The Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River is a

limited liability corporation A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability o ...

founded on June 27, 1792, making it one of the oldest corporations in the United States. Its named incorporators were Dudley Atkins Tyng, William Coombs, Joseph Tyler, Nicholas Johnson, and Joshua Carter. The company was founded to construct the

Pawtucket Canal Completed in 1796, the Pawtucket Canal was originally built as a transportation canal to circumvent the Pawtucket Falls of the Merrimack River in East Chelmsford, Massachusetts. In the early 1820s it became a major component of the Lowell ...

around the Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimack River, in East

Chelmsford, Massachusetts Chelmsford () is a town in Massachusetts that was established in 1655. It is located northwest of Boston. The Chelmsford militia played a role in the American Revolution at the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill. ...

. Over a mile long with four lock chambers, the Pawtucket Canal was finished in 1796. Although the canal allowed for lumber and other goods to be transmitted from New Hampshire to the shipyards of

Newburyport Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...

, the competing

Middlesex Canal The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile (44-kilometer) barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and 3 feet (0.9 m) deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet (24 m) long and between 10 an ...

, a direct route to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

, opened just ten years later, ruining the Pawtucket's business. In 1821, The

Boston Manufacturing Company The Boston Manufacturing Company was a business that operated one of the first factories in America. It was organized in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy Boston merchant, in partnership with a group of investors later known as The Boston ...

of Waltham, Massachusetts, purchased the charter of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, incorporating it into the new

Merrimack Manufacturing Company The Merrimack Manufacturing Company (also known as Merrimack Mills) was the first of the major textile manufacturing concerns to open in Lowell, Massachusetts, beginning operations in 1823. History After the death of Francis Cabot Lowell ...

. In the early 1820s, the Pawtucket Canal became a major component of the Lowell power canal system with the founding of the textile industry at what became Lowell. In 1822

Patrick Tracy Jackson Patrick Tracy Jackson (August 14, 1780 – September 12, 1847) was an American manufacturer, one of the founders of the Boston Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, and later a founder of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, whose dev ...

appointed himself as agent of Proprietors of Locks and Canals, gaining the ability to determine "who could start what mill and where in Lowell, and for how much". In 1825, the corporation was reorganized again and separated from the Merrimack Manufacturing Company under the leadership of

Kirk Boott Kirk Boott (October 20, 1790 – April 11, 1837) was an American Industrialist instrumental in the early history of Lowell, Massachusetts. Biography Boott was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1790. His father had emigrated to the United State ...

. This allowed the city of Lowell to grow quickly, as many other manufacturing corporations were founded in Lowell to take advantage of the waterpower sold by the Proprietors of Locks and Canals. Paul Moody was one of their first chief engineers. In the mid-19th century, the company was under the leadership of

James B. Francis James Bicheno Francis (May 18, 1815 – September 18, 1892) was a British-American civil engineer, who invented the Francis turbine. Early years James Francis was born in South Leigh, near Witney, Oxfordshire, in England, United Kingdom. ...

, inventor of the Francis Turbine, who took over when

George Washington Whistler George Washington Whistler (May 19, 1800 – April 7, 1849) was a prominent American civil engineer best known for building steam locomotives and railroads. He is credited with introducing the steam whistle to American locomotives. In 1842, Tsar ...

left to work on Russia's railway system.
James Hayward Harlow (1846 - 1892) was chief engineer from 1856 until his death in 1892. In 1857, the Middlesex Mechanic Association recognized the work done by the Proprietors of Locks and Canals to explore the effects of burnettizing on preventing rapid decay of timbers, an effort essential for long-lasting waterway structures. The corporation still exists today, housed in the same building as Boott Hydropower, LLC, which has a small power plant on the Northern Canal in Lowell.

References

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Archives and records

Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River records
at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School. Companies based in Massachusetts Companies based in Lowell, Massachusetts American companies established in 1792 Canals in Lowell, Massachusetts 1792 establishments in Massachusetts Transport companies established in 1792