WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



■ Rlfi and Progrefs of the Woolltn Manuf azures in England. 

 ^-The Romans, as we have ftated on the authority of 

 Camden, had a cloth manufafture at Winchefter. The firft 

 account of any diftinft body of manufafturers afterwards 

 occurs in the reign of Henry I., but either the people of this 

 country were wholly clothed in (kins or leather in the inter- 

 vening fpace, or, what is more probable, coarfe cloths were 

 manufaftured in a rude manner in mod of the towns and 

 villages in England. A great part, however, of the drefs 



own commodities, without any interruption from the citi' 

 zens. Previous to this date they hired lodgings, and their 

 landlords were the brokers, who fold all their goods, and 

 received a commiflion upon them. It was foon after pre- 

 tended that the foreign merchants ufed falfe weights, and a 

 clamour being raifed againit them, twenty of them were 

 arretted and fent to the Tower. Amid (I the numerous 

 abfurd reltriiftions to which commerce and manufaftures 

 were fubjefted, we need not be furprifed at the little pro- 



of the labouring claffes in the country was made of Icatiier, grefs which they made 



particularly the breeches and waiitcoats, even till the prefent The materials which hiftory affords rofpefting the woollen 



reign. George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, in tiie manufafture before the reign of Edward III. are but 



reign of Charles I., travelled on his miiTions through the fcanty ; it appears that the office of aulnager, or clotli 



country, buttoned up in a leathern doublet, or waiftcoat with infpeftor, was very ancient. In the reign of Edward I. 



fleeves,' which fupplied the place of a coat. This was not, 

 as his adverfaries afterwards affirmed, from any fupcrllitious 

 'prejudice refpefting that coftume ; it was the common dreis 

 of the labouring mechanics at that time, to which clafs he 

 belonged. 



The firft account of any foreign weavers fettled in 

 England is recorded by William of Malmfbury and Glraldus 

 Cambreniis, who relate that a number of Flemings were 

 'driven out of their own country, by an extraordinary en- 

 croachment of the fea in the time of William the Conqueror. 

 They were well received, and firft placed in the neighbourhood 

 of Carlide, and on the northern frontier ; but not agreeing 

 with the inhabitants, they were tranfplanted by Henry I. 

 into Pembrokefliire. They are faid to have been ildlful in 

 ithe woollen manufafture, and are fuppofed to have firft intro- 

 iduced it into England as a feparate trade. Cloth-weavers 

 lare mentioned in the exchequer accounts as exifting in various 

 Iparts of England in the reign of Henry I., particularly at 

 London and Oxford. The weavers of Lincoln and Hun- 

 tingdon are i-eprefented as paying fines for their guild in the 

 ;5thof Stephen ; and in the reign of Henry II. ( 1 189), there 

 were weavers in Oxford, York, Nottingham, Huntingdon, 

 [Lincoln, and Winchefter, who all paid fines to the king 

 ifor the privilege of carrying on their trade. (Chronicon 

 'Prctiofum, p. 64. ) There were alfo cloth dealers in various 

 of Yorkfhire, Norwich, Huntingdon, Gloucefter, 



we are informed by Madox, that Peroult le Tayleur, who 

 held the office of aulnager of cloth in the feveral fairs of 

 the realm, having forfeited it, the king, by writ of privy 

 feal, commanded the treafurerto let Pieres Je Edmonton have 

 it, if he were fit for it, and a writ was made out accordingly, 

 and he took the oaths of that office before the treafurer and 

 barons. The fafts above-ftated prove the exiftence of 

 the cloth manufafture in England before the time of Ed- 

 ward III., who is generally fuppoled to have firft intro- 

 duced the art into the kingdom. There is no doubt, that 

 a new impulfe was given to it during this reign by the 

 liberal proteftion granted to foreign manufaftures here : 

 in all probability, they firft introduced the manufafture of 

 ftuffs from combed wool or worfteds ; an art requiring more 

 (liill, and more complicated procefles, than are employed in 

 the making of cloth. 



In the year 1331, John Kemp, a mafter manufafturer 

 from Flanders, received a proteftion to eftdbhih himfelf here 

 with 'a number of dyers and fullers to carry on his trade, 

 and in the following year feveral manufafturers came over 

 from Brabant and Zealand. It is faid, that the king's 

 marriage with the daughter of the earl of Hainault enabled 

 him to fend over emiifaries without fufpicion, to invite the 

 manufafturers to this kingdom. Thefe manufafturers were 

 diftributed over the country, at the following places : — The 

 manufafturers of fuftians (woollens) were eftablifiied at 



Northampton, Nottingham, andNewcaftle-upon-Tyne ; alfo Norwich, of baize at Sudbury in Suffolk, of fayes and 

 feveral towns in Lincolnffiire, and at St. Alban's, Baldock, ferges at Colchefter in Effex, of broad-cloths m Kent, of 



had attained httle (kill 



of 

 kerfies in Devonftiire, of cloth in Worcefterfhire and 

 Gloucefterffiire, of Wellh friezes in Wales, of cloth at 

 Kendal in Weftmoreland, of coarfe cloths, afterwards called 

 Halifax cloths, in Yorkfhire, of cloth in Hampihire, Berk- 

 fliire, and Suffex, and of ferges at Taunton in Devonfhire. 

 (Rymer's Fosdera, vol. i. p. 195.) Frefh fupplies of fo- 

 Madox's Hiftory of the reigners contributed to advance the woollen trade of thefe 

 diftrifts. 

 , In the 3 1 ft of Henry II. the weavers of London received Kendal, in Weftmoreland, claims the honour of firft receiv- 

 :a confirmation of their guild, with all the privileges they ing John Kemp, where his defcendants ftill remain, and the 

 icnjoyed in the reign of Henry I.; and in the patent he woollen trade is at prefent carried on. In the tollowmg reign, 

 Idirefted, that if any weaver mixed Spaniih wool with Enghfh we find the manufafturers of Kendal petitioning to be re- 

 jin making cloth, the chief magiftrate (hould feize and burn lieved from the regulations impofed on broad-cloths. Ken- 

 - -' ■ . r„. ■ ./• . '-^ dal green is mentioned by Shakfpeare as an article of drefs 



in the time of Henry IV., and there is reafon to believe, 

 that in the reign of Elizabeth, the woollen manufaftures 



,Berkhamftead, and Chefterfield, who paid fines to the king 

 ithat they might freely buy and fell dyed cloths. Thefe are 

 ifuppofed to have been cloths imported from the Flemings. 

 ,The red, fcarlet, and green cloths, enumerated among 

 |the articles in the wardrobe of Henry II., were inotl 

 'probably foreign, as the Englilh 

 at that time in the art of dyeing. 

 ;Exchequer. 



lit. (Stowe's Survey of London.) This abfurd edift was 

 liiTued under the pretext of the inferiority of the Spanifh 

 :wool, but was doubtlefs intended to encourage the growth 

 of Englilh wool, an article from which our kings derived a 

 iconfiderable revenue. The circumftance rather proves the 

 Ifuperior excellence of Spanifti wool at that time, and the 

 ; jealoufy which its importation had excited among the Englifh 



of that town were as extenfive as at prefent. 



In the year 1336, two woollen manufafturers from Bra- 

 bant fettled at York, under the king's proteftion : they are 

 ftiled in the letters of proteftion, " Willielmus de Brabant 

 & Hanckcinus de Brabant, Textores." Thefe perfons 



.wool-growers. - - . -. , ,, j ,a 1 



I In the reign of Henry III. an aft was paffed limiting the probably laid the foundation of the woollen and wor ted 



(breadth of broad-cloths, ruffets, &c. to two yards within manufaftures, which have fince fo extenlively fiounlhed m 



Ithe hfts. In the year 1284, foreign merchants were firft the weftern part of that county. It is not very impro- 



ipermitted to rent houfes in London, and buy and fell their bable, that the manufafturer Hancks, called Hanckcinus, 



