Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

dyers. 83
Some Alcester weavers may have worked with coloured (‘dyed in the wool’)
yarn. Others wove uncoloured cloth and then dyed it ‘in the piece’ after completion, as
the ‘weaver of Alcester’, who was paid for ‘colouring thirty-three yards of jarsey’. 84
Perhaps some weavers specialised in one type of cloth, worsted, woollen or linen, but
some may have switched according to demand, or combined two materials. 85
There was no distinct demarcation between various roles, with weavers dyeing
cloth, and dyers acting as clothiers, supervising the finishing process. Dyers were often
substantial men. One gentleman dyer invested in Spernall fulling-mill, while John Bovey
had extensive premises for cloth finishing, including a kalendarhouse, presshouse and
dyehouse. 86
The dyer, Timothy Howes, lived in a house with seven domestic rooms, a
shop and dyehouse with shears, vats, furnaces, kalendar, presses and other tools for
dyeing and clothworking. 87
Some dyers, such as Thomas Clarson, bordered on gentry
status. 88
Another dyer, Edward Morgan, also managed a mercer’s shop at the market
place, indicating his role as a dealer in both outward and inward-bound textiles within an
83 WoRO, probate of Nicholas Leake, Alcester, hatter, 1681, £23-7-10, including stocks of men’s and
women’s hats. WoRO, marriage licence of Richard Jesson, Arrow, Oct. 1662, witnessed by Nicholas
Leake, Alcester, feltmaker. (N. B. For explanation of references to marriage licence records see Sources
and Bibliography at the end of this thesis.) Worsted cloth was probably also made in the town, though
specific references first emerge in the early eighteenth century.
84 WaRO, CR1998/26, Throckmorton MSS, 1673.
85 Local records do not usually specify the type of weaver, with the exceptions discussed above. J. de L.
Mann, The Cloth Industry in the West of England from 1640 to 1880, pp. xi-xiv, discusses different types of
cloth made at this period, some of which had warp and weft of different materials, such as worsted and
woollen.
86 Saville, Alcester - a History, p. 42, refers to dyers as far back as 1232. WoRO, probate of John Bovey,
Alcester, dyer, 1689, £276-11-1, and WoRO, probate of Richard Christopher, Alcester, gentleman, 1720,
£66-19-0. From 1660 no-one in Alcester was described as a clothier, although some appear to fulfil that
role.
87 WoRO, probate of Timothy Howes, Alcester, dyer, 1710, £82-12-0. It also included ‘wadd’ (woad?)
worth £12. As in the previous period, no Alcester men are described as clothiers, but the dyers and woolmerchants
co-ordinated the town’s textile-trade. Howes, also described as a jersey-weaver, (and Weigham,
mentioned below) may have died prematurely during the high mortality of 1710-11.
88 TNA, PCC probate of Thomas Clarson, Alcester, dyer, 1738. Later family members were described as
gentlemen. Stephen Cheston, another dyer, was also of a substantial family with money to invest. Other
members of his family were tanners and gentlemen.
91