Regulations of the Middlesex Company and Its Boarding Houses

The Lowell textile factories, and the boarding houses where they required their female workers to live, had strict rules. The women accepted these rules and even helped enforce them.

All persons [working for] the Middlesex Company . . . [must live] in one of the boarding-houses belonging to the Company.

The Company will not employ any one who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath, or whose habits are not regular and correct.  

All persons entering into the employment of the Company are considered as engaged for twelve months; and those who leave sooner will not receive a regular discharge. 

Smoking within the factory yards will in no case be permitted.  

Boarders are not permitted to have company at unreasonable hours.

Boardinghouse doors must be closed at ten o’clock in the evening, and no one admitted after that time without some reasonable excuse.

The keepers of the Boarding House must . . . report the names of such as are guilty of any improper conduct, or are not in the regular habit of attending public worship.