Jedediah Strutt has a valid claim to be Blackwell’s most successful entrepreneur. He is pictured here in a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby.
Born in South Normanton in 1726, Jedediah trained as a wheelwright at Findern, where he lodged with the parents of Elizabeth Woollatt, who he was later to woo and marry.
After his apprenticeship was completed at Findern, Jedediah is known to have worked in Leicester, after which he moved to Newton where he stayed with an uncle at his croft in Alfreton Road, known locally as Strutt’s cottage. On the death of another uncle, Jedediah inherited the tenancy and stock of a farm at Blackwell. From there he wrote extensively to his friend Elizabeth who was in London as a Housekeeper and Companion and the letters survive today; one includes this plea written from home in Blackwell:
“…here you may view the rising and the setting sun, which many in London are strangers to; here it is that you may have the morning and the evening song of many a warbling lark and linnet,…”
and eventually she agreed to his proposal and they married at St Werburgh’s in 1755.
They had 3 sons and 2 daughters between 1756 and 1764. The eldest William was born in 1756 at Blackwell, as probably was the first daughter Elizabeth in 1758, but the birthplace of the others is not certain, as Jedediah is known to have left Blackwell by 1762.
Their home at Blackwell is believed to have been the farm known now as Three Lane Ends Farm, although Church Farm could also be considered a possibility. Three Lane Ends Farm is favoured as it was in the ownership of Mrs Richardson of Newton Old Hall as shown on the 1758 map prepared for the Duke of Devonshire. The Richardsons and the Strutts were Dissenters, a name given to protestants who had separated from the Church of England. It is likely that Strutt was favoured by the Richardsons for this reason. Jedediah joined the Unitarian Congregation in Belper, where he provided the funds to build the chapel in 1788, which has an arched catacomb where he and his family are interred.
With Elizabeth, and in partnership with her brother William, Jedediah built a serious business in the Framework Knitting Industry , especially after using his mechanical knowledge to develop and patent an attachment to the knitting frame. Patented as The Derby Rib, this attachment allowed for the first time the production of ribbed stockings, which came into great demand; at this time gentlemen wore knee length breeches, and the ribbed stockings provided a more shapely fit on the leg., as shown in this illustration.
Eventually the partners wealth helped finance Richard Arkwright’s ventures at Cromford, and subsequently the building of seven mills in the Derwent Valley at Milford.
Jedediah and Elizabeth built a Strutt legacy of Silk and Cotton Mills, and with their descendants were truly influential in the social and educational development of Belper, and Derby.