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://www.rct.uk/collection/912226/john-more

Alice Bell's earnings came up because she'd planned to marry William Watersby; in prep for the wedding she'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'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'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.