Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Skills, Training, and Kinship Networks: Women as Economic Migrants in London’s Livery Companies, c. 1600–1800

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Gender and Migration in Historical Perspective

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

Abstract

This chapter explores the role of kinship and friendship networks in encouraging the migration of women to London in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Though women are rarely discussed in the historiography of livery companies, new research regarding the geographic origins of female apprentices shows that they sometimes travelled great distances in order to undertake their training. Moreover, a case study of the Dewell family of sisters from Worcestershire shows that these apprenticeships enabled women to establish businesses in skilled trades such as millinery. These female migrants built and maintained socio-economic networks that were vital to their success and longevity in business, training a new generation of women in prestigious London retailing locations such as the Royal Exchange.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Abbreviations

GL:

Guildhall Library, City of London

LMA:

London Metropolitan Archives, City of London

ROLLCO:

Records of London’s Livery Companies Online

TNA:

The National Archives, London

References

  • Bennett, Judith. 1988. “‘History That Stands Still’: Women’s Work in the European Past.” Feminist Studies 14 (2) (January): 269–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brodsky Elliott, Vivien. 1979. “Mobility and Marriage in Pre-Industrial England: A Demographic and Social Structural Analysis of Geographic and Social Mobility and Aspects of Marriage, 1570-1690, with Particular Reference to Middlesex, Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire.” PhD diss., University of Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, R. 1747. The London Tradesman. London: T. Gardner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Alice. 1919. Working Life of Women in the Seventeenth Century. London: G. Routledge & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Peter. 1987. “Migration in England During the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries.” In Migration and Society in Early Modern England, edited by Peter Clark and David Souden, 213–52. London: Hutchinson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Peter, and David Souden. 1987. Migration and Society in Early Modern England London: Hutchinson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clay, John W. 1899. The Registers of St. Paul’s Cathedral. London: Mitchell & Hughes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, Jane. 2013. “Jane Holt, Milliner, and Other Women in Business: Apprentices, Freewomen and Mistresses in The Clothworkers’ Company, 1606–1800.” Textile History 44 (1) (May): 72–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collyer, Joseph. 1761. The Parent’s and Guardian’s Directory, and the Youth’s Guide, in the Choice of a Profession or Trade. London: R. Griffiths.

    Google Scholar 

  • Earle, Peter. 1989. The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London 1660-1730. London: Methuen London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Earle, Peter. 1998. “The Female Labour Market in London in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries.” In Women’s Work: The English Experience 1650-1914, edited by Pamela Sharpe, 121–49. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, Amy Louise. 2011. “Eleanor Mosley and Other Milliners in the City of London Companies 1700–1750.” History Workshop Journal 71 (1) (Spring): 147–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, Jacob F. 2010. “Apprenticeship Migration to London from the North-East of England in the Seventeenth Century.” The London Journal 35 (1) (March): 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glass, David Victor. 1969. “Socio-Economic Status and Occupations in the City of London at the End of the Seventeenth Century.” In Studies in London History, edited by A. E. J. Hollaender and William Kellaway, 373–89. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harzig, Christiane. 2001. “Women Migrants as Global and Local Agents: New Research Strategies on Gender and Migration.” In Women, Gender and Labour Migration: Historical and Global Perspectives, edited by Pamela Sharpe, 15–28. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilton Price, F. G. 1887–1902. The Signs of Old Lombard Street. London: Leadenhall Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klemp, Mark, Chris Minns, Patrick Wallis, and Jacob Weisdorf. 2013. “Picking Winners? The Effect of Birth Order and Migration on Parental Human Capital Investments in Pre-Modern England.” European Review of Economic History 17 (2) (May): 210–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leunig, Tim, Chris Minns, and Patrick Wallis. 2011. “Networks in the Premodern Economy: The Market for London Apprenticeships, 1600–1749.” The Journal of Economic History 71 (2) (June): 413–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindey, Laurie A. 2016. “The London Furniture Trade, 1640-1720.” PhD diss., Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mansell, Charmian. 2018. “The Variety of Women’s Experiences as Servants in England (1548–1649): Evidence from Church Court Depositions.” Continuity and Change 33 (3) (December): 315–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, Marjorie Keniston. 2005. Working Women in English Society 1300-1620. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paul, Tawny. 2019. The Poverty of Disaster: Debt and Insecurity in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pinchbeck, Ivy. 1930. Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850. New York: F. S. Crofts and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, Ann. 1997a. “The Organisation of the Exchange.” In The Royal Exchange, edited by Ann Saunders, 85–98. London: London Topographical Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, Ann. 1997b. “The Second Exchange.” In The Royal Exchange, edited by Ann Saunders, 121–35. London: London Topographical Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. D. 2005. “Women’s Admission to Guilds in Early-Modern England: The Case of the York Merchant Tailors’ Company, 1693–1776.” Gender & History 17 (1) (July): 99–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallis, Patrick. 2008. “Apprenticeship and Training in Premodern England.” The Journal of Economic History 68 (3) (September): 832–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, Michael John. 1985. “The Extent of Guild Control of Trades in England, c. 1660-1820: A Study Based on a Sample of Provincial Towns and London Companies.” PhD diss., University of Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, Claire. 2003. “Social Meaning and Social Space in the Shopping Galleries of Early Modern London.” In A Nation of Shopkeepers: Five Centuries of British Retailing, edited by John Benson and Laura Ugolini, 52–79. London: I. B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, Cliff. 2008. City of London Apprenticeship Registers - Vol 48 Grocers’ Company 1629–1800. London: Society of Genealogists Enterprises Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittle, Jane. 2019. “A Critique of Approaches to ‘Domestic Work’: Women, Work and the Pre-Industrial Economy.” Past and Present 243 (1) (May): 35–70.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

    Sarah Birt

Authors
  1. Sarah Birt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Birt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Geografiche e dell’Antichità, DiSSGeA, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Beatrice Zucca Micheletto

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Birt, S. (2022). Skills, Training, and Kinship Networks: Women as Economic Migrants in London’s Livery Companies, c. 1600–1800. In: Zucca Micheletto, B. (eds) Gender and Migration in Historical Perspective. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99554-6_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99554-6_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-99553-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-99554-6

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation