The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Preface
• A Table of British Regnal Years
• Select Essays In Anglo-american Legal History: Volume Iii History of Particular Topics, Continued
• Part V.: Commercial Law
• 47.: Thomas Edwar Scrutton, General Survey of the History of the Law Merchant 1
• 48.: Spencer Brodhurst, the Merchants of the Staple 1
• 49.: Francis Marion Burdick, Contributions of the Law Merchant to the Common Law 1
• 50.: Edward Jenks, the Early History of Negotiable Instruments 1
• 51.: William Cranch, Promissory Notes Before and After Lord Holt 1
• 52.: William Reynolds Vance, the Early History of Insurance Law 1
• 53.: Edward Wyndham Hulme, the Early History of the English Patent System 1
• 54.: Joseph Henry Beale, Jr., the History of the Carrier’s Liability 1
• 55.: Cecil Thomas Carr, Early Forms of Corporateness 1
• 56.: William Mitchell, Early Forms of Partnership 1
• 57.: Samuel Williston, the History of the Law of Business Corporations Before 1800 1
• 58.: Simeon Eben Baldwin, History of the Law of Private Corporations In the Colonies and States 1
• Part VI.: Contracts
• 59.: James Barr Ames, the History of Assumpsit 1
• 60.: James Barr Ames, the History of Parol Contracts Prior to Assumpsit 1
• 61.: John William Salmond, the History of Contract 1
• 62.: Crawford Dawes Hening, History of the Beneficiary’s Action In Assumpsit 1
• 63.: Oliver Weldell Holmes, Jr., the History of Agency 1
• Part VII: Torts
• 64.: James Barr Ames, the History of Trover 1
• 65.: Van Vechten Veeder, the History of the Law of Defamation 1
• 66.: John Henry Wigmore, Responsibility For Tortious Acts: Its History 1
• Part VIII: Property (in General)
• 67.: James Barr Ames, the Disseisin of Chattels 1
• 68.: Frederick William Maitland, the Mystery of Seisin 1
• 69.: Arthur George Sedwick and Frederick Scott Wait, the History of the Action of Ejectment In England and the United States 1
• 70.: Harold Dexter Hazeltine, the Gage of Land In MediÆval England 1
• 71.: Arthur Underhill, Changes In the English Law of Real Property During the Nineteenth Century 1
• Part IX.: Wills, Descent, Marriage
• 72.: Charles Gross, the MediÆval Law of Intestacy 1
• 73.: Oliver Weldell Holmes, Jr., Executors In Earlier English Law 1
• 74.: Robert Caillemer, the Executor In England and On the Continent 1
• 75.: Melville Madison Bigelow, the Rise of the English Will 1
• 76.: James Bryce, Marriage and Divorce Under Roman and English Law 1
• List of Authors Contributing

53.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PATENT SYSTEM1

By Edward Wyndham Hulme2

IN 1827, when the subject of patent law reform first began to claim the attention of the English Legislature, an effort was made by the Lower House to obtain the data requisite for an investigation of the history of the patent system under the prerogative and at common law. In this year the Crown, in compliance with a resolution of the House, ordered a return to be prepared ‘of the titles and dates of all special privileges and patents granted in England previous to March 1, 1623, and stating whether for English or foreign manufactures and inventions.’ Unfortunately, the resources of the Keepers of the National Records proved unequal to the demands made upon them; and as a matter of fact the return was never presented. The resolution, nevertheless, deserves to be rescued from oblivion. For, while on the one hand it excludes as foreign to the inquiry an investigation of the commercial privileges of the trading companies, the supposed connexion of which with patents for inventions has misled so many writers upon Patent Law, it includes all grants made in respect of manufactures or inventions irrespective of the nature of the privileges conferred therein. In other words, we are told to look, not for Monopoly patents, but for grants to individuals made in furtherance of particular industries. With this clue to guide us we shall at once proceed to inquire, firstly, at what period the Crown by means of its grants first actively interfered in the promotion of industry, and secondly, what relation these grants may be found to bear to the first recorded Monopoly patents of invention. For this purpose we may briefly summarize the conclusions which may be obtained from a perusal of any standard history of industrial progress in this country.

During the period of history known as the Middle Ages, the industrial attainments of the English were far below the level of their continental rivals, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Low Countries. Moreover, throughout Europe progress in the manufacturing arts is found to be due, not so much to individual experimental effort, as to the slow infiltration of improved processes, the source of which is ultimately traceable to the more advanced civilization of the East. As late as the sixteenth century the type of English society was mainly that of an agricultural and mining community, exchanging its undressed cloth, wool, hides, tin and lead for the manufactures of the continent and the produce of the East. The rise of the native cloth industry in the fourteenth century gave to this country her first considerable manufacturing industry: and, inasmuch as the development of the industry is universally attributed to the fostering influence of the Crown, it will be necessary to scrutinize somewhat closely the various grants by means of which these results were obtained. For the facts here presented no originality is claimed. Their connexion, however, with the history of patent law has never yet been properly established.

In the letters of protection to John Kempe and his Company dated 1331 (Pat. 5 Ed. iii p. 1, m. 25),1 will be found the earliest authenticated instance of a Royal grant made with the avowed motive of instructing the English in a new industry. Here we have, not a solitary instance of protection, but the declaration of a distinct and comprehensive policy in favour of the textile industry; for the grant contains a general promise of like privileges to all foreign weavers, dyers and fullers, on condition of their settling in this country and teaching their arts to those willing to be instructed therein. Nor is this all. In 1337 these letters patent were expressly confirmed by a statute framed for the protection of the new industry, cap. 5 of which enacts, that all cloth-workers of strange lands, of whatsoever country they may be, which will come into England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, and within the King’s power, shall come safely and surely and shall be in the King’s protection and safe-conduct to dwell in the same lands, choosing where they will; and to the intent that the said clothworkers shall have the greater will to come and dwell here, Our Sovereign Lord the King will grant them franchises as many and such as may suffice them.1

As it is with the continuity rather than with the success of the new policy that we have here to deal, we shall briefly enumerate in their chronological order the grants which appear to have been issued in furtherance of the above object. In 1336 similar letters were issued (10 Ed. III, Dec. 12) to two Brabant weavers to settle at York in consideration of the value of industry to the Realm. In 1368 (42 Ed. III, p. 1) three clockmakers of Delft were invited to come over for a short period. In the following reign we are informed (Smiles, Huguenots, p. 10) that the manufacture of silk and linen was established in London by the king by the introduction of similar colonies from abroad, but whether by letters patent or otherwise has not been ascertained. The first instance of a grant made to the introducer of a newly-invented process will be found in letters patent dated 1440 (18 H. 6. Franc. 18. m. 27) to John of Shiedame, who with his Company was invited to introduce a method of manufacturing salt on a scale hitherto unattempted within the kingdom. Twelve years later, in 1452, a grant was made in favour of three miners and their Company, who were brought over from Bohemia by the king on the ground of their possessing ‘meliorem scientiam in Mineriis’ (Rymer, xi. 317).

These instances, although, probably, not exhaustive of the industrial grants of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, sufficiently illustrate the well-known citation from the Year Book, 40 Ed. III, fol. 17, 18, to the effect that the Crown has power to grant many privileges for the sake of the public good, although prima facie they appear to be clearly against common right.

With the alchemical patents of Henry VI, wrongly assigned by Hindmarch and subsequent writers to the reign of Edward III, we must deal briefly.

In 1435-36 two successive Commissions were appointed to inquire into the feasibility of making the philosopher’s stone for medicinal and other purposes. Respecting these Commissions we are assured by Prynne in his Aurum Reginæ that they proved ‘entirely abortive for aught that he could find.’ The fiction of a monopoly having been intended, based upon an obviously inaccurate account in Moore’s Reports, p. 671, may be dismissed as the invention of a later date. Other so-called alchemical patents resolve themselves into either warrants for the arrest of the individuals concerned, or dispensations from the penal statute of 5 Henry IV, by which the practice of transmutation was made a felony. In any case the connexion of these grants with the history of patent law must be considered as exceedingly remote.

With the accession of the Tudor dynasty the patent system underwent a characteristic change. In place of the open letters for the furtherance of the national industry, we now find the Crown negotiating for the purpose of attracting skilled foreigners into its own service. Amongst these we may instance the introduction of German armourers, Italian shipwrights and glass-makers, and French iron-founders and sail-makers. In the absence of any grants recorded in connexion with these transactions, it is impossible to define the precise relations existing between the Crown and the immigrant artisan. The Italian glass-makers introduced circa 1550, i. e. under the protectorate of Somerset, were recalled by the Venetian State; but the French iron-founders appear to have successfully established in the Weald of Sussex the art of casting iron ordnance, which shortly afterwards superseded the older forms of bronze cannon.

The first acts of Elizabeth were directed to the question of national defence. In 1560 the reformation of the coinage was taken in hand, for which purpose a body of Easterling assayers were brought over. In the following year the policy of the promotion of new industries under the special protection of the Crown was inaugurated and steadfastly pursued to the last few years of the reign. As to the legality of the new licenses no scruples appear to have been entertained. The monopolies were not without foreign precedents. Throughout Western Europe the new art of printing was being controlled and regulated by special licenses. With this preface we may leave the following list of grants to speak for itself. Their history from the political and economic standpoints has recently formed the subject of a monograph by Dr. Hyde Price (English Patents of Monopoly. Boston, 1906) to which frequent reference will be made. The list, it should be stated, has been prepared from the Calendars of the Patent Rolls of Elizabeth. Its claim to completeness for this reign, therefore, rests mainly upon the sufficiency of these Calendars.

(Mary. Monopoly Patent)

The discovery of this grant is due to Mr. J. W. Gordon, author of Monopolies by Patents and other works on the history of English Patent Law. The above grant contains a prohibition against the use of Cranick’s methods for the space of six years.

(Elizabeth. Monopoly Patents)

The best English soap of the period was a soft potash Bristol soap, ‘very sweet and good,’ but unsuitable for fine laundry work, for which the hard Spanish soda soap of Castile was preferred. The grant stipulates that two at the least of the servants of the patentees shall be of native birth, and that the soap, which is to be of the white hard variety, shall be as good and fine as is made in the Sope house of Triana or Syvile. The patentees are bound to submit their wares for the inspection of the municipal authorities, and on proof of defective manufacture the privilege is void. The grant appeared in full in ‘Engineering,’ June 22, 1894, with a brief outline of the origin of patent law by the present writer.

At the date of the grant saltpetre was not manufactured within this country; most of the imported article arriving viâ Antwerp, a port controlled by the Catholic King of Spain. The Queen therefore bargained with Gerard Honricke, ‘an almayne Captain,’ to come over and teach her subjects ‘the true and perfect art of making saltpetre’ as good as that made ‘beyond the seas,’ stipulating, however, that the secrets of the manufacture should be reduced to writing before the promised reward of £300 should be paid. On the arrival of Honricke the Queen resigned her bargain (Pat. 3 Eliz. p. 6) into the hands of the above patentees, who were both London tradesmen. The specification will be found in full in ‘Engineering,’ June 15, 1894.

In case the new invention (sic) be not proved to be of value within a year, the making of saltpetre to be thrown open as at present.

The petition of G. Cobham, Tomazo Chanata, stranger, and their Company endorsed with the erroneous date 1550, is to be found in the S. P. Dom. Eliz. vol. i. No. 56.

The patentee represents that ‘by diligent travel’ he had discovered a machine to scour the entrances to harbours, &c., to a depth of sixteen feet. The patent is for the importation of a sufficient number of these machines. The rights of scouring channels by the older methods are reserved, and the Queen expresses a hope that her favourable treatment of the patentee ‘will give courage to others to study and seke for the knowledge of like good engines and devyses.’

In the recital of the grant Kendall represents that he had discovered ores of alum in abundance with a practical method of its extraction. The manufacture was started in Devonshire, but failed. See also 1564, July 3, Alum patent of Cornelius De Vos.

The recital states that mines of tin, lead, coal, &c., in Devon as elsewhere, were drowned and altogether unoccupied, ‘owing the great habundance of water.’ It is not clear that Medley lays claim to the invention of the present device, although the grant covers all subsequent improvements. The rights of users of old machines are reserved, and clauses are inserted regulating the compensation to be paid for entering upon abandoned properties. In case of disputes arising, the quarrel is to be referred to the Privy Council. The source of inspiration of this and the numerous subsequent patents for mine drainage and water raising will be found in the illustrated work of Agricola published in 1559.

In the S. P. Dom. 1565 there is a certificate from some London brewers, who testify to the economy of fuel effected by the furnaces of a German, Sebastian Brydigonne, who may have been connected with the above patentees. The grant refers to the growing scarcity of wood fuel, owing to the large consumption in the brewing and baking trades. The grant is void in case the patentees fail to come over and put the grant into practice within two months, or prove extortionate in their charges.

This grant is similar to that of Medley’s, but gives some additional powers of entering upon old and abandoned mines under proper restrictions. The engine is stated to have been lately invented, lerned and found out by Cranick, and to be unlike anything devised or used within the realm. Three years are allowed for the patentee to perfect and demonstrate the utility of his engines. Disputes are to be referred to the Warden of the Stannaries and three Justices of the Peace.

De Vos obtained this grant on the strength of the discovery of ores of alum and copperas (sulphate of iron) in the Isle of Wight (Alum Bay). His rights were shortly afterwards assigned to Lord Mountjoy, who in 1566 obtained parliamentary confirmation of the grant. Both the Queen and Cecil were originally financially interested in the success of the experiment. In 1571 Bristol merchants complain of the decay of their trade owing to the fact that iron and alum, which had hitherto come from Spain, were now made better and cheaper in this country. See also Stow’s Annals, 1631, pp. 897, 898; Geological Survey, Memoirs, Jurassic Rocks, i. 452-454. Hyde Price, p. 82. The grant confers the right to take up workmen at reasonable wages, together with all materials requisite for the manufacture.

The validity of these grants was challenged by the Earl of Northumberland on the ground that the work was within the Royalties granted to his family in a former reign. The case was decided in favour of the Queen, on the ground that the neglect of the Earl and his predecessors to work the minerals during seventy years ‘had made that questionable which for ages was out of question’ (Pettus, Fodinae Regales). On May 28, 1568, the Company was incorporated by Charter as the Society of the Mines Royal, which existed down to the eighteenth century. See also Hyde Price, pp. 49-55 and Grant-Francis, Copper-smelting.

The full text of the grant will be found in Rymer. The sulphur was required for making gunpowder, and the discovery may be attributed to the labours of John Mangleman, a German, who was authorized to search for earth proper for making brimstone (Lansd. MSS.). The second part of the invention related to the extraction of oil from seeds for finishing cloth. The proper machinery for extracting oil from rape and other seeds does not seem to have been known at the period. The grant was subsequently reissued to Wade and another for a further term of thirty years. Cf. No. XXXIV, infra.

The process relates, in all probability, to sumach tanning which produces a white leather suitable for dyeing in light shades. Shoes of Spanish leather, i. e. yellow leather, appear to have been preferred ‘to those which shine with blacking’ (Howell, Letters, I. i. 39). The grant dispenses with the provisions of an Act forbidding the export of leather. On the other hand, it insists on the employment and instruction of one English apprentice for every foreigner employed, and subjects the industry to the inspection of the Wardens of the Company of the Leather Sellers, who are responsible for ‘the skins being well and sufficientlie wrought.’ This grant must not be confused with a subsequent license to Andreas de Loo to export pelts which gave great offence to the trade. For evidence as to the use of sumach at this period see Library Association, Leather for Libraries, pp. 7-8.

These grants covered geographically those parts of England not included in Houghstetter’s patents and the Alum patent of De Vos. Calamine or zinc carbonate is an essential in the manufacture of latten or brass, which it was proposed to use in casting ordnance (S. P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 8, No. 14). The mineral was discovered in Somersetshire in 1566, and the first true brass made by the new process was exhibited in 1568. The patentees also erected at Tintern the first mill for drawing wire for use in wool-carding. In 1568 the Company was incorporated by Charter as the ‘Company of the Mineral and Battery Works,’ and remained under practically the same management as that of the Society of the Mines Royal (Stringer, Opera Mineralia Explicata). In 1574, and again in 1581, the assignees of the patent obtained an injunction against several owners of lead mines in Derbyshire for using certain methods of roasting lead ores in a furnace worked by the foot blast and other instruments invented by Humphrey after the date of his patent. The Court of Exchequer ordered models to be made, and after repeated adjournments a Commission was appointed to investigate ‘the using of furnaces and syves for the getting, cleansing, and melting of leade Ower at Mendype, and the usage and manner of the syve’ (Exchequer Decrees and Orders). The depositions in this case are still preserved, but it is impossible to trace the history of the case to its completion. Coke informs us that as regards the use of the sieve, the patent was not upheld on the ground of prior user at Mendip. It is a peculiarity of the grant that it covered all subsequent inventions of the patentees in this particular branch of metallurgy. The hearth was invented after the date of the patent, and one of the questions to be decided was whether a subsequent invention could be covered by letters patent or no. See also Hyde Price, pp. 55-60.

The patent was surrendered and reissued in the following year.

Acontius, an Italian engineer, had taken out letters of naturalization and was in receipt of a small Crown pension. The undated petition is to be found in S. P. Dom. Eliz. 1559. The real date, no doubt, is 1565.

Berty was a native of Antwerp, and probably introduced the Dutch mode of making salt for fish-curing. The salt was extracted by boiling in copper pans. Plans of the furnaces will be found in S. P. Dom. Eliz. 1566. The later salt patents of the reign gave rise to great local discontent, owing to the oppression of the patentees, who claimed the right to control the price of salt within certain areas.

In the Lansd. MSS. there is a declaration of the inventions of the above individual and his Company. They consisted of a process of tempering iron so that it might be cut into bars for various purposes, and of special mills for corn and for extracting oil from rape-seed, which for want of proper appliances was sent out of the kingdom to be extracted.

Strype, Eccles. Mem. records an attempt to introduce Normandy or ‘Crown’ glass in 1552. In 1557 English glassmakers were said to be ‘scant in the land,’ the seat of the manufacture, which was confined to small green glass ware, being at Chiddingfold. This patent may be said to have laid the foundation of modern English glass-making; see Antiquary, Nov. 1894—May, 1895 and Hyde Price, pp. 67, etc. It should be noted that the Crown had twice failed to manufacture glass on its own account. The patent insists on the instruction of the English as a condition of the validity of the grant. The attempt to manufacture ‘Crown’ glass appears to have been unsuccessful (Lansd. MSS. 76) and to have been abandoned until one Henry Richards brought the art to England in 1679 (Petition Entry Books, 2, 359).

Backe was a native of Brabant—a province noted for its dyers. The English dyers, on the other hand, bore an evil reputation. ‘No man almost wyll meddle with any colours of cloth touching wodde and mader, unlesse it beare the name of French and Flaunders dyes, for reason of the deceits practised by the English and the ignorance of the principles of their craft’ (Camden Miscellany). The grant covers all parts of Ireland, with special reference to specified counties. Infringement is punishable by one year’s imprisonment. Probably the first Irish monopoly grant.

A patent for dyeing and dressing cloth after the manner of Flanders. English cloth was still exported in the white, undressed condition to be finished abroad. According to the ‘Request of a true-hearted Englishman,’ dated 1553 (Camden Miscellany), this was due to ‘our beastlie blindness and lacke of studyous desire to do things perfectly and well.’ But probably the trade was hampered by the absence of the subsidiary industries of oil, alum, &c.

[See also patent dated Oct. 1564.] The grant is for setting up and using engines for mine drainage.

Frisadoes may be regarded as a variety of ‘broad bayes,’ but of a somewhat lighter character, and dyed and finished for the retail trade. The patent therefore was essentially for dyeing and finishing cloth. Hastings’ suit was supported by the Dyers’ Company, who reported that if English cloth were dyed within the country the Queen would gain £10,000 annually by the increased custom. The manufacture was established at Christchurch, Hampshire, but Hastings seems to have used his grant vexatiously by wantonly molesting the Essex weavers on the ground that the manufacture of baize came within the four corners of the patent. The matter was referred by the clothiers of Coggeshall to the Exchequer, when they claimed to have gained the day (S. P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 106, No. 47, and Noy, 183). Subsequently an agent of Hastings was brought before the Lord Mayor’s Court for trespass, and was fined £9 for molesting a weaver within the jurisdiction of the city (S. P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 173, No. 28). For text of the grant see Edmunds, Law of Patents, 2nd ed. p. 883.

The grant recites the condition of the lowlands and the need of a proper system of water supply for municipal and industrial purposes. The engines, once erected, will continue working without men’s labour. The grant is void if the engine be not erected within two years or fails to work efficiently as set forth. The petition appears in S. P. Dom. vol. 127, under the incorrect date 1578.

The grantee obtained his information by residence abroad. The patent was contested successfully by the London cutlers (Matthey’s case), apparently on the ground of ‘general inconvenience’ of patents of improvements in an existing trade. The text and history of the grant will be found in Edmunds, 2nd ed., p. 885.

According to Howes the grantee learned the art of making ‘earthen furnaces, firepots, and ovens transportable’ when a prisoner of the Spaniards (Portuguese?). The grant covers London and a three-mile radius. The industry was carried on ‘at London without Moorgate,’ and the patent was extended for seven years on January 28, 1579.

The grant is for modified forms of combined hand and treadmills, examples of which had already been erected at Glastonbury. The petition addressed to Burghley with ‘a plat of my worke, the fyrst I ever made,’ is preserved in the Lansd. MSS. Prior rights of millowners reserved. This is undoubtedly a native invention of considerable merit. As in some other cases, protection is sought in view of threatened unauthorized imitation of the invention.

The grantee is described as of Amsterdam, stranger. Prior rights are reserved, and a term of two years assigned for introducing the industry.

The grant covers all engines invented or to be invented by the grantee within this term, and extends to eight counties. Prior rights are reserved, but no term is fixed for working, owing probably to the invention being in the experimental stage.

The subject of the grant is the manufacture of sailcloths, hitherto brought from France. The grant recites that the art had been introduced and apprentices educated therein, and proceeds to confine the trade to Ipswich and Woodbridge under the supervision of the patentee. On February 5, 1590, the grant was reissued to John and Rd. Collyns for twenty-one years. Cf. also Statute 1 Jac. I, cap. 24, where the above statements are confirmed.

The grantees are bound to erect within one year a trial installation and to prove its efficacy. The invention appears to relate to a method of domestic heating by a system of flues connected with a central furnace, and to have been adopted in practice by brewers and others (Acts of the Privy Council, April 27, 1578).

The grant is made on the strength of works already erected at Crutched Friars, and aimed at superseding the trade in Italian glasses. The patentee undertakes to teach the art to natives, the Crown laying stress upon the fact that “great sums of money have gone forth of our Realms for that manner of ware.” Importation of foreign glass is prohibited, and the relations between the retail trade and the grantee regulated. In 1592 Verselyn surrendered the grant in favour of Sir Jerome Bowes, to whom a patent of twelve years was issued. Under this grant a rent of 100 marks is reserved to the Crown. For the further history and text of the grant cf. Antiquary, March, 1895, and Hyde Price, pp. 69, etc.

Strype’s Life of Smythe contains an account of this extraordinary undertaking, which was for the transmutation of iron into copper, and of lead and antimony into quicksilver. After several failures at Winchelsea, further attempts were made at Anglesea, where possibly some success was met with by the deposition of copper on iron rods laid in the copper-bearing waters of the district. The grant, or charter of incorporation, which is based on the invention of one Wm. Medley, illustrates the state of the native metallurgical science at the period.

A reissue of grant XI. Wm. Wade succeeds to the rights of the late Armigil Wade and introduces Mekyns, a London jeweller, as a capitalist prepared to spend large sums in extending the industries. By this grant it is proposed to substitute the use of vegetable oils extracted by the patentees for train or whale oil in soap-making and dressing cloth. The use of fish oil in the soap manufacture was prohibited in the following year (Acts of the Privy Council, 1578). There is a proviso that the quantities of rape and other oils made under the grant shall not be below that of the train oil entered in the London Customs’ books during the last three years. With regard to the extraction of sulphur from mineral sulphides the Crown secures a rebate of one-twelfth below market prices. Note generally that this and other patents of reissue are open to objection on the ground of the ‘unreasonable’ extension of their term and the undue enlargement of powers conveyed in the original grant.

The text and history of this important grant will be found in the Antiquary, Aug.—Sept. 1895. The patentee was of Dutch extraction. The grant reserves prior rights and fixes three years for the introduction of the invention, which comprised the first application of the force-pump to water-raising in this country, and led almost immediately to the introduction of the manual fire engine. On the continent the application of the force-pump was well known at this period.

The patentee undertakes to introduce the industry and to supply a better salt at cheaper rates. Two years are fixed for this purpose. A rent of £10 is reserved to the Crown.

The process consists of blending white Spanish salt with sea salt, and the product is applicable to fish-curing. The grantees were recommended by the Bailiffs and inhabitants of Yarmouth. The grant is made in part ‘for the relief of the decayed state’ of the Harebrownes’ fortunes occasioned by losses at sea, and is revocable at six months’ notice if found inconvenient to the town or commonweal. Importation of foreign white salt to Yarmouth forbidden.

The patentee is described as ‘one of our Trumpeters.’ The grant covers all future improvements, regulates prices, and reserves the right of one Peter Grinn, ‘who has heretofore mended trumpets.’ The grant extends to London and a seven-mile radius.

The grant recites that the patentee, a citizen of London, had for over twelve years practised and devised to make very good train oil from the livers of fishes imported from the north seas, and had erected houses and furnaces for the purpose. The uses of the oil are stated, and a rent of 20s. reserved to the Crown. The grant was reissued for ten years on May 1, 1591, to Richard Matthews, Yeoman of the Pantry; and again to his widow for twenty-one years. There can be no doubt as to the irregularity of these reissues, the first of which was opposed by the shoemakers and others of Scarborough. The industry existed for many years at Southwold.

Under the original grant the industry is confined to Lynn Regis and Boston. A rent of £6 6s. 8d. is reserved and immediate prosecution of the industry insisted upon. The patent was extended on Feb. 20, 1586, to Kingston-upon-Hull. On Aug. 31, 1599, the grant was surrendered in favour of John Smithe for the remainder of the term, and a new grant was issued in consideration of the payment by the latter of two sums of £4,750 and £2,250, apparently due to the Crown by one Robert Bowes, of Berwick, deceased. In defiance of the terms of the grant, which regulated prices by those of London (with a maximum price of 20d. a bushel), Smithe raised his prices to 14s. and 15s., and was thereupon committed by the Lord President, and the old prices restored. The salt was manufactured under a subcontract by Sir George Bruce, a colliery owner at Culross, who subsequently petitioned for a renewal of the license in 1611, offering to reduce the price of salt to 16d., or 2d. less than the London prices, and stating that he employed over 1,000 workmen.

The grant insists on the instruction of any member of the public for a reasonable recompense, of which one-tenth is reserved to the Crown. Trial of the invention is to be made before the Privy Council, and the grant is void if the cloth is injured in the process of calendering.

The subject of the grant is a light bullet-proof fabric without any metal ‘mingled or wrought in the same.’ The trademark is to be a half-moon, suggestive, as in Mathewe’s patent, of an Eastern origin. Probably a revival of the Saracenic defensive felt armour.

The grant was reissued to Sir John Pakington for eight years on July 6, 1594, and again to the same individual on May 20, 1598. The consideration stated is the annual rent of £40, but the real consideration of the grant is the suppression of the manufacture of starch from grain—the patentee being confined ‘to bran of wheat.’ The grant of the trade was clearly illegal. As an instance of gross oppression by the patentee we may cite Hatfield MSS. 4, p. 261, where an individual appears to have been imprisoned by Pakington for selling starch bought under Young’s patent. Pakington appears to have undertaken to pay certain pensions to certain Dutch women whose names are connected with the introduction of starching into England (ib. p. 614).

The grant is to teach, print, and publish works in shorthand. In the Lansd. MSS. there is a letter in favour of the system, with the Epistle to Titus enclosed as a specimen.

There is reason to believe that the invention was of foreign origin, although it is stated that Bulmer ‘is the first inventor and publisher within the realm.’ Bulmer was a good mechanic and mining engineer, whose services were in demand in all parts of the kingdom.

The grant is described as ‘our letters of commission for the making of saltpetre,’ and is made in consideration of a great quantity of corn powder to be delivered to ‘our store within the Tower.’ A new grant, drawn by Coke, on Sept. 7, 1591, was made to Evelyn and others, annulling all earlier grants. The constitutional nature of the saltpetre grants was admitted by the Statute of Monopolies, but the practice was objectionable, owing to the inquisitorial powers and right of entrance upon lands conveyed by these grants.

The grantee, an alien, held the office of Jeweller to the Queen. The grant is possibly connected with the petition of Rd. Tottyll, the Elizabethan law publisher, who in 1585 stated that the French, by buying up all the linen rags in the kingdom, had thwarted his efforts to introduce the manufacture. The industry was established by Spilman at Dartford, where he employed over 600 workmen. The grant prohibits the manufacture of brown paper, and is void if the former manufacture be discontinued for six months. On July 15, 1597, the patent was reissued for fourteen years with the same proviso, but covering the manufacture of all kinds of paper. The text of the original grant and the petition of Tottyll will be found in Arber’s Registers of the Stationers Company, i. 242, ii. 814. See also Rhys Jenkins in Library Association Record, Sept.—Nov. 1900.

The consideration of the grant is the economy of fuel, of which one load would be required in place of four per ton of iron. Various small royalties are reserved to the Crown.

The object of the invention is to overcome the popular objection to the unsavoury fumes of coal used in the imperfectly constructed hearths of the period. A royalty of 4d. per chaldron on the refined coal for domestic use and 8d. per chaldron on the exported coal is reserved, with the usual proviso in favour of users of old processes.

Apparently a form of wooden cartridge containing powder and shot, for facilitating the loading of firearms.

This grant may be regarded as typical of the Elizabethan monopoly system at its worst. It recites that about thirty years past strangers and others had substituted beer in the manufacture of the above liquors and ‘sauces’; but that of late certain covetous makers had further employed such ‘corrupt, noisome, and loathsome stuff’ that a reformation of the abuses was urgently required in the interests of the public health. The grant proceeds to invest in Drake the sole manufacture of the ale to be employed—such ale to be sold at London rates, with a rent of £20 per annum reserved to the Crown. Drake was further charged with the suppression of all vinegar, &c., sold in casks not bearing his own trademarks. At the last moment, ‘when the grant was fully passed,’ Lord Burghley intervened, and insisted upon the insertion of clauses reserving the rights of those manufacturers who employed wine lees in the manufacture, together with those of the makers of vinegar for domestic uses and charitable purposes. Wales is also excepted from the grant. The exaggerated recitals in this grant excited notice at the time; cf. Harrington, Metamorphosis of Ajax, and the ‘Case of Monopolies.’ For the abuse of the grant cf. D’Ewes Journal, 644, and the Lansd. and Harl. MSS.

The ‘inventor’ learned the art from the Dutch, and undertakes to introduce skilled labour from abroad.

Another water-raising device, obtained ‘by long and painful study of the mathematical sciences’ by the petitioner, a Cambridge Master of Arts. It is stated ‘a special work’ for supplying water to London had already been undertaken by the patentee. Prior rights reserved.

A patent for the sole importation of playing-cards had been granted (18 Eliz. p. 1) to Ralph Bowes and Thomas Bedingfield, and in 1578 John Acheley, of London, was called upon by the Privy Council to answer by what authority he presumed to manufacture and sell playing-cards notwithstanding the above patent. Acheley replied that his doings were lawful, ‘grounding himself upon the laws of the realm.’ The legal points were thereupon referred to the Master of the Rolls (Sir Wm. Cordell) and the Attorney-General (? G. Gerrard), praying them to take some pains and certify their opinion, that such order may be taken as shall be agreeable with justice and equity. Their lordships, however, hint that a composition between the parties would be an acceptable termination of the dispute, as ‘Acheley doth by his cardmaking set manie personnes on work which by the inhibition of his profession would otherwise be ydele.’ In 1579 and 1580 further action was taken against other parties who had imitated the seal of the patentee with a view to avoid detection. In 1589, on the complaint of Bowes, the Privy Council ordered that the grants be maintained according to the contents thereof, and that hereafter infringers shall not only be taken to prison until sufficient security has been provided, but shall also have such tools, moulds, or other instruments taken away, broken in pieces and defaced. For the further history of the celebrated grant see Gordon, Monopolies by Patents.

Various military inventions and accoutrements to enable soldiers to perform the work of ‘Pyoners.’ There is a proviso that the requirements of the Crown shall be supplied. In 1604 the patentee notified his intention to present the above invention to the Crown, offering the master of the Ordnance £2,000 if he could get the portsack introduced into the southern counties.

The results of the industrial policy of the Elizabethan reign may now be presented in tabular form:—

The first column of our classification comprises grants for new industries and inventions to aliens or naturalized subjects of the Crown. With these we find occasionally associated a native, acting as interpreter and intermediary between the foreigner and the public. The figures for the period 1571-90 indicate the development of native enterprise, although the industries still bear the impress of foreign suggestion. The Statistics for 1591-1603, which indicate a practical reversal of the favourable attitude of the Crown toward the inventor, afford a fair criterion of the industrial value of the Elizabethan patent system. During this period we have to record the rejection of the suits for protection of the following inventions:—(a) The stocking frame of Lee—the most original invention of the age, which for lack of encouragement went to France, where the inventor is stated to have received a privilege; (b) the water-closet of Harington, which was reintroduced about a century and a half later; (c) a scheme of Gianibelli for land reclamation; (d) various devices of the ingenious Hugh Platt, in part of foreign origin; (e) Stanley’s invention of armour plates; and (f) a scheme for sugar-refining, the novelty, however, of which was questioned.

True and First Inventor. An attempt to further illustrate the growth of the native inventive talent by subdividing the above figures into grants of importation and invention proved impracticable owing to the want of definition in the phraseology descriptive of the relation of the patentee to the subject of the grant. In the 16th Cent. the meaning of the verb ‘to invent’ and its derivatives was not confined to its modern signification. For instance in the translation of the well known work of Polydore Vergil De inventoribus rerum, under a chapter headed ‘Who found out Metals’ we are told that ‘Eacus invented it [i. e. gold] in Panchaia,’ and again that the Justinians, a religious order, were ‘invented’ [i. e. founded] by Lewis Barbus. This view has since been confirmed by the ‘Oxford English Dictionary,’ which has assigned to the verb ‘invent’ two meanings now obsolete (a) to discover—a meaning still preserved in the phrase ‘the invention of the Cross,’ (b) ‘to originate, to bring into use formally or by authority, to found, establish, institute or appoint.’ Before attempting, however, to assign a definite equivalent of the ‘the true and first inventor’ of the Statute of Monopolies the results of an examination of the phraseology of the patent grants and legal decisions prior to the Statute must be given. Briefly, on the Patent Rolls the words are found in all these meanings: but when used in the modern sense they are generally preceded or supported by another less equivocal term or phrase, e. g. ‘invented and devised’ ‘devise and invention.’ Frequently a different terminology is selected, e. g. ‘first finders out and searchers’ ‘first deviser and maker.’ Again ‘invention’ is often asserted in the later clauses of the patent grant where no claim to invention is made in the recitals of the grant (Cf. Patents No. ii, xxxv, xlv, lii). Here ‘invention’ must be translated as ‘new art,’ for as invention was not required to support a patent the patentee had no object in laying claim to it, whilst a false recital was fatal to the validity of a patent.

Turning from the Patent Rolls to the judicial decisions, in Darcy v. Allen, ‘invention’ is used in its modern sense preceded by another word, viz. ‘wit and invention’; but in the Clothworkers of Ipswich case (1615) the phrase ‘invention and a new trade’ is actually used to distinguish an imported process from ‘invention,’ i. e. the result of the exercise of the inventive faculty. ‘If a man hath brought in a new invention and a new trade . . . in peril of his life or consumption of his estate, or if a man hath made a new discovery of anything, in such cases, etc.’ Again, ‘Of a new invention the King can grant a patent’ but ‘where there is no invention the King cannot by his patent hinder any trade.’ Here the Court is dealing with the amount of difference required to support a patent, not with the source from which the patented process is derived. The following reasons, therefore, may be given for attributing to the phrase ‘true and first inventor’ the meaning ‘true and first originator, founder or institutor’ of the new manufactures, viz.:

(a) The meaning is consistent with contemporary usage.

(b) It maintains complete conformity between the judicial decisions and the Statute which is professedly declaratory of those decisions, as to the description of the two parties who could qualify for the grant; while it retains in the Statute a declaration of the express ‘consideration’ of the grants which is otherwise wanting. The suggested interpretation, it will be observed, specifies neither the inventor nor the importer directly, but includes both.

(c) If any preference had been intended between the importer and inventor, the former would have been favoured, for the introduction of new foreign industries was less likely to prove inconvenient than improvements on existing ones (Cf. D’Ewes’ Journal, 678).

(d) If the Statute had proposed to favour the inventor as against the importer the party denoted would have been described with greater precision, and some ‘consideration’ would have been exacted by limiting a term for the introduction of the industry or by requiring some form of disclosure of the invention.

It will be readily understood how the meaning of invention became associated with the idea of experimental effort as distinguished from the practical institution of a new art. In the natural order of things patents of invention succeeded to patents of importation as the base of national industry was broadened and as its level was gradually raised to that of the Continent. Yarranton’s complaint in 1677 (Law Quart. Review July 1902) could hardly have been penned if the word had then retained its original signification. The practice of the Crown with respect to patents of importation was supported indeed by Edgebury v. Stephens (1691) on the ground that the source of an invention is immaterial, ‘whether learned by study or travel it is the same thing,’ but the light which once illuminated the word ‘inventor’ had faded, and henceforward the practice of the Crown has been treated as ‘an anomaly which has acquired by time and recognition the force of law (Edmunds 2nd ed. pp. 266-67), but for which no statutory authority is forthcoming.’

Disclosure of invention. Hindmarch, one of the greatest writers on English Patent Law, once expressed a doubt whether the patentee was ever under an obligation to work his grant at all. The same writer in his chapter on the patent specification asserted that a grant was bad in law which contained no technical description in the recitals of the patent, or in respect of which no specification was required to be filed. Both statements however are directly opposed to the evidence of the Patent Rolls.

That disclosure was not required prior to the middle of the eighteenth century may be gathered from the final clause in the Letters Patent which ran that the grant should be favorably construed by the Courts ‘notwithstanding the not full and certain describing the nature and quality of the said invention or of the materials thereunto conducing and belonging.’ This clause, although not peculiar to Letters Patent for inventions, could hardly have been introduced, if at the date of its introduction written or printed disclosure of the invention had been required of the patentee. The attitude of the Crown toward disclosure may be gathered from the three following typical cases: (A) The first known patent specification relates to the saltpetre patent of 1561. Here the original proposal was that the Crown should manufacture on its own account, and a sum of money was to be paid by the Queen in return for the disclosure of the new art and the personal services of the introducer. Subsequently the bargain was transferred to two London tradesmen who took over the Crown’s liability in consideration of the monopoly. (B) In 1611 Simon Sturtevant, on his own initiative and probably with a fraudulent motive, filed with his petition what he called a ‘Treatise of Metallica’ which treatise he covenanted to supplement by a fuller statement to be printed and published within a given term after the letters patent. This anticipation of the system of provisional and complete specification is in itself sufficiently curious. But in his final treatise Sturtevant lays down with great clearness the modern doctrine of the patent specification, adding that ‘he was not tied to any time in the trial of his invention.’ He was speedily undeceived, for in the following year the patent was cancelled on the ground of his outlawry and neglect to work the patent. (C) A century later, 1711, we have the case of Nasmith’s patent from which we quote the following extract:

Patent Roll, 10 Anne. Part 2.

‘Anne, &c., Whereas John Nasmith of Hamelton in North Britain, apothecary, has by his petition represented to us that he has at great expense found out a new Invention for preparing and fermenting wash from sugar “Molosses” and all sorts of grain to be distilled which will greatly increase our revenues when put in practice which he alleges he is ready to do “but that he thinks it not safe to mencon in what the New Invention consists untill he shall have obtained our Letters Patents for the same. But has proposed to ascertain the same in writeing under his hand and seale to be Inrolled in our high Court of Chancery within a reasonable time after the passing of these our Letters Patents,” &c.’

From these cases we may deduce the origin of the specification, viz. that the practice arose at the suggestion, and for the benefit, of the grantee with the view of making the grant more certain, and not primarily as constituting the full disclosure of the invention now required at law for the instruction of the public.

This theory harmonizes with what is known of the practice of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. So long as the monopoly system aimed at the introduction of new industries such as copper, lead, gold, and silver mining, or the manufacture of glass, paper, alum, &c., &c., the requisition of a full description would have required a treatise rather than a specification, and would have materially detracted from the concession offered by the Crown, besides constituting a precedent for which no sufficient reason or authority could have been adduced. But when, by a natural development, the system began to be utilized by inventors working more or less on the same lines for the same objects, the latter for their own protection draughted their applications with a view of distinguishing their processes from those of their immediate predecessors, and of ensuring priority against all subsequent applicants. Hence, while the recitals of the sixteenth century deal almost exclusively with suggestions of the advantages which would accrue to the State from the possession of certain industries, or with statements respecting steps taken by the applicants to qualify themselves for the monopoly, those of a later date not infrequently deal with the technical nature of the proposed improvement. These recitals, therefore, while forming no part of the consideration of the grant, are undoubtedly the precursors of the modern patent specification. Between 1711 and 1730 the wording of the proviso (when the latter appears among the general covenants of the grant) distinctly recognizes the proposal as emanating from the applicant—‘whereas A did propose to ascertain under his hand and seal, &c., &c.;’ but about the year 1730 the form of a proviso voiding the grant in case of the non-filing of a specification was substituted. Still the practice of requiring a specification cannot be said to have been established prior to the middle of the eighteenth century.

The first judicial pronouncement as to the position which the patent specification has since occupied in English patent law must be claimed for Lord Mansfield, though the exact date of his Lordship’s dictum cannot at present be stated. The following quotation, establishing the fact, is taken from the summing up of Lord Mansfield in Liardet v. Johnson (1778), a case supposed to have been unreported. There is some reason to think that the pamphlet containing the account of the trial was suppressed shortly after its publication (Cf. Law Quart. Review, July 1902). Lord Mansfield’s words are as follows:

‘The third point is whether the specification is such as instructs others to make it. For the condition of giving encouragement is this: that you must specify upon record your invention in such a way as shall teach an artist, when your term is out, to make it—and to make it as well as you by your directions; for then at the end of the term, the public have the benefit of it. The inventor has the benefit during the term, and the public have the benefit after. But if, as Dr. James did with his powders, the specification of the composition gives no proportions, there is an end of his patent, and when he is dead, nobody is a bit the wiser; the materials were all old—antimony is old, and all the other ingredients. If no proportion is specified, you are not, I say, a bit the wiser; and, therefore, I have determined, in several cases here, the specification must state, where there is a composition, the proportions; so that any other artist may be able to make it, and it must be a lesson and direction to him by which to make it. If the invention be of another sort, to be done by mechanism, they must describe it in a way that an artist must be able to do it.’

Novelty. The statutory definition of novelty is precise. It confines future grants ‘to the sole working and making of new manufactures . . . which others at the time of making such letters patent and grant shall not use. The statutory limitation reappears in the clause in the letters patent which avoids the grant on proof that the said invention ‘is not a new manufacture as to the public use and exercise thereof.’ Modern commentators, however, jump to the conclusion that under the Statute ‘there must be novelty.’ But manifestly a proper deduction from the clause is that want of novelty could not be raised as a separate issue apart from prior user. Neither in Bircot’s case or in Coke’s commentary do we find any trace of the doctrine that proof of prior publication would avoid a patent. Yarranton (Law Quart. Review, July 1902) who states the case against patents more strongly even than Coke is also silent as to this defeasance. Novelty according to these writers is limited to a comparison with the corresponding art within the realm, but within this limited area absolute distinction may be required to be shown. By a curious coincidence this interpretation of the Statute is to be found in Liardet v. Johnson, the case already referred to as having by its enunciation of the doctrine of the patent specification substantially relaid the foundations of the law of patents.

‘The other extreme,’ said Lord Mansfield, ‘is the suffering men to get monopolies of what is in use and in the trade at the time they apply for letters patent, and therefore the Statute of King James expressly qualifies it. That it must be of such invention (sic) as are not then used by others.’ Again ‘An invention must be something in the trade and followed and pursued;’ ‘whether it was in books or receipts it never prevailed in practice or in the trade.’ The modern view of the law of Novelty was unsuccessfully urged, it should be noted, by the defendants’ counsel, but in this trial the learned judge would appear not to have realised, or to have been unwilling to apply the results which flowed naturally from his previous dicta. If disclosure was the sole obligation laid upon the inventor by the grant, proof of prior disclosure must render the patent invalid for want of consideration.

Utility. The statute does not in terms mention utility (Edmunds. 2nd ed. p. 100: Frost 2nd ed. 139) and the chapter on utility in the textbooks is generally vague and unsatisfactory. Utility, of course, is implied in the phrase ‘new manufactures . . . to the true and first inventors thereof,’ for the introduction of a new art on a commercial scale cannot take place unless the product serves some useful purpose. Arts, the exercise of which are ‘contrary to law, or mischievous to the State or generally inconvenient’ are separately provided for.

Jurisdiction. In a recent Government paper on the working of the Patent Acts [Cd 906] the origin and exercise of the powers committed to the Privy Council with respect to the revocation of patents on the ground of inconvenience is dealt with at some length. Under the Stuarts a clause was also inserted directing the patentee in case of resistance to the grant to certify the same to the Court of Exchequer. Later on the King’s Bench or Privy Council are substituted: but finally the Crown was content to threaten the utmost rigour of the law in case of contempt of this ‘Our Royal Command,’ without specifying where relief was to be obtained. The whole question of the jurisdiction of the patent grants in the 17th Century requires further research; but there are grounds for thinking that as a rule this jurisdiction was exercised by the Privy Council down to the middle of the 18th Century. The point is of great importance in explaining the want of continuity between the Statute of Monopolies and the decisions under the Statute in the latter half of the 18th Cent. It is clear that at this period the Courts were without precedents to guide them, for the Privy Council was an executive body, and not a legally qualified tribunal. The following case of revocation of a patent by the Privy Council in the year 1745, acting under the powers reserved to it by the above clause in the letters patent will go far to confirm this view. In this year an order vacating Betton’s patent for making British oil was made at a meeting of the Council, at which were present the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other dignitaries. The order states that a petition for revocation had been presented by two makers and dealers in a similar oil, that the matter had been referred to the Law Officers, who reported that the petitioners had made good their case and that they were of opinion that the letters patent should be made void. Whereupon the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council agreeing with the opinion of the Law Officers, the King was pleased to order that the patent should be made void, and an order to this effect was therefore signed by 7 of the Privy Councillors present.

[1 ]This essay was first published in four parts in the Law Quarterly Review, 1896-1902, vols. XII, 141-154, XIII, 312-318, XVI, 44-56, XVIII, 280-288, and has been revised and condensed by the author for this Collection.

[2 ]Librarian of the Patent Office, London. Corpus Christi College, Oxford, B. A., 1880.

Other Publications: Articles in Industries (1893), Engineering (1894), the Antiquary (1894-95), the Library (1898).

[1 ]This text will be found in Rymer. A facsimile reproduction forms the frontispiece to Prof. Cunningham’s Alien Immigrants in England. 1897.

[1 ]In the report of the Hist. MSS. Comm. xiv, pt. viii. p. 7, Lincoln, there is an ordinance dated May 1, 1291, which at first sight carries back this policy of encouragement to a still earlier date. It runs as follows: ‘and that men may have the greater will to labour in the making of cloth in England, Ireland, and Wales, We will that all men may know that We will grant suitable franchises to fullers, weavers, and dyers, and other clothworkers who work in this mystery so soon as such franchises are asked of us.’ The ‘Athenæum,’ 1896, however, points out from internal evidence that the true date of the document is probably May 1, 1326. See also Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1327-30 under date May 1, 1327, where it appears that the first act of Ed. III. was to cause a renewal of the ‘Ordinance of the late king.’