John Tate (papermaker)

Neither father nor son is to be confused with a third John Tate, apparently a cousin of the subject, who was knighted and who served as Lord Mayor in 1496-97 and 1514–15.

The catchment of the Beane was a rural area, but there is evidence that Tate found customers locally with some of his paper being used for record-keeping by the Woodhall estate a few miles upstream.

[3] Importantly for his business plan, the mill was less than 30 miles from the capital which could be accessed via Ermine Street or the River Lea (see note1).

The quality of the paper was good, but the mill seems to have ceased producing it at the beginning of the 16th century for reasons which are not clear.

The valley of the River Gade proved a suitable site and, in a significant break-through, a continuous paper making machine was installed at Frogmore Mill in 1803.