Calton weavers
Encyclopedia
The Calton weavers were a community of handweavers established in the community of Calton
, then in Lanarkshire
just outside Glasgow
, Scotland in the 18th century. In 1787 the weavers went on strike. Troops opened fire on the demonstrators and six weavers were killed.
In the early 19th century, many of the weavers emigrated to Canada
, settling in Carleton Place
and other communities in eastern Ontario
, where they continued their trade.
Walkinshaw was involved in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, which ruined him. Glasgow Town Council reacquired the land in 1723, naming the area Calton, a name retained when Glasgow sold Calton to the Orr Family in 1730.
The land lay on the east bank of the River Clyde
just upstream of Glasgow.
Although close to the center of modern Glasgow, Calton was an independent village, later a municipal burgh, that was not incorporated in the city of Glasgow until 1846.
The newly formed weaving settlement of Calton was beyond the reach of the Glasgow weavers guild. On 23 February 1725 an agreement was recorded between the weavers of Glasgow and the weavers of Calton and Blackfaulds to regulate and control the industry, to ensure good standards of craftmanship and to prevent destructive competition.
The agreement involved payment. As late as 1830, the weavers in Calton were paying the weavers of Glasgow five groats out of every loom, and thirty pounds Scots yearly.
The technology of weaving improved throughout eighteenth century, while remaining accessible to the master weaver working in his home. The quality of linen cloth became more uniform and productivity was higher. There was steady demand from Britain's North American and Caribbean colonists and slave plantations, protected from European competition.
At the peak of Calton's prosperity after 1780, when the fly-shuttle was introduced, wages had risen to nearly £100 a year and weavers had risen to high places in society.
The handweavers and warpers of Calton were known for their clubs or friendly societies. The Calton book club was educational in intent, reflecting the aspirations of skilled workers just above the common laborer on the social scale. Other clubs were more concerned with issues such as wages and working conditions. Their descendants were much later to evolve into trade unions.
The community appears to have been better administered than the neighboring city of Glasgow. As late as 1840 a study noted that the burgh of Calton was not exposed to the same degree of "animadversion" as Glasgow. The magistrates required that all lodging houses were licensed, and laid down sanitary regulations that were rigidly enforced. The streets were intersected with common sewers of the best description, which were kept very clean.
reduced demand for farm labour, forcing families to the cities to find work, usually in the mills. Life was hard; poverty, disease and desperation were rife. The displaced cottars had few skills other than weaving. They crowded the mills depressing wages.
The end of the Napoleonic wars
in 1815 released soldiers into the workforce, increasing the problem.
Irish immigrants also swelled the working population. By 1851, 23% of the population of Glasgow was Irish in origin. The Irish were blamed for crime and unemployment but, evidence of the time showed that, in fact, the Irish were more willing to work and less likely to seek relief than the Scots.
From the later part of the 18th century, and accelerating in the 19th century, the weaving industry became increasingly mechanized. The flying shuttle
halved the time to weave a piece, although it was not introduced to Scotland until the end of the 18th century.
Steam-powered spinning mills were built starting in 1798.
Power looms were used in Scottish linen weaving as early as 1810.
Population growth and industrial mechanization combined to cause increasing social problems.
grew bitter, with the strikers cutting the webs from the looms of weavers who continued to work at the old rate, and making bonfires in the street from the contents of warehouses. On the 3rd of September the city magistrates, with a force of officers, went to the Calton but were driven back by the mob. A detachment of the 39th Regiment marched, and a pitched battle occurred at Parkhouse, in Duke Street. The riot act was read, and a volley of musket fire killed three of the weavers and injured others. Further disturbances were quickly suppressed by the troops.
This was the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history. The Calton Weavers became Scotland's first working-class martyrs.
In October 1800 there were food riots in Calton. In 1816 a soup kitchen was established in Calton which led to a riot that again had to be put down by troops. By the 1830s the Calton handloom weavers were among the most destitute of the skilled working class. Not just men but women and children worked the looms in their struggle to survive. During the frequent depressions of that period many were forced to pawn their bedding and clothes to avoid starvation.
Powerloom factories threatened the weavers. In 1816 two thousand rioters tried to destroy such factories in Calton and stoned the workers.
An 1812 inquiry into wages was told that 1792 regulations pricing weavers' work had not been adhered to. Wages had fallen from 18 shillings for six days work to 8 shillings.
In 1834 an inquiry found that there was full employment but the large numbers meant that all were very poor. The average working day was said to be 13 hours, with 6 shillings 5 pence being earned for a six day week, from which a frame rent of 1 shilling 5 pence was deducted.
Although women had long worked as weavers, journeymen weavers regarded women as competition.
In 1810 the Calton association of weavers had moved that no new female apprentices could be taken except from the weaver's own families. In June 1833, male cotton spinners struck against female spinners at Dennistoun's mill in Calton, using violent means to drive them from the workplace.
Children were frequently employed in the mills. The proprietor of a factory in New Lanark said that when he bought the mill he found 500 children working there, mostly between the ages of five and eight, who had been taken from the poor-houses. Although the children had been well fed and clothed, their growth was stunted in many cases. Another mill owner claimed that most of the children he employed, who were under the age of ten, had very poor parents. If they were deprived of work this would cause great hardship.
A Factories Inquiry Commission of 1833 found that children working in the mills were often too tired to eat and, when woken in the morning, unable to dress themselves. Scotland was considered the worst area for child cruelty and their tiredness often caused serious accidents with the machinery.
A writer in the 1840s said that "the religious, moral and intellectual conditions of the weavers were long of a very high grade ... but as poverty prevents many of them from attending public worship, and still more from educating their children, there can be little doubt that their character is fast deteriorating, and that their children will be in a still more deplorable condition."
A report on the state of the burgh of Calton presented by a magistrate to the British Association described high levels of pilfering, including the bowl weft system generally carried on by weavers and winders. These workers embezzled cotton yarns, silks, etc. and sold them to small manufacturers to eke out their wages by an amount estimated at one penny per day for each man.
With the incorporation into Glasgow of 1846, the later history of Calton and its weavers is part of Glasgow's history. The city diversified into heavy industries like shipbuilding, locomotive construction and other heavy engineering that could thrive on nearby supplies of coal and iron ore, reaching its peak around 1900 before entering a long decline of manufacturing that has continued into modern times.
They were granted some help with their passage and free land in the Rideau Valley
, a strategically important part of Upper Canada
where the government was anxious to settle loyal Scots. Nearly three thousand people were helped to emigrate in 1820 and 1821, founding the Lanark Settlements in what is now Lanark County
to the north of Perth, Ontario
.
There are many Scottish place names such as Perth
, Glengarry
, Lanark
and Renfrew
along the Rideau
and in the small lake area north of Kingston
.
The majority of the first settlers came from the overpopulated towns and countryside of Lanarkshire and Glasgow.
Many of them found work in the newly opened woolen mills in the area.
in the People's Palace
, Glasgow, commissioned on the 200th anniversary of the event.
The song The Calton Weaver is a variant of Nancy Whiskey which first appeared in print in the early 1900s. The Scottish folksinger Nancy Whiskey
took her name from the song,
and it has been recorded by many other artists.
The song tells of a Calton weaver who spent his life savings on Whisky.
The song ends with a solemn caution:
Come all ye weavers, Calton weavers
A' ye weavers where'er ye be
Beware of whiskey, Nancy Whiskey
She'll ruin you as she ruined me.
Calton, Glasgow
Calton is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. The name Calton is derived from the Gaelic "coillduin", which means "wood on the hill". It is situated north of the River Clyde, and just to the east of the city centre...
, then in Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...
just outside Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland in the 18th century. In 1787 the weavers went on strike. Troops opened fire on the demonstrators and six weavers were killed.
In the early 19th century, many of the weavers emigrated to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, settling in Carleton Place
Carleton Place, Ontario
Carleton Place is a town in the eastern portion of Eastern Ontario, Canada, in Lanark County, about west of downtown Ottawa. It is located at the crossroads of Highway 15 and Highway 7, halfway between the towns of Perth, Almonte, Smiths Falls, and the nation's capital, Ottawa...
and other communities in eastern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, where they continued their trade.
Origins
In 1705, Walkinshaw of Barrowfield bought some pastureland from the community of Glasgow, then known by the name of Blackfauld, on which he started to establish a weaving village.Walkinshaw was involved in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, which ruined him. Glasgow Town Council reacquired the land in 1723, naming the area Calton, a name retained when Glasgow sold Calton to the Orr Family in 1730.
The land lay on the east bank of the River Clyde
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....
just upstream of Glasgow.
Although close to the center of modern Glasgow, Calton was an independent village, later a municipal burgh, that was not incorporated in the city of Glasgow until 1846.
The newly formed weaving settlement of Calton was beyond the reach of the Glasgow weavers guild. On 23 February 1725 an agreement was recorded between the weavers of Glasgow and the weavers of Calton and Blackfaulds to regulate and control the industry, to ensure good standards of craftmanship and to prevent destructive competition.
The agreement involved payment. As late as 1830, the weavers in Calton were paying the weavers of Glasgow five groats out of every loom, and thirty pounds Scots yearly.
The technology of weaving improved throughout eighteenth century, while remaining accessible to the master weaver working in his home. The quality of linen cloth became more uniform and productivity was higher. There was steady demand from Britain's North American and Caribbean colonists and slave plantations, protected from European competition.
At the peak of Calton's prosperity after 1780, when the fly-shuttle was introduced, wages had risen to nearly £100 a year and weavers had risen to high places in society.
The handweavers and warpers of Calton were known for their clubs or friendly societies. The Calton book club was educational in intent, reflecting the aspirations of skilled workers just above the common laborer on the social scale. Other clubs were more concerned with issues such as wages and working conditions. Their descendants were much later to evolve into trade unions.
The community appears to have been better administered than the neighboring city of Glasgow. As late as 1840 a study noted that the burgh of Calton was not exposed to the same degree of "animadversion" as Glasgow. The magistrates required that all lodging houses were licensed, and laid down sanitary regulations that were rigidly enforced. The streets were intersected with common sewers of the best description, which were kept very clean.
Industrial revolution
During the period between 1760 and 1830 the Lowland ClearancesLowland Clearances
The Lowland Clearances in Scotland were one of the results of the British Agricultural Revolution, which changed the traditional system of agriculture which had existed in Lowland Scotland in the seventeenth century...
reduced demand for farm labour, forcing families to the cities to find work, usually in the mills. Life was hard; poverty, disease and desperation were rife. The displaced cottars had few skills other than weaving. They crowded the mills depressing wages.
The end of the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
in 1815 released soldiers into the workforce, increasing the problem.
Irish immigrants also swelled the working population. By 1851, 23% of the population of Glasgow was Irish in origin. The Irish were blamed for crime and unemployment but, evidence of the time showed that, in fact, the Irish were more willing to work and less likely to seek relief than the Scots.
From the later part of the 18th century, and accelerating in the 19th century, the weaving industry became increasingly mechanized. The flying shuttle
Flying shuttle
The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. It was patented by John Kay in 1733. Only one weaver was needed to control its lever-driven motion. Before the shuttle, a single weaver could not weave a fabric wider than arms length. Beyond...
halved the time to weave a piece, although it was not introduced to Scotland until the end of the 18th century.
Steam-powered spinning mills were built starting in 1798.
Power looms were used in Scottish linen weaving as early as 1810.
Population growth and industrial mechanization combined to cause increasing social problems.
Social problems
In the summer of 1787, the journeymen weavers of the Calton started to agitate for a wage increase. The disputeCalton Weavers Strike
The Calton Weavers Strike of 1787 was the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history, when troops fired on demonstrators, killing six...
grew bitter, with the strikers cutting the webs from the looms of weavers who continued to work at the old rate, and making bonfires in the street from the contents of warehouses. On the 3rd of September the city magistrates, with a force of officers, went to the Calton but were driven back by the mob. A detachment of the 39th Regiment marched, and a pitched battle occurred at Parkhouse, in Duke Street. The riot act was read, and a volley of musket fire killed three of the weavers and injured others. Further disturbances were quickly suppressed by the troops.
This was the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history. The Calton Weavers became Scotland's first working-class martyrs.
In October 1800 there were food riots in Calton. In 1816 a soup kitchen was established in Calton which led to a riot that again had to be put down by troops. By the 1830s the Calton handloom weavers were among the most destitute of the skilled working class. Not just men but women and children worked the looms in their struggle to survive. During the frequent depressions of that period many were forced to pawn their bedding and clothes to avoid starvation.
Powerloom factories threatened the weavers. In 1816 two thousand rioters tried to destroy such factories in Calton and stoned the workers.
An 1812 inquiry into wages was told that 1792 regulations pricing weavers' work had not been adhered to. Wages had fallen from 18 shillings for six days work to 8 shillings.
In 1834 an inquiry found that there was full employment but the large numbers meant that all were very poor. The average working day was said to be 13 hours, with 6 shillings 5 pence being earned for a six day week, from which a frame rent of 1 shilling 5 pence was deducted.
Although women had long worked as weavers, journeymen weavers regarded women as competition.
In 1810 the Calton association of weavers had moved that no new female apprentices could be taken except from the weaver's own families. In June 1833, male cotton spinners struck against female spinners at Dennistoun's mill in Calton, using violent means to drive them from the workplace.
Children were frequently employed in the mills. The proprietor of a factory in New Lanark said that when he bought the mill he found 500 children working there, mostly between the ages of five and eight, who had been taken from the poor-houses. Although the children had been well fed and clothed, their growth was stunted in many cases. Another mill owner claimed that most of the children he employed, who were under the age of ten, had very poor parents. If they were deprived of work this would cause great hardship.
A Factories Inquiry Commission of 1833 found that children working in the mills were often too tired to eat and, when woken in the morning, unable to dress themselves. Scotland was considered the worst area for child cruelty and their tiredness often caused serious accidents with the machinery.
A writer in the 1840s said that "the religious, moral and intellectual conditions of the weavers were long of a very high grade ... but as poverty prevents many of them from attending public worship, and still more from educating their children, there can be little doubt that their character is fast deteriorating, and that their children will be in a still more deplorable condition."
A report on the state of the burgh of Calton presented by a magistrate to the British Association described high levels of pilfering, including the bowl weft system generally carried on by weavers and winders. These workers embezzled cotton yarns, silks, etc. and sold them to small manufacturers to eke out their wages by an amount estimated at one penny per day for each man.
With the incorporation into Glasgow of 1846, the later history of Calton and its weavers is part of Glasgow's history. The city diversified into heavy industries like shipbuilding, locomotive construction and other heavy engineering that could thrive on nearby supplies of coal and iron ore, reaching its peak around 1900 before entering a long decline of manufacturing that has continued into modern times.
Migration
The Scottish weaver communities formed many emigration societies, seeking for government assistance.They were granted some help with their passage and free land in the Rideau Valley
Rideau Valley
The Rideau Valley is a watershed in Eastern Ontario, Canada, which is drained by the Rideau River. The valley includes towns such as Kemptville, Portland, Perth, Smiths Falls, Merrickville and Manotick....
, a strategically important part of Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
where the government was anxious to settle loyal Scots. Nearly three thousand people were helped to emigrate in 1820 and 1821, founding the Lanark Settlements in what is now Lanark County
Lanark County, Ontario
Lanark County is a county located in the Canadian province of Ontario. As of 2006, the population is 63,785. Its county seat is Perth.The county took its name from the town of Lanark in Scotland.-Geography:...
to the north of Perth, Ontario
Perth, Ontario
Perth is a town in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, Canada . It is located on the Tay River, 83 km southwest of Ottawa, and is the seat of Lanark County.-History:...
.
There are many Scottish place names such as Perth
Perth, Ontario
Perth is a town in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, Canada . It is located on the Tay River, 83 km southwest of Ottawa, and is the seat of Lanark County.-History:...
, Glengarry
Glengarry County, Ontario
thumb|right|Glengarry located within OntarioGlengarry County , an area covering , is a county in the Canadian province of Ontario, and is historically known for its settlement of Scottish Highlanders due to the Highland Clearances.Glengarry was founded in 1792 by Scottish loyalists, mainly from...
, Lanark
Lanark, Ontario
The village of Lanark is located in the township of Lanark Highlands in eastern Ontario, Canada.-History:The village was first settled in 1820 by Scottish immigrants who named it after the town of Lanark in Scotland...
and Renfrew
Renfrew, Ontario
Renfrew, Ontario, Canada, is a town on the Bonnechere River in Renfrew County. Located one hour west of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario, Renfrew is the third largest town in the county after Petawawa and Pembroke. The town is a small transportation hub connecting Ontario Highway 60 and Highway 132 with...
along the Rideau
Rideau Canal
The Rideau Canal , also known as the Rideau Waterway, connects the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on the Ottawa River to the city of Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States and is still in use today, with most of its...
and in the small lake area north of Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
.
The majority of the first settlers came from the overpopulated towns and countryside of Lanarkshire and Glasgow.
Many of them found work in the newly opened woolen mills in the area.
In popular culture
The Calton Weavers massacre of 1787 is commemorated in a panel by Scottish artist Ken CurrieKen Currie
Ken Currie is a Scottish painter, one of the most influential living artists in Scotland. His paintings are displayed in public and museum collections worldwide....
in the People's Palace
People's Palace
The People's Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow, Scotland is a museum and glasshouse situated in Glasgow Green, and was opened on 22 January, 1898 by the Earl of Rosebery....
, Glasgow, commissioned on the 200th anniversary of the event.
The song The Calton Weaver is a variant of Nancy Whiskey which first appeared in print in the early 1900s. The Scottish folksinger Nancy Whiskey
Nancy Whiskey
Nancy Whiskey was a Scottish folk singer, best known for the 1957 hit song, "Freight Train".She was born Anne Alexandra Young Wilson, at Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland...
took her name from the song,
and it has been recorded by many other artists.
The song tells of a Calton weaver who spent his life savings on Whisky.
The song ends with a solemn caution:
A' ye weavers where'er ye be
Beware of whiskey, Nancy Whiskey
She'll ruin you as she ruined me.