A HISTORY OF SURREY 



most favoured by the Dutch brewers for the 

 practice of their industry. Here they were 

 chiefly established in the parish of St. Olave 

 or Short Southwark as it was called, no doubt 

 in the near neighbourhood of the river, from 

 which water in abundance could readily be 

 had for their breweries. Thus in the 

 Michaelmas term of 1564 of sixteen South- 

 wark brewers summoned to appear m the 

 Exchequer to answer various charges of m- 

 fringing trade Acts, six beer brewers and two 

 ale brewers belong to St. Olave's, four ale 

 brewers to St. Mary Overie's, whilst one 

 brewer of beer and three brewers of ale are 

 merely described as of the borough of South- 

 wark.' In 1567 there were twelve Dutch 

 brewers in the ward of Bridge Without be- 

 sides a number of foreign servants in their 

 employ.' The two very valuable returns 

 made by the lord mayor and aldermen in the 

 months of May and November of 157 1 to 

 the Privy Council of the names of aliens then 

 resident in the several parishes of the London 

 wards, their occupations and other particulars 

 as to their religion, ages and the length of 

 time they had been settled in the country,^ 

 show that in May there were ten Dutch 

 brewers in St. Olave's, Southwark, and in 

 November fourteen. In the latter month four 

 brewers are given also in St. George's, South- 

 wark. These numbers are exclusive of those 

 foreigners who were engaged in the service 

 of these brewers either as brewers, coopers, 

 tunmen or draymen. There are considerable 

 discrepancies between the returns in the two 

 lists, which it is not possible here to attempt 

 to explain. Thus in St. Olave's, Peter van 

 Duran, a brewer from Gelderland is said in 

 May to have been in England for forty years 

 and to have two servants, born in Cleves, 

 who had been here for four years. In 

 November the same brewer is credited with 

 no less than nine servants described as Hol- 

 landers, Cleveners or High Dutchmen. They 

 include a brewer, three draymen, three tun- 

 men, a boatman, and one whose specific em- 

 ployment does not appear. The boatman 

 had been in England for eight years and the 

 others for periods varying from six years to 

 three months. Wessell Webling, a brewer 

 of whom we shall have shortly to speak more 

 particularly, is said in May to have been in 

 the country ten years, and in November fol- 



1 Exch. K. R. Mem. Mich. 6 Eliz. passim. 



2 Kirk, Returns of Aliens, etc. i. 342-5 1 ; Lans- 

 downe MS. x. 



3 Kirk, op. cit. i. 402-79, and ii. 1-139, 

 where these returns are printed in extenso from 

 S.P. Dom. Eliz. Ixxxiiii. and Ixxxii. respectively. 



lowing, nine years. In the former month he 

 is returned as having four servants, in the 

 latter five, one of whom had however only 

 been in England ten weeks. The greater 

 number of the brewers appear to have been 

 born in Cleves, others in Gelderland, and a 

 few in Cologne. For purposes of comparison 

 of the extent of the foreign brewing industry 

 in Southwark with that in other wards of the 

 city, it may be noticed that there were in 

 May 1 57 1 as against the ten in Southwark 

 in that month five Dutch brewers with 

 twenty-four servants in Tower ward, four in 

 Dowgate ward, and one each in the wards of 

 Aldgate and Queenhithe. 



In connection with the numbers of alien 

 servants found in these returns to be in the 

 employ of brewers, it may be remarked here 

 that the chief effect of the Act 1530-1 

 already mentioned was to free these foreign 

 brewers from the obligation imposed by the 

 Act of 1523* upon all aliens exercising 

 handicrafts within the realm of keeping not 

 more than two aliens as journeymen or 

 'covenant servants.' The Act of 1540° 

 ' concerning strangers ' laid down that no 

 subject or denizen should keep more than 

 four alien servants. It was this Act that 

 more than twenty years after its enactment 

 it was attempted to enforce especially 

 against brewers. Leake, as we have seen, 

 was charged in 1562 with having as many 

 as eighteen aliens in his service at one time. 

 In the same year Peter van Duran, who has 

 already been mentioned in this account as a 

 Southwark brewer, and now appears with the 

 alternative name or nickname of 'Pyckle- 

 heryng,' is accused of having the same 

 number,* whilst Nicholas Gunporte, a 

 brewer in St. Mary Overie's, has sixteen.' 

 The earlier Act could still be cited against 

 aliens engaged in other than the specially 

 exempted trades, as is proved by a South- 

 wark brushmaker being summoned to answer 

 in the same term to an information of having 

 three foreigners, ' covenant servants,' in his 

 employ.* The fact that it should be the 

 brewers, at any rate in Surrey, who are more 

 particularly brought under the operation of 

 the later Act, is some evidence of the magni- 

 tude of their industry, in that they could 

 afford to override the provisions of the Act. 

 It would also tend to prove that not yet had 

 native artisans acquired sufficient knowledge 

 of the principles of beer-brewing to permit 



« Stat. 14, 1 5 Hen. VIII. cap. 2. 



» Stat. 32 Hen. VIII. cap. 16. 



Exch. K. R. Mem. Mich. 4 Eliz. 254. 



' Ibid. 254d. 8 Ibid. 257. 



384 



