Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/517

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INDUSTRIES been the second of a contemporaneous ring of four. Carter used a great variety of letterings and ornaments (such as Figs. 9 and 10), but as he always added his name or initials (at least from 1581) his bells need no further descriptions for their identification. On the death of Joseph Carter, his son William having his hands full with the White- chapel business, the Reading foundry was taken over by Joseph's son-in-law, William Yare. By him there are eight bells in Berk- shire j three in Oxfordshire, besides the sixth FIGS. 9 AND 10. ORNAMENTS USED BY JOSEPH CARTER. His will (given at length in Church Bells of Bucks) is dated 14 Feb. 1609, and was proved 2 April, 1610. He was buried at St. Law- rence's, Reading, 21 May, 1609. In 1606 Robert Mot, bellfounder of Whitechapel, London, sold his business to Carter, who put his son William in charge of that foundry. It is not clear whether Mot (in or before 1570) started a new foundry in Whitechapel, or whether he succeeded to the business of Thomas Kempe, of Aldgate ; nor yet whether the latter set up a new foundry, or followed the very old line of London founders, of which the names of some of the best-known owners have already been men- of the Christ Church, Oxford, Cathedral ring, recently melted, and one in Buckingham- shire ornamented with the running pattern (Fig. Ii). There may be a very few others by him yet awaiting discovery in the first two of these counties. Yare's will, dated 22 January, 1615-16, was proved 19 April, 1616, by Edith his widow ; she was probably his second wife, Carter's daughter being apparently Anna Yaare, who was buried at St. Lawrence, Reading, in February, 1609-10. At Yare's death this ancient and important foundry was closed. Some of the stamps belonging thereto came into the possession of a founder whose initials were I.H. Probably Fie. II. BORDER USED BY YARE. tioned (p. 417). At any rate, the pedigree of the present Whitechapel foundry, known as ' Mears and Stainbank,' is perfectly clear from Mot's time to the present day ; and in the Berkshire line, it certainly goes back well into the fourteenth century. this was John Higden, who had been ' ser- vant,' i.e. journeyman, to Joseph Carter. He evidently set up a business in Hampshire, probably at Winchester. His foundry con- tinued until 1651, with a re-appearance in 1681, and even possibly later. It is probable 419