Whence we may also infer that we are to trace this most ingenious and admirable invention through Spain, and possibly the Moorish provinces, to the people, not yet ascertained, with whom it originated (“Archæologia,” xxxvii. pp. 453-4).
Mr. Hallam records his having seen in the Chapter-house at Westminster, a letter written from Gascony, about 1315, to Hugh Despenser, upon thin paper, to all appearance made like that now in use, and with a water-mark. Among the Cottonian manuscripts several letters are written on parchment; and paper does not appear, at soonest, till near the end of the reign of Edward III. Sir Henry Ellis has said that “very few instances indeed occur before the fifteenth century of letters written upon paper.” It is remarkable that the earliest linen paper was of very good manufacture, strong and handsome; and the first printed books are frequently beautiful in the quality of their paper. From Spain linen paper passed into France, about 1270, thence into Germany about 1312, and from Germany to England about 1320 or 1324. We may here remark that the use of linen or cotton, or the two intermixed, is the radical distinction of our modern paper from the other substances (such as the papyri, the palm-leaves, the fabric supposed to be formed from fibrous matter found in the mummies of Egypt) which were in ordinary use in Europe.
It is commonly thought that Dartford is the place where paper was first made in England; but it is proved beyond doubt that a paper-mill existed in England almost a century before the date of the establishment at Dartford. In the “Household Book” of Henry VII. we read—
1498. For a rewarde geven at the paper mylne, 16s. 8d.
1499. Geven in rewarde to Tate of the mylne, 6s. 8d.
And, in the English translation of “Bartholomœus de Proprietatibus Rerum,” printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1495, we read of John Tate the younger having lately, in England, made the paper which was used for printing this book. The lines, which occur at the end of the volume, are as follows:—
And also of your charyte call to remembraunce
The soule of William Caxton, first printer of this boke
In Laten tonge at Coleyn (Cologne) hysself to avaunce,
That every well-disposed man mote (may) be broke,
Which late hathe in England doo make this paper thynne,
And now in our Englysshe this boke is printed inne.
We also gather from an early specimen of blank verse, entitled “A Tale of Two Swannes,” written by William Vallans (it is believed, a native of Ware), and printed in 1590, that the mill belonging to John Tate was situated at Hertford. One of the notes in the poem states that, “in the time of Henry VIII., viz., 1507, there was a paper-mill at Hertford, and (?) belonged to John Tate, whose father was Mayor of London.” (The author, however, is here mistaken in his chronology, as Henry VIII. did not begin to reign till 1509.) The extract from the privy purse expenses of Henry VII., under the date of May 25, 1498, “for a rewarde geven at the Paper Mylne, 16s. 8d.” most clearly has reference to this particular mill, as the entry immediately preceding shows that the king went to Hertford two days before, viz., on the 23rd of May. And, in Herbert’s edition of Ames’s “Typographical Antiquities,” we read that “this mill was where Seel or Seal Mill is now at the end of Hertford town, towards Stevenage; and that an adjoining meadow is still called Paper Mill Mead. This Seel Mill, so denominated from the adjoining hamlet, was erected in the year 1700, and is noted for being the first that made the finest flour, known by the name of Hertfordshire White. It stands upon the river Bean, in the middle of three acres of meadow-land, called Paper Mill Mead, so denominated in the charter of King Charles the First to the town of Hertford, for the fishery of a certain part of that river” (A. Grayan, “Notes and Queries,” No. 117).
Now, the paper-mill at Dartford was established at least 110 years later than that at Hertford, in 1588, by John Spilman, “jeweller to the Queen,” who was pleased to grant him a licence “for the sole gathering, for ten years, of all rags, &c., necessary for the making of such paper.”
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 forth 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 a worldes good will,
And though his name be Spill-man by degree,
Yet Help-man now he shall be calde 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.”[1]
Sir John Spielman was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. He is buried in the church at Dartford, beneath a sumptuous tomb, which, in 1858, was restored by the “Legal Society of Paper Makers,” the funds being subscribed by the trade in different parts of England, especially in the county of Kent.
But we find a paper-mill mentioned by Shakspere, who, in his play of Henry VI., the plot of which appears laid at least a century previously, refers to a paper-mill. In fact, he introduces it as an additional weight to the charges which Jack Cade is made to bring against Lord Say.
“Thou hast most traitorously corrupted,” says he, “the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and whereas before our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.”
- ↑ Communicated by Dr. Rimbault to “Notes and Queries,” No. 59.
