On its
site, such is the irony of time, a "martyr's memorial" has been
erected to the unhappy and unfortunate folk burnt here in the time of
Queen Mary.
But Dartford is too pleasant a place to be left with such a merely
archaeological survey as this. It is a town in which one may be happy;
historically, however, it has not much claim upon our notice, its
chief boast being that it was here the first act of violence in the
Peasants' Revolt of 1381 occurred, when Wat Tyler broke the head of
the poll-tax collector who had brutally assaulted his daughter. Wat or
Walter--Tyler, because of his trade, which was that of covering roofs
with tiles--would seem, however, not to have been a Dartford man at
all. The very proper murder of the tax-collector would appear to have
been the work of a certain John "Tyler" of the same profession, here
in Dartford.
The Peasants' Revolt, which, alas! came to nothing, brings us indeed
quite into Chaucer's day, but it would have had little sympathy from
him, nor indeed has it really anything specially to do with this town.
The true fame of Dartford, which is its paper-making, dates from the
end of the sixteenth century, when one Sir John Speelman, jeweller to
Queen Elizabeth, is said to have established the first paper-mill.
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