Surveyor of roads &c c. 1830's

[Warmy]

Hi All,

What professional and eductaional requirements would a person have needed to set up shop as a "Surveyor of Roads &c" in the 1830's.

Would there have been any regulatory body or licencing requirements?

Also, would it be likely that a person of this profession moved from place-to-place every few years, perhaps to take advantage of the commercial expansion of a regional centre?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Llwyd]

Hi there,

I'm not too certain about this, but I think in what were the Colonies there was a Surveyor Generals Office/Department which was responsible for road building etc..I think many of the actual surveyors will have been in the army and were engineers.

An example of this type of person, certainly in Britain, was General Wade who built quite a few roads in Scotland.

In any case, I would have thought that anyone so employed would have been employed,one way or another,by the Government/State rather than by a commercial enterprise.

Best of luck in your research and I hope this suggestion is of some assistance. 

[Warmy]

Thanks for the reply Llwyd,

I guess I should have been a little more specific...

The 'Surveyor of Roads &c.' that I am enquiring about was actually based in  in Herefordshire, not here in the Colonies.

The gentleman in question is a John Rutherford, who is listed in the 1830 Pigot's as operating from a premises in Bridge St, Kington. He does not appear in the 1835 edition, so I am assuming he had moved on by then.

I suspect this chap was my G-G-G-Grandfather, as my G-G-Grandfather (Richard Hopwood Rutherford) was supposedly born in Herefordshire c.1827/28, and I have so far found no other references to Rutherfords in that area at that time.

I figure that by finding out more about the profession I may be able to track down some more of John's details and perhaps confirm that he is Richard's father.

I know it seems like an around about way of tracking him down, but at the moment I have little more to go by.

Many Thanks,

Troy Warmington

ps. I have a 5x Great Grandfather who was an Owen Owens from Caernarvon, how do you rate my chances of finding him? (LOL)