"The county of Kent has been long famed for its manufacture of paper. It was at Dartford, in this county, that paper was first made in England."
But it is proved beyond all possibility of doubt that a paper-mill existed in England almost a century before the date of the establishment at Dartford. In Henry VII.'s Household Book, we have the following:—
"1498. For a rewarde geven at the pulper-mylne, 16s. 8d."
Again:—
"1499. Geven in rewarde to Tate of the Mylne, 6s. 8d."
And in Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495, mention is made of a paper-mill near Stevenage, in the county of Hertford, belonging to JOHN TATE the younger, which was undoubtedly the "mylne" visited by Henry VII.
The water-mark used by John Tate was an eight-pointed star within a double circle. In the
twelfth volume of the Archæeologia, p. 114., is a variety of fac-similes of water-marks used by our early paper makers, exhibited in five large plates, but is not a little singular that the mark of John Tate is omitted.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.