From English Skittles to Ten Pin Bowling in the Archives.

As part of my on-going investigation into unusual subject matter found in The National Archives (TNA), my husband challenged me to discover references to his hobby of ten pin bowling. After some preliminary investigations into the game, I found that its origins lie in the traditional game of skittles. Searching under that term proved the most productive and demonstrates the importance of opening one’s mind to different terminology when searching any archive.


Skittles or nine pins is a traditional game played in English pubs and involves players taking turns to throw wooden balls down a lane in an attempt to knock over nine wooden skittles at the end of the lane. It is the fore-runner of the relatively modern game of ten pin bowling. The game differs from lawn bowls, in which the aim is to bring the ball to rest near a stationary ball called a jack.

                       
                       Early sixteenth century woodcut

3200 BC, Egypt - In the 1930’s British anthropologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, discovered a collection of objects in a child's grave that appeared to him to be used for a crude form of bowling.

3rd or 4th century AD, Germany - Church parishioners played a game with a club or Kegel (said to represent the Heide ‘heathen’). A stone was rolled at the Heide, and those successfully toppling it were believed to have cleansed themselves of sin.

1366 - Edward III banned his troops from playing the game so that they would not be distracted from their archery practice.

1455 - The roofing over of lanes in London for lawn bowls was the beginning of bowling as an all-weather game.

1477 - Edward IV issued an edict against "bowles, closh, kayles, hand-in and hand-out" for similar reasons given in 1366. The game of kayles involved knocking down pins with a stick instead of a ball.

Playing Kayles (British Library, Ms. 22494, f. 42) 

          

July 18, 1588 – Sir Francis Drake was playing a game of skittles as the Spanish Armada approached in the English Channel. When informed, Drake continued to play saying, "We still have time to finish the game and to thrash the Spaniards, too." He lost the game, but won the war.

Early 1600's - The illustration shows pilgrims in America throwing a small ball at small pins.
                               

1824 - The extent of the popularity of bowls and bowling can be demonstrated by the number of street names in London in the early nineteenth century with a bowling reference.

James Pigot & Co.'s, Metropolitan Guide & Book of Reference to Every Street ... and Public Building in the Cities of London & Westminster:

Bowl Yard, Brownlow Street, Drury Lane

Bowling Alley, Thames Street

Bowling Alley, Tooley Street

Bowling Green, 49 King Street, Boro

Bowling Green, Lisson Green

Bowling Green Lane, 44 Coppice Row, Clerkenwell

Bowling Green Lane, 27 High Street, Marylebone

Bowling Green Row, Haberdasher’s Walk, Hoxton

Bowling Pin Alley, Bream’s Buildings [Chancery Lane]

Bowling Street, Dean’s Yard, Westminster

Bowling Street, 10 Turnmill Street, Clerkenwell

Playing skittles was often associated with anti-social behaviour, perhaps because of its connection with inns and public houses.

1828 – John Griffiths, aged 18, a carpenter, convicted at the Old Bailey in May 1828 of larceny against his parents. Sentence: 7 years transportation.

TNA HO 17/45/61 -
“[John Griffiths] who always conducted himself
properly, and attended his employment, until
about the month of April 1827, when he became
in the habit of visiting skittle grounds, and other
similar places, and whence he became acquainted with persons of bad character…”

1841 Connecticut, USA -  Nine pin bowling was banned in that State due to its association in gambling and crime. It is said that at this point that another pin was added so that the game could continue, creating the game of ten-pin bowling.

Gambling on games of skittles was not confined to the USA as records found in The National Archives demonstrates.

30 April 1846, Manchester - MH 12/9361/278, Folios 440-443. Letter from Robert Weale, Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, to the Poor Law Commission, including the deposition of John Tomlinson, regarding the unsuitability of Jeremiah Burrows, Publican, to be Collector of rates for Sutton on Ashfield.

“On the several occasions that I visited the Peacock Inn kept by Mr Burrows I observed persons playing in the ground adjoining the house at the games of shoes [a form of quoits] and nine-pins. I heard the person who were playing betting on the games and the stakes they placed for was ale.”

20 September 1852 – TNA PCOM 3/40/4299, Samuel Ridgeley was convicted of unlawfully obtaining a large sum of money by fraud and unlawful device and ill-practice in wagering on the event of a certain game called skittles at the Central Criminal Court at London, Middlesex.

Sentence: 7 years' transportation.

1853 - TNA ADM 101/87/8/4, the medical and surgical journal of David Lyall, Surgeon on HMS Assistance, records while the ship was employed in the Arctic Region during the winter of 1853, a skittle alley was built next to the ship for the entertainment of the crew.

1890 – TNA BT 31/4753/31406 and BT 34/692/31406, Company No: 31406; Turners' Lawn Skittles Company Ltd. Incorporated in 1890 (dissolved before 1916).

1894 – TNA BT 31/5988/42253 and BT 34/1004/42253, Company No: 42253; Patent Automatic Parlour Skittle Syndicate Ltd. Incorporated in 1894 (dissolved before 1916).

1938 – TNA BT 31/35735/343726, No. of Company: 343726; The Southbourne Skittle Club Ltd. Incorporated in 1938 (dissolved in 1950).

The notion of skittle allies being an unsuitable place for young people continued into the 20th century when American airbases began to employ young men as attendants.

1948-1956 – TNA LAB 19/498, Undesirable vacancies: employment of juveniles in amusement parks, fun fairs, etc and "pin-boys" and "skittle alley" attendants in United States Army Air Base at 
Bentwater, East Anglia.

2. Wages and Hours
 (para 2)
The normal working hours are from 1.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. on six days per week. The day off is not allowed on Saturday or Sunday....

7. Conclusions
(a) This is an unskilled and unprogessive job.




1960 – TNA COAL 80/2015/3 - Photograph depicting: ten-pin bowling. Groups of young people play in a three lane alley.

 

Nothing to do with the game of bowling but I found this entry from 1708 quite amusing:

TNA PROB 18/30/53 Probate lawsuit Bowling v Ball, concerning the deceased Jane Bowling, spinster of St Bride, London.

Other Sources:

http://www.britannica.com/sports/bowling

The Bowling Museum -- http://www.bowlingmuseum.com/history.asp

Online Guide to Traditional Games -- http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Bowls.htm

Patchwork Quilts in The National Archives

The word `quilt' derives from the Latin word cucita meaning a bolster or cushion, which in turn derives from the Classical Latin consuere meaning accustomed to, stitch or sew together. A quilt is traditionally a type of blanket made up of three layers, the top and bottom layers made of whole sheets of cloth with a middle layer of wadding. The layers are joined using ties, stitching and decorative embroidery. Records found in The National Archives (TNA) generally includes references to quilted bed covers, while other museums hold examples of quilted women's petticoats, babies' caps and men's waistcoats:

TNA LR 9/132, 1703, ‘Receipt of Richard Shedford for the cost of a bed, blankets and quilt purchased by Mr Soley. 

TNA PROB 11/580/334, 30 June 1721, ‘Will of Richard Morgan, Quilt Maker of Saint Olave Silver Street, City of London’.

TNA HO 47/22/9, 10 April 1798, ‘Report of J Adair on Elizabeth Taylor, convicted at the Denbigh Quarter Sessions, on 5 April 1796, for stealing a feather bed, blanket, quilt and other items, value 10/-, property of Mary David.

While references to quilting can been traced back to the Middle Ages, references to patchwork quilts do not appear in English or Welsh records until the eighteenth century. A patchwork quilt is a variant form of quilting in which paper patterns are used to cut different fabric shapes which are then pieced together to form the top layer.

One of the earliest known patchworks is the 1718 silk patchwork coverlet held in the Quilters’ Guild Collection. While quilting was considered a professional skill at this time, patchwork was a ladies’ leisure pursuit, using expensive silks and printed cottons which were cut from paper templates (another expensive commodity) following the mosaic patchwork method.

The Quilters’ Guild Collection - Detail from 1718 Silk Coverlet

Simpler and cheaper fabrics were used by the lower classes whose quilts had functional purposes, although the design and making of them acquired different cultural relevance across time and place.

Quilt V&A 1797 - maker unknown 

Patchwork was deemed a suitable activity for female convicts on board transport ships.The Lord Sidmouth was one of three convict ships carrying female prisoners from England and Scotland to New South Wales in 1822/23. As a result of T. Bensley’s 1821, ‘Third Report of the Committee of the Society For the Improvement of Prison Discipline ...’ a set of rules was recommended by the Ladies' Association for female prisoners at Newgate. These Rules were probably already in place by the time the Lord Sidmouth was ready to set sail in 1822, as demonstrated by the following extract from the journal of ship’s surgeon Robert Espie:

 7 September 1822 at Woolwich. Mrs Pryor came on board and completed all her arrangements having given each of the women a quantity of patchwork and other articles to employ them during the voyage. (TNA ADM 101/44/10, folio 6).

Extract from the Third Report of the Committee of the Society For the Improvement of Prison Discipline ...’

Possibly because of the scarcity of resources in the early settlements of North America and Australia, the ability to recycle old and scrap material into colourful quilts meant that quilting became, and still is, a popular art form in those countries.

 Melbourne, 2014

An exhibition of patchwork was even the subject of an anti-terrorist investigation in 1980. An entire file (TNA WORK 12/866) is given over to security issues raised when Kilkenny Design Workshops proposed mounting an Irish Patchwork Exhibition in the Fine Rooms of Somerset House, being one of 90 events planned to take place in London during February and March 1980 under the umbrella programme, ‘A Sense of Ireland’.

Now it's my turn - C18thGirl, 2015 - work in progress.








And if this has whetted your appetite to make a patchwork quilt, here’s how - courtesy of Angharad Jones …

            

Other sources:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/quilting-introduction/

http://www.quiltersguild.org.uk/learn/a-brief-history-of-patchwork-quilting

Review: Anne Leah Greenfield (ed.) (2013) Interpreting Sexual Violence, 1660–1800, Pickering & Chatto

 

 

 

Over the centuries society has placed a great deal of importance on a woman’s chastity, therefore, rape has been seen in terms of an assault upon a man’s property, patriarchy and masculinity. It will come as no surprise to learn that the victims of rape have not always attracted the support of their family or neighbours and while sexual violence inflicted on a very young victim might be denounced, the same support was not necessarily forthcoming to an older woman who might be expected to defend her honour more vigorously.

Anne Greenfield has brought together an eclectic collection of essays from fourteen historians and literary scholars who examine the range of behaviours that might be viewed as sexually violent, or excused, in Restoration and eighteenth-century England. This book explores the relationship between representations of and responses to sexual violence in courtroom reports, plays, literature and art: it demonstrates the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of sexual violence, drawing on a wide range of genres and primary sources. However, that interdisciplinary approach means that some essays will fall outside the area of interest for some readers.

The collection begins with a contemporary historiography by Julie Gammon on the subject of sexually motivated violence during the early modern period (1660-1800), followed by an analysis of the history of laws on rape and medical jurisprudence in England by Mary R. Block. Block reminds us that during this period medical jurisprudence was still unclear as to what was necessary to cause conception so that pregnancy continued to provide evidence of acquiescence by the woman and, of course, a woman who consented had not been raped.

Katie Barclay's contribution examines notions of female consent and acceptance of male force in courtship rituals during the eighteenth century. Because of the legal onus on a woman to resist unwanted sexual advances, Barclay concludes that even violent sexual assaults might be excused as a seduction technique, at least between social equals, and result in a forced marriage for the victim. Such scenarios are described in eighteenth-century works as the ‘rape of seduction’ and consideration of the blurred boundaries between rape and seduction is taken up later in this book by Lena Olsson. 

It was the lack of consent by the woman that turned lawful sexual intercourse into rape: in contrast, the act of sodomy between adult males was an offence in its own right. Therefore, essays by Gammon and Aparna Gollapudi consider evidential issues in prosecutions for the rape or sodomy of a child, when consent could not be given or assumed in a girl aged under ten years or a boy under the age of fourteen.

Gollapudi examines eight cases of sodomy alleged against child victims (1730-1780) in which she highlights the court’s focus on the body of the adolescent boy and the level of violence or pain inflicted upon him. As with rape, successful claims of sodomy required proof of penetration and ejaculation, therefore, supporting evidence from a surgeon was crucial in securing a conviction. However, Gollapudi concludes that the evidence set out in the court papers, testing the boys on the levels of violence inflicted, indicate greater concern with a boy’s reliability as a witness than with the perpetrator’s crime. In that respect, she argues, these cases provide contrary evidence of to the general notion of the eighteenth-century ‘cult of childhood’, where children are fabricators of the truth rather than pure innocents.

The essays that follow on generally concern interpretations of sexual violence in fictional settings.

Four essays in this collection examine dramatized portrayals of rape, beginning with Anne Greenfield’s study of fifty or so plays produced on the London stage which featured depictions of rape or attempted rape. As she observes, the admission of female actors onto the stage after 1660 allowed for the more realistic portrayal of dramatized rape scenes. Greenfield questions the attitudes and responses of audiences to rape scenes and her essay demonstrates contradictory responses to dramatized displays of rape, compared to the culture of ‘victim blaming’ identified by Block and Gammon in the real world. In the fictional world, tragic rape scenes were figured as violations enacted against the woman’ s will at a time when, Greenfield asserts, the desire to rape a woman was considered ‘natural’ and something that women might ‘enjoy’. She resolves these contradictions by suggesting that, even though sexual violence was portrayed favourably as evidence of masculinity and power, the same audiences might find a form of ‘beauty’ in the tragedy of the story.

That theme continues in Ann Marie Byrd’s essay, in which she draws on texts produced by male and female playwrights (1660-1700) that include scenes of erotic assault across the themes of comedies of manners, comedies of intrigue and tragedies. She notes that each play focuses on the body of the actress and that comic plays generally resulted in the marriage of victim and seducer, while serious works concerning a woman’s dishonour close with her tragic ending. Like Barclay and Greenwood, Byrd concludes that audiences ‘understood’ the motivation of a rapist, while the theatrical experience of watching the suffering and destruction of a woman offered a moral lesson for the audience. 

Elizabeth Haywood.

Loring Pfeiffer examines rape and comedy as portrayed in Eliza Haywood’ s 'A Wife to Be Lett’. The play produced in 1723 centres on the story of married woman whose husband attempts to pander (pimp) her to an admirer in return for a large sum of money. Although the play concerns marital conflict, Pfeiffer draws an analogy between the storyline and contemporaneous political issues of Tory resistance to the demands of the Whig majority. While the essay offers an interesting literary analysis, its author looks at marital violence in the context of a metaphor for political events rather than as a commentary on attitudes to sexual violence in the real world.

Jennifer L. Airey similarly argues that the dramatized violation of a woman could be used to symbolize the unacceptable activities of government. Airey considers the the tendency of society to view rape in terms of an offence against a man’s property being applied in order to portray economic and political corruption during the Civil Wars and Jacobite uprisings in works of fiction. In that respect, Airey and Pfeiffer generally focus on rape as a theatrical device for political ends rather than shedding new light on public attitudes to sexual violence. 

Charlotte Lennox.

Moving to the literary genre, Robin Runia examines Charlotte Lennox’s novel 'The Female Quixote' (1752). While Runia acknowledges that the book ridicules female concerns with male seducers, she also draws out contemporaneous concerns with the more serious issues of how and whether a woman could protect herself against rape. Runia observes that the author’s notion of female virtue perpetuates the belief that a female victim must bear some of the blame for the unwanted attentions of a sexual predator, when moral failings are linked to intellectual deficiencies.

The themes raised by Runia are developed by Dawn A. Nawrot as she considers issues of the culpable woman who is both the victim of and accessory to rape, demonstrated in four well-known texts: Roxana (1724), Clarissa (1748), Tom Jones (1749) and The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751).  Nawrot raises questions as to whether, following an assisted rape, the victim  continued to fear the power of the perpetrator and a female assistant, and how that was reflected in future relationships. However, the characters examined are fictional and their responses are contrived for its audience, so that a ‘ruined’ woman was assumed to lack the subjectivity to refuse to marry her attacker but would break away from a woman who betrayed her.

Nichol Weizenbeck takes a different look at sexual feelings in Laurence Sterne’s 'A Sentimental Journey’ (1768). Sterne offers a theory of manners, morals and sentiment, as the narrator recounts his various amorous adventures and expresses his feelings on those encounters. While the story includes bawdy sexual allusions, Weizenbeck asserts that it also carries as implied criticism of the exploitation of young women by powerful men. The narrator’s passive rejection of aggression and resistance to temptation represents, she suggests, the sympathy and piety behind the ideology of sensibility and represents Sterne's affirmation that Christian piety can impact society.

The sources for Lena Olsson’s essay include legal and medical texts, works of fiction and poetry. Olsson examines the ‘myth’ that women were capable of resisting rape which stood in direct contradiction to the legal definition of rape, being the forcible penile penetration of the vagina, which was an impossibility according to the myth. Olsson finds evidence to support the view that rape was commonly interpreted in terms of courtship practices when court records show that little regard was paid by juries to injuries sustained by alleged rape victims and references in works of literature suggest marriage as a ‘solution’ to accusations of rape. 

Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion.

Misty Krueger analyses a William Blake poem 'Visions of the Daughters of Albion' (1723) alongside testimonies from real trials for rape. Krueger argues that the poem reflects contemporaneous trial proceedings in rape cases and the injustices that entailed. Krueger points to the origins of a forced marriage following rape, being an ancient Jewish law, which stated that a rapist should marry his victim (now damaged goods) to excuse the crime against a family. Krueger also makes the point that the capital nature of the offence of rape frequently led to indictments for a lesser offence. While Blake’s depiction of the sexual encounter is ambiguous as to consensual sex or rape, Krueger concludes that he does, nevertheless, confront the ‘oppression’ that results from rape and the ‘blame-the-victim’ attitudes common in other texts of this era. 

"Pan and Syrinx" by Jean-François de Troy.

Melanie Cooper-Dobbin's essay completes this collection with an examination of representations of sexual assault and rape in the visual arts, in particular, images of 'Pan’s Attempted Rape of Syrinx' during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Cooper-Dobbin notes how a shift occurred in images of the story, whereby leading characterizations moved from the male aggressor to the promiscuous female. Pan is, of course, depicted with horns, but the monstrous horns of Pan came to be replaced with the horns of domestic animals. Later satirical images depict Pan as a man emasculated and ‘abused’ by a tyrannical woman, together with her seducer who gave him the horns of the cuckold.

The treatment by some essayists of rape as an accepted aspect of male virility during the period surveyed is questionable and the absence or failure of indictments for rape in the assize records does not necessarily provide evidence to support that view. It is possible that when victim and assailant were known to each other they, or their families, might have been reluctant to pursue an indictment for rape or sodomy, being capital offences without benefit of clergy. The relatively low incidence of complaints for either rape or sodomy in the criminal archives may also have resulted from the use of forced marriages or private financial settlements, in order to avoid the public humiliation of the victim, defendant and/or their families. It is Krueger who makes the point on forced marriage following rape most forcibly, describing it in terms of ‘repairing’ damaged goods rather than in terms of courtship rituals.

Possibly because of the capital nature of these offences, trial juries often gave partial verdicts of ‘not guilty of rape/sodomy’ but ‘guilty of assault’; otherwise, acts of sexual violence were indicted in terms of an attempt to commit the offence, which fell within the jurisdiction of the lower court as a simple assault: something to be examined on another day, perhaps.

One last thought, this collection of essays has an all-female cast, are any men out there writing on the subject of sexual violence, rape or sodomy?

High-End Fashion and Lifestyle from the Criminal Archives.

In March 1735 Mary Ormand appeared before Sir William Thompson kt., and Henry Wood esq., at the assizes for the City of York, where Ormand was charged with burglary and Elizabeth Torton and Jane Hickeringill were charged with receiving stolen goods. Ormand was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to death, though later reprieved and her sentence commuted to transportation for seven years. While the case raises a number of questions on the issues of gender, co-accused evidence, sentencing and reprieves, it is also provides an extraordinary body of evidence of the tastes and fashions of the eighteenth-century elite.

Ormand was first examined on 22 January 1735 before Richard Osbaldeston J.P. when she confessed that on 4 January, between 6 and 7p.m., she broke the cellar window of the house of Sir William Lowther, in Little Alice Lane, York. 

Sir William Lowther, 2nd Baronet (c. 1694 – 6 March 1763), merchant, was educated at schools in Wakefield and Leeds before being admitted to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on 28 February 1713. He succeeded his father as baronet and as M.P. for Pontefract in 1729. However, in 1740 he fell into financial difficulties and was forced to sell his Pontefract burages (rental properties) from which he derived most of his influence in the constituency, and left Parliament the following year. 

At the time of the burglary, Sir William’s house stood in Little Alice Lane which ran from Goodramgate to Minster Lane. The name ‘Little Alice Lane’ apparently came from a diminutive woman who once lived there, though it was formerly known as Vicar’s Lane and currently as College Street. The names ‘Vicar’s Lane’ and ‘College Street’ refer to St William’s College built between 1465 and 1467 being the home of the cathedral chantry priests (who were paid to chant masses for the souls of the dead) and which stands about halfway up the street.

 College Street, York: https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7375/9977564164_495d16425a_z.jpg

Ormand confessed to breaking into Sir William’s house and said that she remained there on the first occasion for several nights, during which time she drank a bottle of ‘surfitt’ water and took away a bottle of cowslip wine and another of surfitt water. It is likely that the surfitt water had been produced by a member of the Lowther household as a recipe for ‘Surfitt Water’ (a remedy for the plague or small pox) can be found in the Lowther family archive at the Welcome Library (MS3341_thumb_0071).

John Gerarde, in his Herball, noted that cowslip plants “grow very plentifully in moist and squally grounds in the North parts of England”, and it is likely that cowslip wine made from the flowers of the plant had also been brewed in the Lowther family kitchen: having a narcotic quality, it was often taken as a sedative.

Ormand further confessed that she returned to the house for a second time and took a bottle of claret. Then again on a third occasion, about 7 January, she returned with a female accomplice and took two gowns, a quilted petticoat and a shift: at the time of her examination Ormand was wearing one of the dresses and the petticoat. She also confessed to taking a pair of stockings and a mantle lined with silk and decorated in gold and silver thread, a pair of breeches and a pair of gloves.

In total, fifteen witnesses provided information and gave recognizances for their appearance the assizes in this matter and their statements provide evidence of the true extent of Ormand’s activities. Mary Boynton bought a dress belonging to Sir William’s servant; Martha Scott bought a nightgown and waistcoat; Mary Whitehead purchased two shifts and two pillows; a pair of breaches were delivered to John Campbell, a foot soldier in Col. Harrison’s Regiment. Constable Henry Lightfoot gave evidence that he searched the house of Michael Colburne, a bricklayer, on 24 January and gave a statement listing about twenty items discovered in the house. Mary Colburne, his wife, explained that they had been brought to her by Ormand on 8 January so that she could sell them. 

A schedule of the Goods Taken by Henry Lightfoot Constable of the Minster Yard of the House of Michael Colburn Bricklayer in Goodramgate York this Twenty fourth day of January in the year Of our Lord 1734

One pair of Black Cloth Breeches Lined with Shammy Leather

One Yellow Silk paddesway Gown and a tail to the said Gown

One Ash Colour’d Shagereen Cloak lined with a Persian …

One Ash Colour’d Shagereen Silk Night Gown

           Two pair of White Thred Stockings

One pair of purple Colour’d Worsted Stockings

One pair of Scarlet Cloth Shoes w^th Gold lace

One piece of new Lining Cloth

One Diaper Napkin mark’d w^th a letter  (L)

           Two Holland Shifts & one Shirt

One Holland Apron

One Lace Handkerchief flower’d w^th Gold & Silver

One Short Apron flower’d w^thSilk

One White Dimothy petticoat

Two Girdles one Green & the other Yellow

One piece of Yellow Silk Persian

Several piece of White Sattin flower’d w^thSilk

A Tail belonging to a Strip’d Turky Silk Gown

One piece of Green Tabby Silk

 The information of Mary Colburn of Goodramgate

 
Less familiar terms found in that list are:

Shammy or Chamois leather - a type of porous leather that was used in the manufacture of gloves, breaches, jackets, and pouches.

 http://www.pinterest.com/longhuntr74/men-s-18th-century-fashion/

Paddesway or paduasoy - a grosgrain weaved silk. The weave was more delicate than the grosgrain used today yet it was a heavy material which was often used in day wear clothing.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/538602436655836557/

Shagereen or Shagreen  was introduced to Europe from Japan during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is an untanned leather with a granular surface, prepared from the hide of certain animals, particularly horses, or from rays, sharks and dogfish whose skins have a smoothly pebbled texture.

Worsted is a woollen yarn which was widely manufactured in the West Riding during the eighteenth century and it was the textile manufacturers of Yorkshire who were instrumental in the persuading Parliament to pass the Worsted Acts of 1777, which established an inspectorate to police workplace theft (17 Geo. III, c.35).

Holland was the name given to the fine, plain-woven linens imported from Europe, particularly the Netherlands.

Dimothy or Dimity is a lightweight, cotton fabric, suitable for the manufacture of undergarments.

American, first half of 19th century. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession nr. 99.664.33 - http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a5/d9/71/a5d97188e75f553aeb4946c965c1b779.jpg 

Turkey or Ottoman silk is characterized by large-scale stylized motifs often highlighted with metallic threads. The silk was produced for use both within the Ottoman Empire and for export to Europe and the Middle East.

1750: Lime green silk ottoman with wide blue, black and white stripes.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/af/c3/7a/afc37a4420cccfa9c32ef9f3e8d07cc2.jpg
 

Tabby is a fabric with a watered pattern, such as silk or taffeta.

Ladies hooded long silk cloak 1790’s Brown tabby silk.

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/1f/f4/20/1ff42048d8b476ff8abd1e137fd0074c.jpg

Sir William Lowther’s and his wife (there were no children) must have expended a significant amount of money in maintaining their liking for high fashion. What is most surprising is the fact that, following Ormand’s conviction for such audacious acts of burglary and theft on an significant scale, her sentence was commuted to transportation to America for seven years. This case, if nothing else, provides significant evidence of the reluctance of eighteenth-century-assize judges to execute female convicts.

 

Other sources:

Lowther MSS, Denbighshire Record Office.

John Gerarde (1597) The Herball, or, Generall historie of plantes /gathered by John Gerarde of London, master in chirurgerie.

ASSI 41/2 Gaol Delivery, City of York, 11 March 1734/35.

ASSI 45/20 Depositions, North Riding, 1734/35.