The story of the Parramatta Female Factory has
been recounted many times, online,
in books and in the media. Dates, names of superintendants, the
riots, it's all there. But what if we could find a snapshot of the
place itself? Such a snapshot exists in the Colonial Secretary's
Papers, with, amongst other documents, two inventories, for 1822 and
1825 (erroneously indexed as 1824 on Ancestry.com).1,
2
There was a transition from the old Factory, above
the men's gaol, to the purpose-built Female Factory. That transition
can be seen in the sleeping arrangements for the women. In 1822 sleep
was a haphazard affair, with a jumble of beds, ships' trundles, and
hammocks, to accommodate 213 women, with 230 mixed blankets. By 1825
there were 505 beds and 517 blankets, all uniform.
Clothes also changed as the new order was
established. In 1822, almost half of the clothes listed came from the
female convicts on the Mary Ann, John Bull and
Providence transports. There were also slops made from factory
cloth, and eighty-one women were wearing “old factory dresses...
nearly worn out”. Some of these women were without shoes, yet there
were twenty-six pairs of new shoes in the stores which had not been
distributed.
 |
| Ninety-six straw bonnets were listed in the 1822 inventory. They would have been similar to this one held by the National Trust in the UK. Straw bonnet, 1815-1820, Snowshill Wade Costume Collection, National Trust Images, NT1349789, retrieved June 23 2016 |
The clothing situation had improved by 1825. The
worn-out dresses were gone, as were the transport clothes. There were
instead dresses, petticoats and jackets made of India Print, shifts
and caps of linen. Some were listed as old, others as new, but there
was no record of “worn out” clothing. On 13 December 1822 a
tender notice had appeared in the Sydney Gazette, to supply
the Female Factory with “1800 yards of India Print, of the darkest
hue and strongest texture”.3
The women were wearing the results.
Lots of other clothing items were also listed in
1825, particularly clothes for children, made of factory linen, along
with sheets for the Parramatta Hospital and cushions for the Church.
The assumption is that the women of the Factory made all these items,
yet strangely there are no sewing supplies in the inventory: no
shears or scissors (save one pair), no sewing needles, no thread.
Were the clothes made elsewhere? In which case, why store them here?
Or were needles and thread considered too awkward or insignificant to
account for?
One of the aims of the Factory was that it should
be a centre for cloth production. The inventories bear out that this
was happening, but if the Colonial government really wanted it to
succeed, there were some glaring absences and noticeable shortfalls.
There were looms, nine in 1822 and thirteen in
1825, not enough for large scale production. There were also spinning
wheels, swifts, reeds, hand cards and other paraphenalia.
The looms and the only warping mill were in the
men's barracks, along with some spinning wheels (for wool only). The
men's barracks also had all the swifts, some hand cards, and ten
carding stools. The majority of the wheels, carding equipment and
reeds were in the women's factory.
Were the women doing all the wool preparation and
the men all the weaving? As there were spinning wheels in the men's
barracks, were the men also spinning? Perhaps it indicates the
presence of women in the weaving room. In which case, were they also
weaving? Flax and flax-processing equipment were all stored in the
women's section, and the men had no flax wheels in their inventory.
Was flax the domain of women and linen the preserve of men?4
A noticeable addition to the women's equipment
between 1822 and 1825 is a “machine to tease wool” (teased wool
is easier to pick clean of vegetative matter, etc). The carpenter at
the Factory, James Slater, specialised in textile machinery, yet
beyond the teasing machine, there were no other forms of advanced
mechanisation. James had made Spinning Jennies and carding machines
for Simeon Lord.5
However, his skills were less desired in Parramatta.
In 1825 there were no jennies listed, and there
seems to have been no effort to import or have built knitting frames.
Such items would have reduced the number of workers needed, or
dramatically increased output. Had there been a willingness to invest
in knitting frames on a large scale, and to allow the women to use
them, it may have been possible for the Factory to provide the Colony
as a whole with stockings and other machine-knitted goods.
 |
| Stocking Frame, Ruddington Framework Knitter's Museum, John Beniston, 2005, Wikimedia Commons |
The Factory was producing respectable quantities
of woollen cloth, with some linen and some linsey-woolsey (linen
warp, wool weft), enough to supply the Hospital, the Asylum and the
Native School with blankets, make clothes for the inmates and send
bolts to the Kings Store in Sydney. While it has been described at
times as poor quality, it was good enough for the purposes to which
it was put, and in 1822 some cloth of superior quality was being
produced.6
Perhaps the variable nature of the cloth reflected the government's
unwillingness to truly commit to textile production at the Factory,
except as a punishment regime.
There was also the problem of “commercial
interests”. The English government would not allow processed cloth
to be sent back home for sale, as this would have worsened the
already difficult situation for the mills in England. So the only
market for the Factory cloth was the colonies. Simeon Lord and others
(including importers) argued strongly against the Female Factory
producing cloth on the grounds of competition. So the government,
instead of being smart, limited the Factory to supplying only
convicts, the asylum, the Orphan School and the Native School, that
is the “less deserving”. The dream of the Factory actually being
viable, and teaching the women really useful skills, died for the
sake of rich men's profits. Some things in New South Wales never
change.
Back to the Factory.
The women convicts were also making stockings,
although looking at the 1825 inventory, there were a lot of bad or
indifferent knitters and only a small handful of good knitters. There
were, however, only 39 sets of needles, which limited the number of
women who were able to knit at any one time, and would not have
allowed the inexperienced much time to practice.
The 1822 and 1825 inventories show a growing but
half-hearted textile manufactory. They answer some questions over
division of labour, but raise others. They also show the improvement
in the lives of the inmates, particularly in the areas of clothing
and bedding, as the new Factory established itself and moved away
from the depredations of the old room above the gaol.
1Ancestry.com.
New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1856
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc,
2010. Original Data: New South Wales Government. Main series of
letters received, 1788-1825. Series 897, Reels 6041-6064, 6071-6072.
State Records Authority of New South Wales. Kingswood, New South
Wales, Australia, Parramatta Female Factory inventory July
29 1822, accessed 20 July, 2016
2Ancestry.com.
New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1856
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc,
2010. Original Data: New South Wales Government. Main series of
letters received, 1788-1825. Series 897, Reels 6041-6064, 6071-6072.
State Records Authority of New South Wales. Kingswood, New South
Wales, Australia, Parramatta Female Factory inventory Nov 2
1824 [sic], accessed 20 July, 2016
3Trove,
“Government and General Order”, Sydney Gazette and New South
Wales Advertiser (NSW: 1803-1842), 13 December 1822, p1, c1
4Linen
thread is made from flax. Why the different name for the raw and
processed states, I do not know.
5Ancestry.com.
New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1856
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc,
2010. Original Data: New South Wales Government. Memorials to the
Governor, 1810-25. Series 899, Fiche 3001-3162. State Records
Authority of New South Wales. Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia,
Memorial of James Slater to Governor, 20 August 1822,
accessed 12 February, 2013
6Ancestry.com.
New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1856
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc,
2010. Original Data: New South Wales Government. Main series of
letters received, 1788-1825. Series 897, Reels 6041-6064, 6071-6072.
State Records Authority of New South Wales. Kingswood, New South
Wales, Australia, Report of William Tuckwell 22 Nov 1822,
accessed 20 June, 2016
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