WOMEN AND WORK IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EDINBURGH

WOMEN AND WORK IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EDINBURGH

STUDIES IN GENDER HISTORY Recent years have shown that the study of gender has proved to be of too great an importance to be ignored. By challenging long-accepted approaches, categories and priorities, gender history has necessitated nothing less than a change in the historical terrain. This series seeks to publish the latest and best research, which not only continues to restore women to history and history to women, but also to encourage the development of a new channel of scholarship. Published titles include: Elizabeth C. Sanderson WOMEN AND WORK IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EDINBURGH Jutta Schwarzkopf WOMEN IN THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT Lillian Lewis Shiman WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND Clare Taylor WOMEN OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT

Women and Work in Eighteenth-Century Edinburgh Elizabeth C. Sanderson

First published in Great Britain 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-24646-5 ISBN 978-1-349-24644-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24644-1 First published in the United States of America 1996 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-12917-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sanderson, Elizabeth C. Women and work in eighteenth-century Edinburgh / Elizabeth C. Sanderson. p. cm. (Studies in gender history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-12917-0 1. Women Employment Scotland Edinburgh History 18th century. 2 Women Scotland Edinburgh Economic conditions. 3. Women- -Scotland Edinburgh Social conditions. I. Title. II. Series. HD6137.Z6S26 1996 331.4'09413'409033 dc20 95-22032 CIP Elizabeth C. Sanderson 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96

Dedicated with love and gratitude to the memory of my parents Annie and William Sanderson

Contents List of Illustrations viii List of T abies ix Acknowledgements x List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 The Retail Trade 5 2 Roomsetters, Nurses and Graveclothes-Makers: Community Care in Eighteenth-Century Edinburgh 41 3 Single Women and Independence 74 4 Married Women and Subsistence 108 5 Women and Poverty 136 Conclusion 168 Appendix 1: Women Shopkeepers in the Minute Books of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh 173 Appendix 2: Single Women in Business 184 Appendix 3: The Textile and Groce1y Trades - Apprentices, Journeywomen, Assistants, Shopkeepers and Servants 195 Appendix 4: Married Women and Work- Wives and Widows 203 Glossmy 212 Nctcs and References 215 Bibliography 228 Index 233 vii

List of Illustrations 1 A Map of Central Edinburgh 2 The Cross at Edinburgh 3 'The Unlucky Glance' xii 18 21 viii

List of Tables 2.1 Social background of graveclothes-makers, married women 67 4.1 Occupations of the husbands of rouping-women 113 4.2 Sample of 133 craftsmen and tradesmen whose wives/ widows had different occupations from their husbands 126 ix

Acknowledgements This book is the outcome of research which I undertook for the degree of Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh. I wish to thank the University for the Vans Dunlop Award which enabled me to complete my research and Professor Michael Lynch and Dr William Ferguson for their interest in my work. I would also like to thank the Merchant Company of Edinburgh for access to their records and for permission to quote from them, Dr Walter Makey, then Edinburgh City Archivist, for making burgh records available to me in the initial stages of my research and his successor Mr Arnot Wilson for the trouble he took in making available many boxes of burgh court processes and other archive material. I am grateful to Dr Tristram Clarke for help in identifying the families of episcopalian ministers and Mr Stuart and Mrs Ailsa Maxwell for information on the familes of Edinburgh goldsmiths. For permission to quote from their family papers and archive and manuscript holdings I am grateful to the Earl of Leven and Melville, the owners of the Murray of Polmaise and Campbell of Barcaldine Muniments, Mr K.G. Sutherland, the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of Edinburgh, the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Quotations from the public records and private archives owned by the Scottish Record Office appear by permission of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. I am grateful to the staff of the search rooms at the Scottish Record Office for producing records over a long period. I am grateful to Mr Andrew Broom for photography and to my sister Margaret not only for compiling the Index but for her constant encouragement and support. Most of all I wish to record my thanks to Mrs Doris Williamson for the trouble she took in typing both my thesis and the text of this book. ELIZABETH C. SANDERSON Note: The emphases (italics) in the extracts in the book are the author's throughout. X

List of Abbreviations BCP Burgh Court Processes CC Commissary Court CS Court of Session E Exchequer records ECA Edinburgh City Archives GD Gifts and Deposits (i.e. private muniments in SRO) NLS National Library of Scotland RD Register of Deeds RH Register House Series (of legal and business papers in SRO) RS Register of Sasines (Land Register) SC Sheriff Court Sp. Spouse SRO Scottish Record Office SRS Scottish Record Society W. Widow xi

N o r t h L o c h CENTRAL EDINBURGH SHOWING MAIN LOCATIONS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT.----, Episcopal (\hapel l continuous ~ LAWNMARKET I i n e 0 t G H well closes I o s e s o s e Royal Bank a: CD... :I: ::;) 0 rn 1 A map of central Edinburgh showing the main locations mentioned in the text (based on information from early maps of Edinburgh). ~ :