Obituary of the extraordinary William Playfair

[dognose]

Obituary of the extraordinary William Playfair (Grimwade 3276)

William Playfair was a man of many roles, including that of a silversmith. He entered his mark at Goldsmiths Hall, London, in partnership with William Wilson on the 16th May 1782, the address entered was 2, Portland Road, Great Portland Street, Marybone.

William Playfair died on the 11th February 1823, in London, in his 64th year.

William Playfair was the son of a clergyman in the neighbourhood of Dundee, and was born in 1759. His father dying when he was young, his education and support principally rested on his elder brother, the late celebrated Professor John Playfair, who was then a Minister of the Church of Scotland. Both brothers were men of strong understandings, but that of John was better disciplined by a college life than that of William, buffeted about as the latter was in the world, in attempting to realize his numerous projects. Discovering an early taste for the mechanical arts, Mr. William Playfair was, when of a sufficient age, apprenticed for a short period to a millwright of the name of Mickle, where he had for his fellow apprentice John Rennie, the celebrated engineer. He subsequently quitted Scotland for England, and proceeding to Birmingham, was engaged in 1780, as a draughtsman at Soho, in the employment of Mr. James Watt.

Had Mr. Playfair cultivated his mechanical genius, there is no doubt that he would not only have obtained considerable eminence, but have rendered no inconsiderable service to his country. Unhappily, however, for his own interests, he had the ambition to become an author.

Few individuals of the present day have written so much or so consistently as Mr. Playfair. Politics and political economy were his favourite topics, and there has scarcely been a subject of public interest, connected with either, during the last forty years, that has not elicited a pamphlet from his prolific pen. Firmly devoted to the interests of his country, he never suffered any opportunity of serving it by his pen to escape him, though his exertions went unrewarded, and he often incurred expenses which his circumstances could very ill bear. As one instance of the neglect with which Mr. Playfair was treated, we may mention, that although he was the person who furnished the plan and alphabet of the telegraph to the British Government, which enabled it to adopt a system of communication then so successfully employed by our great enemy, yet his services were not only unrequited, but even very tardily acknowledged. Mr. Playfair happened to be at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, when a member of the parliament of Bourdeaux arrived at the same inn, and described to him a telegraph, which had been erected on the mountain of Belville. Mr. Playfair, of whose mechanical powers we shall speak hereafter, soon comprehended the plan, and, in the course of the next day, executed two working models of the instrument, which he sent to the Duke of York, " and hence," says the Encyclopedia Britannica, " the plan and alphabet of the machine came to England."

Although from this time, the cacoethes scribendi became his ruling passion, yet it was not the only one, and Mr. Playfair successively obtained five patents for various inventions. One of them was for making sashes of metal, composed of copper, zinc, and iron, which he called eldorado sashes, and with which several windows in Carlton House, and some door sashes in the British Museum, are fitted up.

Mr. Playfair also invented a machine to complete the ornamental part or fret work of silver tea-boards and sugar tongs, which had hitherto been executed by the hand only. The same machine was applicable to the manufacture of coach-ornaments, buckles, and even horse-shoes. Of the latter, it made six dozen and a half, from the iron bars, in seven minutes.

After residing some time in London, where Mr. Playfair opened a silversmith's shop for the sale of plate of his own manufacture, he proceeded to Paris, and entered into some mechanical speculations, particularly a rolling mill on a new plan, for which he had obtained an exclusive privilege from the king. While residing in that capital, he formed an acquaintance with Mr. Joel Barlow, who had been sent agent to Paris for the sale of lands on the banks of the Sioto, a river which falls into the Ohio. These lands, to the extent of three millions of acres, had been purchased by a company at New York, of which Mr. Duer, an eminent merchant, and Mr. Hamilton, secretary to the United States' treasury, were leading members. Mr. Barlow being without connections in Paris, and unacquainted with the language, found some difficulty in carrying his object into effect, until introduced to Mr. Playfair, who undertook the disposal of the lands. The French revolution rendering emigration a matter of choice to some, and of necessity to more, Mr. Playfair undertook the agency, to dispose of the lands, at five shillings per acre, one half of which was to be paid on signing the act of sale, and the other half to remain on mortgage to the United States, to be paid within two years after taking possession. The office was opened in a large hotel in the Rue Neiive des Petits Champs, contiguous to the Palais Royal, in November 1789, under the title of the Sioto Company; and, in less than two months, fifty thousand acres of land were sold. Two vessels sailed from Havre de Grace, laden with emigrants; and the colony of Sioto, thus formed by Mr. Playfair, though not a very flourishing, is an improving settlement.

The political opinions of Mr. Playfair were not very favourable to the French Revolution, and happening to express himself somewhat freely on the subject, he provoked the enmity of Barrere, who obtained an order for his arrest; apprised, however, of his danger, he succeeded in making his escape to Holland, and thence to England. On his return to London, Mr. Playfair projected a bank, to be called the Security Bank, in which Mr. Hartsinck, formerly in the celebrated house of the Hopes at Amsterdam, and the Rev. Mr. Hutchinson, became partners. This bank was opened in Cornhill; its object was to divide large securities into small ones, and thus to facilitate the negotiation of small loans. Unfortunately, however, sufficient attention was not paid to the nature of the security, and bankruptcy ensued. From this period we have only to consider Mr. Playfair as a literary man, whose life, like that of most authors, was much chequered. Of his activity, the following list of his works will bear ample evidence :–

1. Joseph and Benjamin.–2. Regulations for the Interest of Money, 1785.– 3. The Statistical Breviary, showing on a principle entirely new, the Resources of every State and Kingdom of Europe. –4. The Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786–5. On the Asiatic Establishments of Great Britain, 4to.–6. The inevitable Consequences of a Reform in Parliament.–7. A general View of the actual Force and Resources of France, 1793.–8. Better Prospects to the Merchants and Manufacturers of Great- Britain, 1793.–9. Thoughts upon the present State of French Politics, 1793. –10. Peace with the Jacobins impossible, 1794.–11. Letter to Earl Fitzwilliam, occasioned by his two Letters to the Earl of Carlisle, 1794.–12. The History of Jacobinism, 1795–13. A real Statement of the Finances and Resources of Great Britain, 1796 14. Statistical Tables, exhibiting a View of all the States of Europe, 4to. 1800– 15. Proofs relative to the Falsification, by the French, of the intercepted Letters found on board the Admiral Aplin East Indiaman, 8vo. 18O4.–16. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Decline and Fall of wealthy and powerful Nations, 4to. 1805,2nd edit. 1807–17. Smith's Wealth of Nations, with notes, supplementary chapters, &c. 11 edit. 3 vols. 8vo. 18O6 18. A Statistical Account of the United States of America, translated from the French, 8vo. 1807.–19. Plan for Establishing the Balance of Power in Europe, 8vo. 1813–20. British Family Antiquity, 9 vols. 4to.–21. An Address to the Nobility on the Advantages of Hereditary Rank, 8vo–22. A second Address to ditto.–23. On the Trade of India, by P. O'Hara 24. Ecce Iterum. – 25. Letter to Lords and Commons in Support of the Apprentice Laws.–26. Early Friends of the Prince Regent.–27. Vindication of the Reign of George III–28. A Letter to the Prince Regent, on the ultimate Tendency of the Roman Catholic Claims; containing also a clear Statement of the Operation of the Sinking Fund. &c. –29. Buonaparte's Journey to Moscow, in the IVI aimer of John Gilpin, 1813.–30. Statement to Earl Bathurst, on the Escape of Napoleon from Elba, &c.– 31. Letters to Earl Bathurst, Messrs. Abercromby, and Morier.–32. [An Answer to the Calumniators of Louis XVIII., 1815.– 33. Political Portraits in this New Mra, 2 vols. 1814.–34. Supplement to Political Portraits.–35. France as it is, not Lady Morgan's France.–36. On Emigration to France.–37. On Agricultural Distress.–38. The Tomahawk, a periodical, published daily at 2d. during the session of 1795. Of this work, Mr. Playfair was joint proprietor and editor with the late much- esteemed Dr. Arnold. Mr. Playfair wrote the leading article, and some of our living dramatists contributed towards the poetical department of the Tomahawk,–39. Anticipation; a weekly paper, which was for some time honoured with the patronage of the late Mr. Windham. It was, we believe, published about (he year 1808, and did not reach more than twenty or thirty numbers.–40. Montefiore on the Bankrupt Laws,–41. European Commerce, by Jephson Ody, Esq. These two. works, though published under the names of the gentlemen last mentioned, were written by Mr. Playfair. The above list is very imperfect; nor is it possible to render it otherwise. There can be no doubt that, including pamphlets, Mr. Playfair was the author of at least a hundred distinct works. Of the whole of his publications, the " History of Jacobinism," and the " Inquiry into the Causes of the Decline and Fall of Wealthy and Powerful Nations," are perhaps the best; though the Statistical Breviary and Atlas display great ingenuity in simplifying statistical details, by means of geometrical lines and figures. These works were the means of introducing Mr. Playfair to the friendship of the late Marquis of Lansdown, and several distinguished members of the legislature. The notes to Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations" exhibit considerable knowledge of political economy.

On the restoration of the Bourbons. Mr. Playfair went again to Paris; and there conducted Galignani's English Newspaper, until driven away by a prosecution for some insignificant libel. From that time he existed in London by essay-writing and translating. His constitution, however, being broken up, and his means having become precarious, anxiety of mind completed what bodily indisposition had begun; and on the 11th of Feb. 1823, he died in Covent- Garden, in the 64th year of his age.

In private life Mr. Playfair was inoffensive and amiable; not prepossessing in his appearance and address, but with a strong and decided physiognomy, like that of his late brother. With a thoughtlessness that is too frequently allied to genius, he neglected to secure that provision for his family, which, from his talents, they were justified to expect; and although he laboured ardently and abundantly for his country, yet he found it ungrateful, and was left in age and infirmity to regret that he had neglected his own interests to promote those of the public.

He has left a widow and four children, two sons and two daughters. One of his sons was a lieutenant in the 104th regiment, who, on its being disbanded in Canada, turned his attention to mechanics, and superintended the construction of a saw-mill, though bred only to the military profession. One of Mr. Playfair's daughters is blind; as the child of a person whose life was devoted to the service of the British government, she has strong claims on its bounty, and we trust they will not be overlooked.

Source: The Annual Biography and Obituary for the Year ...
Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1824

Trev.
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[buckler]

A very useful find Trev.

My own notes on him, are only buckle related.

26 February 1782
Patent No 1466 in the name of William PLAYFAIR
Making buckles of silver or other metal, plating the surface of copper or other metals with gold or silver


16 May 1782
Entered joint mark as smallworkers as William PLAYFAIR and William Wilson at 2, Portland Place, Great Portland Street , Marybone
( B2/p12Ba)

Heal records them also as Playfair Wilson & Co, working silversmiths , near Rathbone Place 1784 (C2/p13Ad)

1 April 1785
An advertisement in the Times
William Playfair and Co offer Silver Buckles. "A complete Assortment of Buckles as well as the Plated Goods and Jewellery" at
their manufactory London Street, Tottenham Court Road

16 July 1785
An advertisement in the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser
FASHIONABLE SILVER BUCKLES, PATENT KNEE BUCKLES .. .. .. At the Eldorado Manufacturory, London Street, Tootenham Court Road . Open from Eight in the Morning until Nine at Night"

24 June 1785
London Gazette 12659
"Notice is hereby given that the partnership lately carried out between William Playfair and William Wilson under the firm of Playfair and Wilson is this day, by mutual consent dissolved and the business carried on there as usual by Wiliam Playfair only "

Grimwade states that this William Wilson seems distinct from the William Wilson given below, but given the above information on a buckle related patent and the timing of the move it does seem likely that they are the same man.

14 June 1785
William Wilson enters solo mark as bucklemaker at London Street, Tottenham Court Road (B1/p02Cd)
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[burnisherboy]

What is or was a "tea board" as patented by Playfair? The London based pearl worker and goldsmith John Hawkins Barlow also entered a patent in 1816 concerning tea boards and other items. Burnisherboy

[dognose]

Hi Burnisherboy,

According to Harold Newman in his 'An Illustrated Dictionary of Silverware' the tea tray, as we now call it, was referred to in the 18th century as a 'Table', 'Tea Table' or a 'Tea Board'.

Trev.