A HISTORY OF SURREY 



manufacture consisting in so interlacing the 

 fibres of the wool or hair together by means 

 of their natural though almost imperceptible 

 serratures as to make them capable of being 

 compacted into a solid fabric. The use of 

 this material for hats is stated to have been 

 introduced into this country early in the 

 reign of Henry VIII. by foreigners, and the 

 new headgear became so popular as to pro- 

 voke the agitation of the cappers or makers 

 of knit caps, and lead in 1 571 to statutory 

 measures being taken for the protection of 

 the older native indxistry.^ In 1567, as we 

 shall see, there was a small number of Dutch 

 and French hat-makers established in South- 

 wark. Both here and in Bermondsey, where 

 material for the purpose was ready to hand 

 in the hairs which the tanners would have 

 removed fi^om their sheep-skins prior to con- 

 verting the latter into leather, felt making 

 was probably practised at an early date. 



So far as they are stated we may gather 

 from the industries which were carried on by 

 the aliens who appear in the various returns 

 now published for the city and suburbs of 

 London in the latter part of the sixteenth 

 century, that there was during this period a 

 small colony of foreign hat-makers and a few 

 foreign felt-makers resident in Southwark. 

 In 1567 there were at least eight Dutch " and 

 three French hat-makers " in the ward of 

 Bridge Without, but apparently only one alien 

 felt-maker, a Dutchman.* Two Frenchmen 

 within the same ward were described as cap- 

 thickers,* their business presumably being to 

 full or thicken knitted caps of the older 

 fashion. In May 1571 there were fifteen 

 Dutch hat-makers in St. Olave's parish," and 

 one French maker in St. Thomas's, South- 

 wark.' Only one French cap-thicker appears 

 in the former parish,® and no aliens in South- 

 wark are described as felt-makers in this 

 return. In November following there seems 

 to be a reduction in the number of foreign 

 hat-makers, but there are several miscellaneous 

 industries in connection with the making of 

 caps. Thus in St. Olave's there are only 

 seven Dutch* hat-makers returned and one 

 French.'" But in addition there are three 

 Dutch cappers" and a Dutchwoman de- 

 scribed as a cap-knitter." One Dutchman is 



« Stat. 13 Eliz. cap. 19. 



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

 etc. (Hug. Soc. Publ. X.), i. 34.3-9 passim. 



3 Ibid. i. 351. *■ Ibid. i. 343. 



» Ibid. i. 351. 6 Ibid. i. 468-73. 



' Ibid. i. 463. 8 Ibid. i. 471. 



» Ibid. ii. 97-104 passim. 

 " Ibid. ii. 99. 

 «> Ibid. ii. 99, 102. n Ibid. ii. loj. 



returned as a printer of cap-linings." The 

 French cap-thicker of St. Olave's is now 

 supplemented by another in St. Thomas's," 

 and there are two felt-makers in Southwark, 

 to wit a Dutchman in St. Olave's" and a 

 Frenchman in St. Thomas's." After this 

 date, so far as we can judge from the returns, 

 the foreign hat-making industry seems to have 

 departed from Southwark, although felt-mak- 

 ing is still represented by about half a dozen 

 aliens in 1582 or 1583." Perhaps the foreign 

 hat-makers, if they had not migrated to some 

 other locality, where possibly they had less to 

 fear from the jealousy of a large native in- 

 dustry, had by this date become naturalized 

 and therefore were no longer returned as 

 aliens. It may be noted however that two 

 foreign hat-band makers appear in the list of 

 1582-3 for the ward of Bridge Without." 

 In the later return for 1583 the six foreign 

 felt-makers appear to have consisted of three 

 Dutchmen in St. Olave's, and three French- 

 men, one in each of the parishes of St. Olave, 

 St. Thomas and St. Saviour." 



That the native industry of felt-making 

 existed side by side with the foreign one in 

 Southwark may be seen in the petition to the 

 Lord Treasurer for a charter of incorporation 

 in February 1576—7, of 'the most ancient 

 and discretest sort of the felt-makers within and 

 about the city of London.' ^^ The petitioners 

 represented their company as being in num- 

 ber above 400 householders, born within the 

 queen's dominions and resident in sundry 

 places of the city and suburbs as in South- 

 wark and St. Katherine's. Many of them 

 having no government such as other com- 

 panies had, did 



from time to time wittingly make all the most 

 part of their felts very deceitful and of corrupt 

 and unlawful stuffs as with deceitful wools and 

 other naughty stuff, which are brought out of 

 Spain and other places by strangers and others 

 and brought up by sundry persons that have no 

 skill nor knowledge whether the same be good or 

 bad, and by them retailed to such felt-makers as 

 for lucre are content to make deceitful wares. 



On 30 May 1592 the Lord Mayor wrote 

 to the Lord Treasurer of a great disorder and 

 tumult which occurred the previous even- 

 ing within the borough of Southwark.^' 



»3 Ibid. ii. 100. " Ibid. ii. 108, 113. 



" Ibid. ii. 104. »» Ibid. ii. 114. 



" Ibid. ii. 290-4 passim. 

 " Ibid. ii. 291. 

 " Ibid. ii. 328-32 passim. 

 *> Lansd. MS. niv. 7. 



" Ibid. Ixxi. 15, and Analytical Index to tht Re- 

 membrancia, 474. 



360 



