In his biography, Sir William Fairbairn describes the heroic way in which he mastered the difficulties of early years, and became famous. It really seems that there is something in the air, or in the nature of the inhabitants, of the northern districts of the kingdom, which has a tendency, more or less, to make a man rise in the world. The poet tells us how
“Caledonia, stern and wild,
Is meet nurse for poetic child.”
Though, as to that, neither Burns nor Scott had much to do with that part of Scotland we call stern and wild. But the country may claim to do more for her sons. Every one of them seems born with a thirst for getting on in the world, for revolving not to be contented with that position in life in which Providence has placed him; and thus it is, that when we come to examine minutely into the lives of our heroes, industrial or otherwise, we find that most of them were Scotchmen, or, more or less, had Scotch blood in their veins.
Of this we have a remarkable illustration in the case of the late Sir William Fairbairn, who was, moreover, a worthy representative of a class of men to whom we owe, in a large measure, the wealth and prosperity our country now enjoys.
William Fairbairn was born in the town of Kelso, in Roxburghshire on February 19th, 1789. His father, Andrew, was descended, on the male side, from a humble but respectable class of small lairds, or, as they were called, Portioners, who farmed their own land, as was the custom in Scotland in those days. On the female side the pedigree may have been of higher character, for Andrew’s mother was said by him to have claimed descent from the ancient border family of Douglas. She was a tall, handsome, and commanding woman, and lived to a great age. William’s mother was a Miss Henderson, the daughter of a tradesman in Jedburgh, and the direct descendant of an old border family of the name of Oliver, for many years respectable stock-farmers in a pastoral district at the northern foot of the Cheviots. The lad was early sent to school, and made fair progress in what may be called a plain English education. He was fond of athletic exercises, and one of his feats was to climb to the top of the mouldering turrets of the old abbey at Kelso. In the autumn of 1799, the position of the family materially altered. The father was offered the charge of a farm, 300 acres, in Ross-shire, which was to be the joint property of himself and his brother, Mr. Peter Fairbairn, for many years a resident in that county, and secretary to Lord Seaforth, of Castle Braham; and there, in an evil hour, the family removed. But it was there that young William, who was compelled to make himself generally useful, first exhibited his taste for mechanics. The father next became steward to Mackenzie, of Allan Grange; and at the school at Mullochy, which the boy attended, he describes the advantage derived by himself and his brother from wearing Saxon costumes instead of Tartan kilts. The master was a severe disciplinarian, and he found English trousers very much in the way of his favourite punishment. After two years the family moved south, and William’s father became steward to Sir William Ingleby, of Ingleby Manor, near Knaresborough. After a few months spent in improving himself in arithmetic, in studying book-keeping and land surveying, William, being a tall lad of fourteen, was sent to work at Kelso. About this time the family were in much difficulty; but the father got a better post at Percy Main Colliery, near North Shields, and his son followed him there. Wages were very high, and the demoralisation amongst the men was such as, Sir William tells us, he never saw before or since. Pitched battles, brawling, drinking, and cock-fighting, seemed to be the order of the day. Among the pit lads boxing was considered a necessary exercise. And Fairbairn tells us he had to fight no less than seventeen battles before he was enabled to attain a position calculated to insure respect. In March, 1804, he was put into a better and more definite position by entering regularly on a course of education as mechanical engineer. He was bound apprentice to the millwright of the colliery for seven years, and was to receive wages beginning with five shillings a-week, and increasing to twelve. Sometimes, he tells us, with extra work he doubled the amount of his wages, by which he was enabled to render assistance to his parents. This, we take it, shows the lad was a good one, and the bad manners of his mates had not corrupted him. This appears still further when we see how resolute were his efforts after self-improvement. “I became,” he writes, “dissatisfied with the persons I had to associate with at the shop; and feeling my own ignorance, I became fired with ambition to remedy the evil, and cut out for myself a new path of life. I shortly came to the conclusion that no difficulties should frighten, nor the severer labour discourage me in the attainment of the object I had in view. Armed with the resolution, I set to work in the first year of my apprenticeship, and having written out a programme, I commenced the winter course in double capacity of both scholar and schoolmaster, and arranged my study as follows:—Monday evenings for arithmetic, mensuration, &c.; Tuesday reading, history, and poetry; Wednesday, recreation, reading novels and romances; Thursday, mathematics; Friday Euclid, trigonometry; Saturday, recreation and sundries; Sunday, church, Milton, and recreation.” In this noble course the young man persevered, in spite of the ridicule of his mates. The battle thus manfully begun was fought bravely to the last. He was aided in his studies by a ticket, given him by his father, to the North Shields Subscription Library; and by the same tender passion which turned Quentin Mastys from a blacksmith into an artist. We quote Sir William’s account of his intellectual improvement whilst making love to the lady whom, however, he did not ultimately marry. During his courtship, he tells us, “I was led into a course of letter-writing, which improved my style, and gave me greater facilities of expression. The truth is, I could not have written on any subject if it had not been for this circumstance; and my attempts at essays, in the shape of papers which I had read with avidity in the Spectator, may be traced to my admiration of this divinity.
“In the enthusiasm of my first attachment, it was my good fortune to fall upon a correspondence between two lovers, Frederick and Felicia, in the ‘Town and Country Magazine’ for the year 1782, Nos. 3 and 4. This correspondence was of some length, and was carried from number to number in a series of letters. Frederick was the principal writer; and although greatly above me in station, yet his sentiments harmonised so exactly with mine, that I sat down at Frederick’s desk and wrote to my Felicia with emotions as strong as any Frederick in existence. Frederick, by his writing, was evidently a gentleman; and in order to prepare myself for so much goodness as I had conjured up in Mary, I commenced the correspondence by first reading the letter in the magazine, and then shut the book for the reply, and to write the letter that Frederick was supposed to have written. I then referred to the book, and how bitter was my disappointment at finding my expressions unconnected and immeasurably inferior to those of the writer. Sometimes I could trace a few stray expressions which I thought superior to his; but, as a whole, I was miserably deficient. In this way did I make love, and in this way I inadvertently rendered one of the strongest passions of our nature subservient to the means of improvement. For three successive winters I contrived to go through a complete system of mensuration and as much algebra as enabled me to solve an equation, and a course of trigonometry, navigation, heights and distances, &c. This was exclusive of my reading, which was always attractive, and gave me the greatest pleasure. I had an excellent library at Shields, which I went to twice a-week, and here I read Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ Hume’s ‘History of England,’ Robertson’s ‘History of Scotland,’ ‘America,’ ‘Charles the Fifth,’ and many other works of a similar character, which I read with the utmost attention. I also read some of our best poets, amongst which were Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost,’ Shakspeare, Cowper, Goldsmith, Burns, and Kirke White. With this course of study I spent long evenings, sometimes sitting up late; but having to be at the shop at six in the morning, I did not usually prolong my studies much beyond eleven or twelve o’clock.
“During those pursuits I must, in truth, admit that my mind was more upon my studies than my business. I made pretty good way in the mere operative part; but, with the exception of arithmetic and mathematics, I made little or no progress in the principles of the profession; on the contrary, I took a dislike to the work and the parties by whom I was surrounded.
“The possession of tools, and the art of using them, renewed my taste for mechanical pursuits. I tried my skill at different combinations, and, like most inventors whose minds are more intent upon making new discoveries than acquiring the knowledge of what has been done by others, I frequently found myself forestalled in the very discovery which I had persuaded myself was original. For many months I laboured incessantly in devising a piece of machinery that should act as a time-piece, and at the same time as an orrery, representing the sun as a centre, with the earth and moon, and the whole planetary system, revolving round it. This piece of machinery was to be worked by a weight and a pendulum, and was not only to give the diurnal motions of the heavenly bodies, but to indicate the time of their revolutions in their orbits round the sun. All this was to be done in accordance with one measure of time, which the instrument, if it could be completed, was to record. I looked upon this piece of machinery as a perfectly original conception, and nothing prevented me from making the attempt to carry it into execution but the want of means, and the difficulties which surrounded me in the complexity and numerous motions necessary to make it an useful working machine. The consideration of this subject was not, however, lost, as I derived great advantage in the exercise which it gave to the thoughts. It taught me the advantage of concentration and of arranging my ideas, and of bringing the whole powers of the mind with energy to bear upon one subject. It further directed my attention to a course of reading on mechanical philosophy and astronomy, from which I derived considerable advantage.
“Finding the means at my disposal much too scanty to enable me to make a beginning with my new orrery, I turned my attention to music, and bought an old Hamburgh fiddle, for which I gave half-a-crown. This was a cheap bargain, even for such a miserable instrument; and what with new bracing of catgut and a music-book, I spent nearly a week’s wages, a sum which I could ill afford, to become a distinguished musician. I, however, fresh rigged the violin, and with a glue-pot carefully closed all the openings which were showing themselves between the back and sides of the instrument. Having completed the repairs, I commenced operations, and certainly there never was a learner who produced less melody or a greater number of discords. The effect was astounding; and after tormenting the whole house with discordant sounds for two months, the very author of the mischief tumbled to pieces in my hands, to the great relief of every member of the family.”
As an illustration of the benefit of learning a business well, I will quote a paragraph from the “busy hives around us.” After describing the large establishment of Messrs. Kershaw, Leese, and Co., Manchester, the writer adds—“There is a moral to our sketch. Mr. Kershaw, owner of a splendid warehouse, two factories, a cotton lord, merchant prince, and senator of the realm, was once a poor Manchester boy, and is not an old man now (1878). As he set Manchester an example of good taste and wise magnificence, so he stands an example to all young men of what untiring diligence may achieve. He rose in his house of business because he learned his business well. He waited not upon fortune from without, but worked out his own future from within. He became one of the many of the illustrious men whom Lancashire points to as her pride.”