Spitalfields (Part III)
From: "The Copartnership Herald", Vol. I, no. 12 (February 1932)
In those times when open
country lay around the City, it was, in fine weather, a
pleasant walk of a little less more than four miles by
lane and field path, from Stepney to Islington. The Red
Lion inn by the Spital Field was known as the Half-way
House, but when all around was built over, it stood at
the corner of Red Lion Court, east of Spitalfields
Market. Nearly three hundred years ago in this rural spot
lived Nicholas Culpeper. He was born of good family, and
after studying at Cambridge, became an apprentice to an
apothecary in Bishopsgate. To the study of physic he
added that of astrology, and in 1640, when he was
twenty-four years old, set himself up here as an
astrologer and physician. He joined the Parliamentarian
army and in one of the battles was wounded in the chest,
which contributed to his untimely end in 1654 at the age
of thirty-eight years. He was a writer and translator of
several books, of which the most known is The
Complete Herbal, a work "being an
astrologo-physical discourse of common herbs of the
nation; containing a complete Method or Practice of
Physic whereby a Man may preserve his Body in Health, or
cure himself when sick with such things only as grow in
England, they being most fit for English
Constitutions."
As an astrological doctor, many
came to him for advice which he gave to the poor without
fee or reward, although he appears to have been in
necessitous circumstances. Of him, Dr. Johnson said,
"the man that ranged the woods, and climbed
mountains in search of medicinal and salutary herbs, has
undoubtedly merited the gratitude of posterity."
This statement, however, is not borne out by facts, for
Culpeper lived the greater part of his brief life in the
eastern part of London.
When the Huguenot weavers landed at the various
English seaports and resorted to Spitalfields,
preparations had already been made for their reception
and their immediate relief. The concourse comprised over
13,500 persons, including women and children, besides
which there were a number of ministers of religion,
lawyers and physicians. To understand how this settlement
came to be made in a new neighbourhood, and by whom it
was arranged, a few references will have to be made to
the silk industry in England previous to that time.
Until the latter part of the sixteenth century the
weaving of silk in this country was confined to the
production of small wares such as laces, girdles,
fringes, ribands and the like. The religious troubles in
the Netherlands at that time caused many merchants and
artizans who were engaged in the silk manufacture to take
refuge in England where they pursued their occupation.
The raw silk, which was imported from the Continent in
skeins, had to pass through the hands of the throwster
before the weaver could be employed upon it. The
throwster, by means of a machine, twisted lightly the
silk into a slight kind of thread known as singles, and
these singles were combined to form tram. By a larger
series of operations the raw silk was unwound from the
skein; each individual thread was spun, twisted or
"thrown," and two or more of these spun threads
were twisted to form organzine. All these operations are
included in the general term "silk throwing"
and are entirely distinct from weaving.
Before the arrival of these Dutch refugees, the
fabrics known as broad silks, such as lustrings, satins,
brocades and velvets, had been imported. With the object
of introducing into England this flourishing industry,
for the advancement and the benefit of the realm, James I
warmly supported a project for the culture and rearing of
silk worms, and with this end in view he encouraged the
planting of mulberry trees. The project, similar to that
which had proved profitable in France, failed, but the
king succeeded in inducing many silk throwsters, dyers,
and broad silk weavers to come to England.
In 1629 the Silk Throwsters were incorporated, and no
one was allowed to set up in that occupation without
serving an apprenticeship of seven years and becoming
free of the Company. Ten years later, the Weavers Company
(one of the oldest City Companies, founded when wool was
the staple of English trade) admitted into their body a
certain number of silk weavers. In 1661 the Company of
Silk Throwsters, it was said, employed 40,000 men, women
and children, but this statement doubtless was
exaggerated. Many so employed lived and worked in the
immediate vicinity of Aldgate, Bishopsgate and
Shoreditch, from whence they gradually spread towards
Spitalfields. The Act of Parliament empowering the
erection of houses there by Sir George Wheler was the
result of the increase of the population engaged in the
industry, for the building over the fields lying outside
the City was prohibited in the absence of statutory
authority.
The appearance of the neighbourhood in 1669 can be
inferred from an Order in Council made in that year,
which states "the inhabitants of the pleasant
locality of Spitalfields petitioned the Council to
restrain certain persons from digging earth and burning
bricks in those fields, which not only render them very
noisome but prejudice the clothes which are usually dryed
in two large grounds adjoyning, and the rich stuffs of
divers colours which are made in the same place by
altering and changing their colours." In 1681
Charles II, constrained by public opinion, which was
partly based on religious sympathies and partly on the
knowledge of the advantages that would ensue to trade and
commerce from the exercise of "a noble and valuable
industry," ordered that all Protestant refugees
should be allowed to enter the country with their goods
free of duty, and that they should enjoy the same
privileges as his own subjects. The way was thus prepared
(though the event itself, of course, could not be
foreseen) for the influx of French weavers six years
later, when the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove
so many Huguenot families of Lyons and Tours from their
native land.
In April 1686 an Order in Council authorised a public
collection for the relief of French Protestants, and in
one year £40,000 was raised, and this sum was
subsequently increased to over £63,000; single persons
giving as much as £500 or £1,000 each. Most of these
immigrants were in a destitute condition on their arrival
in England, but as generous assistance was forthcoming
for their immediate wants, and the means were provided to
earn a livelihood, it is apparent that the arrangements
for their welfare had been made carefully beforehand by
the Protestant throwsters and weavers and their
co-religionists.
The refugees showed that they were determined to help
themselves, for, being industrious, thrifty, and
self-reliant, they soon settled down to work in a strange
land. With a roof over their heads, a warm hearth and a
stewpot on the fire, they were content and happy. They
knew the art of cooking, that of obtaining the greatest
amount of nutriment and at the same time presenting the
food in a savoury manner. To them is owed the
introduction of eating ox-tail, for before their coming
the tails were thrown away by London butchers as offal.
Being foreign folk, and therefore having no claim to
relief under the poor laws, they formed mutual benefit
societies against sickness and for burial. These
societies were the first of their kind, and years
afterwards suggested the formation of Friendly Societies
now so widespread. They were a simple and gentle people,
loving flowers and birds. On Sundays they took their
children to church where the French tongue was spoken,
and it was hoped that they would thus retain familiarity
with their native language. At their religious devotions
and in family intercourse French remained long in the the
expression of love and affection, but it gradually gave
way to the English speech when the old generation passed
away.
The Huguenots brought with them the art of weaving
many kinds of fabrics including those which were then in
everyday demand, such as lustrings and alamodes, but
which, unfortunately, soon went out of fashion. Another
blow was the discontinuance of the use of tapestry and
hangings in the interiors of great houses. These were
manufactured in the district before the settlement of the
refugees. The result was that the skill of the weavers
was for some years afterwards principally confined to the
production of silks and velvets. In 1713 it was stated
that silks, gold and silver stuffs and ribbon made here
were as good as those from France, and that £300,000
worth of black silk for hoods and scarves was made
annually. In 1721 the value of the silk manufactured in
England amounted to £700,000 more than in 1688, when
wrought silks were imported from France to the annual
value of half a million sterling.
The prosperity of Spitalfields reached its height
about the time when it ceased to be a hamlet of Stepney
and became the parish of Christ Church, Middlesex. It was
then that many of the large commodious houses were built
for the weavers and the silk merchants. The church, an
imposing edifice designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil
of Wren, was consecrated on 5 July 1729. Its spire, one
of the loftiest in London, is 225 feet high, or
twenty-three feet higher than the Monument.
Previous to the erection of the parish church, English
inhabitants attended a chapel built long before by Sir
George Wheler. It stood in the street that was named
after him. When the parish became separated from Stepney
it had its own Vestry, which numbered 195 members. In
Quaker Street, where on the south side the Friends had
their meeting-house, there was a charity school for
thirty boys and thirty girls. The boys were taught to
read and write and to "cast accompts," and the
girls to read (nothing is said about writing), knit and
sew. In Rose Lane and Crispin Street were the almshouses
of the poor. In Bell Lane (which led from Wentworth
Street to Crispin Street), stood the workhouse, wherein
the poor, about 120 in number, were employed and
maintained. Their chief work was winding silk for
throwsters. A surgeon attended twice weekly, and was
allowed £12 per annum for physic. To the credit of the
French inhabitants there was in Grey Eagle Street,
adjoining their chapel, a hospital in which they
maintained their own poor.
by Sydney Maddocks
Next in series: Spitalfields (Part IV)
Reprinted with permission of David Rich, Tower Hamlets History On Line.
