156 



The Merchants, of the Staple, fyc. 



risen to exalted positions. Of " John Halle's " two children, his 

 daughter, Christian, married Sir Thomas Hungerford ; — his son 

 William's only daughter and heir married Thomas Wriothesly, 

 Garter Principal King of Arms, and his family (he dying without 

 issue) became ennobled in the person of his nephew, Thomas, Lord 

 Wriothesley, of Titchfield in the county of Southampton. Webb, 

 who, according to Aubrey, together with "John Halle" bought 

 up all the wool of Salisbury Plain is still represented by the 

 Baronets of Odstock. Greville and Wenman whom Aubrey speaks 

 of as buying up all the Coteswold wool, in fact as the great mer- 

 chants of Gloucestershire, are both now represented by ennobled 

 descendants. One of the early members of the Greville family is 

 described as the " flower of wool-merchants of all England ; " his 

 descendant Fulke Greville married the heiress of Lord Willoughby 

 de Broke, and their son was created Lord Brooke, of Brooke House 

 in the parish of Westbury, Wilts, a title now held conjointly with 

 that of Warwick, by the Earl of Brooke and Warwick. The 

 family of Wenman were ennobled in a subsequent age under the 

 same name, and in 1834 the title was revived, in a descendant in 

 the female line, by the creation of Baroness Wenman, of Thame 

 Park, in Oxfordshire. From Stump of Malmesbury, the host on 

 one occasion of King Henry VIII., and the original grantee of the 

 Abbey, the preservation of which from utter ruin we probably owe 

 to him, descend some of our principal nobility. His only daughter 

 married Sir Henry Knyvett, and their two daughters became, the 

 one, Countess of Suffolk, the other, Countess of Lincoln. And 

 Camden tells us that at the commencement of the 17th century a 

 clothier named " Abbot " had three sons, each of whom, at the 

 same time, filled high and honourable offices : — George Abbot was 

 Archbishop of Canterbury ; — Robert Abbot was Bishop of Salisbury ; 

 Sir Maurice Abbot was Lord Mayor of London. 



Returning now to the regular course of our narrative, we find 

 that the loss of Calais in 1558 deprived England of her foreign 

 staple. None was afterwards established. Indeed, by the middle 

 of the 16th century the home manufactures had so increased, that 

 a proportionate diminution took place in the quantity of wool 



