Hall marks on gold & silver plate

ENGLISH GOLDSMITHS. 3$
House appointed Aaron Guerdain, Doctor o Physic, as Master of
the Mint in Harley's place. Sir John Wollaston was selected as
foreman of the jury to superintend the making of gold and silver
trial pieces for the Commonwealth. By his will he bequeathed to
the Goldsmiths' Company, in trust, property, as valued by the Commissioners,
2^ per annum to Bethlehem Hospital and other charities,
amounting to ;^I40 per annum.
1648. Robert Jenner, goldsmith, bequeathed to the Company
property in trust to poor goldsmiths, of the estimated value of i^200
per annum.
1649. Richard Morrdl, goldsmith. His name occurs as one of
the Jury of Goldsmiths elected by the Commonwealth in 1649 to
superintend the making of standar,d trial pieces of gold and silver
for the coins. He presented a silver cup to the Goldsmiths' Company,
and by his will, dated 1703, bequeathed a sum of money to
found almshouses at Hackney, besides an annuity of fifty-two shil-
lings for the poor.
1649, November 22. The Jury of Goldsmiths elected and sworn
by the Commonwealth to make two standard trial pieces for the
coins, one piece in gold commixed in proportion of 22 carats of
fine gold and 2 carats of alloy in the pound weight troy of England,
and one piece of silver of ii oz. 2 dwts. fine and 18 dwts. of
copper in the pound weight troy, were the following :
1650.
Sir John Wollaston, Knight and Alderman.
Thomas Viner, Alderman.
Thomas Noel, Alderman,
Francis Ash.
Thomas Smithie.
Francis <strong>Hall</strong>.
George Courthofe.
John Perryn.
Richard Morrell.
Samuel Moore.
George Snell.
Richard Gibbes.
Matthew Mason.
Alexander Jackson.
Alderman Edward Backwell was a goldsmith, and one
of the largest bankers in the early part of the reign of Charles I.
He carried on his trade at the " Unicorn " in Lombard Street, between
the "Grasshopper" and the "White Horse," about sixty-eight or
sixty-nine of the present numbering. He is frequently mentioned
by Pepys in his "Diary." December 24j 1660: "1 went to choose
a payre of Candlesticks, to be made ready for me at Alderman Back-
well's." He made a large fortune; but in the reign of Charles II
when, as Granger says, " the laws were overborne by perfidy, violence
and rapacity," he lost, on the closing of the Exchequer in 1672, as