A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



of late years have crept into the business to the great 

 detriment of those who have served a lawful appren- 

 ticeship to the art of Framework Knitting. Secondly, 

 whereas Derby is the central committee for the said 

 county, that all manufacturers should have the liberty 

 to send Deputy or Deputies to represent them at the 

 committee aforesaid at the undermentioned times, viz., 



The first Monday in July, and 



Oct. 



The first Monday in Jan. and 

 April. 



Thirdly, that the several committees of Nott. Leicester 

 and Derby should immediately proceed to correct and 

 revise the sevl. by-laws belonging to the company, and 

 then the deputy or deputies aforesaid to repair to 

 Loughborough in order for a genl. approvt., and then 

 sent to London for the company's ratification . . . 

 And whereas it is the opinion of 3 eminent Council (tic) 

 . . . that persons exercising framework knitting are 

 compellable to be made free of the Company : there- 

 fore it is hoped that none will stand or march in their 

 own light as not to be predd t(o) enter into so just or 

 necessary a cause, that will lead so much to the adv. 

 to thousands, and our worthy employers also.* 6 



Fresh regulations were issued by the London 

 Company in 1 745, 27 of which Brentano writes 

 that they contained ' the first direct news of the 

 practice which was to bring such infinite misery 

 on the workmen, namely, of owners of frames 

 who, though they did not themselves exercise the 

 trade, let frames out on hire.' 2 ' In 1750 there 

 were fifty manufacturers, employers of 1,200 

 frames, called ' putters-out' in Nottinghamshire, 

 all trading directly with London. 29 In the fol- 

 lowing year the London Company, in a last 

 endeavour to bring back the trade of the Midlands 

 to their own control, appointed deputies for Not- 

 tinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and 

 Warwickshire. 30 The Nottinghamshire deputies 

 met at the ' Feathers,' Wheeler Gate, where a 

 court was held once a month, two assistants com- 

 ing down from London every quarter, to enforce 

 the authority of the company, and to collect 

 fines and fees. 31 A special visit was paid in 1752 

 by the master and wardens, attended by their 

 clerk and beadle and a full court of assistants, and 

 a meeting called of the trade, who refused to 

 submit to the by-laws drawn up in London, where- 

 upon the company proceeded to enforce their 

 claims by law. 32 The sympathies of the House 

 of Commons were, we gather, with the Midland 

 'employers and shopkeepers that are got into the 

 hose business,' the company's regulations were 

 pronounced ' injurious and vexatious to the manu- 

 facturers,' 33 and the legality of many of the dis- 



J6 Gent. Mag. 1773. " V.C.H. Derb. ii, 367. 



18 Toulmin Smith, Engl. Gilds, p. clxxx. 



19 Felkin, /////. Hosiery and Lace, 83. 



30 Commons' Journ. xxvi, 730. 

 51 Henson, op. cit. 92. 



31 Rep. Com. Framework Knitters, 1845, p. 10. 

 33 Commons' Journ. xxvi, 788. 



puted by-laws called in question. From this 

 date, the Midlands seem to have finally emanci- 

 pated themselves from the authority of the London 

 Company. 



No history of the hosiery trade of Nottingham- 

 shire would be complete without some mention 

 of the ribbed stocking manufacture, which was 

 started in 1758 by the introduction of the rib 

 machine with which the name of Jedediah Strutt 

 is associated. 34 Although a native of Derbyshire, 

 Mr. Strutt became closely connected with 

 Nottingham about 1759, when he and his 

 brother-in law, Woollatt, entered in partnership 

 with Mr. Need, a hosiery manufacturer of that 

 town, where the firm, thenceforth known as that 

 of Messrs. Need, Strutt, and Woollatt, carried on 

 a successful business for several years, 35 both in 

 Nottingham and Derby, the latter town giving 

 its name to the stockings produced on Strutt's 

 machine and known as ' Derby ribs.' Workers 

 in this branch of the hosiery manufacture com- 

 manded higher wages than those employed in the 

 plain branch. 36 



In 1776 the framework-knitters of Notting- 

 hamshire petitioned Parliament to inquire into 

 the practice of false marking of stocking pieces, 

 2-thread goods being marked as 3-thread, and 

 3 thread as 4-thread, thus denoting the goods so 

 marked to be of better kind and greater value 

 than they actually were. Inquiry into the matter 

 proved the frauds in question. 37 At this date the 

 Stocking Makers Association for Mutual Protec- 

 tion was formed by members of the Framework 

 Knitters' Company in the Midlands, mainly to 

 protest against the continual reduction of wages. 38 

 In 1777 Parliament was petitioned on the sub- 

 ject, but on being referred to a Select Committee 

 of the House, the petition was rejected. 39 



The system of hiring out frames was common 

 in the county, ' tyrannical and cruel deductions 

 being made for rent, winding, seaming, needles, 



34 The mechanism which Strutt added to Lee's 

 frame consisted of iron, hung close to the needles of 

 the original machine. Upright needles were placed 

 so as to pass between the horizontal needles of the 

 original machine, taking from them the loops, which 

 were then knitted in the reverse direction, so as to 

 produce the rib. Before this time it had been im- 

 possible to produce anything but a plain piece of 

 knitting in the fine machine-made hose, and the 

 greater elasticity of the ribbed hose made the invention 

 a very important one ; V.C.H. Derb. i, 368. Strutt's 

 patents were no. 722, 19 April, 1758 and no. 734, 

 10 Jan. 1759. 



35 Ex information! Hon. Frederick Strutt of Milford 

 House, Derby. 



36 y.C.H. Derb. loc. cit. 



37 Commons' Journ. xxx, 545, 697. The Tewkes- 

 bury Act (6 Geo. Ill, cap. 29) compelled hose to be 

 marked with the same number of eyelet holes as there 

 were threads in the stocking ; Henson, op. cit. 361. 



38 Felkin, op. cit. 115. 



39 Commons' Journ. xxxvii, 1 1 7 et seq. 



354 



