There are lots of nursery rhymes which I knew as a child, passed on to my children (though they have forgotten them), and have sung to my grandchildren, which contain references to things of a bygone age which no modern child would understand. So who now would understand half a pound of twopenny rice, except those of us who came out of the Ark and can still calculate Imperial measurements and pre-decimal coins? And just exactly how far did the crooked man go when he walked a crooked mile? So many today will know neither garters nor hose. I like knitting socks. Socks and stockings were known as hose and were held up by garters. I had a little husband / No bigger than my thumb / I put him in a pint pot / And there I bid him drum ........ I gave him some garters / To garter up his hose / And a little handkerchief / To wipe his pretty nose. So this month's blog is about stockings. Everyone wore woollen knitted stockings. They were more visible on the men folk who wore knee breeches with stockings up to the knee. The lovely book by George Walker called Costumes of Yorkshire (1814) has many illustrations of the wearing of stockings or hose. This picture is called "Plough Stotts" and the person you think is a woman is actually a man in drag. These gentlemen are all wearing stockings and are also in George Walker's book. They are playing Knurr and Spell. So where did you get your stockings from? And who made them and who sold them? This picture from George Walker's Costumes of Yorkshire is called "Wensleydale Knitters" and stocking knitting was something that dales folk were very involved with. So now I am going back to David Jameson's step son, to see what story he had to tell. David Jameson's step-son, John Birk, was apprehended in Reeth at the same time as his step father at the end of 1774 beginning of 1775. He said that he was eighteen years old and had been born in Leith, son of a soldier also called John Birk. His mother was originally from Liverpool and had been called Ann Kelly before she married. He did not say what happened to his father, but he had not played a part in his son's life because when he was only eight years old - yes, eight years old - he was put out to work. He was employed by Thomas Ryecroft in travelling the country selling stockings. He did this until he was fourteen years old. This picture from the ArtUk collection is called View near Welsh Coast with Riders and Packhorses and is by Thomas Rowlandson [1757 - 1827] and is at Eton College. The tiny figures of the pack horses carrying their bulky loads gives an idea of what it was like to be a travelling salesman in the age of foot and horse transport. So where did Thomas Ryecroft get his stockings from and who did he sell them to? Whoever wrote John Birk's story down was a bit vague about where Thoams Ryecroft came from. Was he still in Leith? Or had he and his mother gone back to Liverpool? I don't know, but when John was fourteen he went to work for a Thomas Hall, hosier, of Nellgate or Stellgate, not sure which. He was then bound an apprentice to another hosier of the same place for three years called George Hutchinson. So what did hosiers do? Hosiers were the middlemen buying up the stockings from those who made them and selling them on to those who wore them. This is a trade card for a Hosier and Hatter in Covent Garden, London, it is beautifully illustrated and lists that he sold both wholesale and retail silk, worsted, cotton & thread hose. Sometimes a hosier provided the yarn to the knitters. This excellent book describes how Joseph Symson was a middleman dealing in textiles and stockings produced in the Kendal district, selling them on to customers all over the country. Some of his regular customers were itinerant pedlars or hawkers who travelled the country. So back to the journeys of John Birk. After working for the hosier Thomas Hall he was bound apprentice to George Hutchinson, another hosier, for three years. Then the story takes a great leap and he was in - Whitby on the Yorkshire coast in the spring of 1774, and here he met his mother. So this is where his story joins up with his step father [My bonnie lies over the ocean, July 2022] David Jameson. Although his step father had had a lifetime at sea, his mother was also a pedlar or hawker and travelled about selling medicines. Now when David Jameson, sailor, was in Whitby he said he was ill for five weeks. is this how her met John Birk's mother? Did she cure him with her medicines? The little group were soon on the move again. John Birk's story says that from Whitby they travelled to Stockton and stayed three days, then on to Hartlepool where they stayed two night selling medicines; then on to Easington which was seven miles from Sunderland where they lodged at David Huntley's in the High Street; they went to Shields for three weeks and lodged at Fanny Robinsons near the Market Place; on to Newcastle and lodged at Nanny Mutter's in Sidegate through Newgate for one week; the next stop was three weeks in Chester le Street where they lodged at Fanny Robinson's in Hall Garth Street; then to Bishop Auckland where they stayed three weeks with Effie, a widow woman; then on to Staindrop for three nights at the "Hall in the wall", probably the Hole in the Wall, a common name for a pub; not far then to Barnard Castle where they stayed a month at the house of Thomas Bavencroft or Ravencroft near Gallgate. From Barney they set off up Teesdale and stayed two nights at Romaldkirk at the Sign of the Blue Bell, then over to Baldersdale and stopped at Hunderfoot [Hunderthwaite] and then returned to Barnard Castle where they stayed a month. Then a short journey down Teesdale to Whorlton where they stayed four days at the Sign of the Greyhound. From there to Richmond where they arrived "last Monday" and then on to Reeth where they arrived last Friday was a se'nnight [seven night] and met with his stepfather David Jameson again and his Uncle Joseph. John Birk then gave the information that his mother Ann/ Nanny Birk and his step father David Jameson the sailor were married at Darlington and stayed three nights at the house of Nanny French. So this little story gives insight into the distribution of manufactured goods. The hosiers obtained goods from those who made them, then either employed or sold them on to travelling salesmen. We also have the story of John Birk's mother and stepfather. His mother was first married to a soldier, then travelled about selling medicines, and finally married the sailor David Jameson probably after meeting him in Whitby. Now another story involving stockings. This story starts in Grinton in Swaledale - And journeys on to Stokesley, over forty miles to the east. Jane the wife of Samuel Atkinson, taylor of Grinton, set off for Stokesley from Grinton on Monday the 13th of March 1767. She was travelling with a pack of woollen stockings which she sold about the country, carried by her donkey. Thomas and Joseph Atkinson, two of her sons, also went along. She must have needed to take some money with her, and had the remarkable sum of £7 16 shillings in gold and silver. She put this into a little bag made of "harden", a coarse cloth made of hemp or linen, and then stuffed the bag inside one of her son's shoes. She then put another four shillings in halfpennies [come on work it out - 96 coins] in another purse or bag and stuffed it in the other shoe. The shoes were then pushed into the middle of the pack of woollen stockings and she sewed up the pack. There was just enough room for a very small hand to go in. She then tied the sack round with a garter, put it on the donkey and set off for Stokesley. This picture is called The Cobbler by Nicholas Candy [ 1793 - 1857] and is at the Newport Museum and Art Gallery, and on the ArtUk website.
When Jane, Thomas and Joseph Atkinson got to Stokesely they lodged with the local cobbler, William Carlin. Here misfortune befell them. They left the pack in a downstairs room, and they lodged upstairs. The next morning they got up between six and seven, put the pack on the donkey and travelled on to Guisbrough. When they got there and opened up the pack the shoe with the £7 16 shillings was missing, but the shoe with the four shillings in ha'pennies was still there. Jane said that she had the greatest suspicion that Carlin had stolen the money. The only other people in the house in Stokesley were William Carlin's son who acted as boot boy, and his daughter Grace Carlin. Jane's two sons testified that they saw their mother count the money, put it in the bags and put the bags in the shoes and put them in the pack with the woollen stockings, that they were then sewn up and that Thomas tied the pack about with a garter. Sadly that was where the trail went cold and I don't think Carlin was apprehended for theft. But this little tale also is about travelling and stockings. So had all the stockings Jane taken to Stokesley then Guisbrough been made in Swaledale? Was she buying them in one place and selling them in another? And why, in 1767, was she carrying such a huge amount in cash? Why all the ha'pennies? We will never know, but next time you need some new socks / tights/ stockings think where they were made and who made them. I will look at stockings again.
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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