Lacemaking by Bedfordshire Paupers in the Late Eighteenth Century

REFERENCES

• General literature on the poor in the late eighteenth century begins with J. L. and B. Hammond, The Village Labourer (1st edn, London, 1911; paperback, 1966); and D. Marshall, The English Poor in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1926). For discussions of the Poor Law in general see J. J. and A. J. Bagley, The English Poor Law (London, 1966); D. Marshall, ‘The Old Poor Law, 1662–1759’, Econ. Hist. Rev. 8 (1937), reprinted in E. M. Carus-Wilson (editor), Essays in Economic History, I (London, 1954), 295–305; and J. D. Marshall, The Old Poor Law, 1795–1834 (London, 1968), with literature there cited. For a regional study of some re1evence to Bedfordshire, see E. M. Hampson, The Treatment of Poverty in Cambridgeshire (Cambridge, 1934). Like F. G. Emmison, ‘The Relief of the Poor at Eaton Socon, 1706–1834’, Publ. Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc., 15 (1933), it makes no reference to lacemaking. The county background can be followed in J. Godber, History of Bedfordshire (Bedford, 1969), pp. 394–464.
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• Migration from one Bedfordshire parish, Cardington, can be studied from a valuable volume now in Bedfordshire County Record Office (document P38/28), which has been studied by N. L. Tranter, ‘Population and Social Structure in a Bedfordshire Parish: the Cardington Listing of Inhabitants, 1782’, Population Studies, 21 (1967), 261–82. See also D. Baker, ‘The Inhabitants of Cardington in 1782’, Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 1973.
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• See F. G. Emmison, loco cit., n. I for a local parish; also P. Grey, Bedfordshire Archive Teaching Unit I, The Old Poor Law (Bedford, n.d. but about 1969 ), for a more general local account.
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• J. D. Marshall, The Old Poor Law, 1795–1834 (London, 1968), is a succinct summary of the evidence. A Bedfordshire parish with evidence for the Speenhamland system was Keysoe, whose overseers accounts, 6 vols, are Bedfordshire CRO documents P48/12/1–6. They cover 1816 to 1835.
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• Principally Goldington, see D. H. Kennett, ‘A Pauper Cloth-making account of the seventeenth century’, Textile History, 4 (1973), 125–9.
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• C. Freeman, Pillow Lace in the East Midlands (Luton, 1958, reprinted several times, most recently 1971), gives a succinct account of the history and development of the lace industry, from which the details have been taken.
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• A. Buck, ‘The teaching of lacemaking in the East Midlands’, Folk Life, 4 (1967), 39–50, summarizes the available evidence mostly nineteenth century.
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• P. L. R. Horn, ‘Pillow Lacemaking in Victorian England: the experience of Oxfordshire’, Textile History, 3 (1972), 100–15.
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• It is non-proven whether the practices described in this paper extended to the Chiltern area of the county. No references have been found. However, J. Godber, History of Bedfordshire (Bedford, 1969), p. 364 observes ‘no lacemen have been found east of Bedford or Ampthill’. Bolnhurst in fact is just to the east of the northward extension of such a line, but the other parishes are near to the county’s borders with Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.
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• Bedford St Paul overseers’ accounts, 1768 to 1785, eight volumes (Beds. CRO documents PI/12/1–8). It should be noted that Bedford from before the Norman Conquest was always more than one ecclesiastical parish. The five ancient parishes are St Paul’s, St Peter’s, St Cuthbert’s, St Mary’s, and St John’s. For their architecture see N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Bedfordshire ... (London, 1968), pp. 46–9; also T. P. Smith, ‘The Anglo-Saxon Churches of Bedfordshire’, Beds. Arch.J., 3 (1966),7–14 for surviving Saxon work at St Peter and St Mary.
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• Bolnhurst overseers’ accounts, 1785 to 1800 (Beds. CRO document P46/12/3).
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• Milton Ernest overseers’ accounts, 1794 to 1797 (Beds. CRO document P80/12/2).
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• Turvey overseers’ accounts, 1802 to 1817 (Beds. CRO document P27/12/5).
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• Wootton overseers’ accounts, 1784 to 1810 (Beds. CRO document P3/12/1).
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• Bedford St Paul overseers’ accounts, 1778 to 1782 (Beds. CRO document, PI/12/4).
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• In Bedford St Paul overseers accounts, loco cit., n. 10.
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• Inventory found loose in Bedford St Paul overseers’ accounts 1772 to 1775 (Beds. CRO document PI/12/2).
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• These are scattered in the general accounts: see n. 9.
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• Buck, loco cit., n. 7., pp. 42–3.
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• List at the beginning of the overseers’ accounts of Milton Ernest, 1794 to 1797 (Beds. CRO document P80/12/2). The earlier account book, covering 1783 to 1794, has surprisingly no references to lacemaking (Beds. CRO document P80/12/1).
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• The author has in preparation a study entitled ‘Individual case study and the history of poverty’, which uses examples from seventeenth and eighteenth-century Bedfordshire overseers’ accounts.
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• The demographic information is taken from the parish register of Milton Ernest, published in Bedfordshire Parish Registers, I I (1935).
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• The accounts are taken from the overseers’ accounts, loco cit., n. 20.
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• Bolnhurst overseers’ accounts, 1785 to 1800 (Beds. CRO document P46/12/3).
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• Wootton overseers’ accounts, 1784 to 1810 (Beds. CRO document P3/12/1).
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• Loc. cit., n. 24; earlier in the century at Great Barford in 1743, George Cockett collected stones and scoured the town ditch, see the overseers’ accounts of Great Barford, 1712 to 1749 (Beds. CRO document P23/12/1), and at Odell in 1764 paupers collected sparrows, see Odell overseers’ accounts 1758 to 1788 (Beds. CRO document X29/8/1).
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• The appropriate page of the Bolnhurst overseers’ accounts is torn and only part survives of the 1790 accounts; there is no evidence for 1791 or 1792. See loco cit., n. 24.
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• The information about Wootton is scattered in the unpaginated overseers’ accounts, 1784 to 1810 (Beds. CRO document P3/12/1).
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• Turvey overseers’ accounts, 1802 to 1817 (Beds. CRO document P27/12/5).
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• Turvey apprenticeship indentures, 1671 (Beds. CRO document P27/14, unnumbered).
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• I have only checked the listed parishes. The unlisted parishes of which there are several with large collections of apprenticeship indentures, may contain other instances.
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• Bedford St Paul’s apprenticeship indentures, 1767 (Beds. CRO document PI/14).
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• Shillington apprenticeship indentures, 1706 (Beds. CRO document P44/14).
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• Dunstable apprenticeship indentures, 1734 (Beds. CRO document P72/14/6o).
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• Ampthill apprenticeship indentures, 1707 (Beds. CRO document P30/14/21).
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• All records for Northill are found in the apprenticeship bonds and indentures, 1669 to 1804 (Beds. CRO document PIO/14).
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• St Mark, Chapter 14, verse 5.
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• Horn, loco cit., n. 8, is wider than its title suggests. See also Freeman, op. cit., n. 6, and T. Wright, The Romance of Pillow Lace (Olney, 1919).
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• Horn, loco cit., n. 8, 110–12.
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• Paper completed September 1973, slight revisions made February 1974. I am most grateful to the staff of the Bedfordshire County Record Office for allowing me to examine such a wide variety of records in their care. As always they have suffered gladly the voracious scholar who has the cheek to ask for more.
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