A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Some of the early felt-makers to whom Aikin 

 refers in the passage quoted above, are men- 

 tioned in the Index to fVills : — '" 



1670 John Grimshaw, of Failsworth, parish of 

 Manchester, feltmaker 



1681 Humphrey Hulme, of Salford, feltmaker 



1682 William Renshall, of Gorton, Manchester, 



feltmaker 

 1686 James Grimshaw, of Failsworth, Manchester, 



feltmaker 

 1692 Benjamin Cliffe, of Salford, feltmaker 

 1695 John Gallant, of Manchester, feltmaker 

 1699 John Bowker, of Bradford in Manchester, 



feltmaker 

 1 7 1 7 Thomas Peacock, of Salford, feltmaker 



Arthur Young, writing in 1769, mentions 

 the hat industry as one of the four principal 

 branches of Manchester manufactories.^^ In 

 this branch, he further informs us, the chief sub- 



divisions are (i) preparers, (2) makers, (3) fini- 

 shers, (4) liners, and (5) trimmers. This industry 

 women and children 



whose 

 detail, 

 works 



employs .i...ii, 



average wages he indicates in some 

 Finally he mentions that this branch 

 chiefly for exportation." 



During the last decade of the eighteenth 

 century several firms described as hat manufac- 

 turers existed in Manchester and Salford. 

 Amongst others there were Josiah Banghan & 

 Co., Carpenter's Lane ; Borradailes & Atkin- 

 son, Greengate, Salford ; Henry Layland & 

 Son, 3, St. Mary's Gate ; Thomas Phillips k 

 Co., 19, Bridge Street; and Daniel Robin- 

 son & Sons, 2, Dale Street." In 1831, the 

 manufacture of hats employed 550 men in the 

 parish of Manchester." At the present time 

 the industry has disappeared entirely from the 

 district. 



THE SILK INDUSTRY 



We have seen it stated that the silk industry 

 came to Lancashire at the commencement of 

 the nineteenth century,' but this is not exactly 

 correct, as by means of the Index to JVilh at 

 Chester we are able to trace the silk industry 

 in Manchester and Salford from the first half 

 of the seventeenth century. As we can find 

 no other evidence to throw light on this early 

 period, we quote the entries in full :^ 



1648 Timothy Hulme, of Manchester, silkweaver 

 1670 John Cuthbert, of Salford, silkweaver 

 1686 William Mees, of Salford, silkweaver 

 1689 Edward Lilly, of Manchester, silkweaver 

 1693 Thomas Bayley, of Manchester, silkweaver 

 1697 Nathaniel Edgeley, of Manchester, silk- 

 weaver 

 1 741 Thomas Smith, of Manchester, silkweaver 

 I 769 Richard Thorpe, of Salford, silkweaver 

 1785 Joshua Goring, of Manchester, silkweaver 

 1788 Richard Budworth, of Manchester, silk- 



we.iver 

 1791 William Hill, of Manchester, silkweaver 



The next oldest seat of the Lancashire silk 

 industry, after Manchester and Salford, appears 

 to have been Middleton. Silk-weaving was 

 introduced there about 1778 by a family of the 

 name of Fallow.' The business spread rapidly, 

 but seems to have declined in prosperity in the 



'" Lane, and CAex. Rec. Soc. xv, xviii, xx. 



" Arthur Young, Tour in the North of Engl. (ed. 2), 

 iii, 187. 



"Ibid. 191. 



' Scholes, Manchester and Salford Directory, 1 794. 



" Census Returns of 1831. 



' Grindon, Lane. Hist, and Descriptive Notes, 152. 



' Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. iv, xv, xviii, xxv, xxxviii, 

 and xliv. 



course of a few years, for Aikin remarked in 

 1795 that 'the weaving of silk was originally 

 more general than at present, but now gives way 

 to the more profitable branches of muslin and 

 nankeen.' Early in the nineteenth century the 

 silk trade revived and extended. Mr. Thomas 

 Cope, examined before the silk committee of 

 Parliament in 1832, stated that in the town of 

 Middleton and the adjoining places there were 

 2,121 silk looms. In 1840 Butterworth esti- 

 mated that in the township of Middleton about 

 1,000 females, 700 males, and 300 young 

 persons, were engaged in silk-weaving. The 

 goods chiefly manufactured were plain sar- 

 cenets. In the Manchester district also the 

 silk industry appears to have undergone con- 

 siderable development during the first half 

 of the nineteenth century. In 18 19 there 

 were in Manchester about 1,000 weavers of 

 mixed silk and cotton, and 50 of pure silk 

 goods,* and in 1 8 20 five silk mills.' In 1832 

 the number of silk mills in Manchester, Salford, 

 and Newton had increased to sixteen,' and the 

 whole number of looms devoted to the silk 

 manufacture in Lancashire was 14,000, of 

 which from 8,000 to 9,000 were employed in 

 weaving silk alone, and from 5,000 to 6,000 

 in weaving mixed goods.' In 1835, according 



' All the information about silk-weaving at Middle- 

 ton is based on Edwin Butterworth, Hist, of Middleton 

 (1840), 33, 34. 



* Edwin Butterworth, Hist, of Middleton, 33. 



' Porter, Progress of the Nation, \, 260. 



° Tables of Revenue, &c. pt. ii, 102, quoted in 

 Baines, Hist, of the Cotton Industry, 422. 



' Quoted in Baines, Hist, of the Cotton Industry, 

 422, from Rep. of the Commons Com. on the Silk 

 Trade in 1832. 



394 



