Women and Work in Pre-industrial England

Lindsey Charles, Lorna Duffin, Lindsey Charles, Lorna Duffin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136248382
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: History

This book surveys women and work in English society before its transition to industrial capitalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The time span of the book from 1300 to 1800 allows comparison of women's work patterns across various phases of economic and social organisation. It was originally published in 1985.

Several important themes are highlighted throughout the individual contributions in the book. The most significant is the association between home and work. Not only was trade and manufacture in the pre-industrial period carried out in close proximity to domestic life, many household activities also overlapped with commercial ones. The second key theme is the importance of the local social and economic environment in shaping the nature and extent of women's work. The book also demonstrates the similarity between certain aspects of women's work before and after industrialisation. The industrial revolution may have made sexual divisions of labour more apparent but their origins lie firmly in the pre-industrial period.

1
Women and Work in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century London

Kay E. Lacey

A woman … though a citizen … cannot bear civilia, or publica onera of tne city; she cannot doe any thing for the benefit of the city; she cannot perform watch, and ward; she can bear no office in the city; neither can she be of any of the Companies; she cannot be Attorney; she may be a Free– Woman, but this is only to have her will (as many so have) but to no other purpose.¹

Introduction

The important economic role played by women in medieval society frequently goes unacknowledged in studies of urban life of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. But contemporary legal documents abound in references to merchant women and female apprentices and from these sources, it appears that very few occupations were actually denied to women. Furthermore, the freedom of women within the ‘home’ and the fact that they were expected as wives or daughters, to participate in their husbands’ or fathers’ business activities, and sometimes even act as their agents, suggests that medieval women were accepted as sharing fully in all areas of family life. ² A haberdasher, Thomas Canons, sent his wife ‘to the Citee of London to doo dyvers thyngys at his Cornmaun– dement’, and another wife Margery Smith, even though sick, ‘cam to London and agreed with other of her creditors’ because her husband Robert could not be found.³ As these examples show women were expected to be competent in matters concerning their husbands’ business activities. Competence would include reading and writing abilities and some schools which took women did exist in some medieval towns.⁴ They were, however, generally excluded from performing public rights and duties. They could not be members of universities, or be clerics, judges, members of Parliament etc., or hold public office.⁵ There were exceptions. Some noble, gentlewomen, and merchants’ wives are recorded as being constables of castles and guardians of prisoners or collecting loans for the King.⁶ Women, unless they worked on their own account as sole merchants, traders, apprentices or as servants in the towns, were also still largely dependent on fathers or husbands.

London women’s participation in the economy appears to have increased after 1350, which may have been related to the Black Death and the resultant male labour shortage, but may equally well have been related to the general increase in legal documentation. A clear decline in women’s participation can be observed in the same documentary sources from about 1480, which may be related to growing attempts by gilds and livery companies to exclude single women (or femme sole traders) from various occupations. The evidence shows fewer women merchants active on a large scale in the sixteenth century.

As late as 1722 the borough laws of London allow for women to trade and work on their own account in the City. However, by this time they are no longer found in the wide range of occupations they pursued in, the Middle Ages, and are concentrated in the traditionally female trades in which they had always had a monopoly (spinning, laundering, nursing etc.).⁷

The main concern of this article is a survey of the occupations practised by women in the period. Before considering these, however, it is necessary to look at women in the context of law and –custom in the City of London. Every woman who lived in the City of London and who worked there as a citizen or freewoman was bound to obey the customs of London and could enjoy the privileges resulting from London’s special borough status and law. The same women were also bound to obey canon law when it touched upon such matters as testaments, marriage, adultery, defamation, broken contracts or promises etc. They were also governed by the common law when involved in some types of criminal proceedings, land litigation or contract law, which were not covered by borough customs and the customs of London. Many different types of law regulated women’s lives, often when common law or borough customs was unable to minister justice in a certain matter, women would apply to chancery, to obtain a decision through equity. Medieval women would have been conversant with the different types of law which governed their lives, and would have been aware of the different courts to which they have had to anply to receive ‘justice’. For this reason, it is necessary to be aware of how important different laws were in women’s lives, as they could govern and regulate women’s status in society, or their ability to work in certain occupations, or affect their capacity to own land or chattels, or to make contracts.

In general it may be said that the images of medieval women seen through courtly love and the Church, bear little resemblance to the activities of women in the world. Ideological influences of the Church and of literary conventions, were however assimilated into legal thinking, which was as inconsistent and conflicting as literary and religious opinion. Canon, civil, common law and borough custom often contradict each other on the legal status and abilities of women. Law itself may not reflect the real activities of women in society. Canon law was the basis of the judicial proceedings of the Church, which was recognised as binding by the community. Civil law, was based on Roman law, and should be distinguished from both canon and common law. It played little part in affecting the lives of English subjects. Common law was the general law of the community, separate from local and borough customs. It was administered by the King’s Courts and was believed to have been derived from ancient and universal usage. It relates to the law of the King’s ordinary judges, and does not include special courts and equity (chancery). Borough custom varied from town to town, though many boroughs followed similar laws to those of London on which they were based.

Common Law

The common law was almost entirely directed towards married women and widows. Single women are rarely mentioned, perhaps because they were regarded as having rights equal to those of men. It was concerned primarily with women in relation to marriage and towards rights and duties within marriage. Its form was dictated by the two–fold desire to preserve the husband’s superiority and to protect the rights of the wife and children.

On marriage, a husband acquired control of his wife’s freehold interests for the duration of the marriage, because, by the law and custom of England, the husband was entitled to have the inheritance of his wife, and was seized of it for his lifetime. Husbands thus gained guardianship of land and possessions and any actions concerning these had to be brought either by, or against, both husband and wife. If the husband had a child by the wife then he was entitled to hold the land acquired by marriage by the ‘courtesye of Englande’,⁸ which meant that he held it in trust for the child. An important part of the common law which affected women was concerned with land or possessions, acquired by husbands on marriage, or which passed to women on their husbands’ death. Dowry was the money or property which the wife brought to the husband on marriage. Dower was the portion of a deceased husband’s estate which the law allowed to his widow for her life. The maritagium was that part of the marriage portion or dowry given to the husband, which returned to his wife after his death. The morning gift was the gift made by the husband to the wife on the morning after consummation of the marriage. Dower and dowry feature considerably in the common law relating to women.

Dower and dowry were also important in canon law where private marriages (i.e. not taking place in church) were concerned as the gifts confirmed that the marriage had taken place and so secured ecclesiastical recognition for it. ⁹

Some ...