DICTIONARY
of
NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
BOTTOMLEY, JOSEPH (fl. 1820), musician, was born at Halifax in Yorkshire in 1786. His parentage is not recorded, but his musical education was begun at a very early age; when only seven years old he played a violin concerto in public. At the age of twelve he was sent to Manchester, where he studied under Grimshaw, organist of St. John's Church, and Watts, the leader of the concerts. Under Watts's direction he at the some time carried on his violin studies with Yaniewicz, then resident in Manchester. In 1801 Bottomley was articled to Lawton, the organist of St. Peter's, Leeds, and on the expiration of his term removed to London to study the pianoforte under Wœlfl. In 1807 Bottomley returned to his native county, and obtained the appointment of organist to the parish church of Bradford, but he made Halifax his home, where he had a large teaching connection. In 1820 he was appointed organist of Sheffield parish church, which post he held for some considerable time. The date of his death is uncertain. Bottomley published several original works, including 'Six Exercises for Pianoforte,' twelve sonatinas for the same instrument, two divertissements with flute accompaniment, twelve valses, eight rondos, ten airs varies, a duo for two pianos, and a small dictionary of music (8vo), published in London in 1816,
[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians; Watt's Bibl. Brit. pt. i. 138 a.]
BOUCH, Sir Thomas (1822–1880), civil engineer, the third son of William Bouch, a captain in the mercantile marine, was born in the village of Thursley, Cumberland, on 23 Feb. 1822. A lecture by his first teacher, Mr. Joseph Hannah, of Thursby, 'On the Raising of Water in Ancient and Modern Times,' made so great an impression on his mind that he at once commenced reading books on mechanics. His first entrance into business was in a mechanical engineering establishment at Liverpool. At the age of seventeen he engaged himself to Mr. Larmer, civil engineer, who was then constructing the Lancaster and Carlisle railway. Here he remained four years. In November 1844 he proceeded to Leeds, where he was employed for a short time under Mr. George Leather, M. Inst. C.E. Subsequently he was for four years one of the resident engineers on the Stockton and Darlington railway. In January 1849 he left Darlington and assumed the position of manager and engineer of the Edinburgh and Northern railway. This engagement first brought to his notice the inconvenient breaks in railway communication caused by the wide estuaries of the Forth and the Tay, the efforts to remedy which afterwards occupied so much of his attention. His proposal was to cross the estuaries by convenient steam ferries, and he prepared and carried into effect plans for a 'floating railway'—a system for shipping goods trains which has ever since been in operation. Soon after completing this work Bouch left the service of the Northern railway and engaged in general engineering business. He designed and carried out nearly three hundred miles of railways in the north of England and Scotland, the chief of these being the South Durham and Lancashire Union, fifty miles long, and the Peebles, ten miles long, the latter being considered the pattern of a cheaply constructed line. On the introduction of the tramway system he was extensively engaged in laving out lines, including some of the London tramways, the Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dundee tramways, and many others. In the course of his
