SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



There are no entries among the freemen of any alien ironworkers from 1340 to 1350, but 

 the disorganization of the economic life of the country sufficiently accounts for this silence. In 1350 

 'Goddeskalk Scudik,de Almann, furbur''«; in 1352 ' Matheus de Colonia"^ in 1355 . ydkynus 

 van the rode ' ^S; and in 1 3 5 9 ' Johannes de Bruges,' "' all furburs, settled in the northern capital. 1 hese 

 men would not have been admitted unless York had reaped some advantage, and the mference seems 

 fair that the influx of foreigners was a conscious effort on the part of the central government to 

 raise the standard of a trade which had, however, been generally followed in York froni the earliest 

 ages. Some of the very excellent ironwork of an early date that is found m the churches in York 

 and its neighbourhood seems to point to some settlement of handicraftsmen of more than average 

 ability ; it is possible that the activity of the ecclesiastical builders in York may have attracted to the 

 city a foreign element, for the Church was always cosmopolitan in its tendencies. 



In the more artistic branches of the metallic arts York owed much to foreigners. Three 

 coiners were admitted as freemen between 1359 and 1362, coming from Italy : Andreas de Florence, 

 Bonathe de Florence," and Laurentius de Florence "^ ; while the mechanical side is represented by a 

 certain 'Nicholas le Yhonge, de Flandre,' who was a bellows-maker in York in 1372. It is 

 certainly significant that in one of the few cases where the existence of a freemen's list makes it 

 possible to verify the contention that alien skill had to be imported to raise the standard of industrial 

 efficiency, the verification should be so ample and unimpeachable. 



The case is, however, entirely different when the question of alien influence in the Sheffield 

 cutlery trade and the 1 6th century is reached. Still, the superiority of Sheffield cutlery has so often 

 been traced to the influence of alien immigrants that the assertion has gained an air of authenticity 

 by mere force of reiteration, though the evidence is entirely circumstantial. 



The latest historian of Sheffield industry approaches the subject with caution. 



It has usually been accepted that the localization of the scythe and sickle trades on the Derby- 

 shire side of Sheffield, so marked a characteristic of the villages there, originated in the settlement of 

 refugees driven out of France and the Netherlands by persecution. " 



The earlier historians are not so guarded in their expression of opinion.^* It is certainly 

 curious that these statements with regard to the alien origin of several of the branches of iron 

 industry, which are associated with the Sheffield neighbourhood, all seem to have originated in the 

 letter already alluded to *' and a somewhat more elaborated account published a little later in a 

 periodical of no historic merit called the Northern Star. As however there are good grounds for 

 believing that Arthur Jewitt, father of the late Llewellyn Jewitt, was the writer of both letter and 

 article, and was himself a descendant of a refugee driven from France by the Revocation of the 

 Edict of Nantes, even though untrustworthy, they are useful in summing up the traditions in vogue 

 early in the 1 9th century amongst the immediate descendants of the refugees. A definite assertion 

 is made in them that * in the reign of Elizabeth thousands of refugees from the Netherlands found 

 their way into England ' ; iron and steel workers, arriving in the Humber, were, by the influence 

 of the Earl of Shrewsbury, assigned to Sheffield and the neighbourhood. It is added that under this 

 arrangement shear or sickle makers congregated in Eckington, scythe-smiths in Norton, scissor-smiths 

 in Attercliffe.*' 



It is apparently due to the Mercury letter and the Northern Star article that the smiths' craft 

 in Norton is always said to have originated with an alien settlement. Fortunately here firm ground 

 is reached, for a document has come to light which effectually disposes of the alien origin of the 

 Norton scythe trade, though it leaves untouched the question of the improvement of the industry 

 by foreigners.** 



'' York Freemen (Surt. Soc), i, 44. " Ibid. 47. "^ Ibid. 50. »» Ibid. 54. 



"Ibid. 56, 1359-62. "Ibid. 57. « Ibid. 54. "Ibid. 70. 



" R. E. Leader, Hist, of the Sheffield Cutlers^ Company, \, 14. 



" S. Smiles, The Huguenots, i, 14. ■"* Life of Llewellyn Jewitt, 47, 48. " Sheffield Mercury, loc. cit. 



^This Indenture made loth of February, 1574, between John Urton alias Steven of Lightwood 

 yeoman, on the one part, and John Clayton of Lightwood aforesaid, labourer, on the other part, Witnesseth 

 that John Clayton of his free will, hath bound himself servant with John Urton, and after the manner of a servant 

 with him to dwell from Michaelmas next for the full term of four years, from this date ; faithfully to preserve his 

 secrets, keep his lawful commandments and not absent himself from his master's house by night or day without 

 the special leave of his master. And John Urton doth covenant that he will cause him to be taught learned 

 and made perfect in the arte, craft and occupation of the scythsmiths craft if he, John Clayton, take the same 

 in, and in due manner to chastise him, finding him sufficient meat and drink, and also paying him 40 shillings 

 yearly during the term. And it is also agreed that as John Urton hath certain meanor (common) rights at 

 Lightwood, John Clayton shall have the same meanor in consideration that John Urton shall, at his own cost, 

 find and keep John Clayton six sheep during the same term of four years. And also further, that after the 

 expiration of the four years, and John Clayton then being a workman and able to keep whole work — that is 

 say, to work and make three dozen of scythes in a whole week, that then he shall work with John Urton, he 

 finding him meat and drink, and also paying ^5 a year for wages, as long as they can agree after. 



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