WOOLLEN MAJNUFACTUKE. 



perfons befides woollen manufaaurers, who bought wool for 

 their own ufe, and merchants of the ftaple, who bought for 

 exportation, to purchafe wool with the intent to fell again. 

 This aft extended to twenty-eight counties, and fecured 

 a monopoly of the wool to the merchants of the ftaple, 

 and to the rich clothiers. In the firft year of the fol- 

 lowing reign, Edward VI., it was repealed, fo far as 

 to allow every perfon dweUing in Norwich and Norfolk, to 

 buy wool the growth of that county, by themfelves or 

 agents, and retail it out in open market. The reafon al- 

 figned is this : That almoft the whole number of poor in- 

 habitants of the county of Norfolk and city of Norwich 

 had been ufed to get their living by fpinning of Norfolk 

 wool, which they ufed to purchafe by eight pennyworth or 

 twelve pennyworth at a time, felling the fame again in y arn ; 

 and becaufe the grower chofe not to parcel it in fuch fmall 

 quantities, therefore for the benefit of the poor, the wool of 

 Norfolk was allowed to be purchafed by wool-dealers. 

 By this ad, the 33d of Henry VIII., for prohibiting the 

 exportation of yarn is made perpetual. The manufadure 

 of woollens in the counties adjoining London appear to 

 have been extenfive, particularly in the county of Berkfhire ; 

 for in the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., John 

 Winchcombe, of that county, commonly called Jack of 

 Newbury, was celebrated as the greateft clothier in Eng- 

 land. He kept one hundred looms in his own houfe, and 

 in the expedition againft the Scotch, he fent to Flodden- 

 field one hundred men, fully equipped, at his own expence. 

 Even fo early as the 13th century, one Thomas Cole was 

 diftinguilhed by the name of the rich clothier of Reading, 

 in Berkfhire. 



York, then the fecond city in the kingdom, and from its 

 conneaion with the port of Hull well fituated for the 

 export trade, was probably an early feat of the woollen 

 manufaaure. We have already mentioned the fettlement 

 of two clothiers from Brabant in the time of Edward III. 

 We do not learn precifely in our early hiftorians, when the 

 manufaaures emanated from that city into the weftern parts 

 of the county ; but from an aa in the 34th of Henry VIII. 

 we are informed, that the chief manufadure of that city 

 was the making of coverlets ; the aa recites, " that the poor 

 of that city were daily employed in fpinning, carding, 

 dyeing, weaving, &c. for the making of coverlets, and that 

 the fame have not been made elfewhere in the faid county 

 till of late ; that this manufaaure had fpread itfelf into other 

 parts of the county, and was thereby debafed and difcre- 

 dited, and therefore it is enaaed, that none (hall make 

 coverlets in Yorkfhire but the people of York." Thus we 

 fee, under the flimfy pretext of pubhc benefit, the manufac- 

 turers were wiUing to difguife that felfilh fpirit of monopoly, 

 which difgraces almoft every page of our commercial hif- 

 tory. The municipal regulations of the city of York, 

 which were, and ftill continue to be, hoftile to a free trade, 

 probably obliged many manufaaurers, who were not 

 ftiarers in the monopolies of the guild, to cftablifli them- 

 felves in the weftern villages of the county, wliere provifions 

 ■were cheaper, and where they could carry on their trade 

 without reftriaion. In the reign of Philip and Mary, foon 

 after this period, we have the following interefting account 

 of Halifax, in confequence of an aa parted in the 37th of 

 Henry VIII. to prevent any other perfons than merchants 

 of the ftaple and woollen manufaaurers from buying wool 

 in the county of Kent and twenty -feven (hires. The poorer 

 manufaaurers, who were unable to lay in their ftock of 

 wool at one time, being hereby deprived of their trade, 

 made application for redrefi, which was granted. The aa 

 recites as follows : " Whereas the town of HaUfax being 



planted in the great wafte and moors, where the fertility of 

 the ground is not apt to bring forth any corn nor good 

 grafs, but in rare places, and by exceeding and great in- 

 duftry of the inhabitants ; and the fame inhabitants alto- 

 gether do live by cloth-making, and the greater part of 

 them neither getteth corn, nor is able to keep a horfe to 

 carry wools, nor yet to buy much wool at once, but hath 

 ever ufed to repair to the town of Halifax, and there to buy 

 fome two or three ftone, according to their ability, and to 

 carry the fame to their houfes, three, four, or five miles off, 

 upon their heads and backs, and fo to make and convert the 

 fame either into yarn or cloth, and to fell the fame, and fo 

 to buy more wool of the wool-driver ; by means of which 

 indultry, the barren grounds in thofe parts be now much 

 inhabited, and above five hundred houfeholds there newly 

 increafed within thefe forty years paft, which now are like 

 to be undone and driven to beggary by reafon of the late 

 llatute (37th of Henry VIII.) that taketh away the wool- 

 driver, fo that they cannot now have their wool by fuch 

 fmall portions as they were wont to have, and that alfo they 

 are not able to keep any horfes whereupon to ride or fetch 

 their wools further from them in other places, unlefs fome 

 remedy may be provided. It was therefore enaaed, that it 

 fhould be lawful, to any perfon or perfons inhabiting within 

 the pari(h of Halifax, to buy any wool or wools at fuch 

 time, as the clothiers may buy the fame, otherwife than by 

 engrolling and foreftalling, fo that the perfons buying the 

 fame do carry the faid wools to the town of Hahfax, and 

 there to fell the fame to fuch poor folks of that and other 

 parilhes adjoining, as (hall work the fame in cloth of yam, 

 to their knowledge, and not to the rich and wealthy clothier, 

 or any other to fell again. Offending againft this aa to 

 forfeit double the value of the vi^ool fo fold." 



From this we learn that many woollen manufaaurers had 

 been either driven from York at an early period, by the op- 

 preflion of the municipal regulations, or had retired where 

 provifions were cheaper, and where they had better ftreams 

 for the ereaion of fulling-mills, and for other proccffes of 

 the manufaaure, fuch as dyeing and fcouring. 



The woollen mannfaaures alfo gradually retired from 

 the vicinity of the metropolis, owing to the increafed price 

 of provifions and labour, and probably alfo to the difficulty 

 of obtaining commodious ftreams for the fcouring and full- 

 ing of cloth, when the country round London became more 

 populous. In the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII. 

 we are informed, that the king demifed to William Webbe the 

 fubfidy and aulnage of all cloth made in the county of Mon- 

 mouth, and in the twelve (hires of Wales. A former aa 

 of this reign, fpeaking of the manufaaurers of North Wales, 

 fays, they had been ufed to fell their cloths fo craftly and 

 hard rolled together, that the buyer could not perceive the 

 untrue making thereof. Thefe aas prove the extenfion of 

 the woollen manufaaures weftward. 



In the fame reign, an aa mentions the woollen manufac- 

 tures as being eftablilhed in Worcefterfhire, but prohibits 

 any one from making cloth in the county, except within 

 the city of Worcefter, and in the towns of Evefham, Droit- 

 wich, Kidderminfter, and Bromfgrove ; and forbids the 

 owners of houfes in thofe places from letting them at ad- 

 vanced prices to the cloth-manufaaurers. The woollen 

 manufaaure has continued to the prefent day at the two 

 laft of thefe towns. In the reign of Edward Vl. Coventry 

 and Manchefter are mentioned as manufaauring places. 

 The manufaaurers in the old eftabhfhed feats of the woollen 

 trade appear to have been greatly alarmed at the extenfion 

 of the cloth manufaaure, and to have exerted all their in- 

 fluence to reftrain it. Near the conclufion of the reign of 



Philip 



