The Booth family of Cheshire

John Bennet was a Scotch engineer who was delivered to Molson in 1812, with the latter's first purchase of a Boulton & Watt engine. (85) Only 21 and with his apprenticeship probably just completed, John Bennet was to be paid $400 (£100 Cy) a year for the next three years. During the decade that Molson imported engines from Britain, Bennet was working in Lower Canada putting them up and operating them.
In January 1820 Bennet formed a partnership with Lott Briggs, a local blacksmith, and Scott Burt, another steamboat engineer. (86) It is fortunate that Bennet had a major block of pay coming from the Molsons for it would be 1821 before Bennet, Briggs & Burt got their first commission, £600 for the 12 h.p. engine for the Perseverance, being built at Lachine. For their troubles the partners were 'induced' to buy a £120 share in the little steamer. (87) Only one more commission came their way before Burt left the firm to set up and operate a used engine in the first steam boat on the Ottawa River. (88)Bennet & Briggs built only three more engines in a small foundry on Panet Street before their partnership was dissolved in 1826. (89)
Even as the termination of his association with Briggs was being arbitrated, Bennet entered a new partnership with John Henderson in a former nail factory on Wellington St. in Griffintown. (90) Three years later, immediately after signing their first major steam engine contract, the partners bought the site of the St. Mary's Foundry from Thomas A. Turner. The contract for the engines of John Hamilton'sGreat Britain quickly established the partners' reputation even as it reflected the limits of their original operation. Hamilton arranged to import the boiler iron and deduct its price from their contract. He also contracted with Guy Warwick of Montreal for the iron castings. (91) Pricing their work about 20% less than the Wards' rates, Bennet & Henderson succeeded in capturing the contract for the engines of the Royal William, being built in Quebec to provide a service between that town and Halifax. When the William proved a financial disaster, it was dispatched to England for sale, and proved to be the first steamboat to cross the Atlantic completely under the power of steam. (92) Despite the poor performance of their engines on the crossing, the excitement of the accomplishment of the Royal William established for Bennet and Henderson an enduring reputation among early Canadian founders.

Figure 5: Bennet and Henderson's Foundry. (Daily Witness (Montreal), 20 March 1897)
Between 1831 and 1833 Bennet and Henderson built three engines a year for the Great Lakes, Ottawa and St. Lawrence trades. An additional five stationary engines can be identified from the same period. (93) The result of this dramatic expansion of sales was the borrowing of funds for a major building programme which resulted in the layout seen in figure 5. (94) In 1834, the market for new steamboats collapsed. By the end of 1834, with little prospect of new sales in sight, Bennet and Henderson assigned their personal belongings, their receivables and the St. Mary's Foundry to their creditors.

6 children and at least 15 grandchildren