Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/232

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100
THE STATUTES OF WALES
[A.D. 1542-3

length 23 yards raw, and in breadth one yard one quarter and that every piece cotton should weigh being raw, 68 pound of avoirdupois and contain in length 48 yards and in breadth five quarters one nail, without any straining; and that every half piece cotton should weigh 34 pound and contain in length 24 yards and in breadth five quarters and one nail; which true and good making of frises and cottons hath been of long time decayed and extinguished and yet is, to the great decay and ruin of all the said towns and boroughs and also to the great slander and hindrance of all good true clothiers inhabiting within the same, and also to the great hurt and prejudice of all the King's Subjects which do buy the same; and the principal ground and occasion thereof is that the Clothiers Tuckers Weavers and such others that were wont to inhabit within the said towns and boroughs, and there to make true frises and cottons both in length and breadth, be now come foreigners husbandmen and grasiers dwelling in the Country, out of the said towns of Carmarthen, Cardigan and Pembroke and other borough towns aforesaid and there do make their own wool in frises and cottons after the most false and deceitful manner that may be, and the same do carry from place to place to be sold to the great disquiet and hindrance of all the King's loving Subjects, and to the great slander of all true cloth makers within all the said towns and boroughs: For remedy and reformation whereof, be it enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord the Lords Spiritual and temporal and the Commons in this present parliament assembled and by authority of the same, that after the first day of June next coming which shall be in the year of our Lord God a thousand five hundred forty and three, no manner of person make any raw frises called Welsh frise, or any cottons called Welsh cottons to be sold in any fair or market or elsewhere in any other place, unless every piece frise called a high frise raw be made of clean wool without flux or throome weighing in yarn 54 pound of avoirdupois at the least, and containing in length 46 yards raw and in breadth one yard one quarter, and that every half piece frise high shall weigh 27 pound, and contain in length 23 yards and in breadth one yard one quarter; and that every piece cotton raw shall weigh 68 pound of yarn at the least without flux or throome and contain in length 48 yards and in breadth one yard one quarter and one nail; And that every half piece cotton shall weigh 34 pound of yarn without flux or throome and contain in length 24 yards and in breadth five quarters and one nail; upon pain to