Heathcoat, John (1783–1861)

English inventor of lacemaking machinery 1807. Throughout his life, he took out patents for further inventions in textile manufacture. In 1832 he patented a steam plough to assist with agricultural improvements in Ireland.

Heathcoat was born near Derby, apprenticed in the hosiery trade, and became a master mechanic about 1803. His lace factory in Loughborough was destroyed by Luddites 1816, and Heathcoat moved to Tiverton, Devon. In 1832 he was elected to represent Tiverton in the new reformed Parliament and remained MP for the borough until 1859.

Heathcoat's lacemaking machine was acknowledged by engineer Marc Isambard Brunel, who said that Heathcoat (then 24 years old) had devised ‘the most complicated machine ever invented’. The first square yard (0.83 sq m) of plain net from the machine was sold for £5; by the end of the 19th century its price had fallen to 1% of that.