John Marshall: A Biography

The son of Jeremiah Marshall and Mary Cowper, John Marshall was born in 1765. His father was a linen draper in Leeds and at the age of seventeen he joined the family business. Five years later he lost his father to a stroke and inherited the family business, a new house, a warehouse and £7,500 in cash.

Marshall wanted to expand the business into flax spinning and went to see two inventors in Darlington called John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse. He bought patenting rights from them for the production of flax spinning machinery. He sought partners in the form of Samuel Fenton and Ralph Dearlove and established his factory at Scotland Mill in Adel.

Marshall had ambition and dedication but very little skill, knowledge or experience and his venture was struggling until he employed the talented young engineer Matthew Murray. By 1790 the two men had created an efficient flax spinning machine and Marshall moved his factory to Water Lane in Holbeck alongside the Hol Beck water course which he used as a source of power. None of the buildings from this orginal mill in Holbeck survived including one which burnt within only one year of being built.

In 1793 Samuel Fenton and Ralph Dearlove became unconvinced that the venture would work and withdrew their support. Marshall persuaded two brothers, Benjamin and Thomas Benyon to invest money in the venture and business started to grow rapidly. Matthew Murray's advancements in steam power meant that Marshall could move to the other side of Water Lane bordering what is now Marshall Street and benefit from a reduced flood risk as he no longer needed to pump water directly from the Hol Beck.

Marshall, however did not have an easy working relationship with the Benyon brothers and in 1804 had raised enough capital to buy them out. In 1815 after benefiting from the war with France demanding cotton and flax fibres, he made his son John (1797 - 1836) a partner in the business. During this period of rapid growth he built the large U-shaped mill in stages. Firstly the section nearest Water Lane then that farthest away then the middle joining. There was also a building joining the U-shaped mill to the smaller one joining Water Lane but sadly this was destroyed.

Marshall brought his other son, James Garth Marshall (1802 - 1873) into the business some time over the next ten years and he became the dominant managing influence. As his sons were brought into the business Marshall gradually took a back seat and concentrated on social reforms. He became and MP for Yorkshire in 1826 and persuaded other mill owners in the area to join with him in building a school for the factory workers, some 500 of whom were children under the age of 13.

Marshall's final mill was Temple Works, the construction of which was overseen by his sons. This building, commissioned in 1838 was seen as the pinnacle of Marshall's career. Designed by Jospeh Bonomi, a keen Egyptologist, the new building is based on a series of temples from Egypt, most notably the Temple of Horus at Edfu. The building had innovations years ahead of its time including a grassed roof to keep in humidity for the flax spinning and 65 large domes in the roof which allowed large pools of light from which the workers could see to spin the flax. This final stage of Marshall's empire also included a new school which still stands today.

Marshall was a lenient employer and he not only invested in the workers education but gave them medical care and tried hard to improve conditions of their working life, which was typically a 72 hour week. He was however vehemently opposed to factory reforms on gorunds that he had paid for and built his mills and as such he would not be told how to run them.

Although Marshall only became an MP in 1826 he was forced to retire in 1830 due to ill health. He retired to the Lake District and died in 1845. He was reported to be worth £2 million at a time when a house would cost £50.

The firm ceased trading in 1886 as no-one was willing to continue the family business.