RootsChat.Com

Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: mezentia on Sunday 04 May 25 13:59 BST (UK)

Title: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: mezentia on Sunday 04 May 25 13:59 BST (UK)

I came across this occupation on a PR marriage entry on FindMyPast. The image link is

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBPRS%2FSHROP%2FP214-A-1-3%2F69794&parentid=GBPRS%2FSHROP%2FMAR%2F10185%2F2 (https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBPRS%2FSHROP%2FP214-A-1-3%2F69794&parentid=GBPRS%2FSHROP%2FMAR%2F10185%2F2)

Edward Ricketts Penwigg maker ... the writing is quite clear

I've never come across this occupation before, and Google is of no help, so, please, any ideas?

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: AlanBoyd on Sunday 04 May 25 14:03 BST (UK)

I don’t see the double ‘g’ and I believe that it is ‘periwig maker’.

Added: see reply #8, I was looking at the wrong man, hence my comment about the double g.

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: BumbleB on Sunday 04 May 25 14:04 BST (UK)

I'd agree with AlanBoyd - periwig maker.

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: Jebber on Sunday 04 May 25 14:06 BST (UK)

I also say it would be Periwig maker.

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: AlanBoyd on Sunday 04 May 25 14:07 BST (UK)

A Dictionary of Old Trades etc. by Colin Waters has:

periwig maker same as peruker
[peruker,, strangely there is no entry]
peruke maker Manufacturer of periwigs and caps designed as hairpieces.

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: PalmTree1 on Sunday 04 May 25 14:31 BST (UK)

And a wig in French is "une perruque", pronounced peruke

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: mezentia on Sunday 04 May 25 14:46 BST (UK)

Thanks for the replies. I too thought periwig maker, but the writing is quite clear when compared to the other writing on the same page, so  I can only assume it's a mistake by whomever wrote the register in the first place.

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: Rena on Sunday 04 May 25 22:56 BST (UK)

Scroll down this web page to see the extravagant  periwig style these fashionable men were wearing:-

https://thisisversaillesmadame.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-periwig.html

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: mckha489 on Sunday 04 May 25 23:18 BST (UK)

If you look at John Bennett also a periwig maker (on the facing page) Jan 1746, other than having only 1 ‘g’ it looks very similar to Edward’s entry.

Title: Re: Penwigg Maker?
Post by: Susan Blackstone on Monday 05 May 25 21:00 BST (UK)

Reading the posts, called to mind on lan-opc.org.uk, the marriages of the inventer of the water frame cotton spinning machine Richard Arkwright (1732-1792). He married Patience Holt in Bolton in 31/03/1755 and was described as a peruke maker.  He married Margaret Biggins in Leigh on 24/03/1761 and described as a barber from Bolton.  He also invented a commercially successful dye for wigs.  There is a great deal of information on the internet.