SLATER, Hannah, née Wilkinson, American, d-1812. Samuel Slater emigrated from England to the USA in 1789. He created a mill in 1791, the same year that he married Hannah. Then during the first year of the US Patent Office (1793), she filed one of the first US patents. It was for a special way of spinning cotton thread. Their mill in Rhode Island was already using the method. Her husband was British and an expert in textile mechanics, by 1798 he had his own company. She married in 1792, had 10 children, and died two weeks after giving birth in 1812. Samuel  became a partner in the firm of Almy, Brown and Slater, a well known New England firm. Their mill is now a famous preserved building and tourist attraction.