Benjamin Outram (1 April 1764 – 22 May 1805) was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways. Life Born at Alfreton in Derbyshire, he began his career assisting his father Joseph Outram, who described himself as an "agriculturalist", but was also a land agent, an enclosure commissioner arbitrating in the many disputes which arose from the enclosures acts, an advisor on land management, a surveyor for new mines and served as a turnpike trustee. In 1792 his neighbour George Morewood died and left his estates to Ellen Morewood. She was mining under Outram land. Over the next nine years the Outrams engaged in a legal battle with her. Land had been sold to them by the Morewoods but Ellen believed that she still had the rights to the coal and ironstone beneath them. James and Benjamin Outram disagreed and they appealed and in 1803 the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Lord Ellenborough agreed with them. In 1803 he had a son, James Outram, who became a general in the Indian Army and was later knighted. He died of a "brain fever" (stroke) while visiting London in 1805. After his death, and some considerable litigation, in 1807 Benjamin Outram and Company was renamed the Butterley Company. After his death, his wife Margaret (1778–1863), daughter of James Anderson, wrote that Outram "was hasty in his temper, feeling his own superiority over others. Accustomed to command, he had little toleration for stupidity and slowness, and none for meanness or littleness of any kind." In spite of his prowess, Outram's wife and family were for a while reduced to near poverty after his death until his liabilities could be settled through the courts. She died in Edinburgh and is buried in St John's churchyard in one of the lower terraces. Career Early career Joseph Outram was a promoter of the Cromford Canal, and when William Jessop was approached to design and build it he found an able assistant in 24-year-old Benjamin. Construction of the canal, particularly Butterley Tunnel, revealed substantial mineral deposits. The neighbouring Butterley Hall and its estate came on the market at this time and Francis Beresford, solicitor to the canal company, bought the freehold of the hall and its estate. He leased it on a moiety to Outram until the latter had acquired enough capital for a fifty