Application to appoint a new smith
To the Right Honourable the Earl of Oxford & Earl Mortimer Lord High Treasurer of great Britain.
May it please your Lordship
The Smith of the Mint being my servant by the ancient constitution of the Mint, & being paid by me after the rate of one penny per pound weight of gold coined & one farthing per pound weight of silver coined, & having also a salary of 50 pounds per an appointed by the late & present Indentures of the Mint: the last Smith for the sake of that salary was imposed upon me & behaved himself to me & others of the Mint with great insolence. Whereupon a clause was inserted into the schedule of salaries at the end of the Indenture of the Mint, for the ceasing of that salary upon the next voidance of the place; and the place becoming void before last Christmas, the salary is now ceased in order to a new settlement. I humbly pray therefore that such a new salary may be setled as your Lordship shall think fit & in such a manner that I may have power over the Smith as my servant for carrying on the coinage & dismiss him if he be not of good abearing according to the meaning of the Indenture of the Mint. Which may be done by appointing the Salary to me for a Smith.
All which is most humbly submitted to your Lordships great wisdome.
Is. Newton
Mint Office Aug. 7th, 1711
Source
MINT 19/1/223, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK7 August 1711, c. 254 words.