"
It is a common idea that this was the first paper-mill erected in England;
and we find an intelligent modern writer, Mr. J.S. Burn, in his _History of
the Foreign Refugees_, repeating the same erroneous statement. At page 262,
of his curious and interesting work be says:
"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 {474} twelfth volume of the _Archaeeologia_, 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.
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