Catalogue Entry: MINT00899
Statement by Joseph Hoyle of the Signet Office that appointments to the mastership prior to Newton's were normally for life
Contents
Cites his three immediate predecessors Ralph Freeman (appointed July 1660), Henry Slingsby (appointed August 1670) and Thomas Neale (appointed July 1678).
Notes
[In 1696 a Commons Committee recommended discontinuation of Mint appointments for life (quite possibly on Newton's own recommendation: see Westfall, 605). Newton's appointment to the mastership in 1700 was during the monarch's pleasure. If the date is read as 1727, it places the document two days after Newton's death (in the event, still in office), which seems a likely juncture for such issues to have been considered.]
