David Rowland

David Rowland worked as a piecer at a textile mill in Manchester. David Rowland was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 10th July, 1832.

Primary Sources

(1) David Rowland was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 10th July, 1832.

Question: At what age did you commence working in a cotton mill?

Answer: Just when I had turned six.

Question: What employment had you in a mill in the first instance?

Answer: That of a scavenger.

Question: Will you explain the nature of the work that a scavenger has to do?

Answer: The scavenger has to take the brush and sweep under the wheels, and to be under the direction of the spinners and the piecers generally. I frequently had to be under the wheels, and in consequence of the perpetual motion of the machinery, I was liable to accidents constantly. I was very frequently obliged to lie flat, to avoid being run over or caught.

Question: How long did you continue at that employment?

Answer: From a year and a half to two years.

Question: What did you go to then?

Answer: To be a piecer.

Question: Did the employment require you to be upon your feet perpetually?

Answer: It did.

Question: You continued at that employment for how long?

Answer: I was a piecer till I was about fifteen or sixteen years of age.

Question: What were your hours of labour?

Answer: Fourteen; in some cases, fifteen and sixteen hours a day.

Question: How had you to be kept up to it?

Answer: During the latter part of the day, I was severely beaten very frequently.

Question: Will you state the effect that the degree of labour had upon your health?

Answer: I never had good health after I went to the factory. At six years of age I was ruddy and strong; I had not been in the mill long before my colour disappeared, and a state of debility came over me, and a wanness in my appearance.