36 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
extent the shipping entries in those two books are 
duplicated.'!! The second of the books, ‘Thomas 
Kytson’s Boke of Remembraunce’!’ also, more 
importantly, records the clothmen from whom he 
purchased the cloth and the prices he paid. Other 
entries include sales of various goods imported by 
Kytson from the continent, notes concerning goods 
being sent to Hengrave, purchases of land and 
property, and memoranda concerning recompense 
paid to the merchants in Antwerp or Barrow who 
had bought faulty cloth from Kytson. That book 
which was started in 1529 and was continued until 
shortly after Kytson’s death, contains some 
scrawled entries by Kytson himself, but the entries 
are mainly by his factors or apprentices George 
Collyns, Robert Mathe, Thomas Wasshington and 
Nicholas Lunne, with a few later entries in the 
impeccable hand of William Cockyshed. A third 
book was kept by Thomas Wasshington and is his 
account of his dealings as Kytson’s factor at the 
Sinxten mart held in 1536.'? 
Four annual cloth marts were held in Flanders, 
to which convoys of ships set out from London 
laden with cloth and other exports such as tin, lead 
and leather. The four marts were the Paasmarkt or 
Pask mart (the passion or Easter mart) which began 
on Maundy Thursday; the Pinxten or Sinxtenmarkt 
(the Pentecost Fair) which began on the second 
Sunday before Whitsuntide; the Bamis mart (St. 
Bavo’s Fair) which started on the second Sunday 
after the feast of the Assumption (15 August) and 
the Koudmarkt or Cold mart which commenced on 
the Thursday before All Hallows Eve (31 October). 
The Sinxten and Bamis marts were held at Antwerp, 
and the Pask and Cold marts at Bergen-op-Zoom 
(known to English merchants as ‘Barrow’). 
Antwerp, located near the conflux of the Rhine, 
Maas and Scheldt rivers, was on the trade routes 
used by German and Italian traders on their 
missions to Italy and the Danube basin. It was also 
conveniently sited for access to English and French 
ports, and placed on the sea routes used by the 
Hanseatic traders. Bergen-op-Zoom, only some 
thirty miles distant from Antwerp, was equally 
placed to enjoy the benefits of pan-European trade, 
but by the time that Thomas Kytson was using the 
marts its role was changing. Bergen-op-Zoom 
continued as a ‘fair town’ but mainly dealt with 
foreign traders only during the Pask and Cold 
marts. Antwerp, however, enlarged its foreign 
dealings from the peaks of the Sinxten and Bamis 
marts such that its business became more 
continuous, but this expansion was moderated by 
the Merchant Adventurers’ desire to maintain the 
periodicity of their trading at all four marts, 
especially the Sinxten mart. Antwerp drew 
merchants from across Europe to buy the famed 
English cloths and its Bourse provided the pre- 
eminent financial centre for the exchange of 
currency or the settlement of bills. In addition, 
Antwerp very nearly monopolized the European 
cloth-finishing industry. In 1537, there were 1,348 
cloth finishers and journeymen employed in the 
conversion of the unfinished English cloths to the 
final fully-dressed and dyed cloth that the 
European middle classes craved for.'4 
An extract from the ‘Boke of Remembraunce’ of 
the entries relating to Kytson’s dealings with 
Wiltshire for one year is given in Appendix 1. The 
shipping entries, notes and memoranda are written 
in English, but the records of purchases and sales 
are written in a mixture of abbreviated French, 
Latin and English, with the purchase prices being 
in code. This use of coded information was in 
accordance with the rules of the Mercers that ‘no 
parson [person] shall discover to any straunger oute 
of the felishipp .. . what his good cost hym at the 
first bying or any tyme after . . . [and] the previtie or 
Secrettes of the buying of the wares shall not be 
discoverd nor understoud, uppon payn of £20 
sterling’.!° A typical simple entry of two purchases 
is 
Acchat de John Coope’ de Edynton in Wilshere le 25 
io’ de May A° 1531 
Item v whit, desC 's pd pe’ 
Item 1 fyn whit de f' C’p? iij' vj 8° 
Sm‘ Tolls xvj''xs 
pd le mayr’ io' Sm? xvj' xs 
which equates to 
Bought of John Cooper of Edington in Wiltshire the 
25th day of May of the year 1531 
Item 5 whites at 46s Sd the piece £13 3s 4d 
Item | fine white at £3 6s Sd £3 6s 8d 
Total sum £16 10s 
Paid the next day Sum £16 10s 
The first two lines record the initial bargain struck 
between Thomas Kytson and John Cooper for 5 
white cloths at 46s. 8d. the piece, and the third line 
records that a further 1 cloth of finer quality was 
bargained for, with the total amount to be paid 
being given on the fourth line. The final line shows 
that Cooper was paid the next day. 
Throughout the book the coded price (here in 
