William
Hutton,
the son of a
wool-comber, was born in Derbyon
30th September, 1723. At the age of five William began going to a
school ran by Thomas Meat. After two years education he was sent to
work at the local Silk Mill owned by Richard Porter. William's mother
died in childbirth in 1733. William disapproved of his father's drinking
and at the age of fifteen he left Derby and found work with his uncle
as a stocking-maker in Nottingham.
William was a keen reader and in 1846 began collecting books. Three
years later he decided to open his own bookshop in Southwell. The
shop was successful and by 1751 he moved to a larger shop in the nearby
city of Birmingham.
Hutton's business continued to expand and by 1763 he was the most
the important bookseller in Birmingham. Hutton was a Quaker
and in 1791 he was the victim of the religious riots that took place
in the city. Hutton's house was burnt down by a mob who objected to
Hutton's religious beliefs. He was later paid £5,390 to compensate
him for the damage that had been caused to his property.
William Hutton also published books. This included his own History
of Birmingham (1782) and A Narrative
of the Riots in Birmingham (1791). After William Hutton's
death in 1815 his daughter published The
Life of William Hutton (1816).
Child
Labour Debate Activity (International School of Toulouse)
Child
Labour Simulation (Spartacus Educational)
(1)
William Hutton, The Life of William Hutton (1816)
My days of play were now drawing to an end. The Silk Mill was proposed.
I was accepted. There were three hundred persons employed in the mill,
I was the youngest. I had now to rise at five every morning; submit
to the cane whenever convenient to the master; be the constant companion
of the most rude and vulgar of the human race.
(2)
William
Hutton, The Life of William Hutton (1816)
In
the Christmas holidays of 1731 snow was followed by a sharp frost.
A thaw came on in the afternoon of the 27th, but in the night the
ground was again caught by a frost, which glazed the streets. I did
not awake, the next morning, till daylight seemed to appear. I rose
in tears, for fear of punishment, and went to my father's bedside,
to ask the time. He believed six; I darted out in agonies, and from
the bottom of Full Street, to the top of Silk mill Lane, not 200 yards,
I fell nine times! Observing no lights in the mill, I knew it was
an early hour, and the reflection of the snow had deceived me. Returning,
the town clock struck two.
(3)
William Hutton, The Life of William Hutton (1816)
On my tenth birthday my father treated me with a quart of twopenny
beer; and observed, that the life of man was divided into seven stages
of ten years each, and that I had now completed the first.
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