74 THE SILK INDUSTRY IN WESSEX. 



and Will mott had to discharge many workpeople, who became 

 a burden to the town. In order to preserve his connexion 

 among the weavers and merchants he often sent presents of 

 game which had been shot by his friends. For this form of 

 sport he had no liking ; but he remarks in 1773 that " hunt- 

 ing is my delight ; but, although near it, I seldom enjoy 

 it," referring, no doubt, to the Blackmore Vale Hounds. 

 In February, 1774, he says that the other throwsters had 

 been shut up entirely for some time (this is the earliest men- 

 tion of competitors), and he fears that his friend George Ward 

 may have to do the same thing. A letter of a few weeks 

 later offers to buy Ward's machinery at Stalbridge and to 

 pay the rent of the silk-house there, as he wanted more wind- 

 ing engines. (It would appear from this that the terms of 

 dissolution had been varied, and that Ward had taken the 

 Stalbridge branch.) In November, 1774, Willmott bought 

 for 135 the appliances and tools of Fooks and Webb, of 

 Sherborne, and so put an end to a " long-contested opposi- 

 tion." He tells Vere that by this increase he hopes to re- 

 turn to them 500 Ib. of thrown silk every week, which gives 

 us a measure of the capacity of Westbury mill and its satel- 

 lites. At the same time he comments on the anxieties at- 

 taching to a large undertaking with a comparatively small 

 capital. In the early part of the year 1775 Willmott had a 

 serious illness, during which the mill was supervised by John 

 Sharrer (a son of the deceased partner), who was then an 

 undergraduate of Queen's College, Oxford. Shortly after- 

 wards the letters contain references to further opposition 

 organised by George Smout and his wife, who appear to have 

 been the stormy petrels of the Sherborne silk trade for nearly 

 twenty years. I read that in August, 1775, W. Cruttwell 

 and T. Stidson, the latter of whom owned a grist mill in the 

 town, were making ready to throw silk instead of grinding 

 corn, being prompted thereto by Smout. Willmott expresses 

 the fear that he would lose some of his hands and be unable 

 to keep his mills fully occupied ; the event proved the cor- 

 rectness of his anticipation. 



