52 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
days later Nicholas Lunne received a further three 
of the widow’s whites. Here are further instances of 
a clothman making deliveries of cloth on near- 
adjacent days without being able to return home to 
Edington and back to London, just as did Richard 
Batte in1534 (see above). Why did Lambe deliver 
25 and 5 whites separately on 31 October? Had he 
been unsuccessfully touting the cloths to other 
merchants? Also why were the 7 and 5 cloths 
recorded as separate deliveries on 19 November? 
This second question is easier to answer. When 
Nicholas Lunne penned his original entry on 6 
September he added a clothier’s mark in the margin 
of the ‘Boke’. This mark must have been that of the 
recently deceased Richard Bathe. Of the 12 whites 
delivered on 19 November seven of them were 
probably marked with Bathe’s mark but the other 
five are recorded as being marked with another 
mark that incorporates the initials IB. Richard 
Bathe’s wife’s name was Joan? who had thus 
changed from using her late husband’s mark to a 
new mark of her own. This mark was obviously not 
recognised by Nicholas Lunne who therefore 
recorded the ‘IB’ mark in the margin of the ‘Boke’. 
Although the Merchant Adventurers’ rules were 
that no cloths were to be shipped to the Cold mart 
after All Hallows, Lunne was accepting cloths up to 
22 November, the day that he received the last 3 
whites of Joan Bathe. He had recorded the make-up 
of the 24 fardells and three trusses that were 
shipped to the Cold mart in 1538: 
The shipping by the grace of God to the Cold Marte 
holden in Barrow a° 1538 
a fardell no 7 in the Mary Gabriell of Birkylsay 
master under God John Hurlock 
Item 32 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes 
a fardell no f in the Mary Fortune of Lee 
Item 8 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes 
a fardell no Jn in the Catherine of Calles 
Item 3 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes 
a truss no mC in the Peter of London 
Item 7 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes 
a truss no mB in the Trinite of London 
Item 3 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes 
and after he had finished he added: 
Memorandum that there remanet unpacked 5 whites 
here at home of this marke which was resaved of 
mastres Baythe and Aldam Lamme by the handes of 
Geffray Whitacker in the sted of thers the 19th day in 
November a° 1538 
He then drew the IB clothier’s mark, and added ‘the 
strypes yallow and the letters rede’. 
The inference is that ‘mistress’ Joan Bathe and 
Aldhelm Lambe were seen by Nicholas Lunne to be 
a form of partnership that had used Geoffrey 
Whitaker to take the five whites marked with Joan’s 
IB mark to London. Two Geoffrey Whitakers are 
known, one of Westbury who sold whites to Kytson 
in 1534 and 1535, and the other of Tinhead in the 
parish of Edington who objected to his cloths being 
subjected to searching by London aulnagers in the 
second half of the century and whose will was 
proved in 1601.» Richard Bathe (Whitaker) did not 
have a son called Geoffrey so it would seem likely 
therefore that the Geoffrey who delivered Joan 
Bathe’s 5 whites was the Geoffrey of Westbury, 
perhaps a brother or near-relative of Richard 
Bathe.” 
Altogether 85 whites of Joan Bathe had been 
delivered, all but five with the recognised mark of 
Richard Bathe which were sent to Barrow and five 
with the new mark which were not. The next March 
Thomas Wasshington added: 
Memorandum that thes 5 whittes were delivered to 
[?]Cerle the 23rd day in March A° [1538/39] 
Thomas Kytson passed on these five whites instead 
of exporting them. When the record was made of 
the whites exported to the next mart — the Sinxten 
mart at Antwerp — only those whites of Joan Bathe 
and Lambe that had been received in London after 
22 May 1539 were included. 
Lambe made the usual promises, as several 
times recorded by Kytson’s clerks, that the 
remaining 40 cloths would be up to the standard of 
the cloths already delivered, but in addition he 
‘further promised that like as are marked in the 
leads they shall hold the same lengths when they 
come out of the water’. Lambe was making this 
promise, on behalf of Joan Bathe, in accordance 
with the 1535 Statute which stipulated that 
When any such Cloth shall be ready made and 
dressed to be put to sale, every . . . clothier shall set 
his Seal of Lead unto every... Cloth and Kerseys, in 
which Seal of Lead shall be contained the true and 
just Length of every... Cloth and Kersey, as it shall 
duly be found by every Buyer of the same, upon due 
Proof thereof to be tried by the Water. And in case 
