Carter, John (1815–1850), silk weaver and draughtsman, was born in Coggeshall, Essex, on 31 July 1815, the son of a labourer. After attending the local school he went to a charity school for two years, from 1828. Although he showed signs of artistic talent, his social circumstances prevented him from developing his gifts. He was subsequently apprenticed to ...
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Cutler, Ann (1759–1794), hand-loom weaver and Methodist evangelist, was born in Thornley, near Longridge, in the parish of Chipping, Lancashire; nothing is known of her parents. After living a strict, moral life she was converted in 1785 by the revivalist Wesleyan William Bramwell...
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Devine [née Blackley], Rachel (1875–1960), weaver and trade unionist, was born on 13 February 1875 at Dudhope Crescent, Dundee, the daughter of John Blackley, yarn dresser, and his wife, Rachel McClellan. She became a weaver, and married John Devine, a cabinet-maker.
Active as a trade unionist, ...
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John Duncan (1794–1881) by unknown engraver, c. 1865–6 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Duncan, John (1794–1881), hand-loom weaver and botanist, was born on 19 December 1794 at Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, the illegitimate son of John Duncan, weaver and soldier, from Drumlithie, and Ann Caird (c.1773–c.1830), also of Drumlithie, who decided to support herself and her child by weaving stockings and harvesting at nearby ...
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Edwin Cannan
revised by Anita McConnell
Flakefield, William (fl. c. 1670–1700), soldier and linen weaver, was, according to Ure, son of one Wilson of Flakefield, in the parish of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, who became a merchant in Glasgow about 1650, and was called Flakefield in order to distinguish him from another merchant named ...
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Grimshaw, Mortimer (bap. 1826, d. 1869), cotton weaver and labour leader, was born into a working-class family in or near Great Harwood in north-east Lancashire, and was baptized at Church Kirk, Lancashire, on 21 May 1826, the son of Thomas Grimshaw of Rishton, Lancashire...
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V. E. Chancellor
Gutteridge, Joseph (1816–1899), silk weaver and naturalist, was born on 23 March 1816 in Coventry, the eldest of the three sons of Joseph Gutteridge, a recruiting sergeant, and his first wife, Sarah Shaw. Educated from 1821 in two schools, run by a Quaker woman and Wesleyan preacher respectively, he then went to ...
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Anne Secord
Hobson, Edward (1782–1830), botanist and weaver, was born on 23 May 1782 in Ancoats Lane, Manchester. When he was three he was taken in by an uncle in Ashton under Lyne following his father's death and the subsequent alcoholism of his mother, while a younger brother remained in ...
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Horsefield, John (1792–1854), botanist and weaver, was born on 18 July 1792, probably at Besses o' th' Barn, near Prestwich, Lancashire, the eldest son of Charles Horsefield (b. 1764). Born 'dead', according to his mother, he was restored to life by a medical attendant but remained a sickly child unable to tolerate the staple ...
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Christopher A. Whatley
Johnston, Ellen (c. 1835–1874
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Kendon, Margery Maud Gildersleeve [other name Marjorie Kendon] (1902–1985), weaver, was born at 94 Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 26 July 1902, the daughter of William Charles Kendon (1873–1949), dairyman, and his wife, Blanche, née Wear (1875–1935...
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Bridget Keegan
Law, Samuel (fl. 1772–1783), poet and weaver, is of unknown origins. The title-page to his single publication, A domestic winter-piece: a poem, exhibiting a full view of the author's dwelling place in the winter-season. In two parts. Interspersed with a great variety of entertaining reflections...
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Clare Browne
Lekeux, Peter (1648–1723), master weaver, was born in Canterbury, Kent, the third son of John Lekeux, weaver, and Antoine Le Quien. The Lekeux were a well-established family of weavers, who had first gone to Canterbury as Huguenot refugees in the late sixteenth century. ...
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Marsden, Richard (1802/3–1858), weaver and Chartist, was born in humble circumstances in or near Manchester in 1802 or 1803. Nothing is known about his early life, but he was a hand-loom weaver by trade. He left Manchester in search of work during the slump of 1829 and settled with his family in the weaving township of ...
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Martin, John (1783–1855), botanist and hand-loom weaver, was born on 17 November 1783 in Tyldesley, Lancashire, the son of a poor shopkeeper and farmer. He lived with his parents, of whom little is known, until about 1802, during which time he received some schooling and began weaving. When he was fifteen he became intensely religious, advocating voluntary poverty. None the less, when his father began losing property to creditors, ...
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Mealmaker, George (1768–1808), weaver and radical, was born on 10 February 1768, the son of John Mealmaker, weaver, of the Seagate, Dundee, and Alison Auchinleck. Of Mealmaker's early life and education there is no direct information. Similarly, it is possible only to speculate about the sources of his political radicalism. A description of him from 1793 as '...
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Millhouse, Robert (1788–1839), weaver and poet, was born on 14 (or 17) October 1788, at Nottingham, the second of ten children of John Millhouse and his wife, Ann, née Burbage. His only education was obtained at a Sunday school, and by the age of ten he worked at a stocking loom and sang in the choir of ...
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Anne Secord
Nowell, John (1802–1867), weaver and bryologist, was born at Springs, near Todmorden, Yorkshire, the illegitimate son of William Midgley, smallholder and publican at Kebcote, and Miriam Nowell (c.1781–1852). He lived with his grandparents and, other than a short attendance at Sunday school, received no education until, aged twenty, he joined a grammar class held at ...
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Dorothy Thompson
Pilling, Richard (1799–1874), hand-loom weaver and Chartist, was born on 15 December 1799 in Bolton, Lancashire, the son of a cotton weaver. He started work around ten years of age during the boom of the French wars. He was then, he claimed, able to earn ...
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