296 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
And now let us turn for a while to the trade of the town in its 
internal relations. The fisheries of the village of Sutton were the 
first occupation of its inhabitants, and the fishing rights chiefly 
belonged to the Priory of Plympton, partly by gift from the 
Valletorts. Ralph de Valletort also gave the monks land whereon 
to erect a milldam, at what is still, from the mills then built, called 
Millbay. The Valletorts and the Priors between them exercised 
the usual manorial powers. The Priors were also strong enough to 
rescue some of their customary rights in Sutton Pool from the 
strong grasp of the Duchy of Cornwall—not, it is true, without diffi- 
culty—and in these, as in others, have been succeeded by the Cor- 
poration. The fact that Richard the Tanner was one of the leading 
men of Plymouth in the opening years of the fourteenth century 
proves that tanning was one of the principal trades then carried on 
here ; and thinly-scattered over various ancient documents are a 
’ few other hints of the same kind, that are not without their value. 
Thus, in 1397, John the Wimpler is a witness to a grant of an acre 
and a half of land by Martock’s Well to one Margaret Stilman. 
This grant is from John, Prior of Plympton, who also grants to 
Ade Blogge and Isabella, his wife, a tenement on “le hill” in 
Sutton Prior, east of the stalls and south of the pillory; that is, 
very much where the Free Library now stands. In the previous 
reign the same Prior grants a tenement in Billabiri Street to 
William the Spicer and his wife. So early as 1486 Plymouth had 
one “Jamys” the goldsmith, who was capable of mending “ ryst- 
affer ys mace,’ and ‘John Gele ys mace.” These maces, by the 
way, came to repair so frequently that I think the mayor must 
have used them to keep order with. But when in the previous 
year the town standards were a-making, “‘y® stanyer of totnys” 
had to be paid for ‘‘ y® taynying” at 6s. 8d. each, while for staining 
the great banner he had 20d. However one is glad to know that 
the town even then had in William Seyet, “ y® westment maker,” 
a man capable of “frangyng off y® gret stremer,” though he only 
had 2s. 4d. for the work. Just ten years later (1487-8) Symon 
Artour was entrusted with the making of two “ quyshen clothys 
for Mr. Mayer ys pew w' ye towne ys armys vppon ym.” They 
were made of “ goteyskynnes,” filled with flocks and adorned with 
gold foil. In the same year William Stayner, the earliest recorded 
Plymouth artist, had 1s. for painting the town arms on the town 
book. But in 1506-7 Nicholas Adams had to be fetched from Looe 
