on Oldham Edge, about the period referred to. Mr. James Lees, of Higher Clarksfield, Mr. John Booth, of Greenacres, Messrs. John and Paul Cowper, of Sholver, Mr. Robert Whitehead, of Block lane, Mr. John Mills, of Higher moor, Mr. Jonathan Taylor, of Moor hey, Mr. Benjamin Marsland, of Oldham, Messrs. Garsides, of Sholver, Mr. William Rhodes, of Beesom hill, and Mr. Edmund Kershaw, of Sholver, were proprietors of collieries prior to 1791. I regret my inability to state the exact number of workmen engaged in the hatting and coal mining concerns of the district at the time under notice. It is probable the operative hatters were about 600, and the coal miners 400.

The manners of the population were possessed of some peculiarities, by no means prepossessing to strangers. Naturally of a hardy and boisterous temperament, the demeanour of the mass of the population was characterized by a freedom that was regarded by the inhabitants of more polished places as bordering on rudeness, and sometimes extending to what they conceived to be insolence and brutality. These feelings were the results of a spirit of independence, which was created by the fact of almost every individual being obliged to rely upon his own exertions for self-progression. The state of the place at this time is strikingly illustrated by a passage in the narrative of the life of John Murlin, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, who was one of the first preachers of the sect who introduced the Methodist doctrines at Oldham. His words are: "At a village called Oldham, about seven miles from Manchester (a place famous through all that country for daring and desperate wickedness}, we had heavy persecution for a season: as I was going to preach in the street one Sabbath day, two constables with a great mob at their heels, took me into custody, for riotous behaviour, in singing about two verses of a hymn, as the people were coming out of the church; they took me to a public house, (the Shoulder of Mutton, afterwards

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