Thomas Tflford, a British engineer, born at Westerkirk, Eskdale, Dumfriesshire, Aug. 9, 1757, died in Westminster, Sept. 2, 1834. While working in Edinburgh as a stone mason he studied architecture and drawing. In 1783 he removed to London, was employed on the quadrangle of Somerset house, afterward for three years as architect in the Portsmouth dockyard, then upon the alterations of Shrewsbury castle, and in the construction of numerous bridges, one of which over the Severn had a flat arch of 130 ft. span. He superintended the construction of the Ellesmere canal, 103 m. in length, and requiring extensive aqueducts, which he built of iron; the Caledonian ship canal, whose locks surpassed any previously built in size; and six other canals in. England and Scotland, the Gotha canal in Sweden, an immense tunnel at Harecastle on the Grand Trunk canal, besides 1,000 miles of new road and l,200bridges. The St. Katharine docks of London, the improvement of the Aberdeen and Dundee harbors, the construction of iron bridges with flat arches of 170 ft. span, and above all the Menai suspension bridge, were his work. - See "Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer, written by Himself" (4to, with a folio volume of plates, 1838).