A HISTORY OF SURREY 



learn that beer had begun to take the place 

 of ale in the estimation of Englishmen. 

 About the year 1542 Andrew Boorde in 

 making the distinction we have noted between 

 ale and beer speaks of the latter as then only 

 of late days much used in England to the 

 detriment of many English men.* The 

 occurrence of a brewer of ' byere,' therefore, 

 at Godalming so early as 1483 is, if the term 

 is used with any particular significance, at 

 least interesting. 



The prejudice which Andrew Boorde 

 evidently had against hopped beer as a foreign 

 innovation was probably pretty general in 

 England in his day. In 1531 Henry VIII. 

 in some articles for the reform of abuses in 

 the royal household enjoins the brewer not to 

 put any hops or brimstone into the ale.' At 

 the same time the superior skill in the art of 

 brewing possessed by the foreigners seems to 

 be recognized in an Act of 1530— i, which 

 declares that strangers being brewers or pur- 

 suing a few other specially named occupations 

 are not to be interpreted as handicrafts-men 

 within the meaning of the existing penal 

 statutes against foreigners exercising handi- 

 crafts within the realm.' Plainly here was 

 an alien industry that it was felt unwise to 

 hamper for the sake of protecting the native 

 one. The prejudice against beer must have 

 died out in the latter half of the sixteenth 

 century, for there is no echo of it in William 

 Harrison's Description of England, first pub- 

 lished in 1577. Harrison describes in detail 

 the method by which his wife and her maids 

 brewed beer once a month.* Hops are a 

 necessary ingredient of his recipe. Ale is 

 mentioned slightingly. Made without hops, 

 it was more thick, fulsome, and of no such con- 

 tinuance as beer, although there were still 

 some 'ale knights ' much addicted to it. It 

 was however sadly adulterated by the ale- 

 wives who mixed with it rosin and salt. One 

 part of Harrison's account of beer brewing 

 may perhaps help to explain the existence of 

 the very considerable industry at Southwark 

 and other riverside places in Surrey. Speak- 

 ing of the water used in the process, he says 

 that the nature of this was very diligently 

 observed by English brewers and that the 

 most excellent for the purpose was Thames 

 water. 



The Act of 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 4 (1531-2), 



» J Dyetary of Helth made in Mountpyllier, etc, 

 (ed. Early Eng. Text Soc. extra vol. x.), 256. 



' Prompt. Parv. loc. cit. 



' Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 13. 



♦ W. Harrison, op. cit. (ed. New Shakespeare 

 Soc), i. 155-61. 



which primarily forbade brewers to make 

 their own barrels or smaller measures makes 

 a new distinction between beer and ale. The 

 barrel for beer is to contain thirty-six gallons, 

 and correspondingly the kilderkin has eighteen 

 and the firkin nine gallons. The barrel for 

 ale on the other hand has only thirty-two 

 gallons, and the two smaller measures are of 

 proportionately decreased capacities. More- 

 over there seems to be a recognition of the 

 bigger business done by beer brewers than 

 that by the ale brewers, for while the beer- 

 brewer may keep one or two coopers to hoop 

 and repair his barrels, the ale-brewer is only 

 allowed one. This Act provided also that the 

 fixing of the price at which beer and ale were 

 to be sold by the barrel should be left to the 

 mayors or other head officers of towns or to 

 the justices of shires. The recorded cases of 

 infringements against this portion of the Act 

 furnish us later with some interesting notices 

 of the Surrey brewing industry. 



Of the foreign brewers who came over to 

 this country in the sixteenth century and 

 settled in Surrey, one of the earliest families, 

 of whom we have any certain evidence, was 

 that of Leake of Flemish extraction. Henry 

 Leake, the first of the name to occur, ac- 

 quired very great wealth. We first hear of 

 him on 18 January 152 1-2, when he is des- 

 cribed as Henry Lyeke from the Duchy of 

 Cleves and was then made a denizen. ° He 

 is no doubt the Henry Leyke who was as- 

 sessed in 1 54 1 for the subsidy granted in the 

 preceding year to Henry VIII. at the very 

 high value in goods of ;^400, so that he must 

 then have been in command of a flourishing 

 business.* He was resident in St. Olave's 

 parish, where some thirty years later by far 

 the greater number of the foreign brewers 

 in Southwark had settled. He had in his 

 employ nine other aliens. From this time 

 onward we are able to trace him in the sub- 

 sidy rolls amongst the aliens in the above 

 parish until the year 1559. The assessed 

 value of his goods attains in 1549 its highest 

 amount, namely ;^500.'' After this it falls 

 in 1551 to ;^26o,^ but in 1559 has risen 

 again to ;^300.* In Hilary term 1542-3, he 

 was charged in the Exchequer Court "• with 



5 W. Page, Denizations and Naturalizations 

 (Huguenot Soc. Publ. viii.), p. 158; Pat. 13 

 Hen. VIII. pt. 2, m. 22. 



« Kirk, Returns of Aliens in London, etc. (Hugue- 

 not Soc. Publ. X.), i. 33. 



' Ibid. i. 144. 8 Ibid. i. 224. 



» Ibid. i. 264. 



'» Exch. K. R. Mem. R. Hil. 34 Hen. VIII. 

 60. 



382 



