Over four years ago I did a blog post on Mittens in the Ealy Modern, with links to some survivals, sadly many links are now broken. This post will look not at upper class or babies’ mittens, but specifically at working men’s mittens.
Fig. 1: Leather mitten. Victoria and Albert Museum.
What were
they used for?
Both the c.1390 Pierce the Plowmans Creed, where he had “twey [two] mytenes, as mete,” mete meaning as normal or usual, and in Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale, “He that his hand wol putte in this mitayn, He shal haue multiplyyng of his grain,” would seem to indicate that mittens were used by farmers. (1) Certainly, gloves were used at harvest time. Thomas Tusser suggested that one should “giue gloues to thy reapers.” (2 p. 129) In the 1620s and 1630s the Reynell Family of Forde were giving out harvest gloves at around 3d a pair. (3 pp. 23, 90 & 95)
In 1611 the yeoman Edmund Simpson owned “a payre of tyninge mittins.” (4 p. 17) These are hedging mittens. Tyninge, according to a 1596 book, was “Their [the Saxons] woorde to tyne, or inclose with a hedge.” (5 p. 417) Randle Holme writes of “an Hedged Mitten, or Glove to Hedg with: a Tethering Glove”. (6 p. 18) In 1650 Cheshire Edward Harpur had “one paire of hedgeing mittens 2d.” (7 pp. 255-9) In 1656 Yorkshire Matthew Wilson owned “two paire hedgeinge mittons.” (8 p. 115) These hedging mittens were therefore available across the country.
Working
class mittens also made it across to Plymouth
Plantation in the Americas. In 1676 two settlers leave mittens. Samuel Fuller left
“an old saddle a paire of mittens an old blankett and letheren apron” together
worth 15 shillings, and Sampson Mason left “2 paire of Gloues a paire of
Mittens and a tobacco box,” together worth 6 shillings. (9) (10)
Sailors might wear mittens. Mittens were found on the Mary Rose, though there is some debate over who they belonged to and what they were for, but many were also on the 1628 Vasa wreck. The image of fishermen from the Fishmonger’s Company for the 1616 Lord Mayor’s Pageant, clearly shows them wearing mittens. [Fig. 2] A 1706 naval contract specifies grey woollen mittens at 6d per pair. (11 p. 57)
Fig 2: Detail from The
fishmongers’ pageant, on Lord Mayor’s Day, 1616. Image courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library
The 1606 Shuttleworth Accounts have a shoemaker, rather than a glover, being paid for, “makinge of vii pre of yeardinge mettnse and mending old myttense, xiid, and for hemppe to the same iid” (12 p. 171) Yearding in this sense is yard work, as in a farmyard or barnyard, or it can mean gardening.
Fig 3: Child's knitted mitten. Norfolk Museums.
What were they made from?
Survivals of these types of mittens are usually of a hard wearing leather, and are found in waterlogged archaeological sites, for example the one in the Victoria and Albert Museum. [Fig. 1] The mittens on the Mary Rose were of leather, as were those on the Vasa, where one of the leather mittens was found with a wool inner mitten, this inner mitten is not woven but the fabric is of nålbindning. (13) They could also be knitted, and several have been found in the Netherlands, especial on shipwrecks. (14 pp. 75-82) A couple of child sized knitted mittens have been found in England, the one in Figure 3 is in the Norwich Museum. Other mittens could be of cloth. The Rijksmuseum has a rough brown, twill woven, wool mitten, that dates to 1610-70, and was found at the Smeerenburg whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago. [Fig.4] Pierce Plowman’s mittens were also of cloth as they were described as being “maad all of cloutes.”
Fig. 4: Smeerenburg woven mitten.
What did they cost?
In 1621 the Shuttleworth accounts have one shilling being paid for making three pairs of mittens. (15 p. 247) In 1628, Margaret Day, the widow of a glover who was still trading as such, had in her stock, “fower dozen and a halfe of mittens 7s,” this would indicate that the mittens were only 1½d per pair. (16 p. 59) Margaret, who had a total estate value of £25 11s 0d, was not the only widow of a glover trading as a glover. In 1646 Bridgett Wilkes had “1 doz: furrd mittens 1s 6d,” therefore the same price as Margaret’s. (16 p. 153) In 1683 Mary Hurle, in Marlborough, had “2 dozen and a halfs of mittins 4s2 in her stock, again these would have been 1½d per pair. (17 p. 168)
References
1. Skeat, Walter (ed.). Pierce the Ploughmans crede (about 1394 A.D.) transcribed and edited from ms. Trin. coll., Camb., R. 3, 15. London : Early English Text Society, 1873.
2. Tusser, Thomas. Five hundred pointes of good husbandrie: the edition of 1580 collated with those 1573 and 1577. London : English Dialect Society, 1878.
3. Gray, Todd. Devon Household Accounts 1627-59. Part 1. Exeter : Devon and Cornwall Record Society, new series, vol. 38, 1995.
4. Groves, J. Bowdon wills: wills and probate inventories from a Cheshire townships, part 1: 1600-1650. Sale : Northern Writers Advisory Services, 1997.
5. Lambarde, William. A Perambulation of Kent (2nd edition) . London : Edm. Bollifant, 1596.
6. Holme, Randle. The academy of armory. [Online] 1688. [Cited: July 12, 2024.] https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A44230.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext.
7. Phillips, C. B. and Smith, J H. Stockport Probate Records 1620-1650. Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. 1992, Vol. 131.
8. Brears, P. C. D. ed. Yorkshire probate inventories 1542-1689. Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series. 1972, Vol. 134.
9. Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Samuel Fuller probate inventory, 29 August 1676. [Online] http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/.
10. —. Sampson Mason probate inventory, 27 October 1676. [Online] http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/.
11. Cunnington, Phillis and Lucas, Catherine. Occupational cosume in England. London : Black, 1968.
12. Harland, John (ed.). The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths ...1582-1621, Part 1. Lancaster : Chetham Society, 1856.
13. Lagerquist, Emil. Vantar av läder från det svenska örlogsskeppet Vasa 1628: Arbete och materiell kultur i en maritim kontext [Leather mittens from the Swedish warship Vasa in 1628 : The material culture of labour in a maritime context]. Uppsala Universitet. [Online] 2023. https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1774816&dswid=185.
14. Willensen, Annemarieke. Two knitted mittens from a
seventeenth-century Dutch shipwreck. Archaeological Textiles Review. 2018,
Vol. 60.
15. Harland, John (ed.). The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall… 1582-1621, Part 2. Cheetham Society. 1856, Vol. 35.
16. George, E. and S. eds. Bristol probate inventories, Part 1: 1542-1650. Bristol Records Society publication. 2002, Vol. 54.
17. Williams, Lorelei and Thomson, Sally. Marlborough Probate Inventories 1591-1775. Chippenham : Wiltshire Record Society, 2007.
