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Lot Essay
The arms are those of Jobber, of Aston, Shropshire
Eli Bilton served a ten-year apprenticeship as a glazier and earned the freedom of the town of Newcastle by entering the trade guild as a glazier in 1682. On April 18, 1683, however, he took the following oath before the guild, called the Associated Company: "I Ely Bilton of New-castle upon Tyne Goldsmith doe promise to give a bond to the Company of plumbers pewtherers Glasiers and painters against the next headmeeting day Commonly called Christi Corpus & that he shall not excercise the aforesaid trades but onely a Goldsmith for which performance well & truely I bind myself in one hundred pounds witnesse my hand & seale" (as quoted in Margaret A. V. Gill, A Directory of Newcastle Goldsmiths, 1980, pp. 63-64). In 1702, when Newcastle was finally permitted to establish its own assay office and silversmiths' guild, Eli Bilton was a founding member, attending the first meeting of the Goldsmiths' Company on June 24, 1702. The official town mark, accompanied by date letters after that date, retained the "three castle" mark used traditionally in Newcastle in the second half of the 17th century.
Eli Bilton served a ten-year apprenticeship as a glazier and earned the freedom of the town of Newcastle by entering the trade guild as a glazier in 1682. On April 18, 1683, however, he took the following oath before the guild, called the Associated Company: "I Ely Bilton of New-castle upon Tyne Goldsmith doe promise to give a bond to the Company of plumbers pewtherers Glasiers and painters against the next headmeeting day Commonly called Christi Corpus & that he shall not excercise the aforesaid trades but onely a Goldsmith for which performance well & truely I bind myself in one hundred pounds witnesse my hand & seale" (as quoted in Margaret A. V. Gill, A Directory of Newcastle Goldsmiths, 1980, pp. 63-64). In 1702, when Newcastle was finally permitted to establish its own assay office and silversmiths' guild, Eli Bilton was a founding member, attending the first meeting of the Goldsmiths' Company on June 24, 1702. The official town mark, accompanied by date letters after that date, retained the "three castle" mark used traditionally in Newcastle in the second half of the 17th century.