Catalogue description Papers of John Frederick Bourne, (1816-1879)

Introduction

John Frederick Bourne was born at Partney on 24 May 1816, the son of John Henry Bourne and his wife, Hannah (nee Budden). At the age of 15 he began a 7 year apprenticeship with a firm of Liverpool-based merchants, but he later decided to enter the Church. He received Deacon's Orders on 21 December 1842, and was subsequently appointed as assistant curate to Holy Trinity Church, Esrequito, Demerara (British Guiana). John was to remain in the colony for the next 20 years and eventually became rector of St Paul's Church, Demerara, and chaplain to the Bishop of Guiana.

While his career in the Church progressed, John Bourne also found time to pursue his interest in engineering and by 1849 he was sufficiently knowledgeable in that field to be appointed to an enquiry into a boiler explosion. In 1853 he resigned as rector of St Paul's and began to pursue his interest in engineering on a full-time basis, being appointed to the post of Civil Engineer & Overseer of the Public Works for British Guiana on 25 July 1854.

John Bourne also developed an interest in military engineering and, in 1857, he joined the Artillery Corps of the Georgetown Militia. While serving in this capacity he began to study the design of military batteries, and subsequently published a paper suggesting ways in which they could be improved; his ideas on the subject were patented in 1861. He was later appointed as Colonial Railway Engineer at Cape Town and finally as Superintendent of Public Works on Barbados, where he died on 27 October 1879.

John Bourne was twice married, firstly to Eliza Jane Wolseley on 23 January 1845; two sons being born to them before her premature death on 15 December 1848. He married secondly Laetitia Constable Crosby of St George's parish on the island of St Vincent; a son, Edmund, being born to them on 14 May 1865.