LIFE IN PAISLEY The Cunninghams and the families they married into, the Ralstons, the Robertsons, and the Ritchie/Millars provide through their lives a window on the history of a region and a people. When we first meet the Cunninghams, they live in Paisley, a town given over almost entirely to the textile trade during the late 18th and 19th c.
At the beginning of the 17c, Paisley consisted of one main street [High Street] a half-mile in length with a few narrow lanes separated from the grounds of Paisley Abbey by the White Cart river. [8] Paisley Abbey, a magnificent structure founded in 1160, was badly mauled in the religious wars of the period, but is still a major feature of the town. The 17c was a violent era, a period of religious and political upheaval; in 1678 the Privy Council tried to crush dissenting Covenanters by inviting the most brutal Highland troops in to suppress the people; many were bullied, injured and/or killed. [6:96] [My Millar family is said to have a Covenanter past.] As if the wars and repression weren't enough, witch trials were added to the brew.
"In the 17c Renfrewshire was notorious for the number of witches that seem to have chosen the place as their home...Towards the end of the century a Mr. Blackwell became minister of Paisley, and obtained great celebrity as a witch finder...Mr. Blackwell either stamped out the witches or took them with him for when he left, the scourge abated." [3:107]
In the climate of the times, it was not unusual that a sensitive child, Christian Shaw, in 1695 should be beset by symptoms so alarming as to suppose she was a victim of witchcraft. Seven people were accused. One committed suicide in prison; the other six were burned on Gallow Green [near the intersection of Maxwelton & George St. to the southwest of High St.] in Paisley on June 10, 1697. Christian Shaw, however, went on to be a potent force in Paisley's industrial history. [Something to investigate further is her marriage to the Rev. John Miller, minister of Kilmaurs in 1718; he could be a member of my Miller family. Interestingly, my ancestor, David Robertson, was minister at the same church a century later.] [4:19-21]
At the Union of Scotland with England in 1707, the area was noted for a coarse linen checks and striped cloth called "Bengals" produced on a limited scale. The opportunity of free trade with England inspired peddlers with a traveler's knowledge of fashion to set up business in the town. A linen gauze and lawn fabrics were produced. [8]
Hand loom weavers lived and worked in cottages similar to those in their villages; an example has been preserved as a museum, the "Sma' Shot Cottages" just south of High St. near Laigh Kirk (Paisley Low parish.)
Sma' Shot Cottages
[pending]
The family would live in one room and work the loom in the other or upstairs. Often the wife spun while the husband wove. [Example quote pending]
During the 18c. every farm had its patch of flax, spun and bleached by the women and sold to Paisley merchants who retailed it to the local weavers. [7:77] From 66 weavers in 1695, the number of looms increased to 3,602 by 1792 and by 1820, there were 7,000. The goods made were home-spun linen and wool. [1:1] By 1750, the handcrafts of lace and embroidery were given a boost by a thread manufacturing process that provided a whole new industry for Paisley--thanks to Christian Shaw, the formerly bewitched child. Anchor thread, J & J Clark, Coats & Clark all emerged in Paisley.
These were important developments for the Ayrshire white-work embroidery that figures in the Ritchie family story. "Paisley thread is found in every corner of the globe. An army of people in that town are employed in the great thread mills, and the parent factories have giant offspring in many parts of the world. The industry was founded by Christian Shaw, daughter of the laird of Bargarran...[She] grew up a shrewd and capable business woman. Till this time yarn in this country could not be twisted into a thread suitable for the needle, and the thread in use was imported from Holland. Christian Shaw...procured a hand-twisting mill from Holland, and produced a linen thread equal or superior to the Dutch article. It was soon in great demand among lace-makers, and Bargarran thread became famous. Competitors in Renfrewshire were not slow to spring up, and by 1784, 120 machines were twisting thread in Paisley." [3:78-79]
Silk manufacture was introduced about 1760 by Humphrey Fulton. [1:20] The last quarter of the 18c was probably the most prosperous time in the weaving industry that Paisley enjoyed.
It was also the best time to be a
worker in
the trade--a time of craftsmanship, creative
freedom
and independence for the artisan, the inventor,
and
the entrepreneur--by the mid-19c, a flooded labor
market, ruthless competition and heavy
industrialization reduced the sense of
self-sufficiency and competency--workers were
more
likely to be mere cogs, working long hours with
less
satisfaction than they had before and less
opportunity to advance.
"The present generation, even of weavers, have little idea of the vast amount of thought and mechanical skill exercised by their predecessors...
"The Jacquard loom allowed for incredibly complex patterns on a one-man loom, although production of the pattern cards was time consuming, each pattern requiring up to 26,000 cards.
The power-loom has worked wonderful changes, and has superseded many of these inventions; but the harness, the lappet wheel, the sewing frame and the box-lay, are still embodied in the power-loom of the present day." [1:19]
"This was the period...when the weavers of Paisley acquired that intellectual culture and technical skill, for which they have been so much noted. These characteristics survived long after the sub-division of labour and the advance of mechanical appliances, had made the weaver less of an original artist than he was at first. This training also qualified him to produce with artistic skill the beautiful textures which reached their perfection in the Paisley Harness Shawl." [1:19]
The Paisley Shawl was inspired by the
embroidered Indian Cashmere
shawl brought back to Paisley by Scottish
soldiers
stationed in Egypt or India. Transferring this
sort of design from stitching to weaving was no
mean feat! It was the ingenuity of
the loom makers and the artistic skill of the
pattern
designers--William
Robertson
was one--that made production of the popular
shawl
possible.
Fashion being what it is, it's popularity peaked in 1820 when a single shawl could be sold for L20--more than a year's wage for some. From the 1840s through 1880 interest was declining and the shawl industry died.
"The object of the Paisley workers was to produce in the loom the effects obtained in the Indian shawl by means of the needle. The resulting success was the reward of patience, skill, taste, and delicacy of touch, carried to a point that has probably never been equalled before or since. It is not surprising to find therefore that the Paisley weavers of this time were an altogether exceptional class of men. They were noted for their industry, their intellectual strength, their cultured taste, and their love of beauty. Their characteristic independence of judgment was fostered by the fact that they were their own masters, and worked when and how they liked. Radicals to a man, they took a prominent part in the struggles for electoral freedom in the 19c." [3:78]
Textiles weren't the whole of life in Paisley. The hand loom weavers talked or had books read to them while they worked. Every man considered himself a poet. Religious discussion was common. The cultivation of roses and other flowers was a keen subject of interest, as were many other issues of the day. Life in Paisley in the latter part of the 18c was exciting and pleasant. An Italian who visited the town in 1788 wrote:
"The population of Paisley interests the sensibility of a traveller, not only by the constant occupation to which he sees them devoted, but likewise by the simplicity, and...the elegance of their manners. The town abounds with the most beautiful women: these in the morning and during the day are quite retired and occupied in their trade, without shoes and stockings, as is usual over all Scotland, and poorly dressed. These same women, in summer, about eight in the evening, meet and walk through the long, neat street...divided into bands, dressed with so much elegance and decency, that they invite a wish to prolong one's stay, which the Scotch vivacity, far superior to the English, promises to render agreeable and diverting.
In fact, after the walk, almost
every
evening, there is a dance. At the hour of ten all
go
to sleep, and the day which succeeds is like the
preceding, equally occupied, and delightful,
although
the town has no theatre..nor indeed, any other
spectacle which collects and entertains the
people...this people is satisfied and completely
tranquil." [1:20]
It amuses me to note that Scots women were often barefoot as late as the early 19c--I once went to visit my great aunt, Beline Cunningham Yuile, in my sandals when she was in her 90s and blind as the proverbial bat--"Where are your stockings?!" was what greeted me as I walked in the door. "Your legs are naked!" More seriously, shoeless women are common in the illustrations of Scots history. Does this reflect poverty or sexism--("Keep them barefoot and pregnant?")--the men perceived as needing what shoes could be afforded. Bad shoes? (A source I intend to add here talks about shoes made without concern for right or left physiology.) Or was it a practical response to the boggy/muddy terrain before decent roads?
Nakedness was no joke at the height of competition and depression in the 19c; many weavers had literally nothing to wear because all cloth produced had to be sold for income--prices bottomed low and various taxes or rents were so high. And food...they might be living on 1-2 bowls of porridge a day and a potato or slice of bread. This in the midst of cattle drives through the town and market gardens in the open yards. The Italian gentleman paints an idealized portrait that neglects aspects such as the King Street "core," and others--bands of young men who would drink together after work and then throw the neighborhood into an uproar with fights etc. Although, it is said that these groups sometimes matured into benevolent societies distributing assistance to the indigent in their quarter of town. [1:21]
The pleasantries of the town in the late 18c degenerated during the early 19c due to population rise and industrialization. The Gallows Green area became a coal pit, many miners drawn from poor Irish immigrants. Job opportunities drew people from the countryside, the Highlands, and Ireland to increasingly crowded and hazardous conditions. Higher numbers of workers, even if skilled, made less and less money. Increased product as well as changing fashions created market gluts and loss of profits. A series of financial disasters hit the region in the 1820s and 1830s. The winter of 1841-42 was the worst; 15,000 people--a third of Paisley's population--were on poor relief. 67 firms failed, 20 leading merchants went bankrupt. The burgh itself went bankrupt and it took 29 years to discharge the debt [1843-72]. These are the years John Ralston Cunningham Sr. established himself in an alternative profession as a grocer. 1842 is also the year John Ritchie from Kilwinning went bankrupt and died. [5:168]
© 1997 Marjorie J. Jodoin. No part of this
material is to be reproduced without my
permission.mjjodoin@webtv.
net
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