INDUSTRIES 



East India Company to bring over from 

 foreign parts. ^ From the terms of this con- 

 tract it would not appear that the mills were 

 then held by the Company, for it was agreed 

 that Collins should buy its saltpetre at a price 

 thereby fixed, and should be able to dispose of 

 the powder made from it to his own use if it 

 were not paid for by the government within 

 fourteen days of delivery. The rate at which 

 this powder was to be sold to the Crown was 

 yrf. the pound, or a penny less than that paid 

 for Evelyn's. Collins died before the term 

 of this contract was completed. On 9 June 

 1636, direction was made for the issue of a 

 warrant for payment to his widow and execu- 

 trix of certain sums due to him for his pains 

 in double-refining saltpetre and making a last 

 of powder.* When the appointment of pow- 

 der maker to the king was taken away from 

 John Evelyn and given to the tenants of the 

 Chilworth mills, the mills were in the occupa- 

 tion of Samuel Cordwell and George Collins. 

 Of the others with whom John Evelyn 

 foxmd himself in competition, Michael Waring 

 has been already mentioned. We hear nothing 

 more of him and do not know where he 

 worked. The powder makers of Bristol are 

 first mentioned on 24 February 1631— 2, 

 when we hear that their names were to be 

 taken firom Evelyn and they themselves sent 

 for by warrant.^ On 8 March 1633-4 the 

 names of four of them are given in a warrant 

 for their appearance before the Council.* But 

 the warrant does not appear to have been 

 actually issued, owing to Evelyn having given 

 no charge in writing against them. The 

 Bristol makers appear more frequently during 

 the period of the monopoly of the Chilworth 

 mills, and on 19 December 1637 the mayor 

 was directed to search and suppress all the 

 works in the city.' One Baber seems to 

 have been particularly refractory and persis- 

 tent in continuing his manufacture. He is 

 no doubt the William Baber or a relative of 

 the man of that name who after the Restora- 

 tion petitioned the king for payment for the 

 large supplies of powder worth j^i, 500 with 

 which he had furnished Charles I. at Bristol.* 

 Another Bristol maker, Parker, had obtained 

 the king's licence for his manufacture. In 

 1640 the Commissioners in order to increase 

 the sale of the government's powder, advised 

 the revocation of this licence and the sup- 

 pression of the mills.'' 



1 S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cccii. 119. 



2 Ibid, cccxxv. 83. ^ Ibid. ccxi. 79. 



* Ibid, ccxxviii. fo. 126a. ^ Ibid, cccliii. fb. 76. 

 ' Ibid. Chas. II. xxix. 76 ; ccxxxii. 193. 

 1 Ibid. Chas. I. cccclxi. 35. 



In Surrey we hear of a case in 1630 in 

 which one of the saltpetre men had become a 

 gunpowder maker, namely Thomas Thorn- 

 hill, who had set up a horse-mill on the Bank- 

 side in Southwark.* This was an obvious 

 disqualification for the office of a saltpetre 

 maker to the government. Illicit gunpowder- 

 making seems to have gone on in Southwark, 

 for ten years later, when there were some 

 riotous proceedings there and at Lambeth, a 

 large quantity of powder was discovered in a 

 house close by the place where a session of 

 oyer and terminer should have been held, and 

 it was reported that gunpowder had been 

 secretly made in Southwark for sale in foreign 

 countries." 



But to take up the main thread of our his- 

 tory from the time when, on the expiry of 

 the government's last contract with John 

 Evelyn, Samuel Cordwell and George Collins 

 of the Chilworth mills became on i Novem- 

 ber 1636 the only authorized gunpowder 

 makers in the kingdom. The previous his- 

 tory of these mills has already been related in 

 connection with what has been said of the 

 East India Company's manufacture of powder. 

 The terms of the contract with the new 

 makers did not materially differ from those of 

 the preceding ones.^" A sum of ^^2,000 as 

 before was to be imprested from the Crown 

 for building mills, storehouses, and work- 

 houses, and for providing utensils, but all of 

 these on the expiry of the contract were to 

 be delivered to the king, who was also to 

 pay the rent for the waters and lands, hired 

 for the work, for the residue of the term of 

 the lease, should he employ any other 

 makers in the service. Two hundred and 

 forty lasts were still to remain the full yearly 

 proportion to be supplied, only the holding 

 capacity of the barrel was restored to its 

 original quantity of 1 00 lb. A sum of 

 ;^3,000 was to remain in the hands of the 

 lieutenant of the Ordnance as a guarantee 

 for due payment being made to the makers 

 during their first year. The price at which 

 the government were to purchase the powder 

 was reduced to "j^d. the pound. 



On 25 September 1636, a few days before 

 this contract came into operation, an order 

 was sent by the Council to the mayors, 

 sheriffs, justices and other local officers, 

 directing them that as there was occasion 

 of carriage of powder from his majesty's 

 powder mills at Chilworth to Hamhaw and 

 thence to London, they were to assist Cord- 

 well in taking up at the king's prices such 



e Ibid. clxv. 54. » Ibid, cccclvi. 44. 



10 Ibid, cccxix. 69, 



319 



