working life of women seventeenth century - School of Economics ...

CRAFTS AND TRADESA large proportion both of the bread andbeer consumed at this time was produced bywomen in domestic industry. The wages assessmentsshow that on the larger farms the chief womanservant was expected both to brew and to bake, butthe cottage folk in many cases cannot have possessedthe necessary capital for brewing, and perhapswere wanting ovens in which to bake. Certainly inthe towns both brewing and baking existed as tradesfrom the earliest times. Though in many countriesthe grinding of corn has been one of the domesticoccupations performed by women and slaves, in Englandwomen were saved this drudgery, for the toll of cornground at the mill was an important item in thefeudal lord's revenue, and severe punishments wereinflicted on those who ground corn elsewhere. Thecommon bakehouse was also a monopoly of thefeudal lord's,' but his rights in this case were notcarried so far as to penalize baking for domesticpurposes.It might be supposed that industries such as brewingand baking, which were so closely connected with thedomestic arts pertaining to women, would be moreextensively occupied by women than trades such asthose of blacksmith or pewterer or butcher ; but itwill be shown that skill acquired domestically wasnot sufficient to establish a woman's position inthe world of trade, and that actually in the seventeenthcentury it was as difficult for her to become a bakeras a butcher.Raking.--After the decay of feudal privileges thetrade of baking was controlled on lines similar tothose governing other trades, but subject to an evencloser supervision by the local authorities, owing to the1 Petronilla, Cauntess of Leicester, granted to Petronilla, daughter of ~ichardRoger's son of Leicester and her heirs " all the suit of the men outside theSouthgateaforesaid to bake at her bakehouse with all the librrties and free customs,saving my customary tenants who are bound to my bakehouses within the town ofLeicester." Bateson, (M,) Records, Lercester, Vol. l., p. 10.CRAFTS AND TRADESfact that bread is a prime necessity of life.On thisaccount its price was fixed by " the assize of bread."The position of women in regard to the trade wasalso somewhat different, because while in othertrades they possessed fewer facilities than men foracquiring technical experience, in this they learntthe art of baking as part of their domestic duties.Nevertheless, in the returns which give the names ofauthorised bakers, those of women do not peatlyexceed in numbkr the names which are given forother trades ; of lists for the City of Chester, onegives thirty names of bakers, six being women, allwidows, while another gives thirty-nine men and nowomen,' and a third twenty-six men and three women.The assistance which the Baker's wife gave to herhusband, however, was taken for granted. At Carlisle,the bye-laws provide that " noe Persons . . . .shall brew or bayk to sell but only freemen and tharewife^."^ and a rule at Beverley laid down that " nocommon baker or other baker called boule baker,their wives, servants, or apprentices, shall enter thecornmarket any Saturday for the future before I p.m.to buy any grain, nor buy wheat coming on Saturdaysto market beyond 2 bushels for stock for their ownhouse after the hour aforesaid.""A writer, who was appealing for an increase in theassize of bread, includes the wife's work among thenecessary costs of making a loaf ; " Two shillings wasallowed by the assize for all maner of charges in bakinga quarter of wheate over and above the second priceof wheate in the market," but the writer declaresthat in Henry VII.'s time " the bakers . . . . .might farre better cheape and with lesse charge ofseruantes haue baked a quarter of Wheate, then nowl Harl. MSS., 2054, fo. 44 and 45, 2105, fo. 301.a Ferguson, Cadrslc, Dormnt Book, p. 69, 1561.Beererlq, Town Documents, pp. 39-40.