Dear All In answer to your question Regina, yes men were lacemakers as well. As regards the bobbin lace, I have read that they worked on the lace when they had no work for themselves (they were probably farm labourers or the like) or to help out their mothers, aunts, sisters, etc if there was a rushed job on. Reports in the history books I have show that men often designed lace (Thomas Lester for instance) and they were normally the buyers who collected the lace from the workers and took it to London, and, I guess, other big cities. I am sure that there are others on the list who will be able to elaborate on this.
Men who were also called lacemakers were the blacksmiths, whitesmiths, engineers and these were the men who invented and ran the machines for machine made lace. Once the machines had been invented to make stocking fabric for stockings in 1589, it was only a matter of time before they were adapted to make a net fabric and then machine made lace similar to what you can buy today. I do a talk about lacemakers (men who operated the machines) and their families who were based in the Midlands and suffered poverty in the early 1800s, who then dismantled their lace machines and moved to Calais to work so that they could sell their net/lace to the Paris market. They had been crippled by the taxes imposed by the French so this was the way they got round it. But the French Revolution forced them to leave and in 1848/1849 and some 700 lacemakers and their families emigrated to South Australia. The fair for their passage was raised in England. I understand that some further 300 also went to Australia, a year or two later but that they paid their own fair. The Australians wanted farm workers so the lacemakers had to leave their machines behind. Some of the lacemakers left Calais and came back to Britain and once the problems in France subsided quite a few went back to Calais and set up again. Some of the lace machines can be seen at Calais Museum. Lacemaking machines were in France and they had the machines before the English left in 1848 although the English lacemakers did not share them for some time. I am sure most people will have heard of Joan Heathcoat who had his machines smashed up by the former luddites in 1816 in the Midlands because he invented a machine that could accurately copy the workings of Bucks Point lace. He went to Tiverton Devon where he set up again and, as far as I know, had no further problems. But then he was not a threat to the Devon lace workers. If anyone wants to know more about the emigrants, there is a website called 'The Australian Lacemakers of Calais' that will give far more information that I have given here. I am not, in any way, related to the lacemakers but came across this story because I did a book review on the subject for the Lace Guild a few years ago. I do talks on the subject, having done one for my local lace group recently, and have been helped by the webmaster of the ALC, Richard Lander and also Gillian Kelly who has written a couple of books on the subject. They both answered all my questions to enable me to do the talk and provided me with powerpoint details I could use together with copies of the ALCs newsletter, as well as family history, photos and permission to use whatever I wanted so that I could do talks. They are happy that the story is told. I haven't been able to get a piece of the net or lace though. Unfortunately Regina I can't tell you who the man named Montfort is. > > > 'This raises a question that has always puzzled me - does this truly mean that the men themselves were lacemakers, or that they were employed in the business of lace in the sense that they were middlemen who bought lace from the women who were making it and then re-sold it? I came across this record of a man named Montfort who came early to America and was a "laceworker" - I would guess that he found another trade after he arrived in wild Manhattan/New Amsterdam. I believe there is another record which refers to him in this way - don't have it to hand right now. Don't know how I came across this entry, or who underlined it so heavily.' Regina Haring > > If anyone wants any further information or has any questions I will happily answer them if I can. Maureen E Yorks UK - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
