North Yorkshire born Simon Temple had been making vessel parts at Mill Dam, South Shields in the 1780s but opened a shipyard at Jarrow in 1805. He had already owned Jarrow Colliery nearby from 1803, and also operated two schools, a fever house and hospital in the local area.

Temple's Jarrow shipyard was primarily a shipbuilder for the Royal Navy as they were desperate for further capacity due to the ongoing Napoleonic threat. His first contract was for £9398 for each of 3 frigates ordered but didn't meet the deadlines. Due to the Admiralty's constraints they ordered more. In 1806 he sold the Mill Dam yard as well as the Templetown Colliery at Shields, but went bankrupt in 1811 and disappeared from public life. He seemed like a bit of a man about town - a proto-entrepeneur who saw the exploits of the day and reaped them.

His name lives on though - the north end of Tyne Dock is still sometimes known as Templetown thanks to the pit, and a stone inscription of the name can be seen on the Tyne Dock Hotel.

The land was later used by Palmers for their shipbuilding yard.