JOSHUA HOUGHTON I

J oshua was at one time a cloth dresser and then for a long time a rent collector.  He died of ‘natural decay.’  James of Freehold Street was there.  Presumably son James rather than grandson.

As a cloth dresser he would have been involved in the finishing of woollen cloth which involved the processes of raising, cropping or shearing, burling, fine-drawing and pressing.  Through these processes many faults could be concealed and the cloth would sell for a better price.  Joshua was working at the very beginnings of the introduction of machinery for these processes – eg the gig mill (using teasels) for raising the nap and the shearing frame for cropping which allowed one man to do the work of three.

These began to appear in Leeds after about 1816 but there had been fierce resistence from the finishers who were well organised and unionised.  Large scale manufactories only appeared in Leeds after about 1840.

There is a listing for Houghton Joshua, cloth dresser, 9 Dewsbury rd in White’s Directory of Leeds, Bradford etc 1842 and 1847

Joshua was buried on the 22nd May in Beckett Street cemetery.  His job is given as ‘agent’.