John Heathcoat

John Heathcoat (7 August 1783 – 18 January 1861) was an English inventor and politician. During his apprenticeship he made an improvement to the warp-weighted loom, so as to produce mitts of a lace-like appearance. He set up his own business in Nottingham but was forced to move away to Hathern in Leicestershire, and after this new factory was attacked by former Luddites in 1816 he moved the business to Tiverton in Devon where it became most successful and established the Tiverton lace-making industry.