A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



The indenture, apart from the particular application, throws considerable light on the organiz- 

 ation of a branch of the cutlery industry as a domestic industry interdependent with the cultivation 

 of land." 



The general tenor of the indenture certainly proves that the scythe-smiths' industry was no 

 new thing in 1574, and that the people concerned were natives of the district. Unfortunately the 

 scythe-smiths did not join the Cutlers' Company until 1681, but they were even then all in the 

 neighbourhood of Norton and, with one exception, bore names common to the locality from the 

 14th century. There were three Brownells, four Wainwrights, four Hollands and two Ropers; 

 still the fact must not be overlooked that five of the members of the newly incorporated branch of 

 the company bore the name of Gillot, Gillatt or Gilliott, and a Robert Gillott, a scythe-grinder, 

 died at Norton Lees in 1630.'° Smiles traces these ShefBeld Guillots to Huguenot refugees," but 

 gives no authority for his statement. There were Gilliots in Yorkshire centuries before the 

 Elizabethan aliens came to England. The name occurs several times in the Poll-tax Returns of 1 378. 

 William Guilyote, fuller, was enrolled as a freeman at York in 1368," and before the next 1 00 

 years had elapsed thirteen Gilliots had received the freedom of the city. Possibly some York 

 cutlers descended from the Gilliots, driven from their own city by the strict gild regulations, settled 

 in the ShefBeld district in mediaeval times." 



The first fellowship of cutlers, 1590, includes one name of French origin, Aleigne Bynny." 

 Among the Derbyshire cutlers, who joined the company in 1614, was Lawrence Cosin, also 

 apparently French. 



The most complete list of 1 7th-century cutlers in Sheffield is given in the hearth-tax returns of 

 1669 ;" several of these early cutlers as Parramour, Braman, Abdye, Revill, Gillot, Machon, Moake, 

 Burgon bear names that figure in the list of Huguenot settlers compiled by the Huguenot Society. 

 But owing to the reckless way in which names were anglicised at this period, great stress cannot be 

 laid on the absence of any unusual number of foreign names, even the names in the lists of known 

 aliens who settled in Norwich sound extremely English and familiar. In fact the same difficulty 

 that Dr. Beddoe finds in identifying any physical characteristics in Yorkshire that tend to prove 

 Flemish origin, on account of the similarity of the English and Flemish type, besets linguistic 

 investigation. The constant tendency of human nature to move on the line of least resistance and 

 substitute a known for an unknown sound, must have acted as a plane to remove those very 

 linguistic irregularities which would have facilitated the historian's work. 



There is strong inherent probability that some migration of foreign labour from London to less 

 well-known districts took place. Burghley took a keen interest in the development of new 

 industries and the improvement of those already started ; in the pursuance of this object, as is well 

 known, he did not scruple to bring over aliens." The London Cutlers' Company, as early as 1592, 

 were agitating against foreign refugees who, they declared, were by their competition driving the 

 members of the company into the ranks of casual labour. They bitterly resented the intervention 

 of the ' friends of strangers ' who rendered all their efforts to cope with the evil futile. According 

 to the MS. Records of the London Cutlers' Company, Lord Burghley had interfered on behalf of 

 foreigners and asked what was alleged against ' pore Frenchmen ? ' " 



An additional link in the chain of probabilities is supplied by the fact that the manorial lord 

 of Sheffield, the Earl of Shrewsbury, was in constant touch with the government, and there is 

 documentary evidence connecting Burghley, Shrewsbury and Sheffield. In a letter to the Lord 

 Treasurer the earl writes : 



' I have sent yow a small rugge by this bearer, to wrappe aboute yo' legges at tymes convenient ; 

 wch yo' L. must accept as I present yt, and as thoughe o' cuntrey wools were much fyner, and o' 

 workmen more curyous, and, w"" all, your L. shall receave a case of Hallomshire whittells, beinge such 

 fruictes as my pore cuntrey afFordeth w"" fame throughout this realm.' " 



But a curious passage in Strype seems to throw additional light on the subject. 



And such indeed was the sad condition of the people of the Low Countries at this Time, that 

 great numbers of them had fled over hither and desired to join with the Dutch Church in London, 

 and to become members thereof. Yet so tender was the Queen of breaking with that proud and 

 powerful Prince, the King of Spain, that she would not admit of this, nor give countenance to such as 



"R. E. Leader, 'The Alien Refugee Tradition,' Sheffield Telegraph, 15 December 1906. The writer a 

 indebted to Mr. Leader for much help and suggestion in this section. 



" R. E. Leader, op. cit. i, 38. " S. Smiles, The Huguenots, i, 400. 



'- Tork Freemen (Surt. Soc), i, 67. 



"Ibid. 86, loi, 104, 112, 113, 144, 153, 162, 170, 176, 183, 194. 



"* R. E. Leader, op. cit. i, 10. "P.R.O. Lay Subsidy Roll, W. Riding Yorb. 22 Chas. II. 



^* W. Cunningham, Alien Immigrants, 79. " R. E. Leader, op. cit. i, 157. 



" E. Lodge, Illustrations of British Hist, ii, 414. 



462 



