he was busy with engineering and letter-writing until 1779, he received only 1,700 livres from the French state over these five years, reaching a state of penury in March 1778 before receiving his final advance (to develop yet more machinery). His last known letter (8 June 1779) listed his latest achievements for the Intendant de Commerce, and proposed further inventions. But since these were never made, and no more is heard of the 75-year-old Kay, it is believed that he must have died later in 1779. Legacy In Bury, Kay has become a local hero: there are still several pubs named after him, as are the Kay Gardens. Bury town centre has William Venn Gough's 1908 Memorial to John Kay (sculpture by John Cassidy). Planning began after a 1903 Bury public meeting launched a public subscription. 19th century efforts to acknowledge Kay achieved little, but by 1903 it was felt that Bury "owed John Kay's memory an atonement", and that all Bury should contribute in restitution to "that wonderfully ingenious and martyred man". John Kay's son, Robert, stayed in Britain, and in 1760 developed the "drop-box", which enabled looms to use multiple flying shuttles simultaneously, allowing multicolour wefts. His son John ("French Kay") had long resided with his father in France. In 1782 he provided an account of his father's troubles to Richard Arkwright, who sought to highlight problems with patent defence in a parliamentary petition. Ford Madox Brown portrayed Kay and his invention in a mural painting in Manchester Town Hall. Thomas Sutcliffe In the 1840s, one of Kay's great-grandsons, Thomas Sutcliffe, campaigned to promote a Colchester heritage for Kay's family. In 1846 he unsuccessfully sought a parliamentary grant for Kay's descendants in compensation for his ancestor's treatment in England. He was inaccurate in the details of his grandfather's genealogy and story, and his "Fanciful and Erroneous Statements" were discredited by John Lord's detailed examination of primary sources. See also Bradford Industrial Museum References English inventors Textile engineering Textile workers People of the Industrial Revolution 1704 births 1780 deaths Cotton industry in England Industrial Revolution in England People from Bury, Greater Manchester 18th-century British engineers