Background
Edmund Cartwright was the only son of the Reverend Edmund Cartwright FRS of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire.
Edmund Cartwright was the only son of the Reverend Edmund Cartwright FRS of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire.
Edmund Cartwright began his academical studies at University College, Oxford, and in 1764 he was elected to a fellowship at Magdalen. He took the degree of D. D. at Oxford in 1806.
In 1784 Edmund Cartwright met Richard Arkwright and began speculating on using machinery in cotton weaving. In 1785 he took out his first patent for a power loom and moved to Doncaster to start a spinning and weaving factory; the mill was claimed by his creditors, however, in 1793. Another mill, at Manchester, made use of his power looms but was destroyed, probably by arson, in 1791. Cartwright's wool-combing machine was first patented in 1789. The financial rewards of his inventions, however, did not suffice to prevent his bankruptcy in 1793. He patented a rope-making machine in 1792, and in 1797 constructed an engine employing alcohol as fuel. In 1801 the British parliament continued the patent on his wool-combing machine for another 14 years, and in 1807 a memorial was presented to the government stating that his inventions had done much to increase the wealth of the country. The House of Commons voted Cartwright a grant of £10,000p10,000 in 1809 and he retired to a small farm at Hollander, near Sevenoaks, Kent, where he spent the remainder of his life and invented improvements on agricultural machinery.
Cartwright also patented a wool combing machine in 1789 and a cordelier (machine for making rope) in 1792. He also designed a steam engine that used alcohol instead of water.
Edmund Cartwright's daughter Elizabeth (1780–1837) married the Reverend John Penrose and wrote books under the pseudonym of Mrs Markham.
