at fair wages to 150,000 workpeople. In 1805 Heathcoat had removed to Loughborough, whence his improved machine was known as the ‘Old Loughborough.’ In 1809 he entered into partnership with Charles Lacy, who had been a point-net maker at Nottingham. Under this partnership the machinery was so increased that by 1816 fifty-five frames were at work in the Loughborough factory. They also made much money by granting permission to other firms to use the machine on the payment of a royalty. There were several infringements of the patent, more particularly by William Morley, a machine builder, in 1813, but an injunction was procured against him. The Luddites, on the night of 28 June 1816, attacked Heathcoat, Lacy, & Boden's factory at Loughborough, and destroyed fifty-five frames and burnt the lace which was upon them. The firm sued the county for the damage and was awarded 10,000l., but the magistrates required that the money should be expended locally. To this Heathcoat gave a decided refusal, and the amount was never received. He said his life had been threatened, and he would go as far as possible from such desperate men. Dissolving his partnership with Lacy, he then, in conjunction with John Boden, purchased a large mill at Tiverton in Devonshire, where machinery could be driven by the stream of the Exe. The removal to Tiverton proved favourable. Heathcoat constructed his new frames of increased width and speed, and by applying rotary power lessened the cost of production. He patented a rotary self-narrowing stocking-frame, and put gimp and other ornamental threads into bobbin net by mechanical adjustment. In 1821 the partnership with Boden was dissolved. Year by year Heathcoat took out further patents and continued to make inventions and improvements in his manufactures until 1843, when he retired. In 1832, in conjunction with Henry Handley, M.P., he patented a steam plough to assist in agricultural improvements in Ireland. On 12 Dec. 1832 he was elected to represent Tiverton in parliament, and sat for that borough till 23 April 1859. He seldom addressed the house, but was very useful in committees. His colleague for many years in the representation of the town, Lord Palmerston, paid a high tribute to his patriotic and independent course on his retirement. At his own cost he built British schools, which were opened 1 Jan. 1843, and in the same year his portrait, the cost of which was defrayed by a public subscription, was presented to the corporation of his adopted town. He died at Bolham House, Tiverton, 18 Jan. 1861, and was buried in St. Peter's churchyard on 24 Jan. He married about 1804 Ann, daughter of William Cauldwell of Hathern, Leicestershire, by whom he left two daughters, Miss Heathcoat and Mrs. Brewin, who employed their large property in carrying out their father's benevolent schemes.
[Felkin's History of Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, 1867, pp. 180–270, with portrait; Bevan's British Manufacturing Industries, ‘Hosiery and Lace,’ by W. Felkin, 1877, pp. 56–73; Mozley's Reminiscences, 1885, i. 239–242; Times, 26 Jan. 1861, p. 12; Tiverton Gazette, 22 Jan. 1861, p. 4, and 29 Jan., pp. 2, 4.]
HEATHCOTE, Sir GILBERT (1651?–1733), lord mayor of London, born at Chesterfield about 1651, and descended from an ancient Derbyshire family, was eldest son of Gilbert Heathcote, alderman of Chesterfield, by Anne, daughter of Thomas Dickens. He graduated B.A. in 1669 and M.A. in 1673 from Christ's College, Cambridge (Grad. Cantabr. 1823, p. 227), and was living in London in 1682 in the parish of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East. He afterwards carried on business as a merchant in St. Swithin's Lane; traded in Spanish wines and other produce in 1690–2 (Cal. of Treasury Papers, 1556–1696, pp. 112, 244), and had large transactions with Jamaica, furnishing remittances on behalf of the government for the troops there (ib. 1702–7, pp. 448, 491–2). His trade with the East Indies was equally extensive. In 1693 the ship Redbridge, of which he was part owner, being detained at the instance of the East India Company, which claimed a monopoly of the trade with India, he asserted at the bar of the House of Commons his right to trade wherever he pleased, unless restrained by parliament. The house declared by resolution against the company's monopoly (Macaulay, Hist. of England, iv. 476). Heathcote actively promoted the bill for a new East India Company, subscribed 10,000l. of its capital, and served both as a director and as one of a committee of seven to arrange matters with the old company (Hatton, New View of London, 1708, pp. 603–4; Luttrell, Brief Relation, iv. 403, 485). Strype relates that at a meeting, held in London about 1698, of the company of Eastland merchants (of which Heathcote was governor in 1720), Peter the Great was present, and was addressed by Heathcote ‘in high Dutch’ with reference to the importation of tobacco into his dominions (Stow, Survey of London, ed. Strype, 1720, bk. v. p. 262).
Heathcote was one of the founders of the Bank of England, and in 1694 was elected by ballot one of its first board of directors
