Jute didn't start to take off until the 1830s, though there was a little imported earlier. The fibres were brittle and needed processes which were developed around then, before it could be useful. However Dundee was a textile town long before jute, which was why jute could become established there. (It was also a whaling port and whale oil was used to process the fibres when jute got going.) The town made cheap linen cloth, originally from the flax grown in Angus then from imported Baltic flax. The flax, and later jute, was heckled on combs with iron teeth. Dundee attracted a lot of incomers from various areas, in the mid to late 18th century and through the 19th, connected with weaving and the industries associated with this. Jenny On 07/08/2011 03:00, Marilyn Arnold wrote: Was the jute industry already starting/flourishing by > this time in Dundee? Is that why folks might have moved there from (for > example) Sterlingshire?