Spitalfields

• What did the term "canaries" refer to?

  Huguenot arrivals
• Why did the Huguenots come in the 1570s?

  Fleeing religious persecution, specifically the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre
• Why did the Huguenots come in 1680?

  French king Louis XIV turned over a law protecting them
• Why did the Huguenots settle in Spitalfields? (3)

  - there was a local silk weaving industry

  - there was a French Protestant church neaby

  - it was an area that Protestant Dissenters were drawn to
• By 1700, what % of London's population were Huguenot?

  5%
• What community skills did the Huguenots have?


  They had strong business skills, self-reliance, and community support
• What practical skills did the Huguenots have?

  Many were highly skilled silk weavers, some were silversmiths and goldsmiths
• What did the Huguenots introduce that transformed Spitalfields?

  High-quality French styles that became fashionable
• How did the Huguenots undercut French imports?

  They offered high fashion at affordable prices, since they were home produced and unaffected by war or stormy seas
• How were the Huguenots recieved by the middle class?

  They were largely well recieved
• Why were working class reactions to the Huguenot arrivals mixed?

  - some saw them as a threat to their livelihoods

  - they were seen as competing for work and undercutting wages
• What did King Charles II do in 1683?


  Placed companies of House Guards in Spitalfields to "keep the weavers in order"
• What religion were the Huguenots?

  Calvanist
• What was the key different belief between Anglicans and the Huguenots?

  The Calvanist Huguenots believed in predestination - the Anglicans did not approve of this belief
• When did Irish migrants begin arriving?

  In the 1670s
• Why did Irish migrants begin moving to London?

  - to find work after the decline of the linen industry

  - to escape the harsh penal laws that discriminated against Irish Catholics
• Were Irish migrants welcomed?

  NO- they were accused of undercutting English wages
• Why were there religious tensions in the late 1600s?

  Irish Catholic arrivals were not allowed to worship oenly or build churches, and there were many violent anti-Catholic riots
• What were the Gordon riots?

  Violent anti-Catholic riots in 1780
• When were the Gordon Riots?

  1780
• What happened in the Gordon Riots?

  A mob burnt down Catholic chapels in Brick Lane
• When did Irish Catholics have full freedom?

  When the 1829 Roman Catholic Relief Act was passed
• Why would English, Irish, and Huguenots join together?

  - when outsiders brought in mechanical looms, weavers fearing unemployment would break the macines

  - when calico from overseas became fashionable, weavers protested and the material was banned
• What were combinations?


  Societies that brought working people together (similar to modern trade unions)
• What was the purpose of combinations?

  To support poor families and prevent weavers from being exploited
• Who often led combinations?

  Irish migrant workers
• Who was Louis Chauvet?

  - a Huguenot employer

  - refused to let hs workers join combinations (marked their money to see where it was being spent)

  - incredibly powerful in the local area
• Was Louis Chauvet popular?


  No
• What did Louis Chauvet have?

  His own private guard
• When were the Cutters' Riots?

  1769
• What set off the Cutters' Riots?

  - Chauvet's soliders broke up a meeting, and two weavers were killed

  - in response, a mob of about 1500 broke hundreds of his looms
• What did Louis Chauvet request after the Cutters' Riots?

  For Spitalfields to be put under military occupation - and it was
• What combination was lead by John Doyle and John Valline?

  Bold Defiance
• What were Valline and Doyle accused of?

  Cutting the silk of a master weaver
• What were Valline and Doyle sentenced to?

  Death - their executions were carried out ocally to make an example of them
• Who was Daniel Clarke?

  A weaver who was accused of being in Chauvet's pay after combination members were sentenced to death for attacking his looms
• When was Daniel Clarke killed?

  16 April 1777
• How did the government respond to the Cutters' riots?

  By passing the 1773 Spitalfields Act
• When was the Spitalfields Act passed?

  1773
• What were the positive terms of the Spitalfields Act?

  - wages were negotiated by weavers with magistrates who set pay - this meant they could not be undercut

  - foreign silk imports were controlled - meant that there was more work for local weavers