Question: At what time did you begin work in a factory?

Answer: About ten years of age.

Question: In whose mill did you work?

Answer: In Mr. Marshall's at Shrewsbury.

Question: What were the hours of work?

Answer: We used to generally to begin at five o'clock in the morning till eight at night.

Question: Have you been subjected to punishment?

Answer: Yes, I was strapped most severely till I could not bear to sit upon a chair without pillows, and I was forced to lie upon my face at night. I was put upon a man's back, and then strapped by the overlooker.

Question: What age were you at the time?

Answer: Between ten and eleven.

Question: What had you done?

Answer: I had never been in a mill where there was machinery, and it was winter time, and we worked by gas-light, and I could not catch the revolutions of the machinery to take the tow out of the hackles; it requires some practice, and I was timid at it.

Question: Was this beating common in the mill?

Answer: He was a very severe man. He was well known for it. I went to a justice of the peace and he said he had frequent complaints of him, and he would make an example of him.

Question: Was he made an example of?

Answer: No; my father desired that we should not go on with it; My father worked at Mr. Marshall's mill, and he was afraid, I suppose.