Skip to main content
Read page text
page 66
66  WOMEN FURNITURE MAKERS Research, University of London.5 One of the primary purposes of BIFMO is to document women and members of minority communities who worked in the furniture trade between 1600 and 1900. Martha Martin was twice married to London furniture makers and was twice widowed. Following the death of her second husband, she inherited and ran a chaircarving business in St Paul’s Churchyard for 25 years, until her death in 1721.6 Her first marriage was to Cooper Leigh.7 She and her husband had one son, Peter, born in 1682.8 Cooper appears to have died not long after the birth of their only child as, in 1685, Martha remarried Bartholomew Martin, a chair carver.9 By 1692, they were living in Little Knight Rider Street, just south of St Paul’s Churchyard. Bartholomew died in March 1696.10 Three months later, Martha bound her 14-year-old son as an apprentice.11 Women commonly went into partnership with male relations, and this may have been the primary reason that Martha apprenticed her son. She apparently had a very busy workshop because, in addition to the four apprentices working there at the time of her husband’s death,12 Martha contracted a further three (including her son) in the following six months.13 Over the next 18 years she bound eight more.14 There must have been several journeymen in her employ to have necessitated so many apprentices. Martha apparently managed quite a successful enterprise: she is known to have carried out carving for a neighbour in St Paul’s Churchyard, the caned chairmaker Thomas Warden, and it appears that he was just one of her many clients.15 One of Martha Martin’s neighbours was Grace Coxed. Grace was involved in the furniture trade for at least 35 years, from 1700 to 1735, and, like Martha, was twice married and twice widowed. Both of her husbands were cabinetmakers, further evidence of the pattern of widows remarrying men in the same specialised field of trade. Her first marriage was to John Mayo, who, at his death, left his business in the hands of his widow.16 One of their apprentices was John Coxed,17 who completed his term of indenture under Grace’s supervision.18 It is possible that John remained in Grace’s workshop as a journeyman after completing his apprenticeship. Grace managed the cabinetmaking business for seven years following her first husband’s death before remarrying John Coxed.19 They were married for 10 years, until his death in November 1718.20 In his will, John left instructions to Grace to ‘go partners’ with his brother-in-law Thomas Woster, who was also a cabinetmaker (Fig. 1). Once again, we see women entering into business partnerships with male relatives. The business Grace formed with Woster was apparently a sizable company: the premises, occupying two adjacent houses in the south-west corner of St Paul’s Churchyard, were large enough to accommodate several workshops and retail spaces.21 Their output seems to have been prolific because their produce constitutes the largest single group of labelled English case furniture surviving from the first half of the 18th century.22 Grace’s role in the business is unknown: there are no records of her activity in the records of the London companies or accounts relating to her business transactions. Nevertheless, she was presumably involved in running the family cabinetmaking firm from her second husband’s death in 1718 until her own in 1735.23 This article outlines just a few examples of the employment opportunities available to middle-class women in London in the early modern period and the benefits and privileges associated with widowhood. Keep an eye on the BIFMO website for new information about women working in the British and Irish furniture trades between 1600 and 1900. Laurie Lindey is the Research Officer for British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO). 1. Robert Bucholz & Joseph Ward, London: A Social and Cultural History, 15501750, Cambridge, 2012, p. 77. Approximately five to 10 per cent of businesses were run by women. 2. Margaret Hunt, The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680–1780, Berkeley, 1996, pp. 129–42. 3. Peter Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660–1730, London, 1989, p. 160; Bucholz & Ward, op. cit., p. 77. 4. Earle, op. cit., p. 163. 5. The database can be seen at https://bifmo.data.history. ac.uk/. 6. London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), COL/CHD/ LA/03/032/09 to COL/CHD/ LA/03/033/008, Poll tax assessment for Bartholomew Martin of Little Knight Ryder Street; LMA, COL/CHD/ LA/03/042, COL/CHD/ LA/03/0, ‘The four shillings in the pound aid 1693–4 for the city of London, the city of Westminster and Metropolitan Middlesex’; LMA, COL/CHD/ LA/06/025, ‘Returns of the names of several wards in obedience to a precept giving the proper additions and places of abode’, 3 October 1721. 7. British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO) website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data.history. ac.uk]. Cooper Leigh was apprenticed on 23 February 1668/9 and became free by servitude on 7 May 1678. He bound an apprentice through the Joiners’ Company on 5 September 1682. His trade is unknown. 8. LMA, P69/SEP/A/001/ MS07219/002, Church of England parish records. Peter Leigh, son of Cooper and Martha Leigh, living in Hosier Lane, was baptised at the Church of St Sepulchre, London, 20 June 1682. 9. Ancestry.com website [Accessed 5 March 2018: https:// www.ancestry.com]. Bartholomew Martin and Martha Leigh married at St James Duke’s Place, Aldgate, on 9 June 1685; BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https:// bifmo.data.history.ac.uk]. Bartholomew Martin was apprenticed on 3 October 1664 and became free by servitude on 4 April 1676. 10. LMA, P69/GRE/A/01/ MS18933, Church of England parish burial records. Bartholomew was buried on 6 March 1695/6 at St Gregory by St Paul’s, London. 11. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. ‘Peter Leigh, son of Cooper Leigh, Cit. & Joiner, of London. Apprenticed to Martha Martin for 7 years, from 23 June 1696. Widow late wife of Bartholomew Martin late Cit. & Joiner of London to learne ye Art or trade which her late husband used.’ 12. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. The apprentices already bound were Josiah Perkins (on 7 April 1691), Giles Gower (on 19 July 1692), William Bunchley (on 4 June 1695) and William Latham (on 25 June 1695). There is no known information to document whether these apprentices remained in the Martin workshop for their seven-year term of indenture. For information about apprenticeship, see Laurie Lindey, ‘The London Furniture Trade, 1640–1720’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 2015, pp. 84–152. 13. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo. data.history.ac.uk]. The apprentices bound were Peter Leigh (on 23 June 1696), Jonathan Weale (on 15 July 1696) and Nathaniel Boit (on 22 September 1696). 14. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. The apprentices bound were Christopher Banson (on 12 July 1698), Richard Haynes (on 15 July 1701), William Wancklin (on 22 June 1703), John Lavington (on 23 April 1706), Thomas Heath (on 25 October 1706), William Robinson (on 6 September 1709), Richard Whitney (on 12 September 1710) and William Arnold (on 6 July 1714). 15. Laurie Lindey, ‘Thomas Warden (c. 1660–1701) and cane chair-makers in the City of London’, Furniture History, vol. 52, 2016, pp. 17–33. 16. The National Archive (TNA), PROB 11/462/451, ‘Will of John Mayo, Cabinet Maker of Saint Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, City of London’, 29 December 1701. 17. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. John Coxed was son of John Coxed, brewer, of Abingdon. He was apprenticed to John Andrewes for seven years from 13 November 1694, ‘to be turned over to John Mayo Cit. & Merchant Tailor of London to learn the art of a Joiner’. 18. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. John Coxed was made free by servitude on 7 September 1703, ‘By consent of Grace the widow and Executrix of the said John Mayo, in Court, and on the report of John Woodward, Cit & Joiner.’ 19. Guildhall Library, MS 11316, Land tax assessment book, St Gregory Parish East. 20. TNA, PROB 11/566/220, Will of John Coxed, 22 November 1718. 21. LMA, COL/CHD/ LA/03/042, COL/CHD/ LA/03/0, op. cit. 22. Adam Bowett and Laurie Lindey, ‘Labelled furniture from the White Swan workshop in St Paul’s Churchyard (1711–13)’, Furniture History, vol. 24, 2003, pp. 71–98. 23. LMA, P69/GRE/A/006/ MS18934, Church of England parish registers. Grace Coxed was buried on 13 August 1735 at St Gregory by St Paul’s, London.
page 67
THE INTERNATIONAL ART MAGAZINE 3 issues of Apollo for just £10 PLUS A FREE www.apollo-magazine.com/M098A TOTE BAG +44 (0)3330 333 0180 quoting M098A

Page Text

View plaintext

66  WOMEN FURNITURE MAKERS

Research, University of London.5 One of the primary purposes of BIFMO is to document women and members of minority communities who worked in the furniture trade between 1600 and 1900.

Martha Martin was twice married to London furniture makers and was twice widowed. Following the death of her second husband, she inherited and ran a chaircarving business in St Paul’s Churchyard for 25 years, until her death in 1721.6 Her first marriage was to Cooper Leigh.7 She and her husband had one son, Peter, born in 1682.8 Cooper appears to have died not long after the birth of their only child as, in 1685, Martha remarried Bartholomew Martin, a chair carver.9 By 1692, they were living in Little Knight Rider Street, just south of St Paul’s Churchyard. Bartholomew died in March 1696.10 Three months later, Martha bound her 14-year-old son as an apprentice.11 Women commonly went into partnership with male relations, and this may have been the primary reason that Martha apprenticed her son. She apparently had a very busy workshop because, in addition to the four apprentices working there at the time of her husband’s death,12 Martha contracted a further three (including her son) in the following six months.13 Over the next 18 years she bound eight more.14 There must have been several journeymen in her employ to have necessitated so many apprentices. Martha apparently managed quite a successful enterprise: she is known to have carried out carving for a neighbour in St Paul’s Churchyard, the caned chairmaker Thomas Warden, and it appears that he was just one of her many clients.15

One of Martha Martin’s neighbours was Grace Coxed. Grace was involved in the furniture trade for at least 35 years, from 1700 to 1735, and, like Martha, was twice married and twice widowed. Both of her husbands were cabinetmakers, further evidence of the pattern of widows remarrying men in the same specialised field of trade. Her first marriage was to John Mayo, who, at his death, left his business in the hands of his widow.16 One of their apprentices was John Coxed,17 who completed his term of indenture under Grace’s supervision.18 It is possible that John remained in Grace’s workshop as a journeyman after completing his apprenticeship. Grace managed the cabinetmaking business for seven years following her first husband’s death before remarrying John Coxed.19 They were married for 10 years, until his death in November 1718.20 In his will, John left instructions to Grace to ‘go partners’ with his brother-in-law Thomas Woster, who was also a cabinetmaker (Fig. 1). Once again, we see women entering into business partnerships with male relatives.

The business Grace formed with Woster was apparently a sizable company: the premises, occupying two adjacent houses in the south-west corner of St Paul’s Churchyard, were large enough to accommodate several workshops and retail spaces.21 Their output seems to have been prolific because their produce constitutes the largest single group of labelled English case furniture surviving from the first half of the 18th century.22 Grace’s role in the business is unknown: there are no records of her activity in the records of the London companies or accounts relating to her business transactions. Nevertheless, she was presumably involved in running the family cabinetmaking firm from her second husband’s death in 1718 until her own in 1735.23

This article outlines just a few examples of the employment opportunities available to middle-class women in London in the early modern period and the benefits and privileges associated with widowhood. Keep an eye on the BIFMO website for new information about women working in the British and Irish furniture trades between 1600 and 1900.

Laurie Lindey is the Research Officer for British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO).

1. Robert Bucholz & Joseph Ward, London: A Social and Cultural History, 15501750, Cambridge, 2012, p. 77. Approximately five to 10 per cent of businesses were run by women. 2. Margaret Hunt, The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680–1780, Berkeley, 1996, pp. 129–42. 3. Peter Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660–1730, London, 1989, p. 160; Bucholz & Ward, op. cit., p. 77. 4. Earle, op. cit., p. 163. 5. The database can be seen at https://bifmo.data.history. ac.uk/. 6. London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), COL/CHD/ LA/03/032/09 to COL/CHD/ LA/03/033/008, Poll tax assessment for Bartholomew Martin of Little Knight Ryder Street; LMA, COL/CHD/ LA/03/042, COL/CHD/ LA/03/0, ‘The four shillings in the pound aid 1693–4 for the city of London, the city of Westminster and Metropolitan Middlesex’; LMA, COL/CHD/ LA/06/025, ‘Returns of the names of several wards in obedience to a precept giving the proper additions and places of abode’, 3 October 1721. 7. British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO) website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data.history. ac.uk]. Cooper Leigh was apprenticed on 23 February 1668/9 and became free by servitude on 7 May 1678. He bound an apprentice through the Joiners’ Company on 5 September 1682. His trade is unknown. 8. LMA, P69/SEP/A/001/ MS07219/002, Church of England parish records. Peter Leigh, son of Cooper and Martha Leigh, living in Hosier Lane, was baptised at the Church of St Sepulchre, London, 20 June 1682. 9. Ancestry.com website

[Accessed 5 March 2018: https:// www.ancestry.com]. Bartholomew Martin and Martha Leigh married at St James Duke’s Place, Aldgate, on 9 June 1685; BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https:// bifmo.data.history.ac.uk]. Bartholomew Martin was apprenticed on 3 October 1664 and became free by servitude on 4 April 1676. 10. LMA, P69/GRE/A/01/ MS18933, Church of England parish burial records. Bartholomew was buried on 6 March 1695/6 at St Gregory by St Paul’s, London. 11. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. ‘Peter Leigh, son of Cooper Leigh, Cit. & Joiner, of London. Apprenticed to Martha Martin for 7 years, from 23 June 1696. Widow late wife of Bartholomew Martin late Cit. & Joiner of London to learne ye Art or trade which her late husband used.’ 12. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. The apprentices already bound were Josiah Perkins (on 7 April 1691), Giles Gower (on 19 July 1692), William Bunchley (on 4 June 1695) and William Latham (on 25 June 1695). There is no known information to document whether these apprentices remained in the Martin workshop for their seven-year term of indenture. For information about apprenticeship, see Laurie Lindey, ‘The London Furniture Trade, 1640–1720’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 2015, pp. 84–152. 13. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo. data.history.ac.uk]. The apprentices bound were Peter Leigh (on 23 June 1696), Jonathan Weale (on 15 July 1696) and Nathaniel Boit (on 22 September 1696). 14. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. The apprentices bound were Christopher

Banson (on 12 July 1698), Richard Haynes (on 15 July 1701), William Wancklin (on 22 June 1703), John Lavington (on 23 April 1706), Thomas Heath (on 25 October 1706), William Robinson (on 6 September 1709), Richard Whitney (on 12 September 1710) and William Arnold (on 6 July 1714). 15. Laurie Lindey, ‘Thomas Warden (c. 1660–1701) and cane chair-makers in the City of London’, Furniture History, vol. 52, 2016, pp. 17–33. 16. The National Archive (TNA), PROB 11/462/451, ‘Will of John Mayo, Cabinet Maker of Saint Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, City of London’, 29 December 1701. 17. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. John Coxed was son of John Coxed, brewer, of Abingdon. He was apprenticed to John Andrewes for seven years from 13 November 1694, ‘to be turned over to John Mayo Cit. & Merchant Tailor of London to learn the art of a Joiner’. 18. BIFMO website [Accessed 13 May 2018: https://bifmo.data. history.ac.uk]. John Coxed was made free by servitude on 7 September 1703, ‘By consent of Grace the widow and Executrix of the said John Mayo, in Court, and on the report of John Woodward, Cit & Joiner.’ 19. Guildhall Library, MS 11316, Land tax assessment book, St Gregory Parish East. 20. TNA, PROB 11/566/220, Will of John Coxed, 22 November 1718. 21. LMA, COL/CHD/ LA/03/042, COL/CHD/ LA/03/0, op. cit. 22. Adam Bowett and Laurie Lindey, ‘Labelled furniture from the White Swan workshop in St Paul’s Churchyard (1711–13)’, Furniture History, vol. 24, 2003, pp. 71–98. 23. LMA, P69/GRE/A/006/ MS18934, Church of England parish registers. Grace Coxed was buried on 13 August 1735 at St Gregory by St Paul’s, London.

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content