As can be deduced, but is not immediately apparent from the Family Tree, my grandfather, James Nelson died 21 years before my birth, my father Amos, was 73 years old at my birth and died fourteen years later and all my three brothers were dead before I reached my twenty first birthday. Thus, it was primarily to get to know my own immediate family, albeit at second hand, that I set out to write this short history and perhaps particularly to find out what qualities it was among them that made James Nelson Ltd. “a name to conjure with” in the Lancashire Textile industry. A second reason is to find a home for several family anecdotes, some possibly apocryphal, which, with the passage of years and the disappearance of James Nelson’s within the bosom of Courtaulds Ltd., will tend to be forgotten if not committed to paper in some form.
To anyone who may read this it will soon become apparent I am no historian and but an indifferent writer. I do not pretend to give a balanced or unbiased account of the times or personalities but would simply apologise in advance, for any overt bias and reiterate that as the motives for my putting pen to paper are primarily selfish, any enjoyment, information or interest the reader may derive will make the work doubly rewarding.
Sir Amos Nelson (1860-1947) by Bassano, whole-plate glass negative, 18 January 1922