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Richard Arkwright

Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright by Mather Brown 1790.jpeg
Sir Richard Arkwright, oil on canvas, Mather Brown, 1790. New Britain Museum of American Art
Born (1732-12-22)22 December 1732
Preston, Lancashire, England
Died 3 August 1792(1792-08-03) (aged 59)
Cromford, Derbyshire, England
Title Sir Richard Arkwright
Spouse(s) Patience Holt, Margaret Biggins
Children Richard Arkwright junior, Susanna Arkwright
Signature
Richard Arkwright signature.png

Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 in Preston – 3 August 1792 in Cromford) was an inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. Although his patents were eventually overturned, he is credited with inventing the spinning frame, which following the transition to water power was renamed the water frame. He also patented a rotary carding engine that transformed raw cotton into cotton lap.

Arkwright's achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. His skills of organization made him, more than anyone else, the creator of the modern factory system, especially in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire, now preserved as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Later in his life Arkwright was known as 'the Father of the Industrial Revolution'.

Richard Arkwright, the youngest of 7 surviving children, was born in Preston, Lancashire, England on 23 December 1732. His father, Thomas, was a tailor and a Preston Guild burgess. The family is recorded in the Preston Guild Rolls now held by Lancashire Record Office. Richard's parents, Sarah and Thomas, could not afford to send him to school and instead arranged for him to be taught to read and write by his cousin Ellen. Richard was apprenticed to a Mr Nicholson, a barber at nearby Kirkham, and began his working life as a barber and wig-maker, setting up a shop at Churchgate in Bolton in the early 1750s. It was here that he invented a waterproof dye for use on the fashionable periwigs of the time, the income from which later funded his prototype cotton machinery.

Arkwright married his first wife, Patience Holt, in 1755. They had a son, Richard Arkwright Junior, who was born the same year. In 1756, Patience died of unspecified causes. Arkwright later married Margaret Biggins in 1761 at the age of 29 years. They had three children, of whom only Susanna survived to adulthood. It was only after the death of his first wife that he became an entrepreneur.


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