The first London founders of note were a family of the name of Wymbish, residing in Aldgate, which was always the bell-founders’ quarter, as the still existing name of Billiter (or Belleyetere) Street implies. There were three Wymbishes--Richard, Michael, and Walter--covering the period 1290-1310. Richard cast bells for the neighbouring Priory of the Holy Trinity, and has left his name at Goring, in Oxfordshire, and on other bells in Essex, Kent, Northants, and Suffolk; Michael cast five bells still remaining in Bucks; and Walter, one in Sussex. Other important founders of this century are Peter de Weston, William Revel, and William Burford.[2] John and William Rufford, who may have had their foundry at Bedford, were known as “Royal bell-founders,” and placed upon their bells the heads of the reigning King, Edward III, and his consort, Philippa. These stamps have a very curious history; and were successively the property of founders at King’s Lynn, Worcester, Leicester, and Nottingham. At the latter place they remained in use from about 1400 down to the end of the eighteenth century; and their last appearance is in 1806, on a bell at Waltham Abbey, cast by Briant of Hertford. Between 1370 and 1385 there was a founder in Kent whose name was Stephen Norton; he used very richly-ornamented letters, which may be seen on one of the old bells of Worcester Cathedral, cast by him when the tower was rebuilt. The other principal foundries of this century were at King’s Lynn, Gloucester, and York. The Gloucester foundry was successively in the hands of “Sandre of Gloucester” (1300-1320) and “Master John of Gloucester” (1340-1350). The latter’s reputation apparently extended to East Anglia, as in 1347 he was commissioned to cast six new bells for the Cathedral at Ely, which were conveyed thither from Northampton by way of the Nene and Ouse. The largest bell, called “IESVS,” weighed nearly two tons, and the fourth was named “Walsingham,” after the famous Prior Alan who constructed the central octagon of the cathedral. [Illustration: _Plate 7._ OUTER MOULDS OR COPES FOR CASTING A RING OF EIGHT BELLS. (See page 14.)] Of the York founders, the most famous is Richard Tunnoc, commemorated in the remarkable “Bell-founder’s window” already described (Plate 13). He was M.P. for the city in 1327, and died in 1330. The names of other known founders of this city extend from Johannes de Copgrave, in 1150, down to the time of the Reformation. A bell at Scawton, in the North Riding, has been thought to be the work of Copgrave, and, if so, is by far the earliest existing church bell in England, if not in Europe.