The Arkwrights
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THE ARKWRIGHTS The Industrial Re30lution at Stockport and Marple GEORGE UNWIN, M.A., M.Com. ~rofuirof Economic History in the U?lioersity of Manche~ter with Chapters by ARTHUR HULME and GEORGE TAYLOR, M.A. MANCHESTER - - AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, NEW YORK, 8rC. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. '924 PREFACE Publications of the Utzio~rjityof Manckerter HREE leading contemporary authorities on the No. CLXII. early history of the cotton industry and of the Tfactory system-Robert Owen, William Radcliffe, and John Kennedy-agree in attributing considerable im- portance to the achievements of Samuel Oldknow, who first turned the new spinning inventions to full account by the production of finer cotton fabrics in successful rivalry with the East. In his delightful autobiogl-aptly, Owe11 has told us how, soon after he became an apprentice in Mr. McGuffog's shop at Stamford, Oldknow's British Mull Muslins beean4 to disvlace those of Indian manu- facture and were eagerly bought up by the nobility at half-a-guinea a yard. His subsequent account of Oldknow's beginnings as a master spinner anti of how " the handsonle and imposing mill at Mellor " proved a stumbling block to the ardent young Welshman's earliest ambitions will be found recorded in this book in Owen's inimitable style. This cotton mill. which ~assedinto the hands of the Arkwright family, has destroyed by fire in I 892, and has since that date been a picturesque and interesting ruin. A detached portion, however, lying by the river-side and within a stone's-throw of the residence built bv Oldknow. was not burnt down, and thougli in a dilapidated con- dition has been used in parts for stabling or for minor industrial purposes. A body of Austrian prisoners was set to work there during the late war. The distribution of t2 some eighteenth-century weavers' pay-tickets by an adventurous boy scout to casual passers-by led Mr. Arthur Hulme to obtain permission to explore the upper floor of this building, and here on January st, 1921, when I joined the search at his invitation, we found a great number of letters, papers, account books, and other business records of every kind and size, covering the whole floor of a large room and partly hidden from sight by Prbrted by Tlre Clohtcr Press Ltd., Hcntort Mersey, ?tear Manclresler PREFACE PREFACE several inches of dust and debris. To all appearance the of the Arkwright estate ; Mr. John Taylor, of Marple records had lain there for a century, and as the room since Ridge ; Mr. John Smith, of Marple ; and Mr. H. the fire had lost its windows tliev, had suffered much from Wheeldon, of Didsbury. the weather and were in maw cases illdecipherable. The Of the laborious task of bringing into some kind of recovery, cleansing, and clasiification of ;he remainder, intelligible order thousands of letters or other separate which filled several sacks, was tlie work of many week- documents and upwards of fifty more continuous records, ends on the spot, and occupied the leisure of the dis- of transcribing or summarising the more important, coverers for months afterwards. the greater part was undertaken by Mr. Hulme ; but From the first it was clear tliat by a piece of alnlost valuable help was also given by Mr. G. Taylor, M.A., by inconceivable good fortune the records of Oldknow's Miss F. Collier, M.A., Research Assistant in the Com- ~reviousbusiness as a muslin manufacturer at Stockport merce Department of the University, and by Dr. A. had been deposited at Mcllor, so tliat the documents Redford, Assistant Lecturer in Economics at Liverpool afforded a unique illustration both of the final phase of University, each of whom brought the light of wider the "domestic industrv" and of the earliest nliase of the .I research to bear on the documents. Some portions of Mr. factory system. A long arid vain attempt to interpret Taylor's thesis on the handloom weavers of the Stockport the kctory records on the assumption tliat the fragmentary district are included in the present volume and its appen- time books, wage sheets, etc., related only to tlie Mellor dices. For supplementary material drawn from various mill ended in the discoverv, that Dart of tlie records sources, but chiefly from the advertisement columns of were those of a mill sin~ultaneouslyerected at Stockport, old Manchester newspapers, we are indebted to the whilst others concerned a bleach and print works pre- generosity of friends who are engaged in investigating viously established by Oltlknow at Heaton Mersey ; and other aspects of the social history of Lancashire, and a further series. which i>erliaus contributed most to the especially to Mr. G. H. Tupling, M.A., of Haslingden, reconstruction of tlie whole, related to tlie very beginnings Mr. A. P. Wadswortli, of Manchester, and Rev. W. T. of Oldknow's enterprise at Anderton, and to tlie manage- Buslirod, of Chorley. ment of the branch there after his removal to Stockport An attempt was made after a year spent in collecting, and Mellor. arranging, and interpreting this mass of material to give Inquiries made by Mr. Hulme in Mellor and Marple, a preliminary account of it in the pages of the Etzglish where the tradition of Oldknow's achievements is still Historical Review, under the title of "The Transition verv much alive. showed tliat our interest in the factorv 1 to the Factory Syste~n." In this article, portions of which and its records had naturally been anticipated by some of with the corrections and modifications necessitated by those whose fathers or grandfathers had been concerned subsequent research have been embodied in the present in its working and ma~lagernent,and they kindly placed book, the important matter of the relations of Oldknow at our disoosal manv documents which furnished irll\~ortant to Sir Richard Arkwright and to his son Richard links in our investigation. We owe especial gratitude for had to be dealt with cor~jecturallyfor want of docu- this fundamental service to Mr. E. Fur~iiss,tlie agent mentary evidence. This elicited an extremely kind offer vii PREFACE PREFACE of assistance from the late Mr. F. C. Arkwright, the In writing the chapter on the Industrial Revolution lineal descendant of tlie great inventor. A few months at Stockport I was very greatly assisted by Messrs. before his death he invited Mr. Hul~neand myself to Johnson, of the firm of Henry Marsland Ltd., whose Willersley and laid open to our inspection the title deeds works occupy the oldest and most interesting industrial of the estates at Mcllor and Marple, the various mortgages site in the town, and the title deeds of the Park Mills, executed by Oldknow, and the deeds relating to the placed at my disposal by the firm, have made it possible partnership between Oldknow and the second Richard to trace the continuous history of the transference of the Arkwriglit wliich was formed in 1800 and dissolved in manorial water power fro111 corn-milling to logwood- I 805. William Kadcliffe, in his Origin ofthe New System grinding and silk-throwing, and from silk-throwing of Manufactrrre, says that lie acquired his Hillgate pre- to cotton-spinning. mises from the firm of Oldknow a~idArkwright. Our Similar valuable aid was rendered to Mr. Hulme by records for this period contained 110 direct evidence of the Rev. C. G. Mylrea, B.A., who facilitated his access such a partnership, and the statement made in my article to the parish registers of Marple, and thus enabled him to tliat the evidence at our dis~osalseemed to show that compile a list of some three hundred and fifty surnames neither of the Arkwrigl~tsexercised any internal control borne by the inhabitants of the district before tlie building over Oldknow's business is to some extent justified by the of the fi~ctory.This list was essential for the interpr-etati011 clause in the partnership deed relieving Arkwriglit from of tlie industrial records of over a thousand persons, for the responsibility of taking any active part iri the concern, wl~icl~lie found materials in wage books and other whilst a further clause, requiring Oldknow to submit sources, and which served as a basis for our chapter on the regular accounts, casts a new light on the series of monthly new community at Marple. statistical statements which had been one of the most That I have been building upon foundations laid by interesting of our discoveries. Professor Daniels in his Early History of the Cotton Another conjecture made in the article may be regarded Ztzdustry will be sufficiently obvious ; arid I have also as completely disproved by further investigation. The Lxct to acknowledge much helpful advice from my otlier friends that Samuel Oldknow's father was buried at Rivington and colleagues, Mr. T. S. Asliton, M.A., Mr. H. S. Chapel, and tliat his tombstone describes him as " of Ferguson, M.Com., and Mr. H. M. McKechnie. Nottineham. late of Anderton." led me to the mistaken V For permission to reproduce the portrait of Samuel supposition that the family had migrated from Anderton Oldknow wliich serves as a frontispiece to the volume to Nottingliam. Further evidence, kindly colnmunicated we are indebted to Colonel Wainwright, of Braby~ls to me by the Kev. T. C. Porteus, M.A., Vicar of Coppull, House, Marple; for the drawing of the Methodist who is investigating the history of the parish of Standish, Chapel and School to Miss May Malburn ; for the shows conclusively that the migration was taking place drafting of Mr. Hulme's map of the estate at Mellor in the opposite direction, and incidentally furnishes an- and Marple to Mr.