Richard Hewlings, ‘Women in the building trades, 1600–1850: A preliminary list’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. X, 2000, pp. 70–83 TEXT © THE AUTHORS 2000 WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES, ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST RICHARD HEWLINGS ary Slade was not unique, but she was unusual rate books, for instance, and the relationship between Mnevertheless. Out of a sample of some , these women and male building tradesmen of the people engaged in the building industry between same name could be determined rather than merely and , no more than were women, speculated on, as here. Since most of these women’s approximately %. names come from accounts, that source would also These women are listed below, but the limitations furnish information about rates of pay and profit, of the sample have to be noted. It is, first, a random and, occasionally, about employees, materials and sample, , names recorded in the course of transport. Insurance company records would provide researching other subjects – particular buildings, not information about stock and premises. The list particular issues nor particular persons. There are may therefore provide a starting point for a proper inevitable distortions in favour of certain times and study of the subject; such a study would not only certain places, not to mention the distortions caused illuminate women’s history, but the history of the by absence of primary evidence. The first half of the building trade as well. seventeenth century, for instance, is thinly represented, Thirdly, the building trade is here defined as the so are Scotland, Wales and large parts of southern provision of immovables, so providers of furniture, and western England. However, these distortions are plate and easel paintings are excluded, although irrelevant for the present purpose since they favour providers of trees, plants and seeds are not. It happens and disfavour men and women equally. In order to that cabine t makers, upholsterers, silversmiths and maintain equality of distortion, there has been no easel painters have been more studied than builders, systematic selection of women. The list could certainly because of the commercial value of doing so; so the be increased by adding all the women to be found in names of women in these trades are easily recoverable a London or provincial trade directory, for instance, from the secondary literature. It is, however, possible or an index volume of the Middlesex Deeds Registry, that there was a higher proportion of women in these but, in becoming more nearly comprehensive, it would as in other luxury trades; included, they might alter become less nearly representative. the analysis quite markedly. Secondly, it is not a study. It is no more than a list The more luxurious and conspicuous parts of of female names, usually the names of recipients of buildings also engaged the attention of women who payment for building work. No attempt has been were not in trade at all. Thus the list includes the made to investigate any of these women further, nor names of six women who were by contemporary to confirm or deny any of the intriguing possibilities definition ladies, including a princess of the blood. which the random survival of their names raise. Some Lady Diana Beauclerk, Mrs Creed, Miss Crewe, could be answered by the usual genealogical means, Mrs Damer, Princess Elizabeth and Mrs Steward were wills, apprenticeship bindings, parish registers and presumably not dependant on payment for decorative THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST painting (for five of them) or sculpture (for Mrs Dictionary of British Architects . Mrs Fifield is Damer); although, if Mrs Creed was responsible for included lest subsequent research demonstrates that the Painted Parlour at Canons Ashby, her work was she was indeed in trade. But all seven are excluded not unlike that of a house painter’s, and raises the from analysis, and do not contribute to the number, possibility that she might have engaged in trade given above, of women in the building trades. (though doubtless discreetly). A seventh woman, Finally three of the names on the list may not Mrs Fifield, evidently had a commercial background, be women’s at all. But a view had to be taken, and, but it is not clear that she traded on her own account. on balance, Gregory Widow and Rockhead Lydia The six ladies are listed on the same basis as gentlemen probably were women, and Ellin Withers perhaps amateurs included in Howard Colvin’s Biographical was; so they all appear. SARAH BACON and Sons . P lasterers. The Bacons Bolingbroke, St Albans]. She was obviously not a were paid for work at the Trafalgar Block, Greenwich tradeswoman, but she painted the walls of her own Hospital, Kent, in – [London, Public Record houses, Devonshire Cottage, Richmond, Surrey, and Office (hereafter PRO), ADM / , ex inf Dr Little Marble Hill, Twickenham, Middlesex, in an Michael Turner]. They were perhaps related to George evidently professional manner in and – Bacon, plasterer at Osterley House, Middlesex, in [Edward Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in – [Geoffrey Beard, Craftsmen and Interior England , II, London, , – and ]. Decoration in England – , Edinburgh, , ; London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Furniture ELIZABETH BENNETT . Smith. With her and Interior Design Department, red box no ]. sons, Edward and Valentine, she was the smith at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxon, for the st Duke Mrs BARBER . Plumber. Mrs Barber was paid by of Marlborough; their forge was in the ruins of the University of Cambridge for plumber’s work at Woodstock Palace [David Green, Blenheim Palace , Bonner’s House, Cambridge, in [Cambridge, London, , , ]. Elizabeth Bennett’s will, University Library (hereafter CUL), University describing her as a widow, of New Woodstock, was Accounts (hereafter UAc), ()]. She was perhaps the drawn up in July [Oxford, Bodleian Library, ex widow of Thomas Barber, plumber, who was paid by inf Mr Edward Saunders]. the University for work on the vestry of Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge, in [CUL, UAc, ELIZABETH BETTS . Painter. She was paid by the Vice-Chancellor’s Vouchers (hereafter VCV) ()]. Office of Works for painting part of Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, Kew, Surrey, in [PRO, WORK / ]. Lady DIANA BEAUCLERK ( – ). Decorative painter. She was the daughter of the rd DOROTHY BLAND . Supplier of lime and bricks, Duke of Marlborough, and in married the nd perhaps a brick maker. She was paid for bricks and Viscount Bolingbroke (from whom she was divorced lime delivered to Studley Royal, Yorkshire, in - in ); she married Topham Beauclerk, the biblio- [Leeds, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Vyner MSS phile, in [Burke’s Peerage , svv Marlborough, a ( )]. THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST ELIZABETH BOOMER . Supplier of tar. She was Sir John Griffin Griffin in [Ibid , DDBy ], and paid by Edward Wortley Montagu for tar for the was doubtless related to Robert Bunton, glazier, who timbers of the east wing of Wortley Hall, Yorkshire, worked there in [Ibid , DDBy ]. (I am grateful in [Richard Hewlings, ‘Wortley Hall’, to Mr Michael Sutherill for this information.) Archaeological Journal , CXXVII, , ; Sheffield, Sheffield Archives, WhM ]. Mrs MARY CARR . Slater. Mrs Carr worked as a slater for Sir Charles Monck, Bart, at Belsay Hall, Mrs BOTTOMLEY . Mason. Mrs Bottomley was Northumberland, in – and – [Newcastle , paid by Cambridge University for work at the Schools Northumberland Record Office, Middleton Papers in (CUL, UAc ()]. She might have been the (hereafter Middleton), B / ]. She was presumably widow of Charles Bottomley, mason, who worked at the widow of William Carr, who worked as a slater at Trinity College, Cambridge, in - [Robert Willis Belsay in – , West Belsay in –, and and John Willis Clark, Architectural History of the Hetchesterlaw in [Ibid , B / – ]. Thomas University of Cambridge (hereafter Willis and Clark), Carr, probably a relation, was brickmaker at Belsay in II, Cambridge, ]. He was presumably the and [Idem ], and, although Carr is a Bottomley (whose Christian name is not recorded) common name in Northumberland, they may have who worked at several places for Cambridge University been related to George Carr, who was a mason or between and [CUL, UAc ()], and for bricklayer on the neighbouring estate of Capheaton Trinity College in ‒ [Willis and Clark, II, ]. in [Newcastle, Northumberland Record Office, He could have been the Bottomley from Bury St Swinburne Papers, ]. Edmunds who worked at Little Haugh Hall, Suffolk, in – [Norman Scarfe, ‘Little Haugh Hall, Mrs ELEANOR COADE (‒ ). Suffolk’, Country Life , CXXIII, June , , ]. It Composition maker. Her career, always known as may have been another Charles Bottomley who was remarkable, is well documented in Alison Kelly, Mrs paid for mason’s work in the new gardens at Coade’s Stone , Upton-on-Severn, . She was Holkham Hall, Norfolk, in [Holkham Hall unmarried, and the style ‘Mrs’ was an honorific. MSS, Estate Cash Book, – ]. JANE CONYERS . Glazier and painter. She worked ANNE BROWNE . Slater. She was paid by the for George Baker at Elemore Hall, Co Durham, executors of the st Duke of Buckingham for work in [John Gosden, ‘Elemore Hall transformed at Buckingham House (now Buckingham Palace), – ’, Transactions of the Architectural and London, in [Normanby (Lincs), Papers of Sir Archaeological Society of Durham & Northumberland , Reginald Sheffield, Bart, Bundle M]. In she was NS, VI, ]. It is possible that she was related to paid for work at the office of the Paymaster-General, the Conyers who worked as a bricklayer for Sir John No Whitehall [PRO, T / , p. ]. Hussey Delaval of Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, although this work may have been in London MARY BUNTON . Plumber and glazier. She [Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland Record Office, worked for the nd Lord Braybrooke at Audley End Delaval MSS, DE /]. House, Saffron Walden, Suffolk, in and [Chelmsford, Essex Record Office, Braybrooke Mrs ELIZABETH CREED (? – ).