page_title: John Blackwell (engineer)
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: John Blackwell (engineer) / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Stone plaque dedicated to canal engineer John Blackwell. The plaque is set into a bridge in Devizes, Wiltshire.
context_page_description: John Blackwell MICE was an English civil engineer, known for his work as superintending engineer of the Kennet and Avon Canal under John Rennie and later as the canal company's resident engineer.
context_section_description: Blackwell married Frances "Fanny" Cooper in Burbage, Wiltshire, on 23 August 1808. They had five children—Emma (born in Burbage in 1808), Eliza (born in Great Bedwyn in 1811), Harriet (born in Devizes in 1814), Louisa (b. 1817) and Thomas Evans Blackwell (b. 1819). At the 1861 census, Emma, Eliza and Harriett were all living together in Bath in John Eveleigh's Beaufort Buildings.
  Blackwell died in Hungerford, Berkshire, on 28 September 1840. He was buried in a vault in the churchyard at St Lawrence's Church in the town. A memorial to Blackwell in the church reads:
  IN MEMORY OF JOHN BLACKWELL, ESQ. C.E. FOR MANY YEARS A RESIDENT OF THIS TOWN, WHO DIED SEPT 28TH 1840, AGED 65 YEARS. AND OF FANNY, HIS WIFE; WHO DIED FEB 15TH 1840, AGED 56 YEARS. THEY DIED AT HUNGERFORD, AND WERE INTERRED IN A VAULT IN THE ADJACENT CHURCHYARD
  A plaque dedicated to Blackwell was erected on Prison Bridge, Devizes, after his death, reading:
  "THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY THE KENNET AND AVON CANAL COMPANY TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN BLACKWELL, WHO DURING THIRTY-FOUR YEARS SUPERINTENDED THE WORKS OF THE CANAL AS THEIR ENGINEER WITH FIDELITY, VIGILANCE, AND ABILITY"
  Thomas became a civil engineer, and upon his father's death became engineer of the Kennet and Avon Canal.  He emigrated to Canada in the 1850s.
caption: The plaque in Devizes dedicated to Blackwell's work with the Kennet and Avon Canal
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