The Influence of ‘Foreignness’: How Immigration and Imported Commodities affected England’s Cloth Industries and Consumer Habits, 1685-1755

http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/5590

Glossary 

Terms that appear in the text without explanation 

Alamode a thin, lightweight, glossy silk used for scarves and hoods 

Batiste a fine, even weaved linen. Also known as Cambric (the synonym of the French word) 

Bizarre a figured silk fabric, characterized by large-scale, asymmetrical patterns 

Bombazine dress material entirely of silk, later of silk and cotton 

Calendering the glazed finish given to calicoes 

Callicoe (Calico) a plain cotton which could be and often was printed 

Chintz From the Hindi word chint, meaning variegated. A printed or painted calico. A glazed printed cotton (the glaze perhaps not visible today) distinguished in the mid eighteenth century as a cotton printed with five or more colours, the pattern a little larger than usual and very colourful 

Damask a reversible figured fabric of silk, with a pattern formed by weaving 

Dimity a fine cotton, usually white, with a raised woven design, also white 

Flower’d (Flowered) was the generic term for a free pattern, since at this period such patterns were always composed from flowers. The weavers of ‘flowered’ silks formed a distinct branch of the industry. The same terminology was carried across to the newer calico-printing industry 

Holland became the generic term for a fine linen cloth 

Lawn/Long lawn a very fine linen. The term has not changed its meaning. ‘Long’ lawn may refer to the length of the piece in which it was woven 

Lorettos a silk material used for waistcoats 

Lustring a soft silk which might be either plain or flowered 

Muslin a general name for the most delicately woven cotton fabrics 

Paduasway (Paduasoy) an expensive, heavy, strong silk, often patterned or figured, made from the best quality silk. 

Persian a thin soft silk used most often for linings 

Sarsenet a very fine and soft silk material made both plain and twilled in various colors and used especially for linings and ribbons. 

Sateen: a cotton imitation of satin 5 

Satin a silk fabric with a glossy surface 

Taffeties a light thin silk of high luster used especially as a dress fabric 

Tambour embroidery using a basic chain stitch on the top of the fabric, using a specially made tambour needle 

Throwster a person involved in the process where silk that has been reeled into skeins, is cleaned, receives a twist and is wound onto bobbins. 

 1 

 The Influence of ‘Foreignness’: 

How Immigration and Imported Commodities affected England’s Cloth Industries and Consumer Habits, 1685-1755 

Eppie Evans 

MA, 2014 

Institute of Historical Research, University of London 2 

Contents Page 

Title Page 1 

Contents 2 

List of Figures and Tables 3 

Glossary 4 

Acknowledgements 6 

Introduction 7 

Chapter One: Integration 10 

1:1 - Migration and Settlement 11 

1:2 - Huguenots Influence 16 

1:3 – English Opinions 22 

Chapter Two: The Fabrics of Fashion 28 

2:1 – Silk 28 

2:2 – Acts of Government 30 

2:3 – Calico 33 

2:4 – Fashioning Society 37 

Chapter Three: Printed Persuasion 41 

3:1 - Daniel Defoe and the Weavers’ Company 42 

3:2 – Newspapers 47 

Chapter Four: Calico Madams 51 

4:1– The ‘Callicoe bitch’ 52 

4:2 – The Effectiveness of the Calico Acts 54 

Conclusion 61 

Bibliography 63 3 

List of Figures and Tables 

Figures Page 

Cover William Hogarth, 'Noon', 1738 engraving (See 1:3) 1 

1:1 Industry and Idleness: plate 1. The Fellow ‘Prentices at their Looms 15 

William Hogarth 30 September 1747 

Source: <http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/hogarth/hogarth-hogarths-modern-moral-series/hogarth-hogarths-3> 

[Accessed 15/08/14] 

1:2 Figure 1:2 Robe à la Française, brocaded lustring, England, c.1750 19 

Source: Arizona Costume Institute 1983.c.94.A-B 

1:3 Anna Maria Garthwaite, design for silk, c. 1731 21 

Source: V&A Collections Museum number: 5971:3 

1:4 William Hogarth, 'Noon', 1738 engraving 23 

Source: <http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/5590> 

[Accessed 23/08/14] 

2:2 Indian calico, printed and dyed c. 1740, Platt Hall, No. 1938.443 32 

Source: Author 

2:3 Crewel work curtain, c. 1700 

Source:<http://www.tennants.co.uk/Catalogue/Lots/84726.aspx#image> 34 

[Accessed 09/09/14] 

2:4 Flowered chintz, Foundling No. 13414 38 

London Metropolitan Archives, A/FH/A/9/1/149 

Source: Author 

Tables 

4:1 Graph showing number of calico items stolen, 1700-1755 56 

Source: Old Bailey Records online data 

4:2 Graph showing number of chintz items stolen, 1700-1755 57 

Source: Old Bailey Records online data 

4:3 Graph showing number of silk items stolen, 1700-1755 58 

Source: Old Bailey Records online data 4 

Glossary 

Terms that appear in the text without explanation 

Alamode a thin, lightweight, glossy silk used for scarves and hoods 

Batiste a fine, even weaved linen. Also known as Cambric (the synonym of the French word) 

Bizarre a figured silk fabric, characterized by large-scale, asymmetrical patterns 

Bombazine dress material entirely of silk, later of silk and cotton 

Calendering the glazed finish given to calicoes 

Callicoe (Calico) a plain cotton which could be and often was printed 

Chintz From the Hindi word chint, meaning variegated. A printed or painted calico. A glazed printed cotton (the glaze perhaps not visible today) distinguished in the mid eighteenth century as a cotton printed with five or more colours, the pattern a little larger than usual and very colourful 

Damask a reversible figured fabric of silk, with a pattern formed by weaving 

Dimity a fine cotton, usually white, with a raised woven design, also white 

Flower’d (Flowered) was the generic term for a free pattern, since at this period such patterns were always composed from flowers. The weavers of ‘flowered’ silks formed a distinct branch of the industry. The same terminology was carried across to the newer calico-printing industry 

Holland became the generic term for a fine linen cloth 

Lawn/Long lawn a very fine linen. The term has not changed its meaning. ‘Long’ lawn may refer to the length of the piece in which it was woven 

Lorettos a silk material used for waistcoats 

Lustring a soft silk which might be either plain or flowered 

Muslin a general name for the most delicately woven cotton fabrics 

Paduasway (Paduasoy) an expensive, heavy, strong silk, often patterned or figured, made from the best quality silk. 

Persian a thin soft silk used most often for linings 

Sarsenet a very fine and soft silk material made both plain and twilled in various colors and used especially for linings and ribbons. 

Sateen: a cotton imitation of satin 5 

Satin a silk fabric with a glossy surface 

Taffeties a light thin silk of high luster used especially as a dress fabric 

Tambour embroidery using a basic chain stitch on the top of the fabric, using a specially made tambour needle 

Throwster a person involved in the process where silk that has been reeled into skeins, is cleaned, receives a twist and is wound onto bobbins. 6 

Acknowledgements 

I would like to thank the librarians at the British Library, the National Art Library and Senate House Library for their assistance. As well as the archivists at the London Metropolitan Archives and the specialist knowledge of those in the newsrooms at the British Library. 

Many thanks to my friends and family for their continuous support, especially my work colleague, for her patience and encouragement, every single day. 

The biggest thanks of all must go to my supervisor Dr Andrea Tanner, whose enthusiasm and positivity encouraged me throughout. Thank you also, to Professor Matthew Davies, for his constant support over the last two years. 7 

Introduction 

England experienced a major change, both economically and socially through the late seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. During this period, its cloth industries transformed the nation, generating for some, great wealth but for others, desperate bouts of poverty. In England, the rate of diffusion for new technologies in all industries had been slow, but the growth of foreign imports into England influenced great change. Fashion, interior decoration and consumer habits would all be affected by the impact of ‘foreignness’. This dissertation will look at the ways England’s government attempted to protect and reform its cloth industries from the damage caused by other countries which were eroding it, penetrating their home market with the influx of new and exotic cloth, which the people of England so eagerly desired. It is commonly acknowledged that the Huguenots played a vital role in the success of England’s silk industry, this dissertation argues that immigration made a difference to the subsequent development of England’s cloth and clothing markets, and how by embracing foreign influence to develop her own production technologies, they formed part of the solution to its problem. 

Amongst the elements, which were perceived as a threat to England’s cloth industries, women were chief amongst them. Condemned, as principal consumers of printed calicoes, they fell victim to violent attacks, both physically and verbally through various printed publications. Ultimately, dress was, and remains today, a vital component in self-expression, assertion and distinction, I would argue that although many Acts of Parliament attempted to prevent the ruin of England’s cloth industry, they did so through restricting women’s ability to dress and adorn themselves as they wished. However, this might only confirm their fundamental role in society as chief 8 

consumers, empowering and authorising their ability to choose, select and dismiss as they pleased. 

The initial aim of this dissertation is to determine how effective the apparatus of protection was, constructed by the English government against the threat imposed by ‘foreignness’. The first part of this paper will review how French Huguenots established themselves in England and how their skills transferred into society, it reveals how some foreign infusions created successful alliances, transforming England’s, somewhat, restricted cloth industry (which had been almost entirely dependent on wool), into one of national interest, and which would develop into one of global importance. 

The second part will focus on the persuasive forces which were employed to deal with the rise of printed calico consumption; predominately this was through printed texts such as in newspapers and pamphlets, which were also growing at phenomenal rates as the century progressed. Old Bailey records and personal diaries help to review how successful or unsuccessful these forces were in protecting the nation’s industries. Other primary sources this dissertation will draw upon include, extant textiles within the archives at the London Metropolitan Archives, and Platt Hall Gallery of Costume, and written sources such as contemporary newspaper and journal articles, pamphlets and letters. 

As well as a wealth of primary sources, a literature search revealed a rich body of work on the Huguenots, and indeed, on Europe’s silk industry. Natalie Rothstein has utilised the Sun Insurance Policy registers and the Weavers’ Company records, to 9 

evaluate the number of Huguenots employed in England’s silk industry, her work concludes that although they were outnumbered by the English, it was the Huguenots who set the standards.1 The economic historian, Professor Warren Scoville’s The Persecution of Huguenots and French Economic Development (1960), contains a comprehensive undertaking on foreign integration, and provides some thought provoking notions on immigration. I have found that little attention has been paid to the use of newspaper articles and their representation of gender issues during the first quarter of the eighteenth century; by combining these sources with material culture and relevant statistical analysis accumulated from Old Bailey records, this dissertation intends to contribute to a relatively undefined area. 

1 N. Rothstein, ‘Huguenots in the English Silk Industry’ in I. Scouloudi (ed) Huguenots in Britain and their French Background 1550-1880 (London, 1987), pp. 125-40. p. 136. 

This dissertation will focus on the years between 1685 and 1755, the highest number of Protestant refugees were recorded to have arrived from the earlier date and would influence England’s industries significantly through to the mid eighteenth century. London will be the main focus, however, references will be made to other regions as and when necessary. Although this study is not concerned with trade directly, it is difficult to avoid the topic completely and so it will be addressed where relevant. 10 

Chapter One: Integration 

It is often assumed that all Huguenots left France immediately after the Revocation of Nantes in 1685, but the dragonnades, which began in 1681 forced many French Protestants, known as Huguenots, to convert to Catholicism, and the Massacre of St Bartholomew a century previous (1572) instigated many French Protestants to escape to England.2 In 1681 the True Protestant Mercury or Occurrences Foreign and Domestick reported ‘here ye three ships ready, and a fourth sailed, wherein were 600 persons of the Reformed Religion, who have fled but of that Kingdom by reason of heavy persecution’.3 But not all fled due to religious persecution; the years between 1690-1714 were particularly tough on France’s industries, undoubtedly linked with the increment of taxes to fuel Louis XIV’s wars, as well as decreases in national income, extensive government control and the competition of new fabrics which started to arrive from India, with which this dissertation is concerned. 

2 Henry VI signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598, Louis XIV revoked the one issued in Nantes in October 18th 1685. The Government and clergy also initiated an intensive campaign to convert all Protestants. W. Scoville, ‘Huguenots and Diffusion of Technology’ Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Aug., 1952), pp. 294-311, p. 295. 

3 True Protestant Mercury or Occurrences Foreign and Domestick Oct 1-5 1681, issue 78. National Library of Australia, 1885069. 

4 Court Minute Books, cited in P. K. Thornton and N. Rothstein ‘The Importance of Huguenots in the London silk industry’, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, 20 (1958-64), pp. 60-94. p. 83. 

5 Guildhall Library, MS 4665, Weavers Court Minutes, Vols. 1-9. For further stats and figures 

see L. Luu, Immigrants and the Industries of London 1500-1700 (Aldershot, 2005), p.197. 

The Weavers’ Company records corroborate to there being French refugee weavers in England in the 1660s and again in August and September 1681, when 632 Frenchmen were recorded to have arrived.4 Further inspection of the records reveals that between 1610 and 1694, nearly 900 alien weavers were working in London, the highest influx being between 1667-1677.5 Contemporaries and later academics have suggested that for the latter part of the seventeenth century, France’s silk industry was rapidly 11 

declining, an intendant at Tours wrote in 1699 that ‘silk production had been in dire straits throughout the last part of the seventeenth century, and that the blame rested in part upon Protestant employers and skilled workmen who had emigrated’.6 A deputy on the Council of Trade reported in 1704 that the silk industry in France was ‘altogether ruined as a result of the flight of our Religionists, who have carried their skills into Holland, England and Germany, where they have initiated this manufacture and built such strong establishments…’ 7 Furthermore, Natalie Rothstein suggests that most Huguenot weavers came from Picardy, Bas Poitou and Normandy, she notes that only a very few came from Lyon, as Protestants were not permitted to enter the silk industry there.8 But Lyon’s silk industry suffered just as much as several other French regions, suggesting the departure of the Huguenots had a knock-on affect, instigating many others to relocate, seeking employment and better wages elsewhere. Chapter One will discuss the impact the Huguenots had on England’s cloth trades, and how they rejuvenated a declining silk industry in the area of Spitalfields, London. 

6 Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds français, MS 4283, fol. 23. in W. Scoville, The Persecution of Huguenots and French Economic Development (California, 1960), p. 214. 

7 Archives Nationales, G7 1688. Cited in Ibid., p. 216 & 219. 

8 Rothstein, ‘Huguenots in the English Silk Industry’, pp. 129-130. 

9 J. White, London in the Eighteenth Century (London, 2012), p. 137-139. 

1:1 Migration and Settlement 

England was at war with France for most of the eighteenth century. The Huguenots had endured years of religious discrimination for more than a century prior to the revocation, Jerry White suggests that these refugees were now only too eager to aid Britain against its old enemy; London proved an alluring draw to Frenchmen and women of talent.9 Stuart Turner and Natalie Rothstein’s research using the Sun Insurance Policy Registers shows that the Huguenots gravitated to two textile centres, 12 

Canterbury initially and then London.10 Warren Scoville offers thought provoking ideas in regards to immigration, suggesting that it is an effective method of diffusion because of its selective nature. Scoville goes on to explain how ‘the hardship involved in uprooting from one’s homeland meant that only the most resourceful, energetic and courageous would move.’11 He describes three types of migration: individual, group and minority; most Huguenots had been victims of forced migration due to religious persecution in their homeland, this initiated whole communities to relocate, and with little or no chance of ever returning, their efforts in making a new life elsewhere would have been extremely high. Because emigration was illegal under French Law, many fled with little or none of their personal belongings. Theya Molleson and Margaret Cox suggest that ‘Huguenot immigrants varied considerably, some brought all or part of their wealth from France…as well as skilled manpower and technical know-how’.12 Samuel Smiles suggests that ‘though they were poor, they were not pauperised, but thrifty, and self-helping, and above all things eager in their desire to earn an honest living.’13 Smiles further explains how had they been a weak person, they would have conformed like so many did, but the Huguenots who came to settle in England ‘were men with convictions, earnest for truth and ready to sacrifice their worldly goods and everything else to follow.’14 

10 The Sun Fire Office was founded in London in April 1710 and is the oldest existing insurance company in the world, records are now held at Bristol Record Office. 

11 W. Scoville, ‘Minority Migrations and the Diffusion of Technology’ in The Journal of Economic History vol. 11, issue 04, Fall 1951, pp. 347-360. p.353. 

12 T. Molleson and M. Cox, The Spitalfields Project - Anthropology: The Middling Sort. Vol. II (York, 1993), p. 160. 

13 Samuel Smiles, (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904), was a Scottish author and government reformer. He is most known for writing Self-Help (1859), which elevated Smiles to celebrity status: almost overnight, he became a leading pundit and much-consulted guru. <http://infed.org/mobi/samuel-smiles-and-self-help/ > [Accessed 28/09/14]. 

S. Smiles, The Huguenots: Their Settlements, Churches and Industries in England and Ireland (London, 1884), p. 97. 

14 Molleson and Cox, The Spitalfields Project, p. 160. And S. Smiles, The Huguenots, p. 99. 13 

Carolyn Lougee Chappell describes how it is possible that as many as 150,000 Huguenots left France during the 1680s, looking at the escape of one particular family, the Robillard de Champagné, and tracing their story through the memoirs written by the mother Marie, and her daughter Suzanne.15 In 1687, six children (the mother and eldest son made their escape three months later) slipped among the wine casks aboard a ship bound for England.16 Such remarkable sources give us insight into what the pain of exile was like for many families. Chappell suggests that ‘Huguenot refugees typically regrouped abroad in enclaves of kin and former neighbours…conserving amid foreign milieus their social networks, language, customs and religion.’17 Marie speaks of the new Huguenot communities in which she later settled, she rarely mentions the name of anyone who is not a Huguenot. Clive Emsley asserts that the concentration of French speaking immigrants in well-defined communities ensured the survival of a distinctive culture and identity for several generations.18 

15 C. Lougee Chappell, ‘The Pains I took to Save My/His Family”: Escape Accounts by a Huguenot Mother and Daughter after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes’ French Historical studies, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Winter, 1999), pp. 1-64. p. 8. 

16 Ibid., p. 9 

17 Ibid., p. 7. 

18 C. Emsley, T. Hitchcock and R. Shoemaker, Communities - Huguenot and French London, Old Bailey Proceedings Online <www.oldbaileyonline.org> [01 October 2014]. 

19 Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain: Volume II, first published 1724-26, edited by Pat Rogers (London, 1971), p. 298. 

During the late medieval period, London’s textile businesses, predominately wool at this point, were moving east to large open spaces, water access and their long standing association with the cloth trades. Daniel Defoe recalled how ‘the lanes were deep, dirty, and unfrequented; that Part now called Spitalfields-market was a Field of Grass, with Cows feeding on it, since the Year 1670.’19 The transformation Defoe refers to was no doubt due to the influx of some 40,000-50,000 Huguenots who 14 

arrived towards the later years of the seventeenth century.20 Lucy Inglis describes how by 1700 ‘Spitalfields and Whitechapel to the east, was a mass of open spaces given over to brewing, cloth workers’ animals and illegal housing.’21 As early as 1700 there were perhaps as many as 25,000 Huguenots settled in the city.22 Arthur K. Sabin explains how ‘the open ground near Bishopsgate was covered by a network of streets and alleys, with houses built specially to meet the requirements of the weavers, embroiderers, silk dyers, throwsters and other craftsmen of immigration’.23 A 1746 guide to London, called Spital Square the ‘great centre of the weaving trade in all its branches’.24 The French Protestant community was one of the largest and most distinctive communities in the capital throughout the eighteenth century.25 In one London district during the mid-eighteenth century, William Maitland described how ‘Many parts of this parish so greatly abound with French that it is an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France’.26 The French refugees settled primarily in two London districts, Soho, which was still under development, post the great fire, and had large numbers of empty properties; and the areas in and around Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, which crucially were classed outside of the city, thus exempt from the regulations many of London’s guilds enforced to protect their trade (Fig. 1:1). The Weavers’ Company was for weavers of all textiles, and according to its statutes, all those who practised weaving in the city of London had to be a member of the 

20 L. Luu, Immigrants and the Industries of London (Aldershot, 2005), p. 4. 

21 L. Inglis, Georgian London: Into the streets (London, 2013), p. 285. 

22 R. Gwynn, Huguenot Heritage: The History and Contribution of the Huguenots in Britain (2nd ed., Brighton, 2000), cited in J. White, London in the Eighteenth Century (London, 2012), p. 138. 

23 A.K. Sabin, Silk Weavers of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green (London, 1931), p. 10-12. 

24 A New and Accurate History and Survey of London, Westminster and Southwark, Vol. VI, 1746, pp. 435-6 cited in A. Plummer The London Weavers’ Company (London, 1972) p. 178. 

25 See <http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Huguenot.jsp> [Accessed 17/07/15]. 

26 Lucy Inglis, Georgian London September 30, 2009 <http://georgianlondon.com/page/21> [Accessed 05/08/14]. 15 

company.27 According to Rothstein it was only the ‘most prosperous weavers who lived in Spitalfields or in Bishopsgate without, the poorer weavers being in adjacent parishes like Bethnal Green.’28 Mary D. George suggests that ‘the work was done in small, crowded rooms in horribly insanitary dwellings, and the air was carefully excluded by paper pasted over the cracks of the windows, to prevent the silk from losing weight and so making the weaver liable to deductions from his earnings’.29 

27 A. Plummer The London Weavers’ Company 1600-1970 (London, 1970), p.33. 

28 P. Thornton and N. Rothstein, ‘The Importance of Huguenots in the London Silk Industry’, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, 20 (1958-64), pp. 60-94. p.78. 

29 M.D. George (1925), cited in P. Guillery, The Small House in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven, 2004), p.64. 

Figure 1:1 Industry and Idleness: plate 1. The Fellow ‘Prentices at their Looms William Hogarth 30 September 1747 

Source: <http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/hogarth/hogarth-hogarths-modern-moral-series/hogarth-hogarths-3> 16 

1:2 Huguenot Influence 

England had long been the leader in the production of wool; in 1565, cloth accounted for almost 80% of England’s total exports.30 Many, but not all, Huguenots who had fled to England were skilled artisans and craftsmen. Sabin suggests ‘it was with these religious fugitives that silk weaving had its actual beginnings in the East London region, although the manufacture of silk stuffs had been practised in England on a small scale for the previous two hundred years.’ 31 However, it is arguable that the Huguenots did not bring silk weaving to Spitalfields, but with their skills and knowledge they transformed it. 

30 Luu, Immigrants and the Industries of London, p. 1. 

31 A. K. Sabin, Silk Weavers of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green (London, 1931), p. 8. 

32 Ibid. p. 54. 

33 Ibid. p. 56 and A. Pettegree, ‘Protestant Migration during the Early Modern Period’, in Le Migrazioni in Europa secc, XIII-XVIII, Instituto Internazionale de Storia Econima, (Florence, 1994) pp. 441-458. p. 447. 

34 D.S. Landes, The Unbound Prometheus: Technological change and industrial development in Western Europe from 1750 to the present (Cambridge, 1969), pp.147-51. 

From an early period England turned to foreigners for their knowledge in silk manufacture; in 1331, Edward III issued letters of protection to Flemish weavers, to encourage them to come to England and develop their cloth industry.32 In 1461, Lien Luu points out that ‘during the reign of Edward VI, we find him granting a house in Westminster to an Italian named George Dominco’, in return, Dominco was to weave damasks, velvets and cloths of gold and silver, passing his knowledge onto English weavers.33 David Landes stresses that ‘the greatest contribution of immigrant technicians and craftsmen for Britain was not what they did, but what they taught. By training a generation of skilled workers, these immigrants enabled an indigenous industry to be developed.’34 Society at the time was so dependent on verbal means of communication that skills were acquired through means of demonstration and 17 

practice. Jerry White claims that ‘foreigners brought talents that the British lacked until, in the second half of the century, the natives had learnt sufficient from the migrants to rival, rarely surpass, continental genius.’35 But not only did the Huguenots impact on the England’s silk industry which will be discussed in greater detail later, White suggests that they ‘were inventive and hard-working at everything to which they turned their hands’ whether flower growing at Chelsea, calico printing in Wandsworth or silversmithing in Westminster, they also invigorated fine-linen works, passing on the knowledge of weaving batiste, as well as the manufacturing of the finest grades of woollens and velvets.36 The French refugees brought technical know-how to the silk industry, which previously could only be procured from France. 

35 White, London in the Eighteenth Century, p. 140. 

36 White, London in the Eighteenth Century p. 138. 

37 G.B. Hertz, ‘The Silk Industry in the Eighteenth Century’ in The English Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (Oct., 1909), pp.710-727. p. 710. 

38 'Industries: Silk-weaving', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton (1911), pp. 132-137. < http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22161> [Accessed 02/09/14]. 

England had been at a disadvantage due to her inability to cultivate silk, under James I’s instruction in 1607-1608, endeavours at growing mulberry plants in England were unfortunately squandered due to the poor climate which prevented the mulberry leaves from being ready to receive the silkworms when they hatched.37 A century later, in 1718, John Apletree’s attempts also failed due to the climate.38 But whilst some in England were looking at ways to encourage and develop their silk industry, wool manufacturers grew increasingly aware of the threat this could pose to an industry on which England’s economy so heavily relied. In addition, England was a major exporter of wool to the Low Countries, it was not only cheaper than their own native cloth but far superior in quality. The woven product was imported back into 18 

England, so effectively, Englishmen were wearing Flemish cloth woven from their own wool. Such a situation could not be sustained; governing bodies became aware of the fact that England needed to foster their wool industry, by reducing imports to generate employment for the British population. The most important branch of manufacture to which the refugees devoted themselves, and in which they achieved both fame and wealth, was silk (Fig 1:2). The Huguenots had greatest impact on the flowered branch and England’s silk taffetas came to rival those of France, success depended upon reputation for quality and keeping up with fashion. England’s Silk-Throwsters Guild was founded and incorporated in 1629, and by 1661 it had 40,000 members, and Gerald Hertz suggests ‘chiefly under the inspiring influence of refugees.’39 According to Smiles ‘as much as 200,000 livres worth of black lustrings were annually bought by the English…they were made expressly for their market and known as “English taffeties”’. Amongst the Huguenot weavers, there were some individuals whose ingenious ideas earned them great success, the Huguenot pattern designer, Christopher Baudouin, ‘who did so much to put the London silk weaving industry on its feet’. 40 

39 Hertz, ‘The Silk Industry in the Eighteenth Century’, p. 710. 

40 J. Southernden Burn., The History of the French, Walloon, Dutch and Other Foreign Protestant Refugees Settled in England (London, 1846) <https://archive.org/stream/historyoffrenchw00burn#page/n5/mode/2up>[Accessed 04/09/14]. Thornton and Rothstein , Huguenots in the London Silk Industry, p. 66. 

Various authorities stated that the figured silks which came out of the London manufactories at the end of the seventeenth century were due almost exclusively to three refugees, Lanson, Mariscot and Monceaux, thanks to the Huguenot father and son, by the name Mongeorge, who imparted to them the secret of adding a lustrous 19 

sheen to silk taffeta, ‘thenceforward Spitalfields enjoyed a large share of the trade for which Lyons had been so famous.’41 

41 S. Smiles, Huguenots in England and Ireland (London, 1884), p. 289. 

42 Peter Lekeux (1648-1723) born in Canterbury and moved to London in 1675. Lekeux was a founding member of the Lustring Company and also played a leading role in the Weavers’ Company, standing as spokesperson during the petitions to the House of Lords against the calico bill. 

Figure 1:2 Robe à la Française, brocaded lustring, England, c.1750 

Source: Arizona Costume Institute 1983.c.94.A-B 

According to G. R. Porter, the persons engaged in this industry were, in 1692, incorporated by charter under the name of the Royal Lustring Company.42 The company then procured the passing of an Act prohibiting ‘the importation of foreign lustrings and alamodes, alleging as a ground for passing such a restriction in their 20 

favour that the manufacture of such articles in England had now reached a greater degree of perfection than was achieved by foreigners.’ 43 43 The Company failed in 1720.  G. R. Porter, 'Treatise on the Silk Manufacture,' Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia (1831), p. 60-1.