cotton mill at Copster hill. About the same period Messrs. Rothwell and Tetlow established a similar manufactory at Bradley bent, Hollinwood, where they carried on mule spinning and swivel weaving. In 1791, Mr. James Clough occupied or possessed a small mill at North moor, which was probably the concern called Fawcett factory. Messrs. Edmund Whitehead and Daniel Lees were then the occupiers of a mill in Bent, which was afterwards called Shaw factory, and appears to have been originally erected by Mr. Whitehead. Mr. Robert Whittaker (father of the late John Whittaker, Esq., of Higher Hurst, Ashton-under-Lyne, one of the most eminent cotton manufacturers of his day erected a manufactory in New road, or Manchester-street, in 1791. A Mr. Booth, probably one of the Booths, of Greenaeres, erected a mill near Millbottom, and Mr. Paul Cowper, another near Francisses, in Sholver, pre- vious to 1791. It is thus evident that, including Lees hall lower mill, eight new cotton mills were established from 1788 to 1791, and, deducting one concern which appears to have ceased about 1788, the number of cotton manufactories in the township of Oldham in 1791 was eighteen. All these mills were moved by water or horse power. If no superior power had been discovered to move the machinery, the cotton manufacture would soon have found a check upon its further extension, but happily the genius of James Watt rendered the steam engine of almost universal application, adapted to every locality where fuel was cheap, and available as well to make as to work machines, and capable of both producing and conveying goods by land and water. Watt did not fully complete his admirable invention till 1784. The first steam engine introduced at Oldham was erected for Messrs. Jones and Co., at their colliery in Broadway lane, from 1799 to 1792, and the first steam engine made use of as the moving power for a cotton mill in the parish was erected at Lees hall higher mill, for Mr. William Clegg, about 1794. Several years elapsed, however, before the unrivalled advantages of

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