Abstract
Colchester is in north-east Essex, on the banks of the River Colne. It had a long history as a producer of woollen cloth and since the late sixteenth century it was renowned for producing the so-called New Draperies which were sold in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. But in the early eighteenth century, the cloth trade in Colchester, badly affected by the French Wars, was already on the way to decline.
The borough corporation of Colchester did not exercise effective leadership in helping the cloth industry. It was absorbed by its own factional diputes between Tories and Whigs. In 1742 the borough charter was confiscated after proceedngs against the mayor and the corporation had forced them disclaim their rights.
Philip Morant, a rector of St Mary's at the Walls in Colchester and a local historian, published The History and Antiquities in the Most Ancient Town and Borough of Colchester in the County of Essex in 1748. He was an observer of the final years of the old corporation. In his book, Morant deplored what he saw as the decayed state of Colchester as the reduction in the cloth trade coincided with the loss of the charter. His paternalism was affronted by the social problems he perceived without an effective administration to relieve them. Morant was aware that the cloth industry was giving way to the service industries of a consumer society. But he rejected them as luxurious and corrupt. Through the detailed analysis of the Morant's narrative, this article tries to show how an eighteenth-century historian understood the historical process of urban decline in a provincial town.
