1785.
The “Fustian Tax” repealed through the endeavours of Mr. Thomas Walker and Mr. Thomas Richardson, who were presented with a silver cup each. Splendid processions on the occasion, May 17.
— Power-loom weaving invented by the Rev. Dr. Edmund Cartwright, of Hollander House, Kent, by whom a patent was taken out in this year. Like his predecessors in the careers of invention, Dr. Cartwright failed in his attempt to turn his invention to his own advantage, until, in 1809, he received a Parliamentary grant of £10,000. He was brother to the celebrated Major Cartwright, and died at Hastings, in Sussex, October 25, 1832.
— The privileges of the spinning-jenny, which had partly been thrown open in 1763, were, in this year, wholly given to the public, when cotton mills began to increase, as well as the population.
— Cylindrical calico printing invented by a Scotchman named Bell, and was first practised by Messrs. Livesey, of Preston.
— The establishment of mechanics’ institutes (now become so general in England) was first suggested by the late Rev. Dr. Thomas Barnes, of Manchester. Before the Manchester Philosophical Society he observed, “To provide a public repository for scientific and mechanical knowledge, as a mechanics’ school, for the education of young tradesmen and manufacturers.”
— A German, named Baden, was tried at Lancaster, and fined £500, for having visited Manchester and seduced cotton operatives to go to Germany.
— Lord Robert Spencer, Sir Frank Standish, Charles James Fox, and Mr. Grenville visited Manchester, and dined with the Liberal party, September 15.
— Mr. Sadler ascended in his balloon from a garden behind the Manchester Arms Inn, Long Millgate (then a private house), May 12.
— A musical festival was held in the Concert Hall, Fountain Street, September 1.
— A set of rules was drawn up for the government of Sunday schools in Manchester, at a meeting in the Manchester Hotel; Sir John Mosley presided. January 3.
— The magistrates authorise the constables to prevent cock-fighting and the throwing of cocks during Shrove Tide. February 15.
— Mr. Stanley presented a petition to the House of Commons from the manufacturers and inhabitants of Manchester against the commercial regulations between Great Britain and Ireland. March 11.
— The thermometer was from 1 to 18½ degrees below the freezing point from October 18, 1784, to March 15, except 26 days. March 16.
— Mr. Stanley presented a petition to the House of Commons from the inhabitants and
manufacturers of Lancashire, for a repeal of the duty on cotton goods, imposed 1784; It was as much as one man could carry. March 16.
— Mr. Garrow, as counsel for the fustian manufacturers was called to the bar of the House of Commons, when he spoke for two hours. April 8.
— Many thousands of weavers from Oldham and its vicinity out of employ, owing to the tax on manufactures, visit Manchester, April 12.
— It was estimated by Mr. Pitt that the population employed in the cotton trade generally was 80,000.
— Thomas Walker and Thomas Richardson, Esquires, the delegates, arrived express with the intelligence that a repeal of that odious tax upon fustians was moved by Mr. Pitt, seconded, by Mr. Fox, and carried without a division. The delegates alighted at the Bull’s Head, in the Market Place, which was filled with people. After a short speech by Mr. Walker, they were placed upon two chairs and carried through the streets. April 21;
— The gentlemen and ladies appeared with favours in token of the repeal of the fustian tax, April 22.
— The Fustian Tax Repeal Act received the royal assent, May 13.
— Mr. Sadler made his second balloon assent. On alighting he was obliged to let it drive with the wind. May 19.
— Sessions of the College of Arts and Sciences opened with a lecture by Charles White, Esq., October 8.

1786.
The foundation of the “Manchester College” laid in Mosley Street, with a discourse by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Barnes, July 10. Removed to York, September 1, 1803. It was originated June 6, 1783. Brought back September, 1840.
— James Holland was hanged at Bolton-le-Moor, for croft breaking, September 12.
— Sir John Parker Mosley, of Ancoats, Bart., lord of the manor of Manchester, high sheriff for the county of Lancaster.
— A person was tried at Lancaster, and fined £200, for having had in his possession a quantity of machinery, with a view to export it to Germany, and for having also seduced workmen to go abroad with it.
— Sabbath schools introduced into Salford, September.
— John Holker, inspector-general of cotton and woollen manufactures in France, died. He effected his escape from Newgate, with Captain Moss, before trial, by making a breach in the wall, and effectually eluded pursuit, although he was dependent for six weeks on the fidelity and kindness of a green-stall keeper, a female, who concealed him. He afterwards passed over to France; and his applications for pardon proving ineffectual, he established at Rouen a cotton manufactory, by which he amassed great wealth.
— John Collier, or, as he styled himself, “Tim Bobbin,” a man of original genius, and the deservedly popular author of the “Lancashire Dialect.” He was born in 1708, at Urmston, in the parish of Flixton, in a small house bearing the name of “Richard-o’-Jones.” He was a poet, a painter, and a musician, but it was chiefly as a prose writer and a caricaturist that be excelled, He died at Milnrow, near Rochdale, July..
— A main of cocks was fought at the Royal Exchange betwixt the gentlemen of Lancashire and Cheshire for £5 a battle and £200 the main. Cheshire won by eight battles. January 3, 6, 7, 8, 9.
— A fire broke out in the New Market Hall, and entirely consumed the upper part of the building, January 10.
— The foundation stone of St. James’s, near Mosley Street, was laid by the Rev. Dr. Bayley. (See 1783.) March 15.
— Seventy persons were fined 5s. each for not sweeping before their houses, October 23.

1787.
Angel Street Cemetery consecrated, September 21; closed in 1816.
--. The New Bailey, or Prison for the Hundred of Salford, founded May 22, by Thomas Butterworth Bayley, Esq., of Eccles. Opened for prisoners April, 1790. Large additions made to it 1816.
— The Rev. John Wesley held his annual Conference at Manchester, at which 150 preachers attended, July. In a sermon he predicted that the world would end in 1836.
— Only forty-two spinning factories in Lancashire.
— An act passed for encouraging the art of designing original patterns for prints.
— Muslin manufacture rises into note through mule spinning, and 500,000 pieces are manufactured in Great Britain.
— Steam engines first introduced into the Lancashire cotton factories, by Messrs. Peel, at Warrington.
— Great flood for seven days, which carried away a portion of Salford Bridge.
— The value of exported cotton goods, in this year (immediately after the overthrow of Arkwright’s patent), amounted to £1,101,457.
— Great rejoicing in Manchester on account of the French treaty, this being the day for the opening of the ports, May 10.
— Great rejoicing to commemorate the repeal of the fustian tax, May 21.
— A fire broke out at the works of Mr. Charles Potts, dyer, Strangeways, June 17.
— A meeting convened at the Manchester Hotel, by the Boroughreeve, to establish fixed market days, June 19.
— The Collegiate Church broken into and two surplices and the poor box stolen, June 22.
— Tippling on the Sabbath prohibited. Business to cease in summer at 10 p.m., winter 9 p.m.September 19.

1788.
The centenary of the Revolution of 1688 was celebrated in Manchester by balls, dinners, and the military firing a feu de joie in St. Ann’s Square.
— St. James’s Church, George Street, was built by the Rev. Cornelius Bayley, D.D., and consecrated August 18. The presentation was vested in the heirs of the founder for sixty years, and then in the warden and fellows of the Collegiate Church. Opened March 16.
— St. Peter’s Church, Mosley Street, founded by the Rev. Samuel Hall, M.A,, December 11; consecrated September 6. The presentation is in twenty-one trustees for sixty years, from the date of the consecration deeds; and afterwards in the wardens and fellows of the Collegiate Church. This singularly elegant structure is of the Doric order, and was built from the design of Mr. James Wyatt, architect. The altar piece is adorned with the “Descent from the Cross,” from the pencil of Annibal Carracci.
— Independent Chapel, Mosley Street, erected; opened September 24.
— Mr. Thomas Henry introduces the art of bleaching with oxymuriatic acid.
— East Indian and North American cotton first imported.
— A meeting was held in Manchester to consider the great depression of our cotton manufactures, arising from the “importation of Indian goods;” and Government was solicited to allow a drawback as an encouragement to the export of English products. It was estimated that the cotton manufacture employed 159,000 men, 90,000 women, and 101 children.
— The population of Manchester and Salford enumerated at 50,000 souls.
— Heywood’s Bank, St. Ann’s Street, established, May 26; now Heywood Brothers and Co.
--- St. Michael’s Church, Angel Street, was built by the Rev. Humphrey Owen, M.A. Chaplain of the Collegiate Church, and consecrated July 23. The presentation is in the heirs of the founder for sixty years; after which, in the warden and fellows of the Collegiate Church. First stone laid, May 20.
— Mr. Thomas Burchell, for several years the conductor of the Gentlemen’s Concert, died March 18.
— Mr. Auley Macauley, for many years a respectable tea dealer, and author of a “System of Shorthand,” died March 19.
— The first stone of the Bridgewater Arms Inn, High Street, was laid. It was opened August 13, 1789, by Mr. Hartley, from Birmingham.
— The Rev. John Wesley preached in Oldham Street Chapel; he was in his 86th year. April 13.
— Total attendance of Sunday school scholars in Manchester and Salford was 4,000. August.
— A procession of Freemasons, under the patronage of John Allen, Grand Master for the county.
— Great rejoicing, being the anniversary of the landing of King William, November 5.
— Total number of houses inhabited in Manchester and Salford 7,176; number of families 10,020; inhabitants 50,000.
— Independent Chapel, Mosley Street, erected; enlarged 1819.

1789.
Great rejoicings take place on the recovery of George III. from his mental aberration.
— Unitarian Chapel. Mosley Street, erected; taken down, 1836.
— Baptist Chapel, St. George’s Road (now Rochdale Road), built.
— The first steam engine for spinning cotton erected in Manchester, for Mr. Drinkwater. The improvement made in the steam engine by Watt, and the various inventions, each contributed to advance the extent of the trade. The quantity of goods produced was augmented thirtyfold.
— Mr. Austin of Glasgow, and Dr. Cartwright of Kent. attempt to make a self-acting or powerloom.
— Theatre Royal, Spring Gardens, burnt down, June 19; re-built and opened, February, 1790.
— The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society publish their first volume.
— The first coal from Worsley arrived at Bank Top, consisting of three boat loads, April 20.
— Mr. John Wheeler, formerly of the Manchester Theatre, father of the late Mr. Charles Wheeler, original proprietor of the Manchester Chronicle, died October 16.
— The Lancashire Humane Society established.

1790.
The cotton spinners of Lancashire and Scotland solicited permission of the Government to form themselves into a “Company of Traders,” with privileges similar to those enjoyed by the East India Company, with whom, it seems, they considered themselves otherwise unable to compete.
— Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Gravel Lane, Salford, built.
— House of Correction, Hunt’s Bank, taken down.
— James Macnamara hanged on Kersal Moor for a burglary committed in the house of Mr. Cheetham, Stretford Road, in January. He was executed on the large hill close to the Grand Stand, September 11.
— The Manchester Lying-in Hospital instituted May 5; removed to Stanley Street, Salford, 1796; and recently again removed to North Parade, St. Mary’s.
— The import of raw cotton was 31,500,000 pounds; and the value of cotton goods exported was
£1,662,369.
— It was mentioned as an extraordinary fact, that Manchester paid in postages £11,000, being a larger amount than any other provincial town.
— The “Manchester Constitutional Society” established, to “effect a reform in the representation of the people in Parliament,” October.
— Session Court, attached to the New Bailey Prison, erected.
— An Act of Parliament was obtained for the purpose of “providing a new poorhouse for, and for the better relief and government of, the poor of the township of Manchester, in the county of Lancaster.”
— Oxford Road, from St. Peter’s Church, was opened, July 12.
— The organ at Trinity Chapel, Salford, was opened, August 9: built by Schultz, of London.
— A large building, situated near Hanover Street, fell down, owing to the springing of an arch in the foundation. The upper part was used as a cotton mill, and at the time there were twenty-two persons at work, several of whom were killed, and others seriously hurt. December 21.
— Manchester Lying-in Hospital, founded May 6, by Charles White, F H S., and his son, Dr. White, and Messrs. Edward and R. Hull [Hall]. Patients were attended to at their own homes until they took a house near Salford Bridge. 1795. They purchased the Bath Inn, Stanley Street, for £1,000, and converted it into an hospital 1796, which was sold by auction May 5, 1822: previous to which they removed to the North Parade, St. Mary’s, October 10. The foundation stone of the new hospital was laid by the Bishop of Manchester, September 3, 1855, and opened October 10, 1856.
— Messrs. Grimshaw, of Gorton, erected a factory at Knot Mill for the introduction of powerlooms into Manchester, which was burnt down before they commenced work.

1791.
“Bibliotheca Chethamensis: sive Bibliothecae publicae Mancuniences ab Humfredo Chetham armigero fundatae catalogus, exhibens libros in varias classes pro varietate argumenti distributos. Editit Johannes Radcliffe, bibliothecae supradictae custos.” 2 vols, 8vo. In 1826 a third volume was printed, containing subsequent additions, by the Rev. William Parr Greswell. Several of the manuscripts are exceedingly curious. The printed books are, in general, the best works in history, philosophy, and science, with the best editions of the classics. The purchaser should mind that the first vol. is embellished with an elegant portrait of the founder.
— The Manchester Strangers’ Friend Society established, under the auspices of the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke.
— The Manchester Humane Society established.
--- An Act of Parliament was obtained for the purpose of lighting, watching, and cleaning the town; and for levying a police tax of 1s. 3d. in the pound, upon the rent of the houses, to defray the expenses. Under this act the commissioners consisted of the boroughreeve and constables for the time being, the warden and fellows of the Collegiate Church, and the owners and occupiers of any buildings of £30 a year value, under whose control the conjoint towns of Manchester and Salford were placed.
— A fire took place in Blakely Street, when a woman and four children were burnt to death, April 30.
— Mr. Edward Hall, for 38 years one of the surgeons to the Royal Infirmary, and also an active promoter of the Lying-in Hospital in this town, died, in King Street, September 25.
— Humane Society established in Manchester. First meeting held August 25; Lord de Wilton, chairman.
— The first stone of the Manchester Workhouse, Strangeways, laid by Mr. Leaf, a magistrate, July 24; opened February 14, 1793.