A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



But it was in the fifteenth century that sheep-farming became general on 

 the wolds, and that Cotswold wool-dealers raised such splendid memorials of 

 their wealth and piety as may be seen at Northleach and Chipping Camden. l 

 The correspondence of the Cely family, 8 who were merchants of the staple 

 at London in the time of Edward IV, gives interesting details as to their 

 dealings with the woolmen of Northleach, Camden, and Chipping Norton. 

 ' Good Cottyswolde woll ' was in great request, and no less a person than the 

 merchant Richard Cely, or his son, had to ride constantly into Gloucestershire 

 to select the fleeces, and also personally to supervise their packing at London 

 for shipment to 'Jorge Cely' at Calais. Pleasant expeditions they must 

 have been to a gay young merchant like the younger Cely, whose hawk, we 

 hear, provided him with sport by the way, and with a ' heronshaw ' which 

 proved useful in his courtship of an heiress at Northleach. Trade was 

 anxious work, however, for prices were rising in consequence of foreign 

 competition. ' I have not bogwyt thys yere a loke of woll,' complains the 

 elder Cely in 1480, 'for the woll of Cottyswolde is bogwyt be the Lom- 

 bardys.' And again, in the following year, he writes to his son at Calais : 

 ' Ye avyse me for to by woll in Cottyswolde, bot it is at grete pryse, 1 %s. ^d. a 

 tode, and gret ryding for woll in Cottyswolde as was onny yere this vii yere.' 

 The average price of wool in the years 147180 was 5^. ^d. the todd, 

 according to Thorold Rogers, 8 so that Cotswold wool must have been very 

 highly rated at this time, though apparently a fictitious price was set upon it 

 by the Northleach wool-dealer, Mydwynter, of whom Cely piously remarks, 

 * God ryd us of hym.' Even kings did not disdain to treat for it. In the 

 middle of this century we meet with a special request from the Portuguese 

 to the English king, for leave to export sixty sacks of Cotswold wool for 

 making cloth of gold. In 1464 Edward sent to Henry of Castile a present 

 of Cotswold rams, which are believed to have been crossed with the merino 

 sheep, and greatly improved it. 4 



The consequent rise in the value of sheep-pastures becomes increas- 

 ingly evident in the court rolls of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The 

 tenants of Hawkesbury Court, for instance, issued orders in 1466 'stinting' 

 the number of sheep which might be kept on a common called ' Les Mores.' 5 

 Again in i 509 four tenants were accused of keeping flocks of sheep in the 

 common fields of Hawkesbury, and in 1528 it was noted that the abbot of 

 Gloucester had pasture there for 300 sheep. 6 At Temple Guiting, 

 we hear of many transactions relating to sheep pastures in the reign of 

 Henry VIII. 7 The dissolution of the monasteries, and consequent distribu- 

 tion of great estates, probably stimulated enclosures for sheep-farming in 

 Gloucestershire, while the general break-up of old systems of life which 

 followed that momentous event encouraged the woollen manufacture to pro- 

 ceed on freer lines. At Cirencester, says Leland, ' a right goodly clothing 

 mill ' was set up in the ruins of the abbey. 8 But the especial characteristic 

 of the period is the development of the industry not in the towns but in 



1 Camden's great woolman, Grevel, was known as ' the flower of English wool merchants.' 



* The Cely Papers, Camd. Soc. (3rd ser.), vol. i. 



* Hist, of Agric. and Prices, iv, 328. See also App. ii, infra. * Cotswold Flock Book, vol. i. 

 6 Ct. R. portf. 175, No. 55, m. 5. 6 Ibid. No. 59. 



' e.g. Richard Wenman, merchant of the staple at Witney, sells a pasture for 800 sheep at Guiting for 

 66 i2s. C.C.C. Bursary Books, 21, p. 289. 8 Quoted, Ashley, pt. i. 



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