Lacemakers
Marion Swindells looks at the lives of our ancestors who produced beautiful lace
finely stitched together to make longer lengths or wider pieces.
For 300 years, lace was a valued and very expensive commodity for the wealthy. In the 16th and 18th centuries, those who could afford it would be buried in lace. In the 17th century, men as well as women wore lace; it was used to adorn dresses, shirts and coats with elaborate cuffs and frills. William III once spent £2,459 on lace in one year – a huge sum. Because it was so expensive, it was often smuggled into the country – in coffins, or by ladies who wound it around their legs beneath their skirts. As fashions changed and became less elaborate, lace was used to decorate items such as pillows, tablecloths and doilies.
A Local Industry
The lace trade dominated the towns and villages where it was made. Many local occupations were involved in some way in the manufacture of lace. Bobbin makers made bobbins from bone initially, but later from wood. Different areas had their own styles of bobbins. For example, in northern Buckinghamshire they were thin and had a spangle of beads attached.
The pillows for making lace on were manufactured by the local horse-collar maker. Parchment was used to prick out the lace patterns and this involved two occupations: the parchment maker and the parchment pricker. Everything apart from the thread was available locally. Linen (and later cotton) thread was imported, spun and sold in local shops.
Whole families were involved in making lace, and the skills were passed down from one generation to another. Lace was made yearround – mainly by women and children, but men made it too. Agricultural workers often made lace during the winter months when there was little work to keep them busy in the fields.
Lacemaking was taught to the poor in workhouses and to people with disabilities, for whom it was a good way to make a living. Parents often paid for their children to attend a local lace school, where they could learn how to make lace and to earn a little money to bolster the family income. Typically children earned 6d a day. Rudimentary reading and writing was also taught, but the quality of teaching varied hugely from school to school. Pay was minimal, although it often paid more than a labourer’s wage. In good times, a lacemaker could earn as much as 1s a day. Working days were long, 10–12 hours was usual, and it was particularly difficult in the colder months of the year. Lace had to be kept scrupulously clean, so the lacemaker could not sit by a fire because the smoke would soil the lace. In order to keep warm, they used an earthenware vessel, a dick pot, filled with burning embers that they placed under their skirts between their feet. This brought its own hazards and it was not uncommon to see a lady suddenly leap to her feet, frantically beating
Teachers at lace schools would rub pupils’ noses on pins as a punishment
£40,000 The total spent on importing thread for the Buckinghamshire lace industry in 1780
The year a bobbin was made to commemorate the hanging of William Bull for the murder of Sarah Marshall
Number of yards of lace among the stock of bankrupt lace trader James Marriott sold by auction in 1791
A half-day holiday for lacemakers held on 30 November, the feast day of St Andrew, the patron saint of Midlands lacemakers at her clothes to put out her smouldering petticoats.
In the summer, lacemakers could sit outside or in a doorway, which gave them good light to see their work. In the short, dark, winter months they created light by using a ‘flash stool’. This was a stool that had a candle in the middle and was surrounded by glass bulbs filled with snow or crushed ice, because this was the t w
cleanest water available. These bulbs acted as condensers. By positioning the pillows around the flash stool so that the candlelight fell in a concentrated beam on each, three to five lacemakers could work comfortably by the light of a single candle.
The harsh working conditions lead to various health problems among lacemakers. Many had poor eyesight and cases of tuberculosis in lace areas were much higher among females than males because of the crowded and poorly ventilated spaces in which they worked.
It was the lace traders who made the most money in this industry. They demanded loyalty from their lacemakers, who would be paid according to the length made. When the lace trader collected his lace, he would make two marks with wax at the end and cut between them. This stopped the length from fraying and prevented the lacemaker from selling her lace to another buyer.
At the beginning of the 19th century, John Heathcoat invented a machine for making lace and this began the mechanised production of lace in Nottingham. The bobbin lacemakers could not compete, initiating a gradual
There are no specific records for lacemakers. They were dispersed across many towns and villages and surviving documents vary from place to place, but individuals may be found in Poor Law records and workhouse records, which can often be accessed through local archives. The websites of local museums and history societies can be useful sources too.
If your ancestor was a lace trader or lace designer, you may find them listed in a trade directory. For England and Wales, check the historical directories on the University of Leicester’s website ( bit.ly/LeicsDirs). They may also be named in bankruptcy proceedings – check the free online archive of the London
Gazette at thegazette.co.uk as well as notices in local newspapers via britishnewspaper archive.co.uk or findmypast.co.uk.
Male forebears may be found on the 1798 Posse Comitatus. This is a military census that also lists occupations. The surviving records for the Buckinghamshire posse are the most comprehensive of any county, and they were collected in a book published in 1985 by Buckinghamshire Record Society. You can download the book as a searchable 17MB PDF from the society’s website at bit.ly/BucksPosse.
Finally, some 17th-century traders may have issued trade tokens – more information can be found at thetokensociety.org.uk.