CHAPTER XII.. Eminent Cloathiers of This County.

EMINENT CLOATHIERS OF THIS COUNTY.

... SUTTON of Salisbury, was an eminent cloathier: what is become of his family I know not.

Hall, I doe believe, was a merchant of the staple, at Salisbury, where he had many houses. His dwelling house, now a taverne (1669), was on the Ditch, where in the glasse windowes are many scutchions of his armes yet remaining, and severall merchant markes. Quaere, if there are not also wooll-sacks in the pannells of glass? [Of this house and family the reader will find many interesting particulars in a volume by my friend the Rev. Edward Duke, of Lake House, near Amesbury. Its title will explain the work, viz. “Prolusiones Historicæ; or, Essays Illustrative of the Halle of John Halle, citizen and merchant of Salisbury in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV.; with Notes illustrative and explanatory. By the Rev. Edward Duke, M.A., F.S.A., and L.S. in two vols. 8vo. 1837.” (Only one volume has been published.)—J. B.]

The ancestor of Sir William Webb of Odstock, near Salisbury, was a merchant of the staple in Salisbury. As Grevill and Wenman bought all the Coteswold wooll, so did Hall and Webb the wooll of Salisbury plaines; but these families are Roman Catholiques.

The ancestor of Mr. Long, of Rood Ashton, was a very great cloathier. He built great part of that handsome church, as appeares by the inscription there, between 1480 and 1500.

Mr. Paul Methwin of Bradford succeeded his father-in-law in the trade, and was the greatest cloathier of his time (tempore Caroli 2nd). He was a worthy gentleman, and died about 1667. Now (temp. Jacobi II.) Mr. Brewer of Troubridge driveth the greatest trade for medleys of any cloathier in England.