Description: The stocking frame was originally invented in the late 1500's by the Rev William Lee. The story of the Rev. William Lee, inventor of the stocking frame, is a sad but interesting one. He was born in 1563 in Calverton, and received sufficient education to warrant his attendance at a University, for in 1579 he was at Christ's College, Cambridge, and later removed to St. Johns College in the same University. Having taken his degree as Master of Arts he returned home, and became curate of either Woodborough or Calverton. But he was desperately poor for his income from each parish was only £20 per annum. Mrs. Lee, therefore, had to help to finance the household and she earned money by knitting. Lee was of a mechanical turn of mind, and by closely watching the movements of his wife's fingers while knitting, he was at last able to reproduce these movements by machinery. His tools were of the crudest, and his machine was made entirely of wood, for iron was expensive and hard to come by. Moreover the material knitted was the wool spun from the fleeces of the local sheep, for cotton was almost unprocurable at Calverton in the tudor period. As the population of Calverton in Lee's days was about 200, there was little scope for the new machine, and so Lee moved to London. Lee, his wife and his family, with their household goods, undertaking the 150 miles walk (for they were so poor that they could not afford to go by wagon) over the awful thief-infested roads of those days. Fresh disappointment met Lee in London. Both Queen Elizabeth I and later King James I inspected the machine, and although they were impressed they refused to grant a patent. But the French Ambassador promised that the King of France would grant a patent, and so the machine was removed to Rouen, however before anything could be done the King of France was assassinated, and all hope was lost, and poor Lee died in penury of a broken heart and lies buried in an unknown grave. A number of improvements had been made on Lee's frame during the 18th century. The one of greatest importance was the rib machine invented by Jedediah Strutt of Belper in 1758. It was not what could be actually termed an improvement on Lees frame, but an addition to it. Lees frame was not altered in any way, Strutts machine being added to it, and the two being worked in conjunction produced a fabric of a more elastic nature and alike on both sides. Strutt's machine consisted of a set of needles placed at right angles to and between Lees plain needles, with the result that, when knitting, the frame needles drew their loops to one side and the machine needles their loops to the opposite side of the fabric. The first offshoot from frame-work knitting was the invention of the hand warp loom in 1775. It was improved by the addition of the Dawson wheel by William Dawson in 1791. This machine is the origin of the other various complex machines now working on this principle. Some of these have Jacquard mechanism attached, and nearly all of them are driven by motive power. About the middle of the 19th century close on 50,000 of Lee's hand frames were in use, finding employment for nearly 100,000 persons. Many attempts had been made previously to transform Lees frame into a power or rotary frame. One of the first and most successful was that invented by Luke Barton in 1857. This frame was fitted with self-acting mechanism for fashioning, and was practically Lees frame having rotary shafts with cams added to give the various movements, this type of frame being known as straight bar rotary frames. In 1864 William Cotton of Loughborough altered this frame by reversing the positions of the needles and sinkers. Although made by various builders it is still known as the Cotton Patent Rotary Frame. Since 1864 a great number of important improvements and additions have been made to this frame. Single frames are built which will turn out one dozen pairs of hose at once, with the attention of one person working it. One of the most important inventions in connection with the hosiery trade was the latch, tumbler, or self-acting needle invented by Matthew Townsend and David Moulding of Leicester in 1858. Previous to this Lee's type of needle was the only one in use. (See NTGM010139 for a history of Frame knitting around Nottinghamshire.) This picture is an engraving of a drawing by Thomas Sandby. Thomas Sandby was born in Nottingham in 1721, four years before the birth of his younger brother Paul - both grew up to be famous successful artists. Thomas settled as an architectural designer and draughtsman, attached to his Royal Patron at Windsor. His works show evidence of great talent but his occupation left him little time to produce many.