Rothwell, Peter (1792 -1849)

The crest, with the arms Ermine two chevrons engrailed azure each charged with five bezants between three roses gules, quartering Heywood and Crompton, and with the motto Mens conscia recti, was granted to Peter Rothwell Esq. of Sunning Hill in Lancashire. He was the inventor of the variable blast pipe. His father had founded the Union Foundry in Bolton. Father and son were joined briefly by Benjamin Hick, and the firm became Rothwell, Hick & Rothwell, but on the death of the senior Rothwell it became Rothwell & Hick. Locomotive manufacture had started before Hick decided to leave and set up his own business at the Soho Foundry. Rothwell was one of the promoters of the Bolton & Leigh Railway which opened in 1838. He is listed among the subscribers to Samuel Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), and Sir John Ross, Narrative of a second voyage in search of a North-West Passage (London, 1835). On his death in 1849 he bequeathed the sum of £2500 to the Weslyan Missionary Society.