Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/93

Argyle ARGYLE, or ARGYLL, and. [See .]

 ARKISDEN, THOMAS (fl. 1633), stenographer, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (B.A. 1629-30; M.A. 1633). While at the university he invented a shorthand alphabet, which has acquired a peculiar interest in consequence of its similarity to other early systems of stenography published somewhat later, especially to those of William Cartwright and his nephew, Jeremiah Rich, the latter of whom lays claim in his 'Art's Rarity' (1654) to absolute originality. Edward Howes, writing from the Inner Temple 23 Nov. 1632 to John Winthrop, jun., 'at the Matachussetts in New England,' says: 'As for my vsuall characters, they are that where-with I conceiue you have bin formerly acquainted, vizt, Mr. Arkisdens, whoe hath sent you a letter here inclosed in John Samfords. I thought good to send you his character, for feare you should haue forgotten it; 'and he adds that 'the characters are approued of in Cambridge to be the best yet invented, and they are not yet printed nor comon.' The alphabet is given in the 'Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society' (4th ser. vi. 481). Some correspondence with regard to it between Mr. J. E. Bailey and Mr. E. Pocknell appeared in the 'Athenæum' in September 1880.

[Collections of the Massachusetts Hist. Soc.; MS. Addit. 5885 f. 84 b Pocknell's Legible Shorthand (1881), 75-77.]  ARKWRIGHT, RICHARD, (1732–1792), one of the earliest and principal contrivers of machinery on a large scale as a substitute for hand labour in textile manufactures, was born at Preston 23 Dec. 1732. His parents, if not poor, belonged to the humbler ranks of life, and he is said to have been the youngest of thirteen children. Baines (History of Lancashire, 2nd ed. 1870, ii. 453) states that ‘there are reasons for believing that he was born in a house afterwards occupied by Mr. Clare, hosier, in Lord Street, pulled down about 1854.’ Its site, according to Hardwick (History of Preston, 1857, p. 361), is now occupied by the south end of Stanley Buildings, Lancaster Road. Hardwick conveys the impression that Arkwright resided there while practising the trade of a barber (p. 361); but as he elsewhere (p. 650), on the authority of Baines, mentions the house as that in which Arkwright was born, he would seem to have been possessed of no independent information on the subject. Arkwright is said to have served his apprenticeship to one Nicholson of Preston (, History of Preston, 1837, ii. 213), but there is no evidence that he set up in business in that town. Besides his apprenticeship to a barber, all that is known of his early life is that his uncle Richard taught him reading, and that, probably while an apprentice, he attended a school during the winter months (, p. 213). By making the most of his opportunities he perhaps acquired a somewhat better education than was then customary in the lower ranks of life. At the age of fifty he indeed felt its defects so much in conducting his correspondence and the management of his business, that he encroached upon his sleep in order to gain an hour each day to learn English grammar, and another hour to improve his writing and orthography (, History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 195), but his perseverance in these tasks at such an age would seem to indicate a considerable amount of original training. Soon after the close of his apprenticeship he is supposed to have settled in Bolton, probably about 1750 (, Chronological History of Bolton, p. 15). In any case his settlement there took place before his marriage, 31 March 1755, in the parish church of the town, to ‘Patients, daughter of Robert Holt of Bolton, schoolmaster.’ Baines (History of Cotton Manufacture, p. 148) states that he established himself at Bolton in the year 1760, but this apparently is a mere misreading of a statement of Guest (Compendious History, p. 21) that Arkwright was living in Bolton as a barber at that particular date. There is no information as to when the first wife of Arkwright died, but on 24 March 1761 he was married for the second time in the parish church of Leigh to Margaret Biggins of Pennington. Shortly before or shortly after his second marriage, Arkwright removed from his small shop in Churchgate to a better one at the end of the passage leading up to what was then the White Bear public-house. The small property, ‘perhaps of the value of 400l.,’ possessed by his wife, though settled on herself, was probably advantageous in assisting him to develope his business; for about this time indications of his enterprising spirit become visible in his engaging as his journeyman a workman from Leigh specially skilled in making the strong country wigs then in general use. Shortly afterwards he began to travel through the country to buy human hair, attending for this purpose the hiring fairs frequented by young girls seeking service. He had got possessed of a valuable chemical secret for dyeing it, and thus was enabled to add to his business a new source of profit, by selling the hair dyed and prepared