The Bullough family. By Chris Aspin.

[Stanley]

The Bullough family. By Chris Aspin.

Bullough, John (1837-1891), textile machinery manufacturer, was born at Blackburn and baptised on 10 Dec 1837. He was the third son of James Bullough and his wife Martha (nee Mellor). Like his father, Bullough devoted his working life to building and improving cotton machines. He became the first textile machinery millionaire; and at time of his death, the Accrington-based firm of Howard & Bullough, which he owned, was the world's largest maker of ring spinning frames.

The family's rise to riches and social status is one of the romances of British industry, symbolised on the one hand by the clogs James Bullough wore to the end of his days, and, on the other, by Kinloch Castle ("the stone embodiment of King Edward's reign") built by his grandson, Sir George Bullough on the Hebridean island of Rhum.

In becoming a textile machinery maker, John Bullough had before him the example of his father (James Bullough 1799-1868), whose inventions greatly improved the powered weaving of cloth. James Bullough was born at Westhoughton, Lancashire, and was put to the handloom when he was seven. The need to improve the clumsy power looms of his youth stimulated his inventive genius, and for most of his life he strove to make weaving more efficient. Bullough is best remembered for the weft fork, which stopped the loom when the thread broke, thus preventing the shuttle from damaging the cloth. Controversy surrounded the invention, which Bullough and James Kenworthy, co-workers in a Blackburn mill, patented in 1841; and John Osbaldeston, (c 17771842), also laid claim to it. Bullough, either alone or with others, took out patents covering all aspects of weaving. These included a roller temple that kept the woven cloth at its correct width, and a loose reed that allowed the lathe to back away on encountering a shuttle trapped in the warp. With two employees, James Whittaker and John Walmsley, Bullough's perfected a machine, patented in 1852, that sized two warps and wound them on two beams at the same time. Bullough managed and ran a number of small mills in Lancashire before joining John Howard in a textile machinery business at Accrington in 1856. Howard had begun three years earlier with four employees; but with Bullough's backing, expansion accelerated. The firm specialised in machines for preparing and spinning cotton, and by 1866, the year of Howard's death, employed 300 workpeople. James Bullough died on 31 July, 1868, leaving the business to his son John.

John Bullough studied at Queenwood College, Hampshire, and Glasgow University, before joining his father's firm in 1859. Though he took out more than twenty patents, of which the electric stop motion, used in numerous machines, was the most important, he is best remembered for promoting the ring frame at a time when British spinners preferred the slower-moving mule. The machine, which had been developed in the United States, was a more efficient version of the throstle, itself an improvement on Sir Richard Arkwright's waterframe. Bullough acquired the rights to a new type, the Rabbeth spindle, in 1879; and in the succeeding years, worked the expanding Globe Works night and day to meet international demand. A technical school started by Bullough in 1881 was among the first of its kind.

The appointment of skilled managers to oversee the 2,000 workpeople enabled Bullough to spend more time on his estate at Castle Meggernie, Perthshire, and on the island of Rhum in the Inner Hebrides, both of which he bought in the 1880s. Throughout his life Bullough was an active Conservative and spoke regularly in support of self-help, laissez-faire capitalism and union with Ireland. He married in 1868 Alice Schmidlin, daughter of a Swiss cotton manufacturer. They had two children, George and Bertha. The marriage ended in divorce, after which, in 1884, Bullough married Alexandra Marion McKenzie, daughter of a Stornaway banker. The children of this marriage were John and Gladys. Bullough died in Glasgow on 25 February, 1891. and was buried on Rhum. His estate was valued at £1,228,183 gross.

Sir George Bullough (1870-1939) was born at Accrington on 28 Feb 1870, and was educated at Harrow. As a young man he sailed round the world in his steam yacht, buying works of art. on one occasion outbidding the Emperor of Japan for an ivory figure. His treasures found a home in Kinloch Castle, which he built on Rhum in 1900-01 at a cost of £250,000. On the outbreak of the Boer War, Bullough converted his yacht into a floating hospital and sailed to South Africa: a service rewarded with a knighthood in 1901.

On his father's death, Bullough inherited half the equity of Howard & Bullough, of which he was chairman until his death. The setting up of a United States subsidiary in 1893 and the introduction of profit sharing in 1906 were highlights of his early years with the company. In 1931, Howard & Bullough took part in the merger that led to the formation of Textile Machinery Makers.

Bullough left the day-to-day running of the business to others, preferring the racetrack and the hunting field to the board room; and in compiling his entry for Who's Who, he made no reference to his business interests.

From 1908-1911, Bullough served in the Scottish Horse Imperial Yeomanry; and during World War I, he was superintendent of the Remount Department with the rank of major. He also made an interest free loan of £50,000 to the Government. For these services, he received a baronetcy in 1916.

For 14 years from 1908, Bullough was Master of Ledbury Hounds. He served both the Jockey Club and the National Hunt Committee; and in 1917, his horse Ballymacad won the "War" Grand National at Gatwick.

Bullough married in 1903 Monica Lilly, the eldest daughter of the Fourth Marquis de la Pasture. They had one daughter. Bullough died in France on 26 July, 1939, leaving an estate valued at £714,639 gross.

Christopher Aspin.



Richard S. Crossley; Accrington Captains of Industry (1930).


Robert Kirk, entry for John Bullough. And R M Kirk. entry for Sir George Bullough in Dictionary of Business Biography.

Accrington Times.. 15 Aug 1868, 25 Mar. 1891.
Accrington Reporter, 8 Aug 1868.
Accrington Observer & Times, 29 July. 1939.

Patent specifications, in particular No. 8790, of 1841.

Clive Aslet, Kinloch Castle. Isle of Rhum, Country Life (9 and 16 Aug 1984)


Who Was Who III - 1929-1940. entry for Sir George Bullough.


John Bullough, Speeches and Letters ed. Alec Bullough, 3 vols. (1892)

[Stanley]

Bumped

[Stanley]

Still a fascinating story.....