INDUSTRIES 



A list of woollen goods exported, with the 

 duty on them, at the end of Elizabeth's reign, 

 includes ' 30,000 peeces of Lancaster newe 

 devised carseys,' ^* and among the pieces of cloth 

 entered for export in the year 1594-5 are 53,942 

 northern cottons, 19,669 Manchester cottons, 

 and 34 Manchester friezes." Towards the end 

 of the sixteenth century Camden writes that 

 Manchester — 



surpasses the neighbouring towns in ... a woollen 

 manufacture. ... In the last age it was much more 

 famous for its manufacture of stuffs called Manchester 

 cottons. 



It may be mentioned here that the ' cottons ' 

 to which various references have been made above 

 were a coarse kind of woollens. This is proved 

 alike by the weight of the ' cottons ' mentioned 

 in 5 and 6 Edward VI, cap. 6,^° and by the 

 milling which ' cottons ' are to undergo according 

 to 8 Elizabeth, cap. 12.^^ Camden also refers to 

 the ' woollen cloths, which they call Manchester 

 cottons.' About the end of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury cotton began to be used for spinning the 

 weft for ' cottons,' though it was not until after 

 the invention of the water- frame in 1769 that 

 cotton yarn could be spun strong enough to take 

 the place of woollen and linen warps. 



In 1 635 a petition from the Lancashire clothiers 

 complained of the conduct of the deputy aulnagers 

 appointed in accordance with the provisions of 

 8 Elizabeth, cap. 12, from which it is evident 

 that this Act was still in force.^^ 



Similar evidence occurs in 1640, when we 

 find another petition of the drapers and clothiers 

 of the county of Lancaster to the Council.^' 



One Walter Leacocke, being made deputy aulnager, 

 has endeavoured by indirect practices to extort greater 

 fees from some than have heretofore been paid and to 

 others has denied the seal ... by which grievances 

 our clothing trade is likely to be overthrown and our 

 poor people to perish for want of employment. . . . 

 Pray that the aulnager may be commanded to seal the 

 clothes upon the ancient accustomed fees and duties. 



In 1654 another reference to the Lancashire 

 woollen industry occurs. Thomas Waring peti- 



" S.P. Dom, Eliz. ccl, No. 76 ; quoted in Economic 

 Journ. X. 



" Ibid. 

 Journ. X. 



'" ' AH the cottons called Manchester, Lancashire, 

 and Cheshire cottons full wrought to the sale, shall be 

 in length twenty-two yards, and contain in breadth 

 three-quarters of a yard in the water, and shall weigh 

 thirty pounds in the piece at least.' 



" ' Every of the said cottons, being sufficiently 

 milled or thickened, clean scoured, well wrought and 

 full dried, shall weigh 2 1 pounds at the least.' The 

 process of 'milling' was not performed upon cotton 

 goods. 



^' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, Ixxix, 69. 



^' Ibid. ccccLxxv, 61. 



ccliii. No. 122; quoted in Economic ^.^^f^.t^^e.' ^^ Of Clitheroe 



tioned the Council on behalf of the poor of 

 Lancashire for liberty to bring in cotton wool 

 from France, Holland, &c. on account of the 

 dearth of wool. 



There are not five bags of wool in all the merchants' 

 hands in Lancashire for 20,000 poor in Lancashire 

 who are employed in the manufacture of fustians. 

 Unless cotton wool is brought much lower the manu- 

 facture will revert to Hamburg." 



With regard to the exact seats of the woollen 

 industry in Lancashire during the seventeenth 

 century, very little is known. By the Act of 

 1566, mentioned above, the aulnager for the 

 county of Lancaster was to have deputies at 

 Manchester, Rochdale, Bolton, Blackburn, and 

 Bury. It is to be presumed that these towns 

 continued to be centres of the woollen industry 

 during the seventeenth century. Two other 

 districts are Oldham and the Forest of Rossendale, 

 but of these we have no first-hand evidence. In 

 the words of Mr. Edwin Butterworth ^* — 



there can be no doubt that the woollen business was 

 introduced into Oldham in the early part of the 

 fifteenth century, if not a remoter period. . . . The 

 goods made were white and coloured coarse cloths. 



Mr. Newbigging, the historian of the Forest of 

 Rossendale, informs us that the woollen manu- 

 facture was introduced into the district in the 

 later years of the reign of Henry VIII.^' 



The eighteenth century saw two important 

 changes in the Lancashire woollen industry. The 

 worsted industry began to be established in the 

 Burnley and Colne districts soon after the close 

 of the seventeenth century, and at the earliest 

 period the manufacture consisted of striped and 

 plain calamancoes, shaloons, tammies, and 

 moreens.^^ During the course of the eighteenth 

 century the cotton industry becomes the dominant 

 textile industry in the southern half of the 

 county. Thus Pococke, writing in 1750, says 

 of Manchester, ' there is a great manufacture 

 here of linen and cotton,' ^^ omitting all mention 

 of the woollen industry, for which the town had 

 formerly been famous. 



Besides Manchester, Pococke mentions several 

 other Lancashire towns. 'There is a manu- 

 facture [at Bury] of woollen cloth.' ^' 'Bolton 

 is a town which thrives by cotton and woollen 



he says : ' This 

 small town is chiefly supported by limekilns and 

 spinning worsted yarn.' '^ ' Whalley is a village 

 chiefly supported by farming and the spinning of 



'' S.P. Dom. 1654, Ixix, 7. 

 *' Hist. Sketches of Oldham, 82. 

 ^' Hist, of Forest of Rossendale, 283. 

 ^ James, Hist, of the Worsted Manufacture, 633. 

 ^' Dr. Pococke, Travels through Engl. (Camden Soc. 

 1888), i, II. 



^ Pococke, op. cit. i, 11. '» Ibid. 



'^ Ibid. 200. 



II. 



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48 



