THE FIRST PAPER-MILL IN ENGLAND

In the year 1588, a paper-mill was established at Dartford, in Kent, by John Spilman, "jeweller to the Queen." The particulars of this mill are recorded in a poem by Thomas Churchyard, published shortly after its foundation, under the following title:— "A description and playne discourse of paper, and the whole benefits that paper brings, with rehearsall, and setting foorth in verse a paper-myll built near Darthforth, by an high Germaine, called Master Spilman, jeweller to the Queene's Majyestie." The writer says: "(Then) he that made for us a paper-mill, Is worthy well of love and worldes goo…