The Continental Origins of Wealden Ironworkers, 1451–1544
In this article the area from which ironworkers migrated to the Weald, hitherto defined in the vaguest terms, is identified as the pays de Bray in northern France. Bray has been regarded as of little account in the development of the industry, but is here shown to have been of major importance in the early sixteenth century as the birthplace of the British iron industry. Although nothing is so far known about the actual process of recruitment of ironworkers for the Weald, the social and economic trends which caused difficulties for the industry in Bray are examined and their relationship is shown to the course followed by the migration in quantitative terms. From statements previously made on the subject, it might be inferred that the numbers involved were quite small, but David Crossley has recently suggested that they were "probably significant"1 and it is here calculated that not less than 500 male immigrants were involved. The vital contribution of this migration to the industrial development of Britain can only be hinted at, because an adequate demonstration of this would lead beyond what can be covered in a single paper. However, an attempt is made to examine the implications of the migration for our understanding of the growth of the industry in the Weald. The major implication is that the second period of expansion in the Weald, hitherto regarded as commencing in the second half of the I530s, should be brought forward, perhaps by as much as 20 years. It was Mark Lower who first drew attention to this subject in i849, when he wrote, "The manufacture of heavy ordnance gave a great impulse to the iron trade. Many foreigners were brought over to carry on the works. This perhaps may account for the number of Frenchmen and Germans whose names appear in our parish registers about the middle of the sixteenth century."2 In i893 William Page used the denization rolls of the I540s for his "Letters of denization and Acts of naturalization for aliens in England I509-I603",3 and it was to details from this publication that Rhys Jenkins referred when he wrote that, "In all there are upwards of forty Frenchmen named as being concerned in the ironworks; for the most part they came from Normandy, but some are described as of Bewasyn, and others as of Picardy." Confirmation of "our having borrowed the new method of iron-making from France" he found in