John Tate was the first English

papermaker Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a speciali ...

and was active in the second half of the 15th century. According to the

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

he was born about 1448. A businessman based in London, he was a member of the

Mercers Company The Mercers' Company, or the Worshipful Company of Mercers, is a livery company of the City of London in the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. Mercer comes from the Latin for merch ...

Early life

The Tates were a successful business family with international trading connections. The subject was known to contemporaries as "John Tate the younger",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 Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1203–1272), also known as Bartholomew the Englishman and Berthelet, was an early 13th-century Scholastic of Paris, a member of the Franciscan order. He was the author of the compendium ''De proprietatibus rerum ...

(in

John Trevisa 350px, John Trevisa (or John of Trevisa; ; fl. 1342–1402 AD) was a Cornish writer and professional translator. Trevisa was born at Trevessa in the parish of St Enoder in mid-Cornwall, in Britain and was a native Cornish speaker. He was edu ...

's translation). This book has been claimed to be the first printed on English paper. and is believed have been the son of the John Tate who served as

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

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.

Papermaking

Tate acquired a long-established

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

called

Sele Mill 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. History For most of its history ...

. At that time it was just outside

Hertford 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. The town grew around a Ford (crossing), ford on ...

, but now it is within the town's suburbs. The mill was powered by the

River Beane 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, Hertfordshire, Sandon in the hills northeast of Stevenage and joins the Lea at Hartham Common in Hert ...

, a

chalk stream Chalk streams are rivers that rise from springs in landscapes with chalk bedrock. Since chalk is permeable, water easily percolates through the ground to the water table and chalk streams therefore receive little surface runoff. As a result, th ...

, near its confluence with the

River Lea 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 Cr ...

. This facility was converted into a

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

. Paper was produced there in the 1490s, and possibly earlier. The

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

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.The document in question was a

court roll A manorial roll or court roll is the roll or record kept of the activities of a manorial court, in particular containing entries relating to the rents and holdings, deaths, alienations, and successions of the customary tenants or copyholders. Th ...

. See ''Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988: A Short History''. Richard Leslie Hills Importantly for his business plan, the mill was less than 30 miles from the capital which could be accessed via

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earninga ...

or the River Lea (see note). One London-based customer was

Wynkyn de Worde Wynkyn de Worde (; died , London) 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. Name Wynkyn de Worde was a German immi ...

, who took over Caxton's print shop in the 1490s. Another London-based customer was

Henry VII of England Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henr ...

. The king, who had given

Hertford Castle Hertford Castle is a Norman era castle built beside the River Lea in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England. Most of the internal buildings of the structure have been demolished. The main surviving section is the Tudor gatehouse ...

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

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations i ...

s 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. 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 Mincing Lane is a short one-way street in the City of London linking Fenchurch Street to Great Tower Street. In the late 19th century it was the world's leading centre for tea and spice trading. Etymology Its name is a corruption of Mynchen ...

in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

and was buried at

St Dunstan-in-the-East St Dunstan-in-the-East was a Church of England parish church on St Dunstan's Hill, halfway between London Bridge and the Tower of London in the City of London. The church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and the ruins are now a publi ...

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 The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Wat ...

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, John Papermakers 15th-century English businesspeople 16th-century English businesspeople 1500s deaths Burials at St Dunstan-in-the-East