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Wage-earning women in early Tudor London: in 1512, Joan Smyth defended her friend Alice Bell against allegations that she was poor & indigent: “She is a good knitter and can make eight or nine groats a week [2 shillings+] by the craft of knitting caps,” Smyth testified.
![Wage-earning women in early Tudor London: in 1512, Joan Smyth defended her friend Alice Bell against allegations that she was poor & indigent: “She is a good knitter and can make eight or nine groats a week [2 shillings+] by the craft of knitting caps,” Smyth testified.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EY4Ck-DXgAU4jZa.jpg "Wage-earning women in early Tudor London: in 1512, Joan Smyth defended her friend Alice Bell against allegations that she was poor & indigent: “She is a good knitter and can make eight or nine groats a week [2 shillings+] by the craft of knitting caps,” Smyth testified.")
![Wage-earning women in early Tudor London: in 1512, Joan Smyth defended her friend Alice Bell against allegations that she was poor & indigent: “She is a good knitter and can make eight or nine groats a week [2 shillings+] by the craft of knitting caps,” Smyth testified.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EY4Cf1sWoAERlgG.jpg "Wage-earning women in early Tudor London: in 1512, Joan Smyth defended her friend Alice Bell against allegations that she was poor & indigent: “She is a good knitter and can make eight or nine groats a week [2 shillings+] by the craft of knitting caps,” Smyth testified.")
Early 16th-c records don’t tell us much about unmarried women’s jobs, but likely long-term recession had shrunk women’s employment opportunities. Alice Bell’s 2 shillings/week was about average for a London artisan man, likely meaning it was substantial for a woman.
Cap knitting was a significant industry in 15th-16th-c England: almost all men wore them. The caps she knit likely looked like either this simple beanie-type or a more elaborate flatcap.
https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/90561.html
https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/ob... href=" https://www.rct.uk/collection/912226/john-more">https://www.rct.uk/collectio...
https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/90561.html
https://www.rct.uk/collectio..." title="Cap knitting was a significant industry in 15th-16th-c England: almost all men wore them. The caps she knit likely looked like either this simple beanie-type or a more elaborate flatcap. https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/ob... href=" https://www.rct.uk/collection/912226/john-more">https://www.rct.uk/collectio...">
https://www.rct.uk/collectio..." title="Cap knitting was a significant industry in 15th-16th-c England: almost all men wore them. The caps she knit likely looked like either this simple beanie-type or a more elaborate flatcap. https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/ob... href=" https://www.rct.uk/collection/912226/john-more">https://www.rct.uk/collectio...">
Alice Bell& #39;s earnings came up because she& #39;d planned to marry William Watersby; in prep for the wedding she& #39;d brought over to his house linen & other household goods as her contribution to the new marital household. But the marriage didn’t happen – and yet William kept the stuff.
She wanted the goods to be returned; William in turn alleged that the whole suit was a sham perpetrated by a poor woman to wrest money and goods out of him. Alice’s friend& #39;s detailing of her work and income were a way of defending her honour against this slur.
Alice may not have had good legal advice, as the court in which this case appeared (the London bishop’s consistory court) wasn& #39;t the right place to hear such an issue. Unfortunately we don’t have the outcome, so it’s not clear whether Alice got her goods back. Let’s hope she did.
LMA, DL/C/0206, Consistory Court of London Deposition Book, 1510-16, fols 181r-182v.
