A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



business on his own account, but shortly removed 

 to Eaton Socon (Bedfordshire). In 1857 he 

 purchased the business of Mr. W. Crawley of 

 VVoUaston, and combined the two businesses at 

 Eaton. 



In 1 860, his son Thomas J. Crawley relinquish- 

 ing the business of whip-making in favour of the 

 saddlery trade, Mr. W. Crawley moved to Peter- 

 borough, and with his son Charles Edward 

 founded the business of Crawley & Son. 



Mr. W. Crawley died in 1869, leaving the busi- 

 ness to his son Charles Edward, by whom it is 

 still continued with the help of his sons John W. 

 and Charles Edward, junior, under the title of 

 Crawley & Sons. 



Of late years the business has been consider- 

 ably extended, whips being sent not only to all 

 parts of the United Kingdom, but shipped in large 

 quantities abroad. The name of Crawley appears 

 in the whip trade from the year 1806. 



TEXTILES AND ALLIED TRADES 



From the middle of the twelfth century North- 

 ampton began to acquire some importance as a 

 trade centre for wool, and in respect to its manu- 

 facture the ' Drapery,' as a special quarter of the 

 town, was in existence at least as early as the 

 time of Abbot Thomas of St. James's Abbey in 

 the reign of King John,^ while the town possessed 

 a Wool Hall as early as the time of Edward I. 

 This importance is further shown by the fact of 

 the town possessing a seal or stamp for the royal 

 subsidy. In the thirteenth century Italy as well 

 as Flanders took a good deal of English wool. 

 There were several companies of Florentine mer- 

 chants who bought wool at Stamford and shipped 

 it at either Boston or King's Lynn, and mer- 

 chants from Florence are mentioned as being at 

 Northampton.^ In the Practica delta Mercatura ' 

 of Francesco Balducci Pegolotti is given a list, 

 probably derived from a Flemish source, of 

 English monasteries which had agreed to sell 

 their wool to these Italian merchants, and the 

 Northamptonshire monasteries mentioned were 

 Pipewell, Sulby, Kettering, Peterborough, Luf- 

 field, and the Priory of St. Andrew at North- 

 ampton. 



In the year* 1431 we have the first recorded 

 ordinance for the weaver's craft in the town of 

 Northampton. This ordinance, after setting 

 forth how that ' of late there had been misrule 

 and ungoodly governance between the masters 

 and journeymen of the said craft,' ordained that 

 all the masters and journeymen shall every year 

 on the Monday after Easter Day go honestly 

 with their tapers of wax as of ancient time to 

 the house of St. Mary de la Pre, beside 

 Northampton, to offer up their said tapers before 

 the image of the Trinity and of our Lady, and 

 afterwards to hold their customary drinking and 

 communication together, and to choose the same 

 day two masters of the English householders as 

 masters of the said craft and masters of the 

 journeymen for the year by the advice and 

 agreement of the mayor for the time being, 



' B.M. Cott. MS. Tib. E. 5, fol. \%\b. 

 ' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 4. 'S- 

 ' Printed by Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry 

 and Commerce (1905), 629 et seq. 



* Northampton Boro. Rec. i, 268 et seq. 



before whom they shall be presented and sworn 

 for the good governance of the said craft, also to 

 choose two auditors of the accounts of the 

 masters for the year. Every member of the 

 said craft was to pay yearly ^d. for lights and 

 torches, and every journeyman 7.d. These 

 amounts were to be taken and gathered by the 

 said masters, and to be put in a box, the keys of 

 which were to be given to the mayor ; and if 

 any meeting together was desired such meeting 

 was not to be called without the consent of the 

 mayor. Every master was to give a fortnight's 

 notice to any servant he wished to discharge, and 

 no master was to set on any servant who had not 

 given his master a fortnight's warning, under 

 penalty of twenty pence to the town purse and 

 twenty pence to the lights of the said craft for 

 each offence. There were the usual regulations 

 concerning foreign workmen. Every master 

 who was admitted into the livery of the said craft 

 was to pay eight pence to the sustenance of the 

 torches, and every journeyman admitted had to 

 pay four pence. Other ordinances for the 

 weaver's craft were made in 1 462 and 1 5 1 1 ; this 

 last provided that no weaver should deliver any 

 cloth before the searchers had proved that it was 

 sufficiently woven and of good workmanship ; if 

 he did not send for the searcher to do his duty, 

 the weaver was to lose and pay as oft as he 

 offended the sum of forty pence, half to be paid 

 to the mayor for the time being as common 

 treasurer of the town, and the other half to be 

 paid to the fraternity of the Trinity within the 

 church of All Hallows. 



We are able to gather some information 

 regarding Northampton from a book * written 

 in 1633 by Dr. James Hart, a physician, who 

 was not only born at Northampton, but also 

 resided there for from twenty to thirty years. 

 According to this authority the cloth trade had 

 decayed in Northampton, but Dr. Hart saw no 

 reason why it should not be revived, and he 

 remarks that — 



' To incourage others in the prosecution of so laud- 

 able a worke one Alderman (John Denbigh) of this 

 same corporation hath now, of late broken the yce and 

 againe, like a good patriot, minding the publyke good 



' Diet of the Diseased, 149 et seq. 



332 



