SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



In 1728, the Justices in quarter sessions, who had already turned their 

 attention to the woollen industry, so far as to appoint ' Inspectors of Cloths, 

 Racks, and Tentors ' in Dursley, Uley, Bisley, and Wotton-under-Edge, 1 

 undertook also to regulate their wages, which were fixed according to the 

 number of hundreds in the chain i.e. for a chain of 600, 4^. per yard, and 

 so on to 24,000, which would be 2s. the yard.* Indentures of apprenticeship 

 were drawn up before the same body, which in 1714 recorded the following 

 terms between Edward Wyat, weaver, of Horsley, and Francis Heskins, 

 apprentice. Heskins is bound for 4! years, during which time he is to find 

 himself in food, drink, washing, lodging, and apparel, and may go home 

 every Saturday to Monday. His wages are to be : out of every shilling made 

 by his master, i\d. in the first year, ^d. the second and third years, $d. the 

 fourth year. 3 



At a second assessment in 1756 the rate of wages was, however, lowered 

 50 per cent.* by the Justices. A petition from the weavers of ' Hampton, 

 Bisley, Stroud, Painswick, Wotton-under-Edge, Dursley, Horsley, King 

 Stanley, and Rodborough,' presented 5 October, 1756, expressly complained 

 that the masters neglected these regulations, by lengthening the chain upon 

 the bar (from 600 threads to 900), so that a weaver could earn only ^d. 

 by sixteen hours' labour. Many were thus being driven to seek relief from 

 the parish. 1 The clothiers also appeared before the Justices, contesting the 

 weavers' claims with a series of rather contradictory arguments. Weaving, 

 they declared at first, was the work of old men, women, and children, who 

 could not expect full wages. Further inquiry, however, brought out the fact 

 that each loom required one master weaver, who might employ a journey- 

 man, with whom profits were divided in the proportion 7 : 5, and a boy 

 who acted as quill-driver for a very small wage. Often, however, a man and 

 his family would work the loom together, and 131. to 2 is. a week could be 

 earned thus by an industrious family. Instances were quoted of men who 

 worked two looms, with hardly any hired aid, and earned as much as 80 

 or 96 in the year. It was a weaver's own fault, declared the masters, if he 

 could not earn a good living. They struck, however, a more genuine note when 

 they came to their own difficulties, declaring that the ' wise regulations ' as 

 to measures and methods only hampered trade, and had already ruined the 

 wool industry in other parts of the country, and that to force them to give 

 higher wages would be to destroy their last chance of coping with French 

 competition.' Here we probably touch the real trouble, which had already 

 been discussed in 1739, in the letter of a manufacturer, entitled : ' A short 

 account of the State of our Woollen Manufacture, from the Peace of Ryswick, 



1 County Record Books. There are two sets of books recording quarter sessions, kept in the custody of the 

 clerk of the peace at the Shire Hall, Gloucester. 



(a) The Record Booh, 21 vols., for years 1660 to 1868, though not in an unbroken series. 



(b) Ike Minute Booki, 15 vols., 1791-1896, containing fuller reports. 



' See Record Books ; also Timothy Exell, A Brief Hist, of the Weavers of the County of Gloucester, Stroud, 

 1838. ' Record Books. 



* Record Books, Mich. Session, 1 756. ' White scoured work ' was to be woven at ^d. ; ' medley work ' 

 at 4j</. for every yard, 1,000 threads wide ; 'Clayed work' at 6\d. for every yard and a half, 1,000 threads 

 wide. Every 'hundred' was to contain 190 threads. If Irish warp or abb were used, the payment was to 

 be slightly higher. N.B. The number of hundred threads to the warp (or chain) determines the width or 

 thickness of the cloth. 



* State of the Case and Narrative of the facts Relating to the late Commotions and Risings if tte Weavers in the 

 County of Gloucester : London, 1757. * State of the Case, op. ciu 



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