THE SILK INDUSTRY IN WESSEX. 69 



Willmott was to carry on the silk throwing at Sherborne, and 

 at the establishments in Cerne Abbas and Stalbridge, while 

 Ward was to receive as his share the similar undertaking 

 which they had started at Bruton in Somerset, together with 

 the sum of 500. Their agreement for dissolution gives 

 particulars of two of the branch " silk houses " which had 

 been opened in order to tap larger reservoirs of labour. It 

 is recited that Philip White of Cerne Abbas had leased to 

 the late partners in 1764 the building over the shambles in 

 the market place of Cerne called the Isle Hall at a rental of 

 3 13s. 6d., and we shall see that a silk house, and extensions 

 in that parish, were used by the Willmotts for nearly fifty 

 years. Another recital tells us that Thomas Sampson of 

 Bruton, surgeon, had leased to them, in 1768, a newly -erected 

 tenement (formerly two houses) with the little court adjoining 

 to the Law Way on the south side of High-street, Bruton, 

 where the Swan Inn once stood, for fifty } 7 ears at a rental of 

 35. In this town George Ward and his descendants 

 continued the silk throwing for a long period, and were 

 always on good terms with the occupier of the older mill 

 at Westbury. By an assignment of 25 March, 1769, Mrs. 

 Sharrer conveyed to William Willmott her interest in the 

 Sherborne mill and its machinery, in consideration of 1,500. 



Having thus outlined, from the documents in the museum, 

 the inception of this Sherborne industry, it will be convenient 

 briefly to describe the nature of the work which provided 

 employment to 600 persons in that part of the county, 

 irrespective of those who worked in competing mills which 

 were started at a later date. 



The manufacture of silk fabrics in this country became an 

 established trade about 1585, but it was not until 100 years 

 later that the settlement of French weavers in Spitalfields 

 gave a great impulse to production. The sectional process 

 with which we are here concerned was intermediate between 

 the taking of the raw silk from the cocoons and the weaving 

 of the threads into a fabric. In the eighteenth century the 

 " silkmen," or merchants, and the weavers imported the 



