Sir Richard Martin (died July 1617 inLondon) was an Englishgoldsmith andMaster of the Mint who served asSheriff and twice asLord Mayor of theCity of London during the reign ofElizabeth I.^[1]

Richard Martyn's birth is estimated at c. 1534 on the basis of his age given as 28 in a portrait medallion bySteven van Herwijk dated 1562.^[2][3] He was elected aliveryman of theWorshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of theLivery Companies or craft guilds of the City of London, in 1558.^[4] He was electedalderman for thewards ofFarringdon Within 1578–1598 andBread Street 1598–1602. He wasSheriff of London in 1581–1582.

Martin was knighted in 1588–1589 and served a partial year as Lord Mayor in 1589, succeeding Sir Martin Calthrop who had died in office.^[1][5] He was Prime Warden or head of the Goldsmiths' Company 1592–1593, chairing the Court of Wardens or governing body of the company, and served a second term as Lord Mayor in 1593–1594, succeeding SirCuthbert Buckell. His other municipal offices included President ofChrist's Hospital and Comptroller-General of Hospitals 1594–1602.^[1][5]

Martin was an investor in SirFrancis Drake's 1577–1580 voyage of circumnavigation and also in Drake's 1585–1586 expedition to harass the Spanish ports in theNew World.^[6]

Martin wasWarden of the Royal Mint by 1572, and was responsible for overseeing the workings of the mint and the quality of the coinage. He supplied metal of specified fineness for gold coins to John Lovyson (Lawinson or Lonison), Master of the Tower Mint in 1577.^[7]John Stow in hisSurvey of London recorded Martin's charges against John Lovyson, a matter that was finally weighed by a commission ofPrivy Council members includingNicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper,William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasurer, and others,^[8] which recommended that

it likewise please her Majesty to give a Discharge unto Richard Martin, now Warden of the Mint, for to reckon and pass the said Lonison's Accompt [account] in form afore-declared. Which Martin they do not find to have done any Thing in this Controversy thereby to have any particular Gain to himself; but the whole Matters alleged by him to have tended to her Majesty's Service; and for discharging of his Duty belonging to the Office.^[9]

Martin himself succeeded Lovyson as Master of the Mint in 1582, serving in that capacity until his death in 1617.^[10]

Martin supplied silver plate to the queen's privy kitchen in 1583, including a great standing cup gilt, with a cover, the body garnished with "sundry vermin as snakes ewetes (newts) frogs and others", and laid with colours, the cover garnished with sundry men and beasts hunting with a stag at the top. This cup, probably made in Germany, was admired in theTower of London byLupold von Wedel in November 1584. It was a gift at thebaptism of Prince Henry in August 1594.^[11]

He provided silver plate for the use ofMary, Queen of Scots, including a silver gilt bowl and cover in 1585, decorated with an engraved pattern of fish.^[12]

In 1589 Martin supplied silver plate, silks, and other goods to the value of £2,000 which Elizabeth gave toJames VI of Scotland for thereception of Anne of Denmark.^[13] James VI took some of this silver plate toOslo and presented it to the Danish councillorsSteen Brahe andAxel Gyldenstierne.^[14] In 1591 Martin andHugh Kayle supplied Queen Elizabeth with silver plate worth £2,213, some plate was forNew Year's Day gifts and some for christening gifts.^[15]

In 1597 a thief stole a silver inkstand and silver bowls belonging to Elizabeth I fromTheobalds. Martin helped track down the dealers and goldsmiths who bought the stolen silver.^[16]John Williams, a successful Welsh-born goldsmith, was his apprentice in 1584.^[17]

Richard Martin marriedDorcas Ecclestone (1537-1599) sometime before 1562.^[18] Martin had a silver medal with their portraits made to commemorate their marriage.^[19] The medal was designed bySteven Corneliszoon van Herwijck who was working in London in 1562.^[20]

They had five sons and one daughter.^[21]

Both Martins were active in radical religious causes including theAdmonition Controversy, part of an effort to encourage the queen to further reformProtestantism in England.^[22]

The country house atHighgate later known asLauderdale House was built for him in 1582.

The Martins' sonCaptain John Martin commanded theBenjamin under Drake in the 1585–1586 expedition. On his return, John Martin married Mary Brandon (born 1566), daughter ofRobert Brandon, Chamberlain of London, on 23 May 1586 atSt Vedast, Foster Lane.^[23] John Martin became a Councilman of theJamestown Colony ofVirginia in 1607 and was the proprietor ofMartin's Brandon Plantation on the south bank of theJames River,^[6] apparently named after his wife's family.

Another son, Richard (died 1616), served with his father as a master-worker at the mint from 1599 to 1607.^[24]

Their daughter Dorcas^[6] married SirJulius Caesar, laterChancellor of the Exchequer andMaster of the Rolls underJames I.^[1]

His 13X great-grandson is British horror actorNathan Head.^[25]

In March 1595 Martin raided the house of Edmund Williamson in Philip Lane,Cripplegate, after his brotherNicholas Williamson was arrested for treason. Martin discovered that Edmund Williamson ran a kind of pawnbroking business from his house, obtaining luxury goods from young men for small sums, less than their worth.^[26]Nicholas Skeres, an associate ofChristopher Marlowe involved in the credit racket, was taken by Martin and held for a few days.^[27]

Martin had remained both Warden and Master of the Mint for almost two decades, but following charges in 1597 that he was profiteering by delaying repayments he sold his office of Warden toSir Thomas Knyvet. The two soon fell out, with Knyvet accusing Martin of owing the crown substantial funds and Martin insisting he was owed. Martin was briefly imprisoned for debt,^[10] which led to his removal from his Aldermanry on 31 August 1602 on account of his "unfitting demeanour and carriage".^[1] Suits and countersuits continued, with the Exchequer finding against Martin in 1607 and a further enquiry finding in his favour in 1615.^[28]

In 1608 Martin asked to be involved in the assay of silver ore sent to the Tower Mint fromHilderston in Scotland.^[29] He sent a report of the assay and chemical opinions offered by his workmen to theEarl of Salisbury in October.^[30]

Richard Martin died in July 1617, and was buried inTottenham Church, 30 July 1617. At his death he "was held near a hundred years old".^[6] His wife Dorcas had been buried in the same church on 2 September 1599, and his son Richard on 28 May 1616.^[6]

• Beaven, the Rev. Alfred B. (1913)."Chronological List of Aldermen in the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth".The Aldermen of the City of London, vol. II. Eden Fisher & Co., Ltd., London. Archived fromthe original on 15 June 2008. Retrieved28 December 2008.
• Brown, Alexander (1890).The Genesis of the United States: A Narrative of the Movement in England, 1605–1616. Houghton, Mifflin. Retrieved27 December 2008.
• Cansick, Frederick Teague (1875).A Collection of Curious and Interesting Epitaphs, Copied from the Monuments of Distinguished and Noted Characteres in the Ancient Church and Burial Grounds of Saint Pancras, Middlesex. J. R. Smith. Retrieved30 December 2008.
• Currer-Briggs, Noel (1986).The Search for Mr. Thomas Kirbye, Gentleman. Phillimore.ISBN 0-85033-532-9. Retrieved27 December 2008.
• Challis, C. E. (1992).A new history of the Royal Mint. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-24026-3. Retrieved30 December 2008.
• Martin, John B. (1892).A Grasshopper in Lombard Street. Ayer Publishing, reprinted 1969.ISBN 0-8337-2266-2. Retrieved30 December 2008.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• McQuade, Paula, Betty Travitsky, and Anne Lake Prescott (2008).Early Modern Catechisms Written for Mothers, Schoolmistresses, and Children: Essential Works for the Study of Early Modern Englishwomen. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.ISBN 978-0-7546-5165-9. Retrieved30 December 2008.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Craig, John (1953).The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948.Cambridge,England:Cambridge University Press. pp. 123–142.ASIN B0000CIHG7.
• White, Michelline. "Power Couples and Women Writers in Elizabethan England: the Public Voices of Dorcas and Richard Martin and Anne and Hugh Dowriche." InFraming the Family: Representation and Narrative in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods, eds. Diane Wolfthal and Rosalynn Voaden. Tempe Ariz.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2005, pp. 119–38.

• 16th-century births
• 1617 deaths
• People from Saffron Walden
• English goldsmiths
• Masters of the Mint
• 17th-century English people
• Material culture of royal courts
• Monarchy and money
• Aldermen of the City of London
• Sheriffs of the City of London
• 16th-century lord mayors of London

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