John Blunt of Great Ayliff Street, Goodmans Fields proposed SOCIETY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION 8.11.1782 by Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield 2nded Joseph Brown. Not sure if this was the same John Blunt as the coal factor and ship broker of 9, Coal Exchange, Thames St in 1782 and later of 1 Cross St, Thames St, if not the same they were in a similar line of business, see Nat Arch ADM 106/1246/424 where Nathaniel Bulmer shipbuilder of South Shields asked John Blunt of 6, Great Alie Street (another way of spelling Ayliffe Street) to tender the hull of a ship built by him at Hull (not seen original). I think he must be identical with the coal factor, as in the lists of subscribers to the Society for promoting religious knowledge among the poor, published annually., Mr John Blunt was listed each year as admitted in 1781, in the 1782 edition his address was given as Coal Exchange, in 1786 as Stratford in Essex, and in the 1790s as 48 Prescot St, Goodmans Fields. In the Whitechapel Land Tax he appeared at Gt Alie St in 1777-86 and nearby at Gt Prescot St from 1791. In 1782 JB of Gt Alie St was listed as an Annual Governor of the London Hospital and in 1797 JB of Prescot St was one of the governors of the Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Children of the Poor. JB's subs to published works were 1786 to Rd Griffith's Henry & Frances, 1788 to Alex Bicknell's Patriot King, 1792 to Wm Eddis' America. A Times advert in 1785 stated that JB coal factor of Cross Lane had taken up Mr Sadler's balloon at sea. In the trial of William Stone 1796 he was the last character witness (p299) and had known Stone some twenty years, or since his childhood. Assuming we are dealing with the same John Blunt (there were certainly others around such as JB who married Susanna Farley 1772 St Leonards Shoreditch and JB victualler of Tufton St Westminster 1780, a JB coal merchant of St James Piccadilly voted Mountmorris & Mahon, the Wilkite candidates, in 1774) he was admitted to the freedom of the Needlemakers Company 1777 by redemption, usual details of father missing. His will was dated 31.7.1800, made his wife Elizabeth and son John executors and mentioned his nephew Robert Scollay. JB and Robert Scollay coal factors of Coal Exchange, London went bankrupt 1805. Robert Scollay was apprenticed to John Blunt junior of the Needlemakers Company in 1793 as son of William Scollay compass maker of Sunderland, co. Durham, and was buried at Union St Southwark Independent 29.10.1821 aged 45. JB's son John proved his father's will PCC 16.4.1818 as the surviving executor. The father was probably the JB buried 16.10.1817 at Tottenham age 77 so also perhaps the JB born 31.1.1740 of John Blunt shipchandler & Alicia (dau of Jacob Read), Wapping St, St John Wapping. JB junior married 5.3.1795 at St Botolph Bishopsgate as bach otp Lydia Goff sp of St Geo in the East by lic, wits Elijah Goff, John Blunt, & R Gillespy. Elijah Goff was a coal merchant of St Geo i t East (will PCC 1799) see P/GOF/2 at Tower Hamlets Local History Library for his diary (not seen). John Blunt junior was a merchant at 10 America Square in the 1790s, later JB Esq of Woodford, Essex and Upper Bedford Place, Russell Sq. He died 10.6.1855, late of Brussels, at Dunkirk in his 86th year. His eldest son John Elijah Blunt went to Trinity, Cambridge and Lincolns Inn, was called to bar 1822, became a Master in Chancery, his will PCC 1856