Chapter 2

The Bonnet Trade

Stewarton has been known as the Bonnet Toun for centuries and although it is recorded that The Bonnet Trade of Stewarton existed in 1650, it is likely that woollen bonnets were being knitted in and around the town long before that.

   In an old history book, "Cunninghame Topographised 1604-1608,” Timothy Font states that the Bonnet Trade of Stewarton was carried on by a small and powerful  Corporation  known  as the Bonnet Court of Corsehill. There are no records to state exactly when this Court came into existence but the original inmutes of the Court dating from 1666 to 1773 and from 1774 to 1790 were in the posession of Dr John Cunningham, a local general practitioner once of Brae House and latterly of Robertland. It is understood that these records are now held

by the Keeper of Ancient Records of Scotland in Edinburgh. Dr Cunningham published privately a small number of copies of the two books and it is from one of the books that some of the following information is copied.

   Back in the early days the chief markets for selling the bonnets and night caps were the local fairs which were held in most towns. By 1620 Stewarton had three annual fairs:  the first Thursday in January, the first Monday in May and the last Wednesday in October. The principal market for the goods) however, was in Glasgow especially at the Glasgow Fair in July which still exists to this day, albeit as the city's annual two-week vacation.

   The knitting of the bonnets was not confined to the townspeople, as it also took place in the surrounding countryside in farms and cottages, and names which frequently appear in the old records are Cutstraw, Lintbrae,  Little  Corsehill, Nether Robertland, the Spat, Kirkford, Cocklebie,  Kilbride,  Meikie  Corsehill, Peacockbank,   Mosside,   Goosehills, Hoirnheid, Hareshaw, Muirend, Bogside, Fullshaw, Braehead, Dinings and Corsehouse. It is said the farmers turned to bonnet-making during the winter months when farming activities were almost at a standstill.

   On the 12th of April, 1650, the "Great Agreement" was signed. This contract  was  between  Sir  Alexander Cunninghame, Laird of Corsehill and Deacon Heritable of the Bonnet Court of Corsehill,  on  one  hand,  and  Gavin Naismith, Deacon of the Incorporation of Bonnet makers and Dyers of Glasgow, a body which had been in existence since the 15th Century, on the other. In the document, the Laird of Corsehill bound himself to guarantee the sufficiency of the Stewarton bonnets, which failing he was responsible for due penalties. If any Glasgow merchant made a complaint about faulty caps and it was proved, the fine imposed was 6/8d Scots for each cap, which was probably more than the cost of the cap. In return it was permitted for members of the Corsehill Court "in all tyme coming to haunt the mercats of Glasgow to sell their bonnets without ony interruptions to be maid to their guds being visited and sichtet."

   This was well named the "great" agreement as far as Stewarton was concerned because it set up the local bonnet makers on an equal footing with their competitors in the city of Glasgow and gave them an equal status in the Glasgow Market.

   To ensure that the goods made in Stewarton were up to the high standards demanded in Glasgow, the Corsehill Court appointed "sichters" whose job it was to carry out inspections and check for weight and quality, and fines were imposed on defaulters. As bonnets were made in both the town and the district, town and country sichters were assigned and caps .which passed all the tests were given a seal of approval.

   By 1729, the court had been extended to 35 members and its office bearers were the   Deacon Heritable, Bailie, Treasurer, and  an  Officer to  enforce the regulations. The caps were all knitted by hand, or "peekied", using a leather belt round the waist. This belt carried one knitting pin about sixteen inches in length with one end fixed through the leather and two free pins were then used in conjunction to form the stitches. After the knitting, the caps were milled to form a firm cloth and dyeing followed .The Court stipulated that only indigo must be used as it was fast to sunlight and withstood wet treatments and milling.

   In order to maintain the price of bonnets, there were enforced periods of compulsory desistence from work, a kind of old- time holidays without pay, lasting sometimes for weeks, and these were called "Idlesetts."

   In 1729, this entry appears in the Minutes of the Bonnet Court: "None to go through the town of Glasgow with bonnets after the 22nd Inst excepting those wrought before that day, under the penalty of £50 Scots."

   There were also some bizarre rules: Girls had to knit their bonnets at home and children were forbidden to be taught the work by anyone not of the family of the child. All caps had to weigh 1lb. 15 oz. per dozen and the sichters were told:  "Caps insufficient are instantly condemned to be burnt." That same year, 1737, "unfreeman" were fined for encroaching and a person going to work in Kilmamock was fined £4, Penalties were also made on those supplying wet caps to traders to make them heavier and these were usually caps which hadn't been sichtet.

   The bonnet makers of Stewarton always considered themselves superior to their counterparts from Kilmarnock and were very jealous of their good names. It was therefore decreed that there would be a fine of £50 Scots for each offence of "imposing Kilmarnock-made caps for Stewarton ones on the people of Glasgow over and above expulsion from the Corporation." The Corporation refers to the Incorporation of Bonnet makers and Dyers of Glasgow which banned the Kilmarnock bonnets.

   There are some other comical entries in the old minutes, one of which states (on 5th March 1757): "There is some person dyeing blew without indigo which blew will nather stand wind not wather."

   Bonnets were sometimes used for other purposes than keeping the head warm and dry, for in the poem about Rab Rorrison's bonnet we read: "He used it as a meal poke and tattie poke tae, he tried it for kale but it let oot the braie." This particular kind of bonnet was for evermore called a Rab Rorrison.

   On 8th August 1785 in the Baron Court House of Stewarton "The Bond of Community was drawn up and entered into by 57 Bonnet Makers, all belonging to the Society of Bonnet Makers in the town of Stewarton."

   The society was governed by a Deacon and 2 Councillors with a Treasurer or Boxmaster. There was a membership fee and when the funds of the Society exceeded £100 Sterling, such sums were to be disbursed to the widows or to families of deceased members "if indigent or in straitened circumstances."

   The last minute of the Society of Bonnet Makers is dated 3rd February, 1790. Both the Bonnet Court and the Society have been described since as early forms of trade unions. Strangely, after the industrial revolution, it took a long time of hard and sometimes bitter fighting before the unions were allowed into the factories.

   Towards the end of the 18th century came the industrial revolution which was to transform the manufacturing methods, not only in Stewarton but all over the country.  Machinery was invented by James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton for spinning cotton and wool into threads, a process very much faster and cheaper than that of the old spinning wheels which had been worked by women and children previously.

    Those machines began to be installed in the new factories, around which houses were built to accommodate the workers. This happened in Stewarton at Darlington, or Deans Street as it was named; and at Holm Street, "doon the Bey" to make use of the colloquialism.

   This virtually put an end to the cottage industry which did not please the small farmers and cottagers who lost their additional earnings from winter work at home.

   The first bonnet factory in Stewarton was established in 1820 by Robert Simon the banks of the Annick at Robertland Mills and this old firm was in existence until 1987 when Mrs Jenny Sim retired. In 1842, Robert Mackie decided to leave the family spinning and dyeing business which had been founded in 1823 as T. Mackie and Sons, and set up his own bonnet making business in Holm Street. This was to be the start of something big as the firm became renowned distributing its products, which eventually included knitwear, all over the world.

   Robert Mackie was the first to use "needle wires” for hand-knitting fine Scotch bonnets as only a coarse quality of bonnet had previously been "haun peekied." When the wholesalers refused to handle the new bonnets as they replaced existing fine bonnets, he sold them direct to the retailers which resulted in a change of mind by the wholesalers. There will be more about Robert Mackie in another chapter.

    Incidentally, the derivation of the word "peekie" is not known, although it has been suggested that it might be onomatopoeic; that is, sounding like needles clicking against one another but it is also thought to have a Danish connection.

   In the 1860s there were ten bonnet makers, three woollen spinners and eight agents to manufacturers in Stewarton.

   The bonnet trade continued to prosper for some time but gradually, as other forms of headgear began to supplant the traditional Scotch cap or hat, the trade had to widen the scope of its production, succesive developments being the manufacture of stockings, combinations and heavy underwear, etc. The first rib vest to be made in Britain was manufactured by a Stewarton firm while the spencer coat, the forerunner of the modern jumper, originated in the Bonnet Toun. Carpets, too, were made at one stage but the last carpet to be manufactured at R. Mackie's was in 1881.

   At Robertland Mills, Robert Sim specialised latterly in baladavas, ski and bob caps and tartan tarns, mainly for sportswear. It is believed that Sherpa Tensing was wearing a balaclava made in Sim's when he reached the summit of Mount Everest.

   In 1960, the old Annickvale Works in Holm Street were gutted by fire but the company soon found new premises just along the street, the former factory of A. Cunningham's Hosiery Works. In 1983, another move was made, this time to become part of Thomas Mackie & Sons, Spinners and Dyers. Thus the businesses of two brothers, Thomas and Robert Mackie, who had parted amicably some 140 years earlier, were united at last.

  Robert Mackie & Co. continues to produce top-quality felted glengarries and balmorals in their "black work" department. They also turn out Tarns, cloche hats, ski jackets and scarves, and recently have extended into mohair and fashion trade. The future of the industry looks bright and Managing Director Tom Mackie has stated that as long as there are Scottish regiments and pipe and flute bands, Mackie's will be bonnet-making.