Notes and Queries, Number 59, December 14, 1850 by Various


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REPLIES:--
Church History Society, by S.R. Maitland 480
Defender of the Faith, by W.S. Gibson 481
Meaning of Jezebel 482
Socinian Boast, by J.R. Beard 483
Replies to Minor Queries:--The K�nig stuhl at Rheuze
--Mrs. Tempest--Calendar of Sundays in Greek and
Romish Churches--The Conquest--Thruscross--
Osnaburgh Bishopric--Nicholas Ferrar--Butcher's
Blue Dress--Chaucer's Portrait by Occleve--Lady
Jane of Westmoreland--Gray and Dodsley 484

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 485
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 486
Notices to Correspondents 486
Advertisements 486

* * * * *


NOTES.

THE FIRST PAPER-MILL IN ENGLAND.

In the year 1588, a paper-mill was established at Dartford, in Kent, by
John Spilman, "jeweller to the Queen." The particulars of this mill are
recorded in a poem by Thomas Churchyard, published shortly after its
foundation, under the following title:--

"A description and playne discourse of paper, and the whole benefits that
paper brings, with rehearsall, and setting foorth in verse a paper-myll
built near Darthforth, by an high Germaine, called Master Spilman, jeweller
to the Queene's Majyestie."

The writer says:

"(Then) he that made for us a paper-mill,
Is worthy well of love and worldes good will,
And though his name be _Spill-man_, by degree,
Yet _Help_-man now, he shall be called by mee.
Six hundred men are set at work by him,
That else might starve, or seeke abroade their bread;
Who now live well, and go full brave and trim,
And who may boast _they_ are with paper fed."

In another part of the poem Churchyard adds:

"An high Germaine he is, as may be proovde,
In Lyndoam Bodenze, borne and bred,
And for this mille, may heere be truly lovde,
And praysed, too, for deep device of head."

It is a common idea that this was the first paper-mill erected in England;
and we find an intelligent modern writer, Mr. J.S. Burn, in his _History of
the Foreign Refugees_, repeating the same erroneous statement. At page 262,
of his curious and interesting work be says:

"The county of Kent has been long famed for its manufacture of paper.
It was at Dartford, in this county, that paper was _first made_ in
England."

But it is proved beyond all possibility of doubt that a paper-mill existed
in England almost a century before the date of the establishment at
Dartford. In Henry VII.'s _Household Book_, we have the following:--

"1498. For a rewarde geven at the pulper-mylne, 16s. 8d."

Again:--

"1499. Geven in rewarde to Tate of the Mylne, 6s. 8d."

And in _Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum_, printed by Wynkyn de Worde
in 1495, mention is made of a paper-mill near Stevenage, in the county of
Hertford, belonging to JOHN TATE the younger, which was undoubtedly the
"mylne" visited by Henry VII.

The water-mark used by John Tate was an eight-pointed star within a double
circle. In the {474} twelfth volume of the _Arch�eologia_, p. 114., is a
variety of fac-similes of water-marks used by our early paper makers,
exhibited in five large plates, but is not a little singular that the mark
of John Tate is omitted.

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