A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



seventeen persons in 1851, but only eight in 

 1871 and six in 1901, while the figures for the 

 same years for the manufacture of cotton were 

 four, fifteen, and none. 



Silk weavers occur at Lewes in 1601 and 

 1625,* and a dornick- weaver in the same town 

 in i6i6, 41 while another silk weaver is mentioned 

 at Litlington in i634. 40 Hastings possessed a 

 small manufactory of thin silks at the end of the 

 eighteenth century, 48 and in 1851 there were 

 eight persons employed in this industry in Sussex, 

 ten in 1871, and only two in 1901. 



In many ways the most interesting branch of 

 the textile industry in Sussex was the manufac- 

 ture of cambric, carried on for a short time at 

 Winchelsea. The French obtained a well- 

 deserved reputation for fine linens at an early 

 date, and during the religious persecution many 

 of the Huguenot settlers continued to practise 

 their art in England. In 1574 the mayor of 

 Rye certified that certain fine yarn had been spun 

 by Vincent Gloria and Jane his wife and their 

 servants, French people who had lived at Rye 

 for a year or more. 43 It was not, however, until 

 1761 that the manufacture of the fine linen 

 known as cambric, from its being made near 

 Cambrai, was introduced into England at Win- 

 chelsea by a M. Mariteau. Shortly after its 

 introduction a letter from Winchelsea 44 states 



The cambrick manufactory here established is like 

 to be attended with great success ; we have now 

 already eight looms at work, and shall soon have two 

 more. Two pieces have been finished and sent to 

 town ; one of which, I am told, was presented to 

 the king. Should this manufactory of French cam- 

 bricks succeed it would save the nation 300,000 per 

 annum ; and there is more probability of its succeed- 

 ing here than in any part of England where attempts 

 of this sort have been made ; the situation of the 

 place ; the vast numbers of fine vaults under ground, 

 where only the works of the manufactory can be 

 carried on ; the peculiar quality of the waters for 

 bleaching, and the richness of its neighbouring soil to 

 raise the flax, all forebode a happy issue. 



Some details of the processes employed are 

 given in an account 45 drawn up in 1763, in 

 which year the business was incorporated 46 as 



40 Suss. Rec. Sac. i, 37, 149. 



41 Cal. of Wills at Levies. Dornick appears to have 

 been a species of silk tapestry. 



41 Pennant, 7or(i8oi),ii, 35. The exchange of the 

 silk merchants is said to have stood at the end of All 

 Saints' Street ; Suss. Arch. Col. xii, 198. 



41 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. iv, 39. 



44 Ann. Reg. 1761, p. 178. 



44 Ibid. 1763, pp. 100-2. 



41 4 Geo. Ill, cap. 37. 



'The English Linen Company,' under the 

 management of MM. Mariteau and Corbeaux. 



The workmen that are now employed are chiefly 

 French ; but English children are daily bound ap- 

 prentices to them, that the secrets and mysteries of 

 the several branches may soon become our own. . . . 

 It was a very difficult matter to procure workmen 

 skilful enough to manufacture this fine cloth ; and it 

 was still more difficult to get flax proper for making 

 yarn fine enough ; yet both these difficulties are sur- 

 mounted ; the first by securing proper hands from 

 France and from among the French prisoners who 

 were maintained here for so many years during the 

 late war ; and the latter by improving the culture of 

 the flax they sowed in the neighbourhood, in the 

 following particulars. It was necessary for them that 

 fibres should be fine, slender, and long, and that in a 

 much greater degree than in the linen made in Ireland 

 for shirting, sheeting, &c. ; for this reason they pro- 

 ceed in the culture of their flax in a manner very 

 different from the practice of the Irish farmers. [The 

 land has to be very fresh but not rank, well picked of 

 stones and kept clear of weeds ; and the best seed 

 only is used.] In order to promote their growth the 

 planters stick the crop very full of long sticks, and on 

 these they lay bushes, which, shading the plants from 

 the intense heat of the sunbeams, make them run up 

 very slender ; and yet they enjoy air and warmth 

 enough to prevent their stems or stalks from rotting 

 by too much moisture. . . . The manufacturing the 

 yarn by weaving it into linen is very delicate work ; 

 and this is chiefly done in the fine stone vaults with 

 which this town abounds ; for the skilful workman 

 says that the thread is so fine and delicate that it will 

 not before weaving bear the influence of the upper 

 and freely circulating air .... as it would be brittle, 

 and in working break into short lengths as if it was 

 rotten. 



This account ends with an appeal to all people 

 to support this English industry and reject the 

 ' foreign fripperies ' on which so much money 

 was spent. Two years later, 17 January, 1765, 



at a sale at Garraway's coffee-house of about 300 

 pieces of English cambrics, which upon an average 

 sold for 13*. 6d. per yard, it was allowed that they 

 were exceeding good of the sort, and that if this 

 manufactory should be properly encouraged there will 

 shortly be no occasion to send any money out of the 

 kingdom, to purchase that commodity. 47 



The later history of the business is obscure, but 

 it appears to have either died out or else been 

 removed from Winchelsea not many years later, 

 its place being temporarily taken by a manufac- 

 tory of ' Italian crape,' established by P. Novaille, 

 which was in turn removed to Norwich in 

 iSio. 48 



47 Ann. Reg. 1765, p. 58. 



48 Cooper, Hist, of Winchelsea, 121. 



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