y signed a 14-year lease for
the water site, a dwelling house, a shop, and 17 acres of land. As soon
as arrangements could be completed, Arthur, John, and the latter's
family left for Montville.

[Illustration: Figure 9.--IN THE COLLECTION OF THE HENRY FORD MUSEUM,
DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, IS THIS ORIGINAL SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINE of
the early 19th century. (_Photo courtesy of the Henry Ford Museum._)]

The Scholfields quite probably did not take any of the textile machinery
from the Byfield factory with them to Connecticut--first because the
machines were built while the brothers were under hire and so were the
property of the sponsors, and second because their knowledge of how to
build the machines would have made it unnecessary to incur the
inconvenience and expense of transporting machines the hundred odd miles
to Montville. However, John Scholfield's sons reported[10] that they had
taken a carding engine with them when they moved to Connecticut in 1799
and had later transferred it to a factory in Stonington. The sons
claimed that the frame, cylinders, and lags of the machine were made of
mahogany and that it had originally been imported from England. However,
it would have been most uncommon for a textile machine, even an English
one, to have been constructed of mahogany; and having built successful
carding machines, the men at Byfield would have found it unnecessary to
attempt the virtually impossible feat of importing an English one. If it
ever existed and was taken to Connecticut, therefore, this machine was
probably not a carding machine manufactured by the Scholfields. It is
more probable that the first Scholfield carding machine remained in the
Byfield mill as the property of the Newburyport Woolen Manufactory.

[Illustration: Figure 10.--AN ORIGINAL SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINE
AT OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE, STURBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. It is now run by
electricity. (_Photo courtesy of Old Sturbridge Village._)]

During the next half century, this mill was held by a number of
individuals. William Bartlett and Moses Brown, two of the leading
stockholders of the company, sold it in 1804 to John Lees, the English
overseer who succeeded the Scholfields, and he continued to operate it
for about 20 years. On August 24, 1824, the mill was purchased at a
Sheriff's sale by Gorham Parsons, who sold a part interest to Paul
Moody, a machinist from the textile town of Lowell. Moody operated the
mill for the next 5 year