The son of Sir Richard Arkwright of Cromford, Derbyshire, Richard Arkwright Junior (1765 - 1843) was the financier (creditor) of Samuel Oldknow of Marple and Mellor and a personal friend. Richard Arkwright. ... Born in Lancashire, Samuel Oldknow served an apprenticeship in his uncle’s draper’s shop at Nottingham. ...

Sir Richard had earlier patented the water frame, a roller-spinning machine powered by water, that turned textile spinning into a factory industry and in so doing he founded the factory system of manufacture.

Richard Arkwright Junior followed in his illustrious father’s footsteps and he developed the factory system even further. He was an outstanding organiser of labour and machinery processing, ambitious, forceful and persevering.