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The Merchants of the Staple, fyc. 



employed only in a secondary sense to its original import, would seem 

 to be the following. In olden times, when no other means were 

 at hand, one way of marking boundaries was by placing a stone or 

 wooden pillar at the point to be indicated. This was called in 

 Anglo-Saxon stapol which is frequently in the form "staple" found 

 as a component part of the names of places. Thus in its primary 

 signification we have it in such words as Staple-Ford which is 

 the ford by the staple or pillar set up to mark the boundary of the 

 manor, and Staple-Hill the name of a hill at Westwood across 

 which runs the border of Wilts and Somerset. It next came to 

 denote a land-mark generally, and in this sense it is used in such a 

 word as Staple-Thorn, that is a thorn serving as a point of 

 boundary just as the customary " staple." In time it became a custom 

 to erect such stone pillars in the midst of villages and towns to 

 mark the place where men might congregate for the purpose of 

 transacting business, and the village " staple " was afterwards 

 developed into the " market cross." The remains of the Staple- Cross 

 at Burton, some two miles from Christ Church in Hampshire, are 

 still in existence. In ancient days when the privilege of holding 

 a market was ceded to any town or village it often had the name 

 of " Staple" or " Steeple" prefixed to it. Hence the names Steeple 

 Ashton and Steeple Lavlngton, the latter place being also called 

 Market Lavington. From the less to the greater the step was 

 not difficult. The principal place in London for the sale of wool 

 the chief article of commerce in ancient times was in Holborn, 

 near what is now called Staples Inn. The principal articles of 

 commerce, from being sold thus came to be called "Staple articles," 

 and they who dealt in them were in due time called Merchants of 

 the Staple. 



We have already intimated that some manufactures of cloth 

 existed in our country from an early period, without doubt up to 

 nearly the middle of the 14th century, by far the greater part of 

 our English wool was exported into Flanders, there to be wrought 

 into cloth. The words of Matthew of Westminster (who flourished 

 about 1350) that " all the world was clothed from English wool 

 wrought in Flanders are an exaggeration, but still they are a 



