by Liz Trenow
In an unsteady voice, Henri began, ‘Sir, I have come to ask—’
‘Don’t stand on ceremony, boy,’ Theodore said, clapping him on the shoulder. ‘Anna has already told me the reason for your visit. Of course you have my consent. Knowing how she feels about you, I could not be more delighted.’
At that point, Sarah emerged from the salon door with Lizzie behind her. ‘Whatever is going on out here?’ she snapped.
‘Sister dear, meet my future son-in-law, Henri,’ Theodore announced. ‘Henri, this is my sister Mrs Sarah Sadler and my niece, Elizabeth.’ Henri offered his hand, but it was ignored. Aunt Sarah’s mouth gaped, her jowls flapping loosely, as though she had seen an apparition.
Lizzie had a fit of the giggles, and was burbling congratulations when her mother seemed to gather her senses. ‘Have you lost your mind, Theodore?’ she gasped, before turning to Anna. ‘Have I not warned you about the unsuitability of this sort of friendship?’
Anna stood firm, holding tightly on to Henri’s hand in case he felt minded to bolt. ‘Come into the drawing room,’ she said, pulling him past Sarah and Lizzie through the doorway.
‘Sir, I must ask you to leave while we discuss the matter,’ Sarah said. Anna could hear her uncle’s footsteps coming up the stairs.
‘Hello, hello. Do we have company?’ he bellowed. At the sight of Henri, he stopped in his tracks. ‘And who is this, may I be so bold?’
‘My fiancé, Uncle,’ Anna said. ‘Please let me introduce you to Monsieur Henri Vendôme.’
Henri held out the parcel that he’d tucked under his arm. ‘I am pleased to meet you, sir. I have brought the silk as discussed, for consideration for the royal wedding.’
‘Then why did you not call at the tradesmen’s entrance, boy?’
‘He is my fiancé, Uncle, as I said. He has gained permission from Father for my hand. Isn’t it wonderful? And he has kindly brought the fabric he has woven from my design that William told you about at breakfast, remember?’ Anna took the parcel from Henri and ran to the window, ripping open the string and paper, and allowed the silk to unfold, glittering and gleaming in the light just as it had done at Wood Street the previous day.
‘Good God,’ Joseph said, coming to the window to see for himself. ‘That is a very fine piece of silk, young man, and a most striking design.’
He pulled his magnifying glass from his waistcoat pocket and lifted the fabric close to his face.
‘Did you weave this yourself?’
‘I did, sir. It is my master piece.’
Joseph put his eye to the glass once more. ‘Excellent work. I very much admire your use of points rentrées; seems to have gone out of fashion of late, but this makes for very fine definition of your curves. Tricky stuff. Remind me again, who is your designer?’
‘For goodness sake, Uncle,’ Anna burst out. ‘Were you not listening when I told you at breakfast? It is my design.’
He frowned at her. ‘But how . . . ?’
‘I will explain later, but for now, will you all please welcome into your house Henri Vendôme, the young man I intend to marry?’
The old grandfather clock strikes ten o’clock, interrupting her reverie. The fire has burned low, and she considers putting on another log. But tomorrow will be another full day, and they both need their rest, now that they are old.
She puts down her tapestry and steps over to the sleeping man, gently takes the newspaper from his hands and kisses him on the forehead.
‘Come, husband,’ she whispers. ‘It’s time for bed.’
A note on the history that inspired The Silk Weaver
When I was researching the history of my family’s silk business, which started in Spitalfields, East London, in the early 1700s (and is still weaving today in Sudbury, Suffolk), the first recorded address that I could discover was in Wilkes Street, then called Wood Street. Wonderfully, the house is still there.
Just a few yards away, on the corner of Wilkes Street and Princelet Street, then Princes Street, is the house where the eminent silk designer, Anna Maria Garthwaite, lived from 1728 until her death in 1763. It was here, at the very heart of the silk industry, that she produced over a thousand patterns for damasks and brocades, many of which are today in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was thrilled to realise that my ancestors would have known, and possibly worked with, the most celebrated textile designer of the eighteenth century, whose silks were sought after by the nobility in Britain and America.
She was noted for her naturalistic, botanically accurate designs and credited in the Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce of 1751 as one who ‘introduced the Principles of Painting into the loom’. She lived in the Age of Enlightenment, when scientists and artists were obsessed with exploring and recording the natural world, and when botanical illustrators such as Georg Ehret became minor celebrities.
In an unpublished manuscript in the National Art Library, unfinished at her death, the late Natalie Rothstein, formerly curator of textiles at the V&A, hints at a tantalising connection between the artist William Hogarth and the weavers of Spitalfields: his famous series of prints, Industry and Idleness, published in 1747, shows weavers at their looms. Six years later he published An Analysis of Beauty, in which he proposed that the serpentine curve – as seen in nature and the human form – was the essence of visual perfection. It is quite possible, Rothstein suggests, that he had been inspired by Anna Maria’s designs.
Yet no one, not even Natalie Rothstein, has been able conclusively to discover how Anna Maria, who showed a youthful artistic talent, learned the highly technical and complex skills of designing for silk. Or how a single woman by then in her middle years managed to develop and conduct such a successful business on her own account in what was a largely male-dominated industry. It is this mystery that sparked the idea for the novel.
It is said that at that time, a quarter of all those living in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green spoke only French – they had their own institutions, including a French church, which has since been a synagogue and is now a mosque. Although, as Protestants, the Huguenots were officially welcomed in England, there is much evidence that these refugees were subject to racism and mistrust, much as refugees fleeing persecution in their own lands are today.
But now, a word of warning: although inspired by real-life events and people, this novel is pure fiction and I have taken enormous liberties with history, in particular the timing of events. Anna Maria hailed from Leicestershire, not Suffolk, and did not come to London until she was forty. Her fame was at its height in the 1730s and 40s and she died in 1763 at the good old age of seventy-five.
Although there were always rumblings of discontent among weavers, the ‘cutters riots’, and most notably the trial and hanging of D’Oyle and Valline, did not take place until the 1760s, around the time of Anna Maria’s death. It is in this period of extreme industrial unrest that I have chosen to set the novel, even though Anna Maria probably witnessed little of it.
So if you are an expert in the history of that time, or the life of Anna Maria, I beg your forgiveness. Novelists do not write history, but merely take inspiration from its characters and events. But for the curious, and just to prove that I do know the difference between fact and fiction, here is a timeline of the events that inspired me, and some of the books and websites that have helped me build a picture of life in Spitalfields at that time:
1681
First major wave of Huguenot persecution in France, when ‘Dragonnades’ were first used – and consequent migration.
1680s
French church L’Eglise de l’Hôpital first established in Spitalfields. It was rebuilt in 1742 and since then has been a synagogue and a mosque.
1685
Revocation of Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, which meant that Protestant worship was no longer tolerated in France. By 1690 more than 200,000 Huguenots had emigrated.
1688
Anna Maria Garthwaite born at Harston, near Grantham in Leicestershire, on 1
4 March.
1712
Huguenots admitted to Weavers’ Company as ‘foreign’ masters.
1719
Riots in Spitalfields, Colchester and Norwich over imports of calico.
1722
First Walters silk weavers, Benjamin and Thomas, recorded as working and living in Spitalfields.
1726
Anna Maria left Grantham to live in York with her twice-widowed sister Mary.
1728
Anna Maria and Mary moved to Princes Street, Spitalfields, in London.
1737
German botanist and botanical artist Georg Ehret settled in London.
1746
Joseph Walters, silk weaver, married at Christ Church.
1755
An Easy Introduction to Dancing published.
1759
Thomas Gainsborough and his family moved from Suffolk to Bath.
1760
King George II died on 25th October, succeeded by his grandson George III aged 22.
1761
On 8 September George III married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day. The coronation followed a fortnight later.
1762
In May, 8,000 weavers paraded to St James Palace. Next day 50,000 weavers assembled and marched to Westminster. In August, journeymen weavers organised the Book of Prices.
1763
Anna Maria Garthwaite died in Spitalfields.
1763
Thousands of weavers took part in wage riots, breaking into the house of a notorious master, destroying his looms and cutting his silk, and later staging a hanging of his effigy. Soldiers were sent to occupy parts of Spitalfields.
1764
Huguenots led campaign against the import of French silks.
1765
Siege of Bedford House: weavers marched with black flags in protest at the Duke of Bedford’s opposition of a bill that would have prohibited the import of French silks. A new act was passed making it a crime punishable by death (a felony) to break into any house or shop with the intent to maliciously damage silk.
1768
The Royal Academy founded – and accepted women artists. Thomas Gainsborough was a founding member.
1769
A group of journeymen formed the Bold Defiance, which met at The Dolphin Tavern in Cock Lane (modern Boundary Street, in Bethnal Green), to protest against masters who ignored the Book of Prices. In September, Bow Street Runners and troops raided The Dolphin and made four arrests.
1769
In December, John D’Oyle and John Valline found guilty of attacking the looms of Thomas Poor, a weaver working for the notorious master Chauvet. They were hanged at Bethnal Green. Rioters tore down the gallows and rebuilt them in front of Chauvet’s house, smashed his windows and burned his furniture. Two weeks later more alleged ‘cutters’ were hanged.
1771
Further silk weavers’ riots in Spitalfields.
1772
First recorded address of Walters silk business (Joseph I and his son Joseph II) in Wilkes Street, Spitalfields.
1773
First of three Spitalfields Acts passed, regulating weavers’ wages.
1774
Thomas Gainsborough and his family moved to London.
Here are just some of the books, exhibitions, libraries and websites that helped my research:
Robin D. Gwynn, The Huguenots of London (Alpha Press, 1998)
Douglas Hay and Nicholas Rogers, Eighteenth-Century English Society (OUP, 1997)
Alfred Plummer, The London Weavers’ Company 1600–1970 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972)
Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (Penguin, 1991)
Natalie Rothstein, Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century (Bullfinch Press, Little Brown, 1990).
Natalie Rothstein, The English Silk Industry 1700–1825, unpublished mss in The National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum
Amanda Vickery, Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England (Yale University Press, 2009)
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England (Yale University Press, 2003)
Sir Frank Warner, The Silk Industry of the United Kingdom (Drane’s, 1921)
Cecil Willett Cunnington, Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century (Faber, 1964)
The National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Denis Severs’ House at 18 Folgate Street, Spitalfields www.dennissevershouse.co.uk
Georgians Revealed exhibition at the British Library (London, 2013) and the accompanying book of the same name
John Roque’s Map of London, 1746 www.locatinglondon.org
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913 www.oldbaileyonline.org
Spitalfields Life daily blogs by ‘The Gentle Author’ www.spitalfieldslife.com
The Fashion Museum, Bath www.fashionmuseum.co.uk
The Georgians exhibitions at Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace gallery
The Huguenot Society and Library at Gower Street www.huguenotsociety.org.uk
The Worshipful Company of Weavers www.weavers.org.uk
Praise for Liz Trenow
‘Extraordinary, fascinating . . . deeply rooted in history’
Midweek, Radio 4
‘An assured debut with a page-turning conclusion’
Daily Express
‘Liz Trenow sews together the strands of past and present as delicately as the exquisite stitching on the quilt which forms the centrepiece of the story’
LUCINDA RILEY
‘Totally fascinating . . . a book to savour’
KATE FURNIVALL
‘A novel about the human spirit – Liz Trenow paints with able prose a picture of the prejudices that bind us and the love that sets us free . . . Splendid’
PAM JENOFF
‘An intriguing patchwork of past and present, upstairs and downstairs, hope and despair’
DAISY GOODWIN
THE SILK WEAVER
Liz Trenow’s family have been silk weavers for nearly three hundred years, and she grew up next to the mill in Sudbury, Suffolk, which is the oldest family-owned silk company in Britain and one of just three still operating today. Liz worked as a journalist for regional and national newspapers, and on BBC radio and television news, before turning her hand to fiction. She lives in East Anglia with her artist husband, and they have two grown-up daughters.
Find out more at www.liztrenow.com, like her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/liztrenow or join her on Twitter @LizTrenow.
Also by Liz Trenow
The Last Telegram
The Forgotten Seamstress
The Poppy Factory
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all I must thank my agent, Caroline Hardman of Hardman & Swainson, who made certain that this novel – which is very close to my heart – found the best possible home with Pan Macmillan. I am really enjoying working with Catherine Richards, my new editor there.
This book was my first foray into the eighteenth century and involved extensive research. I read masses, of course, and visited many exhibitions and libraries – there’s a list at the end of the book – but I also had assistance from numerous individuals, only some of whom I have space to mention here.
I am eternally grateful to the welcome shown to me by the residents of Wilkes Street: Sue Rowlands, who lives in the house where my forebears began their business – and on which I have based Monsieur Lavalle’s residence – and her neighbours, John and Sandy Critchley.
The textile expert and author Mary Schoeser piqued my interest in Anna Maria Garthwaite and gave me an introduction to staff at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s National Art Library, where I was thrilled to discover the final, unpublished manuscript by the previous curator of textiles, the late Natalie Rothstein.
Richard Humphries lent me several valuable books on eighteenth-century weaving and The Weavers’ Company, and my brother David W
alters (former MD of the family silk company) checked technical aspects of the weaving passages. Martin Arnaud corrected my French phrases and added some colourful eighteenth-century French curses. Mark Bills, Curator at Gainsborough’s House Museum in Sudbury, was very helpful and my artist husband David Trenow made sure that the drawing and painting scenes made sense. All inaccuracies are entirely mine (see my note on the history that inspired The Silk Weaver, at the end of the book).
As always, I am hugely grateful to my family and friends (especially ‘The Grumpies’) for their unswerving love and support.
First published 2017 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2017 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-2324-6
Copyright © Liz Trenow 2017
Floral artwork © Hemesh Alles
Front cover: woman © Richard Jenkins, curtains © Shutterstock.
Watercolour on paper. Spitalfields, London, England, c.1732.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The right of Liz Trenow to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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