Description

History Press/National Trust 2013
8vo paperback 280 pages VG++ 330 gms
(Order reference 16401). £6.00

The story of the life of a woman of compassion who left her mark on generations of poor millworkers

In 1789 Hannah Lightbody, a well-educated and intelligent young woman of means, married Samuel Greg and found herself at the centre of his cotton empire in the industrial heart of England. It was a man’s world, in which women like Hannah were barred from politics, had few rights and were expected to be little more than good, dutiful wives.

Hannah turned her attention to the well-being of the cotton mill of cotton girls workers under her husband’s control. Over the next four decades she fought to improve the education, health and welfare and pauper apprentices at the mills. With her political convictions, religious ideals, and compassion for the suffering of the poor, she carved out a role for herself that influenced her community and all who came into contact with her.

Many of her thirteen children were also were imbued with this spirit, and helped make north-west into the pioneering heart of reform in Britain.

Here the story of Hannah’s remarkable life is told for the first time.

Published in 2013, A Lady of Cotton is the first biography of Hannah Greg, Mistress of Quarry Bank Mill.