Charles I warrants concerning copperas

A small group of documents, 1636-1637, concerning the regulation of the manufacture and sale of copperas (ferrous sulphate), and silver mining in Cardiganshire.
They comprise: (i) a signed warrant of King Charles I to the Attorney General Sir John Bankes, received 17 July 1636, to conclude a contract between the king and English copperas makers to purchase copperas at an improved rate (f. 13); (ii) a petition to the king from Thomas Bushell, the mining entrepreneur, granted at Lindhurst, [Hampshire], 19 August 1637, asking to be granted the right to purchase copperas at a favourable price (f. 14); (iii) a further warrant from the king to Bankes, received 24 October 1637, mainly granting modifications to regulations relating to copperas to give Elizabeth, Dowager Viscountess Savage, a monopoly, but also requiring the removal of the provision for Bushell 'to have Copperis for our Mine in Wales at the former rate' (f. 15). Bushell intended to use copperas in a new process to extract silver from ore, however this process was to prove ineffective (see J. W. Gough, The Superlative Prodigall: A Life of Thomas Bushell (Bristol, 1932), p. 49). Bushell subsequently successfully petitioned the king to establish a branch of the royal mint at Aberystwyth to coin his silver, with himself as warden.

Arranged chronologically at NLW.

Bonhams; London; Purchased at auction, lot 202; 16 March 2016; 99636543602419.

Title based on contents.

Folio 13 affected by damp at corners.

Auctioned by Bonhams in 2016 from the collection of the late Donald John Morgan (lots 188-218).

See also NLW MS 24044D, ff. 28-30 (lot 213 in the Bonhams auction).

Published