Dyeing winchcombe kersies and other kersey cloth in sixteenth-century Newbury

Textile History

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 187-202

  Peacock, David ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DYEING; TEXTILE HISTORY; WOOL;

EID: 33750118223     PISSN: 00404969     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/004049606X132096     Document Type: Article

References (96)

1. T. Deloney, The Pleasant Historie of John Winchcomb, in his Younger Years called Jack of Newbery, the Famous and Worthy Clothier of England (London, 1626).
2. Included in F. O. Mann ed., The Works of Thomas Deloney (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912).
3. See D. Peacock, 'The Winchcombe Family and the Woollen Industry in Sixteenth-Century Newbury' (PhD thesis, University of Reading, 2003), pp. 28-56 for other stages of kersey production including wool supply, weighing, carding, spinning, weaving, fulling, and clothworking (finishing).
4. Gresham Day Book, original document held by the Mercers' Company, Ironmonger Lane, London EC2.
5. P. Ramsey, Tudor Economic Problems (London: Victor Gollancz, 1968), p. 49 states that many cloths were'... finished by Flemish experts...'. Italian cities such as Florence had a long-standing reputation for dyeing;
6. see D. Cardon et al., 'The oldest complete Woad-Vat recipe in Medieval Europe', in Actes/Papers/Beitrage vol. vii (Beitrage zur Waidtagung) (Arnstadt, 1998).
7. See also Franco Brunello, The Art of Dyeing (Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, 1973), p. 147.
8. G. D. Ramsay, The English Woollen Industry 1500-1750 (London: Macmillan, 1982), p. 12.
9. In Wiltshire Woollen Industry (London: Oxford University Press, 1943), p. 28 he wrote: 'For the first two-thirds of the [sixteenth] century the great emporium for English cloths was at Antwerp... where the task of dyeing and dressing them gave employment to hundreds of workfolk.'
10. J. D. Mackie, The Earlier Tudors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952), p. 462.
11. S. T. Bindoff, Tudor England (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1950), p. 21.
12. H. G. Koenigsberger et al., Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd edn (London: Longman, 1989), p. 54;
13. T. K. Derry and M. G. Blakeway, The Making of Pre-Industrial Britain (London: John Murray, 1969), p. 94;
14. R. Davis, The Rise of the Atlantic Economies (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973), p. 21.
15. H. van der Wee, 'The Western European Woollen Industries 1500-1750', in D. Jenkins ed., The Cambridge History of Western Textiles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 412.
16. E. M. Carus-Wilson and O. Coleman, England's Export Trade 1275-1547 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 15,
17. referring to G. Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1881).
18. Ramsey, Tudor Economic Problems, p. 50.
19. Van der Wee in Jenkins ed., Western Textiles, p. 411.
20. E. Kerridge, Textile Manufactures in Early Modern England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985), p. 5.
21. Ramsey, Tudor Economic Problems, p. 50.
22. See colours specified in the Gresham Day Book, held by the Mercers' Company, London. See Table 1.
23. Letter from the van der Molen dated 11 June 1539, cited in F. Edler, 'Winchcombe Kerseys in Antwerp (1538-44)', Economic History Review, no. 7 (1936), p. 61.
24. Berkshire Record Office, D/A1/8, register copy of will of John Winchcombe II of Newbury 1557, p. 6. National Archives, PROB 2/345 inventory of John Winchcombe II 1558.
25. Berkshire Record Office, D/A1/8, register copy of will of John Winchcombe II of Newbury 1557, p. 4.
26. National Archives, PROB 11/7, f. 114 (15 Logge) register copy of will of Henry Benett of Newbury 1484.
27. Peacock, 'The Winchcombe Family and the Woollen Industry', p. 56.
28. Berkshire Record Office, D/EW T49/3, deed of gift 1557.
29. Peacock, 'The Winchcombe Family and the Woollen Industry', Chapter 1, pp. 12-27.
30. Gresham Day Book.
31. The table includes some cloth listed in this format, but for which no colour is specified (e.g. 7 Sept 1548), so the sum of the individual colour totals is less than 100 per cent.
32. Edler, 'Winchcombe Kerseys in Antwerp', p. 61.
33. F. R. Salzman, English Industries of the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923), pp. 208-209.
34. J. Balfour-Paul, Indigo (London: British Museum Press, 1998), p. 30,
35. quoting Landsdown MS 49, no. 58, f. 139, and p. 30
36. quoting J. H. Munro, 'The Medieval Scarlet and the Economics of Sartorial Splendour', in N. B. Harte and K. G. Ponting, Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe (London: Heinemann, 1983), p. 51.
37. Balfour-Paul, Indigo, p. 208.
38. Ibid., p. 209;
39. A. A. Ruddock, 'The Merchants of Venice' in Papers and Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, xv, pt 3 (Southampton: H. M. Gilbert & Sons, 1943).
40. J. B. Hurry, The Woad Plant and its Dye (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), p. 179.
41. Balfour-Paul, Indigo, pp. 33 and 34.
42. Hurry, Woad Plant and its Dye, pp. 179, 203.
43. Balfour-Paul, Indigo, p. 32, 'Map showing the trade routes of woad and chief districts of production in medieval Europe'.
44. Salzman, English Industries, pp. 208-209.
45. O. Coleman ed., Brokage Book of Southampton 1443-44, 11 (Southampton: University of Southampton, 1961) shows deliveries from Southampton to Newbury of 'ii balett waid' (p. 227); ii balett waid (p. 231); 'iii balett waid' (p. 257); 'vi balett waid' (p. 314).
46. Gresham Day Book.
47. Southampton Archives Services, Southampton Brokage Book SC5/5/45 1548-49, and Southampton Brokage Book SC5/5/46 1550-51.
48. Oxford English Dictionary, 1, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 901 gives 'A small bale' as the meaning of 'balet(te)', quoting '1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, xiv, Accompting viii whole bales, or xvi demi balettes for a tunne'. However, these are heavier, with 13-14 per ton.
49. Southampton Archives Services, Southampton Brokage Book SC5/5/45 1548-49 and Southampton Brokage Book SC5/5/46 1550-51.
50. A. L. Merson ed., The Third Book of Remembrance of Southampton 1514-1602, 1, 1514-1540 (Southampton: Southampton Record Series, vol. 11, 1952), pp. 61-62.
51. See pattern shown in the Southampton Brokage Books. See also reference to no cloth shipments between Easter and Whitsun in Acts of the Privy Council of England, 111 (London: New Series, 1891), pp. 19-20.
52. Southampton Archives Services, Southampton Brokage Book SC5/5/46 1550-51, p. 13v.
53. National Archives, Privy Council records, 7 Jan 37 Henry VIII, 1546, 'Letter to Mr Wynchecombe to certify the goodness of the woad which he received of John Whitehorne, of which there is some question between Henry Alveros and Webbe of Exeter'. See Letters & Papers of Henry VIII, xxi, pt 1, no. 24, p. 12.
54. Hurry, Woad Plant and its Dye, p. 31.
55. Salzman, English Industries, pp. 209-210.
56. Hurry, Woad Plant and its Dye, pp. 25-27.
57. For example, compare Hurry's samples of both types of balls held by Professor Philip John at Reading University.
58. D. Cardon et al. eds, 'The oldest complete Woad-Vat recipe', p. 55.
59. Hurry, Woad Plant and its Dye, pp. 32-33.
60. Salzman, English Industries, p. 212.
61. M. Pastoureau, Blue: The History of a Colour (Paris: Princeton University Press, 2000).
62. Hurry, Woad Plant and its Dye, p. 47.
63. Coleman ed., Brokage Book of Southampton 1443-44, 11, showing deliveries to Newbury, e.g. of 'i bale alym' (p. 159); 'ii bal alym' (p. 287);
64. Ruddock, 'The Merchants of Venice'.
65. Ramsey, Tudor Economic Problems, pp. 51 and 55.
66. Professor Philip John, Reading University. Verbal comments, June 2002.
67. Balfour-Paul, Indigo, p. 119.
68. National Archives, PROB 11/57 ff. 368-369 (47 Pykering) register copy of will of Thomas Dolman I dated 8 January 1571 (d. 1575).
69. Peacock, 'The Winchcombe Family and the Woollen Industry', especially ch. 9.
70. Deloney, Pleasant Historie of Jack of Newbery..., p. 21.
71. Gresham Day Book, Entry 4977 dated 8 October 1549.
72. Southampton Archives Service, SC5/5/45 Southampton Brokage Book 1548-49.
73. National Archives, PROB 11/57, ff. 368-369 (47 Pykering) register copy of will of Thomas Dolman I d. 1575.
74. S. J. Lobb and J. C. Richards, 'Excavations at Cheap St 1981', in A. G. Vince et al., Excavations in Newbury, Berkshire 1979-1990 (Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology, 1997), p. 92.
75. Currently, in 2006, 'Out to Lunch' sandwich shop.
76. Lobb and Richards, 'Excavations at Cheap St 1981', p. 95.
77. Berkshire Record Office, D/A1/111, f. 108, original will of William Rigby of Newbury d. 1595.
78. He leaves 'his marke' on the will.
79. Berkshire Record Office, D/A1/111 inventory of William Rigby d. 1595, with will, f. 108.
80. Berkshire Record Office, D/A1/5, f. 222, register copy of will of Henry Winchcombe 1562.
81. See also E. Ashmole, The Antiquities of Berkshire (London: printed for E. Curll, 1719), p. 292;
82. E. W. Gray attr., The History and Antiquities of Newbury and its Environs (Speenhamland: Hall and Marsh, 1839), p. 87.
83. Gresham Day Book.
84. Berkshire Record Office, D/A1/5, f. 222, register copy of will of Henry Winchcombe 1562.
85. A tod was about 28 lb. of wool.
86. Gresham Day Book, Entry 3392, dated 26 Aug 1548.
87. Gresham Day Book, Entry 4385, dated 26 Apr 1549.
88. National Archives, E 101/347/17, clothiers' petition ('Names of clothiers at divers places...'), c. 1540.
89. National Archives, PROB 11/89, register copy of will of Thomas Sriffe of Sherfield/Bramley 1597.
90. M. S. Guiseppi, 'Cloth', in H. E. Malden ed., The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, 11 (1905), p. 346.
91. Gresham Day Book, especially entry 1638 of 25 May 1547.
92. Elliott also appears in Surrey kersey-makers' petition, see Surrey History Centre, Loseley MS LM 1969-2 dated 1580.
93. E. W. Brayley, A Topographical History of Surrey (London: G. Willis, 1850), p. 216 reports the death of a Laurence Elliot of Godalming on 7 November 1582.
94. Gresham Day Book, entry 2600 dated 20 March 1547 [1548].
95. Ramsey, Tudor Economic Problems, p. 50.
96. Kerridge, Textile Manufactures in Early Modern England, p. 163.