His ancestor Thomas purchased the 640 acre estate and manor of Lea in 1707 and rebuilt Lea Hall. He was a rich lead merchant and owned a large smelting works at Lea Bridge, and endowed Lea Chapel in 1732 for the use of Protestant Dissenters. Originally built in 1690, the chapel is now an Evangelical Free Church, and the earliest non-conformist chapel in Derbyshire.

Peter Nightingale founded Lea Mills as a cotton-spinning factory at Lea Bridge in 1784, based on Richard Arkwright’s successful Cromford Mill just a mile away and used water from the Lea Brook to power the large wheel and took Wirksworth merchant John Smedley as his overseer.

In 1785 Lea Mills changed to wool spinning and hosiery manufacture, and in 1789 Peter Nightingale sold the manor of Cromford to Richard Arkwright, and later relinquished control of Lea Mills to John Smedley.