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

I 14 TEXTILES TEXTILES 115books,' but it was more usual to pay by the piece.Though it is always more difficult to discover thepossible earnings per day of women who are workingby a piece rate in their own homes, it so happens thatseveral of the writers who discuss labour questionsin the woollen trade specially state that their estimatesof the wages of spinners are based on full time.John Haynes quoted figures in I 71 g which work out atnearly IS. 6d. per week for the spinners ofwool into stuffsfor the Spanish Trade, and about 2s. I d. for stockings,'another pamphlet gives 24s. as the wages of9 spinsters for a week,3 while in 1763 the author ofthe "Golden Fleece" quotes 2s. gd. a week forSpanish Another pamphlet says that thewages in the fine woollen trade " being chieflywomen and children, may amount, one with anotherto L6 per ann~m."~ A petition from the weavers,undated, but evidently presented during a season ofbad trade, declares that " there are not less than aMillion of poor unhappy wbjects, aloman and childrenonly, who . . are employed in Spinning Yarnfor the Woollen Manufacturers ; Thousands -of thesehave now no work at all, and all of them have sufferedan Abatement of Wages ; so that now a Poor Woman,perhaps a Mother of many Children, must work-veryhard to gain Three Pence or Three Pence Farthing perDay."'l(Hoeoard Household Book, p. 63, 1613.) " Widow Grame for spinning ij stone and5' of wool1 vjs. To the wench that brought it iijd To Ellen for winding yarn iijweekes xviijd.(Fell, Sarah; Household Accounts, Nov. 28, 1677, p. 439.) Pd. Agnes Holme ofHawxhead for spininge woole here 7 weeks 02.04Haynes, Great Britain's Glory, pp. 8, 9.Weavers' True Case, p. 43, 1719.James, John, Hisv of the Worsted Manufacture, p. 239.Further considerations for encouraging the FFoollen Manufactures.Second Humble Address from tbe Poor Weavers.Though these wages provided no margin for thesupport of children, or other dependants, 'it was*ossible for a woman who could spin the better qualityyarns to maintain herself in independence.John Evelyn describes " a maiden of primitivelife, the daughter of a poore labouring man, who hadsustain'd her parents (some time since dead) by herlabour, and has for many years refus'd marriage, or toreceive any assistance from, the parish, besides ye littlehermitage my lady gives her rent free : she lives onfourepence a day, which she gets by spinning ; says sheabounds and can give almes to others, living in greatehumility and content, without any apparent affectationor singularity ; she is continualy working, praying,or reading, gives a good account of her knowledge inreligion, vlsites the sick ; is not in the least given totalke ; very modest, of a simple not unseemly behaviour,of a comely countenance, clad very plaine,but cleane and tight. In sum she appeares a saintof an extraordinary sort, in so religious a life as isseldom met with in villages now-a-daies."'It is probable that thk wages for spinning wereadvanced soon after this date, for Defoe writes in1728 that " the rate for spinning, weaving and all otherManufactory-work, I mean in Wool, is so risen, thatthe Poor all over England can now earn or gain neartwice as much in a Day, and in some Places, morethan twice as much as they could get for the same worktwo or three Years ago . . . the poor fiomen nowget ~zd. to 15d. a Day for spinning, the men more inproportion, and are full of work."' " The Wenches. . . . wont go to service at 12d. or 18d. a weekwhile they can get 7s. to 8s. a Week at spinning ; theMen won't drudge at the Plow and Cart &C., and perhapsget L6 a year . . . . when they can sit' Evelyn (John) Diary, Vol. III., p. 7, 1685' Defoe, Bebaoiour, p. 83.