« Reply #1 on: Friday 11 November 16 01:10 GMT (UK) »
I've had to look up the origins of the word "engineer" - my family were mechanical engineers (fixing things together) but not in that century lol.
" ... the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1325, when an engine’er (literally, one who operates an engine) originally referred to "a constructor of military engines." In this context, now obsolete, an "engine" referred to a military machine, i. e.,
a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult)."
When I was young there were engineering companies galore in Hull making all manner of things, but having surfed I can't see one that was set up in the 18th century. There were plenty of windmills in the Sculcoates area and although a millwright was the main craftsman who could turn his hand at anything, he would have employed a less qualified worker to do run of the mill type jobs so your ancestor might have been engaged in fixing machinery that needed repairing.
As steam boilers were gradually replacing the energy produced by wind/water mills in the 18th century, I personally think the man maintained steam engines which were massive things. Hull was a magnet for people who needed work and it could be that a soldier could have been stationed in Hull at any time and decided to find work in that town when he returned to civilian life.
You might find something of interest on Paul Gibson's site :-
http://www.paul-gibson.com/trade-and-industry/oil-seed-crushing.phpThis page indicates there was a military presence, plus of course the navy.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/Hull/HullHistory/HullHistory5.html
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke