Page:VCH Surrey 1.djvu/475

 POLITICAL HISTORY in his majesty's service. 1 These must have been quartered in Surrey, and if some of them had been at Farnham in the summer it further explains the discontent there. The time had by no means arrived when Scottish troops were especially popular in England. The stout old lord admiral was no longer at the head of the county. His eldest surviving son, Charles Howard, had been associated with him as lieutenant, July 27, i62i, z and on August 26, 1624, John Ramsay Earl of Holderness, a Scotchman of vigorous character, had been associated with them. 3 He died prematurely two years later. The old lord admiral died in December, 1624. On December 18, 1626, Charles Howard, now of course Earl of Nottingham, had been reap- pointed joint lord lieutenant with Lord Wimbledon. 4 Under them were Sir George More, Sir Ambrose Browne, and Sir Richard Onslow as deputies. Two were men of the old leading families and one of a house that was going to be famous in the county. Sir George More died in 1632 ; his son, Sir Robert, had predeceased him. The grandson, Sir Poynings More, received licence to travel abroad on his grandfather's death, anywhere except to Rome. He was neither of age nor character to take up the former position of his family. Sir Ambrose Browne and Sir Richard Onslow sat as county members in the Parliament which passed the Petition of Right, and were afterwards elected to both the Short and Long Parliaments in 1640. In 1634 Richard Evelyn, of another rising name, was sheriff. One trouble of this time was the decay of the cloth trade in the county. Archbishop Abbot took notice of the decay of the trade in Guildford in 1614. His father had been a clothier of the town. In 1630 the ever careful Council directed the magistrates to see to the relief of the poor people who were thrown out of work in the Godalming neighbourhood by reason of the depression. 6 Guildford had had a con- siderable clothing trade shared by villages near. Chalk downs were then put to their proper use of feeding sheep, and wool was grown on the spot. But the absurd protection and fussiness of old corporate towns and of craft guilds often drove industry elsewhere. 6 Aubrey says that Wonersh used to manufacture blue cloth which was exported to the Canary Islands, but that the trade was lost through the dishonesty of the makers who stretched their webs. The blue cloth may throw some light on the cultivation of woad in the county, which was evidently practised but objected to by some economists and by Elizabeth because it inter- fered with her customs on imported dyes. 7 Yet the age generally was as keen for the use of home products as any fair trader could be. There was a ' die-house ' in Southwark which annoyed Lord Montague in 1617. The Surrey glass and iron manufactures were also probably languishing 1 Loseley MSS. November 19, 1628, xii. 128. 8 Patent Rolls, 19 James I. 13. 8 Ibid. 22 James I. 17. * St. P. Dm. xxvi. 33. 6 Loseley MSS. November 30, 1630, i. 142. 6 Yet as late as the latter half of the seventeenth century tradesmen's tokens in Guildford used to have woolpacks on them. 7 See several letters in Loseley MSS. especially April 10, 1585, xii. 60. I 401 DD