Encyclopedias: Spartacus Educational: Reform of Parliament: Robert Owen

Description: Abstract: Born in 1771 in Newtown, Wales, at age ten, he went to work in drapers in Lincolnshire. He eventually purchased four textile factories in New Lanark and under his control, the Chorton Twist Company expanded rapidly. He stopped employing children under ten and reduced their labour to ten hours a day. The young children went to the nursery and infant schools that he had built. Older children worked in the factory but also had to attend his secondary school for part of the day. He hoped that the way he treated children at his factories would encourage others to follow his example. By 1827 he had lost interest in his textile mills and sold the business. He continued to work for his "new moral order" until his death in 1858.