Lees, son of Mr. John Lees, the inventor of the carding feeder, and uncle of the late Mr. Earnshaw, of Mumps, erected a mill at Fowleach, about 1798, which was afterwards (when in the possession of Mr. Twemlow) named Hartford mill, and owing to this circumstance the adjacent extensive and celebrated machine making works of Messrs. Hibbert, Platt and Sons, received the designation of Hartford works. Mr. Benjamin Lees, of Elly clough mill, Royton, another son of the inventor of the carding feeder, was an ingenious mechanic, and one of the earliest constructors of a batting machine. Mr. Winterbottom, of Oldham, grandfather of Mr. Winterbottom, of Little town, Hollinwood, is alleged to have been the inventor of the slide, an instrument made use of for pulling down the faller of the spinning jenny.

In the early part of the present century, Mr. John Whittaker, a native of Oldham, son of Mr. Robert Whittaker, of Manchester street, commenced the cotton business with the possession of a small carding mill moved by horse power, in a building adjacent to Bent hall, and also as owner of a small number of spinning- machines, worked in a room near his dwelling in Duke street. A few years afterwards, before 1808, he became possessed of the cotton mill at Higher Hurst, near Ashton-under-Lyne, and being gifted with unusual business tact and prudent habits, he rendered that manufactory one of the most extraordinary in the manufacturing district for its extent and arrangement. In 1825 his establishment was one of the second rate order, but in 1840 such an extension had taken place that he employed about 1000 hands; and he had been the means of converting in a few years a mere group of houses into a large and increasing village. Mr.. Whittaker died September 14, 1840. Conscious from his own experience of the sufferings attendant on poverty, he generously provided in his will for the comfortable support during life of his aged superannuated operatives. Since the period of his death,

146