SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT

[kitty56]

WHAT DID ARKWRIGHT DIE OF?

[cruthinboy]

Heart attack in 1792.

[petrastone]

Didn't he run a corner shop in Yorkshire?

[Sludge]

Sir Richard Arkwright was born in 1732 in Preston. He was the youngest of 13 children from a poor family. Although in his early working life he was a barber and a wig maker in Bolton, he is best remembered as the father of the factory system. In association with John Kay, he perfected a roller spinning machine that came to be called a 'water frame' which was superior to the spinning jenny invented in 1761 by James Hargreaves. Richard Arkwright went to Cromford in 1771 where he found an ample workforce and the River Derwent that would provide the necessary power for the water powered mill. The mill was a great success, and other cotton mills followed; Cressbrook in 1779, Bakewell in 1782, and Masson (Matlock) in 1783. Although initially there was a sufficient workforce in this farming and mining community, increases in production required families to be enticed into the area. Arkwright built cottages, a school, a chapel and a hotel for his workers. Terraced 3-storey houses, constructed in 1776 for his workers, can still be seen. Arkwright was forward thinking for his time. He built a school so that his child workers could read and write. In 1786 he was awarded a knighthood by George III and became High Sheriff of Derbyshire. In the twenty years to his death in 1792 he had established factories not only in Derbyshire, but also in Staffordshire, Lancashire and Scotland and had made a vast fortune. He died in 1792 and was initially buried at Matlock. His remains were later moved to Saint Mary's Church at Cromford. Saint Mary's, Cromford, was a private chapel for Willersley Castle that was to have been his new Cromford residence.