SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



dry light of official documentary reports, population has increased rapidly and constant references to 

 fullers, spinners, weavers and dyers show the adoption of the trade was widespread. No 

 part of England was so overburdened with inhabitants as to allow of any considerable 

 transference of its people during the period. Several of the followers of William the Conqueror 

 to whom large Yorkshire estates were apportioned held also land on the Continent : it is hardly 

 straining evidence to suppose that in working their newly-acquired possessions labour would be 

 brought from abroad. But as the Low Countries were the most densely populated regions of 

 Europe, it seems probable that men from this land of weavers, seeking an outlet for their energies, 

 cramped in the crowded districts of their native country, would turn naturally to a region as easy 

 of access as England. It is a well authenticated fact that a steady stream of immigration set in 

 from the Continent to England during the two centuries following the Conquest. Henry I 

 brought his bride from Flanders, and many Flemings followed the queen to her new home. 

 Stephen constantly imported Flemish mercenaries to fight his battles. 



Nor was the Flemish invasion left to haphazard individual enterprise ; Henry I made a 

 systematic attempt to plant a colony of Flemings at the mouth of the Tweed,^" and later in Wales.^^ 

 Even if the antiquarian argument be accepted, that if he had followed the same policy on the 

 borders of Strathclyde the feet could not have escaped the attention of the annalist, it still remains 

 indisputable that a considerable amount of individual immigration might take place without 

 attracting the attention of the few capable of chronicling it. There was a contingent of Flemings 

 in Carlisle at an even earlier date, in the reign of William Rufus.^^ 



Fortunately, when the question narrows itself from England in general to Yorkshire in 

 particular, there is much unimpeachable evidence to prove that Flemings had settled in various 

 parts of the county. It is a curious and suggestive coincidence that the town that figures most 

 frequently in the early records as being connected with the cloth industry is the place round about 

 which the Conqueror had given large estates to a Fleming, Drogo de la Bouerer.^' The Flemings 

 would resort to a neighboiu"hood where they might naturally expect to find protection. Tradition, 

 too, points to the presence of Flemings in Beverley in the 12th century, for Fleming Gate, one of 

 the town thoroughfares, bore the name in the reign of John," and it is said that many Flemish 

 merchants lived there at that early date. At the east end of the north aisle of St. Mary's Church 

 there is a chapel called the Flemings' Chapel, though it is probable that it owes its name to some 

 later immigration of Flemings, possibly only sojourners, for there was constant intercourse between 

 Beverley and the Low Countries for many centuries.^' 



If, following Dr. Cunningham and Professor Gross, the view is adopted that certain disabilities 

 under which the fullers and weavers of some towns lived point to an alien settlement, then 

 confirmatory evidence is afforded, for the same curious law was in force in Beverley that was 

 followed in London. Apart from the bearing that it has on the point in question, the law itself 

 is of sufficient importance in connexion with the economic conditions under which cloth was 

 produced, at a time when evidence is scanty, to merit quotation. 



This is to be known that they cannot dry any cloth, nor in order to carry on any trade go out 

 of the town, nor can any free man be accused by them, nor can they bear any evidence ; and if any 

 one wishes to forswear his trade let him deal with him who is called Mayor and with the bailiffs of 

 the town that he may be received into the freedom of the town and let him get rid of the tools from 

 his house and this law they have in the freedom of London as they say.'° 



In York, too, Flemings settled ; Walter le Flyming and Gilkin le Flemyng were enrolled 

 as freemen in 1291," Copin Flemyng was chamberlain in 1292-3,^^ Gilkin de Braban took up 

 his freedom in 1296,^' Jacob le Flemyng was mayor in 1299.^" The name occurs no fewer than 

 fifty-three times in the earliest Wakefield Court Rolls, and the nature of the entries suggests that 

 the Le Flemings were people of importance and had been settled in the neighbourhood for some 

 time at the date of the first allusion to them in 1274.^^ 



Communication between Flanders and Yorkshire by sea in those days of bad roads was easier 

 than between the northern and southern counties of England by land ; it is somewhat difficult to 



" E. A. Freeman, The Norman Conquest, v, 855. 



" W. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and Commerce, App. 642-50. 



" John Denton, Cumberland Estates and Families (ed. by R. S. Ferguson, Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. 

 Soc). The writer is indebted to Dr. Beddoe for this reference. 



" Chron. Men. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), i, 89. " G. Oliver, Hist, and Antiq. oj Beverley, 273 n. 



" Exch. K.R. Mins. Accts. bdle. 11 27, no. 18, m. 13, Possessions of Aliens. 



" Add. MSS. 14252 ; C. Gross, Gild Merchant, i, 108 ; W. Cunningham, op. cit. App. E.; A. F. Leach, 

 Beverley Town Doc. (Seld. Soc. xiv). 



" York Freemen, ut sup. 5. " Ibid. " Ibid. 6, '» Ibid. 7. 



" Wakefield Ct. R. ut sup. 84 et seq. 



437 



