[1][2] He initially worked as a blacksmith in England and was said to be exceptionally skilled as a mechanical engineer and model maker.

[3] Cockerill was recommended to the Empress Catherine the Great as a skilled craftsman and settled in Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire in 1794.

Cockerill heard of the wool industry emerging around the city of Liège in modern-day Belgium which had recently been occupied by France.

However, he heard nothing and after six months arrived in the Low Countries where he travelled to Amsterdam and then the pays de Liège.

[2] Cockerill's success grew during the Napoleonic blockade when Continental Europe was effectively cut off from English industrial products.

[4][3] William Cockerill died at Schloss Berensberg [de] (the home of his son Charles James) in Aachen, Prussia in 1832.