Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/May, John (fl.1613)
MAY, JOHN (fl. 1613), economic writer, was appointed deputy aulnager about 1606. He published 'A Declaration of the Estate of Clothing now used within this Realme of England … with an Apologie for the Aulneger, shewing the necessarie use of his office,' London, 1613, 4to. In this work, which contains much information useful to the historian, he describes the means by which manufacturers evaded the statutes regulating the woollen trade.
[John Smith's Memoirs of Wool, 1757, i. 91–8; Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times, 1892, p. 42.]