A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



CLOTH 



The cloth made in Nottinghamshire came 

 under the designation of northern cloth, this 

 term being applied to all cloth made in the 

 counties north of the Trent. 1 Frequent refer- 

 ences to the fabric in question are to be found 

 in the Statutes of the Realm, northern cloths 

 being directed by legislation to be from 23 yds. 

 to 25 yds. in length, 7 qrs. broad, and 46 Ib. 

 in weight. Half pieces or dozens were to be 

 from 1 2 yds. to 1 3 yds. in length, and to weigh 



37 lb- 2 



By a charter 3 of Henry II, which probably 

 belongs to the year 1155, dyed cloth was 

 forbidden to be worked within 10 leucae of 

 Nottingham except in the borough. 4 The men * 

 of Newark paid an annual tax in the reign of 

 Henry II, that they might buy and sell dyed 

 cloth. In 1203 this tax 6 amounted to 

 i 6s. Sd. 



Fifteen yards of woollen cloth cost I id, in 

 1496, the same amount being charged for a 

 doublet cloth, 1 7 yds. of broadcloth being sup- 

 plied at 2s. 1 



Again, in a bill for cloth supplied which is pre- 

 served amongst the records of the Nottingham 

 municipality, we find that 2|-yds. of housewife 

 cloth cost 13^., that fustian sold for lod. per 

 yard, 3^ yds. of buckram being i8d., whilst 

 loyds. of kersey sold for 3*. \d* It is probable 

 that this cloth, of which Prof. Rogers writes 

 that it was ' early naturalized in England,' 9 was 

 one of the staple products of this shire also. 

 John Belyn, a Nottinghamshire tailor of 1496, 

 supplied John Marshall with green, watchet 

 (blue), and black kersey in 1496, a cloth known 

 as muster de Villers 10 being another item in the 

 bill in question. 11 'A piece of white kersey' 

 formed the subject of an inquiry to which fuller 



1 Henson, Hist. Framework Knitting, 23. 

 ' Rogers, Agrlc. and Prices, iv, 207. 



3 Stevenson, Rec. Bora. Nott. i, 3. 



4 Ibid, i, 4 n. 



b Brown, Hist. Newark, i, 245. 



6 Pipe R. 1203. 



7 Stevenson, op. cit. iii, 295. 



8 Rec. Bon. Nott. iii, 268. 



9 Rogers, Agric. and Prices, v, 576. 



This cloth, which has wrongly been supposed to 

 have been made in mustard colour only, actually 

 owed its name to the place of its origin, Monti- 

 villiers (Seine Inferieure) ; Rec. Bon. Nott. iii, 495. 

 Mustardevelin, or Mustardvillars. A mixed grey 

 woollen cloth, often mentioned by writers of the 

 1 5th and l6th centuries; Fairholt, Costume in Engl. 

 ii, 294. 



" Rec. Bon. Nott. iii, 295. 



reference will be made in the section of this 

 article dealing with the fullers' craft. The 

 manufacture of linen was carried on in the 

 county at an early date, for we find in a bill 

 of debts due to John Lawson, weaver, in 

 Nottingham, in 1496, the following item: 

 'For weaving a piece of linen cloth of 23yds. 

 1 7<^.' 12 Flannel appears to have been made at 

 Newark in 1435, when R. Smith of that town 

 owned two pieces, worth \2d. lz 



Elsebeth Jenyn of Newark was a mediaeval 

 cloth dealer, for she bequeathed to William 

 Dymok in 1504 'the cloth in the shop as it 

 cost at the first buying.' 14 



Stamell ls was a textile product of Notting- 

 hamshire. In 1614, 6 yds. of this fabric were 

 bought at Nottingham for the waits' coats at 

 j3 i8*. 16 Red kersey cost 2s. $d. per yard at 

 Nottingham in i625. 17 



John de Rolleston, parson of Plumtree, com- 

 plained in 1410 of one Thomas Fox, a draper 

 of Nottingham, who agreed to let him have 

 three parts of a yard of scarlet cloth for a 

 quarter of corn. The cloth was to be ' good 

 scarlet,' but on delivery of the same by Rolles- 

 ton's servant, John Stillingfleet, the cloth, for 

 which Fox claimed that there was ' no better in 

 town or country,' was found on the contrary 

 ' never to have been scarlet.' 18 



Clothiers and linen-drapers paid an entrance 

 fee of 6s. 8d. on taking up their freedom as 

 burgesses. George Molson and John Clayton 

 paid this fee in 1 547-8. 19 



The great mart for cloth, as well as for the 

 other leading commodities of the county in 

 mediaeval times, was Lenton Fair, an agreement 

 dating from 1300 between the Prior of Lenton 

 and the burgesses of Nottingham fixing the hire 

 of a booth at 1 2d. for cloth merchants, pilchers, 

 and mercers. 20 Nottingham was made a staple 

 town in I355, 21 all those 'many considerable 



" Rec. Boro. Nott. iii, 295. 



13 Esch. Inq. 1 6 Hen. VI, no. 4. 



" ' Newark Wills,' in Brown, Hist. Newark, App. 



357- 



15 A coarse woollen cloth ; Rec. Boro. Nott. iv, 

 327. Fairholt quotes several authorities as bearing 

 out his contention that this cloth was probably 

 chiefly worn by persons in the lower rank of life, by 

 countrywomen for petticoats ; Fairholt, Costume in 

 Engl. ii, 379. 



16 Rec. Boro. Nott iv, 327. 

 " Ibid, v, 1 20. 



18 Ibid, i, 71. 



19 Ibid, iv, 2. 



10 Ree. Boro. Nott. i, 61. 

 " Smith, Mem. if Wool, 29. 



344 



