William Lee

William Lee (1563–1614) was an English inventor and alleged clergyman who invented the stocking frame knitting machine. Framework knitting, as the use of Lee's machine in stocking production was called, was the first major stage in the mechanisation of the textile industry, a process that 200 years later precipitated the Industrial Revolution.

Life and legend Some say Lee was born in Sussex, but others claim the Nottinghamshire villages of Calverton or Woodborough. No definitive evidence has been found for either of these although there is circumstantial support for Nottinghamshire. He entered Christ's College, Cambridge in 1579 as a sizar and graduated from St. John's College in 1582.

Stocking frame knitting machine

The following popular stories surrounding Lee and the stocking frame are rejected by modern scholarship. Supposedly, the Queen’s concern was a manifestation of the hosiers’ guilds' fear that the invention would make the skills of its artisan members obsolete. This alleged account of events does not appear until the 19th century and, as such, is dismissed by modern historians.

He entered into a partnership agreement with one George Brooke on 6 June 1600, but the unfortunate Brooks was arrested on a charge of treason and executed in 1603. Eventually, he moved to France with his brother James, taking 9 workmen and 9 frames. He found better support from the Huguenot Henry IV of France, who granted him a patent. Lee began stocking manufacture in Rouen, France, and prospered until, shortly before Henry's assassination in 1610,

Although the industry took nearly a century to develop in wool, silk and lace, the machinery that he developed remained the backbone for far longer and this is reflected in his appearance in the coat of arms of The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters. The quatercentenary of the invention was celebrated in 1989 with the publication Four Centuries of Machine Knitting: Commemorating William Lee's Invention of the Stocking Frame in 1589, a book of historical studies on the evolution of knitting technologies and the history of the knitting economy.