Sir John Spilman (also spelt Spielman) (died 1626) was a Lindau, German-born entrepreneur who founded the first commercially successful paper-mill in England, establishing a factory on the River Darenth in Dartford, Kent in 1588.
Spilman repaired and altered the mills, at an estimated cost of £1,500, and financed the employment of skilled German paper-makers to produce good quality white paper.
[3] Spilman secured a patent dated February 7th, 1589 giving him a monopoly in buying materials for making white paper and preventing anyone from setting up in competition without his permission.
[7] In 1593 Richard Butler, captain of one of Walter Raleigh's ships, said Spilman dealt in jewels at court, was about 38 and had a long chestnut beard and a scar on his forehead.
[10] In October 1600 Spilman, Leonard Bushe and Hugh Kayle appraised and sold a quantity of old jewels from the Tower of London on the orders of Queen Elizabeth.
[12] They made jewels for the coronations, refashioned the armille, ampulla, and sceptre, and mounted a large number of precious and imitation stones in collets so they could be sewn on the king's cloth-of-estate in the Abbey.
On the instructions of Mary Radcliffe they had mended some old pieces from the collection of Queen Elizabeth, including; a branch of tree with a half moon; a gold feather jewel set with rubies, emeralds, and pearls; a ring enamelled like crayfish with a large diamond.
He had kept them at Westminster Palace on the instructions of Queen Elizabeth, and James and his courtiers sent some to Spilman and Herrick for valuation, with an ivory coffer, and a "great rich glass set with diamonds rubies emeralds and pearls, made in the form of a woman upon a pillar or case holding a clock with diverse motions" worth £2,739 brought from the Tower of London.
[27] In December 1607 Spilman, Herrick, and the goldsmith John Williams were asked to polish and amend some pieces that Queen Elizabeth had mortgaged, and King James gave Anna of Denmark a cup made of unicorn horn, a gold ewer, a salt with a branch from which serpent's tongues and sapphires were suspended, and a crystal chess board with crystal and topaz chessmen.
[28] He supplied jewels and pearls worth £2,880 to King James for New Year's Day gifts to the queen, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of York in January 1610.
[32] In 1619 Spilman, with the other royal jewellers Abraham Harderet, George Heriot, and William Herrick, joined the funeral procession of Anna of Denmark in 1619.
[35] In 1624 Lionel Cranfield, the Lord Treasurer, appointed Philip Jacobson as a goldsmith to the king, noting that George Heriot was dead and Spilman and William Herrick rarely did any work.