John Broadwood (6 October 1732 – 17 July 1812)
was the Scottish founder of the piano manufacturer Broadwood and Sons.

Broadwood was born 6 October 1732 and christened 15 Oct 1732 at St Helens, Cockburnspath in Berwickshire, and grew up in Oldhamstocks, East Lothian. He inherited his father James Broadwood's (b1697 Oldhamstocks) profession, that of a wright or carpenter/joiner, and as a young man walked from Oldhamstocks to London, a distance of almost 400 miles, where he worked for the harpsichord maker Burkat Shudi. Burkat Shudi died in 1773, and John Broadwood took control of the company from his brother-in-law in 1783.
Broadwood and his acquaintances William Stodart and Americus Backers are credited with devising the English Grand Action, an early piano action, and of taking piano design from the box piano to a prototype grand piano. In time his sales of pianos exceeded those of harpsichords, to the point that he ceased to manufacture harpsichords in 1793. He died in London. Broadwood's other technical innovations in piano manufacture include: adding a separate bridge for the bass notes, patenting the piano pedal in 1783 and expanding the then-standard five octave range upwards by half an octave, in response to a request of Dussek, and then by half an octave downwards...

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