William Chapman, Civil Engineer, was born at Whitby, in Yorkshire, of a respectable and wealthy family, who had resided in that town for several generations. He inherited the freedom of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from his father, who, in common with all the chief people of Whitby, was engaged in shipping, and was besides particularly distinguished for his attainments in mathematics and other scientific pursuits. William Chapman derived great advantage from his father's knowledge of these subjects, contracting a strong taste for similar occupations. After receiving a liberal education at different public schools, he was put in command, at the early age of eighteen, of a merchant vessel, in which he enjoyed the opportunity of visiting numerous harbours, both in Great Britain and other countries. He continued thus occupied for a period of three years, losing no opportunity of making himself acquainted with the circumstances of the various harbours he was in the habit of visiting, and he thus acquired that valuable practical knowledge on the subject of these works for which he became afterwards so highly distinguished. After leaving the merchant service, Mr. Chapman was fortunate enough to become acquainted with James Watt, with his partner Matthew Boulton, and also with Mr. Wooller, Engineer to the Board of Ordnance. By these eminent men he was strongly advised to become an engineer, and follow as a profession that which he had already closely studied as an amusement. Chapman accordingly accompanied Mr. Boulton into Ireland, about the close of the year 1783, but although well introduced, was unable to obtain any employment of consequence in that country, until he had written a prize essay on the effects of the river Dodder on the Harbour of Dublin. Shortly after this, he was appointed resident engineer to the County of Kildare Canal, the works of which were carried on under the surveillance of the Duke of Leinster, the county members, and other leading men. In the execution of this undertaking, Mr. Chapman was requested not to alter the direction of the roads intersected by it, although one of them deviated from the right angle across the canal upwards of 50 deg. To meet this difficulty, and knowing that a bridge of the ordinary construction, with any obliquity, could not possibly stand, Chapman invented, and put into practice, the method of building oblique or skew bridges, which has since been so generally adopted throughout the country, in railway, canal, and other bridges. Before this period, (1787), whenever a road crossed the course of a canal or river, requiring the construction of a bridge, it had been usual to deviate the course, either of the road or the object it crossed, so that the crossing should be at right angles; a practice which occasioned a great waste of land and considerable expense as well as awkward and dangerous bends in the roads thus treated. In some few cases where the bridge was required to be of only a small opening,