1612. Have you any pass-book at all?-No.
1613. You get the wool weighed out to you, and you take back the
article which has been ordered?-Yes.
1614. What articles do you knit?-Veils, shawls, neckties, ladies'
scarfs, and the like.
1615. How long have you been doing business in that way?-
About fifteen years.
1616. How are you paid?-Just in goods from the shops.
1617. You take an article which you have made to the shop, and
tell them what the price is?-No; they price it themselves.
1618. Do they price it when the material is given out to you?-No;
they price it when the article is brought to them again.
1619. When they have fixed the price, what takes place?-I can
get anything out of their shop in the shape of goods that I ask for,
only I cannot get any money.
1620. Do you not get part of the price in money?-No; I have
never any money from Mr. Sinclair, except perhaps 5s., for the
whole fourteen years I have wrought for him.
1621. Do you get money from other dealers you have
mentioned?-I have got a little money from Mr. Thomas
Nicholson; but it is not long since he began business for himself.
1622. Do you often go into the shops with articles worth about
10s?-Yes.
1623. How much of that do you get in money?-I have never got
any money from Mr. Sinclair at all. It is about seven years since I
asked him for 1s., and he would not give it me, and I have not
asked since.
1624. Can you only get dry goods and tea at the shops?-I can get
tea, and soap, and soda, and blue, and starch, and the like of that.
1625. How do you get your food?-I have a father, who buys it for
me.
1626. You live with your father, and get your food with the
family?-Yes; what his wages can bring in.
1627. Is that the only way you have of getting a living?-No;
sometimes I have to take things out of the shop and sell them for
money.
1628. To whom do you sell them?-To any neighbour or any
person who requires them.
1629. Do you do that often?-No; I have not done it for the last
two years, because some of the ladies in the town have employed
me to knit for money.
1630. Do you prefer to sell to ladies in the town?-Yes.
1631. Are the goods which you knit for them for their own use?-
Yes; or perhaps they get an order from the south, and they will
rather put the money our way than go to the merchants with it.
1632. Do many ladies befriend you in that way?-Not many.
There is Mrs. Walker, the Rev. Mr. Walker's lady.
1633. Who else?-I have not done anything for any other person
for money.
1634. But Mrs. Walker pays you in money?-Yes; and the same
amount as I would get in goods from the shops.
1635. Are the women who knit anxious to get customers of that
kind?-Yes.
1636. Would you be content with a lower price for your shawls if
you could get it in cash?-Yes.
1637. Have you ever been to take a lower price and get the
money?-No.
1638. Have you ever offered to take less for your shawls if you
could get money?-Yes.
1639. To whom did you make that offer?-I offered a white half-
shawl to Mr. Robert Sinclair, and I also offered a white half-shawl
to Mr. Thomas Nicholson.
1640. When?-The one I sold to Mr. Nicholson was in the spring,
and that to Mr. Sinclair was about two years back.
1641. How much less did you offer to take in these cases?-2s.
The shawl was worth £1, and I offered it for 18s.
1642. Was anything due to you by Mr. Sinclair at the time you
asked for the shilling?-Yes; I think he was due me about 5s. 6d.
at that time.
1643. Do you mean that you took goods to the shop worth 5s.
6d.?-No; he was due me about 5s., 6d. at that time. I was
knitting a shawl for him, and was settling up for it.
1644. Was the shawl not finished?-Yes; I brought the shawl
ready, and I was settling up. I had all the price of the shawl to get,
and I took some goods, and then there was about 5s. 6d. over; and
I asked him for 1s., and he said he could not give it to me.
1645. How did you square the balance at that time?-I just took
something to give to a girl who had been working in our peats.
1646. What did you take?-A petticoat.
1647. Was it worth. 5s. 6d.?-Yes; the girl took it because she
knew I could not get the money.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, MRS. MARGERY MANSON or
ANDERSON, examined.
1648. Are you a knitter in Lerwick?-Yes.
1649. Do you knit with your own wool?-I have done so for the
last twelve months.
1650. Before that, who did you knit for?-For Mr. Robert
Linklater.
1651. You got wool from him?-Yes.
1652. Were you paid for your work in goods, or in money?-In
goods.
1653. Did you get any money from him that you asked for, if you,
wanted some?-I knew that I need not ask him for any, because I
would not have got it.
1654. You are married, and therefore you don't spend all your
time in knitting?-No.
1655. Why did you give up knitting for Mr. Linklater?-Because I
could not do with it; it did not pay me.
1656. How did it not pay you?-I could not get money.
1657. But were the goods you got not as good you as money?-
No.
1658. Were they not worth the money value that was put upon
them?-No.
1659. Why was that?-I did not have money to live upon.
1660. But your husband keeps you?-No; he is sickly, and I have
to do for myself.
1661. You have heard the evidence of the preceding witnesses,
Catherine Borthwick and Margaret Tulloch?-Yes.
1662. They have explained the way of dealing here. Is that the
way you have been accustomed to?-Yes.
1663. Have you anything different to say about the way in which
you were paid for shawls that you knitted with Mr. Linklater's
wool?-No.
1664. Did you ever get lines when you would not take goods?-
No; I had a pass-book.
1665. Have you got it here?-No.
1666. Was it kept in the same way as Margaret Tulloch's?-Yes.
1667. The goods you got were entered at one end, and the shawls
you gave in were entered at the other, and a balance was made
now and then?-Yes.
[Page 33]
1668. How often was your book balanced?-I don't remember.
1669. Did you sign your pass-book as a receipt?-No; he signed it.
1670. You have had no pass-book since you began to knit with
your own wool?-No.
1671. Where do you buy your wool now?-I have a woman
spinning for me, and I buy the worsted from her.
1672. You pay her in ready money?-Yes.
1673. Do you sell your shawls to any person in particular?-Yes;
to Mr Robert Sinclair.
1674. Are you paid for them in goods?-Yes, and a little in
money. I always get some money from him to buy the worsted
with.
1675. Would you be content with a lower price for your shawls if
you were paid in money?-Yes.
1676. Have you ever asked to get it all in money, and offered to
take less?-No.
1677. Do you ever sell shawls to ladies or to any person not in the
trade?-No; Mr. Robert Sinclair has bought them all from me.
1678. Have you ever asked for more money from any of the
merchants than they would give you?-No.
1679. Have you ever got lines?-Yes, I got lines from Mr.
Sinclair.
1680. When?-When I gave in my articles.
1681. And when you did not happen to want goods?-Yes.
1682. Have you got any of these lines?-No.
1683. What did you do with them?-I gave them back when I got
the goods.
1684. Was that long ago?-No, not long ago; it was when I sold
my last shawl to him.
1685. Would that be a month or two?-Yes.
1686. Was a line given to you for the whole price of the shawl that
you were selling, or was it only for the balance?-27s., was the
price of the shawl.
1687. How much of that did you take in goods?-I took about one
half of it, and I got a line for the rest.
1688. Did you take the line out in goods afterwards-Yes.
1689. You did not think of asking money for the line?-No; I
never asked money at that time.
1690. Did you ever know of people selling their lines to their
neighbours?-No.
1691. Or dealing with them in any way, or letting their neighbours
get goods for them?-No.
1692. How much of the 27s., the price of your last shawl, did you
get in money?-7s.
1693. When was that?-I think about two months ago, I do not
recollect exactly.
1694. Was the 7s. all that you asked for?-Yes; I asked for the 7s.
and he said he would give it to me.
1695. Did you take 4s. or 5s, worth of goods at the same time?-
Yes; or perhaps more.
1696. And the rest in a line?-Yes.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, JEMIMA SANDISON, examined.
1697. Are you a knitter in Lerwick?-Yes.
1698. Do you knit with your own wool?-No.
1699. Do you knit for merchants in the town?-Yes; for Mr.
Robert Sinclair.