INDUSTRIES 



East Grinstead, for ' a russett colour clothe being 

 a deceiptfull colour and dyed in the woole ' ; and 

 George Partrych of the same, for ' a sheppes coloure 

 clothe lacking i Ib. waizte.' 20 An offence which 

 occurs with some frequency was the use of a, 

 tenter to stretch cloth to the defrauding of the 

 buyer. In 1561 Richard Goble of Petworth, 

 clothier, was accused of using a ' tayntor ' with 

 ' Wrenche Rope and Ryng ' in order to ' streyne 

 and stretche ' certain woollen cloths. 21 The 

 same accusation was brought in 1564 against 

 Henry Greet, William Cocke, Charles Smyth, 

 William and Richard Cowlden, clothiers of 

 Midhurst, John Andrewe of Bepton, and Robert 

 Chapper and Thomas Leggatt of Lodsworth. 2 * 

 By an Act passed in 1557 no cloth might be 

 made for sale in any place not being a corporate 

 town or borough, or a market town in which 

 the trade had been carried on for the past ten 

 years; accordingly in 1609 we find Tobias 

 Askell of Abberton in Sussex,' probably Yapton, 

 and Henry Hore of Ifield, charged under this 

 Act with making broadcloths and kerseys. 23 It 

 was also prohibited for anyone who had not 

 been apprenticed to the trade, or used it for the 

 past seven years, to make cloth, and proceedings 

 were taken in several cases, as in 1564 against 

 Thomas Page of Alfriston (Alfryssen alias Aws- 

 ton), for making fifty-two woollen cloths, 24 and 

 in 1573 against Gilbert Dyblocke of Fletching 

 for forty kerseys. 25 



Chichester is believed to have been an early 

 seat of the cloth industry, and was clearly 

 engaged in it during the sixteenth century, as 

 is shown by the postponement of the Act of 

 1536 for the convenience of its cloth workers, 

 fullers, and tuckers, as already mentioned ; its 

 manufacture of kerseys and broadcloths is also 

 mentioned in the charter given to the city by 

 James I. 28 One of the few early references to 

 the trade at Chichester is the occurrence of a 

 fuller in the poll-tax list of I38o, 27 and indeed 

 it is upon such casual notices of fullers and dyers 

 that we are largely dependent for knowledge of 

 the places in the county where the industry 

 flourished. These two trades naturally, in days 

 when transport and centralization of labour were 

 undeveloped, were carried on in the neighbour- 

 hood of the chief manufacturers and markets of 

 cloth. Thus in 1586 a dyer, William Belme, 

 was established at Petworth working, amongst 

 others, for Thomas Liberde of the same place, 

 clothier, dyeing wool for him at prices ranging 

 from 6s. Sd. the tod up to 20s. ' according to 



80 Mem. R., K.R. 7 Eliz. Hil. m. 329. 



81 Ibid. 4 Eliz. Mich. m. 225. 



" Ibid. 7 Eliz. East. m. 113-16. 

 " Ibid. 7 Jas. I, East. mm. 184-5. 

 14 Ibid. 7 Eliz. Hil. m. 172. 



85 Ibid. 1 6 Eliz. East. m. 384. 



86 Dallaway, Hist, of Rape ofChich. i, 203. 



87 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxiv, 67. 



the richnesse or the coloures and his worke 

 and charges bestowed therein.' 28 Amongst those 

 concerned in Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450 were 

 a fuller from Herstmonceux and a dyer from 

 Hastings. 29 Fulling mills occur at Framfield in 

 1549 ; 30 at Burton, where two belonged to Sir 

 Henry Goring in i564; 31 atPlumpton, in i6ao, 33 

 and at Chesworth, near Horsham, in i65O; 33 

 while fullers occur* 4 at Maresfield (1558), 

 Withyham (1568), Hurstpierpoint (1616), and 

 Albourne (1623), and a tucker at Worth in 

 1600. The list might be much expanded, but 

 this is sufficient to show how widespread the 

 industry was, and further evidence can be ob- 

 tained for the eastern part of the county from 

 the marriage licences, 35 as well as from the wills 

 at Lewes. These documents contain numbers 

 of references to shearmen, ' kemmers,' clothiers, 

 clothworkers, and warp spinners, and mention a 

 kersey maker at Waldron in 1637, a broad-weaver 

 at Salehurst (1594), and a narrow-weaver at 

 Frant (1613), and fustian-weavers at Lewes in 

 1600 and 1612. The ' weavers' who occur in 

 almost every parish during the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries were probably for the most 

 part engaged in weaving flax and hemp, mention 

 of hemp dressers being also common ; this was a 

 widely distributed, and indeed almost universal, 

 village industry, and does not seem to have been 

 of any commercial significance in Sussex. 



Midhurst had at one period a manufacture of 

 coverlets and coarse cloth, which was probably 

 at its height about 1672, in which year Gilbert 

 Hannam, coverlet maker, established a school in 

 the town. 36 A manufacture of bays, blankets, 

 and coarse cloths was established in Chichester 

 shortly before 1794 by Mr. J. Newland, mer- 

 cer, 37 and in 1/93 



Mr. Edward Eagles, with a laudable spirit of enter- 

 prise, established a cotton manufactory in South Street 

 (Lewes), which is the first of the kind ever attempted 

 to any extent in this part of the kingdom. 88 



Neither of these enterprises appears to have 

 attained any great importance. There was a 

 woollen-cloth manufacture at Hastings, and also 

 three dyers in 185 I, 39 in which year the census 

 returns for the county show six persons employed 

 in the woollen manufacture, which number rose 

 to sixteen in 1871, but in 1901 none were 

 returned. Flax and linen manufacture employed 



88 Court of Requests, bdle. 26, No. 15. 



89 Suss. Arch. Coll. xviii, 25. 

 30 Feet of F. I Edw. VI, Hil. 



" Inq. p.m. Eliz. file 244, No. 101. 

 38 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxvii, 47. 

 "Ibid, xxiii, 281. 



84 Cal. of Wills at Levies (Index Soc.). 



85 Suss. Rec. Soc. i. 



36 Dallaway, Hist, of Rape of Chick, ii, 294. 



37 Chick. Guide (ed. 1794), 35- 

 88 Dunvan, Hist, of Levies, 322. 

 " Hastings, Past and Present. 



257 



33 



