[461] Ibid., lxiii.

[462] e.g. Ashley, Economic History, i. 193: 'No cloth was manufactured for export; and a great part of the English demand for cloth'—indeed the whole of the demand for the finer qualities—'was met by importation.'

[463] Pipe R., 18 Hen. II.

[464] Pipe R., 27 Hen. II., and other years.

[465] Pipe R., 28 Hen. II.

[466] The 'list' is the strip of selvage at the edge of the cloth.

[467] Assize R., 358.

[468] Pat., 2 Hen. III., m. 4, 2.

[469] Pat., 9 Hen. III., m. 5.

[470] Lib. R., 30 Hen. III.: some years earlier cloth to be distributed at Worcester had been bought at Oxford.—Lib. R., 17 Hen. III.

[471] Lib. R., 35 Hen. III., m. 17.

[472] Liber Custumarum, i. 124.

[473] Cal. of S. P. Venice, i. 3.

[474] Lib. R., 36 Hen. III., m. 19.

[475] Arch. Journ., ix. 70-1.

[476] The manufacture of this cloth must have originated in the village of Worsted, possibly with some settlement of Flemish weavers, but soon spread throughout the county.

[477] Rec. of Norwich, ii. 406.

[478] Statutes, 20 Hen. VI.

[479] Rot. Parl. iv. 230, 236.

[480] Customs Accts., 5, no. 7.

[481] Black Book of Admiralty (Rolls Ser.), ii. 197. Blues of Beverley, scarlets and greens of Lincoln, scarlets and blues of Stamford, coverlets of Winchester and cloth of Totness occur in wardrobe accounts of 1236. Pipe R., 19, 20 Henry III.

[482] Black Book of Admiralty (Rolls Ser.), ii. 187, 197.

[483] There was an 'omanseterowe' in the Drapery at Norwich as early as 1288.—Rec. of Norwich, ii. 8.

[484] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 4, 40. Narrow 'Osetes' were also made at Salisbury.—Exch. K. R. Accts., 344, no. 34.

[485] Liber Custumarum, i. 125; ii. 549.

[486] At Northampton the cloth trade, which in the time of Henry III. employed 300 men, had almost died out in 1334.—Rot. Parl., ii. 85.

[487] Liber Custumarum, i. 424.

[488] As early as 1331 special protection was granted to John Kempe of Flanders and any other clothworkers who wished to settle in England.—Pat., 5 Edw. III., p. 2, m. 25.

[489] Statutes, 11 Edw. III.

[490] Rot. Parl., ii. 449, Close 13 Edw. III., p. 3, m. 11.

[491] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 3.

[492] Langland, Piers Plowman.

[493] 'A Concise Poem on ... Shepton Mallet,' by Richd. Watts; printed in The Young Man's Looking Glass, 1641. With this may be compared Deloney's 'Pleasant History of John Winchcombe (Jack of Newbury),' written some fifty years earlier.—V. C. H. Berks., i. 388-9.

[494]
'Then to another room came they
Where children were, in poor array,
And every one sat picking wool,
The finest from the coarse to pull.'
[495]
'Two hundred men, the truth is so,
Wrought in their looms, all in a row;
By every one a pretty boy
Sat making quills with mickle joy.'

[496] The burler's business was to remove knots, loose ends and other impurities.

[497] The manufacture of these cloths was licensed in 1390, provided the quality was not improved.—Statutes, 13 Ric. II.

[498] Assize R.

[499] Liber Custumarum, ii. 549. Spanish wool is prominent amongst the imports at Southampton in 1310.—Customs Accts., 136, no. 8, n.

[500] Statutes, 4 Edw. IV.

[501] Statutes, 7 Edw. IV.

[502] An alkali, known as 'cineres,' possibly a kind of barilla or carbonate of soda (Rec. of City of Norwich, ii. 209) occurs fairly often: e.g. taxation of Colchester, Rot. Parl., i. 244.

[503] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 6.

[504] e.g. Customs Accts., 136/4, 136/12.

[505] Recs. of City of Norwich, ii. 209.

[506] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 16-22.

[507] Lands. MS., 121, no. 21.

[508] Cf. Rec. Borough of Northampton, i. 121: the compiler has mistaken 'wode' for wood.

[509] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 39.

[510] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 81-90.

[511] Rot. Parl., iv. 75.

[512] Early Chanc. Proc., 7, no. 23.

[513] Exch. K. R. Accts., 345, no. 16.

[514] Plunket appears to have been a pale blue, half the quantity of woad sufficing for plunkets that was used for azures, which in turn took half the amount required for blues.—V. C. H. Suffolk, ii. 258.

[515] Liber Custumarum, i. 129.

[516] There were no doubt the 'browne blewes' of later records: e.g. a Benenden clothier was fined in 1563 for 'a browne blewe, being a deceiptfull color.'—Memo. K. R., 7 Eliz., Hil., m. 330.

[517] Liber Custumarum, i. 125.

[518] Alkermes, an insect resembling cochineal.

[519] Statutes, 24 Hen. VIII.; cf. 4 Edw. IV.

[520] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 8, 9.

[521] Rec. of City of Norwich, ii. 119.

[522] Statutes, 4 Edw. IV.; 3 Hen. VIII.

[523] V. C. H. Essex, ii. 255.

[524] V. C. H. Worcs., ii. 286.

[525] V. C. H. Essex, ii. 383-4.

[526] The use of woof in place of warp was strictly forbidden.—Liber Custumarum, i. 125; Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 2. At Worcester in 1497 any one bringing yarn to be spun into cloth was to bring the warp and the woof separate.—V. C. H. Worcs., ii. 285.

[527] Rec. of City of Norwich, ii. 378.

[528] Rot. Parl., iii. 618.

[529] Arch. Journal, ix. 70: cf. Assize R., 787, m. 86.

[530] V. C. H. Notts., ii. 345.

[531] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 4.

[532] Liber Custumarum, i. 134.

[533] Arch. Journ., ix. 71.

[534] The suspension of worsted weaving for a month from 15 August was enforced in 1511 to avoid a shortage of agricultural labour during harvest.—Rec. of City of Norwich, ii. 376.

[535] Liber Custumarum, i. 423.

[536] Ibid. Candlewick Street (now Cannon Street) was the centre of manufacture of a coarse cheap cloth used for horse trappings, and also bought in large quantities for the King's almoner from 1330 to 1380.—Enrolled Wardrobe Accts., L. T. R., 2-4.

[537] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 40, 123.

[538] Statutes, 8 Hen. VI.

[539] V. C. H. Shrops., i. 428.

[540] Statutes, 3 and 5 Henry VIII.

[541] Toulmin Smith, Engl. Gilds, 179. The gild was founded in 1297, but this regulation was probably of later date.

[542] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 127.

[543] Liber Custumarum, i. 128-9.

[544] Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 13.

[545] Ibid., 79.

[546] V. C. H. Notts., ii. 346.

[547] V. C. H. Surrey, ii. 279.

[548] e.g. at Nottingham; V. C. H. Notts., ii. 346.

[549] V. C. H. Warw., ii. 252.

[550] Ibid.

[551] Statutes, 15 Ric. II.

[552] e.g. V. C. H. Surrey, ii. 344; V. C. H. Sussex, ii. 257.

[553] Exch. Dep. by Com., 41 Eliz., East. 1.

[554] Rot. Parl., i. 243.

[555] Statutes, 4 Edw. IV.

[556] V. C. H. Suffolk, ii. 262.

[557] Exch. K. R. Accts., bdles. 339-345.

[558] Marcus le Fair of Winchester was the only clothier not a Londoner from whom cloth was bought for the royal household in 1408.—Exch. K. R. Accts., 405, no. 22.

[559] V. C. H. Berks., i. 388.

[560] V. C. H. Suffolk, ii. 256.

[561] Hist. MSS. Com., Rep. viii. 93.

[562] Vlnage, or aulnage, from aulne = an ell.

[563] Statutes, 2 Edw. III.

[564] The penalty of forfeiture was withdrawn in 1354 as injurious to trade, deficient cloths being marked with their actual size.—Ibid., 27 Edw. III.

[565] Statutes, 7, 8, 10 Hen. IV.

[566] Statutes, 11 Hen. VI.

[567] Rec. of City of Norwich, ii. 407.

[568] Rot. Parl., i. 292.

[569] Statutes, 13 Ric. II.; 11 Hen. IV.

[570] Rot. Parl., iii. 637.

[571] Statutes, 20 Hen. VI.

[572] Statutes, 4 Edw. IV.

[573] Statutes, 18 Hen. VI.

[574] Exch. Dep. by Com., 41 Eliz.

[575] Statutes, 5 Edw. VI., 1 Mary, etc.

[576] See Memoranda Rolls, K. R., passim.

[577] Memo. R., K. R., Hil. 7 Eliz., m. 329. As an earlier instance, sixteen drapers in Coventry, thirteen in York, and seven in Lincoln, besides others elsewhere, were fined in the first quarter of 1390 for cloths of ray, not of assize.—Ibid., Hil. 13 Ric. II.

[578] Exch. Dep. by Com., 30 Eliz., Hil., 8.

[579] Statutes, 14-15 Hen. VIII.

[580] Early Chanc. Proc., 141, no. 4.

[581] Statutes, 5 Hen. VIII.

[582] Rot. Parl., i. 292.

[583] The same material was used in 1323 for the pillows of the king's new beds.—Enr. Ward. Accts., 3, m. 2.

[584] Ibid., m. 10.

[585] Ibid., 2, m. 11.

[586] Engl. Hist. Rev., xvi. 289.

[587] Rot. Parl., ii. 347.

[588] Statutes, 4 Edw. IV.

[589] V. C. H. Surrey, ii. 343.

[590] Ibid., 343.

[591] Exch. K. R. Accts., 344, no. 10. The output from Berks. for the same period was 1747 kerseys, of which Steventon accounted for 574 and East and West Hendred for 520.—Ibid., 343, no. 24.

[592] Early Chanc. Proc., 140, no. 54.

[593] Statutes, 14-15 Hen. VIII.

[594] Rot. Parl., iv. 361.

[595] Enr. Ward. Accts., 4, m. 3.

[596] V. C. H. Worcs., ii. 284.

[597] V. C. H. Essex, ii. 384.

[598] Hist. MSS. Com., Rep. viii. 93.

[599] Rot. Parl., ii. 278.

[600] Exch. K. R. Accts., 405, no. 22.

[601] Rot. Parl., ii. 372.

[602] Enr. Ward. Accts., 5.

[603] Memo. R., K. R., 21 Eliz., East., m. 106.

[604] Rep. Dep. Keeper of Recs., xxxviii. 444; suit re draperies at Norwich, 1601.

[605] Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 46.

[606] The suggestion that this law caused the trade to be established in Norwich (Recs. of Norwich, II. xii.) can hardly be correct, as there was no forest in Norfolk.