If you are from around these parts, mention of the Newhaven fishwife is likely to bring to mind images of a woman dressed in brightly coloured outfits of blouse, shawl, a voluminous striped skirt of heavy serge as a petticoat overlaid with another outer one kilted around the hips as a pad for the creel, and a navy blue and white striped apron. What brought these hard-working women to national attention is an interesting tale

Locally, Newhaveners had earned a reputation for their industrious nature and independent spirit. But what brought Newhaven national, and ultimately international, fame was due almost entirely to a partnership of an artist and a chemist, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.

Following the Act of Union in 1707, the government of the now United Kingdom passed the Patronage Act in 1712 giving local lairds in Scotland the legal power to choose ministers. This meant, in effect, that congregations had no say in who preached to them contrary to the teachings of John Knox who declared that Jesus Christ was head of the church, not the government or monarch.

Discontent festered amongst many ministers and their congregations coming to a head with the Veto Act of 1834 passed by the General Assembly. This allowed a majority of male heads of families within a congregation to reject a patron’s choice of minister — as is said about the Church, the mills of God grind exceeding slow.

The House of Lords eventually ruled that the General Assembly did not have the legal right to amend the Patronage Act, stoking up the tensions even further. The General Assembly drew up a Claim of Right saying it did not want its work interfered with by the state.

The Tory Prime Minister of the time, Robert Peel, a Tory, believed that the Church of Scotland was trying to manoeuvre itself into a position where it was above the law of the land. This was the final straw.

At the opening of the General Assembly in 1843, the retiring Moderator read out a prepared protest, bowed to the Queen’s Commissioner who represented the authority of the Crown, and walked out followed by 200 other ministers and elders to continue their meeting in Tanfield Hall in Canonmills. The result was the formation of the Free Protesting Church of Scotland. This cataclysmic schism was known as the Disruption.

So what has all this to do with the fishwives of Newhaven?

Rev Dr James Fairbairn was a principal of the Disruption and David Hill arranged to take his portrait using the relatively new invention of photography. Hill was an accomplished artist and had been commissioned to capture the scene of this defiant action in Tanfield Hall, such was its importance in the history of the Church of Scotland. He wanted to depict every minister accurately, but the problem was how to achieve that aim.

Visiting his friend Dr Fairbairn, minister of the Free Protesting Church of Scotland in Newhaven, Hill was taken with the picturesque attire of the Newhaven fishermen and fishwives. Particularly striking was the appearance of the women in their unique costumes probably influenced by the dress of the wives of the Flemish and other Continental craftsmen who helped build The Great Michael.

English scientist and inventor William Henry Fox Talbot had recently invented the calotype process, the precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. By 1840, he had discovered a way of producing a negative image by which multiple prints could be made. Photography had come of age.

Hill and Adamson resolved to produce six volumes of calotypes, the first being The Fishermen and Women of the Frith [sic] of Forth. These photographs of the Newhaven fisherfolk came to the attention of the wider community, including the potteries in Portobello and Prestonpans, which were always looking for novel subjects for figurines that they could then sell. The popularity of these statuettes influenced the Staffordshire Potteries to do likewise, which in turn caught the attention of Queen Victoria.

In 1883, Newhaven Fishwives were invited to attend the London Fisheries Exhibition, where their colourful costumes with their distinctive multi-striped petticoats made a strong impression on Queen Victoria and her son, the Prince of Wales. So popular was the costume in the 19th Century that for a short while Society took to wearing this attire as a fashion statement. The Fishwives Choir and the Fisherlassies Choir both continued to wear it well into the 20th Century. Even today, from time to time, some women dressed in the fishwives’ Sunday best known as their “braws”, can be seen at very special events such as its annual Children’s Newhaven Gala.

It could be said with some justification that Messrs Hill and Adamson ‘discovered’ Newhaven. The partnership of Hill and Adamson brought immediate success. Adamson’s house, “Rock House” on Calton Hill, became their studio. They soon established a reputation for the quality of their work, which combined Hill’s artistic talents and Adamson’s technical skills.

They produced a wide range of Society portraiture as well as photographing ordinary working folk, particularly the fishermen and fishwives of Newhaven.

Gordon Young,

Newhaven Heritag