Shotley Bridge Swordmakers Bibliography

My book about the Shotley Bridge swordmakers, The Running Wolf, is a work of fiction, but it is based on many years of research, carried out during my PhD with the University of Aberdeen (who kindly granted me an Elphinstone Scholarship to allow me to study there). This research included desk research, which meant reading a great many books and journal articles. I also carried out archive research and visited a number of museums. I undertook geographical research by spending time in both Shotley Bridge and Solingen. Finally, I carried out some practice-based research and trained as a blacksmith, which culminated in forging my own sword. I thought it might be useful to share a list of the books I read, and also details of the documents held in the various archives.

Please note that I’ve provided these references in the spirit of helpfulness, but document references may change over time, collections may become unavailable and so on, so these may become out of date over time as I am not planning to update this document. Unfortunately, I cannot assist you with research, finding publications or providing copies of documents due to copyright law. However, staff at individual archives may be able to assist you with obtaining copies if you are unable to visit the archive yourself (there will be a charge for this from the archive). Worldcat.org is a very useful website for finding copies of rare books and it will tell you the nearest library to you that holds a copy. I’m very sorry, but I can’t enter into any correspondence about any of these documents.

Because I uncovered some archive documents and other records that have not, so far, been mentioned in any of the books about the swordmakers, I was able to shed light on some long-standing questions about the swordmakers. My research findings have been published by Northern History journal. The journal charges for access to its documents, so you might like to see if you can access it through a library. Alternatively, I do have permission from the journal to share a version on my blog, so you can read it here: ‘The Shotley Bridge Swordmaker, Hermann Mohll: A simple case of smuggling, or getting away with High Treason in 1704?’

Books and Journals (by author surname in alphabetical order)

Adamson, Horatio A., ‘The Villiers Family as Governors of Tynemouth Castle and Owners of the Lighthouse’, Archaeologia Aeliana: Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquities, Volume XX (London & Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Andrew Reid & Co, 1899).

Agricola, G. (1556) [1950] De Re Metallica [trans. Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover]. New York, NY: Dover Publications.

Atkinson, David, ‘The German Swordmakers of Shotley Bridge’, (Durham: North East Centre for Education about Europe: 1987), p. 11.

Barraclough, K. C. (1976) The Development of the Cementation Process for the Manufacture of Steel in Post-Medieval Archaeology, 10 (1) 65–88.

Beamont, William (ed), The Jacobite Trials at Manchester in 1694 (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1853).

Bergeron, David M., King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire (Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press).

Bezdek, Richard H., German Swords and Sword Makers: Edged Weapon Makers from the 14th to the 20th Centuries, (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2000).

Bezdek, Richard H., Swords and Sword Makers of England and Scotland (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2003).

Bjork, R. E., The Dictionary of the Middle Ages, (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010).

Blackley, William (ed), The Diplomatic Correspondence of the Right Hon. Richard Hill: Part One (London: John Murray, 1845).

Bridge, Cyprian A. (ed), The Russian Fleet Under Peter the Great, (London: Navy Records Society, 1899).

Bruijn, I. (2009) Ships’ Surgeons of the Dutch East India Company: Commerce and the Progress of Medicine in the Eighteenth Century. Leiden: Leiden University Press.

Bucholz, Robert, O. Office Holders in Modern Britain: Volume II (Revised) Court Officers, 1660–1837 (London: University of London, 2006).

Bygate, John G., The Hollow Blade: The German Swordmakers of Shotley Bridge (Durham: Durham in History, 2003, second edition [1999]).

Cannon, Richard, Historical Records of the British Army Comprising the History of every Regiment in Her Majesty’s Service, (London: Adjutant Generals Office, 1837–1883).

Cannon, Richard, Historical Records of the British Army: The Sixth Dragoon Guards or The Caribineers (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1836).

Cass, E. (2003) ‘Ralph Hedley and his Sword-Dance Paintings’, Folk Music Journal, 8(3), 335–344.

Christoph v. Ehrenstein, ‘Erskine, John, styled twenty-second or sixth earl of Mar and Jacobite duke of Mar’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography <doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/8868> [accessed 28 August 2019].

Churchill, Winston, Marlborough: His Life and Times: Book One Consisting of Volumes I and II of the Original Work, (London: George G. Harrap & Co, 1958).

Clark, Christopher, Iron Kingdom: of the Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947, (London: Penguin 2007).

Consett Lions’ Club (1963) The Consett Story. Consett: Ramsden Williams.

Cruickshanks, Eveline, Stuart Handley & D. W. Hayton (eds.), ‘Johnstone, Sir Patrick [d. 1736], of Edinburgh’ in The History of Parliament, The House of Commons 1690–1715, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 218.

Dalton, Charles (ed), English Army Lists and Commission Registers: 1661–1714, Vol V 1702–1707 (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1902).

Dickinson, Frances, The Reluctant Rebel: A Northumbrian Legacy of Jacobite Times (Newcastle: Cresset Books, 1996).

Durham County Council (b) (ND) Photo of inscribed stone lintel over swordmaker’s cottage, Ref. No. DR01888. <http://dre.durham.gov.uk/pgDre.aspx?&SEARCH=&TERM=&ID=DRE1569&PIC=Y&gt; [Accessed 26 November 2016].

Durham County Council (c) (ND) Partial inscription of stone lintel over swordmaker’s cottage. Ordnance Survey Archaeology Card NZ05SE6. <http://www.keystothepast.info/Pages/pgDetail.aspx?PRN=D2350> [Accessed 27 November 2016].

Durham County Council Archaeology (a) (ND) Local History, Shotley Bridge, Ref. No. D6883 <http://www.keystothepast.info/Pages/pgDetail.aspx?PRN=D6883&gt; [Accessed 27 November 2016].

Fawcett, J.W, Tales of Derwentdale, (Derwent Valley: Robert Jackson & Company, 1902).

Ferguson, James (ed), Papers illustrating the history of the Scots Brigade in the service of the United Netherlands 1572–1782, Vol II 1690–1782 Publications of the Scottish History Society Volume XXXV: The Scots Brigade in Holland (Edinburgh: University Press, 1899).

Firth, Charles Harding, ‘Villiers, George, first Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628)’ in Sidney Lee (ed), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Volume XX (New York & London: The Macmillan Company & Smith, Elder & Co., 1909). pp.327–346.

Gaston, B. (ed.) (2004) Elementary Metallurgy and Basic Heat Treating for Carbon and Alloy Steels. Compiled for Annual Piney Woods Hammer-in 2002.

Gooch, Leo, The Desperate Faction: The Jacobites of North East England: 1688–1745 (Hull: University of Hull Press, 1995), pp. 42, 60.

Grant, James, The Old Scots Navy from 1689 to 1710, Publications of the Navy Records Society, 44 (London: Navy Records Society, 1913–14).

Granville, Augustus Bozzi, The Spas of England: The North (London: Henry Colburn, 1841)

Greenwell, William [ed. and trans.] (1852) The Boldon Buke: A Survey of the See of Durham, Made by Order of Bishop Hugh Pudsey, in the Year M.C.L.XXXIII [1183]. Durham: Surtees Society.

Gregg, Edward, Queen Anne (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001).

Hayton, D. W., Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley (eds) The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2002).

Hendrickson, E. J. (1999) An Introduction to Bladesmithing. Grand Rapids, OH and Texas, TX: American Bladesmith Society and Texarkana College.

Historical Manuscripts Commission, Reports on the Manuscripts of The Earl of Eglinton, Sir J. Stirling Maxwell, Bart., C. S. H. Drummond Moray, Esq., C. F. Weston Underwood, Esq., and G. Wingfield Digby, Esq. (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1885).

History of Parliament Online, ‘The 1st Parliament of Anne (1702–1705)’ < https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/parliament/1702&gt; [accessed 15 September 2019].

Hodgson, John Crawford, A History of Northumberland: Volume VII, The Parish of Edlingham, The Parish of Felton, The Chapelry or Parish of Brinkburn (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Andrew Reid & Company, 1904), p.452.

Holmes, Geoffrey, British Politics in the Age of Anne, (London and Ronceverte: Hambledon Press, 1987 [1967]).

Hughes, Edward, North Country Life in the Eighteenth Century:The North East 1700–1750 (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege & Oxford University Press, 1952).

Hume, D. (1821) The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution, in 1688. Philadelphia, PA: E. Littlel, Vol. III, p. 234.

Jenkins, Rhys, (1922) Notes on the Early History of Steel Making in England Presented at the Iron and Steel Institute, Westminster, 29 November 1922.

Jenkins, Rhys, (1934) The Hollow Sword Blade Company and Sword Making at Shotley Bridge, The International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, 15(1).

Journal of the House of Commons, Volume 12, 1697–1699, 16 January 1699.

Kearney, Tony, Dark Side of the Dale: The Grim, Gruesome and Grisly History of the Derwent Valley, (Shotley Bridge: Dark Dale Publications, 2004).

King James Bible Online (a) (1611) King James Bible, Proverbs, ch. 10, v. 22 <http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611_Proverbs-Chapter-10/#22&gt; [Accessed 3 November 2016].

Lax, Joshua, Shotley Bridge, Descriptive Poems, (Durham: Neasham, 1884).

London, National Army Museum, Regiments and Corps: The Royal Scots Fusiliers <https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/royal-scots-fusiliers&gt;.

Lord, Evelyn, The Stuarts’ Secret Army: English Jacobites 1689–1752 (Oxon: Routledge, 2004), pp. 21, 99, 117, 262.

Lull, T. F. & Russell, W. (Eds.) (2012) Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (3rd edition). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress.

MacDonald, John, Historical Records of the British Army: The Second Dragoon Guards, Or Queen’s Bays, (London: Clowes & Sons, 1836), pp.10, 89.

Macray, William Dunn, Correspondence of Colonel N. Hooke, Agent from the Court of France to the Scottish Jacobites, in the Years 1703–1707, Edited from Transcripts I the Bodleian Library (London: Roxburghe Club, 1871, pp. 70, 79.

Mahaffy, R. P. (ed), Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Anne, 2 vols (London, 1916-1924) (Contains State papeers SP 34/1-3 and 25 to the end of April 1704.)

Massue, Melville Henry, Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, The Jacobite Peerage, (Edinburgh & London: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1904).

Maxwell, Herbert Eustace, ‘Villiers, Edward, first Earl of Jersey (1656–171)’ in Sidney Lee (ed), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Volume XX (New York & London: The Macmillan Company & Smith, Elder & Co., 1909), pp.325–326.

Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend, (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Walter Scott, 1887).

Oates, Jonathan D., ‘Responses in Newcastle upon Tyne to the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2003, pp. 138–139.

Oates, Jonathan D., The Last Battle on English Soil, Preston 1715 (Oxon: Routledge, 2016).

Oates, Jonathan D., The Battle of Preston, 1715 (provisional title), in press.

Oldroyd, D. (2007) Estates, Enterprise and Investment at the Dawn of the Industrial Revolution: Estate Management and Accounting in the North-East of England 1700–1780. Burlington, VA and Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate Publishing Company.

Pepys, Samuel, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, entry dated 12 July 1667 <https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1667/07/12/&gt; .

Redington, Joseph (ed), Calendar of Treasury Papers, Volume 3, 1702–1707: Volume 97, (London: HMSO, 1705).

Richardson, David, The Shotley Bridge Swordmakers (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham, 1973).

Riley, Patrick W. J., The Union of England and Scotland, (Manchester, Manchester University Press/Rowman and Littlefield, 1975).

Ryan, John, [ND] History of Shotley Spa, and Vicinity of Shotley Bridge, (Charleston, SC: Bibliobazaar, 1841).

Scotland, Records of the Parliament of, ‘Act allowing the importation of wines and other foreign liquors’ <https://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1703/5/200&gt; [accessed 28 August 2019].

Secome, Thomas, ‘Villiers Elizabeth, Countess of Orkney (1657?–1733)’ in Sidney Lee (ed), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Volume XX (New York & London: The Macmillan Company & Smith, Elder & Co., 1909).

Shaw, William A., Calendar of Treasury Papers, Volume 22, 1708: Queen’s Warrant Book XXIII (London: HMSO, 1952).

Shotley Bridge Village Trust (2016) Shotley Bridge History. Shotley Bridge. County Durham: Shotley Bridge Village Trust.

Somerset, Anne, Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion, (New York, NY: HarperPress, 2012).

Southwick, Leslie, (2009) ‘The London Cutler “Benjamin Stone” and the Hounslow Sword and Blade Manufactories’, Arms & Armour, 6:1. doi.org/10.1179/174962609X417518

Stone, C. (2002) Environmental Consequences of Heavy-Industry Restructuring and Economic Regeneration through Industrial Ecology, Mining Technology, 111 (3) 187–191.

Surtees, Robert. (1820) Chapelry of Medomsley, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham: Volume 2, Chester Ward. London, Nichols and Son. British History Online <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/antiquities-durham/vol2/pp284-297&gt; [Accessed 2 November 2016].

Sykes, J., Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events Which Have Occurred in Northumberland and Durham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Berwick-upon-Tweed, from the Earliest Period of Authentic Record to the Present Time; With Biographical Notices of Deceased Persons of Talent, Eccentricity and Longevity, (Newcastle: Hodgson, 1833 [2011]).

Szechi, Daniel, 1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion (New Haven: Yale University Press).

Szechi, Daniel, Britain’s lost revolution? (Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain), (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015).

Thrush, Andrew, ‘Villiers, Sir Edward’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (2008 [2004]) <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28288&gt;.

Treasury Papers, vol xcvii, No. 40, P.R.O. in J. Grant, The Old Scots Navy from 1689 to 1710, Publications of the Navy Records Society, 44 (London: Navy Records Society, 1913–14), p.255.

Tyldesley, Anne, Supre. Unworthie & Agatha Turner, Secretaire, ‘Extract from the diary of the Monastery now at Neuilly’ 28 March, 1716 in Original Letters and Other Documents Relating to The Earls of Derwentwater in the Possession of Lord Petre at Thorndon Hall, Essex (1882).

Vassman, W. (1688) Court order issued by judge of the Solingen court, William Vassman on 26 September, 1688. Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln (Cologne historical archive) <http://historischesarchivkoeln.de:8080/actaproweb/archive.xhtml;jsessionid=E39821B19698C03D94A9FD3FE0357526?id=Vor+++++00100594hupp#Vor_____00100594hupp&gt; [Accessed 24 November 2016].

Vernon, Douglas, Thread of Iron: A Definitive History of Shotley Bridge and Consett and District, County Durham with Particular Reference to Iron and Steelmaking, (Knebworth: Able Publishing, 2003).

Wallace, William, The History of England Volume IX, (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1839).

Weil, Rachel, ‘Villiers Elizabeth, Countess of Orkney (1657?–1733)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (2013) <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28290&gt; [accessed 29 August 2019].

Zug, S. R. (1915) History of the Church of the Brethren of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Lancaster, PA: New Era Printing Company <https://archive.org/stream/historyofchurcho00east/historyofchurcho00east_djvu.txt&gt; [Accessed 24 November 2016].

Archive documents

Historical Archive of the City of Köln (Cologne): Solingen Court Order issued in 1688

You may like to read my post about this court order, which explains that it’s not possible to see the physical document at the time of writing, due to the collapse of the archive building in Cologne. It is possible to obtain a pdf version by contacting the archive. There is a charge for this.

Tyne & Wear Archives, Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne

Cotesworth Collection, DF.COT, Miscellaneous Business & Trade papers. (You’ll need to look at the red index book and identify from it the documents you’d like to see. It’s hand-written, but pretty clear.) These documents are all addressed to William Cotesworth, the Gateshead industrialist.

They include price lists for various swords, lists of tools, company articles, swordmaker accounts, steel bills, money owed by Adam Oligh and others, the ‘dunning letters’ asking to borrow money from Cotesworth, and especially poignant is one from Wupper, saying he has been ill since New Year’s Day.

Particular highlights are letters from: the London cutlers, Bensons and his widow, complaining about swords standing like lead (though these aren’t referring to sword made by the German swordmakers); Hermann Mohll, including one complaining about the steel man, Dennis Hayford, and referring to him as a ‘sliye youth’ there to measure up the forge and take it from him.

Northumberland Archives, Woodhorn Museum, Ashington, Northumberland

You’ll need to ask for the Quarter Sessions bundle for the Christmas Quarter Sessions of January 1704, QSB20. Due to the legal new year beginning on 25 March, January, February and most of March may be listed as 1703 or 1703/4). Documents below are set out in order that they were in the bundle with dates where available.

Names of acting justices (including Col. Henry Villiers, Governor of Tynemouth Castle).

08/01/1704 Earl of Nottingham to Colonel Henry Villiers: Telling Villiers that the swords from Rotterdam must stay in his custody, that he must seize and secure the ship and the Scottish and Irish soldiers on board.

09/01/1704 Henry Villiers: Oath of Rotterdam ship’s captain, Cornelius Soldart, mentioning Henry Vade Richard Gilman, John Petty and Jeremiah Roper from Customs House, also the waterman Thomas Davison from South Shields, and Jeremiah Burn and William Foster who took the blades from the ship to Davison’s home.

12/01/1704 Henry Villiers: Oaths taken from tidewaiters, John Perry & Jeremiah Rooper, mentions Henry Mohll being sent to Morpeth Gaol, Thomas Davison from North Shields (who had the blades hidden in his waterhouse) after Jeremiah Burn and William Forster fetched them from the St Anne of Rotterdam. Mentions fishermen bringing him 30 blades, refers to Harmonn Mohll, and states that extraordinary business prevents him from being at the sessions.

XX/01/1704 Henry Villiers: Oath taken by Harmonn Mohll, a Dutchman, who said he’d brought the swords from Solingen in High Germany to take to Shotley Bridge and mentions Peter Renau as being his correspondent there. [The document has a sizable chunk torn out down the upper-left side.]

XX/01/1704 Henry Villiers: Oaths taken by Henry Vade Richard Gilman John Petty & Jeremiah Roper tide waters at Customs House, North Shields, who seized the sword blades in Thomas Davison’s water house, saying Davison would not say where they came from.

Note re surety: George Michaelson, committed by Roger Wilson, for getting Mary Rotherford pregnant and failing to keep said child once born. Harmonn Mohll, committed by Henry Villiers, to answer charges laid against him on the queen’s behalf.

Oath taken by Thomas Davison, saying he had 45 bundles of blades in his house and when they were seized by customs officers, Harmonn Mohll came immediately to the house and said they were his swords and that he’d brought them over from Germany.

Oath taken by Anders of Surinam, freeman, a wherryman at North Shields, who describes being called on by someone on the ship and that he took bundles to a waterhouse but denied knowing what was in the bundles.

Oath taken by Francis (Fran) Carnforth (Thomas Carnforth/Cornforth) of Newcastle says he’s known Harmon Mohll for 14 years, says he has often bought blades from him and that he had planned to buy 20 dozen of the smuggled blades.

Oath taken by Henry Wopper (Heinrich Wupper), Shotley Bridge swordmaker, says he has known and worked with Harmon Mohll for 15 years. He states that he believes Mohll to be a very honest man.

05/01/1704 John Ord, Clerk to the Sessions, notice to bail Mohll, mentions Thomas Davison being bound over, and refers to a pair of gloves.

14/01/1704 John Ord, Clerk to the Sessions, mentions Har. Mohll and Thos. Carnforth.

National Archives, Kew, Richmond, London

These documents mainly comprise the correspondence between Queen Anne’s Secretary of State (Daniel Finch, the 2nd Earl of Nottingham) and Colonel Henry Villiers (Governor of Tynemouth Castle and justice acting at Hermann Mohll’s trial) and also Sir William Blackett, (1st baronet of Newcastle and variously, MP, mayor and High Sheriff of Northumberland).

For some reason, these documents have not been mentioned in any of the existing books about the Shotley Bridge swordmakers and they provide new information about the identity of the soldiers, the regiments they served in and where they came from. There is also information about the eventual fate of the smuggled swords (Queen Anne kept them) and how and why Mohll was released from prison.

Where the documents are listed as folios below, they are part of the State Papers of Queen Anne: SP 34 1702-1714 Secretaries of State: State Papers Domestic, Anne.

A few pieces are calendared in Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Anne, ed R P Mahaffy, 2 vols (London, 1916-1924). SP 34/1-3 and 25 to the end of April 1704 are calendared in ‘Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Anne’, ed R P Mahaffy, 2 vols (London, 1916-1924).

Some of the documents can be viewed on microfiche at the National Archives in Kew, some are in Mahaffy’s books, and others need to be viewed in the actual State Papers Domestic Entry Books, so be prepared to make several visits. It’s best to sort out your membership in advance and order the papers you want to look at in advance as this saves a lot of time.

1703 12 18
Earl of Nottingham
George Morland at Durham, the Commander in Chief at Berwick, the Commander in Chief at Carlisle and Sir William Blackett at Newcastle
State Papers Domestic, Entry Book 146, 104, pp. 385–6
Circular letters sent out

1703 12 24
Sir Wm Blackett Newcastle
Earl of Nottingham (EON)
Folios 100-101.
Guards on all gates and town searched. Mentions big fatt man in short fair peruke (wig) and his attachment to book. Pretends to be Irish, but is really Scottish? Is this Burck? He has found no-one fitting the description of ‘either person’, but he has arrested a suspicious stranger, and sends his papers for inspection.

1703 12 24
George Morland Durham
EON
Folio 102.
The roads to north and west are under constant surveillance, and names house being watched.

1703 12 25
Henry Sewell Carlisle
EON
Folio 103.
The queen’s order will be strictly obeyed.

1704 01 05
Folio 116.
Examination of Cornelius Soldart, master of the Eufro Angelique of Rotterdam. Information about the last voyage, denying knowledge of the sword blades and hanger blades found in his ship Mentions seven men a woman and two children. Depositions from his crew.

1704 01 06
Folio 117.
Examination of Robert Jacobsen, John Cornelius, Thomas Roberts and John Harrison on the same subject
Bundles in straw; seven or eight men, two women and two children.

1704 01 08
Folio 118.
Commissioners of Customs to Col [Henry] Villiers, Governor of Tynemouth Castle.
They thank him for his assistance in recovering the sword blades: Messrs Shelly and Vade will take them to a warehouse in Newcastle. Customs want the swords and order Villiers to move them to proper place – the warehouse.

1704 01 08
Col Henry Villiers
Secretary Hedges
Folio 119. He encloses a copy of the affidavit of the fishermen
Fishermen have retrieved more sword blades from the seabed plus hollow blades about a yard long.

1704 01 08
Earl of Nottingham
Sir William Blackett
State papers domestic, entry book 146, 104, p. 393
Allows John Burke to be released and his papers returned to him. Says Vade the Customs Officer should be commended for seizing the blades, tells Villiers to keep the blades for now and to examine Davison further. Refers to letter from Mr Sadler at Rotterdam.

1704 01 08
Earl of Nottingham
Villiers
State papers domestic, entry book 146, 104, p. 394
Tells Villiers to seize ship’s captain and keep him in custody and to find Scottish and Irish soldiers aboard ship.

1704 01 08
Folio 120.
Affidavits of William Arsbit and John Chambers of South Shields
Reporting their discovery of sword blades while dragging for mussels.

1704 01 11
Col Henry Villiers
Secretary Hedges
Folio 123.
More sword blades have been dragged up from the sea bed, and the owner of the blades is to be prosecuted at Morpeth Quarter Sessions.

1704 01 11
Col Henry Villiers
Sir William Blackett Secretary Hedges
SP 34/3, Sequence Number: 0171
Bound over Mohll and Davison and customs officers. Mentions soldiers and says he will stop ship leaving harbour.

1704 01 14
Col Henry Villiers
Earl of Nottingham
Folio 124.
Harmon Mohll, owner of the blades, and [?Davinson] the waterman are to appear at the sessions; the whereabouts of the shipmaster and soldiers who were also on board are known. Mentions Board of Ordnance and valuing the blades.

1704 01 15
Col Henry Villiers
Earl of Nottingham
Folio 125.
Reporting on proceedings in the matter of the sword blades.

1704 01 15
Earl of Nottingham
Sir William Blackett
State papers domestic, entry book 146, 104, p. 390
Asking for assistance with seizing the ship as Villiers claims it lies outwith his powers.

1704 01 17
Folio 126.
A note relating to SP 34/3, no 87

1704 01 21
Earl of Nottingham
Commissioners of the Customs
State papers domestic, entry book 146, 104, p. 502
Says Queen Anne will keep the swords for her own use. Informers are to be paid in money.

1704 01 21
Sir William Blackett
Earl of Nottingham
Folios 128-129.
Reports on proceedings in the matter of the sword blades. John Burck has been released as directed. Sending warrant for John Ross in Morpeth.

1704 01 22
Sir William Blackett
Earl of Nottingham
Folio 130.
He sends the deposition of John Ross and a state of the proceedings against Moll.

1704 01 22
Folio 131.
Copy of the deposition of John Ross dated 22 Jan 1704.
An account of his voyage on a Dutch ship [?Eufro Angelique] and his movements since, with information about the other passengers. States six soldiers in all and gives names and regiments.

1704 01 22
John Ord, Clerk
Sir William Blackett
Folios 132-133.
Enclosing report of the proceedings against Mohll and copies of various depositions, taken from the quarter] sessions rolls.

1704 01 24
Sir William Blackett
Earl of Nottingham
SP 34/3, Sequence Number: 0180
Refers to John Ross as ‘Scotch sergeant’ (he is from Morpeth in Northumberland), asks whether he and Mohll are to remain in custody.

1704 01 25
Col Henry Villiers
Earl of Nottingham
Folio 134.
Reporting on his latest actions in the matter of the sword blades
Mentions Cornelius Soldart, ship’s captain, and his brother in Rotterdam, who helped load the swords onto the ship. Mentions fishermen gathering swords and how much he has paid them.

1704 01 24 ?
Matthew White, Mayor of Newcastle
Col Henry Villiers
Folios 135-136.
On his proceedings in the matter of the sword blades.

1704 01 24 ?
Folio 137.
Depositions of Thomas Tompson, John Glen and William Coals, all of South Shields [Durh]
Their endeavours to recover a few sword blades.

1704 01 05
Earl of Nottingham
Sir William Blackett
State Papers Domestic, Entry Book 104, pp. 404, 405.
Says Sergeant Ross and Mohll can be released, that they don’t appear guilty of treason, but that the Queen leaves it up to the local justices to decide.

1704 02 05
Sir William Blackett
Earl of Nottingham
Folio 142
The prisoners connected with the matter of the sword blades have been acquitted as directed