The London Fullers and Shearmen, and Their Merger to Become the Clothworkers’ Company John Oldland

Textile History, 39 (2), 172–192, November 2008 The London Fullers and Shearmen, and their Merger to Become the Clothworkers’ Company John Oldland There was a large and rapidly expanding cloth finishing industry in London in the late fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century. London merchants brought provincial cloth to the City, some of which was finished prior to export, and some was finished for the City’s expanding clothing industry. The success of the London Fullers and Shearmen was reflected in their merger to form the Clothworkers’ Company in 1528, and their acceptance ten years later as the last and twelfth merchant company in the City. The paper traces both the economic progress of the company and some of its principal members, and the difficulties that the Fullers and Shearmen faced as they decided to merge, and then to become accepted as one of the leading companies in the City. Introduction On 7 January 1528 the king approved the amalgamation of the London Fullers and Shearmen to form the Clothworkers’ Company, receiving its sealed charter on 18 January.1 This probably came as a surprise to the City aldermen who had rejected the merger of the two crafts only 18 months before.2 The court of aldermen slowly set about the process of reviewing the royal charter to ensure that it did not contravene civic regulations, demanding to see the two companies’ ordinances, and only grudgingly agreed to accept apprentices under the new company’s name, in April 1529, 15 months later.3 It took a further two and a half years to obtain approval to a set of ordinances for the new company from the chancellor, Sir Thomas More, the high treasurer, the Duke of Norfolk, and the chief justice of the common bench, Robert Norwich.4 The motivation for the merger must have been to create a more powerful, wealthier company that could more effectively represent cloth fi nishing interests in the City. The ultimate signal that the Clothworkers had ‘arrived’ would have been the acceptance of the Company as a member of the elite merchant companies that ruled the City. For this to happen the court of alderman would have to accept a clothworker as an alderman, and yet not force him to transfer to another company as was the practice when members of minor companies were elected.5 The Clothworkers set out to accomplish this objec- tive. Their candidate was the fuller, Edward Altham, who had been elected sheriff for 1531–32. He was nominated to be an alderman for Walbrook in November 1532, for Bread Street in 1533, Aldersgate and Aldgate in 1534, and Tower ward in December © Pasold Research Fund Ltd 2008 DOI: 10.1179/174329508x290451 John Oldland 1537, but was never elected.6 However, the nominated candidate for Tower ward failed to take his seat again throwing open the ward for another election. The shearman clothworker, John Tolous, was nominated and elected. He refused to change his company affi liation to become an alderman, and was threatened to be sent to Newgate. The court then capitulated, acknowledging that ‘the said company is now one of the twelve head companies . the said Mr. Tolous shall continue in and with his said company of clothworkers without alteration or translation into any other mistery’.7 In order to be given the status of a merchant, or great company, the Clothworkers must have developed a merchant elite, and a few merchants among them who could be counted among the richest Londoners, and therefore have the wealth qualifi cations to be nominated as an alderman.8 The company also needed to overcome the conservatism, and some entrenched resistance, from the court of aldermen who could veto any nomination. Opposition could be expected to come from the Merchant Adventurers’ Company, whose senior members were frequently aldermen. They had consistently attempted to frustrate all attempts by the shearmen to ensure that quality broadcloth and kerseys be fi nished, the nap of the cloth raised and sheared, before they were shipped to Antwerp. Further, many aldermen would have appreciated that the stronger and wealthier Clothworkers’ Company would likely lead to increased competition from its leading members in the overseas cloth trade and London’s wholesale cloth market. Thus, the company’s credentials needed to be so overwhelming that the court of aldermen could not force a clothworker candidate to change his company affi liation. This paper considers the growing importance of cloth fi nishing interests in the City from two per- spectives: the growth of their manufacturing, overseas trading, and cloth wholesaling activities that provided their economic credentials; and the diffi culties that the clothworkers needed to overcome to convert these economic realities into the acceptance of a merged company by the civic authorities. These economic and political achievements shed additional light on civic politics, the process of guild amalgamations, as well as the economic expansion of early Tudor London. The economic success of the fullers and shearmen was inextricably linked to the growth of both cloth exports and London’s clothing trade from 1470 to 1550. Merchant wealth earned from overseas trade was shifting from wool to cloth. The amount of wool leaving the country in the form of cloth surpassed exports of wool in the 1430s.9 National cloth exports that had dipped to 33,400 cloths annually in the depression of the 1460s had risen to 72,800 in the fi rst decade of the sixteenth century, and continued to expand to reach 132,200 in the 1540s.10 London’s share of exports rose from 45 per cent in the mid-fi fteenth century to a virtual monopoly of 85 per cent by 1540. This was in large part a consequence of the rise of Antwerp to become northern Europe’s clearing house for cloth, metals, spices and luxury merchandise, and the stranglehold that the Merchant Adventurers’ company, headquartered in London and dominated by members of the London merchant companies, enjoyed over the cloth shipped to Antwerp. In addition there was a growing trade with France, Spain and Portugal that was increasingly dominated by London merchants.11 There were important changes in the composition of these rising cloth exports. The Antwerp trade was largely in unfi n- ished cloth. English fulled and tentered ‘white broadcloth’ was fi nished in Antwerp to the specifi cations of continental merchants, much to the consternation of the London 173 The London Fullers and Shearmen fullers and shearmen whose potential work was vanishing overseas, a fact clearly visible to them since they usually packed the cloth for export. The southern trade, dominated by the drapers, was predominantly in fi nished cloth.12 There was also an increase in the quality as well as the quantity of cloth exported as the English industry fi nally triumphed over the Flemish luxury cloth industry.13 The mean price per yard of exported cloth rose from just over 2s between 1460 and 1469 to almost 3s between 1500 and 1509. This luxury cloth was of course napped and sheared more frequently and carefully than the cheaper cloths so the shearmen were losing some of the most profi table work to Antwerp artisans. Lastly, around 20 to 25 per cent of the exports were in kerseys, narrow, lighter, cheaper cloths that were marketed in Eastern Europe and the Levant.14 These were usually fi nished in England, some in London, but much of it must have been dyed and fi nished by rural clothiers.15 The growing prosperity of London, and its centrality to the country’s cloth and clothing trades, was inevitably a boon to the City’s tailors who sewed the cloth, much of which was dyed and fi nished by the City’s fullers, shearmen and dyers. The Merchant Taylors had become not only the largest, but among the wealthiest trades in the City by the mid-sixteenth century. The Pathway to Economic Success The fullers and shearmen benefi ted from their symbiotic relationship with the drapers and tailors. The drapers originally dominated the wholesale and retail of cloth in London in the fourteenth century, but in the fi fteenth century this was being increasingly challenged by the tailors.16 The drapers were also the leading cloth suppliers to the Hansards, Italians and other alien merchants, and they individually participated more extensively in overseas trade as the century progressed.17 The tailors also grew in number and prospered in the fi fteenth century.18 Not only did London’s tailoring industry grow, but tailors became as important suppliers to the Great Wardrobe as the drapers by the end of the century, and included among their livery many overseas merchants.19 Unsur- prisingly the fullers and shearmen tended to locate themselves close to the dyers and drapers with whom they worked, and drapers and tailors were often the executors of clothworkers’ wills.20 While value was added at every stage of the production process, it was cloth fi nishing and piece-dyeing (dyeing the woven cloth rather than the wool or yarn) that particularly customized woollen cloth to suit buyers’ preferences for colour, and to provide the soft, supple texture of the fi nished cloth. Shearing of the fi ne continental scarlets accounted for only 1–3 per cent of total costs, 1 per cent of middling quality broadcloths; and tentering and wet-shearing probably cost even less than dry- shearing, so it was not surprising that the drapers and tailors wanted to control the fi nishing process given its critical importance yet low cost.21 As a result these processes tended to be concentrated in the towns even after weaving and fulling had moved to the countryside because of the close relationship of the cloth fi nishers with the merchants who bought and sold the cloth.22 By the turn of the sixteenth century London had become by far the leading centre for cloth fi nishing and dyeing in England at the expense of these industries in provincial towns.23 During the fi fteenth century the London fullers’ and shearmen’s work became even more closely integrated.

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