Lee, William

William Lee, (born 1550Paris, France), English inventor who devised the first knitting machine (1589), the only one in use for centuries. Its principle of operation remains in use.

Lee, a clergyman at Calverton, is said to have developed the machine because a woman whom he was courting showed more interest in knitting than in him. His first machine produced a coarse wool, for stockings. Refused a patent by Queen Elizabeth I, he built an improved machine that produced a silk of finer texture, but the queen again denied him a patent because of her concern for the security of the kingdom’s many hand knitters. With support from Henry IV of France, Lee began stocking manufacture in Rouen, France, and prospered until Henry’s assassination in 1610. After Lee’s death his brother returned to England and slowly established the knitting industry there, against the opposition of the hand knitters.