From: GALLERY : A PICTORIAL BACKGROUND TO THE LIFE & TIMES OF WILLIAM ROWBOTTOM, circa 1757 - 1830

The Spinning Jenny, invented by James Hargreaves

"This ingenious man, though illiterate, humble, and unfortunate, must be chap. regarded as one of the greatest inventors and improvers in the Cotton Manufacture. Some excellent contrivances in the carding machinery were originated by him ; but his greatest invention, and one which shewed high mechanical genius, was the spinning-jenny. The date of this invention is 1767, two years before Arkwright obtained the patent for his water-frame. It differs so completely from Wyatt's machine, that there can be no suspicion of its being otherwise than a perfectly original invention."

From: 'History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster', Vol 2 by Edward Baines, Exq. M.P. Pub. 1836