Pillow Lacemaking in Victorian England: The Experience of Oxfordshire

REFERENCES

• Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Vol. 2 (Oxford, 1907 ), p. 252. Miss K. S. Woods, The Rural Industries Round Oxford (Oxford, 1921), p. 157. Raie Clare, ‘The History of Lacemaking’ in Bucks Life, April 1969, p. 14.
   Google Scholar
• 1851 Census of Population, Parliamentary Papers, 1852–3, LXXXVIII, Part I.
   Google Scholar
• Quoted in Mrs B. Palliser, History of Lace (London, 1902 edn), p. 383.
   Google Scholar
• Raie Clare, loco cit., p. 15. Thomas Wright, The Romance of the Lace Pillow (Olney, 1919 ), p. 216.
   Google Scholar
• A. Young, General View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire (London, 1813 ), p. 328. He attributed some of the hardships endured by the poor of Thame to the high price of coal - at 2S. 2d. per cwt. Bread was then 9!d. per quartern loaf; ‘butter, IS. 4d. per lb.; bacon, IS.; beef, 8d.; mutton, 7!d. and 8d.’.
   Google Scholar
• Mrs B. Palliser, op. cit., p. 392. As early as 1821a Bedford lace-dealer had become insolvent, however, and in 1822 two Sharnbrook lace-dealers, who were in difficulties, dissolved their partnership. These problems were mirrored elsewhere in the Midland lacemaking districts during the 1820S and 1830s. See Joyce Godber, History of Bedfordshire (Bedfordshire County Council, 1969), p. 479.
   Google Scholar
• First Report on the Employment of Children Commission, 1863, Parliamentary Papers, 1863, XVIII, p. 185. Raie Clare, ‘The Lacemaker’s Equipment’ in Bucks Life, June 1969. See S. D. Chapman, The Early Factory Masters (Newton Abbot, 1967), pp. 27–8 for details of the machine-lace trade earlier on, that is, in the late eighteenth century. And D. G. Varley, ‘John Heathcoat, Founder of the Machine-made Lace Industry’ in Textile History, Vol. I, no. I, 1968.
   Google Scholar
• 1891 Census of Population, Parliamentary Papers, 1893–4, Vol. CVI.
   Google Scholar
• Thomas Wright, op. cit., pp. 235–6.
   Google Scholar
• Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Vol. 2 (Oxford, 1907 ), p. 253.
   Google Scholar
• J. Howard Brown and William Guest, A History of Thame (Thame, 1935 ), p. 184.
   Google Scholar
• Second Report of the Children’s Employment Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1864, XXII, p. xxix.
   Google Scholar
• Charles Freeman, Pillow Lace in the East Midlands (Luton Museum and Art Gallery, 1966 edn), p. 18.
   Google Scholar
• Second Report of the Children’s Employment Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1864, XXII, pp. xxix and xxx. Also First Report of the Children’s Employment Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1863, XVIII, Mr White’s Report on Pillow-Lacemaking, p. 185.
   Google Scholar
• Thomas Wright, op. cit., p. 102.
   Google Scholar
• A. Penderel Moody, Lace Making and Collecting (London, 1909 ), p. 63.
   Google Scholar
• Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Vol. 2, p. 252 (quoting from the 1865 edition of Mrs B. Palliser’s History of Lace, pp. 28–9).
   Google Scholar
• First Report of the Children’s Employment Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1863, XVIII, p. 256.
   Google Scholar
• 19 Second Report of the Children’s Employment Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1843, XIII, p. III. Concern about the effects of lacemaking was equally expressed in the eighteenth century, and in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1785 (Vol. LV, Pt. 2) one contributor wrote of the ‘deformed and diseased’ lacemakers he had encountered in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire. He wondered how it was possible ‘that a deformed or diseased mother [could] bring forth healthy children’ and suggested that the lace cushions should be placed on frames which permitted the worker to assume an upright posture. He also pleaded for improved ventilation in the workroom – in the form of an ‘opening made in the ceiling [to] carry off the putrid air, without causing the chimney to smoke ... “ pp. 938–9.
   Google Scholar
• Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture, First Report, Parliamentary Papers, 1867 –8, XVII. Evidence on Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
   Google Scholar
• Thomas Wright, op. cit., p. 107.
   Google Scholar
• Charles Freeman, op. cit., p. 19, and information kindly provided by Mrs Turney, a Buckinghamshire lacemaker. I am indebted to my sister-in-law, Mrs Margaret Horn, for her help in obtaining this information.
   Google Scholar
• Thomas Wright, op. cit., pp. 185–92.
   Google Scholar
• Raie Clare, ‘History of Lacemaking’, lococit., p. 17.
   Google Scholar
• Mrs B. Palliser, op. cit., pp. 389–90.
   Google Scholar
• Thomas Wright, op. cit., p. 107. Report to the Commissioners on the Employment of Children, Parliamentary Papers, 1843, XV, p. A 13. (Evidence of Mr Nixon, surgeon of Stony Stratford; his condemnation of the use of ‘dicky pots’ was echoed by other doctors.)
   Google Scholar
• First Report on the Employment of Children Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1863, XVIII, p. 257. Mr Gilbert continued to act as a lace dealer into the 1880s. See, for example, Kelly’s Directory of Berkshire, Bucks., and Oxon., 1833. And when he died or retired from business, his widow or wife apparently continued in his stead. See Kelly’s Directory of Berkshire, Bucks., and Oxon., 1887.
   Google Scholar
• Second Report of Children’s Employment Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1843, XIII, p. III. From Report by Major Burns on Lacemaking in Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.
   Google Scholar
• Ibid., p. 181.
   Google Scholar
• First Report on the Employment of Children Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1863, XVIII, p. 185. Mr White’s Report on Pillow-Lacemaking.
   Google Scholar
• Ibid., p. 258, Evidence of Mrs Wright, Lace Buyer of Prestwood.
   Google Scholar
• Second Report of Children’s Employment Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1843, XIII, p. 97.
   Google Scholar
• First Report on the Employment of Children Commission, 1863; Mr White’s Report on Pillow-Lacemaking p. 185. Gilbert himself said of his activities (p. 257): ‘From some I buy in their own villages, travelling, round for the purpose ... In some places I do not deal directly with the lacemakers themselves but through the agency of small buyers, to whom I supply the materials and patterns, and who in turn deal with the lacemakers in the same way as myself ... ‘.
   Google Scholar
• Miss K. S. Woods, op. cit., p. 158.
   Google Scholar
• Report of Commissioners on the Factory and Workshop Acts, Parliamentary Papers, 1876, XXIX, Appendix C, no. 37, Evidence of Sub-Inspector Striedinger, p. 86. As late as 1920, however, it was reported that ‘a few lace schools’ still survived in the Midland area. Miss K. S. Woods, op. cit., p. 161.
   Google Scholar
• Report of Commissioners on the Factory and Workshop Acts, lococit., p. 86.
   Google Scholar
• Information provided by Mrs Turney.
   Google Scholar
• Miss K. S. Woods, op. cit., p. 158.
   Google Scholar
• Ibid., p. 161. Miss Woods noted the ‘dangers in teaching children a trade which can be carried on at home’. Early in the twentieth century a Midland ‘schoolmaster’s wife who introduced lace-making into the school was obliged to drop it for the sake of the children’s health, because they were kept at their pillows in the evenings when they ought to have been playing out of doors ... ‘.
   Google Scholar
• Mixbury School Log-Book, Oxford County Record Office,T fSL 35(1). Entries for 5 and I I July 1870.
   Google Scholar
• J. C. Blomfield, History of Finmere (Buckingham, 1887 ), p. 65. Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Vol. 6 (Oxford, 1959), p. 121.
   Google Scholar
• Souldern Parish Register Transcripts, Bodleian Library, MS. Oxf. Dioc. Pp. d. 427 and 1851a nd 1861 Census Returns, Public Record Office, H.O.107.1729 and R.G.9.898, respectively.
   Google Scholar
• Miss K. S. Woods, op. cit., p. 162.
   Google Scholar