Peel started life as a yeoman farmer but experimented with calico printing, eventually creating a parsley leaf pattern which would become his trademark.

His family were traditionally yeoman farmers, until his grandfather Robert Peele abandoned the trade in favour of making woollen cloth.

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.

[3] He began experimenting at his home with different forms of printing until, according to family tradition, his young daughter Anne brought him a sprig of parsley and begged him to use it as a pattern.

[5] There are other versions of the tale, which dispute whether the experiments happened at the farm at Peel Fold or his house in Fish Lane and suggest a poor neighbour, Mrs. Milton, calendered the cloth to finish it.

Peel was described as "a tall robust man" with reddish hair,[15] cautious but shrewd, who led the family to fortune through perseverance and resolve.

[18] Douglas Hurd noted that Parsley Peel was satisfied with his lot and did not expect to rise up the social ladder personally, though he hoped his children would.

[10] John Wesley said of him, "I was invited to breakfast at Bury by Mr Peel, a calico printer who a few years ago began with £500 and is now supposed to have gained £20,000.

"[10] In 1794, Parsley Peel obtained the grant of a coat of arms, including a shuttle held by a lion, a bee signifying business and a new family motto Industria.