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Title |
Marshall & Co., Leeds, Papers |
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Date |
1788 - ca. 1900 [Creation] |
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1788/1905 [Normalized] |
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Description |
Physical collection is held by University of Leeds, Library, Department of Special Collections, MS 200. [Note] Marshall, Fenton & Co was founded in 1788 by John Marshall (1765 1845), son of a Leeds draper, to take advantage of recent developments in the spinning of flax by machine. He set up a short-lived partnership with Samuel Fenton and Ralph Dearlove who were subsequently replaced by Thomas and Benjamin Benyon, Shrewsbury woollen merchants. By 1795, the latter had a controlling interest, and built a mill at Shrewsbury for making thread. Marshall grew dissatisfied with his minority holding, and in 1804 bought the pair out. He appointed two men from the works as junior partners, John Hives and William Hutton, who were later joined by a third, Moses Atkinson. The business prospered as a result of experiment, trade conditions in the Napoleonic wars, John Marshall's commercial ability and his concentration upon what he wished to achieve. As a consequence, he made a fortune between 1803 and the year of Waterloo. In the latter, 1815, John's son, also named John (1797 1836), entered the firm, becoming a partner five years later. The remaining junior partners withdrew ; Marshall's thus became and would remain a family firm. Marshall's other sons joined the business in the next decade, and he gradually retired from active participation. His son James Garth Marshall (1802 1873) subsequently became the dominant partner in the management of the business. Despite early success, conditions in the trade inevitably changed. Other firms were now producing yarn of the quality that Marshalls had pioneered and monopolised for decades. After 1850, the firm became unprofitable, partly due to the younger Marshalls’ lack of drive or business acumen. By the 1870s, the third generation had little interest in the business, faced by a world-wide recession, falling prices and rising wages. Labour troubles began to affect the firm and by 1884 only two partners, John III (1840 1894) and Stephen (1843 1904), were active in the company. The firm closed in 1886. [Note] |
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Business papers of Marshall & Co., one of the largest textile firms in 19th-century Leeds, England. A cooperative project with the Unversity of Leeds Library, where the papers are held. [Abstract] |
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Name |
Brotherton Library. Special Collections [Repository] |
