Benjamin Thompson, a mining engineer and coal owner was a director of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and surveyed the route in the 1820s. In 1835 he established an iron works at Wylam where he built several locomotives.
The North of England Mining Institute holds an archive of reports, leases and correspondence relating to George and John Johnson. The material relates to collieries in the Willington area, where both Johnsons were employed as agent.