Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

a poor journeyman tailor whose only possessions were his clothes, worth £4-0-6. 95
Perhaps surprisingly, some country tailors were capable of very intricate work, 96 while
others pursued by-employments to make ends meet. 97
Although no bodice-makers appear in this zone, some craftsmen may have
specialised in certain garments, producing them in large numbers to be sold further afield.
One such may be William Little of Feckenham, who was described as a ‘tuckermaker’ in
1706. 98 Some ninety years later another Feckenham craftsman was a staymaker. 99
Women’s role in making and mending clothing is largely absent from local
records until the eighteenth century, when some adept seamstresses were commissioned
by parish overseers to make clothes for the poor. 100
No doubt many others made and
mended garments for their own families. Nineteenth century sources list women as
milliners, staymakers, seamstresses, mantua-makers, plain-sewers and dressmakers. 101
Although there were male straw-hat-makers, this trade apparently employed mainly
women, sometimes described as (straw)-bonnet-makers or straw-workers. 102
95 WoRO, probate of William Baker, journeyman tailor, Studley, 1763, £4-0-6.
96 Worcester Postman, 8 to 15 April 1720, records the theft of a high-class suit (described in great detail
and perhaps made for a gentleman client) from Richard Houghton, tailor of Sambourne.
97 WoRO, probate of John Clarke, Mappleborough Green, (Studley), tailor, 1737, £34-10-8. Clarke also
ran a general store. WaRO, Studley parish register, 1737, records his burial. He committed suicide, cutting
his own throat, and was ‘found to be lunatic’.
98 WoRO, marriage licence of William Hopkins, Sambourne, needlemaker, March 1706, witnessed by
William Little, Feckenham, ‘tu(c)kermaker’. Spelt both tuckermaker and tukermaker on the document, this
could suggest that he specialised in making the sashes or bibs called ‘tuckers’. Alternatively, it may be
another form of ‘teugerer’, a lath-splitter.
99 WoRO, marriage licence of John Holtham, Feckenham, staymaker, July 1795. In other documents he is
referred to as a tailor.
100 For example, WaRO, CR3434, Coughton overseers of the poor accounts, 1745-6, and WoRO, BA4284,
(ix) and (vii), Feckenham overseers of the poor. The latter source records payments to William Fitter for
tailoring (1773) and also for making breeches (1755). This may suggest that, (unlike those made by
Alcester’s breechesmakers), the breeches he made were not of leather.
101 WaRO and WoRO, 1841 and 1851 censuses. The latest (female) mantuamaker appears in WoRO,
Feckenham baptisms, 1848.
102 As in Alcester, some of these women were from Aylesbury. Headless Cross, (Tardebigge), 1851
census, lists husband and wife cap-makers. Some 4.9% of adult women with known occupations in the
1841 census were dressmakers or seamstresses and 2.4% were involved in other textile or clothing
manufacture. (See Table 7.8 above.)
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