Beverly Cotton Manufactory
Beverly Cotton Manufactory stands as the first cotton mill ever built in America, and the largest of its kind at the time of its construction. Before a single bolt of cloth left its doors, port records in Beverly, Massachusetts show shipments of raw cotton arriving as early as March 1785 - two years before the building itself went up. What pushed a group of merchants and investors to gamble on a machine-driven factory nobody in America had tried before? And why, after George Washington himself declared the whole operation "perfect," did it still struggle to survive? Those are the questions at the heart of this story.
Thomas Somers and James Leonard, investors recruited from England by George Cabot, were the ones who first sketched out the idea of a commercially driven cotton mill in Beverly. Cabot persuaded them to come to town in the fall of 1787. The formal ownership structure that followed was elaborate. In 1787, a Massachusetts company called The Proprietors of the Beverly Cotton Manufactory was established, bringing together Capt. John Cabot, George Cabot, Andrew Cabot, Deborah Higginson Cabot, Henry Higginson, Dr. Joshua Fisher, Moses Brown, Israel Thorndike, and Isaac Chapman.
By 1789, a detailed breakdown of shares showed that Cabot and Higginson incorporators together held 22/40 of the company. Fisher owned 9/40, Brown and Thorndike each held 4/40, and Chapman held the remaining 1/40. Capt. Cabot and Fisher, holding 19/40 between them, were the two largest individual shareholders and served as the mill's managers. As a collective, these proprietors were the inventors of the first methods in America for spinning cotton commercially, a distinction no rival could yet claim.
On the 22nd of April 1788, the Salem Mercury newspaper reported that the mill's hardware was already complete - a spinning jenny, a carding machine, a warping machine, and other tools. The building to house them came later. The plant was not actually erected until the summer of 1787, yet records suggest the manufactory's machines may have been in use before the building was even conceived, most likely for testing purposes. The business officially opened its plant on the 1st of November 1787.
Within weeks of opening, finished goods were moving. On the 23rd of November 1787, one box of what the records describe as "coarse woolen and linen cloth here manufactured" was shipped to Maryland. Less than three weeks later, on the 11th of December 1787, "1 piece coarse check'd cloath here made" left Beverly for the Cape de Verde Islands. The brick building itself stood in the second parish, near what locals called Baker's Corner, at the junction of Birch Plain and Ipswich Roads. George Washington visited Beverly in the fall of 1789 during his New England tour and recorded in his diary that "the whole seemed perfect, and the cotton stuffs which they turn out, excellent of their kind."
No government subsidies existed to cushion the costs of building the mill, and the burden fell most heavily on the Cabot family investors. On the 15th of January 1789, a group that included John Cabot, George Cabot, Deborah Cabot, Andrew Cabot, Moses Brown, Nathan Dane, Joshua Fisher, Thomas Somers, Israel Thorndike, James Leonard, Henry Higginson, and Isaac Chapman petitioned the Legislature directly. They laid out their case in practical terms: the mill employed women and children who would otherwise have no paid work, it could fabricate almost any kind of cotton or linen then known, and cotton purchased locally in the region cost around 50 percent less than imported goods.
The proprietors calculated their total loss at £687 12s. 2d., a figure they equated to approximately $2,500. The entire company, by their own estimate, was worth £90,000, or $300,000. On the 17th of February 1789, the Massachusetts Legislature agreed to repay the proprietors £500 for their losses. The relief came with strict conditions. The manufactory was required to produce a cumulative total of 50,000 yards of cotton, maintain detailed records of every kind, quantity, and value produced, have those records sworn to by at least two proprietors, and lodge a copy with the Commonwealth Secretary's office. The mill also had to repay the £500 within eight years. On the 3rd of February 1789, the proprietors had formalized their organization as a named corporation. Notably, Nathan Dane, Thomas Somers, and James Leonard, three of the original contributors, did not join the new ownership structure.
The Beverly mill treated its machinery as a trade secret. When Moses Brown of Providence reached out requesting information about the mill's operations, the proprietors refused him. Brown left a written account of the rebuff, noting that the cutting knives used in the process were considered by Beverly's workers to be "a great Secret," and that despite accidentally crossing paths with the person who made them, the mill workers would not let him see the knives or watch the cutting operation, even though he judged it to be simple.
Brown's own later correspondence acknowledged the mill's priority. In a letter from 1791, he described Beverly's manufactory process as "the first and largest." Business historian Robert Lovett later wrote that "Beverly... was the earliest to manufacture cloth, at private expense, by means of power-driven machines." Yet that primacy did not protect the mill from its successor. After the Slater Mill was founded in Providence, Beverly lost workers to it. The Beverly mill declared it would not rehire any worker who left for Slater. The deeper problem was mechanical: Beverly ran on horsepower, and water-driven mills were arriving. Beverly's machines could not compete on that front.
On the 11th of January 1798, John Cabot and Joshua Fisher, who by then had bought out all remaining shares, sold five and three-fourths acres of the mill's land to Samuel Blanchard of Wenham for $2,630.29. Blanchard ran the factory himself until the 21st of March 1801, when he sold one-third of it to George S. Johonnut of Baltimore for $1,011.01. George Johonnot later purchased another third on the 1st of March 1813, for $333.33, and the deed attached to that sale noted that the machinery inside the buildings had formerly been used to manufacture cotton, suggesting operations had already wound down.
The mill may have stopped running during the Embargo of 1807, when commerce across Salem and Beverly was brought to a standstill. Whatever the exact cause, the old brick factory was burned on the 13th of October 1828. Today, a memorial stone marks the spot at the corner of Cabot and Dodge streets, near where Baker's Inn once stood. The building itself is gone, and local efforts are underway to install an information display next to the memorial stone so visitors can learn what once stood there.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
What was the Beverly Cotton Manufactory and why is it historically significant?
Beverly Cotton Manufactory was the first cotton mill built in America and the largest cotton mill constructed during its era. It has been called the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution because it served as the testing ground for the first commercial cotton spinning methods used in the United States.
Who founded the Beverly Cotton Manufactory?
The original business concept was developed by Thomas Somers and James Leonard, who were investors recruited from England by George Cabot. In 1787, the mill was formally established by a Massachusetts company called The Proprietors of the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, which included Capt. John Cabot, George Cabot, Andrew Cabot, Deborah Higginson Cabot, Henry Higginson, Dr. Joshua Fisher, Moses Brown, Israel Thorndike, and Isaac Chapman.
When did the Beverly Cotton Manufactory open and when did it close?
The plant officially opened on the 1st of November 1787, though port records show cotton was being imported as early as March 1785 and the machinery may have been in use before the building was completed. The mill likely ceased operation during the Embargo of 1807, and the brick building was burned on the 13th of October 1828.
Did George Washington visit the Beverly Cotton Manufactory?
Yes. George Washington visited Beverly in the fall of 1789 during his New England tour. He recorded in his diary that "the whole seemed perfect, and the cotton stuffs which they turn out, excellent of their kind."
Why did the Beverly Cotton Manufactory fail financially?
The mill had no access to government subsidies and the construction costs fell mainly on the Cabot family investors. The proprietors petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature in January 1789, reporting total losses of £687 12s. 2d. The mill also faced stiff competition from water-driven mills, which were more efficient than Beverly's horsepower-based machinery.
What happened to the Beverly Cotton Manufactory land after the mill closed?
On the 11th of January 1798, John Cabot and Joshua Fisher sold the five and three-fourths acres to Samuel Blanchard of Wenham for $2,630.29. Blanchard later sold portions of the property, and by 1813 the machinery had already been described in deeds as formerly used for cotton manufacture. Today a memorial stone marks the site at the corner of Cabot and Dodge streets in Beverly, Massachusetts.
All sources
1 references cited across the entry