A HISTORY OF SURREY 



French, 8 Scots, 4 Burgundians, 3 Spaniards, 

 one Italian, and one Dane.* The Dutch 

 Church of London's own register of the names 

 of its members shows that on 19 July iS^Sj 

 out of a total congregation of 1021, 212 or 

 nearly 21 per cent, were resident in South- 

 wark and Bermondsey. The nimiberof 102 

 in St. Olave's is greater than that in any other 

 parish, St. George's, Southwark, being second 

 with a total of 65.^ The term Dutch, it 

 must be borne in mind, had a very much 

 wider acceptance in the sixteenth century 

 than it has now, and included not only the 

 natives of Holland and Flanders but those 

 also of the Rhenish provinces and Western 

 Germany. In Southwark the greater number 

 of aliens and the greater diversity of trades 

 pursued by them existed in the parish of St. 

 Olave. Stowe, speaking of St. Olave's, de- 

 scribes the church as large, ' but a far larger 

 parish especially of aliens and strangers, and 

 poor people.' Here the Flemish and German 

 beer-brewers were more thickly clustered than 

 anywhere else in or about London. The 

 Leekes and the Weblings, who carried on 

 their business in this parish, probably had a 

 greater reputation than any other brewers of 

 the time. Both families seem to have come 

 from Cleves. The foreign joiners seem to have 

 been an especially numerous body in St. 

 Olave's during the latter half of the century. 

 In 1 61 8 when the total numbers of aliens 

 returned for Southwark had grown far less 

 than in the previous lists, doubtless owing to 

 the gradual absorption of the descendants of 

 the earlier settlers into the English nation, 

 there were ten alien joiners in the same 

 parish.' 



So far as Southwark is concerned, on no 

 other industry could the influence of the 

 foreign immigrants have had a greater effect 

 by the close of the sixteenth century than on 

 that of brewing. If we may judge by a 

 comparison of the remarks of two keen ob- 

 servers of English life writing within forty 

 years of each other, the taste of Englishmen 

 had undergone a complete revolution on the 

 question of the relative merits of ale and beer 

 during the period. It is amusing to contrast 

 Andrew Boorde's almost contemptuous dis- 

 missal of beer about the year 1542 as a 

 natural drink for a Dutchman but much used 

 in England of late to the detriment of many 



Englishmen,' with William Harrison's strong 

 recommendation in 1577 or thereabouts of 

 the hopped liquor in derogation of ale, a 

 drink thicker and more fulsome and to all 

 appearance much fallen in esteem through 

 its adulteration with resin and salt by the 

 alewives to whose tender mercies its produc- 

 tion had been assigned.^ Before the latter 

 date the brewing of beer had become widely 

 spread over the county. Westwards beyond 

 Wandsworth and as far as Kingston, and 

 southwards to Croydon and even Reigatc, 

 there were about the middle of the century 

 many brewers who, if they were not all 

 foreigners, were all distinguished as brewers 

 of beer, the recipe of which had been brought 

 over here from abroad. 



The other industries which aliens intro- 

 duced into Southwark about this period must 

 have been of permanent value, and were of 

 considerable variety. Hat-making, of which 

 there were fifteen Dutch representatives in 

 St. Olave's in 1571,* was probably almost a 

 new industry in England. Leather-dressers had 

 doubtless much to learn from the foreigners. 

 The textile trades had also a certain following 

 amongst the immigrants. Scattered about in 

 the several Southwark parishes there were a 

 few sackcloth and linen weavers, together 

 with cloth workers and flax dressers and 

 spinners, mostly of Dutch nationality. One 

 or two fustian weavers were of French or 

 Burgundian origin. Especially numerous 

 were the silk weavers, of whom there were 

 thirteen in St. Olave's and five in St. 

 Thomas's parishes in 1571.' Here and there 

 were silk-winders, silk-throwers, silk-twisters, 

 and silk-dyers. In the later returns of 161 8 

 the different silk trades carried on here by 

 aliens are still more conspicuous, and the 

 weaving of taffeties and tuft-tafFeties was 

 carried on to a very considerable extent. Dye- 

 ing, an industry which underwent important 

 changes during the sixteenth century through 

 the introduction of new dye-stuflfe in spite of 

 hostile Acts of Parliament, could also reckon 

 among those who were engaged in it in 

 Southwark a few of the alien settlers. One 

 foreign whitster, a forerunner in an industry 

 which during the course of the following two 

 centuries was to obtain a great hold in the 

 north of Surrey, had by 1582 already appeared 

 in Southwark. 



1 R. E. G. and E. F. Kirk, Returns of Aliens, 

 (Hug. See. Pub. X.), pt. ii. 123. 



' Ibid. ii. 378-89. 



' Lists of French Protestants and Aliens resident 

 in England, 1618-1688 (ed. W. D. Cooper, Cam- 

 den See. Pub. O.S. IrxTii.), 93-7. 



* A Dyetary of Helth, etc. (Early Eng. Text 

 See. Pub. Extra Vol. %.), 256. 



^ Description of England (ed. New Shakespeare 

 Soc), i. 160-1. 



« Kirk, Returns of Aliens, i. 467-74. 



' Ibid. ii. 94-112. 



252 



