We get the first glimpse of him in October, 1690, when he presented a petition, in which he pointed out that the workmanship of the fine thrown silk imported amounted to one quarter of its value, the benefits of which would be enjoyed by the poor if it were performed at home. As he had found out an engine which would achieve the desired end, he requested the grant of a patent for fourteen years to enable him to introduce it. In the same month a warrant for the patent was issued, but there is no clear indication that the claim stated in the petition materialised.[67] In May, 1692, however, in a warrant issued to prepare a Bill for incorporating a company for winding silk, he appeared as the first governor[68]; and in July of the preceding year as an assistant in a company which had as its object the purchase of lands where copper was expected to be found.[69] [Footnote 67: _S.P.D._, Petition Entry Book, i., p. 96. _S.P.D._, Warrant Book, xxxv., p. 434.] [Footnote 68: _Ibid._, H.O. Warrant Book, vi., p. 335.] [Footnote 69: _Ibid._, p. 115.] It was in this month that he presented a petition, in which he claimed that, by his industry and at great expense, he had “procured cotton wool from the West Indies, to be spun so extraordinarily fine, as to be fit to make such cloths commonly called callicoes ... as well as in the East Indies,” and prayed for a patent for his invention.[70] A few days later a warrant was issued to prepare a Bill to grant this prayer.[71] Whether in the meantime his idea had developed, or he had evolved a new one, it is difficult to say, but in the following month his name as petitioner again appeared, this time in connection with an invention for “making calicoes, muslins, and other fine cloths of that sort (out of the cotton wool of the growth and produce of the Plantations in the West Indies) to as great perfection as those which are brought over and imported hither from Calicut and other places in the East Indies.”[72] Again a warrant was issued to prepare a Bill for the grant of a patent which he evidently secured.[73] [Footnote 70: _Ibid._, Petition Entry Book, i., p. 154.] [Footnote 71: _Ibid._, H.O. Warrant Book, vi., p. 125.] [Footnote 72: _Ibid._, Petition Entry Book, i., p. 178.] [Footnote 73: _Ibid._, H.O. Warrant Book, vi., p. 164. For a reference to this patent see French, _Life and Times of Samuel Crompton_ (1859), pp. 233-234.]