George Sparrow, Coalmaster, and Early Steam Engines

Abstract

George Sparrow was an early eighteenth-century coalmaster and an early user of Newcomen engines in the West Midlands and beyond. His early operations were in partnership with his neighbour Richard Parrott. These covered coal and ironstone mines in north and south Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Flintshire, salt production in Cheshire, and ironmaking. They were using steam engines to drain mines from 1714 and from that time most of their new mining ventures used them. Later, his son Burslem Sparrow settled at Wolverhampton and traded in partnership with Thomas Tomkys. They concentrated on mining in the northern part of the South Staffordshire Coalfield. The dearth of records of others mining there in the 1710s to 1740s suggests that they dominated mining in the area.