By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 45 
factures of cloth, which up to that time had been unknown in Eng- 
land. He thus became the Father of English Commerce, a title 
not more glorious, but by which he may perhaps claim more of 
‘our gratitude, than as the hero of Crecy. From that time the occu- 
pation of a merchant became honorable; immense fortunes were 
made, and in many instances nobly spent, for we owe some of our 
finest churches, best endowed schools, and other charities, to 
merchants of the staple. As the duty on wool still formed a prin- 
cipal source of the king’s revenue, by an act passed in the 27th 
year of his reign, certain towns were appointed as staples or markets 
for wool, and to one or other of these all wool was henceforth to be 
taken, that there the tax on it might be duly collected.! Our staple 
or wool-market was at Bristol. So profitable was the trade that 
some of the nobles were even tempted at times to engage init. In 
the earlier parts of the 15th century, we find amongst those who 
indulged in this speculation the august names of the then Duke of 
Suffolk, the Prior of Bridlington, and Margaret of Anjou, the 
spirited Queen of Henry VI.? 
Whether any of the Hall family, like their namesake John Hall 
of Salisbury, were merchants of the staple, we cannot say, but it is 
not improbable. As years rolled on, they wondrously increased 
their wealth and their possessions. At the close of the 15th century 
(as appears by a deed dated 21st Edward IV.) Henry Hall, who 
then had lately succeeded to the estates of his father, Nicholas Hall, 
had lands in Bradford, Lye, Troll Parva, Slade, Ford, Wraxhall, © 
Holt, Broughton, Marlborough, Okebourn Meysey, in Wilts, and at 
Freshford, Iford, Mitford, Frome, Fleete, Widcombe, Portishead, 
1 This statute, 27 Edward III. Stat. 2 (1353), provided that the Staple of 
wools, leather, woolfels and lead should be held at the following towns,—New- 
castle-upon-Tyne, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, Canterbury, Chiches- 
ter, Winchester, Exeter, and Bristol. Before this time, Calais had been the 
staple town to which all such commodities from England were exported, and 
where the duties of the Crown were received. The above named statute was 
passed however, as the preamble sets forth, in consequence of ‘‘the damage 
which hath notoriously come as well to us, and to the great men, as to our people 
of the realm of England, &c., because that the staple of wools, leather, and 
woolfels have been holden out of our said realm, and also for the great profits 
which should come to the said realm if the staple were holden within the same 
and not elsewhere.” * Duke’s ‘Prolusiones Historice,’ p, 69. 
