A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



though it passed a resolution condemning the 

 practices complained of as arbitrary, illegal and 

 an abuse to the subject, took no further step at 

 that time in the direction suggested by the wool- 

 combers. 1 



Almost a century later, however, an Act was 

 passed which practically embodied the earlier 

 proposal. The manufacturers of combing wool, 

 worsted yarn, and goods made from worsted in 

 Suffolk were to hold a general meeting at Stow- 

 market, and to elect a chairman and committee 

 of fifteen who were afterwards to meet once a 

 quarter at Bury. The committee were to 

 recommend two inspectors for appointment by 

 the justices of the peace with powers to inspect 

 the yarn in the hands of the spinners, and to 

 prosecute defaulters. On a reel of one yard 

 each hank or skein was to consist of 7 raps or 

 leas, and each rap to contain 80 threads. On a 

 reel of i| or 2 yards the hank was to consist 

 of 6 raps of 80 threads. To provide a fund 

 for the purposes of prosecution the collectors of the 

 soap duty were to allow a deduction of ifd. in 

 the shilling on all soap used in the wool trade. 

 As most of the spinning was done by women, 

 the goods of the husband were made liable for 

 the wife's default. 2 



With the help of some statistics obtained by 

 Arthur Young in 1784 (probably from an em- 

 ployer), we are enabled to form a fairly definite 

 idea of the industry over which the new com- 

 mittee was to preside. The master yarnmakers 

 who were to attend the general meeting were 

 about 120 in number. Each of these employed 

 on the average about ten combers, and a comber 

 in full work produced material enough for thirty 

 spinners. The combers were in the position of 

 small masters, and occasionally had journeymen 

 or apprentices under them. They earned about 

 ioj. a week. The spinners, taking women and 

 children together, did not earn more on the 

 average than 3^. a day. Reckoned on this basis 

 the total number employed in yarnmaking within 

 the county would be 37,500, nearly half of 

 whom were said to be engaged in supplying the 

 Norwich manufacture, which consumed every 

 week 65 packs at ^30 a pack. 3 It should be 

 noted, however, that these figures are based on 

 the assumption of full and regular employment, 

 whereas a great deal of the spinning was done 

 in the intervals of other work, so that the 

 numbers engaged in it may have considerably 

 exceeded the 36,000 of the above estimate. 

 Another estimate given in a letter to a member 



1 Commons Journ. xi, 22, also viii, 497. The 

 printed petition of the Suffolk woolcombers included 

 in S.P. Dom. Chas. II, lxxv, 163, would appear to 

 have been assigned by mistake to the year 1663, and 

 to belong to 1693. 



3 Stat. 24 Geo. Ill, cap. 3. 



3 Young, Gen. View of the -Agric. of the county of 

 S«#(l8o + ), 232. 



of Parliament published in 1787 is that there 

 were 192,000 ('say 150,000') employed in 

 spinning wool in Suffolk, but considering that 

 the entire population of Suffolk in 1 80 1 was 

 only 214,404, this estimate is obviously exces- 

 sive. 



Apart from the rashness of his figures the 

 writer of the letter in question supplies an inter- 

 esting account of the economic condition of the 

 spinners, the general accuracy of which there is 

 no reason to doubt. There is no legal provision, 

 he points out, for the assessment of spinners' 

 wages, either by the piece or by the day. The 

 employers take advantage of the inefficacy of 

 the Act of Elizabeth, and assume an arbitrary 

 power of deducting sometimes twopence, three- 

 pence, and at this time fourpence out of every 

 shilling earned. The spinners in Yorkshire do 

 not suffer from these deductions, and provisions 

 are cheaper there. A poor woman labours 

 twelve hours to earn 6d. by spinning and reeling, 

 and the putter out of wool or packman by order 

 of his master deducts i\d. or 2d. out of the (yd. 

 The mode of delivering wool to spinners is through 

 a packman who is employed to carry it to the houses 

 of certain people which are called pack-houses ; 

 to these houses the spinners repair for their wool, 

 and there return it after it is spun ; and to these 

 places the mandate of the employer is sent to 

 take off" 3^. or \d. in the shilling. As the 

 spinner cannot live on \d. a day, the deficiency 

 has to be made up by the parish, which is the 

 main cause of the increase in the poor-rate. 

 The woolcombers and weavers are not treated 

 in this way, because they are capable of resist- 

 ance. The writer concludes by urging that the 

 wages of spinners ought to be fixed at quarter 

 sessions by country gentlemen who are not 

 employers. 4 



By this time both the spinning and the weav- 

 ing branches of the woollen manufacture were 

 on the threshold of machine production and the 

 factory system, and this stage in the development 

 of the industry was destined to be realized else- 

 where than in Suffolk. The groups of roadside 

 spinners which had been one of the sights that 

 most struck the passing traveller throughout the 

 eighteenth century gradually disappeared, while 

 the skill of the hand-loom weaver was applied 

 to other materials. In 1804 Arthur Young can 

 still speak of the principal fabric of the county 

 as being the spinning and combing of wool, 

 which is spread through the greatest part of it, 

 but he adds that this manufacture is supposed to 

 have declined considerably since 1784. In 1840 

 it was practically extinct. In 1804 there was 

 still a manufacture of says in the Sudbury district, 

 and a weaver if a good hand could earn 10*., 



4 A letter to a member of Parliament stating the 

 necessity of an amendment in the laws relating to the 

 woollen manufacture as far as relates to the wages of 

 the spinner. Ipswich, 1787, B.M. Tracts, B 544. 



270 



