The Descendants of John Kay
In his Memoir, John Lord stated that John Kay married Anne Holt on 29th June 1725, the same day that his brother William married Mary Booth [JL]. He listed twelve children of John, extracted from the parish registers and elsewhere; Rita Hirst has identified one more (Mary). Some we can be sure of, those where the father’s trade is given as reedmaker or shuttlemaker. John described himself as a reedmaker on his first two patents, and it seems logical that he should progress to shuttlemaker later. The use of one of these descriptions is denoted by the letter R or S in the third column. Dates of birth given here are taken from Rita’s notes, and are not always the same as those given by John Lord.
Robert and his brothers were once credited with the invention of the cardmaking machine, though it is now known they simply improved on their father’s design and integrated John’s two machines into one. These machines do not seem to have been used much outside the Kay family until the end of the century when work in America led to their more general adoption. Robert carried on a business as a cardmaker in Bury from 1791 until his death in 1802 [WM].
Robert did however invent the Drop Box, a device whereby two or three shuttles carrying different coloured yarns could be used together to weave stuffs with a striped weft. In 1764, he made a suggestion for the substitution of brass for wood in the shuttle, making it possible for a larger spool to be carried [WM].
He married Betty Meadowcroft at Middleton parish church on 11th April 1749. Their first child was born 24th October 1749 but died in 1750; the second child Ann was born 11th November 1751. Robert then left for Paris, and there were no more children until his return in 1758. He lived in Bury for the rest of his life. He died well respected in the community; an account book held in Bury Library shows he was a much more successful businessman than his father [RH].
Miss Whitehead, Canon Raines’ source, was a great grand-daughter of Robert.
He may have returned to Bury with his brother Robert. He was known as ‘Frenchman Kay’ in Bury because of his French education and manners. He was married on 11th December 1764 to Elizabeth Lonsdale, the ‘Squire’s’ daughter. John and Elizabeth Kay ran a very successful drapery business in the Market Place in Bury until his death in 1792 [RH].
One of his daughters was the mother of Thomas Sutcliffe whose work in 1847 has caused so much confusion (see note).
The approach that we’ll be taking for this project is:
- Load the descendants from John Lord’s pedigrees and make them accessible on-line
- Attempt to validate John Kay’s children and discover what happened to them
- Validate the descendants, using on-line sources if available
- Gratefully accept input from contributors!
If you would like to contribute to this project, please contact us at info@kayfamilyassociationuk.com.
If you are a member of the Association the current results of our research into John’s descendants are available. To view them, please login by clicking on the link below. If you do not yet have a login ID for this site, please contact info@kayfamilyassociationuk.com.
Thomas Sutcliffe was an adventurer and fantacist; his life was such that he had his own entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (1898 edition), though how much of that is fact and how much fiction can only be guessed. Leaving home early, he claimed to have served in the Royal Navy, being at the blockade of Corfu in 1809. Captured he managed to escape to Albania. He afterwards held a commission in the Horse Guards and was severely wounded at the Battle of Waterloo. He then spent until 1839 fighting in South America, serving for four years as governor of the Chilean island of Juan Fernandez.
And if you believe that, you'll believe anything!
He returned to England in 1839 in straightened circumstances and devoted his time to literary pursuits. His 'Testimonial in behalf of Merit neglected and Genius unrewarded, and Record of the Services of one of England's greatest Benefactors' was published in 1847, and was a blatant attempt to extort money from the government on behalf the descendants of John Kay. It didn't succeed and he died in poverty two years later.