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Map of Preston
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Richard Arkwright was born in Preston on 23rd December 1732, the thirteenth child of Thomas Arkwright, a tailor and burgess of the town.
At an early age he was apprenticed to a barber in Kirkham and moved to Bolton about 1750 to work as a barber and wig maker.
In 1755 he married Patience Holt of Bolton and they had a son, Richard. His wife died in 1757, however, and his business failed. He married Margaret Biggins of Leigh in March 1761. They had a daughter, Susannah. |
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Arkwright was aware of the efforts being made at the time to improve the spinning and weaving processes. In 1767 James Hargreaves patented the Spinning Jenny, a machine which could handle up to 80 spindles, but which was still worked by hand.
Arkwright became interested in developing his own spinning machine and engaged the help of John Kay, a clockmaker from Warrington. |
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Parish register showing Arkwright's Christening
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He moved back to Preston and rented a room in the house of the headmaster of Preston Grammar School. The house is now known as Arkwright House.
Here, in 1768, with the help of Kay, he worked on what became known as his water frame. He patented his machine in 1769, having received financial backing from John Smalley, a publican and paint merchant of Preston, and David Thornley, a Liverpool merchant.
By this time he had moved to Nottingham where he built a mill in partnership with Samuel Need and Jedediah Strutt. Seeking a site for a water-powered mill he moved to Cromford in Derbyshire in 1771.
Here he built houses and a chapel for his workers and their families, creating a factory village, which became a model for others throughout the country.
In 1775 he took out another patent for ten different devices, including one for carding, straightening out the cotton fibres before spinning. He was thus able to mechanize the whole process from taking in the raw cotton to producing spun cotton. He also employed weavers to produce finished cloth.
His machines could be operated by a comparatively unskilled work force and so he could use cheap labour, including children. By 1775 his mills were already showing a profit and by 1789 800 people were employed at Cromford Mill alone.
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Arkwright's Obituary
Annual Register 1792
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He and his partners also established mills in Bakewell, Gessbrook, Wirksworth, Masson, Keighley, Ashbourne, Bromsgrove and Manchester. An early mill, founded in 1778 at Birkacre near Chorley, was deliberately set on fire by machine wreckers in 1779 and was never rebuilt.
Although his patents were declared void in 1785, by then Arkwright had become a very wealthy man. In 1789 he bought the manor of Cromford and began to build himself a mansion called Willersley Castle on the River Derwent in Derbyshire.
He was knighted in December 1786 and appointed High Sheriff of Derbyshire in the following year.
He died on 3rd August 1792. (His obituary is shown on the left)
Arkwright was a key figure in the Industrial Revolution, an inventor and manufacturer who revolutionised the textile industry.
In 1775 57,000 yards of British calico was produced. By 1783 this had increased to 3.5 million yards.
After 1785 and the lapse of his patents, there was an even greater expansion in the industry.
Arkwright saw the need for a mechanised production line and had the ability to bring it into operation.
He made textiles the key industry of the Industrial Revolution and earned the accolade "Father of the factory system". |
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