ABSTRACT
In the choice of a suitable topic for the first Rolt Memorial Lecture I decided without hesitation to present the results of research on some aspect of engineering biography, a field in which Rolt himself made such outstanding contributions. And as the lecture was to be given in Durham there seemed to be much in favour of devoting my attention to the early engineers of Sunderland harbour--one of the great civil engineering works in the North East. Very little reliable information has hitherto been published about these men as individuals, nor has much regard been paid in general to engineers of public authorities in the eighteenth century, a class to which they belong.
