A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



The second document is similar, but dated 

 ye 17" ^o, 1696, and for ^500. 

 The third is fuller. 



London 26 June 1 696. 

 Sr. 



Pay under John Grainger for the account of 

 Robert Trueman, the sum of Five hundred 

 pounds, being in part, for his bill of Six hun- 

 dred pounds, the 7th of Aprill 1696 for the use 

 of the King and Queen's Corporacon for the 

 Linnen Manufacture in England and for your 

 so Doing this shall be your Warrant. 



Paul Doeminique, 



William Shepherd, 

 Thom. Morice, 

 Wm. Lascoe, 



Dpty. 



John Blackler, 

 Sam. Onglev, 

 Phin. Bowler. 



Apparently John Grainger was a banker, Robert 

 Trueman the manager of a weaving or flax- 

 supplying concern at Darlington. The King's 

 and Queen's Corporation had bought goods from 

 or through Trueman, or (supposing there was a 

 weaving factory owned by the corporation there) 

 it had ordered goods produced there to be sent 

 to London. Payment was made by Trueman 

 drawing a bill of exchange on the corporation 

 which was accepted by the corporation. As all 

 three documents deal with round numbers, possi- 

 bly there was a continuous series of transactions 

 between Trueman and the corporation.^' 



The Universal Magazine in its descriptive 

 account of Darlington says : — 



It is the most noted place in the whole world for 

 huckabacks, being made from half an ell to 3 yards 

 wide. The price varies from jd. to 18/., the broad 

 sort being made nowhere else." 



Early in the eighteenth century the linen trade 

 was chiefly in the hands of Quakers, and this 

 fact gave Harley an opportunity for a gibe at the 

 sect. Describing Darlington he says : — 



The Skerne runs at the bottom, and there is a navi- 

 gable river eight miles off, which is a great promotion 

 of the trade of the town, which lies chiefly in Hucka- 

 back. I bought a coarse piece of it for towels, and that 

 I might be sure to be imposed upon with great 

 brevity {sic) dealt with Dobson a Quaker." 



The study of the registers of St. Cuthbert's 

 throws considerable light on the industries of 

 Darlington. By the end of the eighteenth 

 century there is ample evidence that a great pre- 



" I am much indebted to Professor Scott of 

 St. Andrews for elucidating these documents for me. 

 Cf. W. R. Scott, ' The King's and Queen's Corpora- 

 tion for the Linen Manufacture in Ireland,' Royal 

 Soc. Jnftq. Ireland, xxxi. 



" Universal Mag. Oct. 1749, p. I47- 



'* Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. 1899), v, 100. 

 Journeys in England of Lord Harley, afterwards 

 second earl of Oxford, 3 May, 1725. 



ponderance of the people worked at one or other 

 of the textile industries. Of the sixteen people 

 buried in the month of April, 1797, nine were 

 weavers or wool-combers. The list comprises 

 weaver, taylor, husbandman, wool-comber, black- 

 smith, weaver, weaver, weaver, skinner, wool- 

 comber, weaver, wool-comber,husbandman, weaver, 

 husbandman, spinster. ^^ Still, a great deal of the 

 linen sold was not woven in Darlington, but in 

 the surrounding villages. At Hurworth many 

 of the sheds built at the back of the houses, 

 where the weaving used to be carried on, are 

 still to be seen, and some of the oldest in- 

 habitants can recall the days when the road to 

 Darlington was kept busy by weavers either 

 carrying their linen in packs on their backs or 

 driving donkeys laden with it to sell at the fac- 

 tories. The high-water mark of Hurworth 

 linen-weaving was reached early in the nine- 

 teenth century ; of the forty-three people who 

 had their children baptized in 1813, thirteen were 

 weavers ; ten years later only ten out of thirty- 

 nine, in 1833 nine out of forty-two, in 1843 ^'^ 

 out of fifty-two, and in 1853 only two out of 

 thirty-six.'' 



In some cases the merchants bought the linen 

 in an unbleached state, and the earliest map of 

 Darlington has a large space marked as bleaching 

 grounds j'^but the eighteenth-century newspapers, 

 especially the Newcastle Courant, are full of ad- 

 vertisements of owners of bleaching grounds 

 seeking clients ; so evidently bleaching was car- 

 ried on as a separate industry.'' Defoe, who 

 had an intimate knowledge of the north, says 

 that Darlington was noted for its successful 

 bleaching of linen, so that quantities of the mate- 

 rial were brought from Scotland to be bleached 

 there; but as early as 1773 the trade had 

 decreased so seriously that the inhabitants pre- 

 sented a petition to the House of Commons on 

 the subject. 



A petition of the Huckaback table linen manufac- 

 turers of Darlington in the County of Durham was 

 presented to the House, setting forth that Petitioners 

 are informed that a committee is appointed to enquire 

 into the present state of the Linen Manufactory of 

 these Kingdoms, and representing to the House that 

 the Linen Manufacture in that part of the Kingdom 

 has within the last few years p.ist greatly declined, 

 and that the manufacturers are at present in a most 

 distressed situation and the trade and manufacture 

 there in danger of being lost which Petitioners appre- 

 hend is owing to the increased importation of Foreign 

 Table Linen.'" 



'* St. Cuthbert's Parish Registers, 165 3-1 797. 

 These registers have not been published, but are full 

 of interesting matter. 



" Hurworth Parish Registers under date. 



'* The original map is in the possession of Mr. 

 Edward Wooler. 



" Newcastle Courant, 1 750-1 800. 



'" Com. Jouni. 19 Mar. 1773. 



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