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MAGNATES OF THE COPPER MANUFACTURE

IN THE SWANSEA DISTRICT,

DURING THE

EARLIER

PORTION OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

TAKEN FROM THE LIFE & REPRODUCED BY THE AUTOTYPE CO

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subject, I now proceed to give the names of the Shareholders in this, to us, most interesting concern "The Mines Royal Society," from an original list supplied to Mr. Secretary Walsingham, it is true, that we only get a moiety of them, viz., the English proprietors, but the names of the foreign holders may again turn up or be known to some of my readers-in which case I trust we may some day see a complete List of the Co. published.

XV.

SHAREHOLDERS IN THE MINES ROYAL SOCIETY. A.D. 1580.

The hole mass of the Minez Royall waz divided intoo xxiiij ti equall parts, whearof Thurland, for the English, had xij parts, and Daniel, for the Straungerz, had the other xij. The English parts again divided too partnerz and intoo porcionz as foll'weth :

The Lorde Treazorer [Burleigh]
The Earl of Pembrook*

The Earl of Leicester
The Lord Montjoy*
Alderman Ducket*

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Anthony Ducket

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* Referred to in some of the letters printed in several of these pages.

The rezidu of the parts whearof most be at the dispozicion of Daniel, hoow he hath bestowed them, or what remayneth w'th him, not yet certeinly known.-W.P. [Patten.]

[Indorsed]―The distribution of the parts of the Mynes Royall. 1580.

This return is initialled W. P., most probably the "W. Patten" of the List, who is down for a half-part. I understand this name of 'Patten' has long remained connected with the Copper Trade*-Is it possible that the 'Daniels' so respected in the days of good Queen Bess were the stock of the † Daniels no less trusted in this our time by their employers in Mining and Smelting operations at Swansea. Have they, I wonder, any tradition of their origin and whereabouts?

It is time now to come to the Royal license under which these "English and Straungers" derived their authority for seeking ores and erecting works for the smelting thereof. Before giving details of the Patents or Charters of Elizabeth, James, etc., it may perhaps be well to premise that the metalliferous ores in this country were reserved to the Crown, and that it was therefore necessary to have a Grant for the searching for and the working of them, and further that it was also requisite to have a Patent or Crown Grant for the constitution of a Company or aggregation of persons, such as is now effected more generally by an Act of Parliament or a "Limited Liability Company registration."

* Vide Percy's "Metallurgy," Vol. I., p. 291, where it is stated that an ancestor of the present Col. Patten first introduced Copper Smelting into Lancashire in 1717 or 18, and Mr. Keates informs me 'they for long "time remained heads of the Firm of the Cheadle Copper and Brass Co., "for I recollect more than 60 years ago, Col. Patten (the Father of Lord Winmarleigh) saying, his ancestors had been connected with Mining and "Smelting for generations."

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† After all, I strongly suspect that "Daniel" was but the Christian name of Hochstetter the German, see next page, post. Indeed, on reading more carefully the paragraphs before and after the List of the Mines Royal Shareholders, I have no doubt about it.-G. G. F.

On the 6th Sept., 1595, Lord Burghley made a note or order that "The Royal Company of Miners should certify what "Copper they have and how much they owe to the Queen and "Customer Smyth's Exors. to answer for Copper delivered." Records, Domestic papers, 8vo., p. 99, while in the following 14 Novr., Lord B. desires that "Mr. Smyth be spoken to, for 'Copper for the Ordnance for the two new ships."—G. G. F.

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XVI.

W. PATTEN, ESQ., TO SIR F. WALSINGHAM, KNT.

19TH NOV., 1581.

May it pleas yoor Honor somwhat to the purpose of that whearin ye voouchsafed yesternight too gyve me heering, and too the content ye may be a littl instructed in the state of oour severall graunts, as well of the Mines Royall as of the oother.* I dru oout this brevet again too day for yoo, but being gon before my cumyng, the same noow send I, reddy further in thees matters too signify my knulege (that cost me deer) untoo yoor Honor at the good pleasure of the same which in prosperetee & health with dignitee God's majesty long preserve. this xixth of November, 1581.

encreas of mooch From Alldermanbery

Yoor Honors allweis right humbly at comaundment,

W. PATTEN.

It may have been observed that hitherto we have adopted the usual mode of dates in succession, but now it becomes necessary to invert that order, consequent on Mr. Patten's information touching the Letter's Pat. given at the commencement of the "Mines Royal" establishment in 1564, when he wrote his letter of explanation to Sir F. Walshingham from

This "other" was, doubtless, the Mineral and Battery Company: as, indeed, is shewn in the fifth paragraph of this letter,

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