Biography:
1. Robert Coleman was appointed Extra Clerk at Purfleet on the 22nd July 1780, and Clerk at Waltham Abbey on the 1st April 1788 (Supply 5/216 dated the 23rd August 1792 - C.V's of Clerks at Waltham Abbey).
2. In 1794 he became a First-Lieutenant in the Militia formed at the Mills (Winters, p.51).
3. Report on Pay and Allowances for Artificers and Labourers (Supply 5/217 dated the 3rd July 1795) indicated that he was appointed Clerk of the Cheque, and gave his salary as £90 per annum, with £20 per annum for house rent.
4. A List of Artificers, Labourers and Members of the Volunteer Company dated September 1798 was prepared by Robert Coleman and signed by him as the "Storekeeper on duty", i.e., at the time, the Storekeeper was away from the Powder Mills (Supply 5/219).
5. Coleman kept a Minute Book between 1793 and 1796 which Winters used extensively in his Centenary Memorial, (pp 36-48), published in 1878. The Minute Book contained many small incidents relating to life and working conditions at the Mills, and his last entry on the 17th June 1796 read "Discontinued these Minutes, for it is impossible to keep them with accuracy in consequence of my frequency of going, after the Cylinder Works and Charcoal Wood." The cylinder works were at Fisher Street and Fernhurst in West Sussex, and he made frequent "scouting " trips in Essex for charcoal." He signed most of the letters in conjunction with the Storekeeper, James Wright, but a note on one dated the 17th May 1799, recorded "Clerk of the Cheque absent on duty in Sussex" (WO13/2202).
6. A letter from the Board dated the 19th August 1801 recorded that Henry Dugleby had been promoted to Clerk of the Cheque in place of Robert Coleman, who had been promoted (Supply 5/195).
7. Where Coleman was posted to is unknown.
