William Workman - Ireland To Montreal

Ireland To Montreal

In 1807, William Workman was born at his family's 'handsome cottage' in Ballymacash, Co. Antrim. The Workmans were said to have once been wealthy, but the family's fortunes had declined. William was the son of Joseph Workman (b.1759), of Ballymacash, and his wife Catherine Gowdy, daughter of Alexander Gowdy, land steward to Squire Johnson of Ballymacash. In 1787, his father emigrated with a brother, Benjamin, to North America. Benjamin secured the position of Professor of Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and Joseph worked under him as a tutor of mathematics.

Joseph left Philadelphia in 1790 and sailed to London, with the aim of patenting an improvement to the mariner's compass, invented by Benjamin, but only to find that the mechanic who had made some the parts had fraudulently patented it as his own. Returning to Ballymacash, Squire Johnson appointed him to be the new schoolmaster, where he met William's mother, Catherine Gowdy. Joseph replaced his father-in-law as land steward and Johnson appointed him clerk of the peace. William grew up at Ballymacash and mastered the skills for employment with the Ordnance Survey of Ireland from 1827 to 1829, when his parents took him to Montreal to join his brothers, the eldest of whom had emigrated there in 1819.