This article explains how tailors would learn their craft and progress through the trade and, on successful completion, become ‘freemen’.
Edmund Flower, the founder of Cuckfield Grammar School, started in the tailoring trade around 1477 in the reign of Edward lV. Typically, tailors were the sons of craftsmen or the younger sons of minor gentry, who would serve a seven year apprenticeship with a master tailor until the age of 24 (later reduced to 21 in 1768). Their privileged background would have helped them build a rapport with their wealthy customers.
So we can picture Edmund travelling up from Sussex as we believe he was born and lived in the Cuckfield area to London. His father was probably well connected in the City. To serve his time as apprentice he would have had to live in the capital as it was not practical to travel daily from Sussex.
An apprentice’s life, particularly in the early years, was under the direction and control of their Master, who not only taught them their craft but supplied food, shelter and clothing. While many lists of sixteenth century apprentices do still exist for the livery companies, sadly those for Merchant Taylors', were badly damaged and not available.
Tailoring was a skilled craft, which took years of patient practice and teaching. The clothing materials they worked with were extremely expensive. A single a yard of fabric would cost one third of their annual salary of £4.
A sense of the elaborate nature of court clothes can be appreciated from the St Mary Guildhall tapestry in Coventry (see below) which was recently refurbished.
The book ‘Tudor costume and fashion’ by Herbert Norris gives us an insight into apprenticeships just after Edmund had completed his. The merchants running a business would disapprove of apprentices 'dressing to impress'. Customers walking into their shop needed to be able to recognise who was master and who were the junior employees. Regulations were passed (in 1582) for the Apparel of London Apprentices - this was some 60 years after Flower died. This new dress code dictated that no hats should be worn (woollen caps only), no ruffs or cuffs, no doublets (except canvas, fustian, sackcloth, leather, wool), no coloured cloth, gold, silver or silk … and the list goes on.
The apprentices were also forbidden to marry, gamble or visit public houses.
Freemen licensed to trade
Once qualified they joined some 900 freemen who were, through membership of their guild, licensed to ply their trade as tailors and take on their own apprentices - In the fifteenth century only 12% of the freemen became liverymen. [MTMD 36]. Tailors represented the highest proportion of new freemen of the time, and the figure grew to 3,000 in the 1560s.
Sadly we don't know who Edmund Flower was apprenticed to. We know that his first wife was the widow of a Warden of the livery company, as this was mentioned at the admission ceremony when he was accepted into the livery company. Did his master, where he was apprenticed, die and young Edmund 'took her under his wing'? There were four new wardens every year - so that's a lot of wardens to check, and at this distance it is unlikely we would be able to identify who she was.
Edmund would become the first Master of Merchant Taylors' under its new charter. Apprenticeships were at the heart of it. It decreed that all tailors of men's clothing must have been apprenticed. While this raised standards in the industry and made exports in greater demand it also upset much of the tailoring industry. Those who had not served a formal apprenticeship could be threatened by fines and even imprisonment if they ignored this new law.
Source
Tudor costume and fashion by Herbert Norris, 1997
The Tudor Tailor by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies, 1906
Tapestry from St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry thought to be the oldest in Britain. It depicts the assumption of the Virgin Mary, attended by saints, apostles and members of the court of King Henry VI
It is most likely to have been a commission made by the Trinity Guild, perhaps in anticipation of a royal visit, probably Henry VII (1485-1509). The tapestry was made 60 years after the event. Colour photo restored.
Discover St Mary’s Guildhall in the heart of the city of Coventry. Opening hours and ticket booking to view the ‘must see’ tapestry in Coventry.
Contributed by Malcolm Davison.
Visit Cuckfield Museum, follow the link for details https://cuckfieldmuseum.org.
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