John Tate (papermaker)

Last updated

John Tate was the first English papermaker and was active in the second half of the 15th century. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he was born about 1448. A businessman based in London, he was a member of the Mercers Company.

Contents

Early life

The Tates were a successful business family with international trading connections. The subject was known to contemporaries as "John Tate the younger", [1] and is believed have been the son of the John Tate who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1473. Neither father nor son is to be confused with a third John Tate, apparently a cousin of the subject, who was knighted and who served as Lord Mayor in 1496-97 and 1514–15. [2]

Papermaking

Sele Mill has been rebuilt since Tudor times Sele Mill Hertford - geograph.org.uk - 137053.jpg
Sele Mill has been rebuilt since Tudor times

Tate acquired a long-established watermill called Sele Mill. At that time it was just outside Hertford which has since grown to include the suburb of Bengeo. Sele Mill is on the River Beane, a chalk stream, near its confluence with the River Lea. This facility was converted into a paper mill. Paper was produced there in the 1490s, and possibly earlier.

The catchment of the Beane was a rural area, but there is evidence that Tate found customers locally with some of his paper being used for record-keeping by the Woodhall estate a few miles upstream. [3] Importantly for his business plan, the mill was less than 30 miles from the capital which could be accessed via Ermine Street or the River Lea (see note 1 ). One London-based customer was Wynkyn de Worde, [1] who took over Caxton's print shop in the 1490s. Another London-based customer was Henry VII of England. The king, who had given Hertford Castle to his wife in 1487, visited the mill in 1498. He is known to have made a return visit the following year. It has been suggested that one of the watermarks used by Tate, a Tudor rose, was designed with royal use in mind.

The quality of the paper was good, but the mill seems to have ceased producing it at the beginning of the 16th century for reasons which are not clear. Tate mentioned the building in his will of 1507 along with a stock of white paper he had there. [4] Possibly he could not get a good enough price for his paper, although, as far as is known, there were not any other British producers.

Final years

Tate wrote his will in 1507 and died that year or the following. He had been living at Mincing Lane in the City of London and was buried at St Dunstan-in-the-East. [4]

Legacy

Sele Mill was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century. It is now used as apartments.

After Tate's time a paper industry was reestablished in Hertfordshire. The valley of the River Gade proved a suitable site and, in a significant break-through, a continuous paper making machine was installed at Frogmore Mill in 1803.

Notes

1. ^ The first Act of Parliament for navigational improvement of the River Lea was granted in 1425.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Barclay</span> Clergyman of the Church of England

Dr Alexander Barclay was a poet and clergyman of the Church of England, probably born in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertford</span> Human settlement in England

Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Lea</span> River in the south east of England

The River Lea is in the East of England and Greater London. It originates in Bedfordshire, in the Chiltern Hills, and flows southeast through Hertfordshire, along the Essex border and into Greater London, to meet the River Thames at Bow Creek. It is one of the largest rivers in London and the easternmost major tributary of the Thames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wynkyn de Worde</span> English printer and publisher

Wynkyn de Worde was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise the products of the printing press in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Navigation</span> Canalised river in Hertfordshire and London, England

The Lee Navigation is a canalised river incorporating the River Lea. It flows from Hertford Castle Weir to the River Thames at Bow Creek; its first lock is Hertford Lock and its last Bow Locks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliana Berners</span> English prioress and author

Juliana Berners, O.S.B.,, was an English writer on heraldry, hawking and hunting, and is said to have been prioress of the St Mary of Sopwell, near St Albans in Hertfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertford and Stortford (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1983 onwards

Hertford and Stortford is a constituency currently represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Julie Marson of the Conservative Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengeo</span> Human settlement in England

Bengeo is a suburb and former village and civil parish on the north-west edge of the county town of Hertford in Hertfordshire, England. It is an electoral ward of Hertford. In 1891 the parish had a population of 2586. In 1894 the parish was abolished to form Bengeo Rural and Bengeo Urban.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Copland</span>

Robert Copland, English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde. The first book to which his name is affixed as a printer is The Boke of Justices of Peace (1515), at the sign of the Rose Garland, in Fleet Street, London. Anthony à Wood supposed, on the ground that he was more educated than was usual in his trade, that he had been a poor scholar of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Pynson</span> Early printer of English books

Richard Pynson was one of the first printers of English books. Born in Normandy, he moved to London, where he became one of the leading printers of the generation following William Caxton. His books were printed to a high standard of craftsmanship, and his Morton Missal (1500) is regarded as among the finest books printed in England in the period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertford Castle</span> Castle in Hertfordshire, England

Hertford Castle was built in Norman times beside the River Lea in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England. Most of the internal buildings of the castle have been demolished. The main surviving section is the Tudor gatehouse, which is a Grade I listed building. Parts of the bailey walls on the east side of the castle also still stand, and are a Grade II* listed building.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

William Lyndwood was an English bishop of St. David's, diplomat and canonist, most notable for the publication of the Provinciale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Beane</span> River in Hertfordshire, England

The River Beane is a short river in the county of Hertfordshire, England. A tributary of the River Lea, it rises to the south-west of Sandon in the hills northeast of Stevenage and joins the Lea at Hartham Common in Hertford.

Horns Mill is an area and suburb of south Hertford, Hertfordshire.

Sele Farm is an area on the north-western edge of Hertford, Hertfordshire.

-- Lines 12-21, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng" by John Skelton. The poem is thought to have been first published this year.

Richard Whitford was a 16th century English Catholic priest known as an author of many devotional works.

John Acton was an English canon lawyer, known for his commentary on the writer on the ecclesiastical Constitutions of two papal legates of the thirteenth century. Sent to Henry III of England, they were Cardinal Otto, i.e. Otto of Tonengo, and Cardinal Ottobone, i.e. Ottobuono de' Fieschi. His name is variously spelt Achedune, De Athona, Athone, and Eaton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sele Mill</span>

Sele Mill is a late 19th-century mill building in Hertford, England. It has been converted into apartments. A blue plaque on the building commemorates an earlier mill on the site, the country's first paper mill.

References

  1. 1 2 Tate, called "the yonger", is mentioned by Wynkyn de Worde in the colophon to a book he produced in 1496, an encyclopaedia, De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus (in John Trevisa's translation). This book has been claimed to be the first printed on English paper.
  2. "TATE, Sir John (by 1444-1515), of London". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  3. The document in question was a court roll. See Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988: A Short History. Richard Leslie Hills
  4. 1 2 Richard L. Hills, ‘Tate, John (c.1448–1507/8)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 24 June 2015. Subscription or UK public library membership required.