Robert Owen

Born in 1771 in wales, Robert Owen began his career as an apprentice to a Scots draper called Mr. McGuffog in Lincolnshire. He kept up with drapery eventually finding himself in Manchester where he formed a business partnership with a man named Ernest Jones to produce spinning mules.

With his share of the profits, Owen began his yarn spinning business with two other Scot’s and made a profit of around £6 a week which kickstarted his involvement in New Lanark.

Robert married David Dale’s daughter Caroline in 1799, and it was in this same year him and David Dale formed a partnership in which Owen’s bought the mills.

Robert and Caroline made their home in New Lanark and had seven children and also lived within David Dales house at Rosedale Villa at the centre of the site.

Owen’s saw New Lanark as the perfect place to build on the reforms he had already begun in Manchester and saw David Dales progress on this and knew it was the right place for him..

He instituted a range of radical reforms aimed at improving the efficiency of the business and the moral fibre of the workers and was able to pay for these reforms from the substantial profits of the cotton-spinning business- an early form of social enterprise.

Robert began his tenure at New Lanark by putting effort into expanding the business and making it more efficient by introducing report books and ways of recording product production daily alongside stock control.

Other than more practical implementations to the business, Robert also lowered the workday to 10.5 hours and also removed some of David Dales previous policies, such as employing orphans.

He was able to do this by creating the first nursery in the world!

This was not the only new building he added to the site, he also added a new mechanics workshop, and iron foundry and a series of water houses along the riverbank. All of this added to the efficiency of the site and increased profits. This all ties back to his reforms he was implementing as more profits means he could implement more reforms around the complex.

Alongside reforms of the workplace, Robert also wanted to improve the conditions of the living quarters of his workers. He did this by providing strict rules for residents that created a sense of responsibility for the workers. He also stipulated that every person over the age of ten that was able, must be involved in legal employment.

The main piece of Robert’s influence of New Lanark was the “Institute for the Formation of Character” finished in 1816, along with its companion building, the “School for Children”, finished a year later.

These were created as he believed that every person had a right to education, all children who previously worked in the mill but now didn’t due to the new rules were sent to school. As soon as village children could walk they were taken to the nursery and looked after by village girls meaning the mothers could go back to work.

In 1825 however Robert Owen no longer tied himself to new Lanark due to a row with his business partners over his educational standards.

Owen’s decided to move to America and formed a new colony called New Harmony in Indiana. However this did not work out quite how Owen’s hoped as the people he took with him had little practical skills. However, New Harmony was not a complete fail and was the site of the worlds first free library, which still exists in the town today.

Owen’s did return to Britain and campaigned for a better and fairer society.  He became a leader of the working class movement and began many societies surrounding this cause. He also went on to try and establish model communities like New Lanark.

He passed away in 1858 where he was born in Wales.