| Description | These files (Vols. 1 and 2) are not mentioned in the "Catalogue of Papers-M.B.'s Counting Room," compiled by William D. Brown about 1791, though they had presumably been opened by that date. They appear, however, in the rough Catalogue compiled by Matthew Robinson Boulton and John Robinson about 1819, where, in the list of the contents of Box H. I, appears the item "Assay Office 2 Vols." The full titles of the two portfolios were as follows:
Assay Office, Birmingham 1773
Assay Office, Birmingham Gilt-Button Act 1773 1746
These are the titles recorded in the rough Catalogue in the inventory compiled by the Assay Office in 1921, but unfortunately the portfolios were subsequently discarded. The second of the titles seems garbled, and there appear to be no documents in these files relating to the Gilt-Button Act.
For further information on this subject see:
Jennifer Tann, Birmingham Assay Office, 1773-1993.
Arthur Westwood, The Assay Office at Birmingham, Part I: Its Foundation. |