jan 1, 1618 - jet

Description:

Jet is a hard black mineral, found on Yorkshire’s east coast and much used formerly for making jewellery and buttons. 1351 <i> et unum ciphum calcidoniae cum uno </i> <i> coopertorio de gete, </i>Spofforth (SS4/58); 1404 <i> unum superaltare de blakegete </i>, York (SS4/334); 1408 <i> j pare gete bedes gaudez dargent </i>, Plumpton (CHT105); 1433 <i> unum par precularium de geet </i>, York (SS30/26); 1498 <i> a paire of geyet bedes </i>, Wakefield (YAJ15/93); 1559 <i> one paire of geate beads with lyttil beads of currell </i> <i> xvjd, </i> Gatherley (SS26/143); 1618 <i> my jerkin with jete buttons </i>, Abbotside (YRS130/42). From the early seventeenth century there is evidence that it was being mined and worked in and around Whitby: 1616 Richard <i> Tipladie </i>, <i> jeat worker </i>, East Row; William Cook, <i> jeat-worker </i>, Whitby (NRQS2/154). It should be noted that ‘jet-worker’ interchanged with ‘jetter’: 1614 Francis<i> Trewett, jeater, </i> Skinningrove in Brotton; 1616 Francis <i> Trewhitt, jeat worker </i>, Brotton (NRQS2/67,144). This suggests that ‘jetter’ which occurred earlier as both a by-name and occupation may have had that sense. References have been noted in Guisborough, Hull and York in the fourteenth century: 1301 <i> Gilbert Getour </i>, Guisborough (YRS21/32); 1321-24 <i> William le Getour </i>, Hull (YRS141/57); 1377 <i> John Coke, getour; William Jetour, </i>Hull (PTER189,192); 1386 <i> John Getour </i>; 1404 <i> Thomas Bysshop </i>, <i> getour </i>, York (SS96). Although it has to be considered a possibility that ‘getour’ could in some cases be used in the sense of ‘braggart’, a meaning given in the OED, the coastal locations of such occupational names is evidence that these were men who procured and worked jet, possibly by mining or from pieces cast up on the shore. See gagate.

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