Neville at the 1590 Gunfounders' Meeting: Warwick, Hockenell, Blyncoe, Pistor, Bonds, Stamps, and Restricted Buyers
Neville at the 1590 gunfounders' meeting
Sourced Facts
Henry Neville's autograph letter to William Cecil, British Library Lansdowne MS 65/22, describes a regulatory meeting held after Michaelmas 1589. Neville says Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, ordered Sussex gunfounders to attend in London by 7 October. Most appeared at the house of Warwick's deputy, Mr Hockenell, where Hockenell and Mr Blyncoe presented the proposed controls.
Neville reports five distinct measures: a national annual production ceiling; an allotment for each founder; bonds not to exceed the allotment; sale only in London and only to merchants named by Warwick or his deputy; and an official stamp for every piece. Neville accepted controls against export but objected to compulsory use of an official's chosen merchant. He offered instead to identify every buyer or retail the pieces openly at Tower Hill while supplying equivalent security.
Quoted Source Text
Neville's explanation of the disputed point is exact and should remain visible:
“this restraining us to a merchant of their choice I for my part do greatly fear that it tends rather to some private benefit then to the public good.”
That is Neville's allegation or suspicion, not proof of corruption. He supports it by reporting that an earlier deputy, Pistor, demanded forty shillings per ton before a licence would issue. That too is Neville's report and has not yet been independently adjudicated.
Connection to the later patent
The 1590 letter predates the 8 November 1592 export grant catalogued as TNA LR 15/301. The catalogue names Henry Nevile, Ludolfe Englested, and Giles Devisher and specifies cast-iron minions and falcons, five export ports, dimensional controls, and a twenty-year term. The two records therefore document successive regulatory settings, but the letter does not itself prove that its writer is the same “Henry Nevile, esq” named in LR 15/301. The original patent and its paper transcript still need inspection.
Fact boundary
Firm: Neville attended and later described the meeting; the described scheme combined quotas, bonds, stamps, controlled points of sale, and named buyers. Unverified: the officers' identities, the surviving orders and bonds, the legality of Neville's later casting, and whether Pistor's reported demand was an authorized fee or a private exaction.
Citations
- British Library, Lansdowne MS 65/22, Henry Neville to William Cecil, 1590.
- The National Archives, LR 15/301, Discovery catalogue description, 8 November 1592.
Notes on Access
The manuscript quotation is controlled by Lansdowne MS 65/22; the linked National Archives record is a catalogue description of the later patent, not an image or transcription of the 1590 letter.