Comments on: A Dress of Spitalfields Silk

By: Debra

Debra — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 20:08:44 +0000

My great great grandfather, William White, was a silk weaver and then a silk merchant in this area, if anyone has info on the White family

By: Susan Foxall

Susan Foxall — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 22:40:13 +0000

Hi Barbara I also have A great grand parent name of King Harper who was a silk weaver
Diamond Court, Christchurch, Whitechapel, London & Middlesex, England Who 1851 census was a silk hand loom weaver

By: Lindsay Tether

Lindsay Tether — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 10:16:46 +0000

My grandmother’s parents were Ayres and I believe there was a connection to Bethnal Green – my great grandfather worked as a silk dresser and helped in the making of Princess May of Tec’s wedding dress – a Huguenot connection/Spoitalfields?
Then my grandmother married my grandfather and settled in Peterborough.

By: Pamela Holland Henning

Pamela Holland Henning — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 14:08:21 +0000

I am a great-great-granddaughter of Charles Holland born at 3 Scott St Bethnal Green and his wife Ann Brooks. On his son Charles’ birth certificate he is listed as a silk weaver. I know nothing else.

By: Izabella Póvoa

Izabella Póvoa — Tue, 11 May 2021 21:54:40 +0000

I am from Brazil! Very good to read on this topic! Great text. 🙂

By: June Torcasio

June Torcasio — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 21:29:55 +0000

Please put me in touch with Ken Miller, for I am also descended from the Dedes, Smarts and Le Riches. We probably have family history research to share!

By: Kate High

Kate High — Wed, 16 May 2018 08:10:48 +0000

I am very interested in fashion of all ages this dress is absolutely stunning the workmanship is so perfect which it was in those days . The silver threads and intricate design and sheer size can only amaze, and to have seen that in candlelight must have been something.
I had family living quite close to Spitalfield in that era and as yet haven’t managed to discover if they worked their. They were supposed to have left Yorkshire from the wool industry and have often wondered if they were following the weaving industry.

By: Ron Bunting

Ron Bunting — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 08:24:45 +0000

Growing up in New Zealand, My Grandfather Percy Bunting would drop little stories such as his Mother being of French extraction. So many years after his passing and the coming of the internet I finally discovered just how French some my ancestors were. We Buntings in our branch of the tree are all descended from the Rev Jabez Bunting ,who lived out his days in Mylton Square ,Kenilworth. Theres a disc on the wall of his house there. Anyway, as a result of methodist upbringings a lot of the family were very socially conscious and Spitalfields was in bad way when when ny Great great grandfather,Joseph Benson Bunting (jabez’ Son) Met my GGgrandmother,Charlotte Cazely . The Cazelys were from Gard ,languedoc ,In France where they had their estate seized because they were huguenot . Mde Cazely and her 12 Children escaped to England, Setting up Home in Spitalfields. There were a lot of Cazalys there after a generation and many were Silk Weavers and Cordwainers, (fine shoe makers) . I have seen various documents signed by one Mde Cazalys sons who eventually returned to France, a very wealthy man and bought back the Family Chateau. later generations show up as Apprentices and some are named in the freedom of the city documents which were required before you could trade in London . Joseph and Charlottes Son ,Jabez , (one of 3 in that era in the family.. ) Married my g grandmother in the Liberty of the rolls ,London, She was Lillian Maud Defee, another Huguenot Family who four generations back ran a counting house . (a bank, basically) But lillian’s dad ,although he served an apprenticeship as a weaver also, ran a stall at billingsgate markets. Again,the Defees were prolific family people marrying into other huguenot Families . one of the other names is Hayzlefor ,which by the late 1800’s had been altered to Hazel. I still think of Nicholas Ball playing the part of a cockney Detective bloke named Hazell, in London …ha ha . Cheers!.

By: Ken Miller

Ken Miller — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 08:22:32 +0000

Hi, Thank you very much for the research done here. My ancestors are the Dede’s, Le Riche’s and Smarts who I believe were all silk weavers from Spitalfields. I would love to find out more about my ancestry and their life. Thank you

By: Claire Turner

Claire Turner — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 19:59:27 +0000

My ancestors George Davies and his son Edwin are listed in the 1841 and 1851 censuses as silk porters and silk packers. They lived in Duke Street and my great, great grandmother, Eliza and her siblings were born there. Edwin’s children, like himself were mostly born in Old Artillery Ground. They shared the houses they lived in with other families so it was probably quite cramped as they had several children.
By 1891 Edwin was a silk agent and they were living in Hackney Road. I would love to know more about the Davies family if anyone knows anything.