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Born at Birmingham, Sept. 3, 1728. Died Aug. 17, 1809.

This skilful, energetic, and farseeing man, who, by his extended views and liberal spirit of enterprise, contributed so greatly towards the successful introduction of Watt's condensing steam-engine, commenced life at Birmingham as a maker of buttons and shoe-buckles. Matthew Boulton received an ordinary education at a school at Deritend. He was, however, gifted with rare endowments, and of these he made the best use; with a thorough knowledge of business, great prudence, and admirable tact, he combined boldness of spirit, quickness of thought, and promptitude of action. At the death of his father, Boulton became possessed of considerable property, and desirous of extending his commercial operations, purchased, about the year 1762, a lease of Soho, near Handsworth, where he founded that establishment which has become renowned as the nursery of English mechanics. The hill from which this place derived its name was, at that time, a bleak and barren heath, at the bottom of which rippled a small stream. Boulton's instinctive mind saw the uses to which these waters might be turned. By collecting them into a pool, and pouring their united weight upon a water wheel, he became possessed of a motive-power sufficient to set in motion various machines, by whose agency were fabricated articles in gold, silver, and tortoise-shell, and plated and inlaid works of the greatest elegance and perfection. On the side of the hill, Boulton built extensive workshops, and dwellings capable of holding many hundreds of workmen, and erected a mansion for himself surrounded by beautiful grounds, where he lived as a prince among his people, extending hospitality to all around. In 1767, Boulton, finding that the motive-power which he possessed was inadequate to the various purposes of his machinery, erected a steam-engine upon the original construction of Savery. This, however, in turn was found to be insufficient for the objects required, and Boulton then had the discernment to perceive that they might be very completely attained by the adoption of the various improvements lately made in the steam-engine by James Watt. In 1773 he entered into partnership with this great scientific inventor, and induced him to settle at Soho and superintend personally the erection of his new steam-engines. This bold but clear-sighted act of Boulton was destined to crown with honour a reputation, already rising, and built upon the firm foundation of uprightness and integrity. "Had Watt searched all Europe," says Playfair, "he could not have found another man so calculated to introduce the machine to the public in a manner worthy of its reputation." Its sale as an article of commerce was entirely conducted by him, and the skilful and liberal way in which he performed this difficult task brought in time its own reward; yet as great a sum as 47,000l. had to be expended upon the steam-engine before any profit resulted to its owners. In process of time, however, wealth flowed into the hands of Boulton and Watt; and in the year 1800 Mr. Watt was enabled to retire from the firm possessed of a large competency, and leaving the exclusive privilege of the sale of the engine to Boulton. Boswell, who visited Soho in 1776, shortly after the manufacture of steam-engines had been commenced there, was greatly struck by the vastness and contrivance of the machinery. "I shall never forget," he says, "Mr. Boulton's expression to me when surveying the works: 'I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have—Power.' He had," continues Boswell, "about 700 people at work; I contemplated him as an iron chieftain, and he seemed to be the father of his tribe."[3]

In 1785 Mr. Boulton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and two or three years after this, turned his attention to the subject of coining, to the improvement of which art he devoted the last twenty years of his life. He erected extensive machinery for this purpose, and by uniting some processes originating in France with new kinds of presses, he was enabled to obtain great rapidity of action combined with the utmost perfection in the articles produced; so much so, that having been employed by the British Government to recoin the whole of the British specie, he rendered counterfeits nearly impossible by the economy and excellence of his work. In addition to this, Mr. Boulton planned and directed the arrangement of the machinery in the British Mint, and executed that for the coining department. He also constructed the machinery for the great national mints of St. Petersburgh and Copenhagen; his son, to whom the establishment at Soho devolved upon his death, doing the same for the extensive and splendid establishments of the East India Company at Bombay and Calcutta.

Boulton died August 17, 1809, in his eighty-first year, and his remains were borne to the grave by the oldest workmen connected with the works at Soho; five hundred persons belonging to that establishment joined in the procession, which numbered among its ranks several thousand individuals, to whom medals were given recording the age of the deceased and the date of his death.—Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam Engine. London, 1829.—Muirhead's Translation of Arago's Life of J. Watt. London, 1839.