INDUSTRIES 



terials, the new company was now looked 

 upon as a source of profit to the Crown ; for 

 by an agreement made on 3 May 1632, the 

 company bound themselves to make 5,000 

 tons of soap every year, and to pay ^^4 to 

 the king on every ton they made.^ They 

 agreed at the same time to retail the soap at 

 the low price of 2^. per pound, no doubt with 

 a view to underselling the independent ma- 

 kers. The patent was not strictly a mono- 

 poly beyond the reservation to the company 

 of the new inventions, but very great powers 

 were conferred upon them by the right to 

 test all soap made by other makers, and to 

 prohibit the sale of all that they had not 

 marked as sweet and good. 



As might be expected, the grant of these 

 enormous powers to the new company led to 

 general discontent among the independent 

 soapmakers, and to forcible resistance on their 

 part when the company proceeded to exer- 

 cise its right of search. Prosecutions in the 

 Star Chamber were ordered against them, and 

 on 29 September 1634 the Attorney General 

 was directed to prepare a form of warrant 

 dormant to apprehend all such persons as the 

 Company should name.^ By the general 

 public the new soap was received with sus- 

 picion, which was strengthened when it was 

 known that the greater number of the com- 

 pany belonged to the Roman Catholic clique 

 which had attached itself to the Earl of Port- 

 land, the Treasurer. The Privy Council did 

 all in its power to advertise the merits of the 

 soap, even to writing to the justices of the 

 peace to point out the advantages to be de- 

 rived from its being manufactured entirely 

 from home materials.' But on this and 

 similar measures, including the public trial 

 of the merits of the old and new soaps by 

 two washerwomen before the Lord Mayor,* 

 we need no longer dwell. Suffice it to say 

 that the company soon found itself in diffi- 

 culties through its inability to manufacture 

 the required quantity, that it was buttressed 

 for a time by the Council, but that finally 

 the triumph of the independent soapmakers, 

 who had bribed the Crown with the offer of 

 £S on every ton they should make, was com- 

 plete, and on 22 May 1637 the latter were 

 incorporated under the style of the Governor, 

 Assistants and Commonalty of the Society of 

 Soapmakers of London, with powers which 

 secured to them as stringent a monopoly as 



that of which they had previously com- 

 plained.^ 



So much for the general history of this 

 extraordinary struggle. The chief interest 

 for our purpose in it all is that not only were 

 the soap houses of two at least of the prin- 

 cipal members of the Westminster company 

 at Lambeth, but that also the chief instigator 

 of the opposition to them and the largest 

 manufacturer under the new company that 

 supplanted them was Thomas Overman, 

 who, as we have already seen, was a South- 

 wark manufacturer. 



When the Lord Mayor on 24 December 

 1633, certified the Council of the trials he 

 had made of the respective merits of the old 

 and new soap he stated that he had gone to 

 the storehouses of the new soap in Lambeth, 

 St. Katherine's and the Strand." There is 

 extant the first account rendered by the 

 London company of the soap made and sold 

 by its members and of the amount at ;^8 the 

 ton due thereon to the Crown.'' The com- 

 pany had bought up the remaining stock and 

 materials of the late Westminster company, 

 and accordingly account is first rendered of 

 211 tons and some odd firkins made in the 

 soap houses at Lambeth and St. Katherine's. 

 According to the certificate of Sir Edward 

 Broomfield annexed to the account the soap 

 houses at Lambeth were those of Sir Richard 

 Weston, who had been the first governor of 

 the Westminster company, and of George 

 Gage, who had been one of his successors in 

 that office. From later evidence we learn 

 that Sir Richard Weston's soap house was in 

 Vauxhall, and afterwards formed part of the 

 ordnance foundry set up by Charles I. there.® 

 Of the above total the amounts made at 

 Weston and Gage's houses were respectively 

 16 tons 25 firkins and 57 tons, 14 firkins. 

 The remainder had apparently been made 

 by the new company at the St. Katherine's 

 houses of materials they had purchased there 

 from the old company. Only six soap- 

 makers were certified to have made for the 

 new company between 15 June 1637, and 

 29 January 1637-8. Of these makers 

 Thomas Overman was considerably the 

 largest. Of a total of 2,098 tons and some 

 odd firkins made he had manufactured a little 

 over 549 tons, and had sold 465 tons odd out 

 of the total of 1,824 to"s °^^ ^°^^' ^^ ""^^ 

 be noted that in the agreement between the 



73- 



Pat. 8 Chas. I. pt. 5, No. 27. 



S.P. Dom. Chas. I. cclxxiv. 53. 



Ibid. cclx. 1 19. 



Ibid, ccliv. 34, 34 i. ; Gardiner, op. cit. 



6 Pat. 13 Chas. I. pt. 39, Nos. 11, 12. 

 s S.P. Dom. Chas. I. ccliv. 34 i. 

 ' Exch. K. R. Accts. bdle. 527, No. 12a. 

 8 See the account of this foundry in the section 

 ' Metal and Machinery Works ' below. 



403 



