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 (? – ). Papers, DDBy and ]. She was perhaps the relict Decorative painter. She was the daughter of Sir of John Bunton, glazier, who had worked there for Gilbert Pickering, Bart, of Titchmarsh,
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
Northamptonshire, and she married John Creed of The Hon Mrs DAMER ( – ). Sculptor. Oundle (Secretary to the Commissioners for Tangier Anne, daughter of Field Marshall the Hon Henry from ) in . She painted a wall monument to Seymour Conway, married the Hon John Damer, Dr Theophilus Pickering, her brother (d. ), in elder son of the st Earl of Dorchester, in Titchmarsh church, and another to Erasmus Dryden, [Burke’s Peerage , svv . Hertford, Portarlington]. She her cousin, in the same place. She painted another was obviously not a tradeswoman. Her career is wall monument to her daughter, Dorothy Creed documented in Rupert Gunnis, Dictionary of British (d. ), in Barnwell church, Northamptonshire Sculptors – , London, , – , to which [Croft-Murray, op cit , I, ]. The Painted Parlour at should be added carved plaques at St Anne’s Well, Canons Ashby House, Northamptonshire, executed Buxton, Derbyshire , in – [Ivan Hall, Georgian for Edward Dryden, c. , has also been attributed to Buxton , Chapel en le Frith, , ]. her [National Trust, Canons Ashby , London, , ]. She was the mother of Elizabeth Steward, q.v [Croft- Widow DISON . Plumber. She was paid for work at Murray, loc cit ; Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sydney Lord Fauconberg’s house in Soho Square, London, Lee, Dictionary of National Biography , V, Oxford, in [Northallerton, North Yorkshire Record since , ]. Office, ZDV V , p. ].
MARY CRIPS . Painter. She was paid by the Princess ELIZABETH ( – ). Decorative Admiralty in for painting ships at Portsmouth painter. She was the rd daughter of King George III and ‘Buildings in General’, presumably at the same and Queen Charlotte, and she married Prince place [PRO, ADM / A]. Frederick of Hesse-Homburg in . She was far from being a tradeswoman, but she painted the walls The Hon EMMA CREWE (d. ). Decorative of three of her mother’s houses in a skilful manner, of painter. She was the daughter of st Lord Crewe, and which the survival of two of them allows attestation. married Foster Cunliffe-Offley in . She was The surviving work is at Frogmore House, Windsor, obviously not a tradeswoman, but she painted a room Berkshire ( ), and Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, in her mother’s house in Richmond, Surrey, ‘in a very Kew, Surrey (c. ): a room which she painted pretty manner’ c. , according to Horace Walpole in The Queen’s House, St James’s Park (now [Croft-Murray, op cit , II, ]. Buckingham Palace), London, does not survive [Croft-Murray, op cit , II, ]. Mrs SUSANNA CROAD . Mason. Her company were the principal contractors of the magazines at Mrs MARY ELLIOT . Pantile supplier. She was Keyham, Devon, and of the two masonry redoubts on paid for supplying pantiles to Sir Charles Monck, Maker Heights, Cornwall, built for the Board of Bart, of Belsay Castle, Northumberland, in ; but, Ordnance between and . The company, as he paid a carter called Joseph Elliot in , the which may have been quite substantial, employed a possibility that she too was only a carter has to be foreman called I Thomson, who managed her considered [Middleton, B /, ]. workforce at Maker; the Board dismissed one of the masons called John French for slandering him Mrs FIFIELD . No payments for building work to [David Evans, ‘The Redoubts on Maker Heights, Mrs Fifield are known, but she was the executor of Cornwall, – ’ Georgian Group Journal , IX, the carpenter, John Smallwell, senior, in , and her , , , ]. own executor was the bricklayer, Thomas Churchill,
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST so it is possible that she was also in the building Mrs MARY GORDON . Carpenter. She was paid trade. She was dead by February [Vanbrugh’s by the Governors of the Foundling Hospital for some account book, as printed in Kerry Downes, Vanbrugh , small jobs in [London, London Metropolitan London, , ]. She was perhaps related to David Archives, A/FH/A/ //, fols , and ], and Fifield, plasterer, who worked at the Clarendon unsuccessfully tendered for the main carpentry Building, Oxford, in [Beard, op cit , ]. contract at the Foundling Hospital, London, in [Ibid , fol ]. Mrs FISHER . Plant supplier. Mrs Fisher sold elm trees to Christopher Crowe of Kiplin Hall, MARY GREEN . Smith. She provided blacksmith’s Yorkshire in , and more trees in , and work for the brick kilns at Audley End House, [Northallerton, North Yorkshire Record Office, Saffron Walden, Essex, for the rd Lord Braybrooke ZBL/IV/ // , and ]. She was presumably the in [Chelmsford, Essex Record Office, widow of a plantsman called Fisher from Ripon, who Braybrooke Papers, DDBy , ex inf Mr Michael had sold garden trees to Crowe in [Ibid , ZBL/ Sutherill]. IV/ // ]. He may have been William Fisher, gardener at Studley Royal, Yorkshire, in and Widow GREGORY . Bricklayer. ‘Gregory Widow’ [Leeds, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Vyner was paid in for work for the nd Duke of Grafton MSS, a ( ); Thomas Gent, History of ... at his house in Piccadilly, London; the work had Ripon , York, , which is dedicated to William been carried out before the Duke’s death in Fisher, ‘Gardener in Chief To the Right Honourable [Hewlings, ‘Wakefield Lodge’, cit , ]. John Aislabie Esq’]. The Fisher family of Ripon may have included MARY GRIMES . Painter. She painted St Michael, Richard Fisher, the carver, who worked at Studley Bassishaw, City of London, possibly including the Royal in – , – , – and altarpiece, before [Croft-Murray, op cit , I, ; [Geoffrey Beard, ‘A magnificent landscape’, Country Wren Society , X, , , ]. Life , CXXX, August , , ; Vyner MSS, loc cit ], at Wolterton Hall, Norfolk, in [Gordon MARY GRISSON of Billiter Lane, London. Nares, ‘Wolterton Hall, Norfolk – II’, Country Life , Bricklayer. In she insured two houses under CXXII, July , , ] and at Temple Newsam, construction for £ [David Barnett, London, Hub Yorkshire, in – [Derek Linstrum, West of the Industrial Revolution , London, , ]. Yorkshire: Architects and Architecture , London, , , n. ]. They were also presumably related to the Widow HALSAUL . Carpenter. Her husband, Fishers of York, statuaries, whose careers are Richard Halsaul, had executed carpenter’s work at documented in Gunnis, op cit , – . the Geffrye Almshouses, Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London in – , but died before the almshouses Mrs FOSTER . Nurserywoman. She supplied were complete. In August , over a year after his plants for the nd Duke of Grafton at Wakefield death, Geffrye’s Charity Committee contracted with Lodge, Potterspury, Northamptonshire, in his widow to add two more staircases. Widow Halsaul [Richard Hewlings, ‘Wakefield Lodge and other therefore clearly kept the business in being, rather buildings of the nd Duke of Grafton,’ Georgian than merely completing his outstanding contracts Group Journal , III, , ]. [Neil Burton, The Geffrye Almshouses , London, , , (bis)].
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
Mrs HARRISON . Brickmaker. Mrs Harrison and to George Engleheart at East Bedfont ( ), all in Daniel Harrison appear independently as brickmakers Middlesex, and to Viscount Falkland at Rudby, in the Minutes of the Governors of the Foundling Yorkshire ( ) [Gunnis, op cit , , ex inf Mr Hospital, London, in , so it seems unlikely that Stephen Priestley]. she was his wife [London, London Metropolitan Archives, A/FH/A/ //]. Mrs JOHNSON . Joiner. Mrs Johnson was paid by Cambridge University for work at Bonner’s House, ELIZABETH HARRISON of Drury Lane, Cambridge, and at Great St Mary’s church in London. Carpenter. In she took out a fire [CUL, UAc ()]. She was perhaps the widow of a insurance policy to cover houses built by her and joiner called Johnson, who was paid by the University valued at £ , , adding a further nine houses for for work at the Schools in [Idem ]. £, in . She insured her workshop for £ and her stock for £ [Barnett, oc cit ]. ANN JOHNSON . Bricklayer. She was paid by the Board of Works for work at Mr Wilde’s house in the Mrs JANE HILL . Painter. She was described in Exchequer, Westminster, in ; she identified James as ‘Paintress’ to the Board of Ordnance [O.F.G Firth as her assignee [PRO, WORK / , pp. – ]. Hogg, The Royal Arsenal , London, , I, ], and was paid for work at Woolwich Arsenal, Kent, in MARY KELLY . Stone sawyer. She worked at and again in – [Ibid , ]. A man called John Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, between and Hill was paid by the Board for measuring at Woolwich [Ivan and Elisabeth Hall, Historic Beverley , York, in [Ibid , , ], his trade is not specified, and , ]. they need not have been related. Another John Hill worked as a joiner at the Navy Office in [PRO, Mrs MARY KERTON . Smith. She was paid by the ADM / A]; as the Navy was a different arm of rd Earl of Burlington ‘for her husband’ for smith’s government he is still less likely to have been Jane work either at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, Hill’s relation, but it remains a possibility. or at Chiswick House, Middlesex, between and , and again in [Chatsworth, Devonshire MARGARET HILL . Supplier of dishes. She was Papers]. She was presumably related to Thomas paid by Edward Wortley Montagu in for supply- Kerton of Chiswick, a smith who had worked for ing water dishes for bricklayers working on the east Lord Fauconberg at Sutton Court, Chiswick, from wing of Wortley Hall, Yorkshire [Hewlings, ‘Wortley to [Northallerton, North Yorkshire Record Hall’, cit , ; Sheffield, Sheffield Archives, WhM ]. Office, ZDV. V , passim ]. In view of the time lapse it is unlikely that he was her husband, but Lord ELIZABETH HILLMAN of Brentford. Plumber Burlington paid another Thomas Kerton for and glazier. She worked for King George III at Kew unspecified work in [Chatsworth, loc cit ]. Palace, Surrey, probably on the dairy, in [John Harris, Sir William Chambers , London, , , n. ]. APOLLONIA KICKIUS . Decorative painter. She was the daughter of Edward Kickius, a Dutch SARAH HOLMES of Brentford. Statuary. She is painter, who executed the perspective work behind known only from memorial tablets with her signature: the altar in St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, to Herbert Swyer at Isleworth ( ), to John Howard London, in – . Between and Edward at Brentford ( ), to Thomas Smith at Ealing ( ), Kickius lived in Edinburgh and was employed by
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
James Smith, Surveyor of the Scottish Royal Works Mrs MEADLEY . Stone sawyer. She worked at on various small jobs [John G Dunbar, ‘Lowlanders Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, between and . in the Highlands’, Country Life , CLVI, August , She was the wife of Richard Meadley, a bricklayer, so , ], having moved to Scotland to work for the it was evidently not her husband’s trade that she was st Duke of Lauderdale at Thirlestane Castle, pursuing. [Ivan and Elisabeth Hall, Historic Beverley , Berwickshire, and Lethington (now Lennoxlove), York, , ]. East Lothian, in – [J.G. Dunbar, ‘The Building- activities of the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale, MARY MELTON and Son . Bricklayers. They were – ’, Archaeological Journal , CXXXII, ]. paid by the rd Earl of Mansfield for work on glass Edward Kickius had returned to London by houses at Kenwood House, St Pancras, Middlesex, in [Idem ], but Apollonia remained in (or returned to) – [Scone (Perthshire), Mansfield Papers, nd Scotland, where she worked at Castle Huntly, series, bundle (A/ )]. They were probably the Longforgan, Perthshire ; she died in , aged , M and J Melton, who were paid for further work at and there is a monument to her in Longforgan church, Kenwood in – [Ibid , bundle ()]. Mary Melton [Dunbar, in Country Life , loc cit ]. may have been the relict of Thomas Melton, bricklayer and plasterer, who worked for the st Earl of Mansfield MARY LACY , alias Mary Slade ( – ). at Kenwood in [Ibid , Bundle ( )], and who Carpenter. Her life as a carpenter is documented in executed the brickwork of the north wings of Kenwood Peter Guillery, ‘The Further Adventures of Mary Lacy’ House, and the dairy, farm and piggeries there, for in this volume, and her earlier life is documented by the nd Earl between and [Ibid , bundle her autobiography (Mary Slade, The History of the (, , – , , –, , , , , , and )]. Female Shipwright ..., London, ) and by Suzanne J Stark, Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age JANE MORGAN . Ironmonger. She supplied bolts, of Sail , London, . padlocks and screws to Sir John Griffin Griffin for work at Audley End House, Saffron Walden, Essex, Mrs LEACH . Glazier and painter. She was paid by in , and at houses on his estate at Littlebury, Essex, the Board of Works for work in the apartment which in , and [Chelmsford, Essex Record was decorated for the visiting foreign princes in Office, Braybrooke Papers, DDBy and , ex inf Newmarket Palace, Cambridgeshire, in – Mr Michael Sutherill]. [PRO, WORK / , fol ]. M Leach, glazier, who worked there in , may have been related. It is MARY MOSER ( – ). Decorative painter. possible that she was also related to Thomas Leach, She was really an easel painter, but she decorated who worked as a plumber and glazier at the University one room at Frogmore House, Windsor, Berkshire, Library, Schools and Theatre in Cambridge between for Queen Charlotte, c. [Croft-Murray, op cit , and [CUL, UAc, VCV () and ( )]. II, ].
Mrs LONG . Marble stainer. Described as ‘the wife Mrs NEWLING . Joiner. Mrs Newling was paid by of Mr Long, stonecutter’, she carried on a marble- Cambridge University for unspecified joiner’s work staining business at Bow Bridge, Essex, in , in , and for work at Trumpington Ford in performing it ‘in a very curious manner’ [ Gentleman’s [CUL, UAc, ()]. She was presumably related to Magazine , , cited in Gunnis, op cit , , and (probably the wife of) one of two, or possibly three drawn to my attention by Mr Stephen Priestley]. carpenters of this name who worked in Cambridge.
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
These were, first, John Newling, who was paid [SHAH (ed), The Diary of John Hervey, First Earl of by the University for carpentry at their property in Bristol ..., London, ]. Barton, Cambridgeshire, in , and , at the Schools in Cambridge in , and at the bridge REBECCA PAGET . Mason. She was paid by the at the end of Christ’s Piece ‘for the King’s coach to executors of the st Duke of Buckingham for work at go over’ on George II’s visit to Cambridge in Buckingham House (now Buckingham Palace), [CUL, UAc, VCV (); (), ( ) and ( )]. It was London, in [Normanby (Lincs), Papers of Sir John Newling who built the Shire Hall, Market Hill, Reginald Sheffield, Bart, Bundle M]. Cambridge for the County in – , with his partner Thomas Pretlove [Cambridge, Cambridge ANN PALMER . Smith. She was the daughter of Record Office, Q , Quarter Sessions Order Book, William and Martha Palmer, for whom see Martha – ]. Palmer, infra . She succeeded Martha Palmer as The second was William Newling, who carried Master Smith at the Tower of London in [PRO, out carpenter’s work in the construction of the WORK / , ex inf Mr Stephen Priestley]. University’s crane in [CUL, UAc, VCV ()] and acted as a surveyor for the University in [Ibid , MARTHA PALMER . Smith. She was Master Smith VCV ()]; it was therefore presumably William, at the Tower of London from to , providing, described as Alderman Newling, who performed some for instance, dead locks and knob locks for the Record measuring work on the site of the Senate House in Office, and bars for the Lion Office, both in and , as well as fencing it, clearing and levelling it [PRO, WORK / , , ex inf Mr Stephen Priestley]. in [CUL, UAc, Misc Coll ]. Outside the Tower, she worked at Somerset House, The carpenter simply called Newling who was London, for the Board of Works in – [H.M. paid by the University for work at various properties Colvin (ed.), History of the King’s Works , V, London, between and [CUL, UAc ()], and by , ]. Outside the Office of Works, she worked Magdalene College for work on its combination for the rd Duke of Bridgewater at Cleveland House, room in [Willis and Clark, op cit , II, , n.l] St James’s, London [ Survey of London , XXX, London, could have been either of them or another. , ; Hertford, Hertfordshire Record Office, Both or either could have been active for a long AH. . , ex inf Mr Edward Saunders]. She was time, but the Trustees of Dr Addenbrooke’s Hospital succeeded as Master Smith at the Tower by her paid a surveyor called Newling as late as , daughter Ann Palmer, q.v , and had herself succeeded suggesting the existence of a third male member of the her husband William Palmer (died ), who had family [Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital NHS also worked at Somerset House for the Board of Trust, Addenbrookes Hospital Minutes – ]. Works in – [Kings Works , loc cit ]. He may have been the Palmer who supplied the stove grate to Sir Mrs JOHANNE ORAM . Tree and seed supplier. James Wright for use at Ray House, Essex, in – Mrs Oram supplied trees and seeds to Benjamin Hoare [Julia King, ‘An Ambassador’s House in Essex’, at Boreham House, Essex, between and Georgian Group Journal , VI, , ]. [accounts at Hoare’s Bank, London, ex inf Mr H.P.R. Indeed the Palmer dynasty of smiths may have Hoare]. She was presumably related to (and perhaps numbered more than three. John Palmer, blacksmith, the widow of) William Oram, a nurseryman who worked for Henry and Thomas Pelham at Stanmer supplied plants for the st Earl of Bristol at Ickworth, Park, Sussex, in – [Lewes, East Sussex Record Suffolk, in , and Aswarby, Lincolnshire, in Office, Chichester Papers, A/ /, ex inf Dr Richard
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
Morrice]. William Palmer, mechanic, supplied a new MARGARET PIERCE . Painter. She was paid for water engine for Thomas Duncombe at Duncombe painting the City churches of St Bartholomew, Park, Yorkshire, in [Northallerton, North Exchange (between and ), St Lawrence, Yorkshire Record Office, ZEW/IV/ / ]. And Jewry (between and ), and St Nicholas, Thomas Palmer, described as engineer, worked for Cole Abbey (between and ) [ Wren Society , the Chelsea Waterworks Company in [London, X, , , and ]. London Metropolitan Archives, Acc /CH/ /, ex inf Mr Andrew Skelton]. Mrs PINDAR . Plumber and glazier. She was paid No relationship is presently known between these by Cambridge University for work at the Schools in three and Martha Palmer, but her husband, William, , and , at the King’s Library in , and was the nephew and heir of a smith called James at Great St Mary’s church in [CUL, UAc, ()]. Palmer, whose brothers included both a William Another plumber and glazier called Pindar was also (dead by ) and a Thomas, described as ‘of paid by the University between and , but for London’; his other brothers, Richard, Francis and work on different buildings (unspecified buildings in Henry, were ‘of Bristol’ [PRO, PROB / , ex inf – , and , the Rustat Library in , the Mr Edward Saunders]. James Palmer was baptised at Public Schools in –, ‒, ‒ and , Epsom, Surrey in ; his father, also James, was a the Press in and ‒ , the Senate House in gardener, and he was apprenticed to John Hopkins, and , Barker’s House in , Bonner’s blacksmith and citizen of London, in [London, House in , and Great St Mary’s church in Guildhall Library, Apprentice Bindings, MS , [Idem ]). They either traded separately, or, if together, Vol , ex inf Mr Saunders]. In he lived in Church either may have received payment for work done Passage, St James’s, Piccadilly; in he had moved jointly. They could have been husband and wife, or to Air Street, Piccadilly [Beard, op cit , ]. He worked mother and son; if the latter, Mrs Pindar could have for the nd Duke of Cleveland at No St James’s been the widow of Jonathan Pindar, who had been Square, London in – [Accounts at Raby Castle, Clerk of Works at the University Library and Schools Co Durham, ex inf Mr Edward Saunders]. Between in [CUL, UAc, VCV ()] and the Senate House and he worked for Earl Cowper at his house in – [Idem ; and ibid , Misc Coll ]. In any case, in George St, Hanover Square, London [Hertford, they were doubtless related. Hertfordshire Record Office, D/EPT / J, ex inf Mr Saunders]. In he was appointed smith at Widow PRIDGEON . Nail supplier. She supplied Kensington Palace [PRO, WORK / ]. In he nails to the st Lord Middleton for Stapleford House, worked for the th Earl of Scarborough at his house Lincolnshire, in , when she was described as of in South Audley Street, London [Accounts at Carlton, presumably Carlton-on-Trent, Nottingham- Sandbeck Park, Yorkshire, ex inf Mr Saunders], and shire [Nottingham, University of Nottingham, in the same year he provided gilt metal door furniture Hallward Library, Middleton MSS, Mi Da ]. for Paul Methuen at Corsham Court, Wiltshire [Beard, Craftsmen , ]. He also made steel razors for a ANN PRICKETT . Carpenter. She worked as a Chippendale dressing table at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire carpenter for the nd and rd Earls of Mansfield at [Idem ]. James Palmer made his will in , leaving Kenwood, St Pancras, Middlesex, between and his houses in Air St, Church Passage and elsewhere , both in Kenwood House and on various garden in Piccadilly, with all his stock in trade, to his nephew buildings, in particular the Hermitage built in – William, Martha Palmer’s husband; he died in . [Scone (Perthshire), Mansfield Papers, bundle
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
(, – ); ibid , nd series, bundle (A/ – )]. as a widow carrying on the first Alexander’s She was dead by January , when her bill was business, or on behalf the second, still living. receipted John Prickett, her executor, evidently a surveyor, since he drew a plan of the rd Earl’s estate MARY ROWARD . Stone sawyer. She worked at at Kenwood in [Ibid , bundle ()]. Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, between and [Ivan and Elisabeth Hall, Historic Beverley , York, LYDIA ROCKHEAD . Stonemason. A payment , ]. in by the executors of the nd Duke of Grafton to someone with the unusual name of Rockhead RACHAEL SANDERS . Mason. She was paid by Lydia for work either at Euston Hall, Suffolk, or the architect John Soane for work on No (then No Wakefield Lodge, Potterspury, Northamptonshire ) Downing Street, London, then belonging to the [Hewlings, ‘Wakefield Lodge’, cit , ], may more Hon John Eliot, in [Richard Hewlings, ‘No plausibly be to a woman called Lydia Rockhead. Downing St, John Soane’s work for John Eliot’, If so, she could have been related to the mason and Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society , architect Alexander Rouchead (died ), whose XXXIX, , ]. career is described in Howard Colvin, Biographical A number of other building tradesmen called Dictionary of British Architects – , New Sanders are known, although none were masons. In Haven and London, , – . the event of a possible relationship to Rachael Sanders It is possible that there were two Alexander they can be recorded as follows: John Sanders ( – Roucheads, as a mason of that name worked at ), the architect, who was Soane’s pupil from Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, in – [Terry to [Colvin, Biographical Dictionary , cit , – ; Friedman, James Gibbs , New Haven and London, James Douet, British Barracks – , London, , ], and at No St James’s Square, London, , , –, , ]; Francis Sanders, plasterer, in – [Survey of London , XXIX, London, , who worked for the st Earl of Bristol at No St – (addendum)], and he presumably cannot be James’s Square, London, in [SHAH (ed), op cit ], the Alexander Rouchead who became free of the and who may have been the Sanders who plastered Masons’ Company of London by redemption on the Long Room at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, May [London, Guildhall Library, Masons’ in [San Marino (Ca), Henry E Huntington Company, Quarteredge Book, MS , fol ]. Library, Stowe MSS, /, ex inf Mr George Clarke]; Payments from the account of the architect Roger two carpenters called David Sanders from Warwick, Morris at Hoare’s Bank, beginning in , may of whom the elder worked at the Shire Hall, Warwick , therefore have been made to the elder Alexander in , and the younger at Warwick Castle from Rouchead [Steven Parissien, ‘The Careers of Roger [A.C Wood, ‘The Shire Hall, Warwick’, Warwickshir e and Robert Morris’, D Phil thesis, University of Local History Society , ]; and a glazier called Oxford, , ]. Mason’s work at Taymouth Robert Sanders who worked at Kiplin Hall, Yorkshire, Castle, Perthshire, for the nd Earl of Breadalbane in in , and [Northallerton, North Yorkshire [Ibid , ], and purchase of materials at the Record Office, ZBL/IV/ //, and ]. demolition sale of Cannons House, Middlesex, in the same year [ ex inf Mr John Harris] might have been RACHEL SKEAT . Smith. She was the widow of by either Alexander Rouchead. John Skeat, smith, who was dead by Aug , If there were two masons of that name, Lydia when a memorial from her husband’s occasional could have been the wife of either, paid in either partner, John Cleave, to the Commissioners for the
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
Fifty New Churches revealed that she had ‘a desire to where she painted the hall, allegedly in fresco [Croft- continue in that part of the smith’s work in which her Murray, op cit , I, ]. late husband was concerned in partnership with me under a former contract with the Commission’. Her Mrs STEWART . Painter and gilder. She worked at desire was frustrated by Hawksmoor who ‘employed No St James’s Square, London, for the th Earl of another smith’ [London, Lambeth Palace Library, Bristol, in – [Survey of London , XXIX, London, MS , ex inf Mr Edward Saunders]. John Skeat , ]. had worked at St Mary Woolnoth, City of London, in – [Sally Jeffery, ‘The work of John James’, PhD SUSANNA STURDY . Joiner. She worked at dissertation, University of London, , cat no ]. Clifton Castle, Yorkshire, for Timothy Hutton, in The John Skeat who worked at Deptford Rectory, – , together with Paul and Stephen Sturdy, and Kent, in – [Paul Jeffery, ‘Thomas Archer’s in succession to William Sturdy [Giles Worsley, Deptford Rectory: a reconstruction’, Georgian Group ‘Clifton Castle, Yorkshire’, Country Life , CLXXXII, Journal , III, , ] must have been another, September , , ]. perhaps their son. ANN TYSON . Slater. She worked for the Board of MARY SLADE . See Mary Lacy. Admiralty on the First Lord’s residence (Admiralty House), Whitehall, London, from to [PRO, SARAH SPICER . Smith. She worked for the nd ADM /]. She was presumably related to (or Lord Braybrooke at Audley End House, Saffron perhaps the same as) the Tyson who covered the Walden, Essex, in [Chelmsford, Essex Record greenhouse at Audley End House, Essex, Saffron Office, Braybrooke Papers, DDBy ]. She was Walden, with ‘welch ragg slating’ for Sir John Griffin perhaps the relict of Thomas Spicer, smith, who had Griffin in [Michael Sutherill, ‘John Hobcraft worked there in , and [Ibid , DDBy , and James Essex at Audley End House’, Georgian and ]. Richard Spicer, smith, who provided Group Journal , IX, , ], and the Tyson of iron railings for the iron bridge in the park at Audley Tyson and Sharp, slaters, who worked for the st Earl End House in , and ironwork for the Cambridge of St Germans at No St James’s Square, London, Lodge there for the rd Lord in [Ibid , DDBy in – [Survey of London , XXIX, London, , and ], was presumably a relation. (I am grateful to ]. Although Cumberland might normally seem Mr Michael Sutherill for this information.) too distant to propose a valid connection with a London tradesman, the fact that Tyson is a Cumbrian Widow STANHOPP . Decorative painter. She name and slate a Cumbrian product might indicate a worked at Theobalds Palace, Hertfordshire, for Queen relationship between Ann Tyson and Norman Tyson Anne in –. She may have been the mother of (occasionally ‘Towson’), the slater at Unerigg Hall, Richard Stanhopp or Stanhope, also a painter, who Cumberland, in and [Blake Tyson, ‘Unerigg worked at Theobalds for King Charles I in – (Ewanrigg) Hall, Maryport, Cumbria’, Transactions [Croft-Murray, op cit , I, ]. of the Ancient Monuments Society , NS XXVI, , ], and thence with Joseph Tyson (or Towson) of Mrs ELIZABETH STEWARD ( – ). Maryport, glazier and plumber at Unerigg Hall in Decorative painter. She was the eldest daughter of and – [Ibid , ]. John and Elizabeth Creed, q.v , and she married Elmer Steward of Cotterstock Hall, Northamptonshire,
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
ANN VINCENT . Plumber. She was paid for Chichester Papers, A/ /, ex inf Dr Richard plumber’s work at the Bank of England in Morrice]. [London, Bank of England MSS, ADM / , TV A/]. She might have been related to Francis MARY WHORLTON . Smith. She was paid by the Vincent, blacksmith, who worked at St Mary’s Board of Admiraty for work at the Admiralty Office, church, Twickenham, Middlesex, in – [Sally Whitehall, London, in [Nottingham, University Jeffery, op cit , cat no ]. of Nottingham, Hallward Library, Galway MSS, /]. JANE WALTON . Slate and flag supplier. She supplied these materials to Sir John Swinburne for ANN WIGGLESWORTH . Supplier of tar. She use at Capheaton Hall, Northumberland, in – was paid by Edward Wortley Montagu for tar to the [Newcastle, Northumberland Record Office, timbers of the east wing of Wortley Hall, Yorkshire, Swinburne Papers, ZSW ]. She was presumably in [Hewlings, ‘Wortley Hall’, cit , ; Sheffield, related to the slater called Walton who worked for Sir Sheffield Archives, WhM ]. Charles Middleton (later Monck), Bart, at the neigh- bouring estate of Belsay in – [Middleton, ELLIN WITHERS . Seed supplier. Ellin may have B / /]. been a man’s name, but someone of that name supplied seeds to Sir Charles Hotham, Bart, at South Dalton ELIZABETH WARD . Bricklayer. She was Hall, Yorkshire, in [Giles Worsley, ‘Rococo regularly employed by the nd Lord Braybrooke at survival’, Country Life , CLXXXIV, May , , ]. Audley End House, Saffron Walden, Essex, between and [Chelmsford, Essex Record Office, SARAH WYATT . Joiner. She made the sash Braybrooke Papers, DDBy , and , inter alia ]. windows in the Castle Secretary’s office at Windsor She was probably the relict o f Richard Ward, who Castle, Berkshire, in – [W St John Hope, had worked there as a bricklayer between and Windsor Castle , London, , I, , ex inf Mr [Ibid , DDBy , and , inter alia ; Michael Stephen Priestley]. Sutherill, ‘The Garden Buildings at Audley End’, Georgian Group Journal , VI, , ; ibid , ‘John Mrs YEOMANS . Bricklayer. She was paid by Hobcraft and James Essex at Audley End House’, Vanbrugh for bricklayer’s work at the Haymarket Georgian Group Journal , IX, , , ], and Opera House, London, in [Vanbrugh’s account whose name and trade are recorded on a stone book, printed in Kerry Downes, Vanbrugh , London, plaque set into the walls of the kitchen garden. , , , ]. She was the widow of Thomas Joseph Ward, who executed brickwork at the aviary Yeomans, who died in , having also executed at Audley End in and , was presumably a bricklayer’s work at the Haymarket Opera House in relation [ Ibid , DDBy and ], as may William that same year [ Idem ]. Furthermore Thomas Yeomans Ward, who was paid for mason’s work there in had been Vanbrugh’s partner, together with Richard and [Ibid , DDBy and ]. (I am grateful to Billingshurst, in the Haymarket Opera House project Mr Michael Sutherill for this information.) as early as [Survey of London , XXIX, London, , ]. The Yeomans’s were presumably related JEANE WEISEY . Chalk cutter. She worked for to John Yeomans, bricklayer, tiler and architect, Henry and Thomas Pelham at Stanmer Park, Sussex, whose career, c. – , is documented in Colvin, in – [Lewes, East Sussex Record Office, Biographical Dictionary , cit , .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
This list has only been designed to determine, Apprenticeship was unavailable to them, and there roughly, how rare was Mary Lacy. But it incidentally were legal impediments to independent trading which offers more, for instance, the distribution of women could be circumvented, but not always 2. Inheritance among trades. Painters and gilders account for the from a husband, father or brother was one means, so largest number on the list ( ). This would be reduced information about males of the same name is also if the three decorative painters (Apollonia Kickius, included. Yet a surprisingly small number are explicitly Mary Moser and Widow Stanhopp) were held to be identified as widows. Widows Bennett, Dison, in a different category. But if the line between Gregory, Pridgeon and Stanhopp need not necessarily decorative painting and easel painting is fine, so is have been the widows of building tradesmen. But that between decorative painting and house painting; Widow Halsaul, Martha Palmer, Rachel Skeat, and the Painted Parlour at Canons Ashby might be Mrs Yeomans certainly were; and Apollonia Kickius classified as either, and Margaret Pierce seems to have and Anne Palmer were their parents’ heiresses. undertaken both types of work. So all types of painter Another nine probably inherited their trades from are grouped together here. Smiths form the next deceased husbands (Mrs Carr, Mrs Fisher, Mary largest group ( ), which is surprising in view of the Melton, Mrs Newling, Mrs Pindar, Lydia Rockhead, heavy nature of the work, and suggests that a woman Sarah Spicer, Susanna Sturdy and Elizabeth Ward). paid for carrying out a particular trade may routinely A further six perhaps did so (Mrs Barber, Mrs have been able to delegate it. Plumbers and glaziers Bottomley, Mrs Johnson, Mrs Kerton, Mrs Oram and form a group of the same size ( ). Jane Conyers and Ann Vincent). Mrs Kerton, paid ‘for her husband’, Mrs Leach were glaziers, but also painters, so they may have been little more than his manager or book- could be transferred to swell the larger ranks of the keeper. But that still leaves without any indication latter trade. There are six bricklayers, five masons of having inherited their trade, although absence of and five carpenters, trades which also require heavy such evidence does not mean that they did not do so. manual work. The four joiners are less surprising. Mary Lacy is among them. There are three slaters and a single plasterer, unless On another issue, a subject of debate in the s, Eleanor Coade, composition maker, is included in the list is quite useless. This issue is whether, as the latter trade. Sarah Holmes, statuary, could perhaps proposed by Alice Clark in the first stage of feminist have been added to the masons. Mrs Long, marble historiography, the working life of women changed stainer, also presents a classificatory problem: her during the Industrial Revolution from being home- work might be closer to a painter’s, yet marriage to a based and co-operative to being out-located wage stone cutter suggests greater familiarity with mason’s slavery . Discernment of change over time requires work than painter’s. Among suppliers, five women accurate and abundant chronological information, provided stone, three (all at Beverley Minster) as and, although the list provides this, an attempt to plot stone sawyers, and one, at Stanmer Park in the South it immediately revealed the sample’s most serious Downs, as a chalk cutter. Four women provided trees, defect; compiled largely from the documentation of plants or seeds. Two were ironmongers. Two provided buildings which have, at random, required bricks, and might perhaps have been brickmakers, investigation, or (worse) taken my interest for other and one provided pantiles. Two provided tar for reasons, its chronological spread and density is timbers and one provided dishes for bricklayers. capricious. If the history of women in the building Information in the list will reveal awareness of the industry can help to resolve this question, a technique most important question; but it will not provide an will be required which is more systematic than that answer. How did these women enter these trades? which identifies the rarity of Mary Lacy.
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X WOMEN IN THE BUILDING TRADES , ‒ : A PRELIMINARY LIST
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NOTES Many people have sent me information on Georgian This might be compared with the % of traders building tradesmen; but I am grateful in this instance to recorded in Elizabeth Raffeld’s Manchester Directory Neil Burton, John Harris, H.P.R. Hoare, Richard Morrice, of , and .% of all shopkeepers insured by Royal Stephen Priestley, Edward Saunders, Michael Sutherill, Exchange Assurance between and [Margaret Andrew Skelton and Michael Turner for information R Hunt, The Middling Sort , Berkeley and Los Angeles, which has included the women on this list. I am grateful , and ]. also to Elizabeth Moore and Roger Bowdler for helpful Peter Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class , comments on this article. London, , – . Alice Clark, The Working Life of Women in the Seventeenth Century , London, . The more recent debate is summarised in Olwen Hufton, ‘Women in History’, Past and Present , CI, , ; J Bennett, ‘History that stands still’, Feminist Studies , XIV, , – ; and Olwen Hufton, The Prospect Before Her , I, London, , –.
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME X