John Fielden

Fielden, John (1784–1849), of Fielden Brothers, industrialist and politician

1784 Born the third son of Joshua Fielden,a Quaker who about the time of John's birth set up as a cotton spinner in Todmorden. Joshua started cotton spinning in a small way, but by his exertions and those of his sons Fielden Brothers grew to be one of the largest cotton manufacturers in England.

1832 According to William Cobbett they were involved in spinning weaving and printing and employing over 2,500 persons. Cobbett also stressed that the brothers were "famed for their goodness to every creature who is in their employ ...let others do what they may, these gentlemen have preferred a little profit, and even no profit, to great gains from half starvation of the people from whose labour they derive those gains"

John began working in the family mill "when I was little more than ten years old", and was therefore able in later life to speak from personal experience of the unsuitability for children of that age of even a ten-hour day. When slightly older, he assisted his father with the purchase of raw materials and sale of finished goods - attending market in Manchester involved a round trip of 40 miles on foot, and a twenty-hour day.

1811 After the death of his father in 1811, and of his eldest brother Samuel in 1822, John was responsible for purchasing and sales, his brother Thomas looked after a permanent warehouse Fieldens set up in Manchester, James looked after production, and the eldest surviving brother (Joshua) was responsible for machinery.

Whilst Todmorden was at some distance from ports and home markets, the firm's main site at Waterside lay in a narrow valley used first by the Rochdale Canal and then by the Manchester and Leeds Railway (which the Fieldens helped establish, John being a member of the company's provisional committee) as part of an indirect but relatively low-level route between Manchester and Leeds, and the firms' expansion was helped by the consequent improvement in communications. In addition to the establishments owned by Fielden Brothers in and around Todmorden, individual members of the family also owned mills in their own right; for example in 1844 Robinwood Mill was bought (largely built, but unglazed and without motive power) by John Fielden - however he did not operate it as a separate concern, but let it to the family firm.

In 1846, the firm was said to be processing 200,000 pounds of cotton per week; thought then to be the largest weekly consumption of cotton of any firm in the world. A correspondent for the Morning Post reported that within 2 miles of Todmorden there were thirty-three mills, eight of them operated by Fielden Brothers :

"Owing to the excellent example of the Messrs. Fielden, who employ upwards of 2,000 hands, the factories here are much better regulated, and greater regard paid to the health and morals of the workpeople than in most other places which I have visited. This firm have always worked their mills less time than that sanctioned by the Legislature, and have done their utmost to sustain the wages and mitigate the toil of their workpeople. Whenever a man meets with an accident they give him half wages during his illness, and pay for medical aid. They also change to less laborious and more healthy employment those who have become incapacitated for great exertion."

In 1811, he married Ann Grindrod of Rochdale, and bought and converted the "Coach and Horses" public house (opposite the Fieldens' Waterside Mill) as a family home named Dawson Weir. They had 7 children:

• Jane (1814),
• Samuel Fielden (1816),
• Mary (1817),
• Ann (1819),
• John (1822),
• Joshua (1827-1887) and
• Ellen (1829).

Alice (Ann) died in 1831;John remarried Elizabeth Dearden of Halifax in 1834; she survived him, dying in 1851.

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Letter from John Fielden, 26 December 1836:-

LORD ALTHORP'S FACTORY ACT.
THE EFFECTS OF PUTTING LAW-MAKING INTO COMMISSION
TO THE EDITORS OF THE CHAMPION AND WEEKLY HERALD
DEAR SIRSs,- I request your insertion in THE CHAMPION of proceedings taken before the Magistrates at Bolton, and at Middleton, on informations under the Factory Act. The first is given in the Bolton Chronicle of the 12th November last, and the other in the Manchester Chronicle of the 24th inst. In the first case, we have the following facts:
1st. A boy of only eight years of age, with a surgeon's certificate that he is twelve, is found working in a Cotton Factory for more than nine hours a day; and as those who work more than nine hours in any one day, or 48 hours in, any one week, are known to work 12. hours a day, and 69 hours a week, I infer this boy had been working 69 hours a week, for more than a year, that is, before he was seven years old, and during which period, we have had paid Inspectors and Superintendents, with power, under Lord Althorp's Factory Act, to protect this child from being thus cruelly worked !! .
2nd. The Manager of the Factory had been convicted in 20s. and costs, seven days before employing this boy more than nine hours in one day; and since which conviction, said Mr. Rushton (who appeared in support of the information) a number of boys had been sent to school from the mill, agreeably with the provisions of the Act: and he thought this was a fair inference, that the Occupiers of the Factory had not fulfilled the provisions of the Act.
3rd. The surgeon pleaded as his excuse for certifying the boy to be of the ordinary strength and appearance of 12 years of age, the late instructions from Mr. Horner, that if a boy measures 4 ft. 2 in. in height, he should be considered to be 12 years of age, and the boy had been measured that morning, and was 4 feet 1¾ !!!
4th. The Magistrates dismissed the case!!!
5th. The mother of the boy was then charged with having obtained a false certificate, and convicted in the penalty of 20s., and costs 15s., which was paid.
6th. The complainant was then made to pay 21s. to the Manager of the Factory, for his expenses in attending the first case; which Manager had been fined the Monday preceding, for overworking the child!!
In the second case, it appears, a Factory-master had employed a "WEAKLY” child of nine years of age, in July last, without a certificate, which the certifying surgeon had refused to give; for this an information was laid against the master, by two of Mr. Horner's Superintendents; but the fact that the child was nine years old, having been proved to the satisfaction of the Magistrates, they dismissed the case, and are reported to have said, that "they they were of opinion that the clause could not be intended to set aside actual -proof of the age, but only to operate where such proof was wanting." Now Section 12 of the Factory Act, directs certificates to be made by a Surgeon or Physician, " and unless the Surgeon or Physician before whom the child has so appeared, shall certify ",(which in this case he refused to do), that such " child is of the ordinary strength, and appearance of children of or exceeding the age of nine-years, such child shall not be employed in any Factory or Mill."
Here is a matter for grave reflection, connected with the administration of the Law, made to protect feeble children of tender years, from being worked beyond their strength by rich and powerful masters - In one case, the mother of. the child and the Manager of the Factory, where the child worked, are visited with the penalty the Law enacts, but in both cases, the rich and powerful masters escape ; and the surgeon, a paid agent, who certified a child to be 12, that was only 8, and who shields himself against imprisonment, under Mr. Horner's "late instructions," which, had they been good for anything would have secured the conviction of Mr. Fenton, also escapes. Is the Law to be one thing for the rich and another thing for the poor? And can any Law be respected, that is thus administered ? But I forbear: my feelings will not allow me to go farther.
These doings are not calculated to improve the morality of those in this district, whom the Whig press in London has the audacity to denounce as incendiaries, nor of those whom the late Mr. Rickards, in his report to the Home Secretary said, were " from the want of a sound, moral, and religious education, the slaves of vice, prejudice and passion.” Did he mean the authorities, the masters, or the workpeople ? But notwithstanding these exhibitions, and the fact that in almost every newspaper published in this district, accounts are given of convictions of masters under, the Factory Act; yet the Leeds Mercury of the 10th instant, another Whigs paper, says: " We are informed on the best authority that the Factory Act is working well." I suppose this "best authority" is the Inspector, of whose works a correspondent has given me a strange account. I shall be much obliged, if he will supply me with all the facts he knows, and the dates in each case. I am, dear Sirs, your obedient servant, JOHN FIELDEN. Waterside, December, 26, 1836.

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1849 Obituary

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Sources of Information

• Wikipedia