A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



makers were obliged to bring to the company's 

 proof-house for such purpose. The authority 

 of the company over the trade was confirmed 

 by the Act of 53 George III, cap. 115, 

 (1813), and by subsequent amending statutes. 

 The last of these Acts, under which the 

 company now exercises its powers, was passed 

 in 1868, 31-2 Victoria, cap. 113. The 

 proof-house is in Commercial Road East, and 

 serves the company for the purposes of a hall. 

 In one of the principal apartments is a fine 

 trophy of arms. Apart from its trade duties 

 and privileges the company exercises all the 

 functions of an ordinary livery company. It 

 is governed by a master and two wardens, 

 chosen annually from the members of the 

 court of assistants, and has a clerk, proof- 

 master, beadle, and other officials. The com- 

 pany, in common with the other City gilds, 

 makes liberal grants from its income to pen- 

 sioners and general philanthropic objects. 



The Thames near the metropolis was once 

 the seat of a flourishing trade in shipbuilding, 

 which has now almost become extinct. In 

 April 1594 Peter Hills of Redrith (Rother- 

 hithe) received a tally for 431 crowns, value 

 55. each, as the queen's gift towards his 

 charges in building three new ships. 3 * The 

 number of shipwrights employed in the 

 metropolis shows a rapid decrease in the census 

 returns. The number in 1 86 1 was 8,300; 

 in 1871, 6,200; in 1881, 5,300; and in 

 1891, 2,300; this last return being little 

 more than one-fourth of those counted in 

 1 86 1. 35 The finest vessels in the East India 

 trade were made in the Thames shipbuilding 

 yards, but this valuable industry is being gradu- 



ally lost to the metropolis. In August 1907 

 it was announced that Yarrow's yard at Mill- 

 wall would be entirely closed within twelve 

 months, and the business removed to Scotstoun 

 on the Clyde. 38 This well-known firm of 

 marine and mechanical engineers was esta- 

 blished in 1864, and their premises at Poplar 

 covered 12 acres of ground at the river side. 

 Here they had given employment to hun- 

 dreds of artisans in East London during the 

 last fifty years. Their speciality was torpedo 

 boats, torpedo-boat destroyers, vessels of shal- 

 low draught for military and trading pur- 

 poses, and the ' Yarrow ' water-tube boilers. 

 They especially succeeded in the construction 

 of high-speed naval craft, which they supplied 

 both to the British and to foreign govern- 

 ments. The firm was incorporated as a 

 limited company in 1897. Another well- 

 known firm of shipbuilders below bridge is 

 the Thames Iron Works, whose extensive 

 premises are at Canning Town, on the side of 

 the River Lea. At Chiswick there are the 

 large engineering and steam-launch build- 

 ing works of Thorneycroft & Co., equally 

 famous with Searle & Sons, their old com- 

 petitors on the Surrey shore. 



The control of all Middlesex industries 

 within a radius varying from three to ten or 

 more miles from the metropolis lay, in former 

 times, with the City authorities ultimately, 

 and more directly with the companies con- 

 trolling the various trades. This authority 

 still exists in some industries the goldsmiths 

 and stationers, for example. But it fell gene- 

 rally into disuse towards the close of the i8th 

 century. 



SILK-WEAVING 



The origin of this important industry as 

 located in Spitalfields dates from the revoca- 

 tion of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 

 1685, when the French Protestants, driven by 

 persecution from their own country, took 

 refuge in England in large numbers. Long 

 before this, however, silk-weavers from abroad 

 had settled in England, and during the reign 

 of Henry VIII a considerable number of silk- 

 workers, principally from Rouen, made their 

 homes in this country. During the reign of 

 Elizabeth, French and Flemish refugees had 

 crowded into England, but do not appear to 

 have settled in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, 



M Cat. S.P. Dm. 1591-4, p. 480. 

 * Booth, Life antl Labour of the People of London : 

 Industries, i, 178. 



which were at that time mere country 

 hamlets. 



A great body of the refugees of 1685 

 occupied a large district which is usually called 

 Spitalfields, but which includes also large por- 

 tions of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, White- 

 chapel, and Mile End New Town. The 

 great majority brought with them little beyond 

 the knowledge of their occupations, and being 

 in great necessity, subscriptions for their im- 

 mediate relief were procured to a large amount 

 by means of the King's Briefs. On 16 April 

 1687 an Order in Council prescribed a fresh 

 general collection in England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland. The amount thus obtained was 

 about ,200,000, which formed a fund known 



* Daily Telegraph, 23 Aug. 1907. 



13* 



