The Timer for Paperwork
No reliable record can be established as to the first paper-making in England. It is stated that in the personal expense account of Henry VII. of England, in 1498, there appears the following entry: “For a rewarde at the paper mylne, 16s. 8d.” This would indicate that some kind of paper, which gave the name of “paper mylne” to the establishment where it was handled or manipulated, existed in England nearly two hundred years before any patent was issued for its manufacture. It was almost two centuries later that the patent referred to farther on in this chapter was granted, which stated that no such industry had24 previously existed in the kingdom. In an old book, Wynken de Worde’s “De Proprietatibus Rerum” (About the Properties of Things), issued in 1498, appear these significant lines:
“And John Tate, the Younger, joye mote he brok! “Whiche late hathe in England, doo make this paper Thynne “That now in our Englysh, this book is first book of adam and eve printed Inne.”
English paper-mills
This mill is said to have been located at Hartford, England, and the print of the watermark used is given in Herbert’s “Typographic Antiquities,” Vol. I, page 20, as an eight-pointed star surrounded by a circle. John Tate died in 1498.
Recognition by royalty
In the year 1558 appeared “Sparks of Friendship,” a book by Thomas Churchyard, who was born in 1520 and died in 1604, and who bore the title of “Nestor of the Elizabethan era.” This book mentions the paper-mill of Spillman. A poem in a work entitled “Progress of Queen Elizabeth,” in 1565, has the title, “A Description and Playne Discourse of Paper and the whole Benefits that Paper Brings, with Rehearsal and Setting forth in verse a Paper-myll Built near Darthforth, by a High Germaine, called Master Spillman, Jeweler to the Queen’s Majestie.” This25 is often said to have been the first mill in England, but if the quotation with regard to John Tate is intended to imply that the paper was made by him in England, then certainly there must have been a paper-mill in operation in that country nearly a hundred years before, and this, taking the entry of King Henry VII. as proof of an English mill, must have been the second, if not the third, of its kind. It is said that Spielman, or Spillman, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth as a fitting honor and reward for the noble work of having built a paper-mill at Dartford, England, in 1588. A lease recorded in the Land Revenue Records of England, in 1591, reads, “Penlifton Co., Cambridge, lease of water, called paper-mills, late of Bishopric of Ely to John George, dated 14th. July, 34th. Elizabeth,” which would seem to indicate a third or fourth mill in 1592.
In 1649 watermark of the finest English paper (whether made in England or not) bore the royal arms, but later on, in contempt of Charles I., a fool with cap and bells was substituted for the king’s arms.
For some reason, the industry of paper-making languished in England, and in 1670 the people of the “right little, tight little island” were almost26 entirely dependent upon France for their supply of the indispensable fabric, its manufacture, if carried on at all in their own country, meeting with but slight success. In the “History of Commeret,” by Anderson, published in 1690, it is claimed that this was the date of the first manufacture of paper in England, and that previous to this time England had bought paper of her neighbor across the Channel to the amount of £100,000 annually. The war with France occasioned such high duties on foreign products as to make the cost of importation too great; but, as sometimes happens, the temporary deprivation was in course of time transmuted into a permanent benefit. The way was opened for the home manufacturer, and the opportunity was soon improved by French Protestant refugees, who, fleeing from persecution in their own land, settled in England and established paper-mills. White writing-paper In 1687 appeared a proclamation for the establishment of a mill for the making of white writing-paper; in the following year it was stated, in an article in the “British Merchant,” that hardly any but brown paper was manufactured, while in 1689, according to report, paper became so scarce and high that all printing ceased. It is evident that27 up to the time when the patents of 1675 and 1685 were granted, the industry was in anything but a prosperous condition, existing only in brief and isolated attempts at manufacture, and comprehended merely the crudest products.
Early English patents
The first British patent for paper-making was granted to Charles Hildegard, February, 1665, for “the way and art of making blue paper used by sugar bakers and others.” A decade later, in January, 1675, was granted the second patent, already referred to in this chapter, which was for the making of “white paper for the use of writing and printing, being a new manufacture and never before practiced in any way in any of our kingdoms or dominions.” Another decade intervened between the second and the third patents, the latter bearing the date of July 4, 1685, and being “for the true art and way of making English paper for writing, printing, and for other uses, both as good and serviceable in all respects and as white as any French or Dutch paper.”
A seeming contradiction of the statement of the second patent is found in Shakespeare’s Henry VI., where Jack Cade, in 1450, makes the accusation against Lord Say: “Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in28 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 his dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.” In the same act Cade observes, “Is not this a lamentable thing, that, of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment; that parchment being scribbled o’er should undo a man?” thus making it evident that parchment and not paper was in general use. Since, however, Shakespeare delineated Cade as a low, ignorant rebel, we are not compelled to believe that he was necessarily truthful or historically correct in all his accusations. The charges put into his mouth are intended to exhibit his ignorance, and his prejudice against all learning or refinement, extending even to decency of dress and comportment.
Watermark of Henry VIII.
There is always some dispute as to exact dates. It is claimed that about 1540, Henry VIII. of England used for his private correspondence, a paper whose watermark represented a hog with a miter. This was to show his contempt for the pope at Rome, with whom he had so bitterly quarreled. It may have been manufactured for him by special order in Germany or the Netherlands,29 or it may have been made by foreign settlers who returned to their own country, so that the trade was afterward lost for a time in England, and its manufacture was not known to the authorities that granted the patents.
Spanish and Italian makers
Long before this, paper-making had been introduced into Spain by the hordes of Saracenic invaders, who, coming over from Africa on a plundering expedition, had ended by making conquest of the whole peninsula. When, however, the long struggle between Christian and Moor ended in the downfall of the latter, and his expulsion from the land that had seemed to him the paradise of the prophet, the industry declined in Spain, to be revived at Fabriano, in the province of Ancona, in Central Italy, which soon rose into prominence as a paper-making center. Later on, in 1340, a paper-mill was established in Padua.
America’s first manufacturers
The beginning of the industry in America was almost coincident with the granting of patents for the manufacture of paper in England. A paper-mill was established by William Rittenhouse, a native of Holland, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in the year 1690, one of the builders and owners being William Bradford, a Philadelphia printer, who was afterward the owner of30 the first printing office in New York City. It was through him that Benjamin Franklin, in 1723, received his first introduction to a temporary home, and employment, in Philadelphia. The paper at this first American mill was made from linen rags, and the product was about two hundred and fifty pounds per day. The mill was on a stream subsequently called Paper-mill Run, which empties into the Wissahickon. In 1697, William Bradford, probably in preparation for his intended removal to New York City, rented his quarter interest in this paper-mill near Germantown to William and Nicholas Rittenhouse, for a term of ten years, the annual rental being “ye full quantity of seven reams of printing paper, two reams good writing paper and two reams of blue paper.” William De Wees, a brother-in-law of Nicholas Rittenhouse, in 1710 erected another mill in that part of Germantown called Crefeld, this being also on the banks of a small stream that emptied into the Wissahickon.
“And John Tate, the Younger, joye mote he brok! “Whiche late hathe in England, doo make this paper Thynne “That now in our Englysh, this book is first book of adam and eve printed Inne.”
English paper-mills
This mill is said to have been located at Hartford, England, and the print of the watermark used is given in Herbert’s “Typographic Antiquities,” Vol. I, page 20, as an eight-pointed star surrounded by a circle. John Tate died in 1498.
Recognition by royalty
In the year 1558 appeared “Sparks of Friendship,” a book by Thomas Churchyard, who was born in 1520 and died in 1604, and who bore the title of “Nestor of the Elizabethan era.” This book mentions the paper-mill of Spillman. A poem in a work entitled “Progress of Queen Elizabeth,” in 1565, has the title, “A Description and Playne Discourse of Paper and the whole Benefits that Paper Brings, with Rehearsal and Setting forth in verse a Paper-myll Built near Darthforth, by a High Germaine, called Master Spillman, Jeweler to the Queen’s Majestie.” This25 is often said to have been the first mill in England, but if the quotation with regard to John Tate is intended to imply that the paper was made by him in England, then certainly there must have been a paper-mill in operation in that country nearly a hundred years before, and this, taking the entry of King Henry VII. as proof of an English mill, must have been the second, if not the third, of its kind. It is said that Spielman, or Spillman, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth as a fitting honor and reward for the noble work of having built a paper-mill at Dartford, England, in 1588. A lease recorded in the Land Revenue Records of England, in 1591, reads, “Penlifton Co., Cambridge, lease of water, called paper-mills, late of Bishopric of Ely to John George, dated 14th. July, 34th. Elizabeth,” which would seem to indicate a third or fourth mill in 1592.
In 1649 watermark of the finest English paper (whether made in England or not) bore the royal arms, but later on, in contempt of Charles I., a fool with cap and bells was substituted for the king’s arms.
For some reason, the industry of paper-making languished in England, and in 1670 the people of the “right little, tight little island” were almost26 entirely dependent upon France for their supply of the indispensable fabric, its manufacture, if carried on at all in their own country, meeting with but slight success. In the “History of Commeret,” by Anderson, published in 1690, it is claimed that this was the date of the first manufacture of paper in England, and that previous to this time England had bought paper of her neighbor across the Channel to the amount of £100,000 annually. The war with France occasioned such high duties on foreign products as to make the cost of importation too great; but, as sometimes happens, the temporary deprivation was in course of time transmuted into a permanent benefit. The way was opened for the home manufacturer, and the opportunity was soon improved by French Protestant refugees, who, fleeing from persecution in their own land, settled in England and established paper-mills. White writing-paper In 1687 appeared a proclamation for the establishment of a mill for the making of white writing-paper; in the following year it was stated, in an article in the “British Merchant,” that hardly any but brown paper was manufactured, while in 1689, according to report, paper became so scarce and high that all printing ceased. It is evident that27 up to the time when the patents of 1675 and 1685 were granted, the industry was in anything but a prosperous condition, existing only in brief and isolated attempts at manufacture, and comprehended merely the crudest products.
Early English patents
The first British patent for paper-making was granted to Charles Hildegard, February, 1665, for “the way and art of making blue paper used by sugar bakers and others.” A decade later, in January, 1675, was granted the second patent, already referred to in this chapter, which was for the making of “white paper for the use of writing and printing, being a new manufacture and never before practiced in any way in any of our kingdoms or dominions.” Another decade intervened between the second and the third patents, the latter bearing the date of July 4, 1685, and being “for the true art and way of making English paper for writing, printing, and for other uses, both as good and serviceable in all respects and as white as any French or Dutch paper.”
A seeming contradiction of the statement of the second patent is found in Shakespeare’s Henry VI., where Jack Cade, in 1450, makes the accusation against Lord Say: “Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in28 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 his dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.” In the same act Cade observes, “Is not this a lamentable thing, that, of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment; that parchment being scribbled o’er should undo a man?” thus making it evident that parchment and not paper was in general use. Since, however, Shakespeare delineated Cade as a low, ignorant rebel, we are not compelled to believe that he was necessarily truthful or historically correct in all his accusations. The charges put into his mouth are intended to exhibit his ignorance, and his prejudice against all learning or refinement, extending even to decency of dress and comportment.
Watermark of Henry VIII.
There is always some dispute as to exact dates. It is claimed that about 1540, Henry VIII. of England used for his private correspondence, a paper whose watermark represented a hog with a miter. This was to show his contempt for the pope at Rome, with whom he had so bitterly quarreled. It may have been manufactured for him by special order in Germany or the Netherlands,29 or it may have been made by foreign settlers who returned to their own country, so that the trade was afterward lost for a time in England, and its manufacture was not known to the authorities that granted the patents.
Spanish and Italian makers
Long before this, paper-making had been introduced into Spain by the hordes of Saracenic invaders, who, coming over from Africa on a plundering expedition, had ended by making conquest of the whole peninsula. When, however, the long struggle between Christian and Moor ended in the downfall of the latter, and his expulsion from the land that had seemed to him the paradise of the prophet, the industry declined in Spain, to be revived at Fabriano, in the province of Ancona, in Central Italy, which soon rose into prominence as a paper-making center. Later on, in 1340, a paper-mill was established in Padua.
America’s first manufacturers
The beginning of the industry in America was almost coincident with the granting of patents for the manufacture of paper in England. A paper-mill was established by William Rittenhouse, a native of Holland, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in the year 1690, one of the builders and owners being William Bradford, a Philadelphia printer, who was afterward the owner of30 the first printing office in New York City. It was through him that Benjamin Franklin, in 1723, received his first introduction to a temporary home, and employment, in Philadelphia. The paper at this first American mill was made from linen rags, and the product was about two hundred and fifty pounds per day. The mill was on a stream subsequently called Paper-mill Run, which empties into the Wissahickon. In 1697, William Bradford, probably in preparation for his intended removal to New York City, rented his quarter interest in this paper-mill near Germantown to William and Nicholas Rittenhouse, for a term of ten years, the annual rental being “ye full quantity of seven reams of printing paper, two reams good writing paper and two reams of blue paper.” William De Wees, a brother-in-law of Nicholas Rittenhouse, in 1710 erected another mill in that part of Germantown called Crefeld, this being also on the banks of a small stream that emptied into the Wissahickon.
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