290 Textiles and Textile Materials Trades 



others were engaged to make up in their own homes materials sup- 

 pHed by undertakers.^ The Nottingham hosiery manufacturers 

 were, on this account, called "putters-out" in the eighteenth centurv.^ 

 Men like Martin Brian of Manchester, one of the three famous 

 clothiers of the "North Country," early in the sixteenth centur\' con- 

 ducted estabhshments, according to report of Deloney, Hke those of 

 Jack of Newbery, with "a greate number of servants at worke, 

 Spinners, Carders, Weavers, Fullers, Dyers and Shearmen." This 

 form of organization must have been very uncommon, however, if it 

 existed at all. The most striking and general form of organization 

 was that above described; where the merchant or agent bought the 

 grey cloth, had it dyed, dressed and finished by passing it successi\ely 

 through the hands of the millman, dyer, dresser, etc. frequently jour- 

 neymen in their employ. The place of the western clothier was thus, 

 in a way, supplied by this commissioner, but he did not exercise the 

 dominant role over the whole industry that the clothier did and the 

 various employees felt a greater independence of him and each other 

 than in the west of England.^ 



A letter book of a prominent merchant of Soyland near Halifax 

 contains data portraying the manner of his business during the first 

 half of the eighteenth century. His name was Sam Hill, and he seems 

 to have exported the cloth produced by himself and his relatives of 

 the name Hill: the brands of cloth were named from the maker.-* He 

 seems to have despatched his cloth to Holland and the Baltic through 

 one William Merold of Hull; he had agents in these countries through 

 whom he, by correspondence, pushed the sales of his broad and narrow 

 shalloons, bays and other cloths. His customers included such names 

 as Hermanes Struys, Lucius Dorpore, Gatis, Crowle, Peter Deynooten, 

 John D'orville, Justus Beke, Peter Blok, Michiliez, John Henry Bock, 

 Ludovicus de Wielf, Erasmus Dariven, Andrew Perrot, Henderck 

 and Petter Kops, John and Peter Dorvil, Abraham Van Broye, 

 Henderck Verbeck, Paul Fisher & Co., etc. — showing a preponderance 

 of Dutchmen. He tried to conform the texture, weight, breadth, 

 color, etc., of his cloths to the foreign demand and studied the demand 

 with this in view; his agents were to write him descriptions or send 

 samples of the cloths most readily sold there. He was optimistic 

 both as manufacturer and as merchant, and furnishes an excellent 

 picture of Yorkshire mercantile life of his day. 



1 V. C. H., Lancas., II, 382. 



-' V. C. H., Nott. II, 354. 



^ Tucker, Instructions, 36. 



" Many excerpts from this letterbook are given in \'. C. H., York, II, 418-9. 



