Devon and all who chimed in on the male lacemakers/workers thread: Thank you all for the interesting discussion that ensued. The laceworker (passementwerker) from Valenciennes that I wrote about was called Jean Monfort. He and his wife Jacqueline Moreau and their son Pierre indeed came early to this country - they were on the first ship that came to New Netherland with passengers, the Eendracht in 1624. The fact that his name appears on a ship's manifest indicates that he owed the Dutch West India Company for his passage - had he paid for his trip outright, his name would not have appeared. They returned to the Netherlands for at least three years, during which time their son married, and then came back to New Netherland.
When Jean Monfort was born, Valenciennes was part of the Spanish Netherlands, not France, and was therefore very Catholic. It appears that the Monforts like many others who were Huguenots (French Protestants) did not acknowledge this until they moved to Amsterdam where he joined the Walloon Reformed Church. Devon, I wrote to the folks who run Philipsburg Manor and Van Cortlandt Manor in Westchester (NY) a few years ago, asking if they knew anything about lacemaking among the early settlers, and they replied that they were also interested but had not been able to find any indication that lacemaking was pursued by the Dutch or anyone else here at an early date. There are old roller pillows in some of the small museums, but they appear to date from the 19th century, not earlier. I have heard that the Netherlands were historically able to produce the best thread for lacemaking, but that it was the Belgians who were more involved in making lace. Regina Haring Nanuet, NY On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 9:05 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > I think that we should try to affix dates to our historical evidence. If I > understand Regina, she must be talking about male lacemaking between 1609 > and 1674 when New Amsterdam ceased to exist under that name and became New > York. Several of the people who are citing the activities of family > members > appear to be discussing lace making activities of the 19th century. A two > hundred year difference in time is significant. > > I think that the term Lacemaker for a man may well mean an entrepreneur, > as in the case of the 17th century grave of the major entrepreneur in > Honiton where I think the term Lacemaker is used to describe him. But, > might it > not be the case that such a person would know how to make lace? Wouldn't > he > most likely learn the business from the bottom up, so that he can exercise > quality control and train the workers? > > > Regina, I would be very interested in any information you have about > lacemaking in New Amsterdam/New York, or in reading anything that you may > be > writing about it. > > Devon > > - 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/
