Edmund Potter (1802–1883) was an English politician and industrialist from Derbyshire. He was a businessman in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, a Member of Parliament (MP) and a grandfather of the author

Beatrix Potter Helen Beatrix Heelis (; 28 July 186622 December 1943), usually known as Beatrix Potter ( ), was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as '' ...

. He was a unitarian and, from 1861 to 1874, Liberal MP for

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

. Potter moved his business to

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...

in 1825, he rebuilt Joseph Lyne's Boggart Mill, and converted it to a printworks. He moved his family to Dinting Lodge in 1842. Originally

calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...

printing was done by hand, but Potter introduced precision machine printing. By 1883, the mill employed 350, and had printed 1 million pieces on 42 machines. It was the world's largest calico printing factory.

Family

James Potter (1710–1770) of Hindley was a

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of t ...

merchant. He moved to New Market Place,

. His son John Potter lived at rural

Ardwick Green Ardwick Green is a public space in Ardwick, Manchester, England. It began as a private park for the residents of houses surrounding it before Manchester acquired it in 1867 and turned it into a public park with an ornamental pond and a bandsta ...

, Manchester, He married Catherine Eccles of Macclesfield. He visited America in 1794. They had three sons and two daughters. John, the first son, was a calico printer; James (2) was the third son. They lived in Ardwick Green. Edmund Potter was the son of James (2). He lived with his wife Jessica Crompton of Lancaster, in Greenheys, Manchester. In 1842 they moved to Dinting Lodge,

. He was the first Edmund Potter of the Dinting Vale Printworks, which he ran with Charles Potter, the son of his uncle John. Later the partnership was dissolved and Charles moved to

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road, A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to ...

where he became a printer of wallpaper. Edmund had seven children and two are of note. Edmund (2) succeeded his father in the business in 1862, and Rupert became a barrister. Rupert's daughter

was the famous children's author and iillustrator. Glossop & District Heritage Trust, Glossop Heritage Centre, Bank House, Henry Street, Glossop in August 2002.

Calico printing

Calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...

used to be printed from wooden blocks, was heavily taxed and suffered from labour relation problems. Potter mechanised the process. He became the largest printer of calico in the world. The firm merged with other rival companies to form the

Calico Printers' Association The Calico Printers' Association Ltd was a British textile company founded in 1899, from the amalgamation of 46 textile printing companies and 13 textile merchants. The industry had prospered in the latter half of the 19th century but the fierc ...

in 1899, which in 1948 printed of calico.

Benevolence

Edmund Potter was a very strong believer that everyone should receive an education. In 1885 he built a reading room and library, well stocked with books and papers in his work's yard for his workers. When he bought the nearby Dinting Mill from the Wagstaffes, he used the upper floor as a dayschool for both boys and girls and for some of his young part-time workers. The lower floor was used to extract the black dye from logwood, and the mill subsequently became known as Logwood mill.

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Edmund English industrialists British textile industry businesspeople Businesspeople from Glossop 1802 births 1883 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1859–1865 UK MPs 1865–1868 UK MPs 1868–1874 English Unitarians Cotton industry in England 19th-century English businesspeople