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Birth certificate of Elias Woodhouse born 1842
No: | Where and when born | Name | Sex | Name of father | Name of mother | Occupation of father | Signature description and residence of informant | When registered | Signature of registrar |
490 | Twenty Eighth of January 1842 at Matlock |
Elias | Boy | Charles Woodhouse | Elizabeth Woodhouse formerly Barker |
Framework Knitter | The X mark of Charles Woodhouse Father Matlock |
Twenty Eighth of January 1842 |
Joseph Hallows Registrar |
Framework Knitting: An occupation almost unique to the counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. The first knitting frame was invented by Rev. William Lee of Calverton Notts., but the court at the time was worried that hand knitters would be put out of work and refused to grant a Royal Patent. So William and his brother developed the knitting frame in France. By 1663 the industry had spread to London, but London knitters were unhappy with controls being imposed on them and moved to the East Midlands, a major wool producing and hand knitting area. The making of long hose suited a family unit, the man did the the knitting, the woman did the sewing up and the children wound the hanks of wool onto cones. Coinciding with the enclosure of farmland and people leaving agriculture, by the end of the 1800s, 90% of the 45,000 knitting frames were in the East Midlands. As the 19th Century progressed, the fashions changed - long hose was no longer needed and gentlmen went into trousers - and factories began to replace cottage industries and machines were developed to use steam and electricity, although the industry did survive until the Second World War. Note that the registrar's name is the same as on the birth certificate for Elias Woodhouse in 1867. They may be the same person, or perhaps father and son. |