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."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.
"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.
A Brief State of the Inland or Home Trade. (Pamphlet.) 1730.
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.
Self-Help, p. 205.
The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered, p. 94.
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.
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."
