A HISTORY OF SURREY 



with such restrictions as he should please,' 

 and in the same year Sir Sackville Crow was 

 granted the government of the Mortlake 

 works with a warrant to search out all paint- 

 ings and drafts for hangings belonging to the 

 late king, and means to repair damaged build- 

 ings, looms, etc.* 



Sir Sackville did not remain for many years 

 in charge of the Mortlake works, for in 1667 

 the king's consent was obtained to his resig- 

 nation of the tapestry house.' Again efforts 

 were being made for reviving what could have 

 been now only too evident was a moribund 

 industry. In or about that year Francis 

 Poyntz, described as the king's tapestry maker, 

 put forward proposals showing the benefits 

 that would arise by encouraging the manu- 

 facture. ;^i 0,000 a year, he said, was being 

 spent on the purchase of foreign hangings. 

 Owing to the storms then threatening Flan- 

 ders a thousand workmen would come over 

 if there were stock enough to employ them, 

 and at Colchester, Canterbury and Exeter, 

 there were numerous Walloons, men of the 

 very coimtry from which came the chief 

 makers of tapestry. These no doubt could 

 be again employed in the manufacture.* 



On 25 August 1667 the master of the 

 tapestry works at Mortlake was ordered to 

 deliver to Henry Brouncker all the designs, 

 looms, and movable utensils there for the 

 making of tapestry as the king's free gift." 

 On 1 5 October following the Earl of Sunder- 

 land and Henry Brouncker were granted by 

 letters patent all the houses and buildings at 

 Mortlake formerly used for the tapestry works 

 with the proviso that they should be em- 

 ployed only for that manufacture." 



That tapestry was still made at Mortlake 

 in the closing years of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury we have a few contemporary notices to 

 show. Aubrey, whose perambulation of the 

 county dates between 1673 ^^^ 1692, speaks 

 of the works as still continued.' Evelyn in 

 his scarce tract, Mundus Mu/iebris, printed in 

 London in 1690, enumerating the articles to 

 be furnished by a gallant to his mistress, says 

 ' You furnish her appartment with Moreclack 

 Tapestry Damask bed or velvet richly em- 

 broidered.' * 



In 1692 we find that the sole estate and 



' S.P. Dom. Entry Book, v. 167. 

 ^ Ibid. Chas. II. kvi. 8. 

 ' Anderson, op. cit. 16. 

 ♦ S.P. Dom. Chas. II. cxcv. 85. 

 ° Ibid. Entry Book, xxv. 29b. 

 « Pat. 19 Chas. II. pt. i. No. i. 

 ' Nat. Hist, ami Jntiq. of Surrey, i. 82. 

 " Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surrey, iii. 303 ; 

 op. dt. 17. 



Anderson 



358 



interest in the Mortlake tapestry works had 

 become vested in Ralph, Earl of Montagu, 

 and what appears to be the last hopeless at- 

 tempt to revive the industry was then made. 

 The earl was willing for the public good to 

 transfer the works to a joint-stock company, 

 and accordingly on 12 April of that year the 

 tapestry makers were incorporated by royal 

 charter under the name of the Governor and 

 Company of Tapestry Makers in England. 

 The Earl of Montague was appointed the 

 first governor of the company to hold that 

 office during life. Deane Monteage, a Lon- 

 don merchant, was the deputy governor. 

 The list of the first appointed assistants in- 

 cludes the name of one Dutchman, Peter van 

 Cittard.' The incorporation of the tapestry 

 makers was doubtless a counsel of despair, for 

 we hear nothing more of the company. 



In 1703 the works had come into the 

 possession of Daniel Harvey, who was solici- 

 tous to be relieved of the conditions in 

 Charles II.'s grant to the Earl of Sunderland 

 and Brouncker, which restricted their use to 

 the making of tapestry. The surveyor- 

 general to the Lord High Treasurer was in- 

 structed to view the premises, and on 1 1 Janu- 

 ary 1702—3 reported that the buildings were 

 old and ruinous. They consisted of two 

 piles built of brick, one fronting the way 

 leading from Barnes to Mortlake, and the 

 other extending from that way towards the 

 Thames, wherein were two workhouses, one 

 with twelve looms and the other four. Over 

 these were garrets and an old chapel. The 

 ground floors consisted of small apartments 

 for labourers in the manufactory, and within 

 a courtyard was a tenement in which the 

 master workman lived. The latter had been 

 in existence before Charles I. built the work- 

 house. Several patterns remained painted on 

 paper but many of them were old and unfit 

 for use. The premises had not been con- 

 verted to any use contrary to the first design, 

 but the commodity did not vend as formerly 

 and there had been little work of late years." 

 On 1 9 March following the Attorney-General, 

 Sir Edward Northey, reported that it would 

 not be to the prejudice of the queen to re- 

 lease the condition of the employment of the 

 works for tapestry making only,^' and accord- 

 ingly on 4 June 1703 Daniel Harvey was 

 released by letters patent from this condition." 

 Thus after an existence of a little more than 

 eighty years the tapestry manufacture of 



» Pat. 4 Will, and Mary, pt. 3, No. 7. 

 '" Treas. Papers, Ixxxiv. 22. 

 ^^ Ibid. Ixxxv. 1 1 . 

 " Pat. 2 Anne, pt. 3, No. 3. 



