JOSIAS CHRISTOPHER GAMBLE 51 



believed, was his brother-in-law. The business 

 was a failure. A bankrupt chemical concern 

 is invariably sold for very much less than 

 its value ; Gamble saw that a bargain was 

 to be obtained, and he induced Joseph and 

 James Crosfield, the soap-boilers, of War- 

 rington, to join him in the purchase, which 

 they completed on such terms that the works, 

 after being stripped of the lead they con- 

 tained, were held by them at a cost of 

 about 400. The connection thus com- 

 menced led to the Crosfields becoming 

 partners in Gamble's business in the year 

 1836, and in the following year Simon Cros- 

 field, a younger brother, who was a tobacco 

 manufacturer in Liverpool, also joined the 

 firm, and undertook the commercial and 

 financial management of the business. The 

 title of the firm was Gamble & Crosfields. 



Gamble and Muspratt ran a great risk 

 when they established their works at St. 

 Helens, for the district at that time was a 

 picture of rich fertility. Farmsteads, with 

 their gardens and orchards, came right up 

 to the streets of the small country town, the 

 valleys were watered by brooks that had 

 "here and there a lusty trout, and here and 

 there a grayling " in their clear waters ; 



