Crompton, Samuel, inventor of the spinning-mule, born near Bolton; for five years he worked at his project, and after he got it into shape was tormented by people prying about him and trying to find out his secret; at last a sum was raised by subscription to buy it, and he got some £60 for it, by which others became wealthy, while he had to spend, and end, his days in comparative poverty, all he had to subsist on being a life annuity of £63 which some friends bought him (1753‒1827).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Crome, John * Cromwell, Oliver