Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Martin, William (1772-1851)

by Thomas Seccombe (1866-1923)

MARTIN, WILLIAM (1772–1851), ‘natural philosopher and poet,’ born on 21 June 1772, at the Twohouse in Haltwhistle, hard by the Roman Wall, in Northumberland, was eldest son of Fenwick Martin, by his wife Ann, daughter of Richard Thompson. The father, who was successively a tanner, a publican, and a coach-builder, had four sons, the two youngest of whom, Jonathan (1782–1838) and John (1789–1854), are separately noticed; the second son, Richard, was a quartermaster in the guards, who served through the Peninsular war, and was present at Waterloo, and there was one daughter, Ann. William left his native place in 1775 for Cantyre, in company with his mother's parents, who held a small highland farm from the Duke of Argyll. On the death of his grandparents, he went to live with his father, then in business at Ayr. There he says he often saw ‘the celebrated Scotch bard, Robert Burns,’ and he adds, ‘I think I never saw him sober—to my knowledge.’ In 1794 he was working in a ropery at Howdon dock, and in the following year he joined the Northumberland regiment of militia at Durham. On his discharge in 1805 he ‘got a patent for shoes, and began to study the perpetual motion, and discovered it at the result of thirty-seven different inventions,’ including original contrivances for fan ventilators, safety lamps, and railways. The pretensions of Sir Humphry Davy and George Stephenson to discoveries in the same field he denounced as dishonest, and claimed to have confuted Newton's theory of gravitation. Martin proceeded in 1808 to London, where he exhibited and sold (for an absurdly small sum) his foolish and redundant patent for perpetual motion (see Dircks, Perpetuum Mobile, 2nd ser. p. 200). In the following year he returned to his modest trade of rope-making, and in 1810 to the militia. Passing over to Ireland with his regiment, he made shift to acquire during his moments of leisure the elements of line engraving.

Despite his quackery and buffoonery, Martin possessed much ingenuity as a mechanician, and in 1814 was presented with the Isis silver medal by the Society of Arts for the invention of a spring weighing machine with circular dial and index. In the same year he married ‘a celebrated dressmaker,’ whom he also describes as ‘an inoffensive woman’ (she died 16 Jan. 1832), and founded the ‘Martinean Society,’ based, in opposition to the Royal Society, upon the negation of the Newtonian theory of gravitation. In 1821 he published ‘A New System of Natural Philosophy on the Principle of Perpetual Motion, with a Variety of other Useful Discoveries.’ He henceforth styled himself ‘Anti-Newtonian,’ and commenced a series of lectures setting forth his views in the Newcastle district. In 1830 he made an extended lecturing tour throughout England, from which he returned triumphant, declaring that no one had dared to defend the Newtonian system. In 1833 he issued in his followers' behoof ‘A Short Outline of the Philosopher's Life, from being a Child in Frocks to the Present Day, after the Defeat of all Impostors, False Philosophers, since the Creation. … The Burning of York Minster is not left out, and an Account of the Four Brothers and one Sister.’ Prefixed is a portrait after Henry Perlee Parker [q. v.] , and the British Museum copy contains a number of manuscript additions by the author. In 1837 he exhibited in Newcastle an ingenious mail carriage to be propelled upon rails by means of a winch and toothed wheel. He was at this time residing at Wallsend, whence he issued periodically his lucubrations with the signature ‘Wm. Martin, Nat. Phil. and Poet.’ He affected extreme singularity of attire, and hawked his books or exhibited his inventions among the Northumbrian miners. His later mechanical efforts—some undoubtedly both useful and ingenious—included models for a lifeboat and a lifebuoy, a self-acting railway gate, and a design for a high-level bridge over the Tyne. His last days were passed in comfort at his brother John's house at Chelsea, where he died on 9 Feb. 1851.

Martin's chief printed works—all published at Newcastle—are, exclusive of single sheets and minor pamphlets:

1. ‘Harlequin's Invasion, a new Pantomine [sic] engraved and published by W. M.,’ 1811, 8vo.
2. ‘A New Philosophical Song or Poem Book, called the Northumberland Bard, or the Downfall of all False Philosophy,’ 1827, 8vo.
3. ‘W. M.'s Challenge to the whole Terrestrial Globe as a Philosopher and Critic, and Poet and Prophet, showing the Travels of his Mind, the quick Motion of the Soul,’ &c. (verse) [1829], 8vo; 2nd edit. 1829.
4. ‘The Christian Philosopher's Explanation of the General Deluge, and the Proper Cause of all the Different Strata,’ 1834, 8vo.
5. ‘The Thunder Storm of Dreadful Forked Lightning; God's Judgement against all False Teachers. … Including an Account of the Railway Phenomenon, the Wonder of the World!’ 1837.
6. ‘The Defeat of the Eighth Scientific Meeting of the British Association of Asses, which we may properly call the Rich Folks' Hopping, or the False Philosophers in an Uproar’ [1838], 8vo.
7. ‘Light and Truth, M.'s Invention for Destroying all Foul Air and Fire Damps in Coal Pits, [proving also] the Scriptures to be right which learned Men are mystifying, and proving the Orang-outang or Monkey, the most unlikely thing under the Sun to be the Serpent that Beguiled our First Parents,’ 1838, 8vo.
8. ‘An Exposure of a New System of Irreligion … called the New Moral World, promulgated by R. Owen, Esq., whose Doctrine proves him a Child of the Devil,’ 1839, 8vo.
9. ‘W. Martin, Christian Philosopher. The Exposure of Dr. Nichol, the Impostor and Mock Astronomer of Glasgow College’ [1839], 8vo.
10. ‘W. Martin, Philosophical Conqueror of all Nations. Also a Challenge for all College Professors to prove this Wrong, and themselves Right, and that Air is not the first great Cause of all Things Animate and Inanimate,’ verse [1846], 8vo.

[Gent. Mag. 1851 i. 327–8 1854, i. 433; Richardson's Table Book, iii. 137–8, iv. 366; Sykes's Local Records, ii. 241; Latimer's Local Records, p. 292; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vol. xii. passim; Martin's Short Account and Works in British Museum Library.]

T. S.