Background
Heathcoat was born on August 7, 1783 in Duffield, England.
Heathcoat was born on August 7, 1783 in Duffield, England.
Heathcoat was apprenticed to a frame-smith near Loughborough. During his apprenticeship he made an improvement in the construction of the warp-loom, so as to produce mitts of a lace-like appearance by means of it.
Heathcoat began business on his own account at Nottingham, but finding himself subjected to the intrusion of competing inventors he removed to Hathern (near Loughborough) in Leicestershire. There in 1808 he constructed a machine capable of producing an exact imitation of real pillow-lace. This machine-made lace was also called 'English net' or bobbinet. This was by far the most expensive and complex textile apparatus until then existing. Some time before perfecting his invention, which he patented in 1809, he removed to Loughborough, where he entered into partnership with Charles Lacy, a Nottingham manufacturer; but in 1816 their factory was attacked by former Luddites, thought to be in the pay of the lacemakers of Nottingham, and their 55 lace frames were destroyed. The damages were assessed in compensation by the King's Bench at £10, 000; but as Heathcoat declined to expend the money in the county of Leicester he never received any part of it. Undaunted by his loss, he began at once to construct new and greatly improved machines in an unoccupied factory at Tiverton, Devon, propelling them by water-power and afterwards by steam. His claim to the invention of the twisting and traversing lace machine was disputed, and a patent was taken out by a clever workman for a similar machine, which was decided at a trial in 1816 to be an infringement of Heathcoat's patent. He followed his great invention by others of much ability, as, for instance, contrivances for ornamenting net while in course of manufacture and for making ribbons and platted and twisted net upon his machines, improved yarn spinning-frames, and methods for winding raw silk from cocoons. He also patented an improved process for extracting and purifying salt. An offer of £10, 000 was made to him in 1833 for the use of his processes in dressing and finishing silk nets, but he allowed the highly profitable secret to remain undivulged. In 1832 he patented a steam plough, the only full version of which sank without trace in a field. In 1854 he gave the site for St Paul's Church, Tiverton and in 1856 paid the cost of installing the organ.
Member of Parliament for Tiverton (1832)