Jack O'Newbury facts for kids

"Jack of Newbury" or John Winchcombe, also known as John Smallwood (born around 1489, died 1557), was a very important cloth maker from Newbury, England. During the time of King Henry VIII, making woollen cloth was a huge business in England, and it was the main thing England sold to other countries. John Winchcombe was one of the biggest producers, making cloth on a massive scale for export.

He was also a leader in the cloth industry in other ways. Cloth making had many rules back then. In the 1530s and 1540s, Winchcombe led many other cloth makers in a big effort to convince King Henry VIII to change the laws about making woollen cloth. This effort was successful in the end!

John Winchcombe's father was also a cloth maker. John started his own cloth business even before his father passed away in 1520. He then combined both businesses and took over properties his father had leased. He was already rich in the 1520s, and as he became even wealthier, his social standing grew a lot.

John Winchcombe: The Famous Clothier

Building a Fortune: Wealth and Land

John Winchcombe became a very rich landowner. In the 1540s, he spent over £4,000 buying properties. This included large estates called manors, such as Thatcham and Bucklebury in 1540, Farnborough in 1542, and Lockinge and Ginge in 1546.

He also owned many other properties, mostly in and around Newbury, which he often leased out. Some of these lands had belonged to Sandleford Priory, a monastery that closed down in the 1400s.

Serving His Country: A Man of Influence

Even though he continued to be a cloth maker, John Winchcombe became part of the important people in Berkshire, known as the gentry. He became a Justice of the Peace, which meant he helped keep law and order. He also became a Member of Parliament, representing areas like Great Bedwyn in 1545 and Cricklade in 1547. He might have served in Parliament even earlier, but the records from those times are not complete.

Helping the King's Army

As a member of the county gentry, John Winchcombe was asked to provide men from Newbury to fight in King Henry VIII's armies. This started in 1536 when he was asked for help against rebels in the north (this was during an event called the Pilgrimage of Grace). In 1543, he was asked to supply 10 foot soldiers for the army in Flanders. For the Boulogne campaign in 1544, documents show he led 150 men from Newbury, all wearing new coats. His will from 1557 mentions that he owned 20 sets of armor and two demi-lances (a type of spear).

John Winchcombe was also among the important people who welcomed Henry VIII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. He knew famous people like Sir Thomas Gresham and Protector Somerset. He was even given his own coat of arms (a special family symbol) and had his portrait painted in 1550.

Making Cloth: An Industrial Scale

During the Tudor period, many different types of English cloths were made. The most common were broadcloths and kersies. Records show that John Winchcombe made kersey cloths on a huge scale. In the 1540s, he produced over 6,000 cloths every year! Each kersey cloth was about 0.9 meters (1 yard) wide and 17–18 yards long.

The amount of cloth he made is also clear from how much dye he bought. Woad, a blue dye, was his most important one. It was often delivered by the cartload. One order shows he bought over 27 tons of woad!

Many workers were involved in making the cloth, from spinning the wool to weaving it. A process called Fulling (which cleaned and thickened the cloth) happened in local mills. The finished kersies were then sent through London to Antwerp in Belgium. In the 1530s and 1540s, his cloths were known as the best of their kind there. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that Winchcombe's cloths "came to enjoy an unquestioned superiority... in Antwerp... and also in markets in Italy, the Levant, Germany, Hungary, and elsewhere, where they had the greatest renown…"

The high value of his cloth is shown by an order from Thomas Cromwell for 1,000 cloths. English merchants overseas would sometimes only sell Winchcombe's cloths if buyers also bought less popular cloths at the same time.

Even though some people used to say Winchcombe started England's first factory, there's no proof of a weaving workshop in his records. However, the huge number of cloths he produced suggests he might have had a workshop with 30–50 looms.

His Home: Jack of Newbury's House

John Winchcombe's home was located off the east side of Northbrook Street in Newbury. It had a wide front facing the street, about 29 meters (96 feet) long. The house filled the area between Jack Street and Marsh Lane (where a Marks & Spencer store is now). It stretched back towards an area called the Marsh (now Victoria Park).

It was here that he welcomed the future Protector Somerset. His home was made up of timber-framed buildings arranged around courtyards. It included a fancy hall and parlor, a buttery (for food), a kitchen, a cheesehouse, a bakehouse, a bolting house (for sifting flour), and a brewhouse. There were also many "chambers" or bedrooms. A small part of this large home still stands today on the corner of Marsh Lane, with old carvings and decorations on the outside. Carved panels from inside his home are now at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.

A survey from his time shows that this was indeed Winchcombe's home. In 2016, a blue plaque was put up to mark its historical importance. Some parts of the cloth-making process were also done at his house. When he bought Bucklebury, he built a grand Tudor house there, which became the home of his oldest son.

His Passing in 1557

John Winchcombe wrote his last will on December 2, 1557. He died soon after and was buried in St. Nicolas Church in Newbury on December 8. This church had been rebuilt in the 1520s and 1530s. His merchant's mark (a special symbol for his business) can be seen regularly among the roof bosses (decorative carvings) in the main part of the church. His will was officially approved on May 23, 1558. Even though he was very important, no memorial to him has survived in the church, though there is a brass plaque for his father.

He was married at least three times. He was survived by his children: John, Thomas, Henry, and Anne. His oldest son, also named John Winchcombe, also served as a Member of Parliament in the 1550s and 1570s.

His Legacy: A Storyteller's Tale

The Pleasant Historie of Iohn Winchcombe, in his younger yeares called Iack of Newberie, the famous and worthy Clothier of England was a fictional story about Winchcombe's life. It was written by Thomas Deloney, a silk-weaver and writer of ballads, and first published in 1597. Some parts of this book are based loosely on Winchcombe's real life, but much of the story was made up or copied from other sources. It is usually considered fiction, not history.

It was Deloney who first used the name "Jack of Newbury" in print. The book quickly became very popular and was printed many times. Winchcombe became a national celebrity, much like Dick Whittington or Robin Hood. The name "Jack O'Newbury" is a slightly changed version that came later.

Deloney's book claimed that Winchcombe's premises had 200 looms. It also told a story about King Henry VIII and his Queen Katherine visiting Winchcombe, but there's no real proof this visit happened, even though Henry VIII did pass through Newbury several times. Deloney also changed the Boulogne campaign to the Battle of Flodden in his story. Both were times when England was fighting both Scotland and France.

Because Deloney took liberties with history, John Winchcombe (the son) has often been confused with his father, who had the same name (also known as John Smallwood) and died in 1520. The idea that "Jack" was the father became popular thanks to the historian Walter Money in 1887 and was widely believed afterward. The History of Parliament (1982) also linked the name to the father. However, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2013) says that it "has been plausibly argued" that Deloney's book was actually about the son.

Thomas Fuller, a writer in the 1600s, described Jack of Newbury as "…the most considerable Clothier (without fancy or fiction) England ever beheld."