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Sir Peter Coats and Thomas Coats
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Sir Peter Coats and Thomas Coats, Paisley's famous thread manufacturers and benefactors.
Sir Peter Coats
1808 - 1890
Thomas Coats
1809 - 1883
Members of Paisley's famous Coats family, Peter and Thomas took over the running of their father's Ferguslie threadworks, J and P Coats, in the 1830s. Under their leadership, the company became one of the world's leading thread manufacturers.
Peter Coats attended Paisley grammar school and then college. He intended to enter the church, but instead chose a business career, receiving his business training in the Glasgow office of John Fleming & Co, East India Merchants, before running J and P Coats. He remained active in the running of the Ferguslie threadworks for 47 years. He and his wife had 12 children and moved into their family home of Woodside House in 1844. After his wife’s death, in 1877, he retired and moved from the family home to his newly bought estate of Auchendrane in South Ayrshire.
Thomas Coats, unlike Peter, had intended to work in the family firm and had been apprenticed to McDowall, the Johnstone engineering firm, to give him a good technical training. It also gave him a good grounding in the practical aspects of textile machinery. He and his wife moved into Ferguslie House in 1845 and brought up their 11 children there. His death in 1883 was marked by a public funeral with 2,000 people following his coffin.
J and P Coats thread mills, circa 1920
Peter, and his brother Thomas, were largely responsible for the rapid expansion of J and P Coats during the 19th Century. As sales in America increased during the late 1840s, the capacity of the Ferguslie Mills doubled, and then doubled again in the 1850s.
The Clarks, another Paisley family, also owned a large thread making business. The two companies were great rivals and sometimes allies. Between them, by 1860, they were responsible for Paisley becoming the most important centre of cotton thread manufacture in the world.
J and P Coats thread
The Coats family and public life
The family were major benefactors. Thomas Coats best known gifts to Paisley were the Observatory and the Fountain Gardens. He was a supporter of many local societies and charities and was deeply involved in education. He became the first chairman of the education board in 1873 and remained in that position until his death. After his death the Thomas Coats Memorial church was built by his family in his memory.
Peter Coats also played a large part in the life of Paisley. He was the director of Paisley Infirmary, Paisley Philosophical Institution and the Government School of Design, among others. He is probably best remembered for his gift of the free library and museum to the town. With this gift, Paisley became only the third place in Scotland to have a library and museum run by the local council. Peter was later knighted by Queen Victoria for this particular piece of generosity.
If you are a Renfrewshire library member you can use this link straight to the entry for Thomas Coats in The Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB). Just enter the word 'renfrew' and then your library ticket number. Most UK libraries subscribe to DNB - check if yours is one of them.
For more information on Renfrewshire's famous people, contact the Local Studies Library by
- email: locstuds.els@renfrewshire.gov.uk
- phone: 0141 887 2360
- fax: 0141 887 6468
- write to:
- Reference and Local Studies Library
Central Library
68 High Street
Paisley
PA1 2BB
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