WOOL. 
729 
London, 1660, printed in Thurloe’s State Papers, vol. vii. 
p. 848, it is stated, that great quantities of wool were brought 
secretly from England to Holland; and he adds, that the 
Dutch had at that time got in a great measure the manufac¬ 
ture of fine cloth, and would probably, with Silesia, engross 
also the manufacture of coarse cloth, and leave England 
nothing but its native wool to export. 
In the year 1662 great complaints were made against the 
merchant adventurers for their neglect of the cloth trade; in 
reply to which they said, that the demand for English cloths 
failed in the foreign markets, the white clothing trade having 
abated from 100,000 cloths annually to 11,000. In the 
year 1663 our whole exports were only about two millions 
and our imports four, leaving a balance of two millions 
against this country. It is, however, deserving notice, that 
the number of wardens for the inspection of stuffs at Norwich 
being too few, they were at this time increased from five to 
eight. A letter on the state of trade, published in 1667, says, 
clothing-wools were so much fallen at that time, that the best 
Spanish was sold at 2s. 2d. per pound, and English at 8 d. per 
pound. The writer ascribes the fall in the price of English wool 
to our wearing so much Spanish cloth, a greatpart not manu¬ 
factured by ourselves, as Dutch blacks; but it is obvious, 
from the price of Spanish wool, that thelow price of clothing- 
wool at that time depended on a more general cause, affecting 
all manufacturing countries. To relieve the cloth trade from 
the great depression under which it laboured between the years 
1660 and 1678, various schemes were devised. Among 
others, the mayor and common council of London passed an 
act “ for the regulation of Blackwell-hall, Leaden-hall, and 
Welsh-hall, (the three public markets for cloth in London,) 
and for preventing foreigners buying and selling!” By fo¬ 
reigners are understood all persons not free of the city of Lon¬ 
don. This act, a most singular monument of the ignorance 
or selfishness of its authors, prohibits the sale of all woollen 
cloths sent to London, except at the above halls, where cer¬ 
tain duties were to be paid upon them, and from whence 
they could not be removed for three weeks, unless they were 
sold in the meantime to some draper, or other freeman of the 
city. The hall-keepers were to attend strictly at the halls, 
and turn out all foreigners and aliens coming to purchase 
cloth; and every freeman of the city who should introduce a 
purchaser into the halls not free of the city should forfeit, for 
the first offence, five pounds,—for the second, ten,—and for 
the third, fifteen pounds! Thus, in those days, turning pur¬ 
chasers out of the public markets, and securing the sale to a 
certain class of buyers, was considered an act for the benefit 
of the public. 
After the accession of William, our manufacturers, who 
were warmly attached to the cause of religious liberty, being 
the greater part protestant dissenters, were animated to un¬ 
common exertions in the restoration of their trade. This is 
evident from the state of our exports in the following year 
after the revolution in 1689, when they amounted to near 
seven millions, of which the woollens were nearly three 
millions. 
About the year 1722, the plague at Marseilles, by prevent¬ 
ing the exportation of French woollens, increased the de¬ 
mand for English manufactures considerably. In the year 
1737 the woollen exports amounted to 4,158,643/.; and 
it is remarkable, that at that period the price of wool was un¬ 
commonly low. 
From this time to the period of the American war in 1775, 
the woollen manufactures, and particularly the worsted, still 
continued to increase, with occasional checks. The quantity 
of long combing-wools grown in England, had given to the 
manufacturers of worsted goods a decided advantage over 
those of France, though the ingenuity of the latter in the 
manufacture of les petites draperies, as the worsted goods are 
called, was greatly superior to what our own workmen had 
ever shewn. The demand for worsted goods at home, for 
tammies and stuffs, which were the general dress of females 
before the year 1775, was very great; besides which, we 
supplied with worsted goods many of the southern parts of 
Europe, and particularly Spain and Portugal, for the use of 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1668. 
their South American colonies, and for the dresses of the 
clergy, monks, and nuns, which form no inconsiderable part 
of the population in those countries. About the year 1775, 
the introduction of Arkwright’s inventions for spinning, card¬ 
ing, &c. into the Cotton trade, produced a great change in 
the article of female dress in England, stuffs and tammies 
being supplanted by cotton goods, which were become ex¬ 
tremely cheap. The failure of the foreign trade also greatly 
affected our manufactures, both woollens and worsteds. The 
price of English wool at the latter end of the American war, 
was lower than it had been in any period of our history, 
when money was of much higher relative value. A tod of 
281bs. of the best Lincolnshire wool for combing was not 
worth more than nine shillings, and the inferior kinds six 
shillings, or about three-pence and four-pence per pound. 
From the time of Elizabeth to the middle of the last cen¬ 
tury, scarcely any alterations or improvements had taken 
place in the processes of manufacture, either in woollen or 
worsted, beyond the variation of colours or patterns, to suit 
the fashion of the day. The ingenious mechanical inven¬ 
tions of Arkwright, applied to the spinning and carding of 
cotton, were soon after modified, and applied to the woollen 
and worsted trade, and produced an entire revolution in some 
of the seats of their manufacture. Before that period, the 
manufacture of heavy woollens and coarse worsted goods 
had been gradually concentrating into Yorkshire and Lan¬ 
cashire, where the cheapness of living, the active industry of 
the inhabitants, and, above all, the cheapness and abundance 
of coal, gave the manufacturers a decided advantage over 
those in the midland and western counties. 
WOOL, a township of England, in Dorsetshire ; 5| miles 
west-south-west of Wareham. Population 481. 
WOOLAND, a parish of England, in Dorsetshire; 8 
miles from Blandford. 
WOOLASTON, a parish of England in Gloucestershire ; 
6 §- miles south-west of Blakeney. Population 646.—-2. A 
parish in Nottinghamshire, near Nottingham. 
WOOLASTON, Great, a township of England, in Sa¬ 
lop ; 11 miles west of Shrewsbury. 
WOOLAVINGTON, a parish of England, in Somerset¬ 
shire; 4J miles north-east of Bridgewater.—2. A parish in 
Sussex; 4| miles south-south-west of Petworth. 
WOOLBEDING, a parish of England, in Sussex; 1| 
mile north-west of Midhurst. 
WOOLBOROUGH, a parish of England, in Devonshire; 
1 mile south of Abbot’s Newton. 
WOOLCOMBE, a hamlet of England, in Dorsetshire ; 7 
miles south-east of Beaminster.—2. Another hamlet in the 
same county; 8 miles south-by^west of Sherborne. 
WOO'LCOMBER, s. One whose business is to comb 
wool.—Of “ The Fleece,” which never became popular, and 
is now universally neglected, I can say little that is likely to 
recall it to attention. The woolcomber and the poet appear 
to me such discordant natures, that an attempt to bring 
them together is to “ couple the serpent with the fowl”. 
Johnson. 
WOOLDALE, a parish of England, West Riding of 
Yorkshire ; 7 miles from Huddersfield. Population 3083. 
WOOLDINGHAM, a parish of England, in Surrey; 2 
miles from Godstone. 
WOOLER, a market town of England, in the county of 
Northumberland, situated on Wooler water, near the Cheviot 
hills. It contains several streets, and was formerly much re¬ 
sorted to for goat’s whey. The parish church, a plain build¬ 
ing, was erected in 1765, nearly on the site of the old one. 
Here are chapels for the Presbyterians, Burghers, Baptists, 
and Catholics. Here are also the ruins of a very old tower 
or castle, standing on a bank called the Tower Bank. In 
the neighbourhood are vestiges of several ancient encamp¬ 
ments; and, on the Edinburgh road, at the distance of two 
miles from Wooler, stands a large whinstone, supposed to 
mark the spot where Henry, lord Percy, and George, earl 
March, defeated 10,000 Scots under earl Douglas. It has a 
weekly market on Thursday ; two fairs, viz. on the 4th May 
7 X and 
