Master Weavers

‘The whole trade is conducted by a few houses, who command large capitals, and add the sagacity of the merchant to the skill of the manufacturer’

(anon. from R. Beatniffe, The Norfolk Tour, 6th ed. 1808

The term ‘master weaver’ was rarely used in Norwich, the preferred terms were simply ‘Worsted Weavers’ in the earlier period and ‘Manufacturers’ in the later period . Nonetheless, we may identify a group of men at the top of their profession who were in effect ‘master weavers’. These men dominated the industry by virtue of their resources, skills and contacts. Of the 500 or so ‘worsted weavers’ admitted to the freedom, a handful had substantial resources, possessing capital of up to £20,000. Such men had a hand in every pie in the city; the securing and sorting of the wool-supply, co-ordinating the various processes of production within the small world of the Norwich textiles community. They also rented equipment and properties to other weavers, and negotiated with the London merchants for the sale of the finished pieces. As well as civic duties such men were cultured, well-travelled, patrons of the arts and connoisseurs.

‘Being opulent men and generally surrounded by their dependents they had something of a lordly bearing and a marked line of distinction was preserved between the merchants (weavers) and shop-keepers, bu they were on the whole and honourable race and exercised much kindness towards those beneath them……….. ‘

Quoted in Ursula Priestley, The Fabric of Stuffs, p 36

Glimpses of the top rank of weavers can be gleaned from insurance policy records. These reveal that entrepreneurs like Peter Columbine insured not only their own houses, contents, workrooms and equipment, but also valuable goods and stock in various stages of completion across the city

Philip Stannard was a typical ‘master-weaver’, whose letters provide a snapshot of the complicated business life of the pre-industrial textile manufacturer. When trade was at its briskest in the 1760s, he employed some 300 weavers making the top-quality silks, florettas, taboretts and brocades ‘in the flowered way’. His business prospered, with the majority of pieces sold to London merchants. Encouraged by the success of others, he dipped a toe into the export market in the 1760s and ventured into foreign trade with Spain, aiming at the lucrative markets of South America. But such men were not immortal; in 1769 the City was aghast at the news of the firm’s bankruptcy to the tune of £50,000. Stannard was out of his depth in the international forum and his numerous dependent families of weavers paid the price.

Such men left their mark on the city of Norwich, not only in the memorials found in the city’s churches and chapels but in the generosity of their charitable foundations. Many provided the capital that allowed Norwich to expand and move on from textiles. These included the Bignolds into insurance, the Pattersons into brewing and most famously, the Gurneys into banking.