Robert Owen's House 2

Robert Owen*

ROBERT OWEN, 1771 - 1858

Robert Owen was born on the 14th. of May 1771 in Newtown, Monmouthshire, Wales. His father was a local saddler and ironmonger and Robert was the sixth of seven children. He was a clever boy and by the age of seven he had learned as much as local teacher, William Thickens, could teach him. After two years he left school and worked as a shop assistant in a draper's shop.

In 1781, he left for London and became an apprentice to Mr. McGuffog, a Scots draper in Stamford in Lincolnshire. Here he received a good business training that was to serve him very well later in his life.He made his first business partnership with Ernest Jones, a young mechanic, manufacturing spinning mules. These were cotton machines, invented by Samuel Crompton, which combined the best features of Arkwright's Water Frame and Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny.

After a year or so, Owen saw an advertisement for the post of manager at Drinkwater's Banktop Mill in Manchester and he got the job. Before his twentieth birthday, he found himself the boss of 500 workers and responsible for the whole business, from buying the raw material to its manufacture into fine yarn.Owen's reputation as an astute businessman spread but he failed to gain partnership with Drinkwater and instead accepted a partnership with what became known as the Chorlton Twist Co. It was while on a visit to Glasgow in connection with this business that he met David Dale's daughter, Caroline, and paid his first visit to the place which would help to make his name world famous, New Lanark.

*Image Copyright SCRAN used under Licence