He made his money in the tobacco trade and gave work to soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars. This work was the cutting of tunnels with the apparent sole intention of giving the men a weekly wage in a time of great need and depression. One of the first job creation schemes.
The subterranean world was built apparently without plans yet they were well made. While the railway engineer Robert Stephenson’s miners were excavating the tunnel beneath Edge Hill to the present day Lime Street station they came across Williamson’s tunnellers working below them. After a tour given by Williamson himself, Stephenson declared the Edge Hill tunnels were marvels of construction.
