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

P-I9OCRAFTS AND TRADESmarriage ; it was brought to the notice of one ofthe Quaker's Meetings in London that one of theirMembers, "Will Townsend . . . card maker proposesto take to wife Elizabeth Doshell of ye sameplace to be his wife, and ye same Elizabeth dothpropose to take ye said Will to be her husband, theyonge man liveing with her as a journey-man hadthought and a bcliefe that she would come to owneye truth and did propose to her his Intentionstowards her as to marige before she did come toowne the truth which thinge being minded to himby ffriends. . . . he has acknowledged it soe andsayes it had been beter that he had waited till hehad had his hope in some measure answered."'Such marriages, though obviously offering manyadvantages, were not always satisfactory. A lamentablepicture of an unfortunate one is given in thepetition of Sarah Westwood, wife of Robert Westwood,Feltmaker, presented to Laud in 1639, showing that"your petitioner was (formerly) the wife of one JohnDavys, alsoe a Feltmaker, who dying left her a howsefurnished with goodes sufficient for her use thereinand charged with one childe, as yet but an infant,and two apprentices, who, for the residue of theirtermes . . . could well have atchieved sufficientfor the maynetenance of themselves and alsoe ofyour petitioner and her child. That being thus leftin good estate for livelyhood, her nowe husbandbecame a suitor unto her in the way of marriage,being then a journeyman feltmaker. . . .,)Soon after their marriage, " Westwood followinglewde courses, often beate and abused your petitioner,sold and consumed what her former husband left her,threatened to kill her and her child, turned themout of dores, refusing to afford them any means ofsubsistance, but on the contrary seekes the utterruin of them both and most scandelously has traducedHorsleydown Monthly Meeting Minute Book, 19 II~O., 1675.CRAFTS AND TRADESyour petitioner giving out in speeches that she wouldhave poysoned him thereby to bring a general1disgrace upon her, . . . and forbiddes all peoplewhere she resortes to afford her entertaignment, andwill not suffer her to worke for the livelyhood ofher and her child, but will have accompt of thesame.. . . Albeit he can get by his labour20/- a weeke, yet he consumes the same in idlecompany . . . having lewdlie spent all he hadwith your petitioner."'Though their entrance to the Gilds and Companieswas most often obtained by women through marriage,it has already been shown that their admission byapprenticeship was not unknown, and they alsooccasionally acquired freedom by patrimony ; thus" Katherine Wetwood, daughter of Humphrey Wetwood,of London, Pewterer, was sworn and made freeby the Testimony of the Master and Wardens ofthe Merchant Taylors' Co., and of two Silk Weavers,that she was a virgin and twenty-one years of age.She paid the usual patrimony fine of gs.zd."' Morethan one hundred years later Mary Temple was madefree of the Girdlers' Company by patrimony. Nojealousy is expressed of the wGmen who were members ofthe Companies, but all others were rigorously excludedfrom employment. Complaints were brought before theGirdlers' that certain Girdlers in London " set onworke such as had not served 7 years at the art,and also for setting forreigners and maids on ~orke."~Rules were made in Bristol in 1606, forbidding womento work at the trades of the whitawers (white leatherdressers), Point makers and Glovers."' S.P.D., ccccxxxv. 42, Dec. 6, 1639.Welch, Paotercrs, Vol. II., p. 92, 1633-4.Smythe, Company of Girdlers, p. 128, 1747.' Zbid, p. 88, 1628.Latimer, Annals of Bristol, p. 26, 1606.