William Lee (inventor) facts for kids

William Lee (1563–1614) was an English inventor. He created the first stocking frame knitting machine in 1589. This machine was the only one of its kind used for hundreds of years. Even today, its basic idea is still used in knitting machines.

Lee was born in a village called Calverton, Nottinghamshire. He went to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1579. He later graduated from St. John's College in 1582. There is no clear proof that Lee was a clergyman, even though some stories say he was.

The Stocking Frame Knitting Machine

Lee is said to have developed his machine while he was a local church leader in Calverton. One story says he invented it because a woman he liked was more interested in knitting than in him. Another story says his wife was a very slow knitter.

His first machine made stockings from coarse wool. He asked Queen Elizabeth I for a patent, which would protect his invention. But she said no.

He then built a better machine. It had more needles, going from 8 to 20 needles per inch. This allowed it to make finer silk fabric. Still, the Queen refused his patent again. She worried about the many people who made a living by hand-knitting. She feared Lee's machine would take away their jobs. The Queen told Lee: "You aim high, Master Lee. Think about what this invention could do to my poor people. It would surely ruin them by taking away their jobs, making them beggars." It's likely that knitting groups, called guilds, also worried that the machine would make their members' skills useless.

Lee made a business deal with a man named George Brooke in 1600. Sadly, Brooke faced serious legal trouble and died in 1603.

Lee then moved to France with his brother James. They took 9 workers and 9 knitting frames with them. In France, he found better support from Henry IV of France, who was a Huguenot. King Henry gave Lee a patent. Lee started making stockings in Rouen, France, and his business did well.

Just before King Henry was killed in 1610, Lee signed a deal with Pierre de Caux. This deal was to provide knitting machines for making silk and wool stockings. But after the king's death, things changed quickly. Lee moved to Paris, but his requests for support were ignored. He died in 1614, feeling very sad.

After Lee died, his brother James went back to England. He sold most of the knitting frames in London. Then he moved to Thoroton, near Nottingham. There, Lee's apprentice, John Aston (or Ashton), who was a miller, kept working on the knitting frame. He made several improvements to it.

This led to two main centers for knitting: one in London and one in Nottingham. Later, during the 1700s, Leicester also became a major center for the knitting industry in England.

Even though it took almost a hundred years for the knitting industry to grow, the machines Lee invented remained important for much longer. This is why he is shown on the coat of arms of The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters.

The 400th anniversary of his invention was celebrated in 1989. A book called Four Centuries of Machine Knitting: Commemorating William Lee's Invention of the Stocking Frame in 1589 was published. It shared historical studies about how knitting technology grew and the history of the knitting business.

Images for kids

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  Coat of arms of The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters