Richard Martin

• Honorific Prefix — Sir • Name — Richard Martin • Office — Warden of the Mint • Term Start — 1560 • Term End — 1595 • Predecessor — John Browne • Successor — Thomas Knyvet • Office2 — Master of the Mint • Term Start2 — 1582 • Term End2 — 1617 • Predecessor2 — John Lonyson • Successor2 — Edward Villiers • Office3 — Lord Mayor of the City of London • Term Start3 — 1589 • Term End3 — 1589 • Predecessor3 — Martin Calthrop • Successor3 — John Harte • Office4 — Lord Mayor of the City of London • Term Start4 — 1593 • Term End4 — 1594 • Predecessor4 — Cuthbert Buckell • Successor4 — John Spencer • Died — July 1617 • Place of death — London, England • Resting Place — Tottenham Church, London, England • Spouse — Dorcas Egleston • Children — John Martin

Richard Martyn's birth is estimated at c. 1534 on the basis of his age given as 28 in a portrait medallion by Steven van Herwijk dated 1562. He was elected a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the Livery Companies or craft guilds of the City of London, in 1558. He was elected alderman for the wards of Farringdon Within 1578–1598 and Bread Street 1598–1602. He was Sheriff of London in 1581–1582. Martin was knighted in 1588–1589 and served a partial year as Lord Mayor in 1589, succeeding Sir Martin Calthrop who had died in office. He was Prime Warden or head of the Goldsmiths' Company 1592–1593, chairing the Court of Wardens or governing body of the company, and served a second term as Lord Mayor in 1593–1594, succeeding Sir Cuthbert Buckell. His other municipal offices included President of Christ's Hospital and Comptroller-General of Hospitals 1594–1602. Martin was an investor in Sir Francis Drake's 1577–1580 voyage of circumnavigation and also in Drake's 1585–1586 expedition to harass the Spanish ports in the New World.

Martin was Warden of the Royal Mint by 1572, and was responsible for overseeing the workings of the mint and the quality of the coinage. He supplied metal of specified fineness for gold coins to John Lovyson (Lawinson or Lonison), Master of the Tower Mint in 1577. John Stow in his Survey of London recorded Martin's charges against John Lovyson, a matter that was finally weighed by a commission of Privy Council members including Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasurer, and others, which recommended that Martin himself succeeded Lovyson as Master of the Mint in 1582, serving in that capacity until his death in 1617.

Richard Martin married Dorcas Ecclestone (1537-1599) sometime before 1562. Martin had a silver medal with their portraits made to commemorate their marriage. The medal was designed by Steven Corneliszoon van Herwijck who was working in London in 1562. They had five sons and one daughter. Both Martins were active in radical religious causes including the Admonition Controversy, part of an effort to encourage the queen to further reform Protestantism in England. The country house at Highgate later known as Lauderdale House was built for him in 1582. The Martins' son Captain John Martin commanded the Benjamin under Drake in the 1585–1586 expedition. On his return, John Martin married Mary Brandon (born 1566), daughter of Robert Brandon, Chamberlain of London, on 23 May 1586 at St Vedast, Foster Lane. John Martin became a Councilman of the Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1607 and was the proprietor of Martin's Brandon Plantation on the south bank of the James River, apparently named after his wife's family. Another son, Richard (died 1616), served with his father as a master-worker at the mint from 1599 to 1607. Their daughter Dorcas married Sir Julius Caesar, later Chancellor of the Exchequer and Master of the Rolls under James I.

In March 1595 Martin raided the house of Edmund Williamson in Philip Lane, Cripplegate, after his brother Nicholas Williamson was arrested for treason. Martin discovered that Edmund Williamson ran a kind of pawnbroking business from his house, obtaining luxury goods from young men for small sums, less than their worth. Nicholas Skeres, an associate of Christopher Marlowe involved in the credit racket, was taken by Martin and held for a few days.

Martin had remained both Warden and Master of the Mint for almost two decades, but following charges in 1597 that he was profiteering by delaying repayments he sold his office of Warden to Sir Thomas Knyvet. The two soon fell out, with Knyvet accusing Martin of owing the crown substantial funds and Martin insisting he was owed. Martin was briefly imprisoned for debt, which led to his removal from his Aldermanry on 31 August 1602 on account of his "unfitting demeanour and carriage". Suits and countersuits continued, with the Exchequer finding against Martin in 1607 and a further enquiry finding in his favour in 1615. In 1608 Martin asked to be involved in the assay of silver ore sent to the Tower Mint from Hilderston in Scotland. He sent a report of the assay and chemical opinions offered by his workmen to the Earl of Salisbury in October. Richard Martin died in July 1617, and was buried in Tottenham Church, 30 July 1617. At his death he "was held near a hundred years old". His wife Dorcas had been buried in the same church on 2 September 1599, and his son Richard on 28 May 1616.