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Joshua Routledge (27 April 1773 – 8 February 1829) was an engineer and inventor of the early 19th century during the Industrial Revolution.
Mechanical engineering as a profession was on the rise and the advent of the steam age opened up viable career alternatives for many young Englishmen who, like Joshua Routledge, grew up in an agriculture-based society.
Joshua's father was a blacksmith by trade, but he seems to have been pious, curious and adventurous by nature. The Industrial Revolution allowed the advancement of all sorts of radical new ideas in tandem with mechanical innovations. Religious, political, and social reformers took to the highways and byways spreading discontent with the status quo. John Wesley being one reformer whose message took hold in Yorkshire. Wesley's brand of fervent evangelical Methodism encouraged lay preachers, which appealed very much to the working classes, William Routledge (1744-1822) for one. It is known that William with wife Sarah Bell (1746-1819), one-year-old Joshua and his two-year-old sister Dinah (1771-1791), joined a group of Methodists sailing to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1774. Records indicate that the family sailed on board the vessel Two Friends, embarking from Hull, Yorkshire the "week of 28th February to 7th March" and arriving in Halifax on 9 May 1774.
It is certain that the family returned to Yorkshire before 1778 when Joshua's brother Joseph was born in Elvington, a village located about 7 miles southeast of York. Later on, they joined the Methodist movement as active members of the York Circuit, and according to an account by J. D. Greenhalgh published in 1882, William Routledge was among a list of "Wesleyan Methodist ministers admitted...in the year 1800." Bolton Archives & Local Studies: B929.2 ROU
According to a handwritten, unsigned document on file at Bolton Archives (Lancashire)Bolton Archives & Local Studies. Ref. B 920B ROU Routledge acquired a patent for his improved slide rule in 1813 but, to date, no record of this has been traced. It is certain that, in 1805, he published the first known Instructions for the Engineer's Improved Sliding RuleBritish Library, Call 717.a.18 and that numerous editions followed before and after his death in 1829, the most recent being in 1983. (1983). 9780913602577, Ken Roberts Publishing Co. ISBN 9780913602577
A letter from his parents, dated 1811, records that Routledge was associated, at that time, with Thompson, Swift and Co, iron founders and steam engine makers located in Little Bolton, Lancashire, and a notice published in the Manchester Mercury dated 12 November 1811 informs that his partnership with that firm had been dissolved by mutual consent.
About this time, his name appears among the original shareholders of Bolton Gas light and Coke Company supplying gas to the towns of Great Bolton and Little Bolton
In 1822 he entered into a short-lived partnership (dissolved 1824) with William Kay of Bury Lancashire to supply iron pillars to the specification of William Fairbairn for the "fireproof" Hudcar Mill, said to be state-of-the-art for of the day. The Hudcar Mill, built for manufacturer Thomas Haslam, was demolished in 1977. James Pigot's Directory of 1821–22 styles the partnership of Kay and Routledge as Brass and Iron founder and .
Sometime before leaving England, in 1824, for Warsaw, Poland, Routledge undertook another engineering project with Joseph (1765–1842) and Thomas Ridgway (1778–1839) to extend and rearrange the pioneering Wallsuches Bleaching agent Works in Horwich, Lancashire. Wallsuches Bleach Works is preserved as a Grade II listed complex, described as a "rare survival of a once large scale important industry in the Bolton area".
In Poland, Routledge engaged with Thomas Evans & Co of Warsaw to erect a large steam corn mill.Reports of the Curator, Salford Museum: Copy of a letter, dated October 15, 1860, written by William Routledge in response to a request by John Plant, Superintendent & Curator of Salford Museum Art Gallery, for information about Joshua Routledge's career This foundry was the forerunner of Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein, another noteworthy engineering firm distinguished by its expertise in the manufacture of railroad engines and other heavy-duty industrial machinery.
Elizabeth and Benjamin had five children: Mary born in 1813, John in 1815, Benjamin in 1818, William in 1820, and Eliza Rachel in 1821. John Hick, besides his notable engineering career while extending the family firm, distinguished himself as Bolton town councillor for 9 years before serving as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1868 to 1880.
Frances (1777–1844) came from the politically and socially active Bowker family. Her elder brothers, William Bowker (b 1768) and Jonathan (b 1770), made significant contributions to the building and running of Great and Little Bolton during the early 1800s. Bowker's Row, a small street in the heart of Bolton, is named for them. Both Jonathan and William are found on a list of "Bolton Politicians in 1806," and William was elected Boroughreeve in 1812.
During 1819, in reference to the infamous Peterloo Massacre, William Bowker, as Boroughreeve, wrote a letter advising the local Magistrate that the leading men of the town intended to protest by "meeting publicly to address the Prince Regent on the late proceedings at Manchester on the 16th of August last." Joshua Routledge was among the signers of the letter. Bolton Archives & Local Studies: ZHE11/15/82
After Joshua's death, Frances returned to Bolton with their three children: William (1812–1872), Frances (1814–1872), and Henry (1817–1884). William and Henry went into engineering along with their half-brother Samuel Abel. William and Henry both inherited the inventive spirit of their father, having, between the two, qualified for numerous mechanical patents in their day.British Library: Business and Intellectual Property Centre Their sister Frances remained unmarried and nothing more of her career is known.
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