Robert "Parsley" Peel (1723 – 12 September 1795) was a British merchant who was the grandfather of Robert Peel, a future prime minister of the United Kingdom. Peel started life as a yeoman farmer but experimented with calico printing, eventually creating a parsley leaf pattern which would become his trademark. Despite losing a number of machines during riots, Peel's company became the largest in the textile sector by the time of his death, with 23 factories.
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Early life
Robert Peele was born in 1723 at Peele Fold in Oswaldtwistle to William Peele and Jane Anne Walmsley. His family were traditionally yeoman farmers, until his grandfather Robert Peele abandoned the trade in favour of making woollen cloth. Parsley's father, William, attempted to return the family to farming and after his education at Blackburn Grammar School, he initially joined his father in this pursuit. He inherited the woodblocks his grandfather used for printing on wool and started experimenting with them. When his wife's brother, Jonathan Haworth, returned from an apprenticeship to a calico-printer in London, the pair attempted to set up a business in calico printing. They received financial backing from William Yates, the landlord of the local public house and formed Haworth, Peel and Yates in 1750, consisting of a factory in Blackburn and a warehouse in Manchester. By this point, Peel had dropped the final 'e' from his surname, his reason being that "it was of no use, as it did not add to the sound".