John Kennedy (manufacturer)

Scottish textile industrialist

John Kennedy

by Charles Allen Duval, 1844[1][2]

Born| 4 July 1769

Knocknalling, Kirkcudbrightshire

Died| 30 October 1855 (1855-10-31) (aged 86)

Ardwick Hall, Manchester

Nationality| British
Occupation(s)| Engineer
Textile machine maker
Cotton spinner
Textile industrialist
Known for| The Jack Frame[3]
Double Speed spinning machinery
Sedgewick Mill
Rainhill locomotive trials

John Kennedy (4 July 1769 – 30 October 1855) was a Scottish textile industrialist in Manchester.

## Early life

[edit]

John Kennedy was born in 1769 in Knocknalling, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. In 1784 he moved to Chowbent, near Leigh in Lancashire, to be apprenticed to William Cannan, the son of a neighbour of the Kennedys. His training covered the manufacture of textile machinery including carding engines, jennies, and water frames. On the completion of his apprenticeship in 1791, he moved to Manchester and went into a long-lasting partnership with James McConnel, a nephew and former apprentice of Cannan, to manufacture textile machinery and undertake cotton spinning. Benjamin and William Sandford provided the financial backing. Kennedy was a skilled and inventive engineer and is credited with devising a crucial improvement to fine-spinning machinery, called double speed, which enabled much finer thread to be manufactured.

## Career

[edit]

In 1795 McConnel and Kennedy, now financially independent, moved to a new factory in the same Canal Street, where they remained for six or seven years. Initially the firm made cotton-spinning machinery for sale, but this part of the business ended around 1800. Then they built the first of their three spinning mills in Union Street (now Redhill Street) in Ancoats, Manchester which formed the basis of Kennedy's working life for the next thirty years. The Sedgewick Mill was eight stories high and the largest cast iron framed building in the world. The spinning of yarn, the most profitable activity in the cotton trade, became the company's sole activity and it became the largest such business in Manchester, concentrating on producing the highest quality yarn.[4]

Kennedy spent much of his later life pursuing his technical and mechanical interests. He was consulted about the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, for which he was a leading advocate. He was also appointed a judge, together with the steam engineers John Urpeth Rastrick, a locomotive engineer of Stourbridge and Nicholas Wood, a mining engineer from Killingworth, at the Rainhill locomotive trials in 1829. He was an active member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and had four papers published in the transactions of the society on various industrial and social issues.

## Death

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Kennedy died in 1855 at Ardwick Hall, Manchester, and was buried at the nearby Rusholme Road cemetery. He was succeeded by several children, including barrister John L. Kennedy.

## See also

[edit]

Hall i' th' Wood near Bolton; where Mr. Crompton constructed the first spinning mule. To John Kennedy, Esq. and the Cotton-Spinners of Lancashire, this plate is respectfully dedicated, by the publishers. Fisher, Son and Co. London 1829. Engraving by Thomas Dixon after a drawing by John Harwood. Originally published in William Henry Pyne's partwork Lancashire Illustrated, from Original Drawings (1828-1831).[5]

* Samuel Crompton

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "John Kennedy". National Portrait Gallery. National Portrait Gallery, London. 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
2. ^ "John Kennedy, Scottish cotton spinner and textile machine maker, c 1835". Diomedia. Diosphere Ltd t/a Diomedia. 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
3. ^ Gordon, W. J. "The London North Western". Our Home Railways, How They Began and How They Are Worked (Printed by Morrison " Gibb Limited Edinburgh Copyright (Entered at Stationers' Hall) ed.). London: Forgotten Books. p. 6. Retrieved 22 April 2016. "John Kennedy, the inventor of the jack frame and many other items in cotton-spinning machinery."
4. ^ "John Kennedy (judge at the Rainhill trials)". steamindex.com. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
5. ^ "Antique Prints of Bolton". ASH RARE BOOKS. © 2015 Ash Rare Books. Retrieved 23 April 2016.

## External links

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* Cotton Mills, Ancoats, Manchester
* Manchester Cotton Mills[usurped]

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Lancashire cotton

Architects|

* David Bellhouse
* Bradshaw Gass & Hope
* F.W. Dixon & Son
* Edward Potts
* Stott
* Stott and Sons
* Sidney Stott (later Sir Philip)

Engine makers|

* Daniel Adamson
* Ashton Frost
* Ashworth & Parker
* Bateman & Sherratt
* Boulton & Watt
* Browett, Lindley & Co
* Buckley & Taylor
* Carels Frères
* Clayton, Goodfellow & Co
* Earnshaw & Holt
* Fairbairn
* W & J Galloway & Sons
* Benjamin Goodfellow
* B. Hick and Sons / Hick, Hargreaves & Co
* John Musgrave & Sons
* J & W McNaught
* Petrie of Rochdale
* William Roberts & Co of Nelson
* George Saxon
* Scott & Hodgson
* Urmson & Thompson
* Yates & Thom / Yates of Blackburn
* Willans & Robinson
* J & E Wood
* Woolstenhulmes & Rye

Machinery makers|

* Brooks & Doxey
* Butterworth & Dickinson
* Curtis, Parr & Walton
* Dobson & Barlow
* John Hetherington & Sons
* Joseph Hibbert
* John Pilling and Sons
* Harling & Todd
* Howard & Bullough
* Geo. Hattersley
* Asa Lees
* Mather & Platt
* Parr, Curtis & Madely
* British Northrop Loom Co
* Pemberton & Co
* Platt Brothers
* Taylor, Lang & Co
* Textile Machinery Makers
* Tweedales & Smalley
* T. Wildman & Sons

Mill owners|

* Elkanah Armitage
* Henry Ashworth
* Hugh Birley
* Hugh Hornby Birley
* Joseph Brotherton
* James Burton
* Peter Drinkwater
* Nathaniel Eckersley
* John Fielden
* William Gray
* Hannah Greg
* Samuel Greg
* Richard Howarth
* William Houldsworth
* John Kennedy
* George Augustus Lee
* Charles Macintosh
* Hugh Mason
* Samuel Oldknow
* Robert Peel
* John Rylands
* Thomas Whitehead and Brothers

Limited companies|

* Oldham Limiteds
* Fine Spinners and Doublers
* Lancashire Cotton Corporation
* Bagley & Wright
* Combined Egyptian Mills
* Courtaulds
* James Burton & Sons
* Amalgamated Cotton Mills Trust

Industrial processes|

* Textile manufacturing
* Cotton-spinning machinery
* DREF friction spinning
* Magnetic ring spinning
* Open-end spinning
* Ring spinning
* Spinning frame
* Spinning jenny
* Spinning mule
* Carding
* Steaming
* Water frame
* Roberts Loom
* Lancashire Loom
* Northrop Loom
* Air-jet loom
* Rapier loom
* Dandy loom
* Lancashire boiler

Associations|

* Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers (Hand and Machine)
* Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners
* Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen's Association
* Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union
* Amalgamated Weavers' Association
* Cardroom Amalgamation
* General Union of Lancashire and Yorkshire Warp Dressers' Association
* General Union of Loom Overlookers
* Lancashire Amalgamated Tape Sizers' Friendly Society
* North East Lancashire Amalgamated Weavers' Association
* Northern Counties Textile Trades Federation
* The Textile Institute
* United Textile Factory Workers' Association

Employment practices|

* More looms
* Kissing the shuttle
* Mule spinners' cancer
* Piece-rate list

Lists of mills|

* LCC mills
* Bolton
* Bury
* Cheshire
* Derbyshire
* Lancashire
* Manchester
* Oldham (borough)
* Preston
* Rochdale
* Salford
* Stockport
* Tameside
* Wigan
* Yorkshire

Museums|

* Bancroft Shed
* Helmshore Mills
* Queen Street Mill
* Weavers' Triangle
* Quarry Bank Mill, Styal

Pioneers|

* Richard Arkwright
* Samuel Crompton
* Peter Foxcroft
* James Hargreaves
* Thomas Highs
* John Kay (flying shuttle)
* John Kay (spinning frame)
* Robert Owen

* v
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Lists of mills in England

* Bolton
* Bradford
* Bradford (borough)
* Bury
* Calderdale
* Chadderton
* Cheshire
* Clitheroe
* Derbyshire
* Dewsbury
* Greater Manchester
* Failsworth
* Holmfirth
* Huddersfield
* Kirklees
* Lancashire
* Lancashire Cotton Corporation mills
* Leeds
* Longdendale and Glossopdale
* Manchester
* North Yorkshire
* Oldham (borough)
* Oldham (town)
* Preston
* Rochdale
* Royton
* Saddleworth
* Salford
* Shaw and Crompton
* South Yorkshire
* Stockport
* Tameside
* Wakefield
* Wigan
* Yorkshire Cotton Mills

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* United States

Other|

* Yale LUX

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