It now remains to follow the fortunes of Samuel Crompton to the time when he wrote the following letters. Some time before 1785 he left Hall-i’-th’-Wood and went to live at Oldhams, in the township of Sharples, about three miles north of Bolton, where he combined the business of a small farmer with that of a spinner.[445]

During his residence at this place, Robert Peel is said to have visited him with the object of persuading him to enter his employment, or even to become a partner with him. French suggests that the main reason for Crompton’s refusal was a dislike of Peel, which was maintained to the end of his life. This may have been the case, of course, but his references to Sir Robert (as he then was) in the following letters do not betray any animosity, and Peel certainly appears to have exerted himself on his behalf.[446] In the last year of his residence at Oldhams, Crompton occupied the office of overseer of the poor for the township of Sharples, a fact in which there is nothing surprising. Crompton can only be regarded as a working man, but that he had fully utilised his limited opportunities of education, his letters and other attainments show.[447]

In 1791 he removed to a house in King Street, Bolton, where in the attics, and in those of the two adjoining houses, he carried on his spinning business, in which he was assisted by two of his sons. One of the strongest proofs that Crompton was not a man of business is that, at this time, he did not establish himself as a successful spinner, as did others with whom he was acquainted. It can hardly have been lack of capital which prevented him, for he must have possessed as much as his friend John Kennedy, who, in this very year, began in business with James M‘Connel, and it is known that between them they only raised £250.[448]

The next interesting event in Crompton’s career, so far as the following letters are concerned, occurred in 1802-1803, and, as regards this event, French stands in need of considerable correction. He informs us that “In 1800 some gentlemen of Manchester, sensible that Mr. Crompton had been ill used and neglected, agreed without his previous knowledge to promote a subscription on such a scale as would result in a substantial reward for his labours, a provision for his family, and a sufficient security for his comfort during life. The principal promoters of this scheme were Mr. George Lee and Mr. Kennedy.”[449]

As a matter of fact, this subscription was only in its initial stages at the very end of 1802, and, as Crompton states, must have just got under way[450] when the war broke out again in May, 1803, after a short pause of little more than eighteen months. Further, if French’s suggestion is that Crompton did not know of the subscription until after it was launched, the necessary correction is supplied in one of the letters, in which we see that Crompton himself was active in striving to make it a success.[451]

As a consequence of French’s imperfect knowledge of the exact time of the subscription, the explanation which he offers of the comparatively small sum raised is clearly wide of the mark: “But this hopeful scheme, generous and noble in its intention, followed the usual course of Crompton’s evil fortune. Before it could be carried out the country was suffering from a failure in the crops and consequent high price of food, a lamentable war broke out, the horrors of the French Revolution approached their crisis, trade was all but extinguished—and the result was a sum quite inadequate to the proposed purpose or to his deserts.”[452]

It is true that the year 1800 was a terrible year, with high food prices, as was the greater part of the next year, but before the end food prices had fallen considerably, and the cotton trade was entering upon somewhat of a boom, the spinning branch was increasing, and in the following summer a large number of new factories were erected in Manchester.[453] Thus the time could not have been more propitious for the promotion of the subscription, and it is more than probable that a far larger sum than the £300 to £400 which Crompton mentions would have been raised had not, as he says, the war broken out again.

Although French’s explanation of the comparative failure of the subscription is incorrect, his comment on the ill fortune which dogged Crompton’s footsteps may be agreed with. At the same time, it is exceedingly doubtful whether the amount of the subscription would have reached the £5000 which he obtained by Parliamentary grant in 1812. If anything like that amount had been raised, one fears that the application to Parliament nine years later might not have been so well supported, and a perusal of the letters may also suggest the fear that, even if such had been the case, it might have fallen upon deaf ears so far as Parliament was concerned.

Shortly after Crompton received the proceeds of the subscription, he used a portion to extend his business of spinning and weaving, renting the top floor of a factory, where he employed three men, one woman and six children.[454] One sore complaint that he had to make was the difficulty he experienced in keeping his workpeople, owing to inducements to leave him offered by those who expected to learn something from them. In later years he actually attributed his lack of success in the spinning business to this fact, and stated that on account of it he was obliged for years to give up spinning.[455] French goes so far as to say that one of Crompton’s sons was unable to resist inducements of this character and in consequence left his father’s service.[456] There is nothing intrinsically improbable in the statement, for one thing of which there does appear to be ample evidence is that whatever troubles Crompton had to contend with from outsiders during his career, he did not receive much support from his own kindred in bearing them. In view of Crompton’s character, it is not an unreasonable assumption that the somewhat persistent efforts to obtain recompense adequate to his services were due more to them than to himself.

In 1807, he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, with the object of interesting him in his case, and suggested that it might be brought before the King and his ministers.[457] Owing probably to the letter having been wrongly addressed, it reached the Society of Arts, and was considered by the committee, when the secretary was instructed to send a reply, but for some reason no reply reached Crompton, which led him to believe that he had been slighted. It appears that, in some way, this fact must have become known, and the matter was reconsidered in March, 1811, when an answer was sent, which drew from Crompton a tart rejoinder, in reply to which he was informed that the Society of Arts was unable to do anything, as it did not possess funds to give large rewards, although, actually, Crompton had not applied to the Society for a reward. The whole incident was unfortunate, and undoubtedly did much further to embitter him, convinced as he already was that the world was against him.[458]

At this time Crompton, although by no means wealthy, according to his standard of living, was in fairly easy circumstances, and “had even lent a few hundred pounds,” but French suggests that he was anxious about the future position of his family.[459] However this may have been, it is clear that, shortly after the incident with the Society of Arts had terminated, a move was made which, in the next year, resulted in the application to Parliament for financial recognition of his services as inventor. Of the negotiations in London immediately preceding the grant eventually made to him a clear account is given in the following letters.

With a view to the application, he collected information of the extent to which the mule was used and of its effects upon the cotton industry in England, Scotland and Ireland, and on the basis of this information a petition was prepared for presentation to Parliament.[460] To ensure its being influentially signed, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lee again exerted themselves whole-heartedly, and several references to the matter appear in the correspondence of M‘Connel & Kennedy with their agent and customers in Scotland in the last days of 1811 and the first days of 1812.

When the 1803 subscription was launched the conditions were favourable, but the same cannot be said of this time. From the recommencement of the war in the spring of 1803, trade, at the best, had run an unsteady course. During the intervening period the Napoleonic decrees and the British Orders in Council had come into operation, and had created friction between this country and the United States, which, constantly growing more intense, led to retaliatory measures on the other side of the Atlantic, and in 1812 to war with England. Only in 1809 and in the early part of 1810 was there an active trade during the period, and this burst of activity followed upon a terrible period of distress in 1808, when, with the district in a state of insurrection, a petition signed by 50,000 persons was presented from Manchester, and another from Bolton signed by 30,000, praying that peace negotiations might be opened.

The succeeding trade boom is partly to be explained by a frenzy of speculative shipments to South America, and when it came to an end it was followed by a hurricane of bankruptcies which swept over England and Scotland, reached Ireland, and caused anxious concern in the United States. The situation, bad though it was in 1808, was even worse in the latter part of 1810 and in 1811 and during the greater part of 1812. In 1811, the Luddite risings began in the hosiery districts of Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester, and early in 1812 extended to Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire. In April of the latter year Manchester was in a state of rebellion. In one riot an attack was made upon the Exchange; in another, a few days later, upon the Shudehill market; and, on both occasions, it was considered necessary to call out the military to deal with the rioters. In the Shudehill riot, however, force was supplemented by the fixing of a maximum price for potatoes, which had to be sold in small quantities.[461]

It was in such circumstances, not to mention the drain of a war which had continued almost uninterruptedly for nearly twenty years, that Crompton’s petition was prepared and presented, and a grant of £5000 made to him. In view of the sums granted to others who had conferred benefits on the nation by their ingenuity, this amount was certainly paltry, but perhaps it should be placed to the credit of those concerned that his appeal received the attention it did.

The parliamentary proceedings extended from 5th March to 25th June. French states that Crompton proceeded to London in February, but, as his letters show, he was already there in the previous month.[462] It was not until 5th March that the matter came before the House of Commons, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by command of the Prince Regent, acquainted the House that His Royal Highness, having been informed of the contents of Crompton’s petition, recommended it to the consideration of the House.

On this occasion no debate took place, nor evidently on any other until 24th June, when the grant was moved. On the first occasion the petition was referred to a Committee with power to send for persons, papers and records.[463] The next occasion was on 18th March, when the Committee was instructed to submit to the House minutes of evidence concerning the case, and any observations upon it. A striking comment upon the conditions of the time is that on the very same page of the Journals on which this record appears,[464] there is also a petition from Bolton—Crompton’s home—pointing out that the people in that neighbourhood were “so nearly to actual starvation that they think it would be highly imprudent any longer to delay communicating their situation to the House”; that the manufacturers had been reduced to the necessity of working for one-fourth of what they obtained before the commencement of the war with France; and that the necessaries of life had nearly doubled in price. Convinced that the war was the immediate cause of their distress, they asked for parliamentary reform on the ground that “if the house consisted of representatives of the people only, it would not for any doubtful prospect of benefit to our allies consent to expose the people of this country to the certain misery, ruin, and starvation which the continuance of the war must bring upon them.”

Certainly the Committee did not delay carrying out the order of the House in the matter of Crompton’s petition, as the evidence was taken on the same day as the order was given.[465] Evidently some little “engineering” had taken place as a comparison of the evidence with the series of questions and answers prepared beforehand will show.[466] If the record of the proceedings is a correct account of what took place at the meeting, it is difficult to believe that the chairman and at least one witness had not the evidence already before them. On 24th March the Committee presented its report, when it was ordered to be printed and to lie on the table. Again, during the preceding four days, petitions had been presented from Blackburn and Preston, drawing attention to the parlous state of public affairs, and insisting that the lower classes had difficulty in obtaining a bare subsistence; that the middle classes were rapidly sinking to the position of the lower; and suggesting similar remedies to those of their fellow-petitioners at Bolton.[467]

So far as Parliament was concerned, Crompton’s petition now lay in abeyance for three months, and his activity in keeping alive interest in it is described in his letter of 15th April,[468] at which time a state of insurrection prevailed in Manchester and in other places for miles around the town. On 11th May Mr. Perceval was assassinated, and shortly afterwards the Ministry, of which he had been the head, resigned, and it was not easy to form a new one. Crompton’s case must have had influential support, otherwise it could hardly have been kept to the front in the confusion of these days. French evidently believed that the death of Mr. Perceval prevented Crompton obtaining a larger amount than that which was granted. This may have been so, but a perusal of Mr. Lee’s letter does not give much ground for the belief.[469]

On 24th June the matter again came before the House of Commons, when Lord Stanley, who had been chairman of the Committee charged with the case, brought it forward, and in his speech repeated the arguments of the petition,[470] and ended by moving “That a sum not exceeding £5000 be granted to Mr. Crompton as a remuneration for his invention,” which was formally seconded by Mr. Blackburne, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressed himself satisfied that this remuneration was deserved. The only other member who appears to have addressed the House on this occasion was Mr. D. Giddy, who, so far as his speech is recorded, expressed no definite opinion as to the adequacy of the grant, but suggested that, as he considered the case of a “transcendent” character, it should be made without fee or deduction. The resolution was then agreed to, and the following day was formally ratified.[471]

Throughout the proceedings Crompton had studiously refrained from expressing any opinion as to the sum to which he thought himself entitled, trusting rather to “British generosity” and “to the dignity of the giver and the merit of the receiver,” but it is clear that he was bitterly disappointed with the amount of the grant.[472] It can hardly have come as a surprise to his friends, although it is equally clear that they thought that he ought to have received at least double the amount. The statement of Mr. Lee that “Crompton’s plain appearance has been in his favour by inducing the members to suppose that he would be satisfied with a small grant and therefore they were willing to assist him” is significant both as regards gaining their support of a grant, and its amount, although it is hard to believe that the £10,000 which Mr. Lee thought reasonable would have roused much opposition.[473] Moreover, although the suggestion of Mr. Giddy that the £5000 should be paid without any fee or deduction was included in the final resolution, it appears that it was not strictly carried out, and that the sum Crompton actually received was considerably reduced by expenses.[474]

After the grant had been made, anxious to provide for his sons, Crompton embarked upon the bleaching business, with two of them as partners, at Over Darwen, four miles from Bolton. He also entered into a partnership with another son and with a Mr. Wylde, as cotton merchants and spinners, while with two other sons he continued his old business of spinning and manufacturing at Bolton.[475] As regards the bleaching concern, “the unfavourable state of the times, the inexperience and mismanagement of his sons, a bad situation, and a tedious lawsuit, conspired in a very short time to put an end to this establishment.”[476] The business into which he had entered with his son and Mr. Wylde appears to have succeeded little better. After a considerable loss the partnership was dissolved, and Crompton’s son, taking £1500 as his share of capital, set up in business on his own account at Oldham, which again was a failure. Even in the concern at Bolton there was disharmony, and ultimately the sons left it and Crompton carried it on alone.[477]

By 1824, having then reached the age of seventy years, he was reduced to poverty. The end of his career is recorded by John Kennedy, and surely no one could have left a record based upon more intimate and sympathetic knowledge of Crompton’s trials and achievements: “Messrs. Hicks & Rothwell, of Bolton, myself and some others, in that neighbourhood and in Manchester, had in 1824 recourse to a second subscription, to purchase a life annuity for him, which produced £63 per annum. The amount raised for this purpose was collected in small sums, from one to ten pounds, some of which were contributed by the Swiss and French spinners, who acknowledged his merits and pitied his misfortunes. At the same time his portrait was engraved for his benefit, and a few impressions were disposed of: he enjoyed this small annuity only two years. He died June 26th, 1827.”[478]

In the year following that in which the annuity was purchased a movement, in which a Mr. J. Brown, of Bolton, was the prominent figure, was set on foot to bring Crompton’s case again before Parliament, with a view to a second grant. The pamphlet, to which references have already been made, was written by Mr. Brown and published with extracts from Crompton’s correspondence; a memorial was drawn up, which, according to French, was extensively signed by inhabitants of Bolton, the application for signatures being confined to that town, and in 1826 a petition was presented to Parliament.[479]

From French’s account of the effort, it may be gathered that it aroused no widespread interest, and it is significant that when John Kennedy wrote his Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton in 1830 he made no mention of it. Probably he thought, as one cannot help thinking at the present day, that it was unfortunate that the effort was made. It must have been apparent at that time, with Crompton well over seventy years of age, that a grant of a large sum of money would be of little use to him even had there been any possibility of an application being successful. Its only virtue was that it gave Parliament an opportunity of increasing the inadequate grant made in 1812. But, even as regards that grant, one is compelled to recognise that, had it been larger, it is unlikely, taking into account the peculiar difficulties with which Crompton had to contend, that his position in 1824 would have been very different from what it was. Instead of making a grant of a lump sum in 1812, the more suitable method of reward in Crompton’s case and, as a general rule, in all such cases, would have been that of his friends twelve years later: to have granted him a suitable pension.

As already mentioned, Crompton died in the sixth month of 1827. When French published the first edition of his book in 1859, Crompton’s memory was in danger of neglect, but, mainly owing to the interest thus aroused, the danger was averted, and when he published his third edition in 1862, a monument had been erected over Crompton’s grave in the churchyard of his native parish,[480] and a statue was in course of preparation, the cost of both being defrayed by voluntary public subscription.

The statue which stands in Nelson Square, Bolton, was unveiled on 24th September 1862, when an address was given by Mr. Henry Ashworth, cotton spinner,[481] in which he spoke of the effect of the inventions of Crompton and others upon the development of the cotton trade and upon the people of Bolton and Lancashire. On the same occasion “Mr. Rickson, pointing to Mr. John Crompton, the son of the inventor, who was seated by the side of the statue, expressed hope that they would not forget him, but would raise a subscription to place him above indigence for the remainder of his days.”[482] Apparently something was done in this direction, as in the next month Lord Palmerston directed that a gratuity of £50 should be made to him, and it is a remarkable fact, in view of the conditions that prevailed when his father received his grant in 1812, that again, at this time, owing to the civil war in America, the distress in Bolton was so great that a public meeting had to be called to consider the situation, when a sum of £4000 was subscribed for relief.[483]

Another memorial of Crompton which the town of Bolton now possesses is Hall-i’-th’-Wood, where the idea of the mule took rise in the inventor’s mind, and in 1779 assumed material form.[484] The Hall is outside the town and overlooks it, but at the present day, although the surrounding country has undergone such changes, it is not difficult to realise what it must have been one hundred and fifty years ago. The town was then known as Bolton-le-Moors, and in 1773 with Little Bolton and the Manor of Bolton contained 5339 inhabitants.[485] From the centre of a sparsely populated country district, it has been transformed into the centre of the fine cotton spinning industry of England, and of the world. The town is now the county borough of Bolton, with a population approaching 200,000, and with the district, according to a recent return, contains one hundred and twelve firms engaged in the cotton industry, working nearly seven and a half million spindles, and over twenty-four thousand looms.[486] In its commercial organisation the town stands as a witness to the world economy which has come into existence; in its industrial organisation, as a witness to the existence of the factory system. It is these facts, with all that they imply, which form the most striking memorial to Crompton, who, as one among other outstanding figures of his day, played no small part in the development of which they are the expression.

Sufficient has been said in the previous chapter to indicate the place which Crompton’s invention occupied in the development of the cotton industry during the latter years of the eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth centuries. A striking thing was the rapid increase in the size of the machine, particularly after 1790. The first mule constructed by Crompton contained only 48 spindles; in 1795 the smallest mule made by M‘Connel & Kennedy appears to have had 144 spindles. In February of that year a correspondent was informed “in respect to what number of spindles may be most profitable, it is difficult to fix, as what was thought best only two years ago is now thought too small.... We are now making from 180 to 288 spindles.” Three months later, in reply to another correspondent, it was stated that most of the mules were then made to go by steam or water, and in the next year we find them supplying mules to work in pairs, the two containing 372 spindles. In 1799 they were making single mules with 300 spindles, and in the same year Dobson & Rothwell were making them with 408 spindles.[487] When Ure published his Cotton Manufacture in 1836 the largest mules then in use apparently contained somewhat over 500 spindles. At the present day they are made to three times the size, a pair of mules containing 2000 to 2500 spindles being common.

But in addition to enlargement the mule as invented by Crompton has, of course, undergone vast improvements. As we have seen, movements originally performed by hand soon came to be performed by mechanical means, the culmination of this kind of improvement being reached in the invention of the “self-actor” mule.[488] Yet, notwithstanding these and other improvements, it can still be said that the fundamental motions of the mule remain the same as in Crompton’s original machine.

For a time in the early part of the nineteenth century the mule came into use to such an extent that it appeared that it would entirely displace the water-frame. With the appearance of the “Throstle,” which was really an important improvement in the water-frame, the tendency was somewhat checked, and later in the century with other improvements the supremacy of the mule was again challenged. Consequently the great rival of the mule at the present day in the world’s cotton industry is the “Ring Spinning Frame,” which may be regarded as standing in much the same relation to the original water-frame, as does the self-actor mule to the original mule. The following figures show the position in recent years:—

COTTON-SPINNING SPINDLES. SPINNERS’ RETURNS,
31ST AUGUST IN EACH YEAR[489]

From these figures it will be seen that in Great Britain the mule still vastly predominates, and that in other countries the opposite is the case.[490] It is unnecessary to enumerate here the particular economic advantages of one machine compared with the other,[491] but in explanation of the international position it has to be borne in mind that, for spinning the higher qualities of yarn, the mule is superior to the ring-frame, also, that it is a much more complicated machine, and requires more highly skilled labour for its construction and operation.[492] As regards such labour, this country has been highly favoured compared with most of the other countries where the cotton industry is carried on. Even so, it appears that in British cotton mills ring-spindles are increasing at a greater rate than mule-spindles, and in the mills of other countries the fact is more pronounced. Whether the above figures represent a permanent tendency a longer period will be required to show, but, in any case, it is certain that the development of the cotton industry during the past century and a half, particularly in the United Kingdom, cannot be fully understood apart from the service which has been rendered by the invention of Samuel Crompton.