While reading an O. Henry short story recently, I came upon the word cordwainer and it delighted me. What was this word and what was its meaning? And what better was a follow-up to my previous article about socks, than shoes? Let’s go on today’s adventure!
The term cordwainer entered English from the Anglo-Norman cordewaner which denoted a worker in cordwain or cordovan leather.
The terms cordwainer and cobbler in Great Britain meant that a cordwainer could make new shoes using new leather. Whereas a cobbler was someone who repaired shoes. Medieval cordovan leather was used for the highest quality shoes. The most basic foot protection in the Mediterranean area was the sandal. Similar footwear in the Far East was made from plaited grass or palm fronds.
In London, the occupation of cordwainers was controlled by the guild of the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers. The royal charter of incorporation was in 1439. Until 2000 a Cordwainers’ Technical College existed in London. It was absorbed into the London College of Fashion.
The production of wooden shoes was widespread in medieval Europe. For most of its history, shoemaking was a handicraft and fashioned by hand. Some of the various techniques used were the English welted, goyser welted, Norwegian stitchdown, German sewn, moccasin, Bolognese stitched and blake-stitched.
Cordwainers sailed to Virginia in 1607 and settled Jamestown. Christopher Nelme of England was the earliest shoemaker in America. He had sailed from Bristol, England in 1619.
The first steps toward mechanization were taken during the Napoleonic Wars by the engineer Marc Brunel. He developed machinery for the mass-production of boots for the soldiers of the British Army. In 1812 he secured the support of the Duke of York and the shoes were mass manufactured because of their strength, cheapness, and durability.
Talent for shoemaking came from the women. The Daughters of St. Crispin was an American labor union of women shoemakers and was founded in Lynn, Mass. July 28, 1869. It was the first national women’s labor union in the USA. St. Crispin is the patron saint of cobblers, tanners, and leather workers.
In 1870 a convention of the Daughters of St. Crispin unanimously adopted a resolution which demanded equal pay for doing the same work as men. In 1872, 300 members of the union staged a strike in three factories in Stoneham, Mass.. That strike was unsuccessful, but another one that same year was successful and granted workers higher wages.
The Daughters of St. Crispin represented both resident stitchers who lived in towns near the factories and the floating stitchers who moved from factory to factory in response to seasonal shifts in work. Members of the union testified before Congress in 1874 in favor of labor laws that limited women and children to a 10-hour work day in manufacturing jobs. Members were involved in debates about the impact of suffrage on the interests of working class women and middle class morality.
The national organization began to decline as early as 1873 as a result of the Long Depression and many members eventually joined the Knights of Labor which formed in 1869.
So now that you are well aware of socks and shoes and cordwainers, put on your best socks and shoes and trip the light fantastic.