Silk and the Bays

Weaving was very time-consuming and many people with different skills were involved in making a bolt of cloth into a dress, waistcoat or jacket. The following are some of the different jobs within the weaving trade:

• Throwsters: twist silks into a thread or yarn. One of the most successful throwsters was the Courtauld family.  My Dad worked for Courtaulds in the Twentieth Century but as an accountant!

• Dyers: One of the most successful dyers was Edward Peck who lived in Spitalfields and when he died in 1736, he left a huge sum of £40,000. Why was he so rich? He knew the secret of the crimson dye used for royalty and aristocracy.

• Pattern designers: designs, patterned or flowered, were designed especially for clients. Designers painted their designs on squared paper for the Huguenot weavers to weave. Some were simple and others, hugely complex, taking 4 months to weave one dress. One famous designer was James Leman of Leman Street in Spitalfields, many of whose designs are in the V&A collection.

• Journeyman weavers: 'Journeyman' derives from the French method of payment by the day or ‘journee’ in French. These were the unsung heroes. They toiled at the loom 6 days-a-week and often for 12 hours-a-day and earned a paltry sum. When there was no work, there was no money and at times the poverty of the journeyman weaver was heart-breaking.

• Master weavers: they were wealthy, talented businessmen who attracted clients, employed the pattern designers and journeyman weavers to produce the garment required. They lived in fine houses and grew exceedingly wealthy.

Houses in Bethnal Green and Spitalfields had attics with large windows to let in light for the weavers. I visited the area in 2019 and went on a walking tour led by the ‘Huguenots of Spitalfields’. The area still retains many Huguenot buildings, some now finding a new lease of life as community buildings serving newer immigrant communities.  

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However, there were periodic crises in the silk industry, brought on by imports of French silk and printed calicos. The depression in the trade and the low prices paid to weavers led to protests. In 1769, the Spitalfields riots occurred when attempts were made to disburse protest meetings by weavers during the downturn in the market for silk. The riots ended with an Irish and a Huguenot weaver being hanged in front of the Salmon and Ball public house at Bethnal Green.  

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As a consequence of the protests through the 1760s, the Spitalfields Weavers’ Act was passed in 1773 which guaranteed wages for weavers and restricted the number of workers who could enter the industry. However, the industry continued to decline, due to the imposition of restrictive practices and foreign imports; journeymen weavers endured much worklessness and poverty.  

Silk merchants sought lower prices in provincial centres like Macclesfield, where hand-loom weaving in ‘garret houses’ was gradually replaced by large silk mills. Macclesfield became the biggest producer of finished silk in the world.   

The De Bays

My De Bay ancestors worked in the textiles industry for at least 200 years, mostly in the silk industry. The earliest record I have is from 1671, stating that Isaac de Baye was a 'mulquinier' and lived in the area around Saint Quentin, Picardy. A mulquinier was an artisan textile designer and weaver who wove and traded fine fabrics composed exclusively of linen: whether plain flax cloth, 'linen' or batiste.  

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When the De Bays fled to England in the 1700s, they settled in the East End of London. They lived and worked in what became a community of silk weavers around Bethnal Green and Spitalfields in London. The wealthier silk weavers lived in fine Georgian houses in Spitalfields; I think that my ancestors were probably 'journeymen weavers' as they lived in the less affluent area of Bethnal Green. I have found records of three generations of silk weavers living and working in Bethnal Green and Spitalfields between 1721 and 1785: Louis, John and John. I also found records from 1778 of two boys who were apprenticed to John Bay. 

Around 1808 Abraham Bay moved from London to Macclesfield. The silk industry in Spitalfields was declining and there was much poverty amongst the weavers. Subsequently, three generations of Bays lived at Langley, near Macclesfield. Langley became home to one of the largest silk works in the world. The family lived at various addresses at Langley Hall or Langley Hall Yards.  I am not sure what jobs my ancestors did. William was listed as a ‘silk man’ in 1841 and in 1851 as a warehouseman at a silk print works. Children in the family, as young as 11, also worked at the silk works.  

I visited Langley in 2019. The Hall is still there, as are cottages in Langley Hall Yards. There are still silk works at the rear of the hall and various other industrial buildings have been re-developed as housing. I also visited the Silk Museum in Macclesfield. 

In 1880, the thread with textiles was broken when my 2nd Great Grandfather, James, left Langley to live and work Salford.