[Bell Historians] Stays

[Ted Steele]

Dennis Powney wrote:
>
> In his will, written in 1760, Daniel Butler of Bromham Wilts gave his 
> occupation as a stay-maker. Was he employed full-time making the stays 
> to hold a bell in the mouth-upward position, or could he be making 
> female undergarments!





> I was recently researching some family history when I discovered an 
> ancestor who, in 1881 had been Medical Officer (Surgeon) at a 
> workhouse in Southwark that later became Dulwich Hospital. Listed 
> among the residents were two elderly women, both described as paupers 
> and Stay Makers. It would appear that the trade must have related to 
> clothing, but it was apparently not very profitable.





  
Ted