INDUSTRIES 



makers' Company occupied a prominent place. 

 It included dyers, and weavers, and shear- 

 men, shuttle-makers and ash-burners. Queen 

 Elizabeth greatly encouraged the trade in the 

 town, during whose reign it was carried on to 

 an extent never equalled in any preceding 

 period. As in other centres of industry 

 Reading benefited by the immigration of the 

 industrious Flemings, for whom the queen 

 built some cottages on her property, the 

 abbey precincts, using for the purpose the 

 wall of the refectory. Contention was sharp 

 in the town between the rival craftsmen. 

 The clothiers and dyers had an important 

 controversy, which was referred to the decision 

 of the Privy Council of the State. It appears 

 that the clothiers were accustomed to have 

 dye-houses of their own, and to dye such wool 

 as they convert into cloth, and to this the 

 Privy Council saw no objection. But the 

 dyers assert that the clothiers dye for others, 

 and so make a benefit of the trade of dyeing. 

 So the clothiers are forbidden to dye for 

 others or to dye clothes ready made into any 

 colour. 



The particular kind of cloth made in 

 Reading was a heavy texture, the piece being 

 30 or 34 yards long by 6 quarters broad, 

 and weighing 66 Ib. to the piece. 1 There 

 is evidence that the manufacture was spread- 

 ing at this time into the surrounding vil- 

 lages, where cloth was made in the houses 

 of the rural population, and that the Mer- 

 chants' Gild of Reading, ever jealous of 

 their monopolies, strove to confine the 

 industry to the town. In 1592 certain orders 

 were agreed upon for ' the reformacion of the 

 abuses of Clothiers and Clothworkers,' which 

 seem to establish both these conclusions. 

 The order set forth : 



4 Imprimis that no clothier shall buy any 

 thrums neither shall convert any thrums 

 into cloth within this borough, or put any 

 flocks into any cloth made or to be made 

 within this borough. 



' Item that expert searchers be specially 

 appointed to search as well all manner of 

 cloth made or to be made within this borough, 

 as all such cloth as shall be brought to this 

 borough to be milled or dressed, wherein 

 any deceitful stuff shall be used, and upon 

 finding thereof to stay such cloth until such 

 time as the owner thereof do come presently 

 before the mayor for the time being to the 

 intent this order may be taken with an 

 offender. 



' Item that no clothier shall make any 

 cloth all of warp to put to sale, nor buy any 



1 Industrial Hist, of England, p. 134. 



warp yarn in the country for that intent.' * 

 During the reign of James I. the industry 

 continued to flourish in Reading. Amongst 

 the most famous clothiers was John Kendrick, 

 ' whose state,' says Fuller, ' may be com- 

 pared to the mustard seed, from a small 

 encreasing to a prodigious bigness.' He is 

 said to have kept 140 looms in constant 

 employ, whereby several hundred labourers, 

 such as pickers, sorters, carders, spinners, 

 weavers, dyers and teazers were comfortably 

 maintained. 3 He left a large fortune at his 

 death in 1624, part of which was to be spent in 

 erecting a strong and commodious house, in 

 which the poor might be constantly employed, 

 and to provide materials for carrying on the 

 clothing trade, and for working in wool, hemp, 

 flax, grinding Brazil-wood, or preparing 

 materials for dyeing. This was the origin of 

 the ' Oracle,' a building famous in the history 

 of Reading industry. Money was also left by 

 the benefactor to the mayor and burgesses to 

 be lent to poor clothiers or others for a period 

 of years. 



The records show that although the 

 clothiers were prosperous the craftsmen were 

 indigent. In 1623 all the clothiers, thirty 

 in number, were warned to appear at the 

 Guildhall and ordered to provide work for 

 the poor people, spinners and carders and 

 others depending upon the clothiers for their 

 livings.* 



At the same time two clothier-overseers 

 were appointed to meet at the Town Hall on 

 Monday mornings at 8 a.m. to provide or 

 assign work to the poor folk. In spite of this 

 the complaint by the spinners and carders of 

 lack of work increased, and the remedy agreed 

 upon was that every clothier should ' weekly 

 assign and put to spinning in the town his 

 ordinary and coarse woof wool, and not send 

 it into the country, if sufficient means be in the 

 town to do it.' 6 It was also arranged that 

 every merchant that dealeth in white cloth 

 should be enjoined to make for every ten 

 white, one coloured cloth, for every coloured 

 cloth setteth four times more workmen 

 for its manufacture. 6 The clothiers at the 

 same time (9 Nov. 1623) testified to the 

 decay of clothing and the badness of coloured 

 cloth sale, owing to the competition of the 

 northern clothiers, whose cloth was shipped at 

 all times at less customs. They wanted more 

 merchants, and to have the same liberty of 

 shipping at all times and at the same charges 



3 Rec. of Reading, i. 407. 



3 Man, Hist, of Reading, p. 150. 



4 Rec. of Reading, li. 153. 



5 Ibid. ii. 159. 6 Ibid. p. 160. 



391 



