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Articles

The London Fullers and Shearmen, and their Merger to Become the Clothworkers' Company

John Oldland
Pages 172-192 | Published online: 19 Jul 2013

References

  • J. S. Brewer, J. Gairdner and R. H. Brodie eds, Letters and Papers: Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII (L&P) (London: Longman, 1862 –1932), IV, Pt 2, no. 3869 (18); The Charters and Letters Patent Granted by the Kings and Queens of England to the Clothworkers Company (London, 1881), pp. 3–15.
  • London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), Letter Books of the City of London (LB), O, f. 5r; LMA, Repertories of the Court of the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London (Reps), VII, f. 119v.
  • LMA, LBO, f. 164r; LMA, Reps, VIII, f. 35r. For the City’s right to review companies’ royal charters, see Caroline Barron, London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200–1500 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 ), pp. 209–10.
  • LMA, LBO, ff. 254r-260v; LMA, Journals of the Common Council of the City of London (Journal) XII, ff. 334r-345v.
  • Aldermen were drawn from the eleven great companies, the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Goldsmiths, Fishmongers, Skinners, Merchant Taylors, Vintners, Ironmongers, Haberdashers and Salters. Both the shearmen, William Heriot in 1469, and William Bayley in 1515 transferred to the Drapers’ Company once they were elected aldermen.
  • LMA, LBP, ff. 3r, 23v, 32v, 45v-46r, 137r.
  • LMA, LBP, ff. 138r-39r.
  • The wealth qualifications for aldermen had been revised in June 1525 to be 2,000 marks in ‘goods, catalls, debts sperate and lands and tenements bought and purchased to be sold’, see Alfred Beaven, The Aldermen of the City of London, 2 vols. (London: Eden Fisher, 1908), ii, p. xxix.
  • Eleanora Carus-Wilson and Olive Coleman, England’s Export Trade 1275–1547 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1963 ). Average annual cloth exports in the 1430s were 43,529 cloths. There were 7,374 sacks exported annually during the same period. Since a sack is believed to have made 4.333 cloths, the cloths equivalents were 31,930.
  • Carus-Wilson and Coleman, England’s Export Trade; J. D. Gould, The Great Debasement: Currency and the Economy in Mid-Tudor England (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970 ), p. 136.
  • Barron, London in the Later Middle Ages, pp. 101–15.
  • Wendy Childs, Anglo-Castilian Trade in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1978), pp. 79–80.
  • J. Munro, ‘Medieval Woollens: the Western European Woollen Industries and their Struggles for International Markets, c. 1000–1500 ’, in David Jenkins ed., The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 ), i, pp. 292–95.
  • F. Edler, ‘Winchcombe Kerseys in Antwerp (1538–44 )’, Economic History Review, vii (1936 ), pp. 57–62; W. Endrei, ‘English Kersey in Eastern Europe, with Special Reference to Hungary’, Textile History, v (1974), pp. 91–99; Munro, ‘Medieval Wollens’, p. 283.
  • National Archives: Public Record Office (NA: PRO), E 101/342/3.
  • For the conflict between the drapers and the tailors, see Caroline Barron, ‘Ralph Holland and the London Radicals, 1438–1444 ’, in Richard Holt and Gervase Rosser eds, The Medieval Town: A Reader in Urban History 1200–1540 (London: Longman, 1990 ), pp. 160–83; and Matthew Davies and Ann Saunders, The History of the Merchant Taylors’ Company (Leeds: Maney, 2004), pp. 74–77.
  • Eleanor Quinton, ‘The Drapers and the Drapery Trade of Late Medieval London, c. 1300– c. 1500’, (unpublished PhD, University of London, 2001), pp. 240–75.
  • Davies and Saunders, Merchant Taylors’ Company, pp. 81–87.
  • Quinton, ‘Drapery Trade’, p. 189; Davies and Saunders, Merchant Taylors’ Company, pp. 64–65.
  • J. R. Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking, c.1270–1550 ’ (unpublished PhD, University of London, 2003), pp. 131, 135–36.
  • J. Munro, ‘The Medieval Scarlet and the Economics of Sartorial Splendour’, in N. B. Harte and K. Ponting eds, Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe (London: Heinemann, 1983 ), p. 37; Munro, ‘Medieval Woollens’, p. 216; Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking’, p. 118.
  • J. R. Oldland, ‘The Finishing of English Woollens, 1300–1550 ’, in Robin Netherton and Gale Owen-Crocker eds, Medieval Clothing and Textiles, iii (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007), pp. 97–118; Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking’, pp. 158–66.
  • J. N. Bartlett, ‘The Expansion and Decline of York in the Later Middle Ages’, Economic History Review, ser. 2, xii (1959), pp. 17–53; Charles Phythian-Adams, Desolation of a City: Coventry and the Urban Crisis of the Late Middle Ages (Cambridge: Routledge, 1979 ), pp. 41–43.
  • For a more complete explanation of the finishing process, see J. H. Munro, ‘Textile Technology’, in Joseph R. Strayer, et al. eds, The Dictionary of the Middle Ages, xi (New York: Scribner, 1988 ), pp. 705–09; and his ‘Medieval Woollens: Textiles, Textile Technology and Industrial Organisation, c.800–1500’, in Jenkins, Cambridge History of Western Textiles, i, pp. 181–217.
  • P. J. Chorley, ‘The English Assize of Cloth: a Note’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, lix (1986 ), p. 127.
  • Clothworkers’ Hall (Cl.H), Orders of Courts (Courts), f. 196v.
  • Oldland, ‘Finishing of English Woollens’, pp. 101–02.
  • Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking’, pp. 160–61.
  • LMA, Letter Book N, f. 5.
  • J. Munro, ‘The Anti-Red Shift-to the Dark side: Colour Changes in Flemish Luxury Woollens 1300–1550 ’, in Netherton and Owen-Crocker, Medieval Clothing and Textiles, iii, pp. 55–95.
  • Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking’, pp. 167–79.
  • Arthur Thomas and Philip Jones eds, Calendar of the Plea and Memoranda rolls preserved among the archives of the city of London at the Guildhall (Cal. P&M), 6 vols., 1323–1482 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924 –61), 1413–1437, p. 131.
  • Calendar of Patent Rolls in the Public Record Office (CPR) 1452–1461, (London: HMSO, 1914– 16), p. 530; Wendy Childs, ‘“To oure losse and hindraunce”: English Credit to Alien Merchants in the Mid-Fifteenth Century’, in Jennifer Kermode ed., Enterprise and Individuals in Fifteenth-Century England (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1991), p. 84.
  • Quinton, ‘Drapery Trade’, pp. 272–76.
  • Robert Fabyan, The New Chronicles of England and France, in Two Parts (London: Rivington, 1811), p. 667.
  • A. Ruddock, ‘London Capitalists and the Decline of Southampton in the Early Tudor Period’, Economic History Review, ser. 2, ii (1949 –50), p. 141; NA: PRO, C 1/271/11.
  • John Munro indicates that fustian could also be manufactured from a woollen weft, see ‘Textile Technology’, p. 694. D. Mitchell and M. Sonday, ‘Printed Fustians: 1490–1600 ’, Bulletin du CIETA, lxxvii (2000 ), p. 111.
  • Rosemary Horrox ed., The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England 1275–1504 (Parl. Rolls), xvi, Henry VII 1489–1504 (London: Boydell & Brewer, 2005), p. 276. In the sumptuary legislation of 1463, a person needed possessions of 40s to wear fustian; see D. Pickering ed., Statutes at Largeifrom Magna Charta to the End of the Last Parliament, 1761, iii (Cambridge, 1762), 1413–1482, 3 Edward IV, cap. 5, pp. 360–64; Mitchell and Sonday, ‘Printed Fustians’, p. 101. Among the clothmakers’ wills there were references to fustian doublets, a fustian jacket and a fustian pillow. In the Johnson letters, from the mid-sixteenth century, there was an expense item for fustian, lined with linen to make breeches; see Barbara Winchester, Tudor Family Portrait (London: J. Cape, 1955), p. 153.
  • For comparison, linens were valued from 2d to 9d a yard in 1480–81, see H. S. Cobb, ‘Textile Imports in the Fifteenth Century: the Evidence of the Customs’ Accounts’, Costume, xxix (1995 ), p. 9.
  • In the 1582 Book of Rates a piece of Genoan fustian 30 yards in length was valued at 13s 4d, Milan fustian at 20s and a northern fustian just 15s a cloth; see Thomas Willan, A Tudor Book of Rates (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1962), p. 27. There was also a Naples fustian that was a far more expensive product, a kind of cotton velvet, valued at 30s for a 15-yard cloth.
  • Based on the 1582 Book of Rates a bale generally contained 22½ pieces of cloth. 160 bales was equivalent to 3,600 cloths.
  • H. S. Cobb, The Overseas Trade of London. Exchequer Customs Accounts 1480–1 (London: London Record Society, 1990), nos. 28, 30, 35, 36, 37, 56, 97, 134, 139, 141, 147, 151, 154, 177, 178, 179, 181, 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 206; Cobb, ‘Textile Imports’, p. 9. For production of fustians in Ulm, see H. Kellenbenz, ‘The Fustian Industry of the Ulm Region in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century’, in Harte and Ponting eds, Cloth and Clothing, pp. 259–76. Through Four Centuries, 1130s-c.1500’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, xli (1997), pp. 100–25.
  • A. F. Sutton, ‘The Merchant Adventurers of England: their origins and the Mercers’ Company of London’, Historical Research, lxxv, no. 187 (2002 ), pp. 25–46.
  • A. F. Sutton, ‘The Shop-floor of the London Mercery Trade, c.1200–c.1500: The Marginalization of the Artisan, the Itinerant Mercer and the Shopholder’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, xiv (2001 ), pp. 34–39.
  • M. Davies, ‘Artisans, Guilds and Government in London’, in Richard Britnell ed., Daily Life in the Late Middle Ages (Stroud: Sutton, 1998), pp. 143–44; Sutton, ‘Shop-floor’, pp. 35–38.
  • For example, the rich leatherseller John Skirwith’s 1486 inventory reveals that he had branched out beyond his established business as the king’s pointsmaker (making the metal-tipped leather thongs and straps that joined pieces of clothing together) and retailer of leather goods, to open up both mercery and haberdashery shops. A. F. Sutton, ‘John Skirwith, King’s Pointsmaker, 1461–(?)86 and Leatherseller of London’, The Ricardian, xi (1997 ), pp. 54–93.
  • Cobb, ‘Textile Imports’, p. 6.
  • Reginald Sharpe ed., Calendar of the Letter-Books preserved among the archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall (Cal. LBA-L) (London: J. E. Francis, 1899–1912), G, pp. 148–50; Statutes at Large, vol. 2, 1341–1411, 37 Edward 3, cap.6, p. 163; cap.9, 10, 11, pp. 164– 65.
  • A. H. Johnson, The History of the Worshipful Company of the Drapers, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1914), i, pp. 204–08; Cal. LBG, p. 168.
  • Johnson, Drapers, i, p. 205.
  • Ibid., i, p. 235; CPRi1476–1485, p. 153.
  • CPRi1494–1509, p. 550.
  • CPRi1476–1485, p. 221.
  • L&P, 1, pt 2, nos. 2863(3), 5008. keep the watch, see LMA, LBN, f. 79.
  • Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking’, pp. 221–22.
  • NA: PRO, E 179/151/15b; J. R. Oldland, ‘The Wealth of the Trades in Early Tudor London’, London Journal, xxxi, no. 2 (2006 ), pp. 127–55.
  • Davies and Saunders, Merchant Taylors’ Company, pp. 76, 84–86; Ian Archer, The History of the Haberdashers’ Company (Chichester: Phillimore, 1991 ), pp. 16–17.
  • Cl.H, Quarter and Renter Wardens Account Books, 1528–1558, Reg. 3. The indenture between Dr John Taylor and the clothworkers giving them 40 marks for an annual obit was dated 5 March 1530, see Cl.H, Deeds, ff. 26r-27r. The details of the obit are in Cl.H, Deeds, f. 2v.
  • In 1522 the shearman John Taylor’s wealth was assessed at £800, see NA: PRO, E179/251/15b. Dr John Taylor’s biographer makes no mention of a family connection with the clothworker with the same name; see R. E. Brock, ‘The Career of John Taylor, Master of the Rolls, as an Illustration of Early Tudor Administrative History’ (unpublished MA, University of London, 1950).
  • LMA, LBN, ff. 178r, 208v.
  • H. Miller, ‘London and Parliament in the Reign of Henry VIII’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xxxv, no. 91 (1962 ), pp. 128–49.
  • John Guy, The Public Career of Sir Thomas More (London: Yale University Press, 1980 ), p. 13.
  • S. J. Gunn, ‘Wolsey’s Foreign Policy and the Domestic Crisis of 1527–8 ’, in Steven Gunn and P. G. Lindley eds, Cardinal Wolsey. Church, State and Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991 ), pp. 165–66. These problems seem only to have delayed, rather than reduced, denizen cloth exports from London that reached 44,046 cloths in 1525–26, 40,341 in 1526–27 and 45,458 in 1527–28.
  • Lyell and Watney, Acts of Court, pp. 749–50; Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of York and Lancaster (London, 1809), p. 733.
  • LMA, LBO, f. 7v.
  • Gunn, ‘Crisis of 1527–8 ’, p. 175.
  • George Connell-Smith, Forerunners of Drake: A Study of English Trade with Spain in the Early Tudor period (London: Greenwood Press, 1975), p. 78.
  • Ibid., p. 167. The merchants were released on 16 March.
  • Hall, York and Lancaster, pp. 745–46; L&P, IV, pt 2, pp. 1796, 1826, 1868.
  • LMA, LBO, f. 71r; LMA, Reps VII, ff. 242v, 245v, 248r, 249r, 291r.
  • LMA, Reps, 7, ff. 297r, 298r; Reps VIII, f. 27r.
  • LMA, LBO, f. 164r; LMA, Reps VIII, f. 35r.
  • There is an undated partial list of common council members from the late 1530s, see NA: PRO, E 179/147/629, pt 4 of 21. There are 59 names from eight wards, including two clothworkers, John Davy the master in 1542–43, and William Hewet, the master in 1543–44.
  • Barron, London in the Later Middle Ages, p. 132.
  • NA: PRO, Wills proved and enrolled at the Prerogative Court at Canterbury (PCC), 11/25, f. 200; NA: PRO, E 101/367/16, f. 4.
  • L&P, I, pt 1, nos. 1602/23.
  • He was assessed with wealth of £2,000 in 1541; see R. G. Lang ed., Two Assessment Rolls for the City of London 1541 and 1582 (London: London Record Society, 1993), pp. lii-liii.
  • LMA, LBP, f. 138v.
  • Ibid., f. 139r.
  • Cl.H, Courts, f. 58r.
  • Beaven, Aldermen, i, pp. 175, 207. In 1525 he was assessed to be worth £2000; see NA: PRO, E 179/251/15b.
  • J. Stow, A Survey of London. With intro. and notes by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), i, pp. 131–32.
  • G. W. Bernard, ‘The Fortunes of the Greys, Earls of Kent, in the Sixteenth-Century’, Historical Journal, xxv (1982 ), pp. 684–85.
  • For the Countess of Kent and Robert Peele bequests, see Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking’, pp. 308–09.
  • NA: PRO, PCC, 11/25, f. 200; 11/32, f. 147. For additional examples, see Oldland, ‘London Clothmaking’, pp. 249–51.
  • Connell-Smith, Forerunners of Drake, pp. 19, 95, 122, 195.
  • Augustyn Hynde was to have been mayor in 1554, and John Machell in 1558.
  • Thomas Willan, The Muscovy Merchants of 1555 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1953), pp. 81, 89, 96, 102.
  • LMA, Reps, V, f. 109v.
  • Walter Prevenier and Willem Blockmans, The Burgundian Netherlands (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 ), pp. 99–100.
  • L&P, xxi, pt 1, nos. 142, 263.
  • Brian Dietz ed., The Port and Trade of Early Elizabethan London (London: London Record Society, 1972), p. 153.
  • Cl.H, Courts, f. 19r.
  • Ibid., f. 239v.
  • NA: PRO, PCC, Prob. 2/257, 314.
  • London, Goldsmiths’ Hall, GCCB E ff. 52, 67, 81, 94. I owe this reference to Dr David Mitchell.
  • NA: PRO, C1/776/39. Interestingly, Ralph Barker had only become Hynde’s apprentice in that year.
  • LMA, LBQ, f. 263v.
  • Cal. LBL, p. 138.
  • Ibid, p. 164.
  • Ibid, p. 168; LMA, Journal VIII, f. 215v. The chapemakers made the metal part of the buckle that attached it to the belt. They argued that, ‘as forasmuch as ther is noone sufficient number of each of the said crafts to chose wardens of themselves to keep their rules and ordinances’. Also there was some duplication of activities between the two trades.
  • Frances Consitt, The Weavers’ Company (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1933 ), pp. 58–9.
  • Cal. LBL, p. 319.
  • LMA, Journal X, fol. 140r.
  • Ibid, fol. 258v.
  • LMA, LBM, f. 28r. They had attempted to merge in 1496 but the court of aldermen turned them down, see LMA, Reps I, fol. 33v.
  • Archer, Haberdashers’ Company, p. 16.
  • LMA, LBM, fol. 36v.
  • LMA, Reps II, fol. 57r.The two companies had been united since Henry IV’s reign.
  • LMA, Reps III, fol. 133v.
  • LMA, LBO, fol. 79.
  • LMA, Reps X, fols.134v–136r, 142v.
  • Statutes at Large, V, 1540–1553, 32 Henry VIII, cap. 42, pp. 58–62; Jessie Dobson and Milnes Walker, Barbers and Barber-Surgeons of London: a history of the Barbers’ and Barber-Surgeons’ Companies (Oxford, Blackwell, 1979 ), pp. 28–35. In 1493 the Barber Surgeons and the Fellowship of Surgeons had made an agreement over the licensing of surgeons, see LMA, Journal X, fol. 27r, 51r, 174v.
  • LMA, Reps, X, fol. 161v.

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