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 in 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, 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 of 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.
THE RAG CUTTERS—[Page 59]
♦Russian mills♦