Editing James Brindley (section)

==Last years and epitaph==
{{Quote|text=... so occupied was his mind with his business, that he was incapable of relaxing in any of the common amusements of life. As he had not the ideas of other men to assist him, whenever a point of difficulty in contrivance occurred, it was his custom to retire to his bed, where in perfect solitude he would lie for one, two, or three days, pondering the matter in his mind, till the requisite expedient had presented itself.|title=A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles round Manchester|author=[[John Aikin]]|source=}}

Brindley married Anne Henshall on 8 December 1765 when he was 49 and she was 19. Anne's brother, [[Hugh Henshall]], was involved in canal construction himself, on the [[Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal]]. The couple had two daughters, Anne and Susannah.

In 1771, work had begun on the [[Chesterfield Canal]], but while surveying a new branch of the Trent and Mersey between [[Froghall]] and [[Leek, Staffordshire|Leek]], Brindley was drenched in a severe rainstorm. It had happened many times before, but he was unable to dry out properly at the inn at which he was staying, and caught a chill. He became seriously ill and returned to his home at [[Turnhurst]], Staffordshire, where [[Erasmus Darwin]] attended him and discovered that he was suffering from [[diabetes]].

[[File:James Brindley Marker, in Newchapel, 2020.jpg|thumb|right|240px|James Brindley Marker, in Newchapel, 2020]]
James Brindley died at Turnhurst on 27 September 1772.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brindleymill.net/htmlfiles/chronology.html |title=Chief Works and Principal Events in the life of James Brindley |website=BrindleyMill.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100222090832/http://www.brindleymill.net/htmlfiles/chronology.html |archive-date=22 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn |Smiles |1864 |p=286}} He was buried on 30 September, just nine days after the completion of his [[BCN Main Line|Birmingham Canal]], at St. James in [[Newchapel, Staffordshire|Newchapel]] in Staffordshire, England. The commemorative plaque (1956) at the church shows his date of death as 25 September. The inscription on his grave reads "James Brindley, of Turnhurst, engineer, was interred 30 September 1772, aged 56."<ref>Photograph at http://www.thepotteries.org/tour/036.htm/History.html</ref>

Brindley's widow remarried in 1775 (Robert Williamson, one of Brindley's assistants) and lived until 1799.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bode |first=Harold |title=James Brindley |year=1980 |publisher=Shire Publications |page=45 |isbn=0-85263-485-4}}</ref>

Brindley's death was noted in the ''Chester Courant'' of 1 December 1772 in the form of an epitaph:

[[File:Statue_of_James_Brindley,_Etruria_Junction,_Stoke-on-Trent_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1479584.jpg|right|thumb|240px|Statue of Brindley in Etruria]]

<blockquote>
JAMES BRINDLEY lies amongst these Rocks,<br />
He made Canals, Bridges, and Locks,<br />
To convey Water; he made Tunnels<br />
For Barges, Boats, and Air-Vessels;<br />
He erected several Banks,<br />
Mills, Pumps, Machines, with Wheels and Cranks;<br />
He was famous t'invent Engines,<br />
Calculated for working Mines;<br />
He knew Water, its Weight and Strength,<br />
Turn'd Brooks, made Soughs to a great Length;<br />
While he used the Miners' Blast,<br />
He stopp'd Currents from running too fast;<br />
There ne'er was paid such Attention<br />
As he did to Navigation.<br />
But while busy with Pit or Well,<br />
His Spirits sunk below Level;<br />
And, when too late, his Doctor found,<br />
Water sent him to the Ground.<br />
</blockquote>

He is remembered in [[Birmingham]] by Brindley Drive (on the site of former canal yards), the [[Brindleyplace]] mixed-use development and a pub, ''The James Brindley'' (both being canal-side features), and the James Brindley Academy for children in Birmingham's hospitals and with other special needs, there is also a residential building built over the canal that is called Brindley House; in Leek with the [[Brindley Water Mill|James Brindley Mill]]; and by numerous other streets in the areas in which he worked. Within the grounds of James Brindley Primary School at Parr Fold Avenue, [[Walkden]], is a wooden [[barge]] once used for the transportation of coal from local mines. There is a statue of him (leaning over his desk) by James Walter Butler (bronze, 18 September 1998) located in the canal basin by Leicester Row, [[Coventry]], and another by [[Colin Melbourne]] (bronze, 20 July 1990) in Lower Bedford Street, [[Etruria, Staffordshire|Etruria]], [[Stoke-on-Trent]], at the junction of the [[Trent and Mersey Canal]] with the [[Caldon Canal]], opposite [[Etruria Industrial Museum]]. He is commemorated in Runcorn by the [[The Brindley|Brindley Arts Centre]], which opened in the autumn of 2004. There is also [[James Brindley Science College]] (previously James Brindley High School) in [[Chell, Staffordshire|Chell]], [[Stoke-on-Trent]], and also, the Brindley's Lock pub on Silverstone Crescent, Stoke-on-Trent.

The well in the village of [[Wormhill]] is dedicated to Brindley.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hargate-hall.co.uk/brindley.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325134805/http://www.hargate-hall.co.uk/brindley.php |archive-date=25 March 2016 |url-status=dead |title=Wormhill Well – The Brindley Memorial |access-date=20 October 2009}}</ref> Wormhill is in the same Parish as Tunstead where he was born.