Jane Gaugain ( née Alison) (26 March 1804 – 20 May 1860) was a Scottish knitter and writer. She built up a successful business in Edinburgh, and published 16 volumes on knitting that helped to make it a popular pastime for ladies and a source of income for lower classes of women. Her unusually written pattern books are important in the history of textiles in Scotland.
Early life
Jane (sometimes Jean) Alison was born on 26 March 1804 in
Dalkeith,
Midlothian, one of 12 children born to Elizabeth (
née McLairain/McLaren) (died 1824) and James Alison (1775–1846). Her father was a tailor and clothier, appointed as a Scottish contractor in ordinary to
William IV, and was a burgess of Edinburgh.
She married English cloth importer John James Gaugain (known as James or J. J.), son of engraver Thomas Gaugain on 16 November 1823 at St Andrew's Church in Edinburgh.
Career
Gaugain wrote and disseminated knitting patterns throughout the 1830s from her shop and published her first pattern book in 1840. It was called "Lady's Assistant in Knitting, Netting and
Crochet." She had a particular way of writing her patterns with full instructions at the beginning detailing the meanings of abbreviations. The book was very popular, reaching a wide audience in the UK and America and being the best-selling knitting book of the period; it ran to 22 editions. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, she published a great many titles. In response to readers' feedback, she began to produce charted paper and instructions that allowed knitters to create their own designs and began accepting mail orders at the Edinburgh shop.
Personal life
Jane and J. J. Gaugain had nine children, six of whom lived to adulthood. Their youngest son, Charles (1836 –
c. 1860) became a sergeant in the East India Company, and he and their youngest daughter, Rosetta Hester Malcolm (1842–1908), survived her.
Jane Gaugain died on 20 May 1860 from Tuberculosis and is buried in Edinburgh's Dean Cemetery near the Water of Leith.
Legacy
In 2012, knitter Franklin Habit adapted one of Jane Gaugain's patterns, a
pineapple-shaped purse, for a modern audience in the summer 2012 issue of
Knitty.
Knitters today continue to use and be inspired by Jane Gaugain's patterns, and she is beginning to be recognised as an 'unsung hero' of the history of women
entrepreneurs and knitting.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published an entry on Gaugain in August 2024,
Selected works
Notes
Further reading
External links
