JOHN LOMBE: INTRODUCER OF THE SILK INDUSTRY INTO ENGLAND.
"By Commerce are acquired the two things which wise men accompt of all
others the most necessary to the well-being of a Commonwealth: That is
to say, a general Industry of Mind and Hardiness of Body, which never
fail to be accompanyed with Honour and Plenty. So that, questionless,
when Commerce does not flourish, as well as other Professions, and when
Particular Persons out of a habit of Laziness neglect at once the
noblest way of employing their time and the fairest occasion for
advancing their fortunes, that Kingdom, though otherwise never so
glorious, wants something of being compleatly happy."--A Treatise
touching the East India Trade (1695).
Industry puts an entirely new face upon the productions of nature. By
labour man has subjugated the world, reduced it to his dominion, and
clothed the earth with a new garment. The first rude plough that man
thrust into the soil, the first rude axe of stone with which he felled
the pine, the first rude canoe scooped by him from its trunk to cross
the river and reach the greener fields beyond, were each the outcome of
a human faculty which brought within his reach some physical comfort he
had never enjoyed before.
Material things became subject to the influence of labour. From the
clay of the ground, man manufactured the vessels which were to contain
his food. Out of the fleecy covering of sheep, he made clothes for
himself of many kinds; from the flax plant he drew its fibres, and made
linen and cambric; from the hemp plant he made ropes and fishing nets;
from the cotton pod he fabricated fustians, dimities, and calicoes.
From the rags of these, or from weed and the shavings of wood, he made
paper on which books and newspapers were printed. Lead was formed by
him into printer's type, for the communication of knowledge without end.
But the most extraordinary changes of all were made in a heavy stone
containing metal, dug out of the ground. With this, when smelted by
wood or coal, and manipulated by experienced skill, iron was produced.
From this extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the
mainspring perhaps of civilised society--arms, hammers, and axes were
made; then knives, scissors, and needles; then machinery to hold and
control the prodigious force of steam; and eventually railroads and
locomotives, ironclads propelled by the screw, and iron and steel
bridges miles in length.
The silk manufacture, though originating in the secretion of a tiny
caterpillar, is perhaps equally extraordinary. Hundreds of thousands
of pounds weight of this slender thread, no thicker than the filaments
spun by a spider, give employment to millions of workers throughout the
world. Silk, and the many textures wrought from this beautiful
material, had long been known in the East; but the period cannot be
fixed when man first divested the chrysalis of its dwelling, and
discovered that the little yellow ball which adhered to the leaf of the
mulberry tree, could be evolved into a slender filament, from which
tissues of endless variety and beauty could be made. The Chinese were
doubtless among the first who used the thread spun by the silkworm for
the purposes of clothing. The manufacture went westward from China to
India and Persia, and from thence to Europe. Alexander the Great
brought home with him a store of rich silks from Persia Aristotle and
Pliny give descriptions of the industrious little worm and its
productions. Virgil is the first of the Roman writers who alludes to
the production of silk in China; and the terms he employs show how
little was then known about the article. It was introduced at Rome
about the time of Julius Caesar, who displayed a profusion of silks in
some of his magnificent theatrical spectacles. Silk was so valuable
that it was then sold for an equal weight of gold. Indeed, a law was
passed that no man should disgrace himself by wearing a silken garment.
The Emperor Heliogabalus despised the law, and wore a dress composed
wholly of silk. The example thus set was followed by wealthy citizens.
A demand for silk from the East soon became general.
It was not until about the middle of the sixth century that two Persian
monks, who had long resided in China, and made themselves acquainted
with the mode of rearing the silkworm, succeeded in carrying the eggs
of the insect to Constantinople. Under their direction they were
hatched and fed. A sufficient number of butterflies were saved to
propagate the race, and mulberry trees were planted to afford
nourishment to the rising generations of caterpillars. Thus the
industry was propagated. It spread into the Italian peninsula; and
eventually manufactures of silk velvet, damask, and satin became
established in Venice, Milan, Florence, Lucca, and other places.
Indeed, for several centuries the manufacture of silk in Europe was for
the most part confined to Italy. The rearing of silkworms was of great
importance in Modena, and yielded a considerable revenue to the State.
The silk produced there was esteemed the best in Lombardy. Until the
beginning of the sixteenth century, Bologna was the only city which
possessed proper "throwing" mills, or the machinery requisite for
twisting and preparing silken fibres for the weaver. Thousands of
people were employed at Florence and Genoa about the same time in the
silk manufacture. And at Venice it was held in such high esteem, that
the business of a silk factory was considered a noble employment.[1]
It was long before the use of silk became general in England. "Silk,"
said an old writer, "does not immediately come hither from the Worm
that spins and makes it, but passes many a Climate, travels many a
Desert, employs many a Hand, loads many a Camel, and freights many a
Ship before it arrives here; and when at last it comes, it is in return
for other manufactures, or in exchange for our money."[2] It is said
that the first pair of silk stockings was brought into England from
Spain, and presented to Henry VIII. He had before worn hose of cloth.
In the third year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, her tiring woman, Mrs.
Montagu, presented her with a pair of black silk stockings as a New
Year's gift; whereupon her Majesty asked if she could have any more, in
which case she would wear no more cloth stockings. When James VI. of
Scotland received the ambassadors sent to congratulate him upon his
accession to the throne of Great Britain, he asked one of his lords to
lend him his pair of silken hose, that he "might not appear a scrub
before strangers." From these circumstances it will be observed how
rare the wearing of silk was in England.
Shortly after becoming king, James I. endeavoured to establish the silk
manufacture in England, as had already been successfully done in
France. He gave every encouragement to the breeding of silkworms. He
sent circular letters to all the counties of England, strongly
recommending the inhabitants to plant mulberry trees. The trees were
planted in many places, but the leaves did not ripen in sufficient time
for the sustenance of the silkworms.
The same attempt was made at Inneshannon, near Bandon, in Ireland, by
the Hugnenot refugees, but proved abortive. The climate proved too
cold or damp for the rearing of silkworms with advantage. All that
remains is "The Mulberry Field," which still retains its name.
Nevertheless the Huguenots successfully established the silk
manufacture at London and Dublin, obtaining the spun silk from abroad.
Down to the beginning of last century, the Italians were the principal
producers of organzine or thrown silk; and for a long time they
succeeded in keeping their art a secret. Although the silk
manufacture, as we have seen, was introduced into this country by the
Huguenot artizans, the price of thrown silk was so great that it
interfered very considerably with its progress. Organzine was
principally made within the dominions of Savoy, by means of a large and
curious engine, the like of which did not exist elsewhere. The
Italians, by the most severe laws, long preserved the mystery of the
invention. The punishment prescribed by one of their laws to be
inflicted upon anyone who discovered the secret, or attempted to carry
it out of the Sardinian dominions, was death, with the forfeiture of
all the goods the delinquent possessed; and the culprit was "to be
afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to the
gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name and crime of
the person, there to be continued for a perpetual mark of infamy."[3]
Nevertheless, a bold and ingenious man was found ready to brave all
this danger in the endeavour to discover the secret. It may be
remembered with what courage and determination the founder of the Foley
family introduced the manufacture of nails into England. He went into
the Danemora mine district, near Upsala in Sweden, fiddling his way
among the miners; and after making two voyages, he at last wrested from
them the secret of making nails, and introduced the new industry into
the Staffordshire district.[4] The courage of John Lombe, who
introduced the thrown-silk industry into England, was equally notable.
He was a native of Norwich. Playfair, in his 'Family Antiquity' (vii.
312), says his name "may have been taken from the French Lolme, or de
Lolme," as there were many persons of French and Flemish origin settled
at Norwich towards the close of the sixteenth century; but there is no
further information as to his special origin.
John Lombe's father, Henry Lombe, was a worsted weaver, and was twice
married. By his first wife he had two sons, Thomas and Henry; and by
his second, he had also two sons, Benjamin and John. At his death in
1695, he left his two brothers his "supervisors," or trustees, and
directed them to educate his children in due time to some useful trade.
Thomas, the eldest son, went to London. He was apprenticed to a trade,
and succeeded in business, as we find him Sheriff of London and
Middlesex in 1727, when in his forty-second year. He was also knighted
in the same year, most probably on the accession of George II. to the
throne.
John, the youngest son of the family, and half-brother of Thomas, was
put an apprentice to a trade. In 1702, we find him at Derby, working
as a mechanic with one Mr. Crotchet. This unfortunate gentleman
started a small silk-mill at Derby, with the object of participating in
the profits derived from the manufacture.
"The wear of silks," says Hutton, in his 'History of Derby,' "was the
taste of the ladies, and the British merchant was obliged to apply to
the Italian with ready money for the article at an exorbitant price."
Crotchet did not succeed in his undertaking. "Three engines were found
necessary for the process: he had but one. An untoward trade is a
dreadful sink for money; and an imprudent tradesman is still more
dreadful. We often see instances where a fortune would last a man much
longer if he lived upon his capital, than if he sent it into trade.
Crotchet soon became insolvent."
John Lombe, who had been a mechanic in Crotchet's silk mill, lost his
situation accordingly. But he seems to have been possessed by an
intense desire to ascertain the Italian method of silk-throwing. He
could not learn it in England. There was no other method but going to
Italy, getting into a silk mill, and learning the secret of the Italian
art. He was a good mechanic and a clever draughtsman, besides being
intelligent and fearless.
But he had not the necessary money wherewith to proceed to Italy.
His half-brother Thomas, however, was doing well in London, and was
willing to help him with the requisite means. Accordingly, John set
out for Italy, not long after the failure of Crotchet.
John Lombe succeeded in getting employment in a silk mill in Piedmont,
where the art of silk-throwing was kept a secret. He was employed as a
mechanic, and had thus an opportunity, in course of time, of becoming
familiar with the operation of the engine. Hutton says that he bribed
the workmen; but this would have been a dangerous step, and would
probably have led to his expulsion, if not to his execution. Hutton
had a great detestation of the first silk factory at Derby, where he
was employed when a boy; and everything that he says about it must be
taken cum grano salis. When the subject of renewing the patent was
before Parliament in 1731, Mr. Perry, who supported the petition of Sir
Thomas Lombe, said that "the art had been kept so secret in Piedmont,
that no other nation could ever yet come at the invention, and that Sir
Thomas and his brother resolved to make an attempt for the bringing of
this invention into their own country. They knew that there would be
great difficulty and danger in the undertaking, because the king of
Sardinia had made it death for any man to discover this invention, or
attempt to carry it out of his dominions. The petitioner's brother,
however, resolved to venture his person for the benefit and advantage
of his native country, and Sir Thomas was resolved to venture his
money, and to furnish his brother with whatever sums should be
necessary for executing so bold and so generous a design. His brother
went accordingly over to Italy; and after a long stay and a great
expense in that country, he found means to see this engine so often,
and to pry into the nature of it so narrowly, that he made himself
master of the whole invention and of all the different parts and
motions belonging to it."
John Lombe was absent from England for several years. While occupied
with his investigations and making his drawings, it is said that it
began to be rumoured that the Englishman was prying into the secret of
the silk mill, and that he had to fly for his life. However this may
be, he got on board an English ship, and returned to England in safety.
He brought two Italian workmen with him, accustomed to the secrets of
the silk trade. He arrived in London in 1716, when, after conferring
with his brother, a specification was prepared and a patent for the
organzining of raw silk was taken out in 1718. The patent was granted
for fourteen years.
In the meantime, John Lombe arranged with the Corporation of the town
of Derby for taking a lease of the island or swamp on the river
Derwent, at a ground rental of 8L. a year. The island, which was well
situated for water-power, was 500 feet long and 52 feet wide.
Arrangements were at once made for erecting a silk mill thereon, the
first large factory in England. It was constructed entirely at the
expense of his brother Thomas. While the building was in progress,
John Lombe hired various rooms in Derby, and particularly the Town
Hall, where he erected temporary engines turned by hand, and gave
employment to a large number of poor people.
At length, after about three years' labour, the great silk mill was
completed. It was founded upon huge piles of oak, from 16 to 20 feet
long, driven into the swamp close to each other by an engine made for
the purpose. The building was five stories high, contained eight large
apartments, and had no fewer than 468 windows. The Lombes must have
had great confidence in their speculation, as the building and the
great engine for making the organzine silk, together with the other
fittings, cost them about 30,000L.
One effect of the working of the mill was greatly to reduce the price
of the thrown-silk, and to bring it below the cost of the Italian
production. The King of Sardinia, having heard of the success of the
Lombe's undertaking, prohibited the exportation of Piedmontese raw
silk, which interrupted the course of their prosperity, until means
were taken to find a renewed supply elsewhere.
And now comes the tragic part of the story, for which Mr. Hutton, the
author of the 'History of Derby,' is responsible. As he worked in the
silk mill when a boy, from 1730 to 1737, he doubtless heard it from the
mill-hands, and there may be some truth in it, though mixed with a
little romance. It is this:--
Hutton says of John Lombe, that he "had not pursued this lucrative
commerce more than three or four years when the Italians, who felt the
effects from their want of trade, determined his destruction, and hoped
that that of his works would follow. An artful woman came over in the
character of a friend, associated with the parties, and assisted in the
business. She attempted to gain both the Italian workmen, and
succeeded with one. By these two slow poison was supposed, and perhaps
justly, to have been administered to John Lombe, who lingered two or
three years in agony, and departed. The Italian ran away to his own
country; and Madam was interrogated, but nothing transpired, except
what strengthened suspicion." A strange story, if true.
Of the funeral, Hutton says:--"John Lombe's was the most superb ever
known in Derby. A man of peaceable deportment, who had brought a
beneficial manufactory into the place, employed the poor, and at
advanced wages, could not fail meeting with respect, and his melancholy
end with pity. Exclusive of the gentlemen who attended, all the people
concerned in the works were invited. The procession marched in pairs,
and extended the length of Full Street, the market-place, and
Iron-gate; so that when the corpse entered All Saints, at St. Mary's
Gate, the last couple left the house of the deceased, at the corner of
Silk-mill Lane."
Thus John Lombe died and was buried at the early age of twenty-nine;
and Thomas, the capitalist, continued the owner of the Derby silk mill.
Hutton erroneously states that William succeeded, and that he shot
himself. The Lombes had no brother of the name of William, and this
part of Hutton's story is a romance.
The affairs of the Derby silk mill went on prosperously. Enough thrown
silk was manufactured to supply the trade, and the weaving of silk
became a thriving business. Indeed, English silk began to have a
European reputation. In olden times it was said that "the stranger
buys of the Englishman the case of the fox for a groat, and sells him
the tail again for a shilling." But now the matter was reversed, and
the saying was, "The Englishman buys silk of the stranger for twenty
marks, and sells him the same again for one hundred pounds."
But the patent was about to expire. It had been granted for only
fourteen years; and a long time had elapsed before the engine could be
put in operation, and the organzine manufactured. It was the only
engine in the kingdom. Joshua Gee, writing in 1731, says: "As we have
but one Water Engine in the kingdom for throwing silk, if that should
be destroyed by fire or any other accident, it would make the
continuance of throwing fine silk very precarious; and it is very much
to be doubted whether all the men now living in the kingdom could make
another." Gee accordingly recommended that three or four more should
be erected at the public expense, "according to the model of that at
Derby."[5]
The patent expired in 1732. The year before, Sir Thomas Lombe, who had
been by this time knighted, applied to Parliament for a prolongation of
the patent. The reasons for his appeal were principally these: that
before he could provide for the full supply of other silk proper for
his purpose (the Italians having prohibited the exportation of raw
silk), and before he could alter his engine, train up a sufficient
number of workpeople, and bring the manufacture to perfection, almost
all the fourteen years of his patent right would have expired.
"Therefore," the petition to Parliament concluded, "as he has not
hitherto received the intended benefit of the aforesaid patent, and in
consideration of the extraordinary nature of this undertaking, the very
great expense, hazard, and difficulty he has undergone, as well as the
advantage he has thereby procured to the nation at his own expense, the
said Sir Thomas Lombe humbly hopes that Parliament will grant him a
further term for the sole making and using his engines, or such other
recompense as in their wisdom shall seem meet."[6]
The petition was referred to a Committee. After consideration, they
recommended the House of Commons to grant a further term of years to
Sir Thomas Lombe. The advisers of the King, however, thought it better
that the patent should not be renewed, but that the trade in silk
should be thrown free to all. Accordingly the Chancellor of the
Exchequer acquainted the House (14th March, 1731) that "His Majesty
having been informed of the case of Sir Thomas Lombe, with respect to
his engine for making organzine silk, had commanded him to acquaint
this House, that His Majesty recommended to their consideration the
making such provision for a recompense to Sir Thomas Lombe as they
shall think proper."
The result was, that the sum of 14,000L. was voted and paid to Sir
Thomas Lombe as "a reward for his eminent services done to the nation,
in discovering with the greatest hazard and difficulty the capital
Italian engines, and introducing and bringing the same to full
perfection in this kingdom, at his own great expense."[7] The trade
was accordingly thrown open. Silk mills were erected at Stockport and
elsewhere; Hutton says that divers additional mills were erected in
Derby; and a large and thriving trade was established. In 1850, the
number employed in the silk manufacture exceeded a million persons.
The old mill has recently become disused. Although supported by strong
wooden supports, it showed signs of falling; and it was replaced by a
larger mill, more suitable to modern requirements.
Footnotes for Chapter IV.
[1] "This was equally the case with two other trades;--those of
glass-maker and druggist, which brought no contamination upon nobility
in Venice. In a country where wealth was concentrated in the hands of
the powerful, it was no doubt highly judicious thus to encourage its
employment for objects of public advantage. A feeling, more or less
powerful, has always existed in the minds of the high-born, against the
employment of their time and wealth to purposes of commerce or
manufactures. All trades, save only that of war, seem to have been
held by them as in some sort degrading, and but little comporting with
the dignity of aristocratic blood." Cabinet Cyclopedia--Silk
Manufacture, p. 20.
[2] A Brief State of the Inland or Home Trade. (Pamphlet.) 1730.
[3] A Brief State of the Case relating to the Machine erected at Derby
for making Italian Organzine Silk, which was discovered and brought
into England with the utmost difficulty and hazard, and at the Sole
Expense of Sir Thomas Lombe. House of Commons Paper, 28th January,
1731.
[4] Self-Help, p. 205.
[5] The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered, p. 94.
[6] The petition sets forth the merits of the machine at Derby for
making Italian organzine silk--"a manufacture made out of fine raw
silk, by reducing it to a hard twisted fine and even thread. This silk
makes the warp, and is absolutely necessary to mix with and cover the
Turkey and other coarser silks thrown here, which are used for
Shute,--so that, without a constant supply of this fine Italian
organzine silk, very little of the said Turkey or other silks could be
used, nor could the silk weaving trade be carried on in England. This
Italian organzine (or thrown) silk has in all times past been bought
with our money, ready made (or worked) in Italy, for want of the art of
making it here. Whereas now, by making it ourselves out of fine
Italian raw silk, the nation saves near one-third part; and by what we
make out of fine China raw silk, above one-half of the price we pay for
it ready worked in Italy. The machine at Derby contains 97,746 wheels,
movements, and individual parts (which work day and night), all which
receive their motion from one large water-wheel, are governed by one
regulator, and it employs about 300 persons to attend and supply it
with work." In Bees Cyclopaedia (art. 'Silk Manufacture') there is a
full description of the Piedmont throwing machine introduced to England
by John Lombe, with a good plate of it.
[7] Sir Thomas Lombe died in 1738. He had two daughters. The first,
Hannah, was married to Sir Robert Clifton, of Clifton, co. Notts; the
second, Mary Turner, was married to James, 7th Earl of Lauderdale. In
his will, he "recommends his wife, at the conclusion of the Darby
concern," to distribute among his "principal servants or managers five
or six hundred pounds."