Written Sources about Sir Richard Arkwright. The
following sources can be used in your coursework.
They then need to be assessed in turn for the following:
1. How useful are they in answering your coursework question?
2. How reliable are they as sources?
Source A
Richard Arkwright was born in Preston on 23 December 1732 of poor
parents. Being the youngest of thirteen children his parents could only
afford to give him an education of the humblest kind and he was scarcely
able to write. He was brought up to the trade of barber and established
himself in that business at Bolton in 1760. In 1767 he fell in with Kay, the
clock maker, at Warrington. He employed Kay to bend some wires and turn
some pieces of brass. He talked to Kay and called on him repeatedly.
Eventually Kay (according to his own account) told him of High's scheme of
spinning cotton by rollers. Kay adds that Arkwright persuaded him to make
a model of High's machine and took it away. From this period Arkwright
abandoned his former business and devoted himself to the construction of
a spinning machine. He was enterprising and stubborn. His manners were
rough and unpleasing. He commonly worked from 5am till 9pm. He was
impatient of what interfered with his favourite pursuits. For example, he
separated from his wife not many years after their marriage because she
(convinced the family would starve) broke some of the experimental models
of his machines.
Edward Baines, 'History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain' 1835
Source B
Arkwright within the small space of ten years, from being a poor man not
worth £5, now keeps his carriage and servants and has become a Lord of
the Manor by purchasing an estate for £20,000. Yet thousands of women
(his employees), when they can get work, must work for long hours to card
spin and reel 5040 yards of cotton. For this they make four pence or five
pence and no more.
'An Impartial Representation of the Case of the Poor Cotton Spinners in
Lancashire', 1780
Source C
As to Mr Arkwright, he is (to say no worse) one of the most self-sufficient
ignorant men I have ever met with. Yet he is certainly one to whom Britain
is much indebted, for whoever invented the spinning machine, Arkwright
certainly had the merit of performing the difficult part, which was making it
useful.
Letter from James Watt to Matthew Boulton, 1785.
Source D
In 1768 Arkwright built a spinning machine. He could have made more
machines and sold them locally or he could have allowed his machines to
be built on a small scale and used in cottages. It would have been quite
easy for people to have driven these machines themselves and had them
at home. But Arkwright's business sense told him that his machine had
much greater potential because it could be set up in factories and driven by
power.
R.L.Hills, 'Cotton Spinning', 1977
Source E
22nd August 1801. In the evening I walked to Cromford and saw the
children coming from their work out of one of Mr Arkwright's factories. I was
glad to see them looking, in general, very healthy. These children had been
at work from about six or seven this morning and it was about seven at
night. The time allowed for them to rest is forty minutes at midday.
Extract from Joseph Farrington's diary, 1801
Source F
Arkwright's water frame was so called because its large size required water
power to work it. This machine, therefore, demanded special buildings and
laid the foundation of the cotton factory system
R.A.Hennessey, 'Factories', 1969