Kent & Bancroft Manufacturing Co. was established in 1870; they made metalworking lathes and planers, plus textile spinning machinery. By 1880 they were succeeded by N. W. Bancroft & Son. By 1883 the business was operating as W. F. Bancroft & Co..; the business closed its doors in 1893.

Ad from 1885 "Worcester Directory"

Shortly before the business failure, W. F. Bancroft helped develop a special pulley turning machine. They applied for a patent in 1891 and began manufacturing the machine. The patent still had not been issued when the business failed; when the patent was finally issued in 1894, it was assigned to L. W. Pond Machine Co.

Information Sources

• Worcester Directory for 1873 lists "Kent & Bancroft Mf'g Co. 31 Hermon." Associated with the firm were John G. Avery, Ira R. Kent, Prentiss J. Kent, and Nathan W. Bancroft. At the same address was Bancroft, Bushnell & Co., makers of planer chucks and centers.
• The 1880 Worcester Directory has an ad for "N. W. Bancroft & Son, successors to the Kent & Bancroft Mf'g Co."
• The October 13, 1883 issue of Engineering Mechanics has the following note:

  Mr. W. F. Bancroft, of Worcester, Mass., is about placing on the market a new and improved 30-inch planer, on which he has expended considerable time in perfecting. He is also engaged in the manufacture of a full line of lathes, a number being about ready for shipment to parties in various sections of the country.

• The 1885 Massachusetts Journal of the House of Representatives mentions W. F. Bancroft & Co. as having signed a petition requesting that a new bridge be built across the Hudson River.
• The 1893 catalog of Hill, Clarke & Co. has an ad for "Wood's Pulley Turning Machine / Built by W. F. Bancroft & Co."
• Annual Report on the Statistics of Manufactures for 1893 has this note: "W. F. Bancroft & Co. dissolved and machine shop closed."
• Industrial Worcester, by Charles Grenfill Washburn, 1917, has the following paragraph:

  W. F. Bancroft & Co., established in 1870 by Kent & Bancroft, made self-operating spinning machinery, lathes, planers and special machinery. Later this business was sold to John Wehinger and was afterwards combined with that of N. A. Lombard & Co., now discontinued.