Samuel Oldknow.

These facsimile records relate to the business activities of Samuel Oldknow, such as the sale of burnt lime at Marple Lime Works and to statements for a range of goods required to facilitate these activities. The whereabouts of the original records is unknown, or even if they still exist.

Samuel Oldknow (5 Oct 1756-18 Sep 1828) was born at Anderton, Lancashire. Anderton is a civil parish in the Borough of Chorley and it is now a suburb of Adlington. He started work by serving an apprenticeship at the draper's shop of his uncle at Nottingham. Later, he moved to the Stockport area where he became a cotton manufacturer and to enable him to do this he purchased a number of spinning mules that had been invented by Samuel Crompton in 1779.

He specialised in the manufacture of muslin, a fine, delicately woven cotton fabric, which sold well in major northern towns and in London. In 1785 he opened a business at Stockport where he employed over 300 outwork weavers. Subsequently, he built a cotton mill in the town powered by a Boulton and Watt steam engine. In 1790 he opened Mellor Mill at Mellor, Derbyshire, but in 1794 he sold his mill and house at Stockport and moved his residence to Mellor Lodge near Mellor Mill.

His various business interests, including lime burning at Marple and the construction of the Peak Forest Canal, were principally financed by the Arkwright family of Cromford, Derbyshire. Firstly by Sir Richard Arkwright and following his death by his son, Richard Arkwright Jr, to whom he was substantially in debt. In 1797/98 there was a trade depression, after which he concentrated on running Mellor Mill.

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