Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

operated in their cottages largely as their fathers and grandfathers had done, but there are
signs that wealthy entrepreneurs were now exercising more control. The term ‘needle
manufacturer’, much in evidence in the next century, begins to appear with its sense of an
employer within the trade. Henry Millward, who died in 1799, is so described, while
another member of his family, James Millward, is a ‘needle-merchant’. 275
The needle
industry depended on a national and international market and so the marketing of
products was increasingly important. In reality, there was much overlap between needle
factors, manufacturers and merchants. Some members of needlemaking families
concentrated on the marketing side, but John English employed Thomas Perkins as a
needle-traveller in 1790. 276
Unfortunately, because of their light weight and small size
needles were particularly vulnerable to theft or loss on the road or in workshop or
warehouse. 277
As noted in Period B, those entering the needle industry were mostly from
Worcestershire and Warwickshire, but the trade did attract workers from further afield
such as the young Irishman, McCaulay, who may have migrated to Redditch with fishhook
makers from Limerick. 278
Fish-hook making first appears as an off-shoot of the
local needle-trade in 1750, with the marriage of Thomas Ford, fish-hook maker. 279
An
early local fish-hook maker, Walter Bryan, left his fish-hook making equipment to his
275 WoRO, probate of Henry Millward, Tardebigge, needle manufacturer, 1799. TNA, PCC probate of
James Millward, Redditch, needle-merchant, 1790.
276 WaRO, CR3097/134.
277 Berrow’s Worcester Journal May 1753 reports a blue and white handkerchief lost on the road between
Studley and Evesham containing needles, fish-hooks, etc. Berrow’s Worcester Journal 3 Jan. 1765 reports
that ten thousand needles were amongst items stolen from the London wagon in Digbeth, Birmingham.
278 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 3 Jan. 1750/1 and 14 March 1750/1. William McAuly alias Mackeolly,
journeyman needlemaker, was sentenced to death for a murder in Redditch. Bartleet and Woodward in
Timmins, p. 203, believe the fish-hook trade to have been introduced by migrants from Limerick. Local
folklore suggests an alternative origin for fish-hook makers was the Upper Severn Valley.
279 WoRO, marriage licence of Thomas Ford, Tardebigge, fish-hook maker, May 1750. Berrow’s Worcester
Journal 3 May 1753 reported fish-hooks lost in transit.
305