"Man vs. Machine": A Friend to the Poor

There appears to be some dispute about the authorship of the 1780 pamphlet, Thoughts on the Use of Machines in the Cotton Manfacture. In The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600-1780, Julia De Lacy Mann (1931) noted that Dorning Rasbotham, "has been credited with the authorship... but this has also been attributed to Thomas Barnes, D.D., of Manchester." Maxine Berg, in The Machinery Question (1982), simply refers to "Thomas Barnes's Thoughts on the Use of Machines..." In the bibliography of his Social Change in the Industrial Revolution (1959), Neil Smelser cited "Ramsbotham, D." as the author of the pamphlet, noting, however, that it was "attributed to the Rev. Thomas Barnes in the copy of the Goldsmith Collesction, University of London." The current cataloging of the title in the Goldsmiths-Kress collection and at the University of London Library refers to Rasbotham.

Perhaps the memorial plaque for Rasbotham at Deane Church, composed by his friend, Thomas Barnes, settles the question. The author of the anonymously published pamphlet styled himself "A Friend to the Poor." Below is the text of Rasbotham's plaque:

In memory of Dorning Basbotham, of Birch House, in this parish, to which place he retired from Manchester, his native town, in the year 1762, that he might there possess the ease and independence of a private country gentleman. This situation he was well prepared to enjoy, by great ardour in literary studies; to adorn, by engaging manners, which secured the attachment of a large circle of respectable friends; and to render singularly useful to the public by a most active and able discharge of the duties of a Justice of the Peace. In this office, and in the highest functions of it, as chairman at the Quarter Sessions, where he presided, he acquired in a very eminent degree the highest esteem of the Gentlemen of the Bar, the cordial regard of his fellow Magistrates, and the grateful confidence of the public at large; supporting with a consistency never impeached, and never suspected, the characters of the poor man's friend, and of the firm asserter of Order, Law, and Justice. In these important services he persevered until his death, with the exception of one year, during which he served the office of High Sheriff for the County of Lancaster. He died Nov. 7th, 1791, aged 61 years. Here also lie the remains of Sarah, his wife, eldest daughter of James Bayley, Esq., of Manchester, who died April 30th, 1805, aged 77 years. Their surviving children have erected this Monument in memory of parents so revered, and so dear.