[201]. Burton, J. R., Hist. of Kidderminster, p. 175, Borough Ordinances, 1650.
[202]. Somerset Q.S. Rec., Vol. III., pp. 268-9. 1655.
[203]. Report of the Commissioners on the condition of the Handloom Weavers, 1841. x p. 323, Mr. Chapman’s report.
“The young weaver just out of his apprenticeship is perhaps as well able to earn as he will be at any future period setting aside the domestic comforts incidental to the married state, his pecuniary condition is in the first instance improved by uniting himself with a woman capable of earning perhaps nearly as much as himself, and performing for him various offices involving an actual pecuniary saving. A married man with an income, the result of the earnings of himself and wife of 20s. will enjoy more substantial comfort in every way than he alone would enjoy with an income of 15s. a week. This alone is an inducement to early marriage. In obedience to this primary inducement the weaver almost invariably marries soon after he is out of his apprenticeship. But the improvement of comfort which marriage brings is of short duration;.... About the tenth year the labour of the eldest child becomes available.... Many men have depended on their wives & their children to support themselves by their own earnings, independent of his wages. The wives and children consequently took to the loom, or sought work in the factories; and now that there is little or no work in the district, the evil is felt, and the husband is obliged to maintain them out of his wages.”
[204]. Hist. MSS. Com. Var. Coll., Vol. I., p. 135, Wilts. Q.S. Rec., 1657.
[205]. Report of Commission of Decay of Clothing Trade, 1622, Stowe, 554, fo. 48b.
[206]. James (John) Hist. of Worsted, p. 98.
[207]. Tingye, Norwich, Vol II. xcvii, 1532.
[208]. S.P.D. lxxx., 13., Jan. 1615. General Conditions of Wool and Cloth Trade.
[209]. Remarks upon Mr. Webber’s scheme, pp. 21-2, 1741.