Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Canal engineer, of Coleraine, Co. Derry, active in the 1790s. John Whalley was employed by John, first Marquess of Abercorn, to construct the Strabane canel connecting Strabane to the Foyle. The canal was begun towards the end of 1791 and completed in 1796 at a total cost of £11,858.(1) In 1792 he also constructed another small canal on the Baronscourt estate for the purpose of transporting turf from the bog to the mansion house.(2)



References



(1) Letters from Whalley to 1st Marquess of Abercorn in PRONI, Abercorn Papers, D 623; W.A. McCutcheon, The Canals of the North of Ireland (1965), 86; W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of the North of Ireland (HMSO, 1980), 75.
(2) John H. Gebbie, An Introduction to the Abercorn letters (1972), 173.