| Description | Sign., etc., of parties. Witn., John Stewart, Rob. Shilton, jun.
The occupation of the people of the city, ribbon-weaver (DR0429/332), watchmaker (DR0429/331) have become familiar by the end of the eighteenth century; but a cork cutter's (DR0429/330) must have been a rare calling. The seventeen-nineties were troublous years in Coventry, for the leaven of the French Revolution was beginning to work; but a large meeting held in the County Hall, under George Howlette, mayor (DR0429/336), protested its loyalty to George III. Repreasive political action was taken under Pitt, bread rose to famine price with the continuance of the War with France, and in 1795 a brand-riot in Coventry was put down by the military. The Women's Market (DR0429/336), a brick-pillared shed, was pulled down in 1867. There is a drawing of it in "Troughton Sketches." In former days farmers' wives sat there and sold butter, eggs and poultry at the Friday market. |