o the trade of a joiner. His principal
employment, while working at his trade in Lancashire, consisted in
making the wood framing of cotton machinery, in the construction of
which cast-iron had not yet been introduced. Having got into some
trouble in his neighbourhood, through some alleged LIAISON, William
enlisted in the Royal Artillery, and the corps to which he belonged was
shortly after sent out to the West Indies. He was several times
engaged in battle, and in his last action he was hit by a musket-bullet
in the throat. The soldier's stock which he wore had a piece cut out
of it by the ball, the direction of which was diverted, and though
severely wounded, his life was saved. He brought home the stock and
preserved it as a relic, afterwards leaving it to his son. Long after,
the son would point to the stock, hung up against his wall, and say
"But for that bit of leather there would have been no Henry Maudslay."
The wounded artilleryman was invalided and sent home to Woolwich, the
headquarters of his corps, where he was shortly after discharged.
Being a handy workman, he sought and obtained employment at the
Arsenal. He was afterwards appointed a storekeeper in the Dockyard.
It was during the former stage of William Maudslay's employment at
Woolwich, that the subject of this memoir was born in the house in the
court above mentioned, on the 22nd of August, 1771.

The boy was early set to work. When twelve years old he was employed
as a "powder-monkey," in making and filling cartridges. After two
years, he was passed on to the carpenter's shop where his father
worked, and there he became acquainted with tools and the art of
working in wood and iron. From the first, the latter seems to have had
by far the greatest charms for him. The blacksmiths' shop was close to
the carpenters', and Harry seized every opportunity that offered of
plying the hammer, the file, and the chisel, in preference to the saw
and the plane. Many a cuff did the foreman of carpenters give him for
absenting himself from his proper shop and stealing off to the smithy.
His propensity was indeed so strong that, at the end of a year, it was
thought better, as he was a handy, clever boy, to yield to his earnest
desire to be placed in the smithy, and he was removed thither
accordingly in his fifteenth year.

His heart being now in his work, he made rapid progress, and soon
became an expert smith and metal worker. He displayed his skill
esp