By Thomas Whitty, April the 16th 1790

I think it was in the year 1754, that being in London I saw … one of the best and largest Turkey carpets in England.  After I had seen this carpet, I could never keep it out of my mind long together, without being able to form the least idea of the method of doing it…

At length, on the 25th April 1755 (being our fair day, while our weavers were on holiday) I made in one of my looms a small piece of carpeting, about 7 or 8 inches in square, resembling, as near as I could the Turkey carpets.  This further convinced me of the possibility of doing it, but not of doing it quick enough to ensure any purpose in trade…

Soon after I went to Fulham (to Mr Parisot’s Carpet Manufactory and) … obtained a view of everything I wanted… When I came home, I immediately begun to prepare a loom and materials for making a carpet, and on Midsummer Day 1755 (a memorable day for my family) I begun the first carpet I ever made.

Repeated  successes so advanced the reputation of my carpets, that I had a constant, and almost uninterrupted demand for many years, which has continued with but little variation, as to demand, and with no diminution as to its reputation until this day.