James, a most uncommon genius for mechanical inventions, and particularly excellent in planning and conducting inland navigations, was born, 1716, at Tunstead in Derbyshire. Through the mismanagement of his father (for there was some little property in his house) his education was totally neglected; and, at seventeen, he bound himself apprentice to a mill-wright, near Macclesfield, in Cheshire. He served his apprenticeship; and, afterwards, setting up for himself, advanced the mill-wright business, by inventions and contrivances of his own, to a degree of perfection which it had not attained before. His fame, as a most ingenious mechanic, spreading widely, his genius was no longer confined to the business of his profession: for, in 1752, he erected a very extraordinary water-engine at Clifton, in Lancashire, for the Brindley purpose of draining coal-mines; and, in 1755, was employed to execute the larger wheels for a new fulling mill, at Congleton, in Cheshire. The potters of Staffordshire were also, about this time, indebted to him for several valuable additions in the mills used by them for grinding flint-flakes. In 1756, he undertook to erect a steam-engine near Newcastle-under-Line upon a new plan; and it is believed that he would have brought this engine to a great degree of perfection, if some interested engineers had not opposed him.

His attention, however, was soon afterwards called off to another object, which, in its consequences, hath proved of high importance to trade and commerce; namely, the projecting and executing "Inland navigations." By these navigations the expense of carriage is lessened; a communication is opened from one part of the kingdom to another, and from each of these parts to the sea; and hence products and manufactures are afforded at a moderate price. The duke of Bridgewater hath, at Worley, about seven miles from Manchester, a large estate abounding with coal, which had hitherto lain useless, because the expense of land-carriage was too great to find a market for consumption. The duke, willing to work these mines, perceived the necessity of a canal from Worley to Manchester; upon which occasion Brindley, now become famous, was consulted; and declaring the scheme practicable, an act for this purpose was obtained in 1758 and 1759. It being, however, afterwards discovered, that the navigation would be more beneficial, if carried over the river Irwell to Manchester, another act was obtained to vary the course of the canal agreeably to the new plan, and likewise to extend a side-branch to Longford-bridge in Stretford. Brinley, in the mean time, had begun these great works, being the first of the kind ever attempted in England, with navigable subterraneous tunnels and elevated aqueducts; and, as in order to preserve the level of the water, it should be free from the usual obstructions of locks, he carried the canal over rivers, and many large and deep valleys. When it was completed as far as Barton, where the Irwell was navigable for large vessels, he proposed to carry it over that river, by an aqueduct of thirty-nine feet above the surface of the water; and though this project was treated as wild and chimerical, yet, supported by his noble patron, he began his work in Sept. 1760, and the first boat sailed over it in July 1761. The duke afterwards extended his ideas to Liverpool; and obtained, in 1762, an act for branching his canal to the tideway in the Mersey; this part of the canal is carried over the rivers Mersey and Bolland, and over many wide and deep valleys.

The success of the duke of Bridgewater's undertakings encouraged a number of gentlemen and manufacturers in Staffordshire, to revive the idea of a canal-navigation through that county; and Brindley was, therefore, engaged to make a survey from the Trent to the Mersey. In 1766, this canal was begun, and conducted under Brindley's direction as long as he lived; but finished after his death by his brother-in-law Mr Marshall, of whom he had a great opinion, in May 1777. The proprietors called it, "the canal from the Trent to the Mersey;" but the engineer, more emphatically, "the Grand Trunk Navigation," Brindley, on account of the numerous branches, which, as he justly supposed, would be extended every way from it. It is 93 miles in length; and, besides a large number of bridges over it, has 76 locks and five tunnels. The most remarkable of the tunnels is the subterranean passage of Harecastle, being 2882 yards in length, and more than 70 yards below the surface of the earth. The scheme of this inland navigation had employed the thoughts of the ingenious part of the kingdom for upwards of 20 years before; and some surveys had been made: but Harecastle hill, through which the tunnel is constructed, could neither be avoided nor overcome by any expedient the most able engineers could devise. It was Brindley alone who surmounted this and other like difficulties, arising from the variety of strata and quicksands, as no one but himself would have attempted to conquer.

Brindley was engaged in many other similar undertakings; for a fuller account of which, not being consistent with our plan, we refer the reader to the "Biographia Britannica;" or rather to a curious and valuable pamphlet, published some years since, and entitled, "The History of Inland Navigations, particularly that of the duke of Bridgewater." He died at Tunshill in Staffordshire, September 27, 1772, in his 56th year; somewhat immaturely, as it should seem; but he is supposed to have shortened his days by too intense application, and to have brought on a hectic fever, which continued on him for some years before it consumed him. For he never indulged and relaxed himself in the common diversions of life, as not having the least relish for them; and, though once prevailed on to see a play in London, yet he declared that he would on no account be present at another; because it so disturbed his ideas for several days after, as to render him unfit for business. When any extraordinary difficulty occurred to him in the execution of his works, he generally retired to bed; and has been known to lie there one, two, or three days, till he has surmounted it. He would then get up, and execute his design without any drawing or model: for he had a prodigious memory, and carried everything in his head.

As his station in life was low, and his education totally neglected, so his exterior accomplishments were suitable to them. He could indeed read and write, but both very indifferently; and he was perhaps, in his way, as abnormis sapiens—"of mother-wit, and wife without the schools"—as any man that ever lived. "He is as plain a looking man as one of the boors in the Peake, or one of his own carters; but when he speaks, all ears listen; and every mind is filled with wonder, at the things he pronounces to be practicable." The same author gives us also no ungracious idea of his moral make: "being great in himself, he harbours no contracted notions, no jealousy of rivals; he conceals not his methods of proceeding, nor asks patents to secure the sole use of the machines, which he invents and exposes to public view. Sensible that he must one day cease to be, he selects men of genius, teaches them the power of mechanics, and employs them on carrying on the various undertakings in which he is engaged. It is not to the duke of Bridgewater only that his services are confined: he is of public utility, and employs his talents in rectifying the mistakes of depriving workmen, &c. His powers shine most in the midst of difficulties; when rivers and mountains seem to thwart his designs, then appears his vast capacity, by which he makes them subservient to his will."