Mary Pyke (fl. 1669 – 1709)

Mary Pyke was a silkwoman and milliner on the Royal Exchange in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Mary Pyke was married to a Citizen and Skinner named William Pyke (d. 1674). In all, eleven young women were bound apprentice to either William or Mary Pyke through the Skinners’ Company between 1669 and 1695.

Rhoda Moreland (fl. 1721 – 1736)

Rhoda Moreland was a milliner on Leadenhall Street and freemen of the Painter-Stainers’ Company. Moreland was admitted to the Painter-Stainers’ Company by patrimony on 2 December 1724.[1] She was described as a ‘Milliner in Leadenhall Street’ in the company’s court minutes and this is corroborated by a Sun Fire Office insurance policy that she took

Judith Gresham the younger (1662 – 1728)

Judith Gresham the younger was a freemen of the Painter-Stainers’ Company and milliner on the Royal Exchange. Baptised on 25 November 1662 in the parish of St Peter le Poer, she was the daughter of Judith Beckingham and Seliard Gresham.[1] She worked with her mother and sister Mary at their shop on the Royal Exchange

Mary Gresham (1668 – 1726)

Mary Gresham was a milliner and freemen of the Painter-Stainers’ Company working on the Royal Exchange in London. The daughter of Judith and Seliard Gresham, Mary Gresham was baptised on 6 December 1668 and she worked with her mother and her sister Judith in their shop at the north end of the upper pawn of

Judith Gresham the elder (1632 – 1694)

Judith Gresham was a milliner on the Royal Exchange in the late seventeenth century. Judith Beckingham and Seliard Gresham were married on 26 February 1660 and thereafter had five children.[1] They were long-standing tenants of the Royal Exchange and Seliard Gresham bound at least three apprentices – Mary Cox, Thomas Marshall, and Edward Pettit – before

Dorothy Kidley (fl. 1646 – 1690)

Dorothy Kidley was a Merchant Taylors’ Company apprentice and hoodseller working on Cheapside in the 1660s and 1670s. Dorothy Kidley was baptised in Little Birch, Herefordshire on 5 January 1646, the daughter of Bridget and John Kidley, a gentleman.[1] Aged around 15 years old, she migrated to London and was bound apprentice to John Adams,

Fact or fiction? Amy Hussey (fl. 1740s)

Such charms are there in affability, and so sure is it to attract the praises of all kinds of people. It may indeed be compared to the celebrated Mrs Hussey.* It is equally sure to set off every female perfection to the highest advantage, and to palliate and conceal every defect […]. * A celebrated

Rachel Erskin (fl. 1658 – 1718)

Rachel Erskin was a seamstress working on the Royal Exchange for more than fifty years in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Erskin was the middle of three daughters of William Erskin, a Doctor of Divinity. He died in Norfolk in 1657, bequeathing her £150 and a ‘parcell of rings and Jewells as they

Ellen Searle (d. 1721)

Ellen Searle was a seamstress and tea seller working on London Bridge in the early eighteenth century. View of old London Bridge, the buildings and shops across the bridge still in place, 1723-4 ‘Old’ London Bridge was a vital thoroughfare and vibrant, thriving site of trade for hundreds of years, as revealed by a recent

Ann Collard (c. 1726 – 1778)

Ann Collard née Jacques was a haberdasher and milliner who worked on Bishopsgate Street in London in the eighteenth century. In 1747, aged around 21 years old, Ann married George Collard, a freemen of the Merchant Taylors’ Company, and the table below details the female apprentices bound to the Collard household between 1750 and 1773.[1] George

Margaret Lendall (fl. 1660 – 1668)

Margaret Lendall was a Haberdashers’ Company apprentice milliner/lace-seller who worked on the Royal Exchange in 1660s London. In October 1660, orphaned siblings Margaret and Robert Lendall petitioned Charles II, asking him to ‘comisserate theire present suffering condition and to allow them a subsistence dureing theire minoritie’.[1] Their father, Captain Robert Lendall, had ‘endeavored to manifest his

Margaret Marsh (fl. 1723 – 1757)

Margaret Marsh was identified as a ‘Widow and Mantua Maker’ on ‘Saint Albans Street in the Parish of Saint James Westminster’ in her will. She bequeathed £1000 each to her three children, and £100 to her sister Ann Cheshire. To her brother Henry she gave £10 for mourning, plus she forgave ‘all Sums of Money

Mary Reynolds (fl. 1694 – 1720)

Mary Reynolds was a member of the Mercers’ Company, working as a milliner in the City of London in the early eighteenth century. She was the daughter of William Reynolds, a gentleman from Canterbury in Kent and was apprenticed to a widow named Susanna Bolt on 28 September 1694. After she was admitted free of

Mary Bassett (fl. 1693 – 1712)

Mary Bassett was a milliner and tenant of the upper floor or ‘pawn’ of the Royal Exchange at the turn of the eighteenth century. Figure 1 shows her name recorded in tax assessments as the tenant of ‘a Shopp’ in the ‘exchange above’ in 1693/4.[1] Figure 1 We can learn more about the array of

Susanna Kidley-Warren (1642 – 1684)

Susanna Kidley-Warren was a seamstress working on Cheapside in the City of London between 1655 and 1684. She was baptised in Little Birch in Herefordshire on 2 November 1642.[1] The daughter of John Kidley, a gentleman, and his wife Bridget, Susanna Kidley was bound to Edward Moodey, a milliner from St Martin’s Le Grand through