[310] Baines, ibid., pp. 162-163. Abram, History of Blackburn, 205-206. Baines mentions that Hargreaves’ widow received £400 as her husband’s share in his business. Abram adds the information that Hargreaves left property of the estimated value of £4000, but states that about the middle of the nineteenth century two of his daughters were living in poverty in Manchester and that a subscription was raised with difficulty on their behalf.
[311] Wylie and Briscoe, History of Nottingham, p. 101.
[312] Baines, ibid., p. 151.
[313] Felkin, History of the Machine-Wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures (1867), p. 90.
[314] Ibid.
[315] Smiles, Industry and Invention (1884), ch. iv., “John Lombe: Introducer of the Silk Industry into England.”
The number of workpeople employed by one concern in the silk industry, many years before the appearance of the factory in the cotton industry, is, perhaps, not always realised. In the sixties of the eighteenth century, the silk manufacturers in various parts of the country petitioned the House of Commons regarding the decline of their trade, and in the evidence on the petition some interesting figures were given. One silk-throwster asserted that he had employed as many as 1500 workpeople at a time: 500 in London, 200 in Gloucester, 400 in Dorset, and 400 in Cheshire. Of this number about 1400 were women and children, and 100 men. A Spitalfields throwster asserted that, in 1760, he employed 400 workpeople, but the most striking figures were given in two sets of tables relating to certain firms in London and Macclesfield:
State of Several Silk-Throwsters in London and
Macclesfield in the Years 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764
LONDON
| Men, women and children employed by | 1761 | 1762 | 1763 | 1764 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spragg, Hopkins, and White | 800 | 700 | 300 | |
| John Graham | 500 | 350 | 240 | 120 |
| John Powell | 400 | 300 | 170 | |
| Triquett and Bunney | 300 | 300 | 200 | 130 |
| Sam Nicolls | 300 | 300 | 200 | 150 |