THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 55 
+ Ibid. Vol. 3 Part 2, p.1052. 
> Ibid. Vol. 3 Part 2, p.1530. 
® [bid. Vol. 8, p.184. 
” Ibid. Vol. 6, p.279. 
§ For some other details of Thomas Kitson see Brett C. J. 
loc. cit.. 
° Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, p.453. 
0 Ibid, p.698. 
"' Cambridge University Library, Hengrave Hall MS.78/1 
(Goods shipped to the markets in the Low Countries 
1512 -39) and MS.78/2 (The Boke of Remembraunce 
1529). 
" The first page is enscribed ‘The boke of Remembraunce 
belongyng unto me Thomas Kytson of London 
Mercer made the xx" daye in Septe[m]ber An° 1529”. 
' Cambridge University Library, Hengrave Hall MS.78/4 
(The Account of ye Synkeson martt, holden at 
Andwerppe for my Master Syr T. Kytson, Knight & 
Alderman of London by me Thomas Wasshyngton, 
1536). 
4 Baumann W-R. The Merchants Adventurers and the 
Continental Cloth Trade, (Berlin, 1990), p.38. 
'S Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, p.278. 
‘6 “Penestone’ is the obsolete form of ‘penistone’, a kind of 
coarse woollen cloth similar to a ‘kersey’. 
” ‘Russet’ was a coarse woollen cloth of a reddish-brown, 
grey or neutral colour. 
'8 “Frieze” was a coarse woollen cloth with a nap, usually 
on one side only. 
'9 Cotton’ was a woollen cloth similar to a frieze. 
20 ‘Kersey’ was a narrow woollen cloth which did not have 
the completely felted surface of a broadcloth or 
‘white’. 
21 “Castlecomb’ was a woollen broadcloth of a red or white 
colour made in or near Castle Combe. 
2 VC. H. Wilts. Vol. 4, p.139. 
2 Brett C.J. loc sit. pp.29-56. 
*4 Carus-Wilson E. M. and Coleman O., England’s Export 
Trade 1275-1547, (1963). 
*> The various spellings of the clothmens’ names and 
their places of residence, as given in the ‘Boke’, are 
here rationalized. 
26 Statutes at Large, 5 Henry VIII, c.3. 
7 Ibid, 27 Henry VIII, c.13. 
78 The other suppliers of ‘Castlecombes’ were Harry 
Summers of Sodbury, William Bennet of 
Stroudwater, Thomas May and Thomas Wulworth of 
Wotton-under-Edge, Robert Payne of Burford, 
Nicholas Touker and Nicholas Tayler of Kingswood, 
Walter Osborne of Essington and John Woodward 
and John Eskyns of Dursley. 
”» The author suggests that ‘macer’, (from Latin macere to 
make wet, to soak, to steep,) equates to ‘masher’ = 
one who mashes malt in the beer-producing process. 
*0 Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, pp.207, 226. 
3! Ibid, pp.194, 200-2, 214, 223 etc.. 
» Tbid, p.194. 
* Tbid, p.394. The danger from pirates had been reported 
to the General Court of the Fellowship of Mercers in 
1511, ‘there be dyvers shippes of warre of Skottes 
uppon the See, whiche have taken certen Shippes of 
Englonde laden with divers merchaundises, and cast 
the Englismen over borde into the See’. 
4 Ibid, p.195. 
* Ibid, p.537. 
*6 Ibid, p.568. 
*7 When, as in the majority of cases, most of the cloths 
were the long broadcloths, each fardell would have 
weighed about 1 ton, corresponding to the 
contemporary tonnage unit of a ‘tun’ or ‘tontight’. 
When the fardells included many of the lighter and 
shorter ‘cottons’, ‘penestones’ and ‘kersies’ the total 
number of cloths in each fardell rose to over 50. 
*’ The sign ff was used as an abbreviation for ‘fardell’. 
The same sign was also used for ‘Flemish’. 
* Kytson’s code was; 7 = 1,m = 2,f=3,S =4,norN = 
5,C =6,B =7;p = 8,A = 9, ando = 0. 
“© John Grantham’s penestones and Thomas Harforde’s 
whites were never allocated identification numbers. 
“VC. H. Wilts. Vol. 4, p.140. 
*” The holland was purchased in units of the old Aune. 
From these examples it is evident that | Aune = 1% 
English elles or 2 yards 3 inches. See next note. 
‘8 An English elle was 1% yards, or 5 quarters. Fractions of 
an elle were quoted in quarters of a yard. 
“4 “Master Edgar’ or “Thomas Edgar gentleman’ was an 
occasional purchaser of goods from Thomas Kytson. 
Edgar features in the London Court of Husting Roll 
where he is described in 1537 as being ‘of “Baynors 
Castle”, in the parish of St Andrew Castle Bayn[ar]d’: 
Corporation of London Record Office, Court of 
Husting: Calendar of Deeds & Wills: Vol. 6, ff. 121v 
and i22r. Thomas Kytson, when he became an 
Alderman in July 1534, was described as also being of 
Castle Baynard: Beaven A.B., The Aldermen of the City 
of London, Vol. 2, p.28. Kytson and Edgar were thus 
neighbours. The author is grateful to James R. 
Sewell, City Archivist, for providing these two 
references. 
*® Mann J. de L., The Cloth Industry in the West of England 
1640 to 1880, (1987), pp.319, 321. Although the 
figures quoted by Mann relate to a period later than 
the Tudor era, they may be justified in being used in 
making the approximate calculations of Roger 
Tanner’s usage of olive oil. 
46 Other types of canvas dealt with by Kytson were 
‘Normandy’ and ‘vettery’. The canvas was destined 
to be used for various domestic uses such as table 
cloths, linings for doublets and kirtles, sheets and 
mattress covers, aprons for ‘the sculyons & ye mayde’ 
and saddle cloths, besides being used for packing 
goods for shipment. 
47 Other types of fustian were ‘Osbornes’, ‘beverne’ and 
‘Puryynges’. 
48 John Baker’s name occurs in A List of the Recorders of the 
City of London from 1298-1850 extracted from the 
