A fustian manufacturer in Pennington

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A fustian manufacturer, 1639

There was prosperity in Pennington before the great civil war. Rising on this swelling tide was Richard Higson, fustian chapman, who dying in February 1639 was able to leave £459 9s. 5d. His financial strength measured itself up to that of the Glovers, linen- weavers. In his Pennington warehouse on 8 March of that year this is what was there: undyed fustians, £70 18s., fustian yarn, £25 10s., linen yarn, £7 12s., fustian wool, £2 10s., bleached fustians, £4 10s., linen cloth, £7 3s. Higson had a shop in Bolton, where he stored £5 10s. worth of wares. He bought packs of wool and gave it out in Leigh and Bolton to be spun and woven. His lengthy debt-list gives the names of his many customers: Thomas and Henry Bold, of Great Fold in Bedford and their neighbour, William Howorth. William Boardman and his brother, Robert, weavers at Blackmoor in Astley, owed £7 15s. 8d. for a woolpack, due at 24 March. Higson was a textile capitalist, offering fixed rates and steady work in spinning and weaving, employing persons on his eight pair of looms, finishing his manufactured cloths and arranging through his own shops for their ultimate sale. This system needed wealth and credit; it was the new way a select few in Pennington had stumbled on to great fortune.