The story of paper-making

by Frank Osgood Butler

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 had 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 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.” This 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 almost 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 that 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.”