The Hull Hub Issue 22

A BRIEF COVERAGE OF WM. DENT PRIESTMAN
BY BILL BROMWICH
The City of Hull has been the birthplace of
some remarkable people. One talented engineer,
William Dent Priestman, deserves recognition
for his achievements. He was born in
1847 to Samuel Priestman and his wife Mary-
Ann Dent, near the village of Sutton on the
outskirts of Hull. The origins of the Priestman
family were from Thornton-le-Dale near Pickering,
North Yorkshire where the lineage of the
family goes back at to Elizabeth 1st according
to written Church records, and possibly earlier
though not recorded.
Samuel was born at Thornton-le-Dale in 1800
and apprenticed to his father in Corn Milling,
an occupation most appropriate to a “Quaker”
family whose philosophy was to contribute
to the community in which they lived. In
his twenties he went to Manage a Mill in Leeds
and later built his own Mill at Horsforth. He
met and married Rachael Rowntree but she
sadly died in childbirth, 1837 although her son
Charles survived. [It was his own Diary written
some years later that records so much valuable
detail of life in the 1940’s.]
Samuel suffered from chest problems and
wanted to move to healthy Malton away from
the chemicals, smoke, and grime of Leeds. Two
good fortunes came his way: he met Mary-Ann
Dent from Scunthorpe who he married and
was offered a Directorship of a Railway Company
with a most welcome income. With Mary-
Ann and young Charles he moved to a vast
house called Hildenley Hall at Malton owned
by Sir Charles
Strickland who was
abroad. The house
held heirlooms,
personal items and
needed an army of
servants when fully
occupied. Samuel,
Mary-Ann and
Charles occupied
a small portion of
this rather cold
place. The Earl of
Carlisle at ‘Castle
Howard’ rode his
horse past Hildenley
Hall and often
called to discuss the Bible Society and Slavery
which concerned them both.
It was a relief to Mary-Ann when a letter advised
Samuel that he had a bequest of a house
at Sutton. Samuel, Mary-Ann, and Charles
drove to Sutton and were delighted with this
new home to which they moved in 1844. TEN
more children were born at Sutton, all surviving
with successful lives.
‘William Dent’ was born in 1847 and father
noted that when his son became intensely
interested in something he was oblivious to
everything else around him. Father felt that he
was destined to achieve great things in the future
and was determined to give him the best
start, with education at the Bootham School in
York. On returning home age 14 an apprenticeship
at a Shipyard on the River Hull terminated
with the Company’s collapse. A continued
Apprenticeship at Gateshead building and repairing
Steam Locomotives gave him valuable
experience.
Samuel bought him the Holderness Foundry
off Holderness Road, Hull and it was there
that he built remarkable products. About as
big as two tennis courts and making parts for
Windmills which was its declining business. A
surprising letter from the PERU Government
in 1873 asked Priestman’s to build a complete
Paddle Steamer to carry passengers on the
Amazon River. It was tested on the river Humber
and the photograph is the oldest record of
any Priestman product.
An enterprising young man in London wrote
to Wm.Dent having seen an advertisement in
a London Journal illustrating a ship’s winch
mechanism. He wanted a small crane to operate
an American “Clamshell” mechanism (we
call it a ‘Grab’) to search for ‘sunken treasure’.
Two hundred years previously a Spanish Galleon
carrying Gold Bullion had been sunk by a
British ship, in Vigo Harbour, Spain, and Thos.
Christy’s consortium wanted to search for it.
Although fruitless, Christy asked Wm Dent to
make some more small cranes that started the
company’s product lines. The first small Grab
Dredging Crane was built for the Hull Dock Co.
in 1878, the first such machine in the world.
Records of its sales cover the whole world.
The ‘Priestman Oil Engine’ on which Wm.
Dent started work simply as a different product
line was most significant. Petrol Engines
were exploding and dangerous; Wm. Dent
worked for 18 months to make an engine run
on ‘LAMP OIL’ (we call it ‘Paraffin’) – no-one
had achieved this! It was making a pre-heated
chamber into which Oil and Air was Sprayed to
ATOMISE the mixture that was the key to his
success in 1885. A complete list of ALL engines
sold has fascinating destinations.
Wm. Dent continued to work with other members
of the Priestman family who joined the
firm in the early 20th century and had the benefit
of his experience until he died in 1936 – a
truly creative and satisfying life.
Bill Bromwich
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