INDUSTRIES 



we may safely conclude that before the end of 

 the twelfth century cloth was made in Bury for 

 sale in its market, and probably also in the fair 

 at which the London merchants were among 

 the most important customers. In the thirteenth 

 century there were merchants at Bury who did 

 a large trade in foreign cloth, and one of the 

 leading cloth manufacturers in London in 1296 

 was a certain Fulk de St. Edmunds. 



By that time we get a glimpse of the industry 

 at Ipswich. The Domesday Book of Ipswich, 

 which dates from the end of the thirteenth 

 century, ordains that 



non of the same toun take in kepyng of poore 

 webberes, ne off spynneres, ne of threed makeres ne 

 of poure tailours, ne of tayleresses, ne off poure laven- 

 deres, ne of other poure caytyvys clothes maade, ne 

 parcel of clothes ne woole whitte or lettyd, ne flax, 

 ne hemp, ne woollen threed ne lynen threed, ne non 

 other maner of thing suspesious, for silver, ne for 

 breed, ne for wyn, ne for ale, ne for other victuayle, 

 wher of a man may have veray suspesioun that swich 

 maner of thyng so put to wedde (pledge) be not the 

 owen propre good of such poure men that layn hem 

 to wed. 1 



With such clear evidence as this of the existence 

 of the evils which have always been complained 

 of in connexion with the ' Domestic system ' 

 we might naturally infer that there was already 

 a considerable cloth manufacture at Ipswich, 

 but the subsidy roll for 1282 recently published 

 by Mr. Edgar Powell does not justify us in 

 saying so much. There are only four dyers 

 and a couple of weavers especially desig- 

 nated as such among the citizens, though the 

 amount of wool and cloth possessed by others 

 points to the possibility of their having been also 

 engaged in the industry. 



The list of customs taken at the quay in 

 Ipswich at the same date indicates another seat 

 of the manufacture in Suffolk. It speaks of the 



cloth of Cogeshale, Maldon, Colchestre, Sudbury, and 

 of other clothes that ben bought in the cuntre and 

 <x>myn into the toun in to merchauntz handys for to 

 pass from the cay to the partys of the see.* 



thus showing that on the borders of Suffolk and 

 Essex weaving had been widely carried on before 

 the immigration of the Flemings in 1336, as 

 indeed it has continued to be carried on in one 

 material or another ever since. Moreover, in 

 1315, a proclamation made at the instance of 

 foreign merchants setting forth the true length 

 and breadth in which worsteds and 'aylehams' 

 ought to be made s was ordered to be read in 

 Suffolk as well as in Norfolk, which seems to 

 indicate that the making of worsteds, which 



1 Black Book of the Admir. (Rolls Ser.) ii, 133 ; 

 Stiff. Inst. Arch, xii, pt. 1 1 (1905). 



1 Black Book of Admir. ii, 187. 



s Par!. R. (Rec. Com.) i, 292 ; and 23 Hen. VI, 

 cap. 4. 



originated in Norfolk, had already spread into 

 Suffolk ; and subsequent legislation * which in- 

 cludes Suffolk together with Norfolk in the 

 regulations made for the worsted industry tends 

 to confirm this view. The Flemish immigra- 

 tion, of which Sudbury preserves a strong 

 tradition, must however have greatly stimu- 

 lated the growth of the woollen manufac- 

 ture of Suffolk, which rapidly increased in 

 importance after the middle of the fourteenth 

 century. The Commons of Suffolk and Essex 

 presented a petition in the Parliament of 1376 

 that the strait cloths called Cogwares and Kersies 

 may not be comprised in the statute of 47 

 Edward III which fixed the length and breadth 

 of coloured cloth. 6 The request, which was 

 granted, shows that dyed cloth had already 

 become what it long continued to be, a charac- 

 teristic product of Suffolk. The most striking 

 evidence of the progress made by the industry at 

 this time is furnished by the poll tax return for 

 Hadleigh in 1381 which has been transcribed by 

 Mr. Edgar Powell. 6 Some weaving had pro- 

 bably been done at Hadleigh since the beginning 

 of the fourteenth century, as an extent of the 

 manor in the year 1312 mentions two fullers 

 as holding land there. The list of 1381, of 

 which only a portion is preserved, contains the 

 names of eleven cloth workers, seven fullers, six 

 weavers, five cutters of cloth and three dyers. 

 Only about 260 names out of an original list 

 of 705 are preserved and of these half are 

 females. So that, even if the cutters of cloth 

 (sissores) are omitted, the number of those 

 connected with the cloth industry amounts to at 

 least one in five of the recorded adult male 

 population, and it is very probable that many 

 of those entered as artificers (operarii) found 

 employment as journeymen in the various 

 branches of the manufacture. An entry in the 

 Patent Roll of 1390 shows us a draper of Had- 

 leigh in debt to a London merchant to the 

 extent of 40,' and the frequency of similar 

 entries at a later date proves that Hadleigh had 

 become a busy manufacturing town. 



In the course of the fifteenth century the 

 industry spread throughout the southern half 

 of the county and became in many districts 

 the principal occupation of the people. It was 

 found not only in the boroughs at Ipswich, Bury, 

 Stowmarket, and Sudbury, but in a great 

 number of villages, some of which, like Laven- 

 ham and Long Melford, became as populous 

 and wealthy as towns, and built magnificent 

 churches, which remain as a striking testimony 

 to their former prosperity. Of the upgrowth 

 of this country industry we hear little and we 

 do not get much insight into its organization 



4 Par/. R. (Rec. Com.) ii, 347. 

 4 Cal. of Pat. 4 Rich. II, pt. ii, m. 8 (p. 615). 

 1 E. Powell, The East Anglia Rising, 1 1 1 . 

 7 Cal. of Pat. 14 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 36. 



255 



