DRESS, CULTURE AND COMMERCE

Transcription

1 DRESS, CULTURE AND COMMERCE

2 A/,so by Beverly Lemire FASHION'S FAVOURITE: The Cotton Trade and the Consumer in Britain,

3 Dress, Culture and Commerce The English Clothing Trade before the Factory, Beverly Lemire Professor of His lory University of New Brunswick Canada

4 First published in Great Britain 1997 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills. Basingsloke. Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for lh is book is a vailab! e from the British Library. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / First published in the United Stales of America 1997 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Flflh Avenue, New York, N.Y ISBN Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lemire. Beverly, I Dress. culture and commerce :!he English clothing trade before the factory, I 800 I Beverly Lemire. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and in de~. ISBN (cloth) 1. Clothing trade-england-history. 2. Clothing and dress -England-History. 3. England-Social life and customs. I. Title. HD9940.G82E545 I 996 H8.4'7687' dc CIP Beverly Lemire 1997 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction. copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or cransmined save with written pennission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. 90Tonenham Coun Road, London WI P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable lo criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has assened her rights to be identified as the amhor of!his work in accordance with the Copyright. Designs and Patents Act This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained foresl sources I

5 For Morris, for Shannon with love

6

7 Contents List of Illustrations List of Tabks Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Dress, Culture and the English People 1 I Bobby Shafto's Shirt and Britches: Contracted Clothing and the Transformation of the Trade 9 Military markets: dressing for war 11 Institutional markets and the demand for apparel 32 Conclusion 40 2 Redressing the History of the Clothing Trade: Ready-Made Apparel, Guilds and Women Outworkers 43 Guilds besieged: tailors in the provinces 44 Sewing for the market: women in the needle ttade 50 Putting-out and making-up: salesmen and seamstresses 55 Quilting, quality and material evidence 64 Conclusion 71 3 Margins and Mainstream: Jews in the English Clothing Trades 75 The clothing trades and early Jewish participants 78 Jewish presence in the lower clothing trades 80 Distribution and trade: from margin to mainstream 88 Conclusion 92 4 Disorderly Women and the Consumer Market: Women's Work and the Second Hand Clothing Trade 95 Housewifely skills and disorder in the marketplace 97 Pawnbrokers and saleswomen: the place of the insured 104 vii ix xi x.ii xv

8 viii Contents Home, street and neighbourhood: disorderly women traders 112 Conclusion The Theft of aothes and Popular Consumerism 121 Popular fashion and second-hand clothing 122 Stripping strangers and rifling rooms 127 The looting of shops and disposal of clothing 135 Conclusion 145 Not s 147 Bibliop;raphy 193 ln<kx 207

9 List of Illustrations 1.1 Tradecard - George Risdon, Slop-seller... Billingsgate 21 Guildhall Library, Carporation of London 1.2 Two receipts for slops bought from Wm Jesser &Jn Baker, Guildhall Library, Corpuration of London 1.3 Bill for large order of slops bought from John Baker, Lennox~Boyd Collecti<m, Courtesy of the Hon(JUrable Christopher Lennox-Boyd 1.4 Bill head and receipt of N. Shearerd, Cocks pur Street, London, Heal Tradecard Collection, British Museum 1.5 Tradecard - R Maffett... Leicester Fields 35 Heal Tradecard Collection, British Museum 2.1 Tradecard c.l600s - Godfrey Gimbart... Long Lane 49 Heal Tradecard Collection, British Museum 2.2 Receipt for ready-made clothes bought from James Cutts, Heal Tradecard Collection, British Museum 2.3 Trade bill, William Ghrimes, Taylor and Habit-maker, c.1770s 72 Heal Tradecard Collection, British Museum 2.4 Detail, trade bill of William Ghrimes, Taylor and Habit-maker, c.l770s 73 Heal Tradecard Collection, British Museum 3.1 'Every One His Hobby', European Department 76 Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 3.2 The Old Clothesman 94 John Johnson Colkction. Trades and Professions Bodelian Library, Oxfurd 4.1 'Old Satten Old Taffety or Velvet' 101 Guildhall Library, Corpuration of London 4.2 'The Pithay' (c.l820) H. O'Neill Ill City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery IX

10 X List of mustrations 5.1 Tradecard- M. Harris, Taylor & Salesman 125 GuildhaU Library, Corporation of London 5.2 'Shop-Lifter Detected' by John Collett, Lennox-Boyd Collection, Courtesy of the Honourabk Christopher Lennox-Boyd 5.3 'An Evenings Invitation; with a Wink from the Bagnio' by John Collett, Lennox-Buyd Collection, Courlesy of th. Honourable Christopher Lennox-Boyd

11 List of Tables 1.1 Slops sold to the Navy by Charles James, Clothing approved for foot soldiers, Salesman's six months' sales, Insured property of female and male slopsellers, Insured property of female and male slopsellers, Chronological distribution of probate sample, Geographic distribution of probate sample, Insured property of clothes dealers, Insured property of all women clothes dealers, Comparative value of insured property of Jewish and non:jewish men, Comparative ethnic distribution among three clothing trades, Geographic distribution of insured Jews in the clothing trades, Geographic distribution of insured non:jews in the clothing trades, Insured women and men in the lower clothing trades Insured women and men in the clothing trades, Insurance entries of female and male pawnbrokers, Insurance entries of saleswomen and salesmen, xi

12 Acknowledgements One of the pleasures of this process comes with reflections on the many individuals and institutions who provided assistance during the years of labour on this book. The community and corporate connections to which I am indebted are innumerable. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada provided me with two research grants over the course of this project. These grants permitted me to explore this topic in a way that would otherwise not have been possible. I thank them for this support. Many of the chapters of this book have had airings at various academic gatherings and I benefited from the comments and suggestions offered me on these occasions. An earlier and more abbreviated version of Chapter 2 was presented as the 1993 Veronika Gervers Memorial Lecture, Royal On tario Museum, Toronto, and as the keynote address at the Costume Society of America 1994 symposium; the text of the latter was published in Dress. Versions of Chapter 4 were presented as conference papers at the Anglo-American Conference, London, in 1993 and at the Midwestern Conference of British Studies, Toronto, A draft of Chapter 3 was presented at the Economic History Society Conference, Nottingham, in An earlier version of Chapter 5 was published in the j()1j.mal of Social Hisrory. The Veronika Gervers Research Fellowship, from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, provided a stimulating context in which to work on the collections of the Textile Department. I would like to thank the selection committee for this fellowship and all the staff of the Textile Department who provided me with so much help as I worked my way through unfamiliar territory. In the face of staff shortages and increased demands on their time, archivists and librarians at virtually every archive and library I consulted gave their time and assistance. I would like to thank, in particular, the staff at the Bodleian Library, Oxford Record Office, Hampshire Record Office, Chester City Record Office, Shropshire Record Office, Guildhall Library, Corporation of London Records Office, Greater London xii

13 Acknowledgements xiii Record Office and the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane and K.ew. Thanks are also extended to the Honourable Christopher Lennox-Boyd for permitting me to range widely amongst his collection and to Guy Shaw for assisting me in my research. My colleagues in the Department of History, University of New Brunswick, provide a stable, stimulating and collegial environment in which to work. Years of lunchtime conversations and debates enriched my understanding of history in all its myriad manifestations. I thank Gail Campbell for encouraging me to try a quantitative approach and assisting me in my forays into this field of historical analysis. I cannot repay her for the hours she invested on my behalf. Marc Milner answered questions on the esoteric nature of the eighteenth-century military; Brent Wilson introduced me to the vagaries of regimental finance. Bill Acheson, Gillian Thompson, Steve Turner, Gary Waite and Nicholas Tracy read drafts at various stages, and discussed questions and theories as I sought to understand the many facets of this topic. I am most grateful for their insights and forbearance. Moreover, I cannot forget the support and assistance which came from this department, and on which I relied, during the period of illness and recuperation which intruded on this work for several years. Adrienne Hood, former head of the Textile Department, the Royal Ontario Museum, contributed in many ways to the formation of this work. She offered encouragement, years of discussions on questions of material history and presented a comparative historical perspective on conditions and issues on the other side of the eighteenth-century Atlantic. Adrienne supported a documentary historian's first detailed look at material evidence: an exhilarating, if sometimes daunting, process. The dynamic interdisciplinary environment which developed during her tenure as head of the Textile Department at the Royal Ontario Museum stimulated a wide-ranging examination of artefacts in the context of research issues. It was with mixed feelings that I saw her move to the Department of History at the University of Toronto and leave the material world where she began her research on colonial America. But perhaps this move reflects a growing interest within the historical community in a wider range of evidence and interpretations. I hope for a continuing exchange of views in the future. I am indebted as well to others within the circle of the Royal Ontario Museum

14 xiv Acknowledgements Tuesday night dinner group. John Nicks offered a timely suggestion to examine the Hudson's Bay Company records. Grant McCracken and Trudy Nicks contributed to the sort of intellectual exchange that by its nature stimulates reassessments and r~xaminations. I am indebted to many among the community of museum curators and costume historians for their generosity. Sarah Levitt juggled the demands of time and space to introduce me to the collections she oversaw, first at the Bristol City Art Gallery and next at the Gunnersbury Park Museum. Moreover, she unfailingly responded to my queries and suggested ways to overcome difficulties. The curators at the Museum of London were also unfailingly helpful, providing access to their collections and offering their assistance. And finally, both Madeleine Ginsburg and Anne Buck have, throughout the years, been generous with their knowledge, answering questions and suggesting sources. I am grateful for their continuing support of my research. There are many others with whom I have shared conversations and correspondence and whose responses and advice assisted me in the course of this research. Maxine Berg, Stanley Chapman, Ann Smart Martin, John Styles, Elizabeth Sanderson, Mary Prior and Anne Lawrence are among those I would like to thank for their personal and professional interest in the progress of this work over a number of years. In addition,john Prest provided me with a ready ear and an unflagging interest in interpretations of the past. My contacts with Macmillan began with Giovanna Davitti and were always a pleasure; I appreciated her interest in this project during the time she was at Macmillan. I am, above all, sustained by my family. My debts to Morris are too many to detail. Not least of my family's contributions to this book came from our numerous conversations, sometimes heated, always spirited. In these discussions we tussled with the intricacies of history, theory and gender politics, distracted and sustained by the rituals of dinners. glasses of wine and endless cups of tea. This book is dedicated to Morris and Shannon, for the many shared discussions and their agency in daily life. BEVERLY LEMIRE

15 Abbreviations CLRO GLRO MJHSE PRO TJHSE Corporation of London Records Office Greater London Record Office Miscellanies of the jewish Histurical Society of England Public Record Office Transactions of the jewish Historical Society of England XV