Richard
Arkwright the
youngest of thirteen children was born in Preston
in 1732. Richard's parents were very poor and could not afford to
send him to school and instead arranged for him to be taught to read
and write by his cousin Ellen.
Richard became a barber's apprentice. However, he was an ambitious
young man and had a strong desire to run his own company. In 1762
Arkwright started a wig-making business. This involved him travelling
the country collecting people's discarded hair.
While on his travels, Arkwright heard about the attempts being made
to produce new machines for the textile industry. Arkwright also met
John Kay, a clockmaker from Warrington, who had been busy for some
time trying to produce a new spinning-machine with another man, Thomas
Highs of Leigh. Kay and Highs had run out of money and had been forced
to abandon the project.
Arkwright was impressed by Kay and offered to employ him to make this
new machine. Arkwright also recruited other local craftsman to help,
and it was not long before the team produced the Spinning-Frame.
Arkwright's machine involved three sets of paired rollers that turned
at different speeds. While these rollers produced yarn of the correct
thickness, a set of spindles twisted the fibres firmly together. The
machine was able to produce a thread that was far stronger than that
made by the Spinning-Jenny produced by
James Hargreaves.
In 1769 Arkwright went to Ichabod Wright, a banker from Nottingham,
in search of funds to expand his business. Wright introduced Arkwright
to Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need. Strutt
and Need were impressed with Arkwright's water-frame and agreed to
form a partnership.
Arkwright's Spinning-Frame was too large
to be operated by hand and so the men had to find another method of
working the machine. After experimenting with horses, it was decided
to employ the power of the water-wheel. In 1771 the three men set
up a large factory next to the River Derwent in Cromford, Derbyshire.
Arkwright's machine now became known as the Water-Frame.
The invention of the Spinning Jenny and
the Spinning Frame caused an increase in
demand for cardings and rovings. Lewis Paul had invented a machine
for carding in 1748. Richard Arkwright made improvements in this machine
and in 1775 took out a patent for a new Carding
Engine.
In Cromford there were not enough local people
to supply Arkwright with the workers he needed. After building a large
number of cottages close to the factory, he imported workers from
all over Derbyshire. Arkwright preferred weavers with large families.
While the women and children worked in his spinning-factory, the weavers
worked at home turning the yarn into cloth.
When Samuel Need died on 14th April, 1781. Arkwright and Jedediah
Strutt decided to dissolve their partnership. Strutt was disturbed
by Arkwright's plans to build mills in Manchester,
Winkworth, Matlock Bath and Bakewell. Strutt believed that Arkwright
was expanding too fast and without the support of Need, his long-time
partner, he was unwilling to take the risk of further investments.
Arkwright'stextile factories were very profitable. He now built factories
in Lancashire, Staffordshire and Scotland. In these factories he used
the new steam-engine that had recently been developed by James
Watt and Matthew Boulton. When businessmen
heard about Arkwright's success, they sent spies to find out what
was going on in his factories. In exchange for money, some of Arkwright's
employees were willing to explain how the factory was organised. Businessmen
then used this information to build their own water-powered textile
factories.
Richard Arkwright's employees worked from six in the morning to seven
at night. Although some of the factory owners employed children as
young as five, Arkwright's policy was to wait until they reached the
age of six. Two-thirds of Arkwright's 1,900 workers were children.
Like most factory owners, Arkwright was unwilling to employ people
over the age of forty.
Richard Arkwright died
in 1792. The Gentleman's Magazine
claimed that on his death, Arkwright was worth over £500,000.
Child
Labour Debate Activity (International School of Toulouse)
Child
Labour Simulation (Spartacus Educational)
(1)
(1)
Ralph Mather described the work of the children in Richard Arkwright's
factories in his book An Impartial Representation of the Case of
the Poor Cotton Spinners in Lancashire (1780)
Arkwright's
machines require so few hands, and those only children, with the assistance
of an overlooker. A child can produce as much as would, and did upon
an average, employ ten grown up persons. Jennies for spinning with
one hundred or two hundred spindles, or more, going all at once, and
requiring but one person to manage them.
Within the space of ten years, from being a poor man worth £5,
Richard Arkwright has purchased an estate of £20,000; while thousands
of women, when they can get work, must make a long day to card, spin,
and reel 5040 yards of cotton, and for this they have four-pence or
five-pence and no more.
(2)
Advert that appeared in The Derby Mercury on 20th September,
1781.
Wanted
at Cromford. Forging & Filing Smiths, Joiners and Carpenters,
Framework-Knitters and Weavers with large families. Likewise children
of all ages may have constant employment. Boys and young men may have
trades taught them, which will enable them to maintain a family in
a short time.
(3)
The Derby Mercury (14th November, 1777)
John Jefferies,
a gunsmith of Cromford, has been committed to the House of Correction
at Derby for one month; and to be kept to hard labour. John Jefferies
was charged by Mr. Arkwright, Cotton Merchant, with having absented
himself from his master's business without leave (being a hired servant).
(4)
The Derby Mercury
(22nd October, 1779)
There is some fear of the mob coming to destroy
the works at Cromford, but they are well prepared to receive them
should they come here. All the gentlemen in this neighbourhood being
determined to defend the works, which have been of such utility to
this country. 5,000 or 6,000 men can be at any time assembled in less
than an hour by signals agreed upon, who are determined to defend
to the very last extremity, the works, by which many hundreds of their
wives and children get a decent and comfortable livelihood.
(5)
James Farington, diary entry (22nd August, 1801)
In the evening I walked to Cromford, and saw
the children coming from their work out of one of Mr. Arkwright's
factories. These children had been at work from 6 to 7 o'clock this
morning and it is now 7 in the evening.
(6)
William Dodd interviewed John Reed from Arkwright's
Cromford's factory in 1842.
John
Reed is a sadly deformed young man living in Cromford. He tells his
pitiful tale as follows: "I went to work at the cotton factory
of Messrs. Arkwright at the age of nine. I was then a fine strong,
healthy lad, and straight in every limb. I had at first instance 2s.
per week, for seventy-two hours' work. I continued to work in this
factory for ten years, getting gradually advanced in wages, till I
had 6s. 3d. per week; which is the highest wages I ever had. I gradually
became a cripple, till at the age of nineteen I was unable to stand
at the machine, and I was obliged to give it up. The total amount
of my earnings was about 130 shillings, and for this sum I have been
made a miserable cripple, as you see, and cast off by those who reaped
the benefit of my labour, without a single penny."
Here is a young man, who was evidently intended by nature for a stout-made
man, crippled in the prime of life, and all his earthly prospects
blasted for ever! Such a cripple I have seldom met with. He cannot
stand without a stick in one hand, and leaning on a chair with the
other; his legs are twisted in all manner of forms. His body, from
the forehead to the knees, forms a curve, similar to the letter C.
He dares not go from home, if he could; people stare at him so. He
is now learning to make children's first shoes, and hopes ultimately
to be able to get a living in this manner.
I have taken several walks in the neighbourhood of this beautiful
and romantic place, and seen the splendid castle, and other buildings
belonging to the Arkwrights, and could not avoid contrasting in my
mind the present condition of this wealthy family, with the humble
condition of its founder in 1768. One might expect that those who
have thus risen to such wealth and eminence, would have some compassion
upon their poor cripples. If it is only that they need to have them
pointed out, and that their attention has hitherto not been drawn
to them, I would hope and trust this case of John Reed will yet come
under their notice.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
