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Clothiers made and sold woollen cloth. The occupation of clothier was compatible with the status of yeoman.
A "clothier" could be:
- One man and his family, who together performed most of the steps of cloth making
- A person who employed up to 30 weavers
- Something in between
The majority of clothiers were not large manufacturers. Many small independent clothiers combined cloth-making and farming as dual occupation and were styled "yeoman clothiers". A family would jointly raise sheep, shear them, wash the wool, card and spin it.
Carding and spinning were usually done by the small clothier's wife and children. Large clothiers had spinning done outside the shop.
The small clothier, assisted by his son or apprentice, warped the loom and did the weaving. After the cloth was woven it was taken to the fulling mill. When the cloth was dry, the clothier put his cloth on his horse or donkey, or carried the cloth on his own back and brought the cloth to the market or cloth hall, where he sold it.
The West Country clothier, unlike the Yorkshire clothier, was primarily concerned with buying and selling; he bought the raw material and sold the finished product; the actual details of the manufacture were left to spinners, weavers, and cloth-finishers.
There was an increase in the numbers of large clothiers in the 17th. and 18th. c., yet they were wealthy simply by scale, having more employees and doing more trade. The basic organisation remained the same.
