Edmund Cartwricht, an English clergyman, inventor of the power loom, born at Marnham, Nottinghamshire, April 24, 1743, died Oet. 30, 1823. He was educated at Oxford, was elected a fellow of Magdalen college, and was rector of Brampton, Derbyshire, and afterward of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire. His early life was passed in lettered ease, and was especially devoted to poetical composition. During the summer of 1784, happening to be at Matlock, he had a conversation with some gentlemen from Manchester on the subject of mechanical weaving. He had never till now, in his 40th year, taken any interest in mechanics, but by April of the succeeding year he had his first power loom in running order. The invention was opposed equally by spinners and their workmen. The latter class saw in it a machine that would deprive them of bread; the other feared it was a device that would diminish their profits. A mob set fire to the first factory and burned it with 500 spindles. Improvements were added to the original machine, and it slowly made its way. For many years, however, Cartwright derived no pecuniary benefit from his invention. He patented several other machines, of which the principal was one for wool combing.

Numerous societies awarded him premiums, but he received no substantial benefits from any of his inventions till 1809, when, on the memorial of the principal cotton spinners, parliament voted him £10,000. This sum placed him in easy circumstances, and he devoted his time to experiments in the adaptation of steam power to boats and carriages, but died without attaining any important result.