402
NOTES AND QUERIES, tii s. iv. NOV. is, ion.
a lease of all the gold and silver mines in
Scotland. In 1604 he was given a free gift
of 100?., as well as 200Z. to be employed about
the gold mines in Scotland. Other free
gifts of 1001. and 6001. were paid to him in
1607 and 1608 respectively. In 1607 there
is a discharge of Sir Bevis Buhner and
others of the duty on sea coal and of rents
on any demise made by the late queen, and
in 1608 a release of all arrears in which he
stands indebted for imposts on sea coals and
a discharge for 2,419Z. lQs.'10d. granted him
to be employed about the mines in Scotland.
In the same year, 1608, he was appointed master and surveyor of the earthworks of the lately discovered silver mines at Hilderston, which position he held until 1610 (Reg. Privy Council of Scotland ; Cochran- Patrick, ' Early Records .... Mining in Scot- land ' ; Irving, ' Upper Ward of' Lanark- shire').
It will be noted that Bulmer is referred to above as Sir Bevis ; it would appear that it was in 1604 that he was knighted, but his name is not given in Philipot's ' Collection of all the Knights Bachelors,' &c. In the Hatfield MSS. (Hist. MSS. Commission) is a letter dated 1597, from Sir John Palking- ton, which is stated to be endorsed by, among others, Sir Bevis Bulmer. Possibly there has been an error in transcribing the Christian name, but in any case it is quite clear that the subject of this note was not a knight at that period.
Of Bulmer' s life and character, the only intimate account which we have is to be found in Stephen Atkinson's ' The Dis- coverie and Historic of the Gold Mynes in Scotland.' This appears to have been written in the year ] 619 ; it was printed by the Bannatyne Club in 1825 under the editorship of Gilbert Laing Meason, from a MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. There is a copy in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 4621) which appears to be in substantial agreement with the printed book. Atkinson was a Londoner, and had served an apprenticeship as a refiner of gold and silver, and probably it was as a refiner of silver at Combmartin that he was first employed by Bulwer. His " first teaching and erudition (in mining) came from Mr. B. B. an ingenious gent." According to this author, Bulmer was engaged in seeking for gold in Scotland, at places which he names, during the reign of Elizabeth, and " he builded a very fayre countrey house to dwell in ; he furnished it fitting for himselfe and his family ; he kept therein great hospitallity ; . . . . but it is said that his hospitallity and [want of]
frugality were the theeves that burst in, and so
robbed his house, and cutt his purse bottom
cleane aWay, and thus he consumed him selfe and
wasted what he did gett in gold which was much,
.... And he had alwayes many irons in the fier,
besides those which he presently himselfe looked
on ; and often times intricate matters in hand
to decyde ; and too many prodigall wasters,
hanging on every shoulder of him. And he
wasted much himselfe, and gave liberally to
many, for to be honoured, praised, and magnified,
else he might have bin a rich subject ; for the
least of these frugalities [sic] were able to robb an
abbott. By such synister meanes he was im-
poverished, and followed other idle veniall vices
to his dying day, that were not allowable of God
nor man : and so once down aye down, and at last
he died at Awstin-moore in my debt 300Z. starling,
to my great hinderance, and left me in Ireland
much in debt for him &c. God forgive us all our
Sinnes ! But if he had lived to this day, un-
doubtedly he might have paid all men."
Atkinson informs us that Bulmer pre- sented to Queen Elizabeth a porringer made from gold found in Scotland, upon which were inscribed the following lines : I dare not give, nor yet present, But render parte of that's thy owiie My minde and hart, shall still invent To seeke out treasure, yet unknowne.
" And within a short space following Mr. Bulmer was made one of hir Majesties sworne servants : and this was his first stepp at court, and from thence he learned to begg, as other courtiers do. He had witt at will, and frequented the best company still ; thereby his old freinds multiplied and sought after him to remember them, and then much creditt was given unto him on every side."
This presentation, according to Atkin- son, took place shortly before the grant of the imposition on sea coal (1599). For this he was to pay the Queen 6,200?. per annum, and Atkinson alleges that he made 1,OOOZ. a year clear for himself. An account of the first half year of the farm, in the Lansdowne MSS., however, shows a deficit, and it seems likely that Bulmer at no time made the farm pay.
Bulmer then (again following Atkinson) wrote " a book of all his acts, workes and devises," which he named ' Bulmer 's Skill/ According to this book, James I. in the first year of his reign in England devised a scheme for procuring capital to work the gold mines in Scotland. Bulmer was to get together twenty-four gentlemen of means, each to advance 3001. , for which disbursement each man was to have the honour of knight- hood bestowed upon him, " and so for ever to be called the Knight of the Golden Mynes, or the Golden Knight." Bulmer was to be governor of the undertaking, and he appears to have thought that the scheme, being that of the King himself, was quite
