A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



the handsome profits of this contraband trade, 

 and seizures of iron destined for foreign parts 

 were frequent, no fewer than fourteen cases 

 occurring in 1591 at Lewes and Newhaven 

 alone, John Harman of Lewes in one case ex- 

 porting twshty-six ' sacars and miniones ' worth 

 ^312, and in another case forty-five 'sacars, 

 minions, and falcons' worth 420 ; while Lu- 

 dolph Ingolsted of Hamburg shipped iron gun- 

 metal to the weight of 40,000 lb. 70 Six years 

 later eighteen cases of the unlicensed export of 

 wrought iron were reported from Chichester, 

 Newhaven, Shoreham, Arundel, and Rye, the 

 largest quantity being 26 'casks,' valued at 

 j3i2. 71 A further check was put upon such 

 illicit export by granting monopolies. Thus in 

 1574 Ralph Hogge, the crown ordnance maker, 

 complained of the infringement of his patent for 

 the sole export of ordnance, and bonds were taken 

 of the holders of more than a hundred ironworks 72 

 in the county not to export. In 1626 the 

 monopoly of export was held by Philip Burla- 

 mack and Philip Jacobson, and that of manufac- 

 turing ordnance and shot in Sussex and Kent by 

 John Browne and Sackville Crowe, 73 the latter 

 of whom held the export monopoly in 1620. 

 About this date, not only the products of the 

 Sussex forges but also their workers were appar- 

 ently in demand abrcad, and efforts were made 

 in 1627 to induce workmen at Maresfield to 

 give their services to foreign employers. 74 



During the Civil War a certain amount of 

 injury was done to ironworks held by royalists, 

 those at Ifield being apparently destroyed by 

 Waller's troops, 76 but those belonging to the 

 crown were evidently not damaged, as is shown 

 by the survey of the iron-mills in St. Leonard's 

 Forest in i65O. 76 The period of the Common- 

 wealth was at first one of much activity, espe- 

 cially during the Dutch War, but was succeeded 

 by a period of slackness, so much so, that of 

 twenty-seven furnaces which were working in 

 1653 (seventeen of which cast ordnance and 

 shot) seven were completely ruined before 1664, 

 and ten others had been discontinued and only 

 repaired shortly before that date, when the war 

 brought a revival of the iron trade ; and of forty- 

 two forges working in 1653, nineteen were 

 ruined, five others stood unused, and only 

 eighteen continued ' in hope of encouragement ' 

 in 1 664." The reason for this depression, 



' Memo. K.R. Mich. 33 Eliz. m. 64-78. 



71 Ibid. Mich. 39 Eliz. m. 421-31 ; as the 'cask' 

 is uniformly valued at 12, and quantities of 500 lb. 

 are valued at ^3, it is clear that the 'cask ' contained 

 2,000 lb. 



" The list is printed in Suss. Arch. Coll. iii, 240-5. 



71 Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. iv, 178. 



74 Cal. S.P. Dam. 1627-8, pp. 196, 254. 



76 Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 211. 

 K Ibid, xxiv, 238-41. 



77 Ibid, xviii, 15-16 ; xxxii, 21-3. 



according to the grand jury at Lewes in i66i, 78 

 was 



the Importacon of great Quantities of Swedish Iron 

 (made after the English fashion though not soe usefull, 

 to y" abuse and deceipt of the Buyer and workeman) 

 and other Foraine iron at low rates. 



It was further alleged that the object of the 

 foreigners was to capture the English market, 

 when they would be able to raise their prices as 

 they chose : 



It will be proved upon oath that some Swedes who 

 brought over iron this yeare, being demanded why 

 they imported soe great quantities at such low rates, 

 plainly affirmed that they hoped thereby to destroy 

 the makeing of Englishe iron. 



His late Ma' ies Gunfounder formerly carryed over 

 great quantities of guns into Holland hopeing to sell 

 them at the Swedes price, but the Swede thereupon 

 lowered his price from 20'' p ton to 1 2'' p ton till he 

 had beate out the English gunfounder, and then raised 

 it to 20" p ton againe which is his present designe. 



As a remedy the jury prayed for an additional 

 impost of at least 401. per ton on the Swedish 

 iron, adducing other arguments of which the 

 most remarkable, in view of the havoc wrought 

 by the furnaces in Sussex woods, was that, 



As woods maintaine iron workes soe doe iron 

 workes mutually maintaine them and in them great 

 quantities of timber soe that timber is not cheaper on 

 any part of this Island. . . . Nor can any timber be 

 destroyed by Iron workes, being above four times in 

 valluc more than the price of cordwood commonly 

 used for that purpose. ... If the English iron 

 works cease the coppices will be grubbed up, which 

 are the great nursuries of timber. 



The counter argument was advanced that 

 English iron was of bad quality, to which the 

 reply was made : 



In Sussex and other places of England where iron is 

 made the iron made there is much more proper for 

 o r English manufactures in scythes, hoockes, sickles, 

 white-ware, nayles and many other thinges then 

 Swedish iron, from whence it comes that those whoe 

 worke y* English Iron will and doe give higher prizes 

 to the same men and at the same Markettes then for 

 Swedish Iron. 



A considerable recovery took place about this 

 time in the Sussex iron industry, partly owing to 

 the constant demand for military supplies. A 

 letter of April, 1695, sent apparently to one of 

 the Fullers, owners of several works in East 

 Sussex, mentions the sale of twenty -eight small 

 guns to the Ordnance Office at 16 IDS. per ton, 

 and asks for twenty minions of 5^ ft. and twenty 

 3-pounders of 5 ft. to be sent up, and further 

 sends a list of guns required for the fleet. 79 The 

 Waldron furnace turned out 100 tons of shot 



78 Add. MSS. 33058, fol. 81-9 ; cp. Suss. Arch. 

 Coll. xxxii, 25. 



79 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxii, 32. 



2 4 8 



