the steam-engine is not of English, but of French origin! And this statement has been long colourably supported by means of a forged letter, the subject of which has been graphically represented by the painter, and copied by the lithographer; all attesting the prevailing zealous ardour of France to honour native genius. Thus, as though it were not a sufficient infliction to be ruined, dishonoured, oppressed, and neglected while living, it would almost seem as if events conspired to lessen, if possible, the lustre of his memory by the dark shades of apocryphal history.[R]

The Marquis of Worcester, considered in his true character, was in every sense a learned, deep-thinking, studious, amiable, and good man. He was a Roman Catholic wholly free from religious prejudices, and a most loyal subject without displaying under an adverse change of circumstances any appearance of undue party zeal. In all his public conduct he was invariably consistent, scrupulously conscientious, and strictly honourable and humane. In scientific acquirements he stood grandly alone, not from pride, but rather as the result of a naturally modest retiring habit, probably constitutional, but certainly confirmed by long continued close study, favoured by his early domestic course of life. When at length he was forced to come before the public, he proved himself one of the most extraordinary mechanical geniuses of the seventeenth, or any preceding century; yet he was neither understood nor appreciated in his own day; his surpassing mental endowments were probably lost for want of earlier and fuller exhibition; while the influence of combined prejudice and ignorance served further to obstruct his rising in public estimation. It is, however, the glorious privilege of genius to leave on all its works the sure impress of mighty intellect. The “Century of Inventions,” gradually increasing in public estimation through two hundred years, owes its vitality to its remarkable ingenuity and its concentration of thought; and it cannot fail to happen that each succeeding age will inquire, with increasing interest, into every particular of the singular and touching history of its noble author.

END OF THE LIFE.

THE
CENTURY OF INVENTIONS,

WRITTEN IN 1655;
BY
EDWARD SOMERSET, MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
BEING
A VERBATIM REPRINT
OF
THE FIRST EDITION, PUBLISHED IN 1663.
 

“He was a man, take him for all in all,
We shall not look upon his like again.”

 
WITH
An Introduction and Commentary
BY HENRY DIRCKS, ESQ.,
CIVIL ENGINEER,
AUTHOR OF “PERPETUUM MOBILE, OR HISTORY OF THE SEARCH AFTER SELF-MOTIVE POWER;” “CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF ELECTRO-METALLURGY;” AND “THE LIFE OF SAMUEL HARTLIB;” ALSO INVENTOR OF THE “DIRCKSIAN PHANTASMAGORIA,” PRODUCING THE OPTICAL ILLUSIONS POPULARLY CALLED “THE GHOST!”

INTRODUCTION.

The Middle Ages are usually considered to have closed between 1490 and 1500, only one century previous to the birth of that Marquis of Worcester to whom posterity is indebted for his ever memorable publication, the “Century of Inventions,” of which a reprint is now before the reader. It records the earliest full, though brief, sketch of a practically working Steam-Engine; an invention which, whether in relation to the age in which it was produced, or the difficulties under which it was wrought out, cannot be considered otherwise than as a marvellous effort of ingenuity. The literature and science of that era, as compared with the progressive stages of improvement distinguishing the two succeeding centuries, were barren and meagre indeed. Hallam justly observes: “Learning, which is held pusillanimous by the soldier, unprofitable by the merchant, and pedantic by the courtier, stands in need of some countenance from the ruling powers before whom all three bow down.” But even at that early period Leonardo da Vinci, born 1452, had anticipated Lord Bacon in the universally accepted principle, that experiment and observation must ever be the only sure guides to the forming of just theories in the investigation of nature.

The “Century of Inventions” derives its name rather from the circumstance of the work containing one hundred articles, than the same number of inventions. Its noble author may have had in mind the Centuria di Secreti Politici, Cimichi, e Naturali, by Francesco Scarioni of Parma, duodecimo, printed at Venice in 1626, when he fixed on the quaint title of his own remarkable production.

Among the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum Library is a manuscript copy of the “Century,” the title of which omits the words “at the instance of a powerful friend,” also the motto, date, dedications, and author’s name. It also differs in other respects from the printed edition, by introducing “A stamping Engine” as the 88th article, in place of which its author has printed his account of “A Brazen Head;” the concluding article likewise varies, especially in closing with a short notice of “three sorts” of other inventions “set down in cypher,” but which do not appear. The top of the title page has written on it “From August y^e 29th to Sept. y^e 21st 1659,” probably by the copyist, to notify the time occupied in writing.

The first edition was printed in 1663, during the author’s lifetime, as he died in 1667; and the last edition, with notes by Mr. C. F. Partington, is dated 1825. This last edition professes on the title page to be “from the Original Manuscript”; and, at page 6, alludes to “a manuscript in the Marquis’s handwriting, having been preserved in the Harleian Collection, appended to an original copy of the Century of Inventions.” Now, as no other manuscript is known to exist, it is important to state distinctly that the Manuscript Century in question is neither original nor yet in the handwriting of the Marquis; it is evidently no more than one of those copies, which it was then a common practice to circulate; and the MS. bound up in the same volume with this interesting document, relating to a method of “Cypher writing,” is not in the Marquis’s handwriting.

So far, therefore, from “The Century of Inventions of the Marquis of Worcester, from the Original MS.” being what it thus distinctly professes, it is an amalgamation of the Harleian MS. copy, and the first printed edition. This obliges the introduction of two Nos. 88; but unfortunately there is neither mark, note, nor observation to guide or guard the reader even as to the editor’s numerous emendations; and the result has been such as to render this the most unreliable of all the reprints of the “Century,” which will appear more evident by the unauthorised readings, marked P, in the notes.

The “Century” remained in manuscript from 1655, the period of its author’s release from the Tower, until 1663, the date of the first printed edition; the title page of which repeats the date of its composition, adding, “my former notes being lost;” as he was, however, the inventor of many ciphers or kinds of short-hand, it is probable his lost notes would be written so as to be unreadable without the key. It was printed soon after the passing of the Act for his “Water-commanding Engine,” which is mentioned in the Dedication to the Houses of Parliament.

It has been frequently reprinted singly, as well as produced entire in larger works, of all which publications a list is hereunto annexed.

We subjoin the title pages of the “Century”:—