Exeter

Exeter is one of the provincial Assay offices. It was started in 1701 when the Act of Parliament allowed the opening of five new provincial Assay Offices, along with Chester, York, Norwich and Bristol. The Exeter Assay Office closed in 1883.

Makers from many other West Country towns and cities used the Exeter Assay Office. We know that silver was sent to Exeter for assaying from the following towns:

Barnstaple, Bath, Bodmin, Bridgwater, Bristol, Dartmouth, Dunster, Falmouth, Fowey, Launceston, Liskeard, Modbury, Newton Abbot, Penryn, Plymouth, Taunton, Tiverton, Topsham, Totnes, Truro.

Makers from West Country towns may well also have sent their wares to London for assaying.

There are a reasonable number of sugar tongs to be found hallmarked in Exeter. There are also a number of specialist West Country silver collectors. Exeter made sugar tongs have a distinct tendency to be of poorer quality that their London counter-parts, although there are some notable exceptions, such as Thomas Eustace.

The Exeter Assay year ran from 7th August each year, although there are one or two exceptions that were a day earlier than this, but only 1 day's difference.

New for 2014 - Miles Harrison has published his long awaited reference book. This book covers West Country silver from 1700-1900. There is a great deal of new material in this book and a thoroughly comprehensive list of maker's marks and hallmarks. With Miles' kind permission I will be updating this web-site with new information gleaned from the book.

The following table shows the numbers of sugar tongs assayed during the years shown.

Maker	1780/81	1781/82	1782/83	1783/84	7 Aug to 1 Dec 1784
Thomas Eustace	136	135	150	128	41
Trowbridge & Ashford	26	12
Trowbridge & Co		28	10
Francis Trowbridge				26	2
Ashford & Co	12		4
William Pearce	46	73	44	51
William Bond	5			8
Joseph Hicks	12	88	291	393	221
Richard Sams	8
William Welch		91
John Tincombe		24	66
Total	245	451	565	606	264

Note:

Trowbridge & Ashford", "Trowbridge & Co", "Ashford & Co" & "Ashford & Trowbridge" are all used - were they the same?

Maker	Mar 25th to Aug 7th 1794	Aug 8th 1794 to Aug 7th 1795	Aug 8th 1795 to Aug 7th 1796	Aug 8th 1796 to Aug 7th 1797	Aug 8th 1797 to Aug 7th 1798
Francis Trowbridge	21	294			4
Joseph Hicks	95	257	180	174	167
William Dunsford	31		2	3
Richard Ferris	133	554	609	668	575
John Manley	32	12
Richard Jenkins	104	135	355	500	303
Henry & John Sweet				2
Francis Parsons					8
Francis Parsons & Stephen Crees					88
Parsons & Co				2	27
Total	416	1252	1146	1347	1172

Note:

The Assay book has the following entry at the beginning of July 1797: From the 5th July 1797 an additional duty is to be charged of 8/- per ounce on all gold and 6d per ounce on all silver plate. The account will be kept in future at 1/- per ounce on silver and 16/- per ounce on gold with the allowance of one sixth.

Maker	Aug 8th 1798 to Aug 7th 1799	Aug 8th 1799 to Aug 7th 1800	Aug 8th 1800 to Aug 7th 1801	Aug 8th 1801 to Aug 7th 1802	Aug 8th 1802 to Aug 7th 1803
Joseph Hicks	94	207	187	200	233
William Dunsford	1			8
Richard Ferris	481	413	439	411	413
Richard Jenkins	71	81	79	57	73
Henry & John Sweet		14	10
Francis Parsons		75	206	89	66
Francis Parsons & Stephen Crees	62	18
Parsons & Co	207	134			17
Francis Parsons & John Bennett					8
Thomas Baker		1
William Welch of Exeter			144	304	349
Total	916	943	1065	1069	1159

Notes:

Having sent in just 2 pairs of tongs for Assay in May 1797, Henry & John Sweet had made no more tongs until suddenly they sent in 14 pairs of tongs for assay on 30th May 1800, over 3 years later.

Thomas Baker sent in one pair of tongs for Assay on 9th May 1800, although he had previously sent other work in, there were no previous records of tongs & Thomas Baker was not a very prolific maker.

Note the 8 pairs of tongs sent for Assay by Francis Parsons & John Bennett. These were sent on on 4th December 1802. It is presumed that the tongs logged as "Parsons & Co. during 1802/03 were also made by Parsons & Bennett.

Maker	Aug 8th 1803 to Aug 7th 1804	Aug 8th 1804 to Aug 7th 1805	Aug 8th 1805 to Aug 7th 1806	Aug 8th 1806 to Aug 7th 1807	Aug 8th 1807 to Aug 7th 1808
Joseph Hicks	186	227	125	149	187
Richard Ferris	379	486	345	409	187
Richard Jenkins	20	48	12
Francis Parsons	43	111		4	4
Parsons & Co			225	196	214
William Welch of Exeter	233	410	496	414	507
Edward Byne		2	4
Francis Parsons & Joseph Goss		68	34	11
Francis Parsons & B Goss				28	35
William Parsons of Plymouth			4
Total	861	1352	1245	1211	1134

Notes:

There is a noticeable reduction in volume in 1803/04 - presumably due to the increase in duty, even though the increase only applied for 2.� months of the assay year. The Assay year 1804/05 appeared to have fully recovered, the largest quantity of tongs assayed ever.

A new maker, Edward Byne sent his first pair of tongs for assay on 23rd February 1805.

A new maker, William Parsons of Plymouth, sent his first work for assay on 10th March 1806. He did not send large amounts of work for assay but did send in 4 pairs of tongs between 10th March and 7th August 1806.

An entry was made for Francis Parsons & B Goss on 8th January 1807 & I have assumed that all "Parsons & Goss" or "Parsons & Co." entries after that refer to B Goss as Parsons' partner.

Maker	Aug 8th 1808 to Aug 7th 1809	Aug 8th 1809 to Aug 7th 1810	Aug 8th 1810 to Aug 7th 1811	Aug 8th 1811 to Aug 7th 1812	Aug 8th 1812 to Aug 7th 1813
Joseph Hicks	201	224	142	249	191
Richard Ferris	225	210	135	181
Francis Parsons	223	222	99	3
Parsons & Co.			89	180	75
Parsons & Goss			73	49	63
William Welch of Exeter	554	607	546	333	412
John Legg	4	53	127	103	81
George Turner		29	100	159	207
George Ferris				82	234
Total	1207	1345	1311	1339	1263

Notes:

From the start of the Assay year 1808/09, Francis Parsons was once again sending work under his own name only, without a partner.

George Turner's first tongs were assayed on 19th December 1809.

The partnership "Parsons & Goss" re-appears on 4th December 1810. There is no initial given for Goss but it is assumed to be Joseph Goss, perhaps with the maker's mark the other way around "JG FP". The register also records work to "Parsons & Co." but this is believed to be simply a shortened form of Parsons & Goss.

George Ferris's first tongs were sent for assay on 20th March 1812. Richard Ferris continued to send work in but his last tongs for assay were on 22nd April 1812, thereafter it is only George Ferris.

Maker	Aug 8th 1813 to Aug 7th 1814	Aug 8th 1814 to Aug 7th 1815	Aug 8th 1815 to Aug 7th 1816	Aug 8th 1816 to Aug 7th 1817
Joseph Hicks	267	332	426	314
Richard Ferris
Francis Parsons		28	10
Parsons & Co.	145
Parsons & Goss	21
William Welch of Exeter	382	312	143	162
John Legg	32
George Turner	299	390	355	308
George Ferris	370	299	311	185
Simon Harris of Plymouth Dock	61	105	77
Edward Byne		1	2
Joseph Goss		5
Joshua Trist			16
Emmanuel Levy			98	212
William Hope of Plymouth Dock			1	19
Total	1577	1472	1439	1200

Notes:

Simon Harris of Plymouth Dock sent his first pair of tongs for assay on 20th September 1813. He had been sending other work for assay since 20th December 1811.; There was no further work from him after 23rd January 1816.; During his short period of working of just over 4 years he was a prolific maker, with a huge variety of work being assayed.

Edward Byne sent in one single pair of tongs for assay on 5th September 1814 after having sent in a variety of other work over a considerable period prior to this. He then sent in 2 more pairs of tongs on 7th March 1816.

From 27th August 1814 Francis Parsons appears on his own again.

Joseph Goss appears on his own sending his first tongs for assay on 24th December 1814. He only sent in a few items for assay before disappearing from the records.

Joshua Trist sent his first tongs for assay on 31st October 1815.

Emmanuel Levy sent his first tongs for assay on 23rd March 1816. He had previously sent in other work for assay over a considerable period.

William Hope of Plymouth Dock sent his first work for assay on 10th April 1816 (mounts for snuff box) and his first tongs on 8th May 1816.

EB - Edward Byne

FP - Francis Parsons

FP BG - Francis Parsons & B Goss

FP JG - Francis Parsons & Joseph Goss

FP SC - Francis Parsons & Stephen Crees

FT - Francis Trowbridge II

GF - George Ferris

GT - George Turner

HS IS - Henry & John Sweet