Facts and traditions collected for a family record

144 FACTS AND TRADITIONS.
My father was living, previous to his marriage, in Tib Street, leading
from Oldham Road to Piccadilly, and parallel to Oldham Street ; but,
after his marriage, he and my mother occupied a house in Great Ancoats
Street, (formerly, and still generally, called Ancoats Lane, though a
wide street,) the side of the house being in Mill Street.
Shortly after her marriage, my mother, " on household cares intent,"
espied some parchment, well adapted, as she doubtless thought, for
tying round the tops of preserve-pots ; so she cut it into the proper
sizes, used it accordingly, and, when her husband returned to dinner,
shewed him her handiwork. She had destroyed a legal document !
He could not but be angry. She was much distressed ; and when the
dinner was eaten, he went, brooding, to his business. But he could not
thus leave till evening his young wife ; before reaching the mill, he
turned back, said some land words, and all was right again. They
resided in Great Ancoats Street for seven years, till September 1806 ;
and here Henry, James, and William were born ; the latter died young.
Opposite, lived three bachelors, John Kennedy, James Kennedy, and
John M'Connel ; and next door lived the Stuarts, the eldest daughter
of whom was afterwards married to my father's partner, John Kennedy.
Business continued to prosper. At the end of 1800, my father's capital
in the firm was increased from £921, 10s. O^d., the amount in March
1795, to £10,919. In 1801, the firm began to build the half of the
factory then called the "New Factory," but in 1819 changed to the
appropriate name of the "Long Factory," — which it has since retained.
One steam engine of forty-five horse-power for this mill, invoiced by
Boulton, Watt, & Co., in May 1802, is now, in its extreme old age,
1S31, by Miss Honiblower, then governess at the Polygon, with slight alterations sug-
gested by my brother Henry ; it shews too plainly, however, the debility under which he
suffered, during his last illness. That of my mother is an admirable likeness, taken from
life, and when in mourning for my late father ; but the scarf, which the painter has, for
artistic effect, thrown over her head, was not a part of her usual costume. — [D. C. M'C]