British civil engineering biography, part 1: 1500 to 1790

According to Ralph Emerson, ‘There is properly no history; only biography’. This paper is the first of two papers based on research undertaken for the ICE Archive Panel book Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers of Great Britain and Ireland 1500–1830, which traces the development of the British civil engineering profession. This paper covers the era up to the dawn of a mature profession in 1790, identifying some of the leading practitioners and their works. It also provides data on the professional interests of the early ‘engineers’ and the growth in civil engineering activity since the Middle Ages.