Joseph Jenckes Sr. | |
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| Baptized | August 26, 1599 St. Ann Blackfriars, London, England |
| Died | March 16, 1683 (aged 83) |
| Occupation(s) | Bladesmith, blacksmith, mechanic, inventor |
| Known for | First machine patent in America |
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Joseph Jenckes Sr. (baptized August 26, 1599 – March 16, 1683), also spelled Jencks and Jenks, was a bladesmith, blacksmith, mechanic, and inventor who was instrumental in establishing the Saugus Iron Works in Massachusetts Bay Colony where he was granted the first machine patent in North America.
Jenckes was raised in a family of London cutlers and found employment west of London at a sword factory. After his wife and daughter died, and about the time the sword factory closed, he left his only surviving child with family and immigrated to New England.
About 1645, he was working at the Saugus Iron Works near Lynn, Massachusetts. He is credited with making the first casting in North America, inventing and manufacturing a new kind of scythe, and creating tools for the first North American-made coins.
The son he left behind in England, Joseph Jenckes Jr., joined him at Saugus and later founded the town of Pawtucket in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Other notable descendants include a co-founder of Brown University and a governor of colonial Rhode Island.