jan 1, 1584 - felt

Description:

Felt is a material of wool, or wool, fur and hair, with the fibres matted together under pressure. 1577 <i>ij felts of xiiij pence the pece</i>, Richmond (SS26/269) and it was used to make a number of garments in the late Middle Ages, especially hats: 1450 ‘I leave to John Yate, my bow, my arrows ... with one cap called<i> Felthatte</i>’, Bradford (BAS1/202). The Hull customs accounts show that they were an important trading item at that time, both as imports and as exports: 1453 <i>80 duss’ felthattes</i>, Hull (YRS144/3). In the accounts of Fountains Abbey they feature prominently in the mid-fifteenth century: 1446-58 <i>Item in j Felthatt pro equitacione, xd</i>, (SS130/145). The alleged excessive use of felt hats lay behind a statute in 1570 which required anybody over the age of seven to wear a woollen cap <i>upon the sabbath and holydays</i>: the cap had to be <i>knit, thicked and dressed in England</i> (SAL). The manor court rolls of Methley have examples from 1578 of tenants disobeying that order, e.g. 1584 ‘they present the inhabitants for wearing felt hats (<i>feltrum de Capite</i>) on Sunday’ (Th35/69). The verb ‘to thick’, as used in 1570, gave rise to an occupational term: 1495 <i>Ric. Colynson, thyker of cappez, </i>York (SS96/220).

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