In 1588 Spilman was granted a Crown lease on two mills in the Manor of Bignores at Dartford (the mills were previously leased to local landowner William Vaughan who died in 1580). Spilman repaired and altered the mills, at an estimated cost of £1,500, and financed the employment of skilled German paper-makers to produce good quality white paper. One of the first works published using Spilman's paper was a poem by Thomas Churchyard dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh thus:
