Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Edward Butler alias Huntington was described both as a ‘needlemaker’ and a
‘tradesman’. Perhaps he acted as a needle-merchant on behalf of some of his
colleagues. 239
Another who may have travelled in the trade was Richard Badson. In
1693 on the road between Worcester and Droitwich he was robbed of his horse, money,
pieces of cloth and 300 glovers’ needles. 240
The Tardebigge needlemaker, Oliver Moore,
lived for a time in Worcester, where he may have been an on-the-spot agent for this
zone’s needlemakers. 241
Large notes the retreat of the industrial tide in places like Belbroughton and finds
increasing evidence that nailmakers in Bromsgrove were becoming less involved in
agriculture by this period. 242
However, the needle-trade, fresh on the scene, was still
attracting newcomers. Evidence shows that many of the needlemakers also farmed,
usually in a modest way, and others doubled as innkeeper or blacksmith. There was as yet
no certainty that the local needle-trade was going to be successful enough to cause the
demise of the trade elsewhere in the nation. 243
The exact product made by Joseph Moreton of Tardebigge in the 1730s is not
clear, nor the raw material he used. He is described in Latin as an ‘acicularius’, which
may mean a maker of pins, combs or hair-slides. 244
However, marriage licences now
239 WoRO, Feckenham burial register and WoRO, probate of Edward Butler alias Huntington, Feckenham,
needlemaker, 1684, £30-18-8. In his workshop was a bed, perhaps where his apprentice, Charles Aulster,
slept.
240 Johnson, Warwick County Records, 9, p. 70, quoting quarter sessions, 1693. This does not inform us
whether he was going to Worcester to sell cloth and needles or returning with unsold needles and cloth he
had purchased. Badson was based at different times in Studley, Stoke Prior and Alcester.
241 WoRO, probate of Robert Dewes, Studley, butcher, 1675, £16-18-0, and WoRO, marriage licence of
Richard Baylies, Tardebigge, needlemaker, Aug. 1687.
242 Large, ‘Urban growth and agricultural change in the west midlands’, pp. 177, 183.
243 Before 1800 needlemakers (in small numbers) are found in London, Chichester, Chester, Bridgnorth,
Much Wenlock, Gloucester, Bristol, Worcester, Hucknall (Notts.), Long Crendon (Bucks.) and in a few
villages just outside the study area.
244 WoRO, marriage licence of Joseph Moreton, Tardebigge, acicularius, April 1731. It could also be a
Worcester scribe’s alternative for ‘accuarius’, needlemaker. The Latin ‘acus’ means both ‘pin’ and
‘needle’.
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