Gem From The Archive

Richard High from the University of Leeds Library’s Special Collections Research Centre talks about a 19th-century wage book from West Yorkshire

A spinners’ wage book from a Bradford mill, 1828–1841

The north of England was a powerhouse of textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution. The University of Leeds Library’s Business Collection holds a 19thcentury wage book from the John Foster and Son textile mill in Bradford which captures the lives of the workforce who made this business boom possible – and reveals how manufacturers adapted to child-labour laws. Engagement librarian Richard High tells us more.

Can You Describe The Wage Book For Us?

It’s roughly foolscap size with about 170 pages laid out as a ledger. For the bulk of the book it’s got between 20 and 60 people, depending on how big the business was at the time, running down the left-hand side, with columns at weekly intervals across the page with the amount paid to each person.

However, what makes it stand out are the 28 certificates that are stuck in the front of the book, some in an envelope, which are certificates of children working in the mill. Some are 12 or 13 years old, but they’re mainly aged 14 upwards, and the certificates are signed by a surgeon and a magistrate. A typical one says: “I do here certify that Margaret Walling the daughter of John Walling of Great Horton has appeared before me and submitted to my examination and the said Margaret Walling is of an ordinary strength and appearance of a child or young person of 14 years of age. As witnessed by this hand 28th March 1834.” This declaration is followed by the name of the surgeon, A Thomas, together with the name of the magistrate, Matthew Thompson.

Why Did The Mill Create The Certificates?

It looks like you’ve got a deliberate attempt by the employer to draw up these medical certificates for the people working in the factory who are under 21. The 1833 Factory Act had introduced new stipulations about children of different ages. This meant that there could be no workers under the age of 9; between the age of 9 and 13 children could work nine hours a day, but they had to have some element of schooling; and between 13 and 18 they were limited to a 12-hour day.

This Act also set up a Factory Inspectorate, and given the fact that these certificates are from 1834 and 1835 it might be the first time that the mill has been inspected, or at least the first time they kept the certificates.

We have a stereotypical idea of children working at this time. I’ve seen other notes in a different collection where an answer at an enquiry makes the point that it would be very hard for families if children of this age couldn’t bring in money, so that’s another way of looking at it. The company is being a very good employer and looking after the children, or at least it is making the effort to comply with the law.

Do We Know Much About John Foster And Son?

It’s a very well-known local textile manufacturer. As far as our catalogues are concerned we’ve got details of the company from c1820 through to 1950, at different places and working with worsted, alpaca and mohair. The business grew during the lifetime of this particular wage book, in that the company was renting Cannon Mill in 1828 and then built Black Dyke Mill in Queensbury in 1835.

What Else Is Interesting About This Document?

I chose it firstly because of the certificates, but also because you can trace named people through the book. For example, I was looking at one person called Ezra Appleyard who starts employment at the mill in 1837, and is listed every week right the way through to the end in 1841. The potential for the mining of named people, knowing

where they were working, who they were working for and how much they were getting paid for a large part of the 19th century, is striking. You could even use it in an exercise researching named people in the textile industry in the area. We have about 50 companies in our textile and business industry archives, and you can do a similar exercise on the wage books of named individuals at certain dated points in time. We organised a project like this a couple of years ago where we looked at the burial registers from a cemetery that is now in the university campus.

What Other Documents Are In Your Collection?

We have a very large, broad and deep collection here in Special Collections. We look after about 250,000 printed books, and hundreds of thousands of items of archival material. Major collections include the Liddle Collection of First World War experience, containing personal papers of more than 6,000 people who lived through the First World War, and over 500 who experienced the Second World War; the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma Collections; the English Literature Collection; the Leeds Russian Archive; and finally our Cookery Collection which now sits at about 10,000 cookery books.

We also have a large number of collections relating to Quakerism and Quaker meeting houses in Yorkshire, together with the Business Collection that I’ve already mentioned.

‘The potential for the mining of named people is striking’