INDUSTRIES 



bourhood of that town ; his name does not 

 occur in the parish registers, though, as he must 

 have been an old man of over sixty when he 

 came, he probably ended his days there. His 

 career in these parts only extended over five 

 years (i 699-1 703), but he was extraordinarily 

 active during that time, and left over fifty bells, 

 of which only one bears his name, though they 

 are easily recognized by the lettering. They 

 were, however, more remarkable for quantity 

 than quality, as a dozen at least have since been 

 recast. Of five complete rings in Essex (Arkes- 

 den, Hadstock, Heydon, Langley, and Wendens 

 Ambo) none now remain complete. There are 

 tighteen of his bells in Cambridgeshire and 

 about thirty in north-west Essex, but only two 

 can be traced in Hertfordshire, the trebles at 

 Anstey and Great Hormead. Many bear the 

 date alone, often in very rough figures, the 

 rest usually churchwardens' names. All are 

 quite devoid of ornamentation. 



The latest of the itinerant founders, John 

 Waylett (1703-31), was not only a Hertfordshire 

 man by birth, but spent the greater part of his 

 active career there in his native town of Bishop's 

 Stortford. He first appears in 1703 as the 

 founder of a beU for Stanford le Hope, in Essex, 

 and for the next ten years produced a fair 

 number of beUs for Essex, Hertfordshire, and 

 Cambridgeshire, also one for Middlesex. In 171 2 

 he migrated temporarily to Sudbury and cast 

 two bells in Suffolk, in conjunction with John 

 Thornton of that town. Though most of his 

 earher bells are in its neighbourhood, we get no 

 evidence of his connexion with Bishop's Stort- 

 ford before 1715, in which year he cast a bell 

 for Meldreth (co. Cambs.), and is described as 

 ' John Waylett of Bishop's Stortford.' In 1716 

 he cast another beU there for the same parish of 

 Meldreth. It is worth noting that when the 

 Bishop's Stortford beUs were recast by him in 

 171 3 there is no item for carriage in the parish 

 accounts. Meanwhile in 17 14 he had begun 

 another migration to Sussex, where he remained 

 for a year or two, casting nine bells in the 

 neighbourhood of Hastings, and estabhshing a 

 connexion which lasted for ten years. In 1716 

 he appears to have entered on a business 

 arrangement with another founder, Samuel 

 Knight, of London. Two bells of that year at 

 Redbourn bear his name, but the lettering is 

 Knight's, whose name appears on a third. 

 Probably he executed commissions like Whit- 

 more. In 1 72 1 the initials of the two men 

 appear on a beU at Stowting, in Kent, cast by 

 Waylett while at Hythe, as may be learned 

 from an existing agreement. Apparently he 

 was at Bishop's Stortford working for Knight 

 for five years ; he then set out on a tour over 

 the Home Counties, and we find his bells in 

 Surrey in 1718, in London in 1721, in Kent 

 between 171 7 and 1727, and also as noted in 



Sussex. All his Kent bells between 1721 and 

 1724 are in the neighbourhood of Hythe. 

 Finally in 1727 he took up his residence in 

 London, and cast ten bells between that year 

 and 1731, seven of which bear the words iohn 

 WAYLETT, LONDON. It is curious that the tenor 

 bell of Bishop's Stortford should belong to this 

 period, being dated 1730, but it may well have 

 been cast by him on a temporary visit to his 

 old home. We do not know the date or place 

 of his death, but his name occurs in the records 

 of the Founders' Company in 1740, when he was 

 an honorary member, having long retired from 

 business. In all he appears to have spent 

 rather more than half of his active career at 

 Bishop's Stortford, from 1703 to 1721, with the 

 exception of occasional migrations in 1712 and 

 1714-15, and perhaps during the next fiv. 

 years ; it is not Hkely that he cast any of the 

 Kent, Surrey, or Sussex bells on the far side of 

 London. There are altogether twenty-six bells 

 by him in Hertfordshire, out of a total of 130, 

 of which four are at Sandon and four at Stort- 

 ford. There are also twenty-four in Essex 

 which belong to the Bishop's Stortford period, 

 and about eighteen in Cambridgeshire. Com- 

 pared with other itinerant founders his work- 

 manship is decidedly good, and it is clear from 

 his career that he had established a widespread 

 reputation.!* His bells seldom bear anything 

 but the words iohn waylett made me, or the 

 same in Latinized form, with the date, and 

 sometimes a fleur de lis as a stop. 



The last, but by no means the least, of the 

 Hertfordshire founders is John Briant (1782- 

 1825), who after a period of 140 years re- 

 estabHshed this industry in the county town, 

 and is described by Stahlschmidt as ' the Herts 

 founder par excellence.' He was born at Exning, 

 in Suffolk, and sent to school at Newmarket, 

 with a view to his taking holy orders, but his 

 mechanical tastes, and in particular his interest 

 in clocks and chimes, turned him in another 

 direction. His first work at Hertford was the 

 recasting of the bells of St. Andrew's into eight 

 in 1782, and his success soon established a large 

 connexion. Stahlschmidt says he was noted 

 as a ' sphcer,' and particularly in adding trebles 

 to a ring of bells, as at All Saints, Hertford, and 

 St. Peter's, St. Albans. The same writer " 

 gives a list of bells cast by him, from a book in 

 the possession of the College Youths of Hertford, 

 and claims as his masterpiece the tenor of 

 St. Michael's, Coventry. The Ust, which was 

 probably compiled about 1807, is naturally 

 incomplete, but includes six rings of eight bells, 

 eleven of six, and five of five, besides about 

 120 additions to rings. In Hertfordshire he 

 cast rings of eight for Hatfield and Hertford, 



1* See Deedes and Walters, Ch. Bells of Essex, 120 

 " Ch. Bells of Herts. 65. 



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