Here is Glyed Wolby of Gylforde squyere,
Andrew of Habyngedon, apell byer.
(Cocke Lorelle’s Bote.)
I am afraid the reader will scarcely recognise ‘Wool-buyer’ in ‘Wolby,’ but I doubt not such was the trader referred to. ‘Geoffrey le Wolle-byer’ occurs in the Parliamentary Writs.
[316]. One of Edward III.’s statutes says: ‘That a certain number of portours, pakkers, gwynders (winders), and other laborers of wools and all other merchandizes, be sufficiently ordained for the place where the staple is.’ (Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 341.)
[317]. It is not impossible that this species of cloth was in use by the lower classes for articles of apparel. Chaucer, in his Romance, refers to such a habit when he says:—
‘She ne had on but a straite old sacke,
And many a cloute on it there stacke,
This was her cote, and her mantele.’