Jesse and James Compton Bobbin Makers
Jesse and james Compton
'Wakes oak", and "A New Years Gift For 1884 By]. Compton."
(Courtesy of Northampton Museum and Art Gallery.)
Thomas Wright in his book "Romance Of The lace States that " there were two famous bobbin makers
,at Deanshanger, Jesse Compton and his son James
according to the same writer, James made
bobbins from the famous Wakes Oak of
prest, which was burnt down by schoolboys
\1t says that this bobbin, inscribed "Wakes
d to the Reverend A J. Roberts who
her an enviable collection of lace bobbins
time. His daughter gave this collection,
eWakes Oak bobbin, to Northampton
1950. Also in this collection is a very
bone bobbin with the spiral inscription "A
Gift For 1884 By J. Compton". J. Compton
to James, as his father Jesse, died in 1856.
ng is coloured red and blue just as Thomas
}Is James used. It is very likely that the
itof how the dots were coloured, which the
~oberts gave to Thomas Wright, refers to the
he saw James Compton using, as the Reverend
lsolived in the Parish of Passenham {of which
ger is a part} and his cousin Frances, married
'pton's youngest surviving son in 1876.
were able to see two bobbins, one in wood
rbone, which were definitely made by James
However, it was not until we visited Aylesbury
that we were able to identify the work of his
se. Here we found two bone bobbins with
~e same spiral inscription "Sarah Luckett Died
~r1Oth Aged 56". One was indisputably the
'f.•James Compton, bearing all the familiar
, istics, but the other had a tail end and head of
ifferent, and up until that point, un-named maker.
ities between the two were quite unmistakable,
.adouble line at the top of the shank and a single
tpebottom, both used the same style of lettering,
reconvincing than any other feature was the way in
'!" .:, }joth makers wrote the figure five in the inscription,
il1-~r bobbin
...;- "".Z'Jeft the top
"". E? ~this figure in
nero
A
Fig. 10.1
Note the top
figureS.
noted a large number of inscriptions, particularly spiral inscriptions,
which had been made by this maker and the date
span of these inscriptions indicated that he started his
bobbin making career in the 1820's but the vast bulk of
his dated bobbins fell in the 1830's and 40's. This is entirely
consistent with the theory that the maker was
James's father, Jesse Compton.
It is perfectly natural that a father, teaching his son
how to make bobbins, should teach him to produce
bobbins which were very similar to his own. James later
did develop one or two features which enable us to tell
his work from that of his father's, but his earlier bobbins
are extremely closely modelled on those of his father,
and it is sometimes very difficult to tell their bobbins
apart. We therefore feel confident in stating that the
second Sarah Luckett bobbin was the work of Jesse
Compton, although why both father and son should
make identical bobbins remains a mystery!
Jesse Compton 1793-14th January 1857
Jesse Compton was the son of James and Mary
Compton. He was born in 1793 in Uphaven, Wiltshire,
where his father was a farmer. In 1817, the now 24 year
old, Jesse made his way to lincolnshire. In the
lincolnshire archives, there are records of the "Thomas
A'Becket" sessions at Kirton dated Friday 18th July 1817.
These archives reveal that as punishment for vagrancy,
Jesse Compton was to be detained for 13 days in the
Kirton House of Correction, then publicly whipped, and
sent back to Uphaven. This was the harshest sentence
handed out at that session. The removal order required that
the offender be escorted to each county boundary there to
be transferred into the custody of the next official so ensuring
his return to Wiltshire. For some reason Jesse only reached
Hanslope in Buckinghamshire where he must have found
work. Here he met and married Catherine. Hisrehabilitation
was complete for we
have discovered no
other records of wrong
doing.
It is not until the
baptism of his fifth child
in 1838 that Jesse describes
himself as a bobbin
maker. He also described
himself as a
turner on his eldest son's
marriage lines in 1845.
These are the only two
occasions when he does
not describe himself as
a Hawker or labourer,'
