AITKEN to WHAITE - Person Sheet
AITKEN to WHAITE - Person Sheet
NameSamuel STEVENS 
, GG Grandfather
, GG GrandfatherBirth Date21 Feb 180710430
Birth PlaceRadford, Nottinghamshire, England
Chr Date10 Mar 1807 Age: <1
Chr PlaceLenton, Nottinghamshire, England
MemoHigh Pavement Presbyterian Church
Death Date23 Mar 186110431 Age: 54
Death PlaceEast Maitland, Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
MemoKing Street of diseased Kidneys (Brights) long Asthma long, some weeks.
Burial Date25 Mar 1861
Burial PlaceEast Maitland, Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
MemoInformant by letter Edward Stevens Drover son
OccupationLacemaker, Shopkeeper, mechanic
FatherEdward STEVENS (ca1782-1848)
MotherMary WALKER (<1770-<1841)
Spouses
1Eliza PLACE 
, GG Grandmother
, GG GrandmotherBirth PlaceLeicester, Leicestershire, England
Chr PlaceLeicester, Leicestershire, England
MemoSt. Margarets
Death Date30 Jun 189110435 Age: 85
Death PlaceEast Maitland, Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
MemoSenile Decay 5 Months
Burial Date2 Jul 1891
Burial PlaceEast Maitland, Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
MemoCongregational Cem
Occupationneedlewoman (1848)
Alias/AKAElizabeth
FatherJohn PLACE (<1783-1853)
MotherSarah LIMBERT (ca1770-<1837)
Marr PlaceRadford, Nottinghamshire, England
Migration Date7 Oct 184810437
Migration PlaceSydney, New South Wales, Australia
MemoFrom UK on “Agincourt” , Samuel aged 38 was a lace maker from Radford, Nottingham. His parents were Edward & Mary and father was living in New Lenton near Nottingham,. He was baptised but couldn’t read or write.Samuel’s wife Eliza aged 32 was a needlewoman from Mountsorrel in Leicestershire. Her parents were John & Sarah and her father was living in Leicester. Samuel and Eliza had four children Edward, aged 11 born New Lenton, Eliza Anne, aged 9 born New Lenton, Charles aged 7 born Calais & Louisa, aged 2 born Calais..
Notes for Samuel STEVENS
THE STEVENS FAMILY IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND
Although Samuel Stevens’ occupation was given as Lacemaker in 1848 Immigration documents, his exact trade was not mentioned. During the rest of his life in Maitland, Samuel was said to be a Storekeeper and Shopkeeper but no record of him has been found in any 1841 census, so we do not know just what he did in England and France.
However, the lacemaking trade played an important part in the life of the Stevens family in England, as Samuel’s father was a Warper and Framework Knitter, while his mother was shown just as Lacemaker and his father in law John was a Hosiery Manufacturer.
The two trades were very closely connected, as lace making machinery was evolved from the first stocking machine invented as early as 1586 by William Lee in the reign of Elizabeth I. At this time both sexes wore hand knitted stockings, giving employment to thousands of people, so Elizabeth was not interested in Lee’s machine.
However, the French envoy at Elizabeth’s court arranged to have some of the new stocking machines taken to Rouen in France to set up a new industry there. In less than 10 years William had died and his brother James came over and took all the machines back to England, where he settled in Old Street Square in London, to start the hosiery industry.
Hosiery making then was a home industry with stocking machines known as frames being placed in a knitter’s house and agents for the hosiery manufacturer would call periodically to supply more thread, pick up the finished items, paying the Knitter for his work, less rent for the frame. It was the manufacturer who would further process the stockings and finally sell them.
These frames were quite complicated machines and easily put out of order and a whole new group of tradesmen like setters up, whitesmiths, turners and others were employed by the manufacturers to set them up, then repair and update them.
Over many years the trade spread to counties like Nottingham Derby and Leicester but so many frames were in use that by 1800 there was an oversupply and the industry almost collapsed.
Over very many years, attempts had been made to modify the stocking frames, so they could make lace edging. Around 1786, a machine was invented to make looped lace known as Point Net, but it was frail and unravelled when cut, so later improvements added a warp thread to lock the loops.
In 1808, John Heathcoat produced a machine which copied the centuries old practice of using bobbins and the era of the Bobbin Net began. Gradually the width of the lace increased, so that a pattern could be stamped on it, and this would then be embroidered to make items like lace curtains etc. The health of the thousands of young women and girls who did this work was permanently impaired after they had spent up to 14 hours a day stretched over the frames on which the lace was pegged.
While the lace making trade was more or less confined to England, a handful of English entrepreneurs gradually set up their operations in France, despite having to get their machines and mechanics there under various guises. The machines for example would be broken down into smaller parts, so they could be imported hidden in a load of old iron. Even during the Napoleonic Wars from 1800 to 1815, their factories were allowed to operate because they employed so many French workers.
One of these entrepreneurs was Robert Webster, who in 1816 set up a factory to make Bobbin Net in St Pierre a fishing village near Calais. While French workers operated the machines, it was English mechanics who set them up and maintained them. They came over to France, often in family groups and had a much better life than back in England.
It was to St Pierre that Samuel Stevens, his wife Eliza and their children Edward and Eliza Ann came when left their native Nottingham before late in 1842, when their first French child Charles was born. It is likely that Samuel followed his father into the Lacemaking Trade and may have even worked at the Knitting Frame set up in his home, but no record of Samuel’s exact occupation in the Lacemaking trade has been found either in Radford in England or Maitland NSW.
For almost 6 years, the Stevens life in St Pierre continued as before, but near the end of February 1848, Louise Phillipe of France abdicated and the whole country was in turmoil and foreigners were no longer welcome.
The Calais area was a safe haven protected by the local authorities and English groups from other places like Valencienes, Lille and Dunkerque came there, hoping to be able to get back to England. The French lacemaking factories had been closed when their English owners fled back home, leaving their English and French employees destitute and with all the banks closed, they shared the desperate conditions with many French people.
A petition to England brought some relief, but the Lacemakers were not wanted there because of the great pool of unemployed people especially in the Midlands area. Eventually, it was decided to send them as Emigrants to Australia and English authorities chartered three ships to take them there. The “Harpley” was sent to Adelaide, while the “Fairlie” and the “Agincourt” were to go to Sydney. A few small groups of Lacemakers were sent out on other emigrant ships.
The Stevens were allocated to the “Agincourt”, which was moored at Blackwell Reach on the Thames and it already had on board about 100 people, who had left Calais earlier. Later a tug took the ship downstream to Gravesend where it lay at anchor waiting for the rest of the emigrants. It was on 6 June 1848 that the last of the English emigrants left Calais on the steamboat “Tourist” and they and their baggage were transferred straight to the ship, which on 12 June, began the voyage to Australia.
A detailed account of the emigrants’ voyages to Australia is in Gillian Kelly’s “Well Suited to the Colony” [1998] Australian Society of the Lacemakers of Calais10438
Although Samuel Stevens’ occupation was given as Lacemaker in 1848 Immigration documents, his exact trade was not mentioned. During the rest of his life in Maitland, Samuel was said to be a Storekeeper and Shopkeeper but no record of him has been found in any 1841 census, so we do not know just what he did in England and France.
However, the lacemaking trade played an important part in the life of the Stevens family in England, as Samuel’s father was a Warper and Framework Knitter, while his mother was shown just as Lacemaker and his father in law John was a Hosiery Manufacturer.
The two trades were very closely connected, as lace making machinery was evolved from the first stocking machine invented as early as 1586 by William Lee in the reign of Elizabeth I. At this time both sexes wore hand knitted stockings, giving employment to thousands of people, so Elizabeth was not interested in Lee’s machine.
However, the French envoy at Elizabeth’s court arranged to have some of the new stocking machines taken to Rouen in France to set up a new industry there. In less than 10 years William had died and his brother James came over and took all the machines back to England, where he settled in Old Street Square in London, to start the hosiery industry.
Hosiery making then was a home industry with stocking machines known as frames being placed in a knitter’s house and agents for the hosiery manufacturer would call periodically to supply more thread, pick up the finished items, paying the Knitter for his work, less rent for the frame. It was the manufacturer who would further process the stockings and finally sell them.
These frames were quite complicated machines and easily put out of order and a whole new group of tradesmen like setters up, whitesmiths, turners and others were employed by the manufacturers to set them up, then repair and update them.
Over many years the trade spread to counties like Nottingham Derby and Leicester but so many frames were in use that by 1800 there was an oversupply and the industry almost collapsed.
Over very many years, attempts had been made to modify the stocking frames, so they could make lace edging. Around 1786, a machine was invented to make looped lace known as Point Net, but it was frail and unravelled when cut, so later improvements added a warp thread to lock the loops.
In 1808, John Heathcoat produced a machine which copied the centuries old practice of using bobbins and the era of the Bobbin Net began. Gradually the width of the lace increased, so that a pattern could be stamped on it, and this would then be embroidered to make items like lace curtains etc. The health of the thousands of young women and girls who did this work was permanently impaired after they had spent up to 14 hours a day stretched over the frames on which the lace was pegged.
While the lace making trade was more or less confined to England, a handful of English entrepreneurs gradually set up their operations in France, despite having to get their machines and mechanics there under various guises. The machines for example would be broken down into smaller parts, so they could be imported hidden in a load of old iron. Even during the Napoleonic Wars from 1800 to 1815, their factories were allowed to operate because they employed so many French workers.
One of these entrepreneurs was Robert Webster, who in 1816 set up a factory to make Bobbin Net in St Pierre a fishing village near Calais. While French workers operated the machines, it was English mechanics who set them up and maintained them. They came over to France, often in family groups and had a much better life than back in England.
It was to St Pierre that Samuel Stevens, his wife Eliza and their children Edward and Eliza Ann came when left their native Nottingham before late in 1842, when their first French child Charles was born. It is likely that Samuel followed his father into the Lacemaking Trade and may have even worked at the Knitting Frame set up in his home, but no record of Samuel’s exact occupation in the Lacemaking trade has been found either in Radford in England or Maitland NSW.
For almost 6 years, the Stevens life in St Pierre continued as before, but near the end of February 1848, Louise Phillipe of France abdicated and the whole country was in turmoil and foreigners were no longer welcome.
The Calais area was a safe haven protected by the local authorities and English groups from other places like Valencienes, Lille and Dunkerque came there, hoping to be able to get back to England. The French lacemaking factories had been closed when their English owners fled back home, leaving their English and French employees destitute and with all the banks closed, they shared the desperate conditions with many French people.
A petition to England brought some relief, but the Lacemakers were not wanted there because of the great pool of unemployed people especially in the Midlands area. Eventually, it was decided to send them as Emigrants to Australia and English authorities chartered three ships to take them there. The “Harpley” was sent to Adelaide, while the “Fairlie” and the “Agincourt” were to go to Sydney. A few small groups of Lacemakers were sent out on other emigrant ships.
The Stevens were allocated to the “Agincourt”, which was moored at Blackwell Reach on the Thames and it already had on board about 100 people, who had left Calais earlier. Later a tug took the ship downstream to Gravesend where it lay at anchor waiting for the rest of the emigrants. It was on 6 June 1848 that the last of the English emigrants left Calais on the steamboat “Tourist” and they and their baggage were transferred straight to the ship, which on 12 June, began the voyage to Australia.
A detailed account of the emigrants’ voyages to Australia is in Gillian Kelly’s “Well Suited to the Colony” [1998] Australian Society of the Lacemakers of Calais10438