THE STOCKING MANUFACTORY. 621 " Nor did these large sums do the company any to weave, seam, ,and dress up; and tliat the im- service as a body; for, as they got the money ille- provement amounts to six times the value of the gaily, so they spent it as lavishly, and instead of in the lowest sort of hose, and above that in growing rich, the company became very poor; and the fine sort3. many of their heads, having got a taste of high living « A iucrative branch of the frame business was and neglecting their business also dwindled to no- established at by the late Mr. Whiteman, thing. To which add, that within these thirty years called Machihe pieces ; which displayed aVonder- last past [this was written m 1751] the mer- ful variety of colours and forms. Some of his work- chants and hosiers m finding they could it [g gaid haye eamed Qn fa f _work be fitted from the country with as good work at nearl 2l 2, week when the ordi st£.ki a cheaper rate than the London framework-knit- makers could gcarce] ai b hard 4 ^ ters could afford; the bulk of that trade has fourth of the sum4.1 since shifted from thence, and the chief depend- , r™ „ „,..,_, , cThe ance they had left was upon what is called Fashion n manufactory of stockings in the Town and work, it beinj? for many years the mode to wear V°unty of Leicester is the largest m the world; be- stockings of the same colour of the cloaths; and Sff, wTted W°Ve hose'.which. are the staple article this also being by degrees left off, what remains now °f ™e Place' a/reat ™n6t£ of , hose are,no.w in London, does hardly deserve the name of trade. ™de> 7hlch, fr?m their cheaP«ess obtain a sale m « There are, besides the capital of , ten thls and most other c°untries 5- towns in the country where this manufacture is car- A stocking-frame was introduced in Hinckley rtedon: viz. in , and so early as 16*40, by Mr. William,' Iliff; whose Mansfield; in Leicestershire, Leicester, Mount- immediate descendant Mr. Joseph Iliff, after having Sorrel, Loughborough, Hinckley, and Ashby-de-la- carried on the manufacture there with much repu- Zouch; in Northamptonshire, Towcester; in Sur- tation for more than half a century, died universally rey, Godliman; in Derbyshire, Derby1. respected, March 5, 1795, at the age of 76*6. " Of all these none comes in competition with Lei- Of the same family (the son of Mr. IlifPs only cester for quantity of goods; but even this very town, sister) is John Green, esq. of Hinckley; than whom though it may boast of its large concerns, yet must few men have carried on the profession with more confess, that its best goods are made at Nottingham, ability, or with more, success. He was also for where by far the greatest part of the richest and most some years a very diligent and active Captain of the valuable commodity, whether of , cotton, thread, Hinckley Volunteers; and is now (1811) Lieute- or worsted, is wrought; and it seems this soprofita- nant-colonel of one of the four regiments of the ble employment, as it were by a magnetical force, is Leicestershire Local Militia. in the height of its improved state drawn towards In 1778, the number of frames in Hinckley were the place of its birth, in order to make it ample 86*4; which furnished employment for 2585 per- amends for deserting it in its infancy V sons; and from that period the has been The principal trade of the town is that of very great; as that town stands, as taken in May making stockings, of which alderman Cowper, the l8ll, agreeable to the act 51 George III. for taking chief manager of it in 1712, gave this account: an account of the population of Great Britain, 1126* That 20,000 todd of wool is wrought up yearly in houses, occupied by 1244 families, which contained the manufacture of hose, which employs in the 2872 males, 3186 females; total of inhabitants town and country about f,000 hands, to sort, comb, 6*058. And at the same time 1550 stocking-frames and dye; 6*,000 to spin, double, and throw;. 6*,000 were found at work in the parish of Hinckley.

1 Mr. Hutton, the Historian of , p. 190, speaking of the invention of the Stocking-frame, says, " The art was founded in revenge, and revenge in love. In process of time the machine found its way into Derby, and promised to become a staule trade ; but the silk-mill being introduced, and the wages tempting, it was foretold, " that the hosiery would stagnate." The event verified the prediction; and frames are not more numerous than they were seventy years ago. There were (in 1791) about 150 in the place." 1 " There are at this time (1751) in Nottingham fifty manufacturers, employers of frames, or as they are commonly called putters out, who all trade directly to London, besides those who can only deal with Leicester: both together occupy 3000 frames, of which upwards of 1200 are employed in Nottingham, and the rest in the villages about, who buy their provisions and other necessaries in this town : upon the just mentioned frames entirely depends, the masters, 3000 workmen, and a considerable number of winders, sizers and seamers; wookombers, frame-smiths, setters up, sinkermakers, stocking-needle makers, not reckoning those trades who in part get their livelihood by this manufacture, asjoyners, turners, &c, in the wnole upwards of 4000." Deering, pp. 99— 101. See also, in his Appendix, p 364, a more particular description of the stocking-frame, with two copper-plates, and also one plate of the different constituent parts of this curious machine. See also Evelyn on Medals, p. 163. Prefixed to a Poem published, by T. Baldwin, at Hinckley, 1776. and addressed, by Moses Ford, of that place, to the Gen- tlemen Hosiers, Frame-work-knitters, Framesmiths, &c. &c. of the several counties of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, &c. on the rise, progress, and present state of the ingenious art of frame-work-, is the following historical note : " The English and French have greatly contested the honour of the invention of the Stocking-frame ; but whatever pretensions the French may claim to this invention, it was certainly invented by , of St. John's College, Cambridge, in the year 1589 : but it does not appear that Mr. Lee ever received any hint, from any person whatever, relative to this great invention ; but according to tradition, Mr. Lee paid his addresses to a young lady of great beauty and fortune, and one day he surprized her in a grove, knitting a fine silk stocking; and it was in this grove that the young lady gave Mr. Lee an absolute refusal of her hand, which so offended Mr. Lee, that he declared, he would invent a machine that should be a means of spoiling the knitters trade ; so that it seems either love or re- venge was the first moving cause to this great invention. However, soon after Mr. Lee had completed the stocking-frame, he peti- tioned Queen Elizabeth for her royal encouragement, but this petition was rejected; therefore, despairing of success in his own country, he went to France, and applied to Lewis the Thirteenth, for his royal encouragement and protection. Accordingly Mr. Lee continued at his court for some time, and the French King was so pleased with the ingenious art of frame-work-knitting, that he had a frame made of silver, for his own use, and he really learned the art of frame-work-knitting himself; and the said silver frame is kept in Paris, as one of the greatest curiosities in France. After the King had set the royal example, most of the French nobles learned it; but Lewis the Thirteenth, as a greater encouragement, issued out an order, that all persons that were willing to serve an apprenticeship to learn this art, should be allowed to wear a sword, which honour no other mechanic is permitted to do in France. In consequence of this order such numbers learnt it, that it is said there were several thousand of frame-work- knitters in Paris. Some few years after, Mr. Lee received an invitation to return to his native country, which he accepted; and soon after the art of frame-work-knitting became famous in England, and Charles the First, with a great many of his nobles, learned it; and it is said, that, as Mr. Lee had gained so much honour both at home and abroad by this invention, his former lover nobly gave him her hand, and crowned his wishes and ingenuity with her person."—I quote this paragraph as a matter of curiosity, with- out vouching for its historical exactness. •Letter from the Rev, Samuel Carte to Browne Willis, esq. in 1712. * Throsby's History of Leicester, 1792, p. 401. s Walk through Leicester, 1804, p. 147; where " a full account of this manufactory in all its branches" is announced as " ready for the press j" but this, I believe, has not yet been published. 6 See vol. IV. p. 691.

MAYORS AND CHAMBERLAINS OF LEICESTER; continued from p. 451. Sept. 21, 1807, Thomas Wright elected mayor; Charles Coleman, Thomas Marston, chamberlains. Thomas Bryan, Thomas Cook, chamberlains. Sept. 21, 1810, David Harris elected mayor; Sept. 21," 1808, Samuel Clarke elected mayor; H. Wood, W. Hill, chamberlains. William Thompson, James Burbidge, chamberlains. Sept. 21, l8ll, John Stevenson elected mayor; Sept. 21,18oo,; William Firmadge elected mayor; Mansfield Gregory, Higginson, chamberlains. VOL. I. [7 X] HONOUR