HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L Archives

From: "Andrew Sellon" <>
Subject: [HWE] Huguenot Silk Industry (was Re: silk weaving industry in Germany)
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:53:32 -0000
References: <14e.1aa6f620.2b616858@aol.com>

Karen reminds us that Huguenots spread silk weaving skills (amongst many
others) throughout Europe.

She touches on a (to me) very interesting point. Whereas one thinks of the
Huguenot silk industry as finishing beautiful fabrics in a multitude of
finishes and colours the less glamorous parts of the industry, of breeding
and feeding the silk worms before gathering the raw product is forgotten,
(again, by me). While individual workshops in such places as Clerkenwell
finished the silk products, did the 'farming' of it (for want of a better
description) also take place near the 'finishing' trades?

Was it in fact mulberry leaves that the worms lived on? If so, were there
mulberry orchards producing the worm fodder in the vicinity, and was this
all undertaken by the Huguenot in-comers? (It so happens that the only
mulberries I have ever eaten were collected by my sister in law from ancient
trees on a rugby ground verging on Clerkenwell; don't tell her but I did not
enjoy the pie!).

Remember that until the mid 1800s Clerkenwell was on the edge of London,
although outside the City, with green fields and village beyond until Mr.
Penton began
his speculative building, producing what is now Pentonville. By this time
cheap imports of silk had largely killed off the local industry.

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon East Anglia
He who drinks a tumbler of London water has literally in his stomach more
animated beings than there are men, women and children on the face of the
globe. Rev. Sydney Smith 1771-1854, Canon of St. Paul's.


From: <>

> My earliest Huguenot ancestor, Laux JENTER, born circa 1580 in France,
> escaped into Germany and settled in Heselwangen, which is about 1 hour
south
> of Stuttgart. He and a number of the male JENTER's for many generations
were
> silk weavers.
>
> Several years ago there was a discussion on the list about the silk
weaving
> industry in the Wuerttemberg area. I believe at one time silk worms might
> have been exported from China and that area in Germany had a thriving silk
> weaving business.
>
<snip>

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