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Moorsom was the youngest of the four sons of Admiral Sir [[Robert Moorsom]], who had served at the [[Battle of Trafalgar|Trafalgar]], and his wife Eleanor.<ref>[[Jehanne Wake]], ''Kleinwort, Benson: the history of two families in banking'', [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Qm1fHrcgZuoC&pg=PA89&dq=Robert+Eleanor+Moorsom&ei=afciSbnwMYjClQSJ0NCxDw p.89], accessed 18 November 2008</ref>
He entered the Royal Military College in 1819, and became especially adept in fortification and military surveying. In 1823 he joined the 79th Highlanders Regiment, then stationed in Ireland. During his stay there, he made a survey of Dublin and its neighbourhood. This
During this time he served as deputy quartermaster-general. He produced a survey of the harbour and environs of Halifax, along with reports on transport feasability to all parts of the provnce, and published a monograph ''Letters From Nova Scotia; comprising Sketches of a Young Country'' in 1828.
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The [[Birmingham and Gloucester Railway]] had found [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel|Brunel's]] proposals out of its financial reach. His brief in 1836 was to build the line as cheaply as possible, which he did by following open country, avoiding populated areas where land prices would be higher. Arriving at the [[Lickey Hills]] there was no option but to climb them, using cable assistance if necessary.
Moorsom's preference was for locomotives, from experience gained observing mineral railways in the north. The general opinion at that time was that adhesion working was not possible on such an incline and the directors of the company, set out to buy stationary engines for cable working. They found the cost prohibitive so, with the backing of
Since no English manufacturer would, or could, supply him, he ordered [[4-2-0]] locomotives from [[Norris Locomotive Works|Norris]] of [[Philadelphia]] in the [[United States]]. The loco they supplied had four foot drivers, cylinder bore of 101 inches and 18 inch stroke, weighing less than 10 tons.
Moorsom was also awarded the Telford Medal for his method of using iron caissons filled with concrete and masonry to form the foundations of a
In passing, one of his assistants was [[Herbert Spencer]], the philosopher, regarded as the founder of [[social science]]. F. R. Conder was critical of Moorsom's management style and engineering abilities in his ''Personal Recollections of English Engineers'' (1868)<ref>F. R. Conder, ''Personal recollections of English engineers, and of the introduction of the railway system into the United Kingdom'' (1868); repr. as J. Simmons, ed., ''The men who built railways'' (1983) in Chrimes 2004</ref> Spencer was less recriminatory in his ''Autobiography'' (1904)<ref>,H. Spencer, ''An autobiography'', 1 (1904), 140–86 in Chrimes (2004) </ref> describing Moorsom as a kind man, although he felt that he had treated some subordinates meanly. Chrimes <ref>Mike Chrimes, 'Moorsom, William Scarth (1804–1863)’, ''Oxford Dictionary ofNational Biography,'' Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [ 19158, accessed 19 Jan 2008</ref> suggests that his problems may have been ''"due to the financial pressures of bringing up a large family, combined with working for companies which had limited financial resources."''
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