| William Cockerill | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1759 |
| Died | 1832 |
| Citizenship | British after 1810 French (Belgian) |
| Occupation | Inventor, machine maker, industrialist |
William Cockerill (1759–1832) was a British entrepreneur who created a textile machine manufacturing business in Verviers and Liege, Belgium (then part of the French First Republic).
He was instrumental in founding the industrial spinning industry in continental Europe.
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William Cockerill was born in Lancashire, England in 1759.[1] He began his working career as a blacksmith in England, and was said to be exceptionally skilled as a mechanical engineer although he met little success in England.[2].
In 1794 he travelled to St. Petersburg, Russia having been recommended for his skill to Catherine II. Later after the Empresses' death Paul I of Russia sent him to prison for failing to construct a prototype on time.[1] He escaped to Sweden, where he was employed as an engineer, constructing locks on a canal.[1][3]. Civil engineering did not suit him, and, having heard of the woollen industry in Liege and Verviers he decided that he could be successful as a machine maker there. First he travelled to Hamburg, and since machine design was a closely guarded industry from which England profited he propose to the British envoy there, a Mr. Crawford, to return to England and not aid a foreign country if he was given a pension on his return. Though the envoy approved and forwarded his intentions, he had heard nothing after six months and so went to the low countries, first to Amsterdam, then to the province of Liege.[2][3]
In 1799 he began manufacturing machines (for the spinning and carding of wool[2] in Verviers for the cloth manufacturers Iwan Simonis and François Biolley.[1][4] He then brought his family from England and settled in Belgium.[2] He was joined in 1802 by James Holden, first as his assistant, and who later set up his own business.[1]
In 1807 he moved to the city of Liege and set up a machine building factory there with his three sons[5]. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by Napoleon, for his services to manufacturing in 1807[6] and in 1810 he became a Belgian citizen, and in 1813 imported a Watt steam engine.[1]
At that time, due to the Napoleonic blockade, Europe was deprived of British industrial products; the factory became famous, with half its machines exported to France[1]; William Cockerill became tremendously rich,[3] and in 1813 he retired, passing the business to his sons.[2]
He died in 1832 at the Chateaux du Behrensburg (then owned by his son Charles James) at Aix-la-Chapelle.[1]
William Cockerill had three sons William Cockerill (eldest), Charles James Cockerill and John Cockerill. His daughter Nancy married James Hodson.[5]