A silkwoman was a woman in medieval, Tudor, and Stuart England who traded in silks and other fine fabrics.<ref>Marian K. Dale, 'The London Silkwomen of the Fiftenth Century', Econmomic History Review', 4 (1933), pp. 324-5.</ref> London silkwomen held some trading rights independently from their husbands and were exempted from some of the usual customs and laws of coverture. The trade and craft of the silkwoman was encouraged by a statute of Henry VI of England as a countermeasure to imports of silk thread, and a suitable occupation for "young gentlewomen and other apprentices". Silkwomen in London
In 1421 Alice Corsmaker paid 6s-8d to the Mercer's Company of London to trade as a silkwoman. Alice Bradbridge was recognised as a "sister" of the Worshipful Company of Drapers.
Silkwomen in London manufactured silk thread from raw silk imported from Italy, wove and sold ribbons, braids, cord, girdles, and trimmings, called "narrow ware", and made other silk goods. In the Elizabeth period, silkwomen also provided linen goods including lawn sleeves and partlets.
Silkwomen supplying the royal wardrobe
Emmot Norton and Matilde Dentorte were London silkwomen supplying the wardrobe of Joan of Navarre, queen consort of Henry IV of England with silk thread, cord, gilt silk ribbons or bands, and latten rings and fixings, in 1420, when she was a prisoner at Leeds Castle. Four other women sold cloth for her gowns.
Anne Claver (died 1489) was a silkwoman to Edward IV. She supplied silk thread for sewing or embroidery, ribbons, a mantle of blue silk lace, and wove silk thread into laces and tassels to be applied to bookbindings. She made a silk fringe in yellow, green, red, white, and blue. She may have supplied five counterpoints for covering beds, with imagery, scripture, and verdure, and four "costerings" or wallhangings chequered in red and blue with roses, suns, and crowns. She made tufts of silk to decorate the coronation gloves of Richard III, and buttons for his and Anne Neville's robes.
Cecily Walcot worked on furnishings and decorations for the coronation of Henry VII in October 1485. Walcot provided fringes of gold and silk thread for the royal canopy. Kateryn Champyon alias Claver made ribbons for the king's girdles, and Kateryn Walshe supplied fringes and ribbon, some in the green and white Tudor colours. Agnes Dey or Sey and Alice Claver provided red ribbons.Anne F. Sutton, 'Alice Claver, Silkwoman of London and Maker of Mantle Laces for Richard III and Queen Anne', The Ricardian, 5 (1970), p. 247, for Katherine Champyon alias Claver, and misreadings of 'Claver' by previous authors.
Elizabeth Langton, Elizabeth Lock, Jane Lock, Margaret Ashley, and Elizabeth Worssop supplied the royal wardrobe in the years 1498 to 1511. Elizabeth Lock provided black velvet hoods for Lady Catherine Gordon, the widow of Perkin Warbeck, in October 1498 and in March 1499, and a crimson velvet bonnet in 1502, and in November 1498 and April 1499 black velvet bonnets with a gold border and partlets for Lady Anne Percy, one the gentlewomen attending Elizabeth of York. Jane Lock made a crimson velvet bonnet for Catherine Gordon in 1503 and two velvet frontlets. Elizabeth Worssop made gold fringes for hose worn by Henry VII in 1510. in November 1510 Margaret Ashley supplied coloured ribbons and sarcenet silk fabric in several colours for tippets worn by Mary Tudor, then known as the "Princess of Castile".
Joan Wilkinson and Mistress Vaughan
Joan or Jane Wilkinson provided silks for Anne Boleyn. After Anne Boleyn's arrest, her chaplain William Latymer forwarded books that he had bought for her to Wilkinson. Margaret or Margery Guinet (died 1544), mother of Anne Locke, was a silkwoman to Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Parr, as the wife of Stephen Vaughan (merchant and MP) she known as "Mistress Vaughan". Vaughan recommended her work to Thomas Cromwell, claiming that she had already devised certain works for Anne Boleyn but the they had been forwarded to her. Mistress Vaughan supplied crimson silk fringes for a close stool and tawny satin and ribbon to line a coffer made for the Lady Mary by William Green in August 1537. She provided supplies for saddlery for Anne of Cleves. Catherine Parr did not pay very promptly and her husband pursued the debts. Vaughan's second wife was also called Margery Vaughan. She was the widow of Henry Brinklow. After Stephen Vaughan's death, she married George Rolle (died 1552), and subsequently Leonard Chamberlain.