Isaac Merritt Singer

October 27, 1811 - July 23, 1875

Isaac Singer was an American inventor, actor, and entrepreneur. He was also a flamboyant bon vivant and bigamist. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. He was a shrewd businessman amassing a considerable fortune by the time of his death in Torquay, England where he had built a grand estate.

Unable to be accepted in New York society because of his flamboyant lifestyle, he emmigrated to London. By 1860, Isaac had fathered and recognized eighteen children (sixteen of them remaining alive), by four women. In London he married another woman and had six more children by her.