ABSTRACT
Samuel Crompton, of spinning mule fame, has received much publicity, often of a sentimental kind, and is apt to be regarded as the classic example of the poor, ill-used inventor with a genuine grudge against the business world. He was born at Firwood Fold, a hamlet some miles from Bolton, the only son of a weaver who was also a small tenant-farmer. In 1758 the family moved nearer to Bolton as tenants of the Hall-i'-th' Wood, a decayed mansion which remained Crompton's home until 1782. Crompton frittered the grant away in unwise gifts to his erratic sons and in two unfortunate enterprises which foundered during the post-war depression. One of these, a bleach-works at Darwen, failed in 1818–19, while the other, a partnership with a cotton merchant and fellow-Swedenborgian, Richard Wylde, became involved in the affairs of a mill at Delph, north of Bolton, which was swept away in a flood.
