Hi folks,
Has anyone done research on colonial "shoemakers"? Here are some quotes
from site
www.history.org/life/trades/tradesho.htm
"One of the two or three largest trades practiced in 18th century
Williamsburg, historical shoemaking is being rediscovered... Our shop
represents the firm of George Wilson, who moved in the late 1760's to
Williamsburg [VA] ... and competed with between 9 to 12 other
Williamsburg shoemakers, all operating in the city at the same dates.
Together the local shoemakers struggled with competition from merchants
in the colony who imported shoes, ready-made from factories in London
and Bristol in England, and several local wholesale factories (one
employing more than thirty men) that mass-produced shoes in Norfolk and
Petersburg, Virginia....
The London shoemaker's guild, the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers,
helped finance Captain John Smith's 1607 expedition to Virginia, and
Smith, inducted into the guild himself, was honored with a statue in
London. Whether Smith actually made shoes is not known. The first
shoemakers arrived in America at Jamestown in 1610, and the trade was
thriving as early as 1616. By the 1660s, the Virginia Assembly directed
that each county must erect a tannery and a shoe manufactory. It also
imposed tariffs on leather and shoes exported from Virginia to control
speculation and profiteering in the local shoe trade, and stipulated
that the fees collected go to finance the founding of the College of
William and Mary."