1803-1805 - studied as a pupil under Simon Goodrich, dockyard engineer at Portsmouth working as a draughtsman. 1804 - sent to Henry Maudslay's workshop in Margaret Street, off Oxford Street, London where the block-making machinery for Portsmouth dockyard was being made. 1810 - moved to Maudslay's new works at Lambeth.

1812 - became a partner in the firm of H Maudslay & Co. 1822 - firm's name changed to Maudslay, Son, and Field, specialising in marine engines, stationary steam engines and other types of machinery. 1816 - one of the founders of the Institution of Civil Engineers. As a consultant engineer advised the Atlantic Telegraph Company when laying the TransAtlantic cable, the Metropolitan Board of Works on sewage systems in London and Isambard Kingdom Brunel on machinery for his steamships. 1824 - patented a method of reducing the concentration of salt in marine boilers. 1836 - elected Fellow of the Royal Society. 1839 - along with Joseph Maudslay, took out a patent for a double-cylinder marine engine. 1862 - became a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.