Biography:
1. Martin Sillcock was employed as a Refiner (Labourer) on the 13th April 1789 in the Salt Petre Refiinng House, and earned 1/6d per day (Supply 5/213 dated the 18th April 1789).
Supply 5/214 dated September 1789 recorded that he was 32 years of age, and a Report dated the 27th March 1790 (also Supply 5/214) confirmed that he was refining Saltpetre under John Baker. He continued to work in the Refining House from that date to February 1793 (Supply 5/216 dated the 28th February, 1793) and Supply 5/216 of August 1794, confirmed that he was still in the Refining House. Supply 5/217 of December 1794, gave the same information as given previously, as does the Return of September, 1798 (Supply 5/219).
2. Winters, (p.33) recorded that Sillcock was at the Mills working as a Refiner in April 1789.
3. Supply 5/217 dated the 24th June 1795, recorded that he had become an occasional Labourer at the Royal Laboratory in the "last war". (American ?)
4. A Report dated the 8th May 1801 (Supply 5/221) confirmed he was working as a Labourer, and that he was a single man. Note: In this document, anyone not an Artificer was described as a Labourer.
5. Robert Coleman recorded in his Minute Book on the 23rd October 1801, that 24 men were required to work at Faversham or be discharged. Sillcock was one who agreed to go (Winters, p.60). However the Faversham Gunpowder Personnel Register 1573-1840 does not record his name, so it can only be assumed his services may have been terminated and that he was subsequently re-engaged.
6. Supply 5/222 dated the 8th May 1804, recorded that he was working as a Refiner, with pay of 2/-d per day, and all Refiners received an additional allowance of 1/-d per night when it was their turn "to watch" - on average every 5th night.
