Bookmark and Share



Click here to visit the Imperial War Museum shop

Click here for our daily deal



Elearn, click here



image 1

Robert Peel was born at Peelfold, Lancashire on 25th April 1750. His father was the owner of a calico-printing firm, Haworth, Peel & Yates in Blackburn. Robert was educated in London and then entered his father's business.

At the age of twenty-three Robert Peel was made a partner and soon afterwards took charge of the company. Peel made full use of the new inventions in the textile industry. However, he was worried how the handloom weavers would respond to these changes and decided to establish a new factory in Tamworth in Staffordshire. He solved the problems of finding workers for his new factory by importing workhouse children from London. Peel's new cotton factory was a great success and the business expanded rapidly. By the 1790s Peel was one of the country's leading industrialists and employed over 15,000 workers.

At the age of thirty-three, Peel married Ellen Yates, the daughter of one of his partners. The couple had eleven children, including Robert Peel, who later became Prime Minister. In 1790 he was elected as MP for Tamworth.

In the House of Commons Peel supported William Pitt and his Tory government. Peel was aware that some factory owner's treated their young workers very badly. He therefore argued that Parliament needed to find a way of protecting the most vulnerable workers. In 1802 Parliament passed Health and Morals of Apprentices Act. This legislation limited the hours of pauper children, apprenticed in cotton mills, to twelve hours a day.

The 1802 Factory Act was largely ineffective and so Peel continued to argue for further reform. With the support of other factory owners, such as Robert Owen, the 1819 Factory Act was passed. This legislation forbade the employment in cotton mills of any children under nine, and limited the hours of those between nine and sixteen to twelve hours per day. Sir Robert Peel died at Drayton Manor on 3rd March, 1830.

 

 

 

Schools Wikipedia: History

Time Search: Spartacus Educational

 

 

Cool and unique T-shirts on the web from Bathroom Wall

 

Forum Debates

Interviews with Historians

History Resources

History Debates

Philosophy of History

 

 


 

Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel

 

 


 
Google
 

The number 1 revision tool created by the real 11plus publishers

Educational Websites

Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Schools Wikipedia,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, ATW, Science Active, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Industrial Revolution, English Teaching,
HistoryWorld, Virtual Library
E-HELP, Ed Podesta Blog, Macgregorish History, Historiasiglo20,
I Love History, ICT4LT

 

Spartacus Educational

First World War, Second World War, The Tudors, British History, Vietnam War,
Military History, Watergate, Assassination of JFK, Assocation Football, Normans,
American West, Famous Crimes, Black People in Britain, The Monarchy, Blitz,
United States, Cold War, English Civil War, Making of the United Kingdom,
Russia, Germany, The Medieval World, Nazi Germany, American Civil War,
Spanish Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, McCarthyism, Slavery, Child Labour,
Women's Suffrage, Parliamentary Reform, Railways, Trade Unions, Textile Industry,
Russian Revolution, Travel Guide, Spartacus Blog, Spartacus Review, Latest Books


News and Search

Guardian Unlimited, Times Online, SOS Children Charity News, The Independent, New York Times,
Daily Telegraph, BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, New Scientist, Google News, Channel 4,
Google, Excite, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AOL Search, Hotbot, Metacrawler, Netscape, Ask, Search,
Go, Looksmart, Dogpile, Raging Search, All the Web, Kartoo, Search Engine Watch, About
Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Queen Victoria


Bookmark and Share



DIY divorce from £68.00

Click here for huge savings from Ministry of Deals



Fight Superstore Click here!