A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



making which had formerly existed in the 

 county was dying out, for in 1588, when the 

 authorities at St. Albans wished to set the 

 unemployed to work at spinning, they put the 

 matter into the hands of Anthony Moner, 

 ' Dutchman ' or German.^^ It is also note- 

 worthy that the necessary machinery ' for 

 spinning and weaving worsted ' was obtained 

 from Hertford. The articles bought are de- 

 scribed as ' a new great loom and two flayes, one 

 for silk and the other for crueU, and all that 

 belongs to them — ^^3 15^.; two little looms, one 

 for silk and the other for cruell, 21s.; seven 

 wheels, 365'. ; wheels to wind yarn, 2od. ; three 

 blades, i6d. ; things to lay on the warp, Sd. ; 

 the warping pins that belong to them and 

 four dozen of quiUs, 6s. ; one hartle, Sd. ; two 

 keeles, i6d. ; a pair of combs, i^d.' The 

 references in these details to silk are rather 

 puzzling, as the cloth made seems to have been 

 mainly, if not entirely, woollen. In September 

 1588, three months after the machinery had 

 been bought, the constables were ordered to 

 report as to how many poor children might be 

 spared to be taught spinning by the Dutchman.^" 

 In November Mr. Thomas WooUey was com- 

 missioned to expend ^10 on wool to be retailed 

 to the Dutchman by 2 tods at the time.^' Then 

 in January 1589 Anthony Moner entered into 

 a formal agreement^* to teach children to spin 

 in six weeks, after that time paying them for 

 their work, and next month he undertook to 

 teach four men to comb and dress wool. He 

 was to pay to ' the Company ' (? of Mercers) 

 ^d. for every pound dressed, and to pay the 

 children for spinning 2s. a pound for the best, 

 IS. 4^. for the second sort, and 8d. for the third 

 sort.2* The further history of this experiment 

 is unfortunately not recorded. 



Twenty years after this experiment at St. 

 Albans the Earl of Salisbury, who had just 

 obtained the Hatfield estate, inaugurated a 

 similar scheme at Hatfield, the following agree- 

 ment being made with Walter Morrall, of 

 Enfield, in December 1608 :»« 



The said Walter Morrall will, at his own cost, at 

 all speed after the date hereof, for the term of ten 

 years diligendy teach within the parish of Hatfield, 

 Herts., in the art of clothing, weaving, spinning, 

 carding, or any other such-like commendable trade 

 which the said Walter shall think good, fifty persons 

 to be chosen by the earl within the said parish of 

 Hatfield but of no other place ; out of which fifty 

 persons the said Walter is to take apprentices for seven 

 years not under the number of twenty penons, pro- 



« Gibbs, Corf. Rec. of St. Albans, 28. 

 26 Ibid. 32. 

 2' Ibid. 



28 Ibid. 34. 



23 Ibid. 



30 Trans. St. Albans Arch, and Archit. Soc. (New 

 Ser.), i, 350-1. from S. P. Dom. Jas. I, xxxviii, 73. 



vided always that if by death or otherwise there shall 

 at any time be less than the full number, the rest 

 shall be supplied by the direction of the said earl and 

 the number of apprentices shall always be fully main- 

 tained. And also the said Walter Morrall shall find 

 stuff and work enough to set all these fifty persons at 

 work, so as to avoid idleness and also for the education 

 and teaching of them in skill and knowledge of the 

 said trades for the better getting of their honest 

 livings afterwards. And shall also pay to the said 

 fifty persons (except such as he shall take apprentice) 

 for their work such rates as are usually given in Essex 

 and elsewhere for the like work. And that the said 

 Walter shall pay the said wages after the rates afore- 

 said to each of them at the end of each week during 

 the term of ten years without fraud. 



In return the earl agreed to give him a house 

 in Hatfield rent free, and to pay him yearly 

 jfioo during the ten years, arrangement being 

 made for certain deductions in the event of 

 Walter Morrall allowing the number to fall 

 below fifty. Further stipulations were made 

 that the persons employed should be well 

 treated, should attend the parish church on 

 Sundays, and should not teach the trade to 

 any other unril they had themselves practised 

 it three years, and also that Morrall should 

 always keep ten looms in his house. Beyond 

 the fact that this scheme was actually put into 

 operation nothing more appears to be known 

 of it. 



Little remains to be said of the textile 

 industry in the county. Casual references show 

 that it existed in various parts ; for instance, at 

 Elstree we find the marriage of Thomas Fenn, 

 silk weaver, in 1667,°^ and in 1669 Thomas Bigg, 

 of Chipperfield, issued a token bearing the 

 weavers' arms. At Watford the name of 

 Jeremiah Smith, weaver, occurs in 1676,^2 and 

 at St. Albans we have mention of Thomas 

 Reynolds, dyer, and John Mathew, weaver, in 

 1672,^ Henry Andrews, weaver, in 1676," and 

 Thomas Morgan, dyer, in 1714.'* In 1801 

 Young ** noted an inconsiderable amount of 

 spinning from Hockerill to Ware, Hadham and 

 Buntingford, and added that it was not 

 increasing. 



About this date a silk-mill and a flock-mill 

 were built at Rickmansworth," and a fair 

 amount of horsehair chair seating appears to 

 have been made there during the next half- 

 century.** In 1824 a silk-mill was set up in 

 Brook Street, Tring, which was in the hands of 



'1 Herts. Gen. and Antiq. i, 362. 



32 Ibid, ii, 167. 



»3 Ibid. 95. 



»*Ibid. 141. 



" Ibid, iii, 377. 



3« Gen. View of Agr'ic. of Herts. 222. 



" V.C.H. Herts, ii, 372. 



3* Osborne, Guide to the Gd. Junction Rly. (1838), 

 107 ; A. Freeling, The Rly. Companion from Lond. to 

 Birm. (c. 1842), 61. 



250 



