Staymakers

[StephEv]

Hi All, Could anyone supply me with any information on Staymakers and whether this was a wealthy business in the 19th/20th Centuries. Members in my ancestry living in Wallingford were in the trade by the name of Moore. Is it connected to dressmaking or was it entirely separate. Cheers

[suzard]

This willgive you some history

http://www.staylace.com/textarea/history/aboothof.htm


Staymakers would have dressmaking skills, but their skills were more specialised.

Staymakers would probably have a higher class of clientelle and so staymakers became business women.

On census forms more often than not, married females would not have an occupation listed as women's occupations did not "count" -even though they brought in money which helped with their living.

Staymakers probably had more affluent customers and so were considered to be "above" those who worked with "lower" classes

Suz

[StephEv]

Thanks for that Suz, have researched a Sarah Moore ending up in New Windsor as a Staymaker, just wonder if she may have been a Staymaker to the Royal family at the time. Cheers

[suzard]

I think that's a possibility -as there are "Royal Staymakers" listed in articles .

Suz

[StephEv]

Hi Suz, The Moore family seem to have quite an established business in Wallingford, Reading and a Sarah in Windsor in 1891

[behindthefrogs]

Staymakers would have dressmaking skills, but their skills were more specialised.

Staymakers would probably have a higher class of clientelle and so staymakers became business women.

Suz

It doesn't necessarily follow that staymakers were affluent.  Back in the middle of the 19th century staymaking was a cottage industry.  In Leicestershire you find staymakers who were the wives of ag labs.  There it was very much the equivalent of the lacemakers in north Buckinghamshire or straw plaiters around Luton.  Their skills would probably not have included dressmaking beyond the level needed to clothe their own families.

It is possible your stay makers originally bought in from the cottage industry and then later set up factories where they employed the women.  If you think that was the case then a search of the local directories should list them amongst the business people.

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/

David 

[Grandma Cas]

WoW! this thread brings back memories. As a young girl in the fifties I remember my grandmother talking about her 'stays' & I always wondered why she called her corsets 'stays'.  I thought  maybe it means every thing stays in place when she wears it, & now I know i was right

Regards
Carol

[Graham Whitehead]

Staymakers would have dressmaking skills, but their skills were more specialised.

Staymakers would probably have a higher class of clientelle and so staymakers became business women.

Suz

Staymakers could be men too. They were also an apprenticeship trade.  An ancestor of mine in Coventry was one in the late 18th century.

[Ratty2]

Thank you for this discussion.
I am researching Samuel Withers, (1738-1820) who is listed as a staymaker 1776-1800 at 67 Smallbrook Street, Birmingham.
I like the suggestion his wife did the real work. On the other hand there is an image - by Hogarth - of a male staymaker measuring a female customer.
This man must have been doing very well. His eldest son took on the occupation of a gentleman, but his youngest son continued the family business to bequeath a sizeable fortune to his nephew.
Would appreciate hearing more about the training required to become a staymaker. My thinking is that this Samuel inherited his work from his father, but had to add staymaking to his CV as the fashions changed.