Sir Isaac Holden, 1st Baronet

Who was Sir Isaac Holden, 1st Baronet?

Sir Isaac Holden, 1st Baronet was an inventor and manufacturer, who is known both for his work with wool-combing and with matches.

He was born in the village of Hurlet near Glasgow, and from the age of ten worked in a cotton mill. He became largely self-educated, although he did briefly attend a grammar school. After an unsuccessful apprenticeship, he became a teacher at local schools, and in 1829 obtained a post at the Castle Academy in Reading, Berkshire. It was here that it was thought he developed the Lucifer match, but it was actually invented by a man named John Walker of Stockton-on-Tees in 1827, who did not patent the invention. The following year he returned to Scotland, and after a brief period of teaching became a bookkeeper at a worsted factory. Transferring to the technical side, he developed a square motion wool-comber and a device for making genappe yarns, which he did patent along with Samuel Lister.

In 1848, trading as Lister & Holden, they set up a factory near Paris which became the largest wool-combing establishment in the world. Lister retired from the business, and the company became Isaac Holden and sons.

Holden also served as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Knaresborough from 1865 to 1868, for the Northern West Riding of Yorkshire from 1882 to 1885 and for Keighley from 1885 to 1895.