Colonial Despatches

Robert Wilkins, Henry Robinson, and William Crane Wilkins formed Wilkins & Co., a lighthouse manufacturing business. The business, “Lighthouse and Patent Lamp Manufacturers” was located at No. 24 and 25 Long-acre in the county of Middlesex.1 In roughly 1854, William Crane Wilkins an engineer, requested a grant for an invention for lighting; and in apparatus for lighthouses, signal, floating, and harbour lights.2

The company was dissolved by mutual consent on 2 January 1837 which creates a mystery as they continued to operate in the 1850s, and do business with British Columbia in the late 1860s. The company also almost went bankrupt in 1866. It is clear, then, that the company struggled financially throughout its existence.3 Amidst these struggles, the company held a long and highly regarded reputation.4

• 1. William Crane Wilkins, Grace's Guide.
• 2. Bennet Woodcroft, Titles of Patent of Invention, (The Queen's Printing Office, 1854), p.1476.
• 3. William Crane Wilkins.
• 4. Ileana Chinnici, Decoding the Stars: A Biography of Angelo Secchi, Jesuit and Scientist, (BRILL, 17 June 2019), p.94.