John Holker (Jacobite)

He married a local woman, Elizabeth Hilton, in 1740, and while still in his twenties, he set up a calendering business in Manchester, in partnership with Peter Moss.

When Bonnie Prince Charlie's army entered the town in 1746, both men purchased commissions in the Jacobite regiment that was raised there.

Holker subsequently submitted a proposal to the French government suggesting that a scheme should be set up to encourage the "seduction" of workers and machinery from England, and that agents should be employed for that purpose.

The French government approved Holker's idea, and appointed him inspector-general of foreign manufactures in 1756, with a brief to identify those industries that might benefit from "an infusion of English technology and workers".

[3] Holker also developed an interest in the French chemical industry, and in particular the manufacture of vitriol, an archaic name for sulfuric acid, which could be used as a bleach for linen.