Transcript

of

Exeter Goldsmiths

Devon & Cornwall Notes and Queries vol. VII, (1912-1913), Exeter: James G. Commin. 1913, p. 183.

by

J.F. Chanter

Prepared by Michael Steer

An association of Goldsmiths and Silversmiths existed in Exeter long before the reign of Elizabeth I. It is recorded that John de Wewlingworth, a goldsmith, flourished there in the 14th century. The City had an Assay Office or Hall in those far-off days. Its lengthy list of moneyers can be traced to the time of King Athelstan. The Note’s author focuses on the famous Nicholas Hilliard, jeweller to the Royal Family, whose name had inadvertently been omitted from his earlier submission to the journal on the Exeter Goldsmith’s Guild. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Note 139. EXETER GOLDSMITHS. - In my paper on Exeter Goldsmiths {Trans. Dev. Ass., Vol. XLIV., pp. 438-479) there is an omission of which I think a note should be made, and that is the name of perhaps the greatest of all the Exeter goldsmiths, Nicholas Hilliard, limner, jeweller, and goldsmith to Queen Elizabeth and King James the First, born at Exeter 1547, died at London Jan. 7th, 1619, of whom Dr. Donne writes: "A hand or eye by Hilliard drawn is worth a history by a worse painter made." For though generally reckoned as a London goldsmith he served his apprenticeship at Exeter with his father, Richard Hilliard, of Exeter (see T. D. A., XLIV, p. 444), and so may be reckoned as an Exeter goldsmith. A portrait of Richard Hilliard, by his son Nicholas, which has this inscription: "Ricardus Hilliardus quondam vice comes coritatis et comitatus Exoniae anno 1568 aetatis suae 58, Anno Dom, 1577," also supplies us with the date of the father's birth.

                                             J. F. CHANTER.