of March 1791 in planting trees, and the catching of moles was another preliminary job. During the first year the workers engaged are practically all men and boys; masons, carpenters, sawyers, navvies, agricultural and general labourers, and colliers. In the second year these are partly displaced by smiths and filers erecting the carding and spinning machines, and by women and children who are gradually set to work upon them, as well as others kept busy picking cotton in their homes.
At this point light is offered by the narrative of Robert Owen, which has already been cited. Owen, who had become the manager at the age of twenty of the first large factory erected for fine spinning in Manchester, had achieved such a remarkable success that his employer, Mr. Drinkwater, a wealthy Manchester merchant with no knowledge of spinning, made him a spontaneous offer of partnership. A little later, to the great mortification of Owen, the offer was withdrawn at the suggestion of Oldknow, who had become a suitor for the hand of Miss Drinkwater in the hope of surmounting a threatened crisis in his fortunes with the help of her father.
When the trying time of 1792 arrived, he was too wide in his plans to sustain their expenditure without making great sacrifices. To prevent this it was afterwards generally thought that he considered a union with Miss Drinkwater would by the assistance of her father enable him to proceed unchecked. He was a hearty, healthy, handsome man but yet perhaps five years older than Miss Drinkwater's present suitor. Mr. Drinkwater was flattered by his application, for at this time Mr. Oldknow stood prominent in the cotton world, next to the Arkwrights and Strutts of Derbyshire. … For some time all matters seemed to proceed successfully with Mr. Oldknow, and for a certain period he had great influence over Mr. Drinkwater. … He expressed a desire that the whole business of both houses should be kept entirely to themselves and my partnership … stood in the way of this exclusive dealing with Mr. Drinkwater's property.
Though asked to name his own terms for the relinquishment of the partnership, Owen was so much hurt that he thrust the agreement with Drinkwater into the fire, and left him as soon as he could find another manager for him. Writing of the New Lanark period some five years later Owen tells us that 'Mr. Drinkwater had discovered that Mr. Oldknow's pecuniary position was not what he had anticipated and therefore the match … did not take place'.[1]
The new records supplement this account by brief but vivid glimpses of Oldknow's embarrassments. Early in 1791 he is found negotiating with a retired cotton merchant, Mr. Henry Norris of Davy Hulme Hall, for a loan of £2,000 to cover the purchase of land. Norris stipulates for 'double bonds', Old-
- ↑ Owen, i. 40–1, 59.
