Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer, of Boston, Massachussetts, for biography of whom see Dictionary of American Biographyand the entry by Ted Ruddock in A.W. Skempton et al., A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland I (2002).

Cox first visited Ireland in 1788 or 1789, when he was invited to Derry by the Mayor and Corporation of that city who were planning to build a new bridge over the River Foyle. He took soundings of the river and contracted to build the bridge for £10,000. The oak piles for the bridge and twenty workmen were shipped from America in 1790 and the bridge was opened the following year.(1) In 1792 Cox, accompanied by his wife, Susannah, and two of his three sons, Lemuel and William, came to reside in Ireland. The younger Lemuel was admitted to the Dublin Society's School of Drawing in Architecture on 28 June 1792.(2) During the next four years Cox built a total of six bridges in Ireland, most notably that over the Suir at Waterford (1793).    In 1794 he was charged in a Dublin court with enticing tradesmen to emigrate to America but acquitted. He returned to Massachussetts in 1796.

See WORKS.



References



(1) Faulkner's Dublin Journal, 30 Nov-2 Dec 1790. quotes a letter from Derry about the building of the bridge, which describes Cox as 'a very genteel young fellow much in the estimation of the town's people in general'. As Cox himself was by then 54, might one of his sons have been placed in charge of the work at Derry?
(2) MS. transcript from Royal Dublin Society minutes of School of Drawing in Architecture admissions and prizewinners (in IAA); according to Ruddock he became a sailor and was lost at sea before 1799.


9 work entries listed in chronological order for COX, LEMUEL #


Sort by date | Sort alphabetically


Building: CO. DERRY, DERRY, BRIDGE OVER RIVER FOYLE
Date: 1790-1791
Nature: New wooden bridge by Mssrs. Cox & Thompson. Model sent over 1788; parts and workmen brought from America; building begun on 3 May 1790. Opened 1791.
Refs: Faulkner's Dublin Journal, 23-27 Aug 1788, 25-27 May 1790, 30 Nov-2 Dec 1790, 2-4 Dec 1790; Belfast News Letter, 2-6 Sep 1791;  Seward, Topographia Hibernica (1795), ?; G. Vaughan Sampson, Statistical Survey of the County of Londonderry (1802), 280(illus.),323-4; Dublin Penny Journal 2, 10 Aug 1833, 42; Robert Simpson, The Annals of Derry (1847), 246.

Building: CO. TYRONE, RASH, BRIDGE
Date: 1793
Nature: Timber bridge for Luke Gardner, 1st Baron (later Viscount) Mountjoy.
Refs: 'Thomas Russell's journal for 21-3-1793 in PRO' (Ken Severens says this has now been published)(E.McP)

Building: CO. WATERFORD, WATERFORD, BRIDGE OVER RIVER SUIR
Date: 1793-4
Nature: Fixed timber bridge of American oak. 38 spans, carrying roadway and two footways. Begun Apr 1893. Opened 1794. Cost (including ferry and £1000 guineas to architect) £30,000.
Refs: William Tighe, Statistical Observations relative to the County of Kilkenny (1802), 565(illus.);   Dublin Penny Journal 1, 8 Dec 1832, 188; S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), Vol. 2, 686; IB 13, 15 Sep 1871, 236; 33, 1 May 1891, 100(illus.),105; J.O. Moynan, 'A short description of the existing bridges at Waterford and Portumna and of the proposed new bridges to replace them', TICEI 36 (1909-10), 224-250 (also published in IB 52, 25 Jun 1910, 405); Edmund Downey, Waterford's Bridges (Waterford Press, n.d.), ?

Building: CO. WEXFORD, FERRYCARRIG, BRIDGE OVER RIVER SLANEY
Date: 1794
Nature: Timber bridge of American oak. For Commissioners of Carrig Bridge
Refs: S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), II, 280

Building: CO. WEXFORD, WEXFORD, BRIDGE OVER RIVER SLANEY (OLD)
Date: 1794-5
Nature: Timber bridge of American oak. Cost: £17,000
Refs: S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), Vol. 2, 708.

Building: CO. GALWAY, PORTUMNA, BRIDGE
Date: 1796
Nature: 12-arch timber bridge over River Shannon.
Refs: de Latocnaye, Rambles through Ireland (1799), ?; J. Binns, Miseries & Beauties of Ireland II, 79; S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), II, 469.

Building: CO. WEXFORD, NEW ROSS, BRIDGE (OLD)
Date: ?
Nature: Timber bridge of American oak. Portion lifted up to let ships through. Cost £8000.
Refs: William Tighe, Statistical Observations relative to the County of Kilkenny (1802), 564;  J. Hall, Tour through Ireland (1813), ?; J. Binns, Miseries and Beauties of Ireland (1837), 242; S. Lewis., A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), II, 531.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN (NEAR), BRIDGE
Date: ?
Nature: Cox's name inscribed on pier of timber bridge.
Refs: Entry on Cox in Dictionary of American Biography.

Building: CO. WEXFORD, NEW ROSS, MOUNTGARRET BRIDGE
Date: ?
Nature: Present bridge replaces 'an earlier wooden bridge built to designs prepared by Lemuel Cox' .
Refs: www.buildingsof ireland.ie