SAMUEL NEED OF NOTTINGHAM (1718-1781)

Samuel Need was born into a successful family of farmers and framework knitters.  Following in the family tradition, he was apprenticed as a framework knitter, probably with his uncle, John Need.  He was a Dissenter and later became an Independent Congregationalist. He married Elizabeth Gibson of Hacking, Middlesex, who survived him and died in 1781. He had a warehouse in Nottingham, where he was made a burgess in 1739–40.

Samuel soon began to expand his business activities.  In 1747 he acquired a row of three houses on Low Pavement in Nottingham and converted them into a single house and a warehouse.  The property provided a base from which to run his hosiers business from.  Soon after this date a silk mill was added on the site. In 1777 he bought an estate at Arnold, outside the city. Need became a well-respected hosier and could command above average apprenticeship premiums when taking on apprentices.  He was able to earn a fee of £100 while his most successful competitors were only paid £40.  Need's property portfolio had grown further by 1754 with the addition of thirteen tenements, mainly let out to framework knitters.

Income from property and the knitting industry meant that Need had spare funds to invest in new ventures.  Jedediah Strutt of Derby had patented his Derby Rib Machine in 1759, but he needed financial backing to exploit the commercial opportunities.  Need saw the potential of the machine and invested money in Strutt's invention.  From about 1759 he supported Jedediah Strutt and William Woollat in their development of Strutt's invention of the rib attachment to the knitting machine. Need became a partner with Strutt in 1762 over the patent and then they shared a joint hosiery business.When Arkwright sought financial assistance from Ichabod and John Wright, the Nottingham bankers, to develop his spinning mill in that town, the Wrights turned him to Samuel Need. On 19 January 1770. Need and Strutt, on payment of £500, became co-partners with Arkwright, Smalley and Thornley for the remainder of Arkwright's patent. Together they built Cromford Mill (1771), followed by mills at Belper (1778) and Milford (1779).

Need was leader of the Hosiers' Federation in 1779 when the framework knitters petitioned Parliament to better their conditions. He gave evidence against the workers' demands and, when their bill failed, the Nottingham workers attacked first his Nottingham house and then the one at Arnold. Need was to remain a partner with Arkwright until his death in 1781. He was involved in a dye mill at Cromford and also with some later ones, such as the Birkacre mill near Chorley, Lancashire, in 1777. Shortly before his death in 1781, Need commented that he owned about 240 frames in addition to employing people who operated their own frames. He made a fortune and died at his home in London.