The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1859-12-01
ORIGIN OF WORDS BLANKET, woRsrED &c,

0"''iN oH "ohDS BLANKET, "ORSTED, &c
When Edward III, in 1887, repeatc,
his invasion Of Scotland, and " ravaccd tl
country with great fury, burning Abcrlcc,
and similar towns" rs Tho historian tell
u.s. and while he was engaged in raising M
army to invade France, in 1888. eyoct;n,
from the impoverished English people al
their wealth to waste in the war, an,
when he was wasting France with war, bor
rowing money from all foreign princes who
wonld lend him, pawn:ng the English
crown which had made him kinc ,l,a, l.,
might still farther extend destruction owe.
fertile France; when. in the battles which
our historians and poets have so mru,ely
recorded and lofuly SING out, swords clashcd
against swords and battle-axes runs upor
coats OF mail, the warrior heroes Of Frame.
there was Il servant Of mankind mal,inr ,
noise in Bristol, which was Of infinitely
greater service to England than the cptir,
conquest OF Europe would have been.
Ills was Thomas Blanket The noise
ne made was not Of the cl,shing sword
but OF the clashing shuttle. Ills purpose
not to destroy what his country already
possessed, but to give his country what
II d'd not yet possess blankets, a covcrirc
OF comfort to so to bed with, to sleep I'M
der that it might be refreshed in sound
Sleep and rise in health and strength to
It's daily work of making mankind happier
by beng happier itself Thomas Blanket,
was soon initiated by his ncghbors, who
like him, set up looms in their own houses
and made woolcn cloth like that Which he
made lhe cloth was named by his name :;
and to this day, through all time in this
country will the name be known, though
nothing else is known of this weaver than
that he was the first to Introduce the blank
ct manufacture into England.
No cloth Of any kind had hccn wove in
England before the reign of Edward III
We read that, in 1881, John Ecmp,. from
Flanders, Introduced the weaving of cloth
in England; that the king invited fullers
dyers, and SO forth, to come from Elan
ders and settle there. This policy, on the
part of Edward, was discreet and, viewed
in connection with some other of his &C.
tons, prove him to have had some per-
ccptlon of the real sources Of national well.
being. But he no sooner allowed the cloth
manufacture to be implanted in England.
than he almost rooted it up again Ly re-
strlcllve enactments and oppressive taxes
to carry on his wars. The manufacture
Of twisted double thread Of woolen, called
worsted, was Introduced into England about
this time, or soon after.
The village Of Worstel, about fifteen
miles from Norwich, was the first place
where this thread was made, and it took
the name of the village. There is no spin
ming nor woolen manufactures at Worsted
now, but from the tombs IN the grave yard,
and the benefactions left to the parish,
which are recorded in the church, we have
proofs that the manufacturers of worsted
were numerous opulent, aud lived there in
successive generations, during several centu-
ries.
1t may also be noticed here, that after
inquiring into the history Of the parish
and manufacturers of Worsted, we visited
Linsey, which gave the name to the fabric
known as lnsey wolsey, and the Kersey
and the Mere, close to it in Suffolk, where
the workshops wero situated, in which
the cloth called kerseymere was first made.
The cloth so called now differs from the
original, and there is bnt little trade Of any
kind in Kersey now. But, as at Worsted,
tho graveyard and the church have many
records of manufacturers long deceased
Their namas, though now Anglicised, arc
common in Suffolk, and are all Of Flemish
origin.