Note 864 — PART IV. From the Reformation to the present time. (continued 4)

That affair appears to have been in agitation as early as 1685; whence the following note has been inserted in the town-books—“Nov. 23. 1665, Recommended a petition which was presented to this house, concerning the decay of the stocking trade in this towne, by weaving of the same, to the care of Sir Simon Taylor and Sir John Turner, our members of parliament.”—It would seem by this, that the case was, even then, laid before the legislature, or meant so to be; but we know not the result.