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TEXTILE EDUCATION
AMONG THE PURITANS.
BY
C. J. H. WOODBURY. Sc. D.
Read before
BY
C. J. H. WOODBURY, Sc. D.
Read before
JUN :2 i9tj
. . . ,, f n
TEXTILE EDUCATION AMONG THE PURITANS.
The morespectacular religious and governmental oppressions
of thatday often overshadow the economic conditions which
were fundamental elements in the settlement of New England
by the English.
England had been growing poorer in common with conti-
nental Europe. Population had gradually grown, and the
primitive conditions of husbandry failed to increase crops com-
mensurate with the greater consumption, and handiwork had
not received the aid of machinery to develop the larger pro-
duction of cloth.
None are too poor to fight and the burden of wars, both civil
and foreign, throughout Europe perhaps developed irritation
and discontent of poverty which made taxation by the state and
rates of the church especially onerous burdens. The whole
story of daily existence in Europe was told by the Pilgrim author
in three words, " Life was hard."
The details of war, rather that the greater victories of peace,
usurp the pages of history, and in like manner the printed books
of colonial days are largely devoted to polemics among the clergy,
relations with the Indians, and a great amount of petty legislation
inevitable with the conditions of a new country, while the events
of daily life which led to substantial results in the founding of a
nation were rarely printed, and such as exist were, for the most
part, found in old letters, inventories and accounts.
Outside of the daily press, a comparable condition as to the
record of commercial affairs, exists with us today.
Of the many in England discontented with their lot, there
were some who had available resources sufficient to come to
Massachusetts Bay, which had been visited for many years and
mapped for over twenty years.
were Tories almost to a man as they or their wives did not wish
the supply of luxuries of dress from abroad stopped. The
Revolution by the impoverishment or the expatriation of these
Tories brought these aristocratic assumptions to an end.
Later simplicity leading to fashions of the present day in
men's garb, at least, may have been forced by the scarcity of
varied fabrics and more especially the material for ornamentation.
Although I shall run from the Colony to the Province, as the
facts may lead, the purpose of this paper is to call attention to
the fertility of mental resources exercised by this seashore colony
in providing themselves with cloth when a suflcient supply
could not be obtained from the mother country, and vexatious
as her commercial prohibitions may have appeared, it is evident
that the earlier laws of this nature were defensive, because
England had not the wool to spare. The Pilgrim writer claimed
that " warrs had kept down the sheepe."
Two irrelevent conditions proved to be of vital benefit to the
Colony, first the efforts of Elizabeth to reform the methods of
:
This cotton could not have been raised in that vicinity, but the
commerce among the Indians was exclusively barter and
extended over long distances.
The Indians in the natural cotton belt in Georgia and the
CaroHnas are known to have spun cotton, and although any
known samples of that product in the North have long gone out
of existence, yet if any exclusive product of the Indians at the
North has been found in the South, it is fair to assume that
cotton yarn was among the articles exchanged in the barter.
The arrow heads made of the peculiar rock of Mount Kineo,
at Moosehead Lake, Me., and not existing elsewhere in this
country, have been found in Alabama, Ohio, and Indiana, thus
showing the extent of their distribution.
The only original fabric of the Indians in Massachusetts which
has been found is the plaited rather than woven cloth made of
the wild hemp.
Nessus, which they had obtained from the early explorers and
fishermen who had sailed along the coast for nearly twenty
years, and they were eager to barter skins for cloth, which
formed the basis of the trade in beaver skins and forming an
important commerce for more than a generation.
The extent of these antecolonial visitations of fishermen and
adventurers, along New England coast
the all of them —
traders, — is indicatedby the " Welcome Englishmen " of !
Albany, N. Y.
The source was from the information received
of this authority
from the Indians by the and probably resulted
earlier travellers,
from an attempt of the Indians to communicate some informa-
tion in regard to Lake Champlain, the largest body of fresh
water lying within the United States.
INSTRUCTION IN SPINNING.
Spinning and weaving were entirely domestic occupations,
until about the time of the Revolution, and there must have
been considerable manufacture of cloth during the earlier days
of the Colony among those who came across the Atlantic, but
the younger generation were not under the instructing influence
derived from the spinners from the Netherlands, and with the
distracting conditions of the new country they were not continu-
ing with the same skill, and heroic measures by the Colonists
were necessary in self-defense to make provision for clothing.
Let the acts in their sequence tell the story which abounds in
detail if not perspective. On November 8, 1633, the scarcity of
cloth had evidently begun
conform to the commercial condi-
to
tions of higher prices, as the court on that day regulated the
prices of many articles adding with covert threat,
15
" And for lynnen & other comodities wch in regard of their close
stouage & small hazard may be afforded att a cheap rate wee do
advise all men to be a rule to themselues in keepeing a good con-
science assureing them that if any man shall exceede the bounds of
moderacon wee shall punish them seuerely."
for the raising of the manufacture of linnen cloth, &c., doth declare
that it is the intent of this Court that there shalbee an order setled
about & therefore doth require the magistrats & deputies of the
it,
bee taken for teaching the boyes & girles in all townes the spining of
the yarne & to returne to the next Court their severall & ioynt
advise
clothe, it is ordered that whosoever shall make any sort of the said
cloathes fit for use and shall shewe the same to the next
magistrat or
bee certified wth it. And the said magistrate or deputies shall set such
marke upon the same cloth as it may bee found to have bene alowed for ;
pvided this order shall extend onely to such cloth as shalbee made
wthin this iurisdiction, & the yarne heare spun also, & of such materials
as shalbee raised also wthin the same, or else of cotton. This order to
continue for 3 yeares next followinge."
" This Cort takeing into consideration the want of cloathing wch is
like to come upon us the next winter & not finding any way to supply
us so well as by cotton wch wee find not like to bee pvided in dew time
for the present want & venderstanding withall from the certain knowl-
edge of divrse of the court that there is a kind of wild hempe growe-
ing plentifully all over the countrey wch if it were gathered and
improved, might serve for psent supply until cotton may bee had, it is
"
therefore ordered :
And here follows provisions for the gathering and use of wild
hemp, and its spinning mornings and evenings through the
seasons "that the honest and profitable custom of England may
be continued." The latter appears to be the earliest reference
to spinning in the old country.
17
such as are set to keep cattle bee set to some other impliment withall
as spinning upon the rock, knitting, weveing tape, & for their better
pformance of this trust committed to them they may divide the towne
amongst them, appointing to every of the said townsmen a certeine
number of famiUes to have speciall oersight of, they are also to pvide that
a sufficient quantity yf materialls as hempc, flaxe, &c., may bee raised in
their severall townes &
and implements pvided for working out the
tooles
same & for their assistance in this so needfuU & beneficiall impli-
ment, if they meete with any difficulty or opposition wch they cannot
well master by their ovvne power, they may have recorse to some of
the magistrates."
This " spinning upon the rock " is a unique reference not
known to occur contemporaneously elsewhere, relative to a
method of spinning obtained from the Indians. The rock was
a whorl of stone or dried clay in the form of a torus, or a round
doughnut which the hole was small enough to prevent from
in
passing through the large end of the wood spindle forming the
distaff and in this manner acts as a small fly-wheel on the
spindle and also keeps it in a vertical position. The clay and
pottery whorls found among the Indian relics in the south-west
are generally covered with elaborate decorations.
On May Court enacted further legislation whose
14, 1656, the
preamble indicated an alarming state of affairs on the scarcity
of cloth, which urgently called for immediate action as set forth
in the act, which was in part :
—
"This Cort taking into serjous consideration the present streights &
necessities that lye vppon the countrje in respect of cloathing, which is
the greatest part of theire tjme in other buisness, yet if opportunities were
attended, sometjme might be spared at advantage by some of them for
this worke. Tiie sajd select men shall therefore assess such familyes at
yeare, 1656, spinn, for 30 weekes euery yeare, three pounds p weeke of
lining, cotton, or woolen, & the select men shall take special care for the
execution of this order and shall haue power to make such orders in
theire respective tounes for the clearing of comons for keeping of sheepe.
And thedeputjes of the severall tounes are hereby required to impart the
mind of the Cort, for the saving of ye seede both of hemp & flaxe."
had 100,000 sheep and was also buying wool from the Dutch, At
the earlier date at least they were sending staves and salt fish
to Spain which were traded for wool.
CORDAGE.
Vessels of that day were equipped with revolving hooks for
laying cordage which was the first textile manufacturing of the
Colony. These rope-making heads turned by hand, contined
without serious modifications until recent time, about 200 years
after the landing, were also set up on shore and rope making
carried on at first in the open, but there was so much available
space for this purpose that information onthesubject comes by way
of incident ratherthan designed record. In this way, it is known
thatJohn and Philip Varen made rope in Salem in 1635, and
John Harrison, on Purchase street, at Boston in 1641, and there
were others wherever rope was wanted and hemp available, and it
was not until there was a larger population afterthe next century
came in that there appears any legislation on the subject other
than the early acts of the court relative to the cultivation and
treatment of hemp already cited, and these pertained to its
ultimate use for weaving:.
22
and the Common which were called " rope walk lands." The
ropes were first made in the open, but as this was too much of
a pleasant weather business like the making of hay, four covered
rope walks were built and these later proved to be such a fire
yarn should be bought from them, and also premiums for good
work. Three hundred pounds were loaned to the school for
seven years, and twenty spinning wheels ordered.
Daniel Oliver, a Boston merchant, one of the Roy^al
Council, and also chairman of the town committee appointed to
establish a spinning school in 1720, built at an expense of
£600 a spinning school next to Barton's Ropewalk near to
th° Craigie Bridge, for the use' of the town, to which he
bequeathed the building. He died July 23, 173 1. This appears
to be the site of the spinning school, although the report of the
committee at the meeting December 27, 1720, recommended as
the site of the spinning school, the " cellar most made " in front
of Captain SOUTHACKS, which is the site of the Scollay building
formerly in ScoUay's square but I do not find any record of the
acquisition of the site or the construction of the building, although
several histories refer to Scollay's Square as the site of the
school.
This subject was further taken up by a town meeting Sep-
tember 28, 1720, to some authorities, resulted in
which according
known as the Manufactory House
the erection of a large building
on Long Acre (nowTremont) Street, where Hamilton Place now
enters. A large figure of a woman with a distaff was painted
on the westerly wall.
Although both the records and local histories contain many
references to this building which was an important feature in
industrial development, but little is known about it. It is quite
probable that the name was applied to two buildings, or to
extensive enlargements of the first one, as there is evidence of
purchase of land and expenditures on the building by the
Province on the Manufactory House up to the summer of i754-
the town could legally remit the amount asked for, and no
28
enterprise.
were always made of linen, until
Sails in northern countries
Seth Bemis made duck from sea island cotton at Watertown
in 1809. A few years ago sea island cotton was used in making
rested upon
cotton goods at about the time of the Revolution
the wisdom of Governor JOHN WiNTHROP, who in 1633 encour-
show that it
entirely of cotton, and inventories in Colonial times
was appraised at a higher price than linen, but pure hand-made
cotton was not made in Old England until after 1760, but was
woven with linen warp and cotton filling, yet the English
imported a large amount of calico, which was the trade name for
cotton cloth obtained from Calcutta whether white or hand
printed.
The extent of cotton manufacture involves amounts " beyond
the dreams of avarice," and yet its increase had been largely the
additional use by those within the zone of the cotton manufac-
ture. Civilized people are using an increased amount of cotton
cloth both in elaboration of dress, and of late years in the substi-
tution of cotton for wool, either pure or mixed in many fabrics.
Yet the cotton manufacture has hardly made its mark among
the unnumbered millions of the Orient or the barbarous people
of warm countries. It has been estimated that only about 20 to
25 per cent, of the population of the earth wearing cotton cloth,
use manufactured goods.
Labor in those countries is so cheap and land transportation so
dear, that the differences in cost generally equate themselves in
that country.
The artistic weaving of the World is that of the Gobelins, who
still maintain handicraft methods at their little Flemish Colony
in Paris, where they were established by Louis XIV., who also
introduced the Merino sheep into France.
018 535 682 6 #
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