ob made,--Jacob
made too much of Joseph, and her father made too much of Mary. My mother
was seventeen, and quick in disposition. She said that right was not
done to her at home, and she was determined to make her own way in the
world, whatever the consequences might be. She went out to service,
contrary to the wish of her father. I am honoured to-day with the
presence of one who has descended from the family who engaged her as
servant: I mean Mr. Oldfield, of Stock Lane, vice-chairman of the
Halifax Board of Guardians. In that service, in her own person, she did
the work of kitchenmaid, of housemaid, and of cook; and in addition to
that she regularly milked six cows every night and morning. Besides
which, she kept the house, which was as clean as a little palace. But
this was not enough to employ her willing hands. Her mistress took in
wool or tops to spin, and she could do what scarcely any in Warley could
have done,--she spun that wool to thirty-six hanks in the pound, and
thus earned many a guinea for her mistress, besides doing all her other
work."[2]

[Footnote 1: Those who "came in with William the Conqueror" are not the
oldest but the youngest of British families. They are the most recent
occupiers of British soil. The Angles and Saxons, whose lands the
Normans divided amongst themselves, occupied Britain many hundred years
before the arrival of the Conqueror. In the remote dales of Yorkshire
and Lancashire, the ancient race still exists. And thus the Crossley
family may have a much longer pedigree, could they but trace it, than
any of those who "came in with William the Conqueror." The latter are
able to trace their origin because their numbers are so small, their
possessions so large, and their introduction as English proprietors
comparatively so recent.]

[Footnote 2: In these snobbish days, when rich people are so often
ashamed of their fathers and grandfathers, and vainly endeavour to make
out their ancient 'nobility,' it was honest and manly on the part of Sir
Francis Crossley thus publicly to relate these facts; and to share with
his mother the honour of conferring his splendid present of the People's
Park on the townsmen of Halifax.]

Sir Francis went on to relate the history of his father (as given above
from his own manuscript), until the time when he took the Dean Clough
Mill. "My mother," he says, "went thither with her usual energy. As she
was going down the yard at four o'clock in the morning, s