CLOTHIER

"All wool and a yard wide"

Just where this old saying comes from or even when it became a current is unknown but it does have athe ring of antiquity to it. Actually, a webb of cloth (call a "whole cloth") was supposed to measure twenty-four yards long, but its width would vary from time to time and in different places. Cloth one yard wide was not as economical as greater widths, but the width of a cloth depended on the width of a man's loom. If one's loom was built for thirty-six-inch cloth, it could not possibly turn out anything wider.

Old records show tht cloth was measured in quarters. One yard wide was four quarters, and soon five-, six-, and even seven-quarter widths were being made. The rough English burel that the Anglo-Saxon weavers had been turning out for many years before the age of heddles and treadles arrived. Burel continued to be woven fo a great many years after much nicer cloth was available. It was much cheaper than the fancy flannels of the new age in weaving, and it continued to be the material from which was made the clothing of the common people. Now and then great quantities of it were ordered by a king to give to the poor.

As a consequence of this, a sizable number of weavers who could not make any of the new materials stuck to their old looms. They were eventually named from the goods they made - BOREL, BURLER, CLOTHER, CLOTHIER, CLOTHMAN, WOLLER, WOLLESTER, WOOLER, WOOLLER and WEAVERS.(2)

CLOTHIER: Robert le Clother 1286 MESO (Nf). A derivative of OE clãp "cloth', maker or seller of cloth. cf. Richrd le Clothmongere 1296 Oseney (O), Thomas Clothman 1416 LLB I. (7)

Var's: Clother, Clothier, Cothman and Clothmanger.

Researching:  Marian E. Clothier  m.  1902  -  Robert Alexander Vidler