Further holograph draft on the examinations of Oadham and Brattell

Author: Isaac Newton

Source: MINT 19/1/95, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK

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- Revision History
  - 1 January 2001
    - Catalogue information compiled by Rob Iliffe, Peter Spargo & John Young
  - 29 September 2011
    - Catalogue exported to teiHeader by Michael Hawkins
  - 27 October 2016
    - Transcribed by Will Scott
  - 13 January 2017
    - Checked by Will Scott
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<95r>

M^r Oadhams paper of reasons against M^r Brattel is full of mistakes. Sir Isaac Newton was the first man who proposed a trial between the Petitioners & never opposed or discouraged it or affirmed that M^r Brattel could not do the business of an Assaymaster without an Assistant, nor know of any hardships or impositions in the trial between them, nor of any Reference of M^r Oadhams Petition from the King to the Treasury, nor is the place of Assaymaster in the gift of the Lords of the Treasury but in that of his Majesty who hath given it to M^r Brattel, & The Act of 2 H. 6 doth not void the grant, nor exclude the Mint Master from joyning with his fellow Officers in recommending an Assaymaster. To recommend a good one is as much his Duty as any mans & much more his interest & concern because he can make no advantage by bad assays but may be ruined by them . And therefore his recommendation is more to be regarded in point of impartiality then that of any other subject whatsoever.

M^r Oadham pretends that M^r Brattels incapacity & unfairness can be proved. Whereas upon the Trial between them, seven of M^r Brattels eight Assays of Gold agreed with one another without any sensible difference & the eighth differed from the rest only the twelft part of a grain: whilst some of M^r Oadham's gold Assays differed a quarter of a grain from others & one of them erred two grains which is 24 times more then the greatest error of M^r Brattel: & M^r Brattel was also observed to heat with more dexterity & dispatch then M^r Oadham. And as for their other qualifications it was then thought unadvisable to to reject a person who with his brother had kept up & improved the credit of the Mint upon a person who in his Apprentisship had neglected his Masters business to mind Projects & when his time was out left his trade to buy & sell stocks, & was suspected to have sent to M^r Brattel an Offer of the place for a summ of money, which suspicion has been increased by a report of his talking lately to the same purpose, not to mention his carriage to the Officers of the Min in such a manner as is not to be born in an Assaymaster.