A HISTORY OF SURREY 



be noted that to a considerable number of the 

 aliens appearing in these lists no trade has been 

 assigned. 



The interesting lists of 1618 however 

 show a large increase in these numbers in that 

 year.' Only two silk-weavers appear in St. 

 Saviour's parish and three only in St. George's, 

 but in St. Thomas's there are thirteen and in 

 St. Olave's no less than nineteen, and four 

 others are described as silk-winders. In Ber- 

 mondsey also seven silk-weavers are returned. 

 These seem to have been principally of Dutch 

 or Flemish nationality, but a few are French 

 or Germans, and two weavers and one winder 

 are Spaniards. In addition to these there were 

 in Southwark a considerable number of aliens 

 of various nationalities engaged in the weaving 

 of the special kinds of silken fabrics known as 

 tafFeties or tuft-tafFeties. Of these there were 

 four in St. Thomas's parish, twelve in St. 

 Olave's, and one dwelling within the liberty 

 of the Clink. But throughout the period we 

 have been considering the foreign silk industry 

 in and about London seems to have been chiefly 

 established within the ward of Bishopsgate. 



After this we hear nothing more of the 

 Southwark silk-weavers, and the industry 

 would seem to have died out at an early date. 

 The silk-dyers will be more fitly dealt with 

 in our account of the dyeing industry. A 

 later but short-lived attempt to start silk 

 manufactures in Surrey appears to have been 

 made when the old iron mills of the Weald 

 ceased to be required for their original pur- 

 pose. In 1805 there were crape mills be- 

 longing to a Mr. Nalder on the Hammer 

 Pond on Thursley Heath.' We are told that 

 the iron mills at Haslemere were applied for 

 a time partly to silk-throwing and from 150 

 to 200 of the inhabitants of this place were in 

 consequence employed at looms in their own 

 dwellings. But the silk-throwing had ceased 

 by 1850, the looms being then described as 

 ' silent, broken or removed, and instead of a 

 thriving manufacture of silks and crapes, they 

 must be content to make rollers for the great 

 silk manufacturers of Macclesfield.' ' 



In more recent times there was a silk factory 

 a few yards to the west of York House, Bat- 

 tersea, but the industry having died a slow and 

 natural death, the building was for a short 

 rime used by Messrs. Fownes as their glove 

 factory.* 



' S. P. Dom. Jas. I. xcix. 22-4, 42-7, printed 



in Foreigners Resident in England, 1618-88 (ed. 



W. D. Cooper, Camden See. O. S. Ixxxii.), 89-99. 



Malcolm, Compendium of Modern Husbandry, i. 



1 1. 



' Brayley and Britten, Hist, of Surrey, v. App. 47. 



« E. Hammond, Bygone Battersea, 24. 



The manufacture of linen was little prac- 

 tised in Surrey, but a few scattered references 

 to the existence of the industry at different 

 places within the county may be noticed. 



The art of linen-weaving had been brought 

 to great perfection in the Netherlands, and it 

 is only what we should expect that a certain 

 number of the many refugees from that 

 country who settled in Southwark during the 

 sixteenth century should have been engaged 

 in the manufacture. The number is how- 

 ever comparatively very small, the manufac- 

 ture of linen never having taken root on 

 English soil as it did on that of Ireland and 

 Scotland. In May 1571 there was one 

 Flemish linen-weaver in St. George's parish 

 in Southwark,' and a French woman, a linen- 

 spinner, in St. Thomas's." The latter appears 

 in the list of November following, when she 

 is said to have come from Normandy and to 

 have been in England forty years,' although 

 in the previous list the period of her sojourn 

 in this country is put down as fifty years. In 

 November also there were two Flemish linen- 

 weavers in St. Olave's^ and a French flax- 

 dresser in St. George's.* In the list of 

 1582-3 the only indication of the existence 

 of the industry in Southwark is the appear- 

 ance within the ward of four hemp-dressers, 

 all of the French church,'" while in the 

 slightly later list of 1583 there is one Dutch- 

 man described as a ' flax-man ' in St. Olave's 

 parish," and two hemp-dressers only, a Dutch- 

 man and a Frenchman, in St. Thomas's.'' 

 In 1 6 18 there was one Dutch linen-weaver 

 residing in St. Olave's *' and five hemp-dress- 

 ers, all apparently of Flemish nationality, in 

 St. George's.'* There were also two hemp- 

 dressers in Bermondsey, a Frenchman and a 

 Fleming.'* 



In addition to this small linen manufacture 

 carried on by foreigners in the suburban part 

 of the county, there appear at a later date 

 slight traces of a native industry in south-west 

 Surrey." Thus William Backer of Eashing, 

 in his will dated i October 1662,'' described 

 himself as a linen- weaver. Edward Bonner 

 of Godalming, labourer, in his will dated 26 

 March 1 701-2,'* mentions his daughters-in- 



^ Kirk, op. cit. i. 466. ° Ibid. i. 463. 

 ' Ibid. ii. 115. 8 jyj ji jQj 



» Ibid. ii. 118. "> Ibid. ii. 295. 



" Ibid. ii. 328. 12 Ibid. ii. 332. 



" Cooper, Foreigners Resident in England, Wf. 96. 



" Ibid. 92. " Ibid. 98. 



i» The following information as to this small in- 

 dustry has been kindly supplied by Percy Woods, 

 Esq., C.B. 



" Prob. Archd. Ct. of Surr. 23 Sept. 1663. 



" Prob. Com. Ct. of Surr. 5 July 1708. 



350 



