A Memoir of Robert Blincoe, an Orphan Boy: Sent from the workhouse of St. Pancras, London, at seven years of age, to endure the horrors of a cotton-mill, through his infancy and youth, with a minute detail of his sufferings, being the first memoir of the kind published. — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
A Memoir of Robert Blincoe, an Orphan Boy: Sent from the workhouse of St. Pancras, London, at seven years of age, to endure the horrors of a cotton-mill, through his infancy and youth, with a minute detail of his sufferings, being the first memoir of the kind published.
John Stuart Mill · en
him with a bed, so that Blincoe had nothing whatever to do, but his
work, which was tolerably moderate, that is, compared with Litton Mill.
Notwithstanding its unseemly appellative, the work-people were not locked
up in the rooms, as at Mellor.
The master had another method of restraining his work people from
going out, and which saved the pay of a door-keeper, namely, by the
counting-house being so placed, the people could not go in or out without
being seen! There Blincoe worked some months; but not being perfectly
satisfied with the conditions in which the stewardship of William Gamble
left him, he took the liberty to remove from his hospitable roof, and
the result was, he could live upon and lay up one half of his wages. The
wages paid at this mill were very low, and the work very laborious,
being the stripping of the top cards! The fixed quantum was six pounds
per day, which is a severe task. After this, the master went up to
Blincoe and others, as they were at work, and informed them, he would
have more weight of cotton stripped off the top cards, or turn them away,
and Blincoe not feeling inclined to perform more work for that pay, asked
for his wages and left the Bastile!
Hence, Blincoe went to Mr. Leech, the owner of another factory, at Staley
Bridge, by whom he was engaged at nine shillings a week; but he found
the cotton so foul and dirty, and the work so hard, he staid not long;
as the owner paid only once in three weeks, it required some privation,
before any wages could be got! After three days toil, Blincoe went to his
master and asked him to lend as much silver as his work came to, and,
having obtained it, he took French leave, to the great offence of his
employer. Blincoe still remained at Staley Bridge, though unemployed. He
next obtained work at the mill of a Mr. Bailey, whose father had then
recently had one of his arms torn off by the blower, and he died in a few
hours from the dreadful effects of that accident. Here Blincoe stopped,
stripping of cards, for eleven shillings per week, during several months,
when, having saved a few pounds, he determined to try his fortune at
Manchester, which celebrated town was only seven or eight miles distant.
Of London, Blincoe retained only a faint recollection, and he thought
Manchester the largest and the grandest place in all the world. He took
lodgings in St. George’s-road, being attracted by the residence of James
Cooper, a parish apprentice from the same workhouse with himself, who had
been so cruelly flogged at Litton Mill. By this young man, Blincoe was
received in a friendly manner, and he lodged in his house near Shudehill.
Blincoe arrived at Manchester at a bad time, just at the return of peace,
and he had a difficulty of getting work. His first place was in the
factory of Mr. Adam Murray. There the engines worked only four days and
a half per week; for which he received no more than seven shillings and
a penny. Blincoe suffered much from the heat of the factories at Staley;