"… ran away from home when he was 16 in 1779 owing to the
severity
with which his father had treated him. After some exciting adventures
he
reached London and took service as a groom to a gentleman. On one
occasion as he was taking his master's family by night in a coach over
Hounslow Heath, he was attacked by a highwayman. By that time he had
risen to be coachman, but he was riding as a Post-Boy, because at that
time the coachman did sit on the box, nor drive as done now. But
regardless of the threats of the robbers and of the fact that they
fired
at him, he rode furious on and brought the family safely within the
gates
of his master's grounds. He married one of the servants of the house,
of
the name of Litton, and having saved money, returned to his native
country.
He and his brother came into Stockport together to settle
there and it was said of them that they were the two finest looking men
who had ever come to Stockport. There he began life again as a cotton
manufacturer and went on successfully for some time." [13]
Sources
12.
Book, 1973, reprinted 1986, Cotton Town, Wilmslow Historical Society
