MEMOIR OF JOHN MARLEY. BY His Son, J. W. MARLEY.
From Transactions of the Federated Institution of Mining Engineers, Volume III, 1891-1892, pages110-112.
JOHN MARLEY, a member of this Institute from its creation in 1852, and President thereof for the years 1888-89 and 1889-90, was the youngest surviving son of Thomas Marley, of Middridge Grange, near Shildon, in the County of Durham, and was born there on the 11th day of November, 1823. After some years at Denton School, under the Rev. J. Birkbeck, he was early in the year 1840 articled to Mr. John A. Forster, of Bishop Auckland (brother of Mr. Thomas E. Forster, President, 1866-68). He next passed some time under Messrs. George Hunter and William Longstaff, at the collieries of the Marquis of Londonderry. and then served and completed his pupilage (30th April, 1841-), under Mr. Edward F. Boyd, President of this Institute, 1869-72. During these years John Marley gained a valuable and varied experience in the working of Durham collieries.
Before the close of 1844 he had been appointed lessor's viewer for two properties in South Durham, and had also been engaged in railway surveys under Mr. John Bourne in the neighbourhood of Belford and Kelso. He was moreover employed for a short time in the same year in the preparation of plans for the Whitehaven and Furness Railway. In the year 1845 he was for some time employed in railway surveys under Mr. John Dixon. the engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, on the Wear and Derwent Junction Railway, and the Wear Valley Extension Railway. In this year also he received two more appointments as lessor's viewer, and in the following year, 1846, receiving the appointment of resident viewer at Woodifield Colliery, commenced his long and intimate connexion with the firm of Bolckow & Vaughan (now Bolckow, Vaughan, & Co., Ltd.). It is well known how that firm gradually became possessed of more collieries, which were duly developed and extensively worked, how limestone quarries were opened out by them, and particularly how the great Cleveland ironstone field was prospected, opened up, and made a commercial success.
In all this John Marley had a great part, directing the engineering operations and having the responsible charge. At the end of 1867 he resigned the charge, but remained a consulting engineer to the company for two years longer. The most important event during this period of his professional career was the "commercial" discovery of Cleveland ironstone in 1850. In other words, the discovery of the main bed at Eston, near Middlesbrough. The story is told in the very complete paper on "Cleveland Ironstone" that he read before the Institute in 1857. Another event was in 1863, when in boring for water at Middlesbrough, the discovery of rock salt at that place was made by Messrs. Bolckow & Vaughan. A paper was read on that discovery in the same year.
During the years 1847-69 he was also engaged in reporting on coal and other mines in various districts of Great Britain, in arbitrations, and in the preparation of, and giving evidence before Parliamentary Committees. In 1868 he was engaged in the compilation of statistics for the Royal Commission, which was making enquiry into the extent and probable duration of the British coal-fields. From that time forward he was more extensively engaged in arbitrations, and in the inspection of mining properties, both in this country and abroad. In 1870 he formed the North Brancepeth Coal Company, and was chairman thereof to the time of his death, and was also interested in other mining under takings. On the passing of the Mines Regulation Act of 1872 he was appointed a member of the Mines Examination Board for South Durham, an office which he continued to hold till his decease. He became a member of the Durham Coal Owners' Association, and served on their chief committees. He was first elected a member of Council of this Institute in 1857, and first elected a Vice-President in 1872.
He contributed the following papers to the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers:-
1857 - “Cleveland Ironstone. Outline of the Main or Thick Stratified Bed, etc." Trans., vol. v., page 165. .
1863 - "Coal Mining, etc." (with N. Wood and J. Taylor). Trans., vol. xii., page 149.
1863 - "On the Discovery of Rock Salt in the New Red Sandstone at Middlesbrough." Trans., vol. xiii., page 17.
1865 - "Observations on Safety-Cages." Trans., vol. xv., page 107. 1870-" On the Magnetic Ironstone of Rosedale Abbey, Cleveland." Trans., vol. xix., page 193.
1889 - "On the South Durham Salt-field." Trans. Fed. Inst., vol. i., page 339.
The paper written in 1863, in conjunction with Messrs. Nicholas Wood and John Taylor on "Coal :Mining," was also read at the British Association meeting in that year at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and his communication "On the Discovery of Rock Salt in the New Red Sandstone at Middlesbrough," was also read at the same meeting.
This forms but a brief sketch of the work of his professional life. Illness in May, 1890, curtailed his working powers, and on the 4th of April, 1891, he passed peacefully away.