The reference to the fustian-weavers certainly suggests that fustians would be included among the stuffs other than woollens, and if so there can be little doubt that they were of the same character as those to which the petition quoted by Mr. Price refers. Moreover, if the fustian-weavers had reached a stage in the reign of Elizabeth--even in the last year of her reign--when they could petition for reformation of abuses, it is not unreasonable to suppose that a fustian-manufacture would have commenced in 1594, and that the fabrics produced were included in the patent granted to the Alnagers in that year. Even this does not fix the date when the manufacture began, but earlier dependable evidence is difficult to find. Before the end of the sixteenth century two statutes had been passed relating to fustians, but in the first, which appeared in 1495-1496 (11 Hen. VII., e. 27), it was definitely stated that they were imported, although they were sheared in this country. The statute also makes clear that the fustians were at least composed partly of cotton. The second appeared in 1597-1598 (39 Eliz., c. 11) and was a continuance of the first. In this statute no mention was made of the fustians being imported, nor was it stated that they were manufactured in this country, but the weaving of fustians was said to have “lately grown to more use than ever it was before time.” This statement, and the fact that it was thought advisable to re-enact the statute, may reasonably be taken to support the view that, in the nineties of the sixteenth century, a manufacture of fustians had commenced in England. One other fact worth notice is that when a fustian manufacture had certainly become established in the Manchester district much of the linen-yarn used was imported from Ireland. This trade, however, was carried on as early as 1543 (_ante_, p. 30), and a conjecture is raised as to whether fustians may not have been made in the Manchester district at that time, but under another name. In the _Victoria County History of Lancashire_, ii., p. 296, it is stated that “the manufacture of ‘fustians’ a mixture of wool and linen, and subsequently styled ‘cottons’” was in existence in the neighbourhood of Manchester at the close of the fifteenth century. The identification of fustians with cottons at this early date is tempting, and would explain much, but it does not seem to be warranted by available evidence. As far as such evidence goes, it appears that the beginning of the fustian-manufacture has to be sought in the industrial changes of the second half of the sixteenth century, and that, in England, fustians made partly of cotton were a species of the “new drapery.” _Page 10, note 2._--A patent was granted in connection with new draperies in 1594 and was transferred to the Duke of Lennox after the accession of James I. (Price, _ibid._).