By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 57 
the course of years one improvement after another was introduced 
into the manufacture of cloth. Trade increased,—our manufacturers 
became wealthy,—employment attracted numbers to our town. So 
abundant, indeed, was employment, that the wool after having un- 
dergone various processes to fit it to be spun into yarn was carried 
for that purpose to spinners residing not only in all the neighbour- 
ing villages, but as far as Salisbury Plain. The names of Tugwell, 
—Atwood,—Head,—Bethel,—Strawbridge,—Stevens,— Phelps,— 
&c. ;—names not yet forgotten in the town,—bear ample testimony 
to the success that in the latter portion of the last century attended 
the spirit and industry of the clothiers of Bradford. 
Then came the introduction of machinery, and with it the Factory 
System. Then the weavers and others employed in the manufacture 
of cloth, instead of plying their craft, as heretofore, in their own 
cottages were collected into large buildings, many of them erected 
for the special purpose of receiving them. At the commencement 
of this century, no less than thirty-two of these were at work in 
our town, every building, in fact, which could be converted to the 
purpose being made one of these hives of industry. Even the 
“Chapel of our Lady” on Tory could not escape such a doom in 
an age, when utility, so far as money-making was concerned, was 
the sole standard by which all things were judged. And yet what 
more striking monitor could there be than the ceaseless ‘click’ of 
the ‘weaver’s shuttle’ that life is far too short, too uncertain, to allow 
us safely to engross our energies in the pursuit of earthly riches! 
It was not, indeed, without a struggle that the employers thus 
brought in a new order of things. On the introduction of the 
spinning jennies, and the carding machines, no disturbance had 
arisen, however much men may secretly have murmured against 
them. But when a step further was taken, then their murmurs 
broke out into open resistance. On the evening of May, 14, 1791, 
a tumultuous mob of nearly 500 persons assembled before the house 
of Mr. Phelps' an eminent clothier of the town. The matter of 
1 He lived in the first large house on the right hand after passing the bridge, 
on the road from Bradford to Trowbridge. The house is now occupied by Mr, 
George Spencer. There are still to be seen in the garden wall facing the street 
traces of the holes through which Mr, Phelps and his friends fired upon the rioters. 
