Isaac Merritt Singer (October 27, 1811 – July 23, 1875) was an American inventor, actor, and businessman. He made important improvements to the design of the sewing machine and founded the Singer Sewing Machine Company, which became one of the first American multinational businesses.

Other inventors, such as Walter Hunt and Elias Howe, had already created sewing machines with patents. However, Singer’s machine became more successful because it was practical, easy to use at home, and available for purchase through an installment payment plan.

Singer died in 1875. He divided his $13 million fortune unevenly among 20 of his living children from his wives and other partners. One son, who helped his mother during a divorce case against Singer, received only $500. In total, Singer had 26 children with five different women.

Early life

Isaac Merritt Singer was born on October 27, 1811, in Pittstown, Schaghticoke, New York. He was the youngest of eight children. His father was Adam Singer, who was originally named Reisinger, and his mother was Ruth Benson, who later married Adam Singer. His siblings were John Valentine Singer, Alexander Singer, Elizabeth Colby (who was later married to someone named Colby), Christiana Cleveland (who was later married to someone named Cleveland), and Elijah Singer. In 1821, Isaac’s parents divorced, and his mother left him. At the age of twelve, he left home to join a traveling stage act called the Rochester Players. Before this, he had worked briefly as a joiner and a lathe operator.

Career

In 1839, Singer received his first patent for a machine that drilled rock. He sold it to the I & M Canal Building Company for $2,000 (or over $150,000 in 2024 dollars). With this money, he returned to acting. He formed a group called the "Merritt Players" and performed under the name "Isaac Merritt." Mary Ann Sponsler, one of his romantic partners, also performed onstage as "Mrs. Merritt." The tour lasted about five years.

In 1849, Singer developed and patented a "machine for carving wood and metal."

At 38 years old, Singer moved back to New York City with Mary Ann and their eight children. He hoped to sell his wood-block cutting machine. He got money to build a working model in the shop of A. B. Taylor & Co. There, he met G. B. Zieber, who became his business partner and financier. However, shortly after the machine was built, a steam boiler exploded in the shop, destroying the prototype. Zieber encouraged Singer to start over in Boston, a city known for printing. Singer went to Boston in 1850 to show his invention at the shop of Orson C. Phelps. Unfortunately, no one bought his machine.

At Phelps' shop, Lerow & Blodgett sewing machines were being made and repaired. Phelps asked Singer to examine these machines, which were hard to use. Singer realized that the sewing machine would work better if the shuttle moved in a straight line and the needle was straight instead of curved. He received U.S. Patent number 8294 for these improvements on August 12, 1851.

In 1856, companies like Grover & Baker, Singer, and Wheeler & Wilson accused each other of patent infringement. They met in Albany, New York, to resolve their disputes. Orlando B. Potter, a lawyer and leader of the Grover & Baker Company, suggested they combine their patents to avoid legal battles. This was the first patent pool, a method that allowed companies to make complex machines without fighting over patent rights. They agreed to form the Sewing Machine Combination, but they needed Elias Howe’s help because he still held important, uncontested patents. An agreement was made, and Howe received money for every sewing machine made.

Sewing machines began to be made in large numbers. I. M. Singer & Co produced 2,564 machines in 1856 and 13,000 in 1860 at a new factory on Mott Street in New York. Later, a large factory was built near Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Until 1856, sewing machines were used in factories to make clothes, shoes, and other items. That year, smaller machines were sold for home use. However, they were very expensive—over $100 ($4,094.82 in 2024 USD)—so few people bought them. Singer used mass production and the idea of interchangeable parts, developed by Samuel Colt and Eli Whitney, to lower the price and increase profits. He introduced the first family-sized machine called the "turtle back." Eventually, the price dropped to $10 (about $404.23 in 2024 USD). According to PBS, Singer’s partner, Edward Cabot Clark, helped sell more machines by offering installment plans and accepting trade-ins.

Women began making items at home for their families or to sell. Charitable groups also helped poorer women learn sewing skills and find work. Organizations like the Ladies Work Society (1875) and the Association for the Sale of Works of Ladies of Limited Means started classes, magazines, and pattern books for women who wanted to work from home.

I. M. Singer expanded into Europe, starting in Scotland’s Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire, near iron foundries that supplied parts for the machines. When expansion was blocked by nearby foundries, Singer moved to Clydebank. There, a large factory was built between 1882 and 1885 by George McKenzie in Kilbowie, Clydebank, near Glasgow. The factory had two main buildings for making home and industrial machines, and a 200-foot (over 60 meters) tower with the "Singer" logo and four clock faces. It was the tallest four-sided clock tower at the time. Singer opened the factory with 3,500 workers making 8,000 sewing machines weekly. The factory was connected to rail lines and stations in Dumbarton and Helensburgh for distribution. Later, the factory added more production areas, a power station, and sawmills. (Note: Images of the tower and transport connections are available on the Scottish National Buildings Record.) The factory later made military supplies and munitions during World War II. In 1941, the factory and area were badly damaged during the "Clydebank Blitz," destroying 390,000 square feet (36,000 square meters) of buildings and killing 500 people, including 39 Singer workers.

By 1880, Singer machines were as good as their competitors. By the 1900s, the factory, controlled by the parent company, produced 1.5 million machines sold worldwide, helping Singer become one of the first American-based multinational companies with offices in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

By the 1940s, there were 24,000 sewing classes in the UK alone. The Education Act of 1944 made dressmaking a required subject for girls in state schools. By the 1950s, Singer offered teen sewing classes and advertising campaigns to encourage girls to make their own clothes to attract boys.

In 1863, I. M. Singer & Co was dissolved by mutual agreement with Edward Cabot Clark, who felt Singer’s reputation might harm growth. However, Singer kept 40% of the company’s shares and remained on the board as "The Singer Manufacturing Company" in 1887.

In 1871, Singer bought an estate in Paignton, Devon, England, and built the 110-room Oldway Mansion as his home. The mansion had a hall of mirrors, a maze, and a grotto garden. It was rebuilt by Paris Singer, his third son, in the style of the Palace of Versailles. The area became known as "Singerton." The Victorian Society has listed the mansion as a heritage building at risk of damage.

Singer’s early sewing machine was the first to work efficiently. It could sew 900 stitches per minute, much faster than a skilled seamstress’s 40 stitches per minute. This helped speed up garment and textile production

Personal life

In 1830, when Isaac Singer was nineteen years old, he married Catherine Maria Haley, who was fifteen years old. The couple had two children before he left her to join the Baltimore Strolling Players. In 1860, Singer divorced Catherine because she had committed adultery with Stephen Kent. Their son, William, supported his mother during the divorce case. However, Singer ignored William in his will, giving him only $500 from Singer’s $13,000,000 fortune. Their two children were:

• William Adam Singer (1834–1914), who married Sarah Augusta Webb (1851–1909), a twin sister of William Seward Webb (who married Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt).
• Lillian C. Singer (1837–1912), who married Harry Hodson.

In 1836, while still married to Catherine, Singer began a 25-year relationship with Mary Ann Sponsler (1817–1896). Together, they had ten children, two of whom died at birth, including:

• Isaac Augustus Singer (1837–1902), who married Sarah Jane Clarke.
• Vouletti Theresa Singer (1840–1913), who married William Fash Proctor.
• John Albert Singer (1842–1911), who married Jennie C. Belinski.
• Fanny Elizabeth Singer (1844–1909), who married William S. Archer.
• Jasper Hamlet Singer (1846–1922), who married Jane Collier Cook.
• Mary Olivia Singer (1848–1900), who married Sturges Selleck Whitlock, a Connecticut state senator.
• Julia Ann Singer (1855–1923), who married Martin J. Herz.
• Caroline Virginia Singer (1857–1896), who married Augustus C. Foster.

Singer’s financial success allowed him to buy a mansion on Fifth Avenue, where he moved his second family. He and Mary Ann had left their acting company, the Merritt Players, because his inventions were more successful. He lived with Mary Ann until she saw him driving down Fifth Avenue with Mary McGonigal, an employee, which confirmed her suspicions. It is reported that Singer also had an affair with Mary McGonigal’s sister, Kate McGonigal. Together, Mary McGonigal and Isaac had seven children (who used the surname Matthews), two of whom died at birth, including:

• Ruth Mary Matthews (b. 1852)
• Clara Matthews (1854–1933), who married Col. Hugh Stafford in 1880.
• Margaret Matthews (1858–1939), who married Granville Henry Jackson Alexander, Esq., the High Sheriff of Armagh.
• Charles Alexander Matthews (1859–1883), who married Minnie Mathews.
• Florence Adelaide Matthews (c. 1859–1932), who married Harry Ruthven Pratt.

Mary Ann, still calling herself Mrs. I. M. Singer, had her husband arrested for bigamy. Singer was released on bond and, disgraced, fled to London in 1862, taking Mary McGonigal with him. Later, another family was discovered: Isaac had a “wife,” Mary Eastwood Walters, a machine demonstrator, and a daughter in Lower Manhattan:

• Alice Eastwood (née Walters) Merritt (1852–1890), who adopted the surname Merritt and married twice, including to W. A. P. LaGrove at age eighteen in a marriage arranged by Singer.

By 1860, Isaac had fathered and acknowledged twenty children, sixteen of whom were still living, by four women. In 1861, his longtime mistress, Mary Ann, took him to court for abusing her and their daughter, Vouletti. While Isaac was in London, Mary Ann worked to claim his assets by filing documents about his infidelities and argued that, though they were never formally married, they were considered married under common law because they lived together for seven months after his divorce from Catherine. Eventually, a settlement was made, but no divorce was granted. Mary Ann later married John E. Foster.

Meanwhile, Isaac reconnected with Isabella Eugenie Boyer, a nineteen-year-old Frenchwoman he had met in Paris in 1860. She left her husband and married Isaac, who was fifty years old, under the name Isabella Eugenie Sommerville on June 13, 1863, while she was pregnant. Together, they had six children:

• Sir Adam Mortimer Singer (1863–1929)
• Winnaretta Eugenie Singer (1865–1943), a patron of 20th-century music who married Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard in 1887. They divorced in 1892 and she married Prince Edmond de Polignac.
• Washington Merritt Grant Singer (1866–1934), who married Blanche Emmeline Hale and Ellen Mary Allen.
• Paris Eugene Singer (1867–1932), who married Cecilia Henrietta Augusta "Lillie" Graham (1867–1951). Paris was a close friend of the Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner.
• Isabelle-Blanche Singer (1869–1896), who married the French aristocrat Jean, Duc Decazes et de Glücksbierg in 1888.
• Franklin Merritt Morse Singer (1870–1939), who married Emilie Maigret.

Isaac Singer died in 1875, shortly after the wedding of his daughter by Mary Eastwood Walters, Alice, whose wedding dress cost as much as a London apartment. His funeral was a large and fancy event with eighty horse-drawn carriages and about 2,000 mourners. He was buried locally in Torquay Cemetery, as he requested, in three layers of coffin (cedar lined with satin, lead, English oak with silver decoration) and a marble tomb.

Legacy and honors

• The World War II Liberty Ship SS Isaac M. Singer was named after him.
• Singer Island, Florida was named after his son Paris Singer.