Alice Pastoret Macdonald, a weaver from Iowa, spent the best part of a decade weaving samples from all the draughts in the eighteenth century Thomas Jackson manuscript. In this post I present my photographs of her linen samples alongside the corresponding drafts from the manuscript.
Background
The weaver Thomas Jackson lived near Kirkleatham in the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1668 to 1746. In 1711 he bought a notebook in Rotterdam which he then used to keep a record of the cloth he was weaving for customers and family. His son and grandson, both also called Thomas Jackson, continued the tradition. The book contains drafts for about 65 different cloths woven by the three generations and is probably the best record we have of the techniques used by eighteenth century weavers in rural England. You can view the whole notebook here.
The manuscript was acquired by the Cooper Union Museum in New York in 1958. Over the following six years Alice Pastoret MacDonald, a weaver from Iowa, transcribed all the patterns in the manuscript and wove three sets of samples, one of which she gave to the museum. They include linens, woollens, ‘Iinsey-wonseys’, and coloured stripes.
I went to look at the manuscript and the samples in March 2024. The Cooper Hewitt’s curator of textiles generoulsy had the samples brought in from the storage facility in New Jersey where they are usually kept.
In this post I show my photographs of a selection of Macdonald’s linen samples. They are arranged in the order in which the draughts appear in the manuscript. For each sample I include my close-up photograph with an image of the corresponding draft in the manuscript.
In the notes I refer to the elder Thomas Jackson as Thomas Jackson Junior and his son as Thomas Jackson III, following the convention used by Harriet Tidball in the Shuttle Craft monogram “Thomas Jackson, Weaver; 17th and 18th Century Records.”
With thanks to Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, for making the manuscript accessible and facilitating my study visit. Manuscript images courtesy of Cooper Hewitt.
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Diaper in 12 Leaves (Little Die Spot)
Sample accession number: 1962-121-1
Draught appears on manuscript page 10, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior), with the following notes:
“Diaper in 12 Leaves. Work the 34th
This work I first wrought for Mrs Sandforth in the year of our Lord 1689. The draught is over and over and makes a little die (?) Spott proved (?) per TJ (?)”
A point draught on 12 leaves. The same draught is repeated by Thomas Jackson (III) on page 52, where the name “Little Die Spot” is more legible. The term ‘diaper’, with various spellings, is also used for the damask block patterns such as the ‘Very Prity Dieber’ (below).
Treadling orders are not given for most of the draughts, which are to be ‘treadled as drawn’.
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Fours & Fives for Happings
Sample accession number: 1963-15-3
Draught appears on manuscript page 11, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
There are several draughts for ‘hapings’ or ‘happings’ in the manuscript but the precise meaning of the term as used in eighteenth century Yorkshire is uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition: Something that covers a person, as a wrap, shawl, coat, etc., or a coverlet or bed-covering… Now chiefly Scottish and English regional (northern). The online Yorkshire Historical Dictionary has: A bed cover, a quilt or coverlet. The English Dialect Dictionary (Volume 3) has an entry for the verb ‘to hap’: to cover, enwrap; to cover up up for the sake of warmth. Jackson includes no notes about which kind of yarn was used in his happings. The definitions above suggest to me a woolen, or part woolen cloth, rather than one woven entirely from linen.
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Sattonett
Sample accession number: 1963-15-5
Draught on manuscript page 13, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
Thomas Jackson (Junior) gives a six leaf satinette as well as this 8 leaf version which is one of three draughts on page 13 of the manuscript. Nothing indicates this was meant for linen. The draught below it is Bird’s Eye in Worsitt (worsted).
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Huggaback (Dumb-flowers)
Sample accession number: 1963-15-6
Draught on manuscript page 14, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior) with notes added by Thomas Jackson (III):
“This Huggaback will take 6 cuts to Lay a yard if it be but 20 cuts to ye pound it must be in the 46 slay 2 in a reed”.
If a ‘cut’ is 300 yards, then 6 cuts is 1800 yards. Does Jackson mean it takes 6 cuts for the warp – in which case his warp has 1800 ends – or for the weft as well, in which case his warp is perhaps 900 ends? I estimate his 20 Lea yarn would be sett at about 40 ends per inch. In that case 1800 ends is 45 inches, or one Ell, while 900 ends is about 22 inches. “46” refers to the reed, but I am unsure how the reeds were measured.
This structure, with a figure of flushed weft on a tabby ground, is similar to a group of weaves called “Dumb Flowers” in John Murphy’s Treatise on the Art of Weaving (1827), chapter IX “Flushing”, section III. “Dumb-flowers are generally woven on cambric grounds; although they are sometimes applied to the ornamenting of shawls and gown pieces, the warp and weft of which are of different colours.”
The Jacksons use the term Huggaback or Huckaback to describe a variety of weaves where floats or ribs alternate with a tabby ground.
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The Garnished Table
Sample accession number: 1963-81-2
Draught on manuscript page 16, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior)
“This work is called the Garnished Table“
Point draught on 16 leaves.
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For Lady Standish
Sample accession number: 1963-81-3
Draught on manuscript page 20, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior)
“Work the 20th; This work I wrought for my Lady Standish”
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M and O Huggaback
Sample accession number: 1962-148-3
Draught on manuscript page 20, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“The Right M and O huggaback;
The same above.”
M & O (sometimes referred to as Ms and Os) is not usually thought of as a kind of huckaback, and the structure is quite different. See this post for my speculations about huckaback and its origins. Perhaps like huckaback it was used as towelling in eighteenth century Yorkshire. The structure alternates between plain weave and rib weave. Jackson’s version has three ribs per block rather then the more usual two, making a resemblance to the letter M of the name.
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Harts & Diamonds in 16 Leaves
Sample accession number: 1963-81-5
Draught on manuscript page 22, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“Harts and Diamonds in 16 leaves. Work the 4.”
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Hearts with Pops About Them
Sample accession number: 1963-81-7
Draught on manuscript page 24, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“This work makes hearts with pops about them. Work ye 6th.
This work the draught is all over and over and proved by me Thomas Jackson to be new work.”
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The Barley Corn
Sample accession number: 1965-40-1
Draught on manuscript page 25, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“This work is called The Barley Corn. You may work it either in Lining or worsitt.
The draught; The Barley Corn 172?.
Draw all one way”
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Unnamed draught on 16 Leaves
Sample accession number: 1965-40-1
Draught on manuscript page 25, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
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Diaper in 15 leaves
Sample accession number: 1963-81-9
Draught on manuscript page 30, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“Diaper in 15 leaves. Work the 32nd.
This work is called W?…
I first wrought it for Mrs…of Durham in the year …
Be sure to draw this work … ottherways it will make… proved by me Thomas Jackson …”
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Very Prity Dieber
Sample accession number: 1965-40-1
Draught on manuscript page 39, written by Thomas Jackson (III).
“This very Prity Dieber”
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Fower and Fives Work
Sample accession number: 1963-81-11
Draught on manuscript page 44, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“This is fower and five’s work. It was wrought for Elizabeth R(?)igg.”
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Huckaback
Sample accession number: 1962-148-8
Draught on manuscript page 45, written by Thomas Jackson (III).
Huckaback linen is traditionally used for towelling, with warp and weft floats giving its charactistic texture. It is normally woven in white or unbleachged grey linen, but Alice MacDonald wove this sample with a turquoise weft. The 1962 Accession number suggests it was amongst the earliest of her samples.
This draught has two alternative spellings of huckaback:
“Hukaback Ye tying. / Huggaback should be slayed common by two or three porteth farder than comon plane cloth. / For fifty cuts to ye pound you may work it in 66 slay two in a reed.“
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Dieper Happings
Sample accession number: 1962-121-2
Draught on manuscript page 46, written by Thomas Jackson (III).
“This work is for working dieper happings. When you begin to draw any haping you must begin in ye Midle of one of ye great spots as you see marked w’th et X because when you sue them together ye two half spots joyns to gether and makes ye spots whole then all ye twill runs right through out all ye happing. 1755.”
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For Women Pettecots
Sample accession number: 1963-81-10
Draught on manuscript page 58, written by Thomas Jackson (III).
“This may be wrought in Lin tow or S…? for Women Pettecots. Ye tying up.
The Draught and tread”.
Tow is coarse yarn made from the shorter flax fibres discarded during the preparation of the finer ‘line’ yarn.
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