King Tree

Spinning Jenny. The great invention relating to weft-spinning was the Jenny, introduced by James Hargreaves probably about 1764, and first tried in a factory four years later. Hargreaves unfortunately was unable to maintain his patent, because he had sold jennies before applying for protection.

Hargreaves claim to the invention has been disputed, but no satisfactory evidence has been brought to disprove his claim. Hargreaves was a carpenter and weaver of Stand-hill near Blackburn, and died in 1778.

Spinning. Whilst endevours were being made to perfect continuous spinning, attention was also being directed to perfecting the intermittent process as represented by the bobbing wheel. Between the years 1764 and 1767, James Hargreaves, of Standhill, invented the Spinning Jenny, by the aid of which sixteen, or more, threads could be spun simultaneously by one person. All the spindles were placed vertically and rotated from a drum, but the rovings were mounted in a movable carriage and passed between a clamp that opened and shut like a parallel ruler. After securely clamping the rovings and attaching them to the spindles, the carriage was drawn out slowly by one hand and the spindles removed by the other. The rovings were thus stretched to the proper degree of tenuity, and sufficiently twisted. This was followed by the inward run of the carriage, when the stretch of spun threads was wound upon the spindles, and the operation repeated. Hargreaves therefore returned to the first principles of spinning, namely, simultaneous drawing and twisting. But although the jenny gave a greatly increased output, it was ill adapted for fine spinning.....

The inventions of Paul, Arkwright, Hargreaves and Crompton are at the foundations of all modern systems of spinning.

Carding. James Hargreaves, the inventor of the Spinning Jenny, suspended the movable comb by passing two cords over pulleys fixed in the ceiling and attached balance weights to oposite ends of the cords. This enabled him to lengthen the cards, to apply two or three to the same stock and to manipulate the top one with less labour, as well as to produce more and better work.

The above Hargreaves would be the right generation to be Hargreaves James (3)'s father.

Presented to James Hargreaves, Junr., on the attainment of his Majority (21) Feb 6th 1898. (b. Feb 6th 1887)
Hargreaves is an "Original" Saxon name common in Lower Saxony today and means "The Grove of the Rising Sun". Men of this name or Clan must have settled in the Parish of Whalley in the Saxon or Danish periods, and they would of course be dispossessed of their lands and cattle by the Norman invaders.

This part of Lancashire was mostly dominated from soon after the Conquest by the De-Lucy's, Earls of Lincoln and the name Hargreaves occurs in several Inquisitions of these Feudal Lords quoted in this book. Some men of the name also appear in the 16th and 17th centuries in the lists of beneficial clergy, and one or two as schoolmasters in the extensive parish of Whalley.

It is remarkable that the name never occurs in the Preston Guild Rolls which begin in the 14th Century: neither in any of the local military or naval records. It is therefore evident that at no period of the history of this family during its existence hereabouts for a thousand years or more - has it been productive of many soldiers, sailors or traders, the probability being that they were mainly engaged in Husbandry.

The name is uncommon in England outside a radius of 30 or 40 miles of Whalley.
John Hargreaves.
Rock Ferry 6th Feb 1898