Cockerill, William

Notes:

William Cockerill, c1758-1832, in late eighteenth century was a maker of spinning jennies at Haslingden, Lancashire. In 1790s left for Europe where he worked in Russia, then Sweden before settling in Belgium at Verviers, later Liege, where he made textile machinery on an industrial scale, exporting widely to Europe. Retired c1812 when business developed further by his sons, Charles and John. By 1820s supposedly one of largest engineering businesses in the world with a major metal plant at Seraing. The Cockerill business endured as a major international manufacturing concern as illustrated by the entrepreneurial activities of a later John Cockerill in southern Russia in 1885-1905