Salt Commissioners 1702 to 1798

In a week when the Chancellor of the Exchequer has presented a Spring Statement/Budget I have been tracking down the Commissioners of Salt Duty appointed between 1702 and 1798.
A list was prepared in 2003 by JC Sainty and published by the Institute of Historical Research -http://www.history.ac.uk/publications/office/comms-salt 

I have been trying to find out a bit more about their background, but found many have a very low web presence. If you can find links to any of the Commissioners please leave a comment.
The office was abolished on 28 June 1798.
I number of those I have found seem to have died without leaving male heirs, without children to inherit their lives seem to have been lost.
Some have interesting histories, such as JOHN MORTLOCK, the last to be appointed in the year the office was abolished.
John Mortlock (1755-1815)  described the role of Commissioner of Salt Duty as  'a troublesome office of small value'  and having been accused by his opponents as being corrupt his response, which is recorded on a blue plaque in Cambridge, was -
"without influence, which you call corruption, men will not be induced to support government, though they generally approve of its measures"  the blue plaque qualifies this with "his bitterest political opponents never impeached his business honesty".  
John Mortlock's bank in Cambridge eventually sold out Barclays in 1896.

THOMAS EVARARD joined from the Excise and published a book using his slide rule to guage barrels - https://archive.org/details/stereometryorar00evergoog

JOSHUA CHURCHILL committed suicide by cutting his throat at his home.

Two Commissioners had their portraits painted by Thomas Gainsborough.

Currently, still NO information at all about THOMAS SUTTON and THOMAS MILNER.
Currently, still no residence or grave for JOHN DANVERS, JAMES CARDONNEL, HUMPHREY GRIFFITH and LEWIS GEORGE SCHELE.
SCHELE was only a short appointment and later appears as a debtor in the Fleet Prison.
Any help would be appreciated......



https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.728893,-1.8255367,7z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1!1szKjwvuCnCd3E.kZ53ERGjbb4A?hl=en-GB

Andrew Fielding is building a map with references to salt sites across the UK.
It is being constantly updated, so is 'work in progress'.
Please send in any suggestions for sites to add to the map.

 

Salt and Light Service - Chester Cathedral 24 Jan 2016

Saltcote Issue No.3

The 3rd issue of our newsletter is now available.

http://issuu.com/ecosaluk/docs/saltcote_2015_no3/1

Buy a Copy of John Henry Cooke 1848-1928 'a very worthy gentleman'

A&A Fielding Ltd have published a second book through the on demand service of Blurb.
John Henry Cooke was the first clerk to the Winsford Local Board, Cheshire and was solicitor for those promoting the Brine Pumping (compensation for subsidence) Bill of 1881 and for the second Bill which became an Act in 1891.
Some years ago Andrew and Annelise Fielding bought a copy of JH Cooke's book describing the celebrations that took place in Cheshire to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in which he had written notes about his life and his work dedicated to the people of Winsford. The notes describe his life and his education as he trained to become a solicitor and the sadness from which he never really recovered following the death of two of his sons in the Great War. His library about the salt industry in Cheshire was used by Albert F Calvert while Calvert was compiling his book Salt in Cheshire published in 1915.

JH Cooke 1848 - 1928 by Andrew P Fielding, Annelise M Fielding | Make Your Own Book

Separating the Salt from the Sand

Photo sent from the Morecambe Bay Partnership of the talk 'Separating the Salt from the Sand' last Saturday at Silverdale.
A room full of people interested in the enigmatic, historic salt making process of washing salt from the sands and silts of Morecambe Bay. Hopefully the Morecambe Bay Partnership, through the Headland to Headspace programme will begin to seek out some of the sites mentioned in documents
The talk was an introduction to the process, which is little understood, and will lead to further work to understand how the process was carried out around the Bay from Barrow to Fleetwood.
Some members of the audience had already started personal research projects, making salt themselves, studying the monastic records or transcribing inventory records. Still lots to do though.
Hopefully we will be able to give a demonstration of the process during an event next summer.

Separating the Salt from the Sand

Talk to Headlands to Headspace, Morecambe Bay Partnership
Separating the Salt from the Sand
by Andrew Fielding
Saturday  3rd October
Elizabeth Gaskell Centre, Silverdale
Starts 2pm
Book through MBP