The Handloom Weavers of Perth

An article I wrote 11 years ago for the Family and Local History Handbook 12 (I have updated the final part on how to access the records):

Weave Truth with Trust: the Handloom Weavers of Perth
by Chris Paton

The weaving industry of the old Scottish burgh of Perth has had a long and fascinating history. In a charter granted by William the Lion in 1210, the king forbade anybody to make or dye cloth who was not a burgess within the town’s Merchant Guild, confirming that some degree of industry was indeed already underway. In this early period, the Guild was the body which protected the financial interests of both merchants and craftsmen, and from its numbers were elected a Provost, four Bailies and a Dean of Guild, who together constituted the burgh council. As a trading body, the guild jealously guarded its monopoly.


The Weavers’ Incorporation

By the 15th century, the Scottish Parliament had started to erode this long held status quo. On March 12th 1424 an Act was passed declaring that “in each town of the realm there be chosen, of each sundry craft used therein, a wise man of that craft by the rest of that craft and the counsel of the officers of the town, who shall be held deacon or master over the rest for the time assigned to him, to assay and govern all works that are made by the workmen of his craft, so that the king’s lieges are not defrauded in the future as they have been in the past by untrue men of crafts”. The Act paved the way for the creation of trade corporations in Scotland, and the Weavers Incorporation was duly created in Perth, to provide mutual support and protection for its members, and to administer justice to its brethren through its own court. Despite this elevation in status, a further Act in 1469 continued to isolate the weavers from office, when it decreed that the council, still dominated by Guild members, could elect its own successors.

In May 1556, Mary Queen of Scots decided that there should be equal numbers of craftsmen and merchants on the council. At this time she held the weavers in high esteem, and presented them with a silk flag which she had herself created in their honour. The Incorporation finally gained its seat, but would disastrously lose it again not long afterwards, just prior to the accession of James VI (1567), a satisfactory explanation for which has yet to be found.

Apprentices and Journeymen

The surviving apprenticeship registers of the Weavers Incorporation date back to 1593. A weaver’s apprenticeship could last anywhere from three to nine years, with most appointments made at Martinmas (November 11th), though a few commenced on the other quarter days. A typical example is that of Peter Dow, whose own copy of his indenture papers is just one of thirteen that survives at the Perth and Kinross Archives. The son of James Dow, a tailor at Drum within the parish of Moneydie, Peter signed up to serve as an apprentice to William Henderson, a Deacon weaver of the Incorporation, at Whitsunday (March 15th) 1782. The stipend payable to the apprentice was ten pounds and ten shillings, and to make sure that the full indenture was served, both gentlemen had ‘cautioners’ to stand guarantor.

An apprentice would typically reside with his master for an agreed duration, from whom he would learn the necessary skills of the trade. Whilst most weavers were men, occasional records of women do turn up. For example on December 24th 1746, an apprentice called James Deu, from Kintillo, was booked apprentice to Katherine Adam in Houghfield.

Apprentices did occasionally break their indentures, such as John Hill, who in November 1796 ran off to enlist as a sailor. In other cases an agreement came to an end by mutual consent. Shortly after William Logie signed up as apprentice to Laurence Lennie in Huntingtower at Lammas 1752, he fell seriously ill. His cautioners brought his circumstances before the Incorporation, and successfully pleaded for the refund of his dues and the cancellation of the agreement.

Once an apprentice had completed his training, he would normally seek to become a journeyman in the trade, whereby he would seek employment with a master craftsman, though he could now live in his own accommodation with his own family, and earn a decent wage. This allowed a novice weaver to accumulate experience with many different master weavers, an essential part of the training.

Boys will be boys, however, as the following minute of an Act drawn up by the Incorporation on December 22nd 1705 shows!

“Considering that by the facility of youth and nature young men may be accessary to do se[ver]all things which may tend to there great prejudice, Therefore The haill Generall meiting of the said traid Statutes and Ordaines that no journeyman or printeises shall in any time heirafter be found Drunk or shall be out of thair Chalmers after nine aclock at night unless they have ane sufficient Excuse And to shune all Idle company under the paine of ffourty shilling Scots money by and Attour Imprisonment of thair persones”.


Freemen Weavers

Becoming a freeman within the Weavers Incorporation gave a weaver the right to vote in the Calling’s elections, and as part of their entry, they had to adhere to certain stipulations. The first was that they had to obey the Acts of the Calling, and to share all financial charges and public burdens with their brethren. Secondly, if they took up residence in the countryside, they would agree to pay half a crown to the Calling yearly whilst living there. Thirdly, and most seriously, they were strongly dissuaded from defecting to the Merchant Guild, for which they could be fined one hundred merks Scots.

There were four ways that one could normally become a freeman of the Calling:

i) The first and most common method was to marry a freeman weaver’s daughter. On December 1719, for example, Archibald Mitchell of Kinnoull was able to join after marrying May Hood, the daughter of Thomas Hood, a freeman weaver residing at the Bridgend of Tay. A freeman’s apprentice was charged 40 merks for the privilege, other apprentices were charged 100 merks, whilst a stranger was charged 50 merks (as paid by Mitchell).

ii) Alternatively, a person could serve an apprenticeship with a freeman weaver and gain the right to join upon completion of his indenture, as done by John Owr upon finishing his training under David Valliange in 1726. In this case, the freedom money paid was usually higher, in John’s case one hundred merks Scots.

iii) A third method of entry was through hereditary right, such as when John Ramsay joined in April 1774 upon the death of his father Andrew. For sons in the town, the fee was 20 merks; for a country freeman’s son, it was £20 Scots.

iv) The fourth way in was to simply purchase the right to join, though this was an extremely expensive way to do so, normally charged at a rate of £100 Scots.

There was in fact a fifth way, and that was to be granted membership in gratitude for some particular service carried out in the Calling’s favour. In March 1778, the Duke of Athole was made a freeman “for his signal Service to his King & Country in raising a Regiment for our defence & ye American Rebellion so destructive to Government and our happy Constitution”. The weavers’ gratitude in this instance was not just confined to the gentry. In the preceding month, a weaver apprentice called Thomas Glass, who had agreed to serve as a British soldier for three years during the conflict, was similarly rewarded. Instead of having to pay any freedom money, he was in fact remitted eleven guineas, with the person who proposed him given half the same again.

Many other individuals were similarly rewarded for their direct influences with regard to the weaving trade itself. On November 9th 1790, the Earl of Breadalbane was one of three gentlemen to be given membership for “his patriotic attention and distinguished zeal for promoting the Linen Manufactures, with the prosperity of which the welfare of this part of the United Kingdom, is directly connected”.


The Weavers Court

The Calling had its own court, within which it dealt with any transgressions carried out by its members. Whilst the Calling’s motto was “Weave Truth with Trust”, many recorded incidents show just how much respect – or not, as the case may be – was afforded to its elected officers. On August 4th 1703, a certain John Hutson was tried and subsequently fined forty shillings “for his abusing the present Deacon and any other of the laite Deacons” and for having “called the s[ai]d Deacons Raskells and villainds”. As if this crime was not heinous enough, Hutson also “often times commanded them to kiss his airs” for which he was fined an additional forty shillings!

With their fiery Perthshire tempers, the weavers’ wives were clearly a recurrent headache for the incorporation’s deacons. On October 10th 1705 Patrick Smith, another Perth based weaver, was fined five pounds and sent to prison until payment had been made, for the crime that “his wife abeused the pr[esen]tt deacon”. It seems the lesson was not learned by his wife, Janet Mackie, for some five years later, on February 19th 1709, Smith was once more hauled up in front of the master court, for a similar instance. On this occasion, his spouse had “Intruded herself in the Deacons company and without any ground of offence Did harrass and abuse him in a publick company” for which another five pounds fine was imposed. Smith’s defence was that the charge was “butt out of splean of the deacon ag[ains]t him and his wife”, but he was once again sent to prison until payment had been made.

Sometimes the court could be forgiven for experiencing a slight sense of exasperation! In March 1707, the then current Deacon, John Martin, complained that he had been verbally abused by John Gorie, a former boxmaster (treasurer) of the incorporation. Gorie in turn complained that the Deacon had libelled him by saying that he was not worth four shillings when appointed as the trade’s boxmaster, yet had four pounds of debt, and that he was “nothing butt a knave and a cheat to the traid and had thrie hundered merks of the traids money”. There followed a series of allegations and counter allegations, until the court finally decided to fine Gorie forty shillings and the Deacon twenty shillings – with the warning that if either ever abused the other in public or in private again, or behind the other’s back, they would each be instantly fined an additional five pounds Scots.


Mutual Support

The funds of the Incorporation were used in many ways to benefit the membership, and were drawn from annual dues and through other means, such as property rents.

When a member was ill, the Calling would look out for them. For example, when Laurence Alexander fell ill in June 1796, the Incorporation paid for his hospital care at a weekly rate of one shilling and sixpence. Similarly, if a member of the Calling died, they would make a payment to the members’ kin to help bury the deceased. A weaver’s wife was also catered for, even when her husband had predeceased her, as the members would previously have paid a monetary due known as a ‘football’ (or ‘ba-money’), usually charged at half a crown, which allowed their wives to share in the benefits of the common fund.

The Calling also provided its members with the use of its own mortcloth, a shroud used to drape over the coffin of the deceased prior to burial, for which the brethren again paid an annual due of one merk Scots. In July 1708, the Calling decided on the purchase of a new mortcloth from a merchant in Edinburgh called John Campbell, made from black velvet at a price of ten pounds Scots a yard, to be paid entirely from an annual subscription from the Incorporation’s freemen both outwith and inside the burgh.

However, despite its best intentions, the Incorporation did occasionally get into debt, which at one point led to the suspension of the Calling itself. In George Penny’s 1836 book, ‘The Traditions of Perth’, he was extremely critical of the weavers’ management skills. As well as describing how the “deacons and boxmasters came out every year defalcators, frequently to a considerable extent, until their funds dwindled to nothing”, he also identified the cause, very firmly, as drink, describing how the “met frequently in their tenant’s house, then a respectable brew-seat, where they guzzled away their funds.”


Cloth

Until the late 1600s, the main material that was traditionally woven by Perth’s weavers was wool, though the manufacture of linen and damask made a huge impact at the start of the 18th Century. Both outside the burgh and within, the incorporation made sure that the cloth was woven to the highest standard. In December 1704, at a meeting of the Calling, a decision was made to appoint four of their number to check all linen woven by freemen resident in the countryside as it arrived at each of the town’s main ports (gates), prior to it making its way to the town’s burgesses (who would then sell it), in order that its standards would comply with an Act of Parliament, being exactly one ell in width (the length of a forearm) and bleached.

Within the burgh, weavers’ clients were mainly local families who would supply them with flax to create a particular item of cloth. In a weaver’s cottage, his wife would spin the flax into yarn, which along with her children she would then wind onto bobbins called pirns. The flax prepared, the weaver would then work long and hard over the loom, throwing the shuttle back and forth whilst working the pedals of the frame, often working late into the night by candlelight. Once the cloth was complete, it would be returned to the customer. As well as linen, linsey-woolsey was also woven, a coarse fabric comprised of a linen warp and woollen weft, usually for the families’ own uses, for items such as clothing and blankets.

In 1766, a major boost to the industry happened when merchant George Penny (father of the Perth historian of the same name) introduced Silesia linen into the town. This was an extremely popular material, first woven in eastern Europe, which soon found huge markets in both London and the West Indies. As the industry started to boom, many weavers from outside the burgh began to migrate into Perth to seek work, and the town’s prosperity boomed. Despite a temporary blip in their fortunes caused by the Revolutionary War in America, work increased further when in 1782, Penny also introduced cotton to the town, which was bleached and sold for ladies’ gowns at five shillings a yard. Weavers also produced materials for ginghams, shawls, muslins and even umbrellas.


The Weavers

An examination of the baptismal registers of Perth gives an insight into the nature of the weaving population, which tended to be based in Craigie, Pomarium, North Clayholes and some streets in the town centre. Between 1770 and 1844, there were 8835 births recorded to weavers in the burgh, and the most common surnames were Robertson (341 births), Young (178 births) and Taylor (157 births). Of the children born, 3953 were baptised by the established Church of Scotland, and 4882 baptised by ministers of other denominations, mainly of dissenting Presbyterian congregations, but also in Methodist and Episcopalian services. This dissenting nature of the weavers may help to explain their strong participation within the Chartist movement in the mid 19th century. Perhaps astonishingly, only 16 children of the 8835 were described as having been born illegitimately across this 75 year period.

The registers also give a sense of the dramatic rise of the industry in the late 18th century, and its inevitable fall. In 1770, only 43 children were born to weavers within Perth and the immediate vicinity of the town, but by 1775 the birth rate had almost doubled to 84. In 1782 there were 109 births recorded in Perth, and ten years later, by 1792, the rate had again almost doubled to a peak figure of 209 births. The trend then begins to decline in the early 1800s, initially because many of the weavers had signed up with the militias and army regiments to fight the French. Despite the trade restrictions caused by the Napoleonic wars, there was in fact a heavy demand for uniforms for the 90th Regiment of Foot, created by Graham of Balgowan, and from 1810-1811 there was also heavy demand for clothing for French prisoners of war held in the town’s prison.

However, despite a slight increase in the birth rate in the aftermath of the war, there then follows a rapid decline, which by 1843 had plummeted to just 32. Following the Napoleonic wars, the domestic handloom industry found itself spiralling into terminal decline. Demand for cotton crashed, but despite a brief demand for umbrella cloths, by the late 1830s and the ‘Hungry 40s’ many municipal relief projects were created to provide employment to destitute weavers, such as the raising of the banks of the River Tay at the town’s North Inch. Most of the families who had profited in the boom years were either forced into bankruptcy or into diversification, such as the Pullars, who established a world famous dye works.

In 1847, after years of successful lobbying by those seeking political reform, the Weavers Incorporation, as with other corporations and guilds, finally lost its exclusive privileges to trade. By this point, what little handloom weaving had survived had all but disappeared, with the work now transferred to the factories and their more efficient powerlooms. It was the end of an era.


Records of the Weavers of Perth

The Weavers Incorporation of Perth records, which contain minute books, apprenticeship registers and freemen entry books, are held at Perth and Kinross Archives (https://www.culturepk.org.uk/archive-local-family-history/). Trancripts of some of the records are freely available on my website at https://scotlandsgreateststory.wordpress.com/free-items/.

Perth and Kinross Archives holds many additional records of importance, including the early censuses of 1766 and 1773, the Militia Act census of 1802, burial records from 1794 and some weavers’ indenture papers.

(Much of the analytical work in this article comes from a dissertation on the Weavers of Perth, whilst studying for my Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde in 2008-2010)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts June 8th - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My next book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is out shortly, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.