| Description | Boulton & Watt’s action against Jabez Hornblower and Stephen Maberly came to trial in the Court of Common Pleas in December 1796. It was heard by Lord Chief Justice Eyre, who had heard the case against Edward Bull, and a special jury.
Both sides called on several witnesses to prove their case. Hornblower and Maberly’s witnesses included Jabez’s brothers Jonathan, Jethro and Jesse Hornblower, his son Jabez Jr., Arthur Woolf, a Cornish engineer who worked for Hornblower and Maberly and who would later make significant improvements in compound engines, David Watson, who formerly worked for Boulton & Watt and who himself been accused of engine piracy, and various engineers including Joseph Bramah whose aim was to prove that Watt’s patent contained insufficient information for them to construct an engine from. On their part, Boulton & Watt called upon William Murdock, John Southern, Peter Ewart, Jean de Luc, George Lee, John Rennie and their Newcastle agent Thomas Barnes among others.
The jury found in favour of Boulton & Watt. However Hornblower and Maberly sought to have the case re-tried.
This bundle contains papers and memoranda relating to the action in Common Pleas. It includes lists of the jury, points made about the patent specification, details of some of the witnesses’ evidence, questions for witnesses and so on, and also Boulton and Watt’s accomodation bills from their stay in London during the trial. The following document listed in the original List of Contents was not found:
"Improvements Not Secured."
Other documents from the action in Common Pleas can be found in the bundle of "Other Papers relating to the Action against Hornblower and Maberly" (MS 3147/2/48). For drawings of Hornblower and Maberly’s engines, see "Designs by William Murdock, Atmospheric and Other Engines, Drawings for Court Cases," Portfolios MS 3147/5/1353b and MS 3147/5/1354c. |