Cloth Worker Surnames:
The transformation of the textile industry in the 13th century has been described by historian E. M.
Carus-Wilson as an industrial revolution. For centuries fulling of cloth had been a "handicraft" process
whereby the creation of cloth was was accomplished manually by peasants "walking" on cloth in
vessels to produce broadcloth.
The “revolution” would substitute the power of the water mill for
fulling under foot. The change would also be accompanied by a
dramatic geographic redistribution in the production of cloth. The
large scale manufacture of cloth had been an “urban” activity
principally under the auspicious of monastic or ecclesiastical
institutions. Guilds were central to the organization of the process
and vigorously guarded their privileged position.
The earliest fulling mills
were likely introduced in
England in the late 12th
century and soon began to
challenge the privileged
position of the established
order. Water power was
essential to the success of
the mill. This advantage was to be found in the upper reaches of streams and rivers, far from the
urban centres in the eastern and southern regions of England. Based on this locational advantage
would experience a dramatic expansion in the cloth industry. Around these mills, groups of workers,
weavers, fullers, and dyers, would provide the needed workforce for the mills.
Coincidently this was precisely the period of time in history when surnames were being adopted. As a
consequence we find textile related surnames disproportionately represented in regions where the
textile fulling mills were being built.
The most common surname reflecting textile origins is the surname Walker. Widespread throughout
England, it is most prevalent in the North and the Midlands. Striking is the uniformity of the surname
when expressed per 100,000 population. R. A. McKinley observes with respect to the surnames
Walker, Fuller and Tucker:
Walker Tucker Fuller
The process of cloth manufacture involved a complex set of
relationships between primary producers, and processors.
Beginning in the late fourteenth century, in the wake of the Black
Death, England underwent the process of enclosure. Labour
shortages forced manors and their owners to convert tilled land to
the
raising to livestock, principally sheep. In the west and north of
England the production of wool met the need of the expanding
textile industry.
“In some instances several different surnames were in use to describe a single
occupation, with each term being current within one geographic area and not
found elsewhere…. in fulling cloth for example a person engaged in the trade
was usually known in the south and West of England as a Tucker, in the West
Midlands, the north of England and in Scotland as a Walker, and in the south
and east of England as a Fuller.”
© J.H.Mathieson
Dyer Draper Clothier Weaver
Taylor Webb Webber Webster
