Pictures of John Kay

John Lord described how he had a choice of four pictures then in existence, no two of which agreed. The one he selected was because, in his words, “… there is a slight resemblance to the other three, and has a more artistic finish. The artist has secured a more matured expression, and the attitude is not suggestive of frivolous characteristics; it exhibits a calm and reflective mental balance, with firmness of purpose, and a courage not easily daunted. We see a man above the foolishness of wearing a fanciful three-cornered hat.”

The three-cornered hat that so enraged him was a reference to a picture of a jovial-looking gentleman in a tricorn, still widely-broadcast and in some areas still taken as being of John. He wrote “All are questionable which present him in three-cornered hat, wig and frilled shirt. The inventor of the Fly-Shuttle cannot be imagined wasting time and money in the vanities indicated by such garb.”; and later “Who that has ever deeply considered the times these men lived in – and the state of society then existing – can imagine JOHN KAY, and Robert his son, parading the town in their leisure hours wearing three-cornered hats? Probably their holiday garb would be long cloaks and sensible headgear, as becoming the yeoman or tradesmen of like degree.”

That picture is now generally accepted as being of John’s son, also called John and known as ‘Frenchman Kay’.