About four years ago I did a blog post on purses generally, this post is about purses owned by what were called “the common sort,” that is working people. The most common listing in probate inventories is, all his/her purse and apparel. The Bristol probates in 1610 have an almsman of the hospital of St Philip, John Warren, who owned “his purse, his apparel” 2 shillings, his total estate was just £1 12 7½d. (1 p. 11) Figure 1 is a Jacques Callot engraving of a beggar woman, note that her purse is hanging from her waist, from where a cutpurse could cut it and steal it. The term cutpurse dates back to the thirteenth century.
 |
| Figure 1:
Jacques Callot (1592–1635) Beggar woman. Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery |
By the end of the seventeenth century, while purse and apparel was still in use, there were references to money in pockets, as with a 1680 pin maker who had, “weareing apparell and money in his pocket.” (2 p. 158) The small drawstring purse hung from the waist was still around, as can in seen in Laroon’s Cries of London of 1687, for example the crier of small coal. [Figure 2]
 |
| Figure 2. Marcellus Laroon. Small Coale Seller. 1687. |
Designs and suspension
Purses could be simple square or rectangular shapes, with just a drawstring, or have a metallic frame from which the leather or fabric could be suspended. Frames often survive when the leather or fabric does not. One intact frame and leather survival in the London Museum [Figure 3] dates to between 1450 and 1550, the leather is 12cm by 6.8cm (4¾ by 2¾ inches). Purses could be suspended from the waist, as in the Callot and Laroon engravings, or from a loop on the frame, as in the London Museum example.
 |
| Figure 3: Leather purse with frame. 1450-1550. London Museum. |
More complex purses existed. A fifteenth to sixteenth century survival in the Metropolitan Museum New York opens with a very elaborate clasp, but has inside smaller pockets with their own closures. Perhaps the most complex are what have been called money-changers purses, where you have several pouches for money around a central core, as can be seen in Bloemaert’s c.1625 depiction of Avarice [Figure 4], or Matthias Stom’s c.1640 painting Old woman with a candle.
 |
| Figure 4: Cornelis Bloemaert, Avarice. c.1625. National Galleries of Scotland. |
Leather purses
Most purses appear to have been leather. They frequently appear in glovers’ inventories. In 1608 Thomas Fachin, glover has “In the shop Item 3 dozen gloves and one dozen purses and 2 dozen of sheep’s leather 12s.” (3). In 1604 Robert Clemson a whitwawer had in his shop: “1 dos' of pursys 2s 6d, 2 dos' of pursys 3s, 1 dos' halffe of pursys 1s 3d, 10 dos'of gloves at 2s 8d dos', £1 6s 8d; 2 hakyng glofes 1s 4d.” (4 p. 177) A whitwawer, or whittwawer was man who dealt with whitleather, that is a pliant leather of a natural, light colour, produced by dressing with alum and salt.
Fabric purses
Purses could also be fabric, but there are fewer reference or survivals of plain fabric purses, though there are many survivals of fancy embroidered purses. A late sixteenth century plain silk drawstring purse, with the remains of its cord, is in the London Museum, it is 13 by 13 cm. (5 by 5 inches). [Figure 5] In the Netherlands, the Groningen excavations of late sixteenth century materials included two purses of worsted wool, one 16 by 9 cm (6¼ by 3½ inches) and the other 19 by 9 cm. (7½ by 3½ inches). (5 pp. 237-8)
 |
| Figure 5: Plain silk drawstring purse. 16th century. London Museum. |
Knitted purses
While knitted, usually silk, purses survive from the Middle Ages, the best-known late seventeenth century example is the Gunnister purse. This purse, containing coins from the 1680s and early 1690s, was found on a burial in the Shetland Islands. (6) It is knitted in the round, and is now brown but was probably grey; with a stranded knit pattern in red and white. It was worked from the top down. When casting on, after every six stitches a loop was created from a chain of seven stitches, this provided a series of loops through which the drawstring ran. The purse is 13.5cm by 9.5cm (5¼ inches by 3¾ inches). [Figure 6]
 |
| Figure 6: Gunnister purse. National Museums Scotland.
|
Prices of purses
Purses for the working men and women were not expensive items. In 1628 Margaret Day, who was the widow of a glover and apparently trading as a glover, had in stock “twelve dozen and nine purses of farthing ware” presumably a farthing, that is a quarter of one penny, each. (1 p. 69) In 1636 James Evans had in stock, “2 doz. of litle leatherne purses 1s 6d,” which works out at ¾d each. (1 p. 98) In London in 1605 “a leather purse worth two pence” was stolen (7 pp. 10-5) In Stockport in 1619 John Robinson, who is described as a yeoman, but has a shop with stockings, gloves and purses for sale, has his purses valued at 2½d each. (8 pp. 140-1) Some purses were more expensive, the chapman William Mackerell in 1642 had purses at both 4½d and 18d. (9 pp. 186-90) For the rich purses could be much more expensive. In 1619, simply for “trimming up two purses for my Lord and my Lady,” the Howards of Naworth Castle paid out ten shillings. (10 p. 122)
What was kept in a purse
The most obvious thing is money, but the word purse can indicate a bag used for other purposes. In the Middle Ages, before the Reformation, purses could be used to hold relicts of saints. A 1466 inventory of St Stephen’s Church in Coleman Street, London, included a “lytill purse of yollowe and dyuers relekes with in hyt”. (11 p. 41) In 1592 Barwick’s harquebusier needed “a purse for his Bullets” (12 p. 8)
Conclusion
It would appear from probates that most people, male and female, owned a purse of some sort. By the end of the seventeenth century hanging purses were giving way to the use of pockets, and for those with considerable income the advent of paper money results in the use of more envelope like wallets, similar to the beadwork purse supposedly made by Mary II for her husband William III.
References
1. George, E. and S. eds. Bristol probate inventories, Part 1: 1542-1650. Bristol Records Society publication. 2002, Vol. 54.
2. Williams, Lorelei and Thomson, Sally. Marlborough Probate Inventories 1591-1775. Chippenham : Wiltshire Record Society, 2007.
3. Hampshire County Records Office. Probate inventory of Thomas Fachin 1608. Hants. RO 1609A/27.
4. Brinkworth E.R.C. and Gibson, J.S.W. eds. Banbury wills and inventories. Pt.1, 1591-1620. Banbury Historical Society. 1985, Vol. 13.
5. Zimmerman, Johanna. Textiel in context: een analyse van archeologische textielvondsten uit 16e-eeuws Groningen. Groningen : Stichting Monument & Material, 2007.
6. Henshall, A. and Maxwell, S. Clothing and other articles from a late 17th century grave at Gunnister, Shetland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 1952, Vol. 86.
7. Middlesex Sessions Rolls. Middlesex County Records: Volume 2, 1603-25. Originally published London: Middlesex County Record Society, 1887. [Online] [Cited: August 20, 2021.] https://www.british-history.ac.uk/middx-county-records/vol2/pp126-133.
8. Phillips, C. B. and Smith, J. H., eds. Stockport probate records, 1578-1619. Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. 1985, Vol. 124.
9. Spufford, Margaret. The great reclothing of rural England: petty chapman and their wares in the seventeenth century. London : Hambledon Press, 1984.
10. Ornsby, G. ed. Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle. Publications of the Surtees Society. 1878, Vol. 68.
11. Freshfield, Edwin. Some Remarks upon the Book of Records and History of the Parish of St. Stephen, Coleman Street, in the City of London. . Archaeologia. 1887, Vol. 50.
12. Barwick, Humfrey. A breefe discourse, concerning the force and effect of all manuall weapons of fire... London : Printed [by E. Allde] for Richard Oliffe, 1592.
