Henry Ewart Grimshaw
Henry Ewart Grimshaw
Columbia University Graduate with Thesis on Handloom Weavers in England in the Early 19th Century
Handloom Weaver
Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRhandloom.htm
(Note: Webpage in preparation)
Henry Ewart received an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and went on to obtain a Master's degree in 1915. For the second degree, he wrote a thesis on the plight of the handloom weavers in the early 1800s. Click here to view a copy of Henry's thesis, which is entitled "Hand-Loom Weavers in England during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century".
Henry Grimshaw's origins or family line have not yet been determined.
Contents:
N
 | Webpage Credits |
Thanks go to the Columbia University Library for providing and image file of Henry Ewart Grimshaw's thesis document.
| Title Page of Thesis |
Image of a portion of the page...
Page 1.
An examination of English industrial history, during the period when social effects of the industrial revolution were beginning to be so apparent, when cries of the workers for assistance were rising so loud, and when it seemed as though whole industrious classes were doomed to a modern slavery set round by freedom, and to starvation in the midst of plenty, reveals no class of workers whose condition was quite as forlorn as that of the hand-loom weavers. It will be the purpose of this essay to show the conditions of the weavers in the period of the opening of the industrial revolution, the attempts at amelioration, and finally the condition of hand-loom weavers during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Very early in the eighteenth century it was becoming manifest that England's trade in woven goods - as it was in textile generally - was increasing very rapidly. A contemporary writing in 1789, said of Manchester that the town was growing rapidly because of the manufacture of cotton goods, mixed and plain. The export trade was developing.* Defoe, in his works concerning his travels through England a few years later, reveals the fact that textile work, including weaving, was a common occupation. The number of weavers engaged in making woolen goods filled him with amazement.** In fact he wondered that the nation was able to supply the manufactures with wool. The active weaving industry in Westbury and Warminster in Wilts caused these remarks; the woolen trade at Sudbury was reported by him to be in a very flourishing condition. ***
_____________________
Page 1 Footnotes.
* Daily Advertiser Sept. 5, 1739 - From Baines E. "History of Cotton Manufacture". 108.
** Defoe D. "Tour through Great Britain".
***Defoe op cit. 1.32
Page 2.
Norwich in those days was an active manufacturing town. The....
Page 2 Footnotes.
* Ibid I 59.
** Young, A. "Six Months Tour". III. 189.
***Aiken, J. "Description of the Country around Manchester."
Page 3.
Page 3 Footnotes.
Page 4.
Page 4 Footnotes.
Page 5.
Page 5 Footnotes.
Page 34.
Page 34 Footnotes.
| References |
1Author
2Author
Webpage posted February 2010.
