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While
Stewarton undoubtedly has always been the most famous place in Scotland for
bonnet-making, it wasn't the only one. Knitting bonnets and caps was widespread
in the Lowlands, and it was quite common for farmers to take up bonnet making in
the winter time, when they could not work out-of-doors.But there were very few
places where bonnet-making was actually knitted into a proper craft with strict
rules and regulations. One was in Glasgow, where the bonnet makers had formed a
guild whose records went back to the 15th century. Another was in Stewarton,
where the bonnet trade was administered by the small and powerful Bonnet Court
of Corsehill. While it is known that the Stewarton bonnet trade was in existence
by 1590, the first minutes were dated from 1666.
Before that, however, there was an important document known as the Great
Agreement of 1650. It was signed on April 1 2th of that year by Sir Alexander
Cunningham, Laird of Corsehill and Deacon Heritable of the Bonnet Court of
Corsehitl, and Gavin Naismyth, Deacon of the Incorporation of Bonnet Makers and
Dyers in Glasgow. Its importance lay in the fact thai the bonnet-makers of
Stewarton were set on an equal footing with the bonnet-makers of Glasgow.
By the agreement the members of the Corsehill Court were permitted "in all tyme
comming to haunt the mercats of Glasgow to sell their bonnets without ony
interruptionne to be maid to their guds being visited and sichtit." In return
for this Sir Alexander Cunningham had to guarantee that there would always be a
good supply of Stewarton Bonnets, otherwise the Bonnet Court would be fined. If
a Glasgow merchant complained of faulty caps and his complaint was proved, the
fine was 6s. 8d. Scots for each cap. True, that would be just about five new
pence today, but it was a lot of money then.The weight and the quality of the
Stewarton bonnets were important and that is where the "sichters" came in. They
had to pass the caps, and, when they did, they attached a seal to them. Since
there were town bonnet-makers and makers in such "far" clachajis gs Cutstraw,
Blacklaw, Cocklebie, Peacockbank, Lintbrae and Kirkford both town and country "sichters"
were appointed. The Bonnet Court of Corsehill fined defaulters.
against the Romans. By 1757, however, the Stewarton bonnet-makers were using
indigo imported from India.In those days the caps were "picqued", or knitted by
hand The knitter wore a strong leather belt round the waist and used three
knitting pins, one of which was fixed through the belt. In good weather the
bonnet-makers would sit outside their homes and hold an animated conversation
across the main street of Stewarton as they knitted. Their tongues were as sharp
as their needles, and there were people who avoided the street if the
bonnet-makers were out I
The Society of Bonnet Makers in the town of Stewarton was formed in 1785. There
were 57 signatories to the Bond of Community, and it says a great deal for the
standard of education in the town that nearly every one of them could sign his
name in full.
That may sound funny nowadays, but it was remarkable then. We take writing for
granted, but only as far back as the last war the Army had to have special
courses to teach recruits how to write.
Two firms of bonnet-makers which were in being in those days are still alive and
going strong today, Robert Sim of Stewarton started about the end of the 18th
century, and Robert Mackie and Company were established early in the 19th
century. They used hand knitters when they started, but now, of course, they use
machines.
There are, as far as I know, np hand knitters in or near Stewarton now, but some
famous figures of the present day own real Stewarton bonnets. One is the Duke of
Gloucester, who was admitted as an Honorary Member of the Bonnet-makers and
Dyers of Glasgow in 1925. The Deacon of the day asked the Duke to "accept with
pleasure a rather interesting memento, namely a bonnet made by one of the oldest
of the Stewarton weavers." The effect was slightly spoiled, however, when the
Deacon went on, "I am afraid its design is somewhat ancient, but in any case we
desire that you shall remember this most interesting occasion, and we have
presented you with a Kilmarnock bonnet."
Confusion was worse confounded when the Bonnet-makers and Dyers of Glasgow made
Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein an Honorary Member of the
Incorporation. A bonnet was presented by the late Deacon T. Muir Wilson who
"explained that while the bonnet was called a Kilmarnock Bonnet it was in fact
the usual headgear worn by Scotsmen in the 16th and 17th centuries. This
particular bonnet had been made in Stewarton. He also explained that in 1662 the
Bonnet-Makers of Glasgow granted licences to the Merchants of Kilmarnock and
Stewarton to merchant their wares in Glasgow and there had always been a great
rivalry as to whether the bonnet was to be called a "Kilmarnock Bonnet" or a
"Stewarton Bonnet" and his advice to the Field-Marshal was to call it a "Scotch
Bonnet".
That's as may be. I would think that a bonnet knitted in the Stewarton style by
a native of Stewarton could be nothing but a Stewarton bonnet. And if, by any
chance. Viscount Montgomery of Alamein is listening, this is Captain Jack House
of Glasgow advising him to call his headgear a Stewarton bonnet. And if Viscount
Montgomery wants proof of his bonnet's origin, I can tell him that it was
knitted by the late Mrs. Morton, the last of the old school of hand knitters.
By 1729 the Court consisted of thirty-five members. All caps were ordered to
weigh 1 Ib. 15 oz. per dozen. Each half dozen was weighed and, if the caps were
underweight, they were instantly condemned to be burned. When some traders
complained of having received "wet caps", bonnets soaked to
weigh heavier, the makers were penalised.There was considerable rivalry with
Kilmarnock, where there were also bonnet makers. Naturally the Stewarton makers
thought their bonnets were better and there was a fine of £50 Scots for the
offence of "imposing Kilmarnock made caps for Stewarton ones on the people of
Glasgow, over and above expulsion from the Corporation." A Stewarton man going
to work on bonnets in Kilmarnock was fined C4 Scots on his return.To keep up the
price of bonnets the Court would occasionally order all work to be stopped in
the town. This was known as an "Idlesett", and one such was ordered on January
17th, 1754— "No bonnets to be made, only caps (night-caps), for the space of six
weeks, under penalty of 5s. for each day's transgression."
The Court were worried about colour too. On March 5th, 1757, they thundered,
"There is some person dyeing blew without indigo, which blew will nather stand
wind nor wather." The
There were landowners in Stewarton before them. King David I, son of Malcolm
Canmore, gave a large grant of land to a Norman knight named Hugh de Morville,
who founded Kilwinning Abbey in 1140. At that time there was already a little
ecclesiastical community in Stewarton. People tended in those old times to
gather round a chapel or a monastery. Glasgow, for example, started round the
little community built up by St. Mungo where the Cathedral stands today.When
Robert the Bruce became King of Scots, he took over the lands of Stewarton and
gave them to the Fitzalan family who held the office of High Steward of
Scotland. Walter Fitzalan married the daughter of Robert the Bruce and so the
Stewart family was started, Stewart having developed from Steward. This was in
the 13th century and it is believed that the little village was then named
Stewarton. It is recorded that, by the 16th century, there was a township of
Stewarton clustered round a church, and that the inhabitants occupied themselves
in making bonnets.
It's interesting to think of the canny folk of Stewarton, working away at their
bonnet-making white surrounded by feuds and factions among their so-called
"betters". At that very time, in 1508, a feud started between the House of
Rowallan and the Cunninghams of Cunning-hamehede over the office of parish clerk
of Stewarton.
This feud culminated 78 years later, when Hugh, the fourth Earl of Eglinton, was
murdered by Cunninghames when he was crossing the Annick in sight of Lainshaw.
For years, until it was built over, a path leading to the Annick was called the
Mourning Path. By the way, you may sometimes read the family's name as
Cunningham, at other times as Cuninghame. This is because people in the old days
spelled names any way they wanted to.
The great castles round Stewarton gradually decayed and became ruins. Indeed,
their ruin was sometimes hastened by the good folk of Stewarton who needed some
stones for a biggin or a dyke. But in the 17th century there was still a
Corsehill mansion with a fine avenue leading up from the little town. It is
Avenue Street today.
Corsehill was the seat of the Cunninghams, and the last of that ilk to live in
the mansion was Sir David Cunningham, who died in 1770. By 1789 it was being
described as a ruin too. But Corse-hill mansion was important to the development
of Stewarton because of Sir Alexander Cunningham, who was confirmed in his
holding of the local land
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