INDUSTRIES 



PAPER-MAKING 



Various causes have made paper-making a 

 profitable undertaking in Buckinghamshire. Espe- 

 cially in the Thames Valley, the water-power ob- 

 tained from the tributaries of the river, the easy 

 means of communication by water, and the nearness 

 to London, all favoured its manufacture, and at the 

 close of the reign of Elizabeth paper-mills had 

 already been established. John Spilman, the 

 queen's jeweller, obtained a licence that he himself, 

 or his deputies, should alone build any paper-mills 

 or collect linen rags in the country, 1 but by 

 1600 other mills had been erected, and he peti- 

 tioned for assistance against the paper manufac- 

 turers. John Turner, Edward Marshall, and 

 George Friend, had built a mill in Buckingham- 

 shire, but its exact position is not mentioned in 

 Spilman's petition. Other mills must have been 

 built very quickly in spite of his licence. In 

 1636 there were twelve paper-mills in the 

 county, 1 one of the most important being at 

 Horton, worked by Edmund Phipps. He waschief 

 constable of the county, and seems to have worked 

 his mill with but little consideration for the conve- 

 nience of his neighbours. In fact the paper-mills 

 seem to have been thoroughly unpopular in the 

 country, owing to the importation of rags, and the 

 consequent outbreaks of the plague. Phipps was 

 presented at an ecclesiastical court in 1635 for 

 working his mill on Sunday all through the 

 year. 1 The next year the mills were stopped 

 owing to the prevalence of the plague, and the 

 paper-masters petitioned for a contribution from 

 the county towards their relief. This made 

 them even more unpopular than before, and the 

 justices of the peace made a counter petition, 

 not only against the rate, but for the destruction 

 of the mills altogether. Some of these mills 

 were already built at High Wycombe, 4 or near 

 the town, and this district became the centre of 

 the paper-making industry in Buckinghamshire. 

 At Horton, Richard West had succeeded Phipps 

 as paper-maker by 1649.' 



At the close of the I7th century* a bill was 

 brought into Parliament for the formation of a 

 company with the monopoly of making white 

 writing and printing paper. Whilst it was 

 before the House of Lords, the mayor, alder- 

 men and inhabitants of Chopping Wycombe 

 petitioned against the formation of such a com- 

 pany, which would ruin their trade. There 

 were then, in 1690, eight paper-mills at High 

 Wycombe ; probably they were not all within 



1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxvi, 6. 

 ' Ibid. Chas. I, cccxliv, 40. 

 1 Ibid, ccxcvi, 17. 

 4 Ibid, ccccviii, 148. 



Gyll, Hitt. ofWrajtburj, 98. 



* Hitt. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. v, 74. 



the borough itself, but were in the neighbour- 

 hood, and fifty families were employed in 

 making paper. The men had mostly been 

 apprenticed to the trade, and if the prohibition 

 against making white paper became law, they 

 would come, for the most part, with their 

 families on the rates. The Wycombe mills 

 were worked by water from the River Wye, 

 but other mills were established on the Loddon, 

 which runs into the Thames between Wycombe 

 and Great Marlow. 7 



In the 1 8th century paper-making was the 

 most important industry in the county, with 

 the possible exception of lace. 8 In 1797 Thomas 

 Langley wrote : 'The paper manufacture is very 

 flourishing and has experienced every attention 

 its importance so highly deserves.' * The paper- 

 mills at Horton and Wyrardisbury (Wraysbury) 

 were worked during the greater part of the i8th 

 century, but for a time were converted into iron 

 or copper mills. 10 Wyrardisbury mills were 

 re-converted into paper-mills early in the igth 

 century, 11 while in the northern part of the 

 county the manufacture was carried on at 

 Newport Pagnell and at Marsworth, 1 * and 

 other mills may have existed on the northern 

 streams. The Marsworth mill was destroyed 

 by the construction of the grand Junction 

 Canal, which took away all the water of the 

 stream, for the reservoirs and canal. In 1831 

 there were seventy-six paper manufacturers in 

 the county, while 220 men or boys were em- 

 ployed in the trade either as masters or work- 

 men. 18 Since then a mill at Chenies stopped 

 working between 1851 and i86i, u and at the 

 present day the chief paper-mills are in the 

 south of the county, the most important being 

 at High Wycombe, Great Marlow, Wooburn, 

 Iver, and Bledlow. 



The first paper made in Buckinghamshire 

 was writing and printing paper of good quality, 11 

 but in 1636-7 complaints were made that the 

 paper would not bear ink on either side, while 

 the price had risen considerably. 1 * So little com- 

 petition was there, that Phipps and his fellow 

 manufacturers seem to have made a great profit 

 on the manufacture of bad paper, while a few 



' Defoe, Tour in Gt. Brit. (17*5), ii, 70. 



W. James and J. Malcolm, Gen. Vino ofJgrit. In 

 Bucks. (1794). 



T. Langley, Hilt. ofHunJ. ofDesbonugh, 9. 



"Gyll, Hitt. of Wraysbury, 71, 198. 



11 Lipscomb, Hist, tf Bucks, iv, 620. 



" Pinnock, Hist. anJ Tofog. ofEngl. i, 3 1 . Informa- 

 tion supplied by Rev. W. Ragg. 



"Pop. Ret. 1831, i, 34. 



"Ibid. 1861, i, 298. 



" S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccclixvi, 6. 



"Ibid. Chai. I, cccxliv, 40 (i). 



Ill 



