Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. The Fanciful And Erroneous Statements Regarding John Kay, Made By Lleut.-col. Thomas Sutcliffe, Great-grandson Of The Inventor. fOHN KAY of Bury was grandson to Sir John Kay, Bart., of Woodsome, county of York, whose second son, Robert, became a merchant, and founded that branch of the Woodsome family which resided at Park, near Bury, county of Lancaster." So wrote Lieut-Col. Thomas Sutcliffe. It will be seen in due course, that there is not an atom of truth in this account. 2. Mr. Kay was educated on the continent, and had during his residence there acquired a taste for mechanics; which on his return to England, and having established a woollen manufactory in Colchester, he turned to advantage. No evidence of this exists beyond Sutcliffe's assertion. 3. The reiterated statement that John Kay's invention of the Fly Shuttle was in 1738. This, copied from Guest, might have been corrected to 1733, if Sutcliffe had taken ordinary pains to consult the patent. 4. The "handsome print, taken from the original portrait of John Kay of Bury." Whether the father, the inventor, or his son John, is here alluded to is left uncertain. Note the evidence of "Veritas," who had no motive for deception. 5. The litigations with shuttle clubs about 1745 put Mr. Kay's affairs in such an embarrassed situation, that he had to dispose of various estates in the neighbourhood of Bury, that are now (1842) of great value; and his son Robert was obliged to sell the very land on which the late Sir Robert Peel, Bart., established his works there, and where the present Sir Robert was born. There is no existing documentary evidence that the inventor ever owned land at Bury Ground, Ramsbottom, or elsewhere. 6. "The case of John Kay of Bury." This case, set out...