Using the context of the eighteenth-century burgh of Edinburgh the present study has focused on women's employment, showing how women were able to operate even within restricted areas, and how the <i>experience</i> of work affected their lives. Two important areas of employment, domestic service and ale-selling, are not included as the scale and nature of these occupations demands separate investigation. Servants in the context of this thesis are those who had some specialist skill or training, such as servants to shopkeepers. In the course of investigating employment in the textile trades, for example shopkeepers, milliners and mantuamakers a very large proportion of women's activities in Edinburgh, important in formation came to light on other major occupants, such as graveclothes-making and rouping which had not been previously studied. It is hoped that this study of women and work in eighteenth century Edinburgh may lead to similar studies for other Scottish towns in the period before 1800. There are no records of women equivalent to those for men as found in the male apprenticeship and burgess registers, nor by comparison are there many women's testaments. The Burgess Register, however, was invaluable for the identification of many women whose husbands became burgesses by right of their wives. The Register not only gave information on the wives but also on the identities of their fathers and the occupation of the latter. Marriage registers are an obvious source of information for women. Since many women repeatedly turned up in the main record sources used, some reconstruction of their lives was made possible. These sources consisted of the records of the Edinburgh Commissary Court, Edinburgh Burgh Court and other burgh records, the Minutes of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh, those of certain craft incorporations, such as the Goldsmiths and Surgeons, and private archives, in particular household accounts and correspondence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:661564 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Sanderson, Elizabeth C. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/20167 |
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