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Title: The Leatherworker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg
Being an Account of the
Nature of Leather, & of the Crafts
commonly engaged
in the Making & Using of it.
Author: Thomas K. Ford
Contributor: Harold B. Gill, Jr.
Release Date: November 17, 2018 [EBook #58293]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEATHERWORKER
Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
THE LEATHERWORKER in Eighteenth-Century WILLIAMSBURG.
Being an Account of the Nature of Leather, & of the Crafts
commonly engaged in the Making & Using of it.
Williamsburg Craft Series
WILLIAMSBURG
Published by Colonial Williamsburg
MCMLXXVIII
1
The Leatherworker
in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg
Once upon a time there lived in France a poet-bureaucrat by the name
of Charles Perrault, who wrote fairy tales. He called one of them Cendrillon
ou la Petite Pantoufle de Verre, and ever since 1697, for that was the date of
Cinderella’s appearance in modern literature, her glass slippers have been a
puzzle.
Not to children, of course. Generations of youngsters have
matter-of-factly accepted as the most natural thing in the world that magic
slippers should be of glass (verre). Their elders, however, being less
sophisticated about such things, have learnedly quibbled over whether the
slippers weren’t really supposed to be of vair, the costly white squirrel
fur once worn only by royalty.
After all, logic and reason and custom and tradition say that
footwear has been made of leather since time unknown. And who ever heard of
making shoes out of glass?
Well, who ever heard of making bottles out of leather, for that
matter? Or of fire hose made of leather? Or of leather cannons?
Yet leather has been put to these and many other uses over the
centuries of recorded history. A list of them would be almost endless, and so
would a list of the sources of leather. The following compilation, doubtless far
from complete, could have been (it was not) drawn up by an English
eighteenth-century or colonial American leatherworker:
2
SOURCES
cow
ox
calf
horse
sheep
lamb
goat
kid
pig
dog
wolf
deer
elk
antelope
moose
buffalo
bear
wildcat
rabbit
muskrat
beaver
alligator
rattlesnake
USES
Clothing
shoes, boots, moccasins, galoshes
leggings, breeches, aprons
shirts, coats, caps, hats, gloves
belts, suspenders, points and laces
fur items, fur trim
Shelter and furnishings
tents, tepees
wall hangings, door curtains
chair seats and backs, beds
upholstery, cushion covers
fur rugs, fur bedding
Transportation
saddles, bridles, harness (including that for human porters)
carriage upholstery, wagon covers
scupper leathers, antichafing binding on sailing gear
Containers, liquid
wineskins, waterbags, bottles
jugs, mugs, buckets
inkwells and inkhorns
hoses, pipes
Containers, dry
bags, purses, food pouches
trunks, boxes, caskets, coffers
snuff boxes, dice cups
Military items
shields, scabbards, sheaths
bowcases, quivers, gun buckets
helmets, cartridge boxes
powder horns and buckets
Other
bookbinding, parchment, vellum
hornbooks, bellows, hinges
pump washers, airtight floats
spinning-wheel belts
cricket balls, drumheads, banjos
surgical trusses
3
Leather differs not only according to the species of creature it
comes from but according to the age and sometimes the sex of the animal, and
also the part of the animal’s body it once covered. Its characteristics vary
depending on the type of processing it undergoes—whether by liming, tanning,
tawing (mineral tanning), or shamoying (oil tanning)—and depending on how these
processes are varied and combined.
Leather can be stiff as bone or supple as silk, nearly as waterproof
as rubber or capable of sopping up water like a sponge, tough and unyielding or
resilient and stretchy, smooth and translucent as paper, deeply grained in many
patterns, or softly napped. It may be snowwhite or range through hues of tan
and red to dark brown. It may be molded, carved, and colored in endless array.
As leatherworkers for many centuries have been fond of reminding the world,
“There’s nothing like leather.”
THERE’S NOTHING LIKE TANNING
Homer’s Iliad contains what may be the earliest surviving
literary reference to leathermaking. Describing the swaying fight for
possession of Patroclus’s corpse, the author (in Pope’s translation) wrote:
As when the slaughter’d bull’s yet reeking hide,
Strain’d with full force, and tugged from side to side
The brawny curriers stretch; and labour o’er
The extended surface, drunk with fat and gore....
The untidy process here alluded to as currying was doubtless one of
man’s first methods of making leather. It consisted of laboriously working into
a hide or skin such greasy and albuminous substances as animal fats, brains,
blood, milk, and so forth. The product, although technically not “leather,” had
many of leather’s characteristics; this is a paradox that calls for some
definitions. In the terminology of the trade:
4
Hides are the pelts of the larger animals—cattle, horses, buffalo,
elephants, and so on;
Skins come from smaller animals—calves, sheep, goats, pigs, deer,
beaver, etc.—and from birds, fish, and reptiles;
Leather is any hide or skin after it has been tanned.
As the legislature of colonial Virginia put it in 1691 (in an act
that will shortly engage our attention again):
And for the avoyding of all ambiguities and doubts, which may and doe
grow and arise upon the difinition and interpretation of this word
leather, Be it enacted and declared, that hydes and skinns of oxe, steer,
bull, cow, calfe, deer, goats and sheep being tann’d shall be, and ever hath
been reputed and taken leather.
The key word is “tanned.” Like any organic matter, skins and hides
will soon begin to decay unless they receive some kind of preservative
treatment. They may be simply scraped and sundried—or salted or smoked or
soaked in brine or in slaked lime. From some of these processes may come
extremely tough and durable products—rawhide, parchment, and vellum are
limed—but they are not leather because they have not been tanned.
TaneurThis illustration from Diderot’s great eighteenth-century
French encyclopedia shows the essential operations in a tannery: A) washing
hides in a stream; B) scraping hair or flesh from a hide on the “beam”; C)
soaking hides in a series of lime pits; D) bedding hides in a tanning vat with
a layer of shredded bark between each hide; E) stirring lighter hides in a hot
water tanning solution.
5
Tanning brings about within the fibrous structure of a pelt certain
chemical and physical rearrangements that are still imperfectly understood.
Their effect, however, is to render the pelt permanently imputrescible, pliable
when dry, and capable of sustaining repeated wetting without hurt. The agents
responsible for the transformation, known as “tannins,” are found in almost all
plants, in certain minerals, and in various readily oxidizing oils.
TANNING AND CURRYING
The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, central
Asians, and Chinese all knew tanned leather and used it. But who first
discovered how to tan it, when that happened, and where, must remain forever
unanswered, since the invention of tanning came before the invention of written
records. Primitive leatherworkers probably stumbled on different processes at
different times and places, and quite possibly a number of widely separated
workers discovered the same processes independently.
Until the invention of chrome tanning in the second half of the
nineteenth century, little change had taken place in the three basic tanning
methods for at least two thousand years. The most widely practiced method
involved the use of vegetable tannins. Occidental tanners employed oak bark,
gallnuts, and sumac leaves among their chief sources; other plants rich in
tannins are found in every continent.
Mineral tanning with alum, called “tawing,” has been in use since
earliest time in Babylonia, Egypt, and probably China. Because the leather so
made is snow white, workers in this specialty gained the name of
“whitetawyers.” Tawed leather, although soft and stretchy, is very strong;
quite appropriately, one of his eighteenth-century contemporaries described
Richard Bland, the Williamsburg lawyer and political pamphleteer, as “staunch
& tough as whitleather.”
Currying—whatever it may have meant to Homer (or to Alexander
Pope)—is not a method of preparing hides and 6skins from fresh-slaughtered
animals, but a complex of processes for treating leather already tanned. These
processes include smoothing the leather, paring it down to even thickness
overall, especially working fatty matter into it for pliancy and water
resistance, and giving it whatever surface dressing, color, and finish its
intended use calls for. Prominent among such uses in the eighteenth century
were shoe uppers, harness and saddlery, upholstery, trunkmaking, and bookbinding.
Two styles of carriage harness, one quite elaborate, the other fairly
simple; both of the “breast-collar” rather than the now more familiar
“neck-collar” type. Diderot.
7
CHIEF LEATHER CRAFTS
A list compiled in London in 1422 recorded 111 groups or guilds of
merchants and craftsmen then active in that city. Fourteen of these concerned
themselves with leather or with articles made of it in large part:
cofferers
cordwainers
curriers
girdlers
glovers
leather dyers
leathersellers
loriners (or lorimers)
malemakers
pouchmakers
saddlers
skinners
tanners
whitetawyers
Of these, only tanners, curriers, cordwainers, and saddlers showed up
prominently in colonial Virginia—although always as individual craftsmen, not
as members of an organized craft or guild.
Cordwainers—the word comes from cordovan, a kind of sumac-tanned
leather much favored in medieval England and made originally in the Spanish
city of Cordoba—were shoemakers. The craft is to be carefully distinguished
from that of cobbling, which is the mending of shoes. Although practically all
colonial Virginia shoemakers also did shoe repairing, the trade of cobbling was
looked on, especially by cordwainers, as inferior in status.
Curiously, the initial groups of colonists sent to Jamestown by the
Virginia Company lacked any leather craftsmen. Somehow the London “adventurers”
thought that the real adventurers to America could get along without tanners,
curriers, or shoemakers. Just how the colonists were expected to acquire shoes
grows even more puzzling in light of the English law that forbade exportation
of goods made of English leather.
In a few years, however, some tanners and shoemakers had been sent
over and were at work in Jamestown. But not enough of them came or else (as is
more likely) they abandoned their trades to grow tobacco. A 1625 report
declared 8that an extreme shortage of shoes and other apparel endangered
the health of the population. Soon thereafter the Virginia Assembly took the
first of many steps to promote leathermaking and other manufactures in the
colony.
Sometimes with the support of the home government, sometimes without,
the assembly passed laws in 1632, 1645, 1658, 1660, 1662, 1680, and 1682
forbidding the export from Virginia of hides, skins, and certain other
commodities. They hoped in this way to assure ample supplies of the raw
materials and thus encourage colonial craftsmen to make more of the needed
products.
The legislation, in actuality, had less effect in Virginia than in
England. Colonial craftsmen continued to prefer leathers imported from England,
reputed to be the best of their kinds, for quality work—and to prefer tobacco
growing to leatherworking anyway. But English merchants and craftsmen
repeatedly protested the threat of competition in a market they felt belonged
solely to them, so each colonial law in turn was either repealed on orders from
London or simply allowed to lapse.
The 1662 effort, somewhat more elaborate than the others, had no
greater success in the end. At Jamestown the legislature that year passed three
laws intended to increase local manufactures. One barred the export of hides,
wool, and iron; another exempted from taxation any craftsman who followed his
trade and did not plant tobacco; the third required each county in the colony
of Virginia to erect “one or more tanhouses, and ... provide tanners, curryers
and shoemakers, to tanne, curry and make the hides of the country into leather
and shoes.” The manager of this trade for each county was to allow the people
two pounds of tobacco for each pound of dry hide they brought to the tannery,
and “sell them shoos at thirty pounds of tobacco [for] plaine shoos, and thirty
five pounds of tobacco for [shoes with] wooden heels and ffrench falls of the
... largest sizes, and twenty pounds of tobacco per pair for the smaller
shoos.”
9
CordonierAs the shoemaker needed an assortment of lasts on which to
make shoes of differing sizes and shapes, so the bootmaker needed “boot legs”
resembling his customers’ calves. The engraving also shows a variety of
eighteenth-century boot styles, the more formidable being heavy military boots. Diderot.
10
BEFORE FREE ENTERPRISE
The seventeenth century ended with legislation of a different tenor.
“An act declareing the dutie of Tanners, Curriers and Shoemakers,” passed in
1691, regulated working procedures and set quality standards to an extent
remarkable even at a time when detailed governmental regulation of economic
activity was normal.
Tanners, this law decreed, were not to leave hides too long in the
lime-pits, nor put them into the tan-vats until they had been thoroughly
cleansed of lime; curriers were not to work “any hyde or skin not being
thoroughly dry,” and were not to skimp on the amount or quality or freshness of
the grease they used in currying; cordwainers or shoemakers were to use only
leather that was “well and truly tann’d and curryed,” and were to make their
boots, shoes, and slippers “well and substantially sewed with good thread well
twisted and made, and sufficiently waxed with wax well rosined, and the
stitches hard drawn with handleathers.”
The law further required each county to appoint searchers to examine
all hides, skins, leather, and leather goods produced in that county. They were
to stamp their seal of approval only on items that met quality standards in the
“true intent and meaning of this act,” and to confiscate all wares that were
“insufficiently tann’d, curryed, or wrought.”
Perhaps even more interesting than these regulations are the reasons
given for enacting them: “Forasmuch as divers and sundry deceits and abuses
have been hitherto committed, and daily are committed and practiced by the
Tanners, curriers, and workers of leather in ... Virginia, to the great injury
and damage of the inhabitants ...; And forasmuch as no leather can be so well
tann’d but it may be marred and spoyled in the currying ...; and forasmuch as
leather well tann’d and curryed may by the negligence, deceit or evill
workmanship of the cordwainer or shoemaker be used deceitfully to the hurt of
the occupier or wearer thereof.”
11
These phrases (and similar phrases in other laws both colonial and
English) make evident that shoddy materials and slipshod workmanship issued
from the shop of many a craftsman of the eighteenth century. A recognition of
this will help balance the romantic tendency to see every old-time craftsman as
a humble artistic genius with impeccably high standards of workmanship.
THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING A LIVING
For all its great length and detail, the act of 1691 seems not to
have had much effect. Governor Edmund Andros in 1697 asserted, “There are no
manufactures setled in Virginia Except Inconsiderable tanning and shoemaking
(bad Leather).” And in 1705 Robert Beverley wrote of the Virginians:
They have their Cloathing of all sorts from England, as Linnen,
Woollen, Silk, Hats, and Leather.... The very Furrs that their Hats are made
of, perhaps go first from thence; and most of their Hides lie and rot, or are
made use of, only for covering dry Goods, in a leaky House. Indeed some few
Hides with much Adoe are tann’d, and made into Servents Shoes; but at so
careless a rate, that the Planters don’t care to buy them, if they can get
others, and sometimes perhaps a better manager than ordinary will vouchsafe to
make a pair of Breeches of a Deer-Skin.
Nearly a half-century later, as Williamsburg’s era of greatest
affluence began, a merchant of Louisa County, Francis Jerdone by name, lamented
that “the Virginians have most of their shoemakers in their own families, and
have no occasion for any but stuff [i.e., cloth] shoes from Britain.” He
referred to members of the well-to-do planter class, who customarily maintained
on their plantations one or more skilled workmen. Among these there was almost
sure to be included a cordwainer to make and repair the footwear of the
plantation “family,” a term that included the slaves. The shoemaker might be a
slave himself, or an indentured servant, or a journeyman receiving wages.
12
However, Francis Jerdone could just as well have been writing of
another kind of Virginia planter, the small farmer who built his own house and
barns, made his own crude furniture, coopered his own hogsheads, ground his own
corn, sheared his own sheep, and made the family’s shoes while his wife spun
and wove their clothing. These small farmers, far outnumbering the great
planters, would not have ordered cloth shoes from London, to be sure. But
neither would they have ordered very many leather ones, either from England or
from Williamsburg shoemakers.
Documentary records—fairly full in a few cases, fleeting in most—name
24 men who worked in leather in Williamsburg during the eighteenth century. The
ghostly existence of others can be discerned in references to unnamed
indentured servants, journeymen, slaves, and a few apprentices who were
leatherworkers. Among Williamsburg slaves having some craft skills, the second
greatest number were shoemakers, the greatest number being carpenters.
A few of these Williamsburg leatherworkers seem to have done fairly
well at their trade. Most of the others probably had little success and moved
elsewhere or into farming; at any rate they left no trace of a continuing
career.
The conjectural drawing at the right shows how pieces of metal, wood,
and cloth found in 1961 at the bottom of an eighteenth-century well in Williamsburg
could have formed parts of a lady’s sidesaddle of that day. To the left,
partially completed, is such a saddle copied by today’s master saddler in
Williamsburg from surviving examples.
13
THE ROBERT GILBERT STORY
Eleven advertisements placed in Williamsburg’s weekly newspaper,
the Virginia Gazette, from 1768 to 1783, remain the sole evidence of the
business venture of Robert Gilbert, boot and shoemaker. The story they tell
reveals the hazards faced by most craftsmen in eighteenth-century Williamsburg:
debts piling up, excess stock on hand, shortage of capable and reliable help,
and a market that dried up when the capital moved to Richmond in 1780.
ROBERT GILBERT, BOOT and SHOEMAKER, &c. HEREBY acquaints the
publick that he has opened shop near the Capitol in Williamsburg, where he
intends carrying on his business in all its branches, viz. shoe or
channel, calf or buckskin boots, jockey do. and splatterdashes, mens plain,
stitched, spring, and wood-heeled, shoes and pumps, calf or dogskin; campaign,
single, double, or turned channels, slippers, blue or red turkey, cork soles,
galloches; womens leather, stuff, silk, and braided shoes and pumps, slippers,
cork soles, galloches, and clogs. As he imports the whole of his materials
from Great Britain, where punctual payments are required, he proposes
supplying Ladies and Gentlemen with any of the above articles on the most
reasonable terms, for ready money. Those who please to favour him with their
custom may depend on their work being speedily executed, in the genteelest and
newest fashions, and in such a manner as he hopes will merit a continuance of
their favours.
(Virginia Gazette, June 30, 1768)
JOURNEYMEN SHOEMAKERS, who are well acquainted with womens or mens
wood heeled work, will meet with good encouragement by applying to the
subscriber in Williamsburg.ROBERT GILBERT
⁂ He has a large
quantity of fine English CALF SKINS on hand, part of which he
would dispose of, on very reasonable terms, for ready money.
(Virginia Gazette, May 25, 1769)
WILLIAMSBURG, Dec. 6, 1770
I HAVE a parcel of CALF SKINS, and SOLE LEATHER, both back and crop,
which I will sell, for ready money, on reasonable terms.ROBERT GILBERT
(Virginia Gazette, December 13, 1770)
14
Just IMPORTED from London, and to be SOLD by the Subscriber at
his Shop in Williamsburg, cheap, for ready Money,
A VARIETY of Williamson and Son’s best SATIN SHOES and
PUMPS; white, blue, and black CALIMANCO SHOES and PUMPS; also CHILDRENS MOROCCO
and CALFSKIN SHOES and PUMPS.ROBERT GILBERT
(Virginia Gazette, May 28, 1772)
A JOURNEYMAN SHOEMAKER, who is sober, and understands making of
Boots, will meet with good Encouragement by applying to me, in Williamsburg.ROBERT
GILBERT
(Virginia Gazette, August 13, 1772)
WILLIAMSBURG, May 13, 1773
I THINK it necessary to give this publick Notice, to all Persons who
are in Arrears to me, that if they do not, without Fail, discharge their
Accounts by the July Meeting of the Merchants, they will most
assuredly be put into a Lawyer’s Hands.
N.B. In the mean While, from the many Disappointments I have met
with in collecting my Debts, I am obliged to stop Trade, till I can receive the
Money due to me to carry it on.ROBERT GILBERT
(Virginia Gazette, May 13, 1773)
ROBERT GILBERT, SHOEMAKER, Has opened Shop in the back
Street, at the Place where he formerly lived, opposite to Mr. Richard
Charlton’s, and intends carrying on his Business in all its Branches, having on
Hand a very neat Assortment of Leather proper Boots and Shoes. The many
Disapointments he formerly met with obliges him for the future to sell entirely
for Cash.—He returns his sincere Thanks to those who were his former Customers,
and shall endeavour to render Satisfaction to all those who may please to
employ him.
15
☞ Good
Encouragement will be given to a Journeyman who understands making of Boots.
(Virginia Gazette, January 7, 1775)
WILLIAMSBURG, October 10, 1776
GOOD encouragement will be given to journeymen shoemakers, especially
those who understand making of BOOTS byROBERT GILBERT.
(Virginia Gazette, October 11, 1776)
WILLIAMSBURG, January 3, 1782
Best English made SHOES, To be SOLD, by wholesale or retail, on
reasonable terms, byROBERT GILBERT.
(Virginia Gazette or Weekly Advertiser (Richmond), January 5,
1782)
ROBERT GILBERT Boot and Shoemaker, BEGS leave to inform the public,
that he has removed from Williamsburg, to this city, in order to carry on his
business as usual. Those Gentlemen who please to favour him with their custom,
may depend upon having their work executed as expeditiously and reasonable, as
the times will admit of, for cash only, as it is by that means alone which
materials are procured.
N.B. He has on hand a few boxes of English made SHOES, which he
would dispose of on very reasonable terms, for cash, tobacco, or good
merchantable flour.
Richmond, February 7, 1782 [sic]
(Virginia Gazette and Weekly Advertiser (Richmond), February 15,
1783)
WILLIAM PEARSON, TANNER AND CURRIER
Prominent in the list of known Williamsburg leatherworkers are the
names of William Pearson, tanner and currier, Alexander Craig, saddler and
harnessmaker, and George Wilson, boot and shoemaker. As usual in colonial
Virginia, each of these men—while primarily occupied in his own special phase
of the leather trade—did more or less work in other phases.
16
CorroyeurThe shop of a currier and the tools used by his workers.
Against the wall at the left a man is scraping a skin with the “moon knife”
(figs. 7 and 7 no. 2), holding the skin taut by means of pincers and a thong
(fig. 6) around his seat. In the background workers are treading, slicking, and
graining skins. In the foreground one man uses the “head knife” to work over
the skin on the beam, while another softens a skin with the currier’s mace. Diderot.
17
William Pearson first appears in surviving records as the godfather
of Alexander Craig’s daughter Lucretia. At about the same time he was Craig’s
tenant in a house adjoining the latter’s tanyard, and shortly thereafter he
purchased from Craig the land occupied by the tanyard. The two men seem to have
been in partnership for a while, but Pearson—under circumstances now
unknown—eventually became full owner of the tanyard.
This establishment lay just to the east of the town, its location
recalled to this day in the name of Tanyard Street. It had been founded in the early
1750s by Craig in partnership with Christopher Ford, carpenter, and Nicholas
Sim, tanner. Craig bought out his partners in 1758, and two years later Pearson
came on the scene. At that time the tannery consisted of “Tan Vatts ... New and
Old Bark Houses, Mill House and Fleshing House ... and all other Houses and
Buildings ... used in the Business of Tanning and making Leather.”
When Pearson died in 1777, his estate included “four Negro men
Tanners and Curriers, two shoemakers” and three other slaves, indicating that
the late master tanner operated a considerable business. The tanyard continued
in the possession of Pearson’s widow and descendants for nearly sixty years,
being operated at least part of the time by William Plume, tanner and currier
from Norfolk.
It is hardly a secret that the processes of tanning and currying
infuse the surrounding air with a symphony of odors—a circumstance that helps
to explain why a tannery was generally located on the far edge of a town, and
usually on the downwind side. As if hides and skins were themselves not
fragrant enough, eighteenth-century tanners, curriers, and leather dressers
made use at various stages or for special purposes of such delectable
commodities as fish oil, sour beer, urine, barley mash, and the fermented dung
of chickens, pigeons, and dogs.
Sketchily described, the procedures employed by the tanner and
currier (separate crafts in England but often combined under one roof or in the
same man in colonial America) were as follows:
18
1) Preparing the pelt included the removal of accumulated dirt and
stable trash, removal of the hair and epidermis from the outer or grain side
(except for furs), removal of shreds of flesh and adipose tissue from the inner
side, and plumping up of the fibers of the remaining middle layer, or corium,
to be more receptive to the tanning solution. The tanner accomplished all this
by repeated washings, followed by a sequence of soaking in solutions of lime,
and then by draining, and scraping. The scraping process, known as unhairing
and fleshing, he did laboriously with a blunted knife, the pelt being stretched
over a wooden horse or beam. He might repeat the liming, draining, and scraping
if necessary, and he followed it up with more rinsing and scraping to remove
most or all of the lime.
2) Tanning proper involved soaking the hide or skin in a series of
tanning vats, each containing a stronger solution—called “ooze”—than the one
before. Careful and complete tanning, a slow process, required from several
weeks for a light skin to eighteen months for a heavy hide. During this period
the hides or skins were many times “hauled and set,” that is, removed from the
vat and piled beside it to drain for a time. The same sort of processing took
place in tawing, except that alum rather than oak bark supplied the tanning
agent.
3) Finishing included trimming, currying, and coloring (if called
for) in whatever combination of processes was needed for the intended use of
the finished leather. Readers with uneasy stomachs should be satisfied if some
of these processes are here left undescribed, only named, to wit: trampling,
scouring, blooming, slicking, stricking, shaving, stuffing, dubbing, boarding,
graining, bruising, staking, waxing, blacking, sizing.
Altogether, William Pearson might have subjected a hide to as many as
two hundred separate steps (repetitions included in the count) in its passage
from the animal’s back until delivery as finished leather to a shoemaker,
saddler, bookbinder, or other leather using craftsman. The total time 19consumed
would have been anything from a few months for a lambskin, for example, to more
than two years for a thick ox hide.
ALEXANDER CRAIG, SADDLER AND HARNESSMAKER
A craftsman who had financial resources large enough to buy a lot in
Williamsburg and build a shop on it would seem to have been in business already
at another location. Such may have been the case when Alexander Craig, just
before midcentury, acquired a lot on the road out of Williamsburg to
Yorktown—not far from where the tanyard would soon thereafter be established.
A saddler and harnessmaker, Craig was the town’s most successful
leather craftsman, possibly its most successful craftsman in any line. He
acquired a number of properties in and near the colonial capital city over the
years from 1749 until his death in 1776. Among them were the tanyard and two
choice lots on the main street near the Capitol. One of the latter may have
become his shop location, and the other did become his residence. His eldest
daughter, Judith, married John Minson Galt, the promising young physician and
apothecary.
Two of Alexander Craig’s account books survive. They reveal that he
carried on a thriving trade, kept several indentured servants and slaves, and
employed at least three journeymen leatherworkers—although not all of these at
the same time. He bought and sold skins and hides, did tanning and currying for
himself and for others, purveyed leather to other craftsmen, made and sometimes
mended shoes, and sold shoes that had been made in his own shop, imported from
London, or possibly made in other colonial shops. A wide variety of other
leather goods issued from his shop, including cushions for couches, for chairs,
and even for billiard tables, sword belts, gun buckets, leather pipes for a
fire engine, razor cases, cartridge boxes, trusses, and once a “strong Coller
for a Bear.”
20
BourlierHarnessmaker’s shop, in which workers (left to right) are
cutting leather into straps with a round knife (fig. 6); waxing thread
(background); sewing a piece of leather held in the clamp or “clam” held
slanted between the legs; and using an awl to pierce a hole in a strap, also
held in a clam (fig. 3 and fig. 4). Diderot.
21
But the making and mending of horse furniture—saddles, bridles, and
harness—was Craig’s specialty. In a colony where everyone rode constantly,
saddlery was a vital craft. And where horses, oxen, and human beings hauled,
lifted, and carried every burden, harnessmaking was no less important.
The account books show that Alexander Craig valued his labor and sold
his products at a good price. He charged Humphrey Hill £7 for “a Harness for a
Shaft Chair” and Thomas Atkinson £5 for “a Harness for a Single Horse.” He
billed Colonel William Byrd III £25 for harness for six coach horses, and
Colonel Benjamin Harrison £16 to make harness for “four Charriot Horses.” For
making a side saddle with cover and studded trappings for Robert Hutchins, a
tailor of the town of Blandford some 40 miles away, Craig charged £6, 10
shillings.
Some idea, albeit only an approximate one, of the purchasing power of
those sums may be gained by comparing them with prices for house furnishings at
about the same time. Colonel Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, for instance, bought
eight mahogany dining chairs, upholstered and trimmed with brass nails, for £16
from Williamsburg cabinetmaker Benjamin Bucktrout. Four “Elbow Chares” bought
at the same time cost him £11. A desk and bookcase—now called a
secretary—brought £16.
THE SADDLE AND HARNESS SHOP
Elkanah Deane, carriagemaker of New York, removed his business from
that city to the little metropolis of Williamsburg shortly before the
Revolution. Both in New York and in the capital of the Virginia colony he
enjoyed the patronage of His Lordship Governor Dunmore. Deane’s house in
Williamsburg looked out upon the same green as did the Governor’s Palace, along
with the mansions of the wealthy Robert Carter and the learned George Wythe.
22
This was heady company for “an Hibernian Cottager,” as one rival
coachmaker called him, and perhaps Deane deserved the label of “Palace Street
puffer” conferred on him by the same fellow citizen. Be that as it may, the
carriagemaker advertised that he also made, repaired, and sold harness,
although the actual work was probably done by another craftsman in his shop.
Perhaps this was Edward Roberts, who gave notice in 1775 that he
“continues to carry on the business of Saddling, Cap and Harness making, at the
late Mr. Elkanah Deane’s shop.” The shop, it is to be presumed, was primarily
devoted to the varied specialties that were needed in the manufacture of
wheeled vehicles, of which blacksmithing was one of the more vital. Deane’s
forge, to the rear of his property, is a favorite attraction in restored
Williamsburg, especially for children.
Exterior view of the Deane Forge and Harnessmaking Shop in
Williamsburg today. The sign before the door is the coat of arms of the Saddler
and Coach Harnessmakers’ Company of London. Redrawn from a photograph.
23
Adjoining the forge, the saddlery and harnessmaking shop of two
hundred years ago has again resumed operation. There the visitor may see
examples of saddle and harness work done in the eighteenth-century manner with
tools and equipment resembling those shown in the great eighteenth-century
illustrated encyclopedia of Denis Diderot.
The basic operations in the making of harness were only two: cutting
the hides into appropriate strips and shapes, and stitching the pieces together
as needed. Simple as it sounds, skillful choice of the leathers, flawless
cutting, and thorough stitching made the difference between good harness and
poor. Finish and ornamentation, although not essential to the task of attaching
a draft animal securely to its load, made the product distinctive and handsome,
and no doubt gave the craftsman more pleasure in the making.
The harnessmaker’s knife had a semicircular or half-moon shape to its
blade, with the handle sometimes at right angles to the back of the blade and
sometimes with a right-angled tang that put the handle parallel to the back of
the blade. For sewing he possessed an assortment of punches and awls and a very
important holding device called a “clam.” This last was a hinged wooden clamp
with jaws somewhat resembling the shell of a clam. Holding it between his
crossed thighs, the harnessmaker used it to hold fast the straps he was sewing,
thus freeing both of his hands for the tough job of stitching through heavy
leather.
In most essentials, and indeed in most details, the harness of the
eighteenth century looked like and functioned like that of today—or of the
not-so-distant yesterday before the motorization of everything on wheels.
Saddles, at least some of them, were slightly different in shape and detail
from the present-day English riding saddle. For their making, as well as for
the making of collars, the saddler-harnessmaker needed a variety of tools to
pack and shape the stuffing of pads. By and large, however, the result would
seem to have been less comfortable to both horse and rider than the modern
saddle.
24
GEORGE WILSON, BOOT AND SHOEMAKER
George Wilson came originally from Norfolk, where his older
brother—or perhaps it was his uncle—John Wilson, did boot and shoemaking on a
large scale. In May 1771 the Virginia Gazette of Williamsburg carried
this advertisement:
I TAKE this Method to acquaint the Publick, and my Customers in
particular, that Mess. James Campbell and Company have resigned the
SHOE FACTORY in Favour of me, by which Means I carry on double the Trade I did
formerly. Gentlemen who may please to favour me with their Orders for Negro
Shoes, or others, are desired to send them soon, that I may be capable of
supplying them better than it was in my Power last Fall, on Account of the Scarcity
of Leather. Ladies and Gentlemen may depend on being supplied with as neat
Shoes, either Leather or Calimanco, as any from London; as I have on
Hand London, Philadelphia, and New York Calf Skins, red,
green, and blue Morocco Leather, Calimancoes of all Colours, and of
the best Kinds. Those who choose to favour him with their Custom shall be
served on reasonable Terms, by applying to him at the Sign of the Boot and Shoe in Norfolk.JOHN
WILSON
Just five months later, announcing his death, the Gazette described
John Wilson as a tradesman of “Credit and Reputation in Norfork, whose
Industry, Integrity, and whole Deportment, were truly exemplary.” Shortly
thereafter the same paper carried the notice that Wilson’s estate would be
auctioned and that “The Shoemaker’s Business, in all its Branches, is carried
on by George Wilson, Junior, and Company.”
The “Company” here seems to have been John’s widow, for the next
advertisement to appear in the Gazette disclosed that her partnership
with George Wilson having been dissolved, Mary Wilson “still carries on the
Shoemaking Business, in all its Branches.” She was one of innumerable colonial
widows whom fate threw into the awkward position of being master craftsmen, at
least until they found another man to take over the shop—and very often the
household, too.
25
Cordonnier et BottierA shoemaker’s shop and an assortment of his most
important tools. Note the rows of lasts on the wall and the customer whose foot
is being measured with a size stick, also shown as fig. 14. Diderot.
26
George Wilson promptly turned up in Williamsburg, announcing to the
public that he had just imported a “choice Cargo of the best sorts of English
LEATHER for all Manner of Mens Shoes and Pumps, and excellent LONDON DRAW-LEGS
for BOOTS.” Underscoring the ambitious size of the business he hoped to
establish, he again signed himself “George Wilson & Co.,” and appended a
notice that “Two or three JOURNEYMEN SHOEMAKERS, who understand making BOOTS
and Mens WOOD HEELS, will meet with good encouragement by applying immediately
to me, next Door to Mr. Greenhow’s Store in Williamsburg.”
Like other colonial shoemakers, George Wilson not only made shoes but
also repaired them. Put another way, they all did both cordwaining and cobbling.
But George Wilson seems not to have catered to the ladies; his advertisements
mention only footwear for gentlemen, and when his shop was broken into in March
1774 the thief took away nineteen or twenty pairs of men’s shoes.
Whether his earlier ad failed to bring him the desired journeymen or
whether he needed still more help cannot be said, but he advertised again that
“Two or three journeymen shoemakers will have a good set of summer work, by
applying early, at the rate of 3s. 6d. for plain shoes, 5s. for stitched work,
and 10s. for boots.” Before the end of the year George Wilson, too, had died.
LESSER LEATHER CRAFTS
Among the many crafts that produced articles partly or largely of
leather, those of glover, breechesmaker, cabinetmaker, upholsterer, coachmaker,
and bookbinder were known in eighteenth-century Williamsburg.
Two centuries ago William Keith, a Williamsburg tailor, “having
lately purchas’d an ingenious Workman in Leather 27does hereby give Notice
to all Gentlemen, and others, That they may be supplied with Buck-skin
Breeches, and Gloves, made after the neatest Fashion, and as Cheap as anywhere
else.” At about the same time the Virginia Gazette carried this
announcement of a newcomer to the colony:
EDWARD MORRIS, Breeches-Maker, and Glover, from London, IS set
up in Business, near the College in Williamsburg, where he makes and sells
the best Buck Skin Breeches, either of the common Tann’d Colour, or dy’d Black,
or of Cloth Colours, after the English Manner: Also Buck Skin Gloves,
with high Tops. He also makes and sell Bever-Skin Breeches, which are very
strong and servicable, fit for Servants or Slaves, and are very cheap. He also
dresses Leather after the Philadelphia manner, not inferior to Oil’d
Leather Dress, for Goodness and Fineness, upon the Flesh or Grain. Likewise
dresses all Sorts of Fur-Skins, for Muffs, for Gentlemen or Ladies, or for
Saddle-Housings. Also dresses Calf-Skins, Sheep-Skins, and White Leather, fit
for the use of Sadlers, Shoemakers, and Others. Any Persons that have Occasion
to make Use of him in any of the Above Particulars, may depend on kind Usage,
and at very reasonable Rates.
Inasmuch as Morris did not advertise again in the Gazette (so
far as surviving copies show) it may be presumed that so few persons found
occasion to call on him that he moved elsewhere or found some other way to make
a living. Several bookbinders lived and worked in eighteenth-century
Williamsburg; their craft is described in another pamphlet in this series and
is represented today in an operating craft shop on Duke of Gloucester Street in
the historic town.
THE SHOEMAKER’S SHOP
Visitors to restored Williamsburg can identify another operating
craft shop by the overhead sign of the “Boot & Shoemaker.” The little
building not far from the foot of Palace Green represents the shop of George
Wilson & Co. “next Door to Mr. Greenhow’s Store,” and stands on foundations
of an eighteenth-century structure. In the absence of documentary or
archaeological evidence as to the appearance of George Wilson’s shop or its
contents, the architecture and furnishings of the shop follow traditional
precedents.
28
CordonierAn illustration, again from Diderot’s encyclopedia, showing
some European styles and techniques of shoemaking. Colonial American styles and
methods were similar. Unfortunately no one on this side of the ocean wrote or
illustrated any descriptive books on the subject, so we must rely heavily on
the French source.
29
A working shop that demonstrates shoemaking and the general skills of
leatherworking, the shop’s size and contents are typical and authentic. One
sees in it numerous boots and shoes in various stages of construction, a full
set of lasts, other articles of leather, including belts, mugs, and black
jacks, and an assortment of knives, awls, and other leatherworking tools of the
eighteenth century.
In contrast to this small shop in Williamsburg, the “Shoe Factory”
operated by John Wilson, George’s predecessor in Norfolk, included these items
presumably found there by the appraisers of his estate:
|
304
|
pairs of “Negroe Shoes” valued at 5 shillings per pair
|
|
103
|
pairs of men’s shoes, some at 6/ and some at 9/ per pair
|
|
6
|
pairs of boots at 20/ per pair, and four pairs of boot legs
|
|
15
|
pairs of women’s shoes at 5/ and 6/; one of silk at 10/
|
|
79
|
pairs of children’s shoes at 3/ and 3/9
|
|
235
|
lasts; 60 or more hides and skins; 6½ dozen heels; 3 dozen blacking
balls; 17 shoemaker’s seats; “4 Gross Tax”; and “a sise stick.”
|
The “tax” in this case is easy to evade by changing it to tacks. The
“sise stick” was almost certainly the same sort of device that is used in shoe
stores today to measure the size of the customer’s foot. But what really
strikes one about this inventory is the magnitude of the operation it reveals.
With an indicated seventeen workers, it was doubtless one of the few
mass-production factories colonial Virginia could boast.
The ratio of boots to shoes for men—6 to 103 pairs—seems out of line
for Virginia where, as one observer wrote, “even the most indigent person has
his saddle-horse, which he rides to every place, and on every occasion.”
Virginians being “excessively fond of horses,” one would expect them to have
worn boots most of the time, and this expectation would seem to be corroborated
by Robert Gilbert’s repeated advertisements for the services of a journeyman
bootmaker. 30The evidence indicates that in the latter part of the century
boots appear to have sold better than shoes.
Boots (sometimes listed as “ffrench falls”) as well as shoes for men,
women, and children were imported from England—and from New England—as well as
being made in the colony. Among the London makers, Didsbury & Co. enjoyed
first preference for orders sent from Virginia and paid for with shipments of
tobacco. The wives and daughters of planters, in particular, preferred to wait
six months or a year for the arrival of fashionable shoes from London rather
than buy what the local shoemaker offered, or they sometimes patronized the milliner
for “stuff” shoes.
A good shoemaker could average two pairs of shoes, welted, turned, or
stitched in a twelve-hour working day. In any shoe the sole would be heaviest
cow or ox hide, cut from that part of the hide over the animal’s hind quarters
called the “bend.” Uppers would usually be of calfskin, sometimes of goat,
sheep, or dogskin. Women’s shoes with leather soles very often had uppers of
fabric, such as calimanco, ticking, silk, damask, satin, or poplin.
Black was the color of men’s shoes, although an occasional example
might be in color, especially the heels. For women’s leather shoes, red, white,
blue, green, or purple prevailed. Children’s footwear was made in bright colors
or black. Lacing, apparently the usual fastening method in the seventeenth
century, gradually gave way in the eighteenth to straps and buckles, the latter
tending to become larger and fancier as time passed. Buckles of brass and steel
served for everyday wear, silver and paste for dress-up occasions. The Geddy
family in Williamsburg made copper alloy buckles as good as could be had from
London, while silversmith John Coke made them in gold. Ties, however, did not
lose out completely.
Pointed toes held first place in fashion for both men’s and women’s
shoes. Again, this does not mean that round- or square-toed shoes were not
made; on the contrary, they were not uncommon on the feet of those persons who
put other considerations before style. But style was a potent 31governor
for the well-to-do among colonial Virginians, who {...}
Both men’s and women’s shoes, as well as children’s and slaves’
shoes—, were made on straight lasts. That is, shape and construction were the
same for left and right shoe, and either one of a pair could be worn on either
foot. This situation resulted not from some primitive crudeness or ineptitude
on the part of colonial cordwainers, who could and if called upon did make
paired left-and-right shoes. Rather, it embodied an aesthetic preference.
Symmetrical shoes pleased the eighteenth-century eye more in themselves and
left a more pleasing pattern of tracks than did unsymmetrical shoes.
If that seems a curious judgment, just remember that your own
preference for paired shoes would strike your style-conscious colonial
forebears as quite unthinkable.
Riding horse, fully equipped, with reins, saddle, and a “horse
pistol” in its holster just in front of the saddle. Diderot.
32
WILLIAMSBURG LEATHERWORKERS
The list below includes the known leatherworkers who engaged in
business in Williamsburg during the eighteenth century. The dates following the
men’s names indicate the years the men are known to have worked in the city.
Thomas Allen—shoemaker (1710-1716). The first record of Thomas
Allen is in 1710 when the death of his daughter was recorded in the Bruton
Parish register. In 1716 Allen purchased a lot in Williamsburg. No other
information concerning Allen has been located.
John Coulthard—saddler (1734-1756). John Coulthard’s name is
first mentioned in Williamsburg in 1734 when he did saddlery work for Thomas
Jones. In 1751 he announced in the Virginia Gazette that he had moved his shop
“from next Door to the Printing-Office to the back Street, next Door to the
house of Mr. Walter King.” Coulthard died in 1756.
Alexander Craig—saddler (1748-1776). Alexander Craig, who owned
a saddle shop and tannery, is first mentioned in Williamsburg in 1748. His
business was quite extensive. Craig made and sold shoes, saddles, harness, and
other leather goods, and he employed several journeymen leatherworkers. Craig
died in 1776 and left a large estate.
33
Robert Gilbert—shoemaker (1768-1783). Robert Gilbert announced
in 1768 that he had “opened Shop near the Capitol in Williamsburg,” where he
advertised leather and shoes for sale. Gilbert continued his business in
Williamsburg until 1783 when he moved to Richmond.
Henry Gill—tanner and shoemaker (1707-1720). Henry Gill, tanner
and shoemaker, arrived in Williamsburg from Charles City County in 1707. He
established his shop on Duke of Gloucester Street, where he soon opened an
ordinary. Gill died in 1720.
Daniel Groome—tanner and collarmaker (1713-1719). Daniel Groome
purchased a lot in Williamsburg in 1713. At that time he was described as being
from James City County. By 1719 Groome had left Williamsburg and settled in
Henrico County.
James Hern—harnessmaker (1762-1764). James Hern worked as a
journeyman harnessmaker with Alexander Craig from 1762 to about 1764.
Gabriel Maupin—saddler and harnessmaker (1752-ca1800). Gabriel
Maupin was born in Williamsburg and probably learned his trade from Alexander
Craig. He carried on the saddle and harnessmaking business, but was primarily a
tavern-keeper. He died about 1800.
Edward Morris—leather-breeches maker and glover (1739). Little
is known of Edward Morris. He announced the opening of his business “near the
College in Williamsburg” in June 1739. In his advertisement he stated that he
was from London. In addition to making breeches and gloves, he dressed leather
“after the Philadelphia manner.”
34
William Pearson—tanner (1760-1777). William Pearson appeared in
Williamsburg in 1760. He worked with Alexander Craig and may have been in
partnership with him. Pearson later became owner of Craig’s tannery in
Williamsburg, which he operated until his death in 1777.
William Plume—tanner (1777-1783). William Plume came to
Williamsburg from Norfolk in 1777 and leased Pearson’s tannery. He operated the
tanyard until 1783 when he returned to Norfolk.
William Quirk—leatherdresser (1745). William Quirk was either an
indentured servant or journeyman who worked with Robert Simpson,
leather-breeches maker of Williamsburg. In 1745 Simpson advertised that Quirk
had “absconded from his Habitation” in Williamsburg.
Edward Roberts—saddler and harnessmaker (1775-1777). Edward
Roberts evidently established his business in Williamsburg before 1775. In that
year he advertised that he “continues to carry on the business of Saddling, Cap
and Harness making, at the late Mr. Elkanah Deane’s shop.” He left Williamsburg
in 1777 to settle in Maryland.
John Rolleson—shoemaker (1750-1784). Very little is known of
John Rolleson. He is mentioned as being in Williamsburg in 1750, and he
purchased leather from Alexander Craig during the 1760s. Rolleson’s estate was
settled in York County Court in 1784.
John Sclater—shoemaker (1774). John Sclater is mentioned as
being of both Williamsburg and York County in 1774, when Matthew Evans was
apprenticed to him. Sclater offered “good Encouragement” for “a Sober
Journeyman Shoemaker who understands Mens and Womens work.”
35
John Shepherd—harnessmaker (1761-1787). John Shepherd worked as
a journeyman harnessmaker with Alexander Craig from 1761 to 1762. About 1772 he
apparently established his own business and advertised himself as “Coach,
Chaise, and Harness Maker from London.” Shepherd died in Williamsburg sometime
in 1787.
Nicholas Sim—tanner (1758). Nicholas Sim was a partner with
Alexander Craig in a tannery in Williamsburg. When Craig bought out his
partners in 1758, Sim left Williamsburg to settle in Petersburg.
Robert Simpson—leather-breeches maker (1745). Robert Simpson of
Williamsburg advertised for a runaway indentured servant or journeyman in 1745.
Thomas Skinner—shoemaker (1765-1777). Thomas Skinner came to
Williamsburg from Henrico County sometime before 1765. He engaged in the shoemaking
business until 1777 when he dropped from sight.
James Swain—leather-breeches maker (1763). Little is known of
James Swain. He is mentioned in Alexander Craig’s account book in 1763. In that
year Swain made a shot bag for Craig. He may have been the same James Swain who
is mentioned in Henrico County in 1777.
James Taylor—shoemaker (1742-1775). James Taylor is first
mentioned in 1742. He may have been in business with William Wilcox, shoemaker.
In 1751 Wilcox and Taylor advertised for two runaway indentured shoemakers.
Taylor engaged in business in Williamsburg until 1775 when he dropped from
sight.
George Wells—shoemaker (1738-1753). George Wells came to
Virginia in 1738 at the age of 21 as an indentured servant. He was engaged to
work for seven years. In 1751 36he advertised lodgings for rent in
Williamsburg, where he worked at the trade of a shoemaker. He died in 1753 and
left a fairly large estate.
William Wilcox—shoemaker (1748-1757). William Wilcox is first
mentioned in 1748. He may have been in business with James Taylor by 1751.
Wilcox died in 1757 and left a large estate.
George Wilson—shoemaker (1773-1774). George Wilson was probably
a brother of John Wilson, shoemaker of Norfolk. After John Wilson’s death in
1771, George carried on his shoemaking business in Norfolk until he moved to
Williamsburg in 1773. George Wilson operated a shoemaking business in
Williamsburg until his own death in 1774.
The Leatherworker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg was first
published in 1967 and was reprinted in 1973. Written by Thomas K. Ford, editor
of Colonial Williamsburg publications until 1976, it is based largely on
unpublished studies by Harold B. Gill, Jr., and Raymond Townsend of the
Department of Research.
Transcriber’s Notes
Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.
Silently corrected a few palpable typos.
Marked one lacuna in the printed text with an ellipsis in brackets:
{...}
In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.
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