by the way, here is some stuff from the goldsmiths guild about Samuel Nicholl goldsmith, and grandfather of James Duppa (paper manufacturer)
You may have already got this from the guild!
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Samuel Nicholl was the son of the late Thomas Nicholl, tanner, of Barking, Essex, and was apprenticed, on 12 May 1714, for seven years to Samuel Edlin, Citizen and Goldsmith. A premium of £25 was paid to his master (Goldsmiths’ Company Apprentice Book 5, fo.49v.). Samuel was made a Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company on 22 November 1722 (Freedom Book 1, p.87). He was elected to the Livery on 14 April 1737 (Court Book 14, p.44) and to the governing body, the Court of Assistants, on 16 October 1745 (Ct. Bk. 15, p.123).
He took two apprentices – Samuel Hill (1724) and George Robins (1733).
From A. Heal’s The London goldsmith 1200-1800 (CUP, 1935, p.212) there is the following entries:
NICHOLL, Samuel (of Nicholl & Abdy), goldsmith, within Aldgate 1742-1744.
NICHOLL & ABDY (cf. Samuel NICHOLL), goldsmith, within Aldgate 1753.
A Samuel Nichol (sic) entered a maker’s mark, SN, in a heart-shaped shield, at the Assay Office in Goldsmiths’ Hall on 23 March 1723/4. At that time his address was ‘at Mr Arnets at the Blackamoor’s Head in Foster Lane’.
Other snippets of information include a commission of bankruptcy awarded to him against Moses de Porto, merchant, late of London, a creditor of Samuel Nicholl, goldsmith of London, 26 February 1735 (ref. National Archives B/4/8 p.117 ?Commission of Bankruptcy perhaps).
From the Old Bailey proceedings a Thomas Nicholls (sic) was indicted for stealing a silver mustard pot, the property of Oriel College, Oxford. Samuel Nicholls (sic) stopped the same in his shop (ref. Old Bailey Proceedings, 16 January 1740, pp.56-57 – you might find this in the Old Bailey Proceedings online). I think that St. Catherine Cree Church was mentioned in that proceeding.
Finally a son of Samuel, Samuel Nicholls (sic) was made free by patrimony, on 6 November 1776, on the testimony of Charles Wright and Robert Peircy, Goldsmiths. The son was a clerk (priest) in the parish of Bix in Oxfordshire.
