Weavers

Bo · Post by Bo » Thu Jun 21, 2007 7:51 am

Hello to all, I have an ancester that was a jute weaver, can any one explain to me about jute weaving & did it have a particular region?,
he was apparantly born Glasgow 1805.
I appreciate all help.
Bo.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:01 am

Have a look at http://www.nyp-corp.com/Jute_to_Burlap.htm for an excellent description of the process. A Google will tell you more about the industry in the city of the three Js, - jam, jute and journalism, - Dundee.

David

Bo · Post by Bo » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:09 am

Thanks David for your response.
But Im wondering what a jute weaver was doing being born in Glasgow 1805, if Dundee was the jute capital at that time.

Bo

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:20 am

Hi Bo

Dundee may have been the main centre but Glasgow needed Jute sacking for bulk transport of refined sugar, Jute open weave was need as the backing for carpets. Furniture had jute for support webs and to cover paddings like horsehair, so there were various smaller industries with special manufacturing skills dotted around the country.
Glasgow was also a main hub of Cotton and Linen weaving so lots of transferrable skills there if he chose to move to another town.
It would have been difficult back then to be accepted by the weavers in another place though.

Russell

Post by **paddyscar** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:25 pm

Russell wrote: ... Glasgow was also a main hub of Cotton and Linen weaving so lots of transferrable skills there if he chose to move to another town.
It would have been difficult back then to be accepted by the weavers in another place though.
Russell

Would that have been soley in smaller places where there were fewer jobs, so none for the outsiders, or for other reasons, Russell?
Frances

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 2:12 pm

Hi Frances

In towns like Paisley where there were lots of weaving shops(the room set aside in someone's home for the craft) they often established craft associations or guilds to protect themselves against incomers.
In smaller villages, like Kilbarchan and Lochwinnoch, they operated almost a closed shop practice where they prevented incomers from getting supplies and outlets for their woven goods. This was a purely self-preservation measure in days when to earn your money you had to be able to work 12 hour days just to survive.
In small villages they often set up benevolent societies so that if they were sick the fund would pay out enough to keep the wolf from the door.
Incomers trying to set up business would not have paid into the fund so they would not benefit and their business would fold the first time they were ill.
Cruel and hard, but times were cruel and hard. We have it easy in comparison today.

Russell

Post by **paddyscar** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 4:47 pm

Thanks, Russell. So the only places someone could 'launch' a new career in weaving, and likely many other trades, would have been the big cities. I had always thought of the guilds as being associations of promoters and producers of crafts, rather than preservers of basic livelihoods. Understandable too, when life was so hard.

Genealogy is a life-long learning hobby

Frances

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:38 pm

Hi Frances

Even in the big cities it would have been hard to start a new craft later in life. Most craftsmen started as boys either with their father, as an apprentice, or, being apprenticed to another craftsman. Either way they had to undergo the same rigourous training and do all the nasty, dirty parts of the job until considered skilled enough to carry out the main part of the job.
In towns and cities there were tradesmen employed by master craftsmen and it was these master craftsmen who formed and maintained guilds so that standards were maintained in the craft and they could negotiate with the merchants and suppliers so that an individual weaver could not undercut his colleagues nor could the merchant renege on price agreements.
Master craftsmen usually employed several craftsmen and journeymen as well as apprentices.
Some crafts required the apprentice to produce an example of their work so the quality of their work could be assessed.

Your so right though Frances. This hobby has taken me to books, sources and places I would not have considered just a few years ago.

Russell

Bo · Post by Bo » Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:57 pm

Thanks all for the input, I guess I have a lot of homework to do.
I think he will prove rather difficult to track, as there is no birth
record thats been found sofar, cryptic clues like... born Glasgow,
native place... at sea!, joined scottish reg ....north
british district.......... really gives me the

.
Bo

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:42 am

Hi Bo

How about telling us what you know, what you infer and what you suspect about him and any relatives who might be more easily found.
If we have a date and a name sometimes the place can be established from that, especially if there is any adherence to the Scottish naming pattern.
You never know! - one of the TS regulars may even be hunting for the same person. Several folk have re-established family contacts lost 3, or even more, generations ago through TS entries.

Russell