|
| [Sept.] |
Additional clause to be inserted at the end of the grant of
lotteries to the Irish indigent officers requiring it to be enrolled
within six months after the date thereof. With note by Sir F.
Winnington that this ought to be done, it being directed by the
Act of Explanation. (See Cal. S.P. Dom., 1675–76, p. 320.) [S.P.
Ireland, Car. II. 349, No. 79.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Statement that William, Earl of Pembroke, 3 Sept., 1625, in
consideration of 1,200l. granted to J.S. and his heirs a rentcharge
of 120l. per annum out of all his lands, and that the grantor died
in April, 1630, without issue, leaving two years of the rentcharge
in arrear, which was paid 25 March, 1631, by Earl Philip, his
successor, to the said J. S., who going to travel soon afterwards
and the said Earl Philip dying before any more payments, his
son and successor Philip denied to pay the rentcharge and also
that he ever heard of such a grant. In April, 1657, J. S. exhibited
his bill in Chancery against the said Earl and proved his case by
several witnesses and was left to take his remedy at law by
distress, but was hindered by the Earl's privilege. Soon after
the said Earl died and was succeeded by his son William, who
offered J. S. 4,000l. composition, which he thought too small.
In 1665 J. S. made his will leaving all his real and personal
estate to his wife, whom he appointed sole executrix thereof,
and died. She for want of present money offered to sell the
rentcharge and arrears to the said Earl William, who is since
dead (ob. 1674) and left his estate to his brother, the present
Earl. [S.P. Dom., Car. II. 442, No. 21.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Memorandum that Simon Parry and William Carter be
inserted in the room of Sir Thomas Daniell and Simon Weaver
(as commissioners for licensing hackney coaches. See Cal. S.P.
Dom., 1676–77, p. 252.) [Ibid. No. 22.] |
| [1676 ?] |
The case of Major Thomas Beckford (knighted Oct., 1677),
slopseller to the Navy. In 1662 instructions were given by the
Lord High Admiral about vending clothes on board ships, prescribing the kinds of clothes and their prices. 13 Feb., 1665[–6],
Major Beckford was appointed slopseller, so long as he should
furnish the fleet with the clothes and at the rates appointed by
the instructions. Since Mr. Speaker came in as Treasurer of
the Navy in 1673 the slopseller's accounts and payments have
been and are stayed, three great objections being made against
him:— |
|
1. That he has furnished clothes of other kinds than those
specified in the instructions. |
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2. That he has taken greater prices than those limited by them. |
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3. That by a combination between him and the pursers
tobacco, brandy and other things under the name of clothes
and greater quantities of clothes than ever were furnished by
the slopseller are claimed and brought to his account and that
the clothes sold on board are not sold at the mast. |
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As to (1) he admits that clothes of kinds not prescribed have
been sold: but (1) only to officers and volunteers and to seamen
who desired them and refused the others. (2) Such clothes have
been viewed and approved by several of the chief officers of the
Navy. (3) It has been the constant usage of the Navy not to
confine the officers and volunteers nor indeed the ordinary seamen to the prescribed clothes, but others both as to kind and
goodness have always been furnished to such as desired them.
(4) Those that desired them have always understood that
aboard there were clothes of the prescribed kinds and prices,
which they refused and chose these. (5) Thereby neither the
King nor the seamen were prejudiced. |
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As to objection 2, if greater prices have been taken than prescribed it was only when the clothes were better than ordinary,
many officers, volunteers and seamen desiring such and refusing
the ordinary ones, nor were ever greater prices taken for the
ordinary ones than warranted by the instructions, nor was there
ever any want of clothes according to the kinds and prices in
the instructions, whereby the seamen might be forced to take
the extraordinary ones. |
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As to objection 3, the slopseller denies all combination and
contrivance between him and the pursers or otherwise to deceive
either the King or the seamen or make any unjust or indirect
profit to himself. At the going out of every ship the slopseller
imprests as many clothes as may be thought sufficient for the
voyage or at least as many as the purser will accept. The
purser is to give account to the slopseller and produce certificates
for them. |
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The pursers on occasion of long voyages and ancient usage
claim to furnish clothes when the slopseller's stores are spent
and often unknown to the slopseller take in clothes of their own
and buy others on their own account, which they vend to the
seamen, sometimes when all the slopseller's are issued and sometimes selling their own and bringing back the slopseller's, and by
reason of ancient usage and a good understanding between them
and the seamen sometimes the pursers' clothes are placed to
account as well as dead men's clothes and sometimes money
lent and other things furnished by the pursers under the name
of clothes are placed to the account of clothes, all which under
the name of clothes are according to order brought to the slopseller's account and by certificate from the ship's officers there
placed, the particulars whereof the slopseller cannot possibly
distinguish, and, when the slopseller receives the money, he pays
himself the clothes he imprested and the rest goes to the purser
without any profit to himself. Thereby it sometimes happens
that much more is claimed to be due on the slopseller's account
than the clothes by him imprested amount to nor is he paid by
the pursers' bills but by the ships' books signed by the officers. |
|
If the pursers use any fraud or the instructions as to the
vending of clothes aboard or getting certificates from the ship's
officers be not duly observed, it cannot be reasonably imputed
to the slopseller, who is ashore, nor ever admits any thing in his
account but what there are due certificates for according to the
instructions, nor has he a penny advantage of what the purser
receives though he runs very great hazards and has had many
losses by vessels and clothes being taken, lost and spoiled to
the value of many thousands, besides his great charge by keeping
vessels, manning and victualling them and by having store
houses in all parts of the kingdom and persons attending there. |
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Some of the instructions have been dispensed with as not
practicable or at least not conducive to the service, namely the
5th, restraining the vending of clothes to any seaman till after
he had been two months aboard, which stands dispensed with
by order of the Navy officers of 12 Nov., 1664; and indeed the
method of paying by certificate according to the instructions
has not been nor can that and many other particulars in the
instructions be practically or possibly observed, the constant
usage before this slopseller came in being not strictly confined
to the letter of the instructions, nor has he proceeded in any
other method than his predecessors have done and others
appointed to serve clothes during the Dutch war. |
|
On the whole matter he hopes it will appear that those great
objections are fully answered and that he is not nor has been
guilty of any misdemeanour that will justly occasion the stay
of his accounts and payments. (See Cal. S.P. Dom., 1676–77,
p. 537.) At the foot, |
|
Copy of the last article of the King and Council's instructions
in 1671 concerning payment to the Chest at Chatham, the
ministers and chirurgeons and the slopseller. [5 pages.
Ibid. No. 23.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Robert Carlos, nephew of Col. Carlos. Petition for relief. He
rode in the Guard of horse for above seven years and afterwards went into France under the command of Lord Duras and
was with him at the taking of Maestricht and several other
engagements as the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Duras can
testify, but on his return to England he was expelled the
service because he was a Recusant and is now reduced to
extreme poverty. [Ibid. No. 24.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Katherine Macklier, relict of James Macklier, eldest son of
Sir John Macklier. Petition for a supply for her pressing wants,
were it but 20 or 30l., her father, Sir John Cochrane, having
been a faithful servant to his Majesty and his father for many
years and she being desirous to return to Ireland. About three
years ago she petitioned for relief and was referred and, though
declared innocent by the Court of Claims, through want of
money could not obtain her lands in Tipperary, so that she was
forced to go for Sweden to procure some moneys there, but
instead was treated most rigorously and forced to return. (See
Cal. S.P. Dom., 1675–76, p. 591.) [Ibid. No. 25.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Several merchants of London, who obtained the freedom of
foreign built ships, to the King. Petition, as they find him and
the Council in some doubt of the due obtaining of such freedoms,
begging him to consider the inconveniences and losses that must
fall on them if they be not protected and that, if there has been
any undue practice, which could never be by them, it more conduces to his Majesty's profit to make good the defects of the said
warrants than to expose his innocent subjects to the hazard of
foreign justice, which it is well known may be more aptly termed
plunder. (See Cal. S.P. Dom., 1676–77 passim.) [Ibid. No. 26.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Capt. Bernard Phillipps to the King. Petition for payment
of the arrears and settlement for the future of his pension of
4s. a day granted him (17 Nov., 1672) in consideration of his
ready obedience in quitting two commands in Holland and
coming over, which is over 2½ years in arrear, being stopped on
pretence of his being a Catholic, which objection was cleared
by the certificate of the minister and churchwardens of St.
Margaret's, Westminster. [Ibid. No. 27.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Capt. John Price. Petition stating that he was sworn one of the
Grooms of the Privy Chamber in 1661 and that, when his Majesty
settled his Household and reduced the grooms to the ancient
number of six in waiting, he gave the supernumeraries a pension
of wages and livery, and praying a grant of the like pension and
a reference for that end to the Earl of Arlington, Lord Chamberlain of the Household. [Ibid. No. 28.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Clara, wife of Sir Edward Wood, to the King. Petition stating
a grant of a pension of 200l. per annum to Mrs. Bolton, which
his Majesty declared he intended as well for the support of Sir
Edward Wood and his family as for Mrs. Bolton, and accordingly
she, after giving his Majesty a great deal of trouble in endeavouring to destroy the petitioner's right, in April, 1669, by a writing
aliened to Sir Edward Wood and Clara, his wife, and the survivor of them 70l. per annum out of the said 200l., which the
petitioner has received till about Midsummer last, and then
Mrs. Bolton, taking advantage of the absence of the petitioner's
husband, Envoy Extraordinary to Stockholm, pretended it was
in her power to revoke the grant and then received 100l. of the
pension and denied the petitioner her share: and therefore praying directions to the Lord Treasurer that she may not in her
husband's absence lose so great a part of her maintenance through
Mrs. Bolton's injustice. (See Calendar of Treasury Books,
Vol. V, pp. 274, 408, 444.) [Ibid. No. 29.] |
| [1676 ?] |
List of the officers of Lord Schonberg's foot regiment now
extant. Capt. Henry Boade. Capt. John Middleton in the
Duke of Monmouth's troop. Capt. John Wharton in Sir Philip
Howard's troop. Capt. Richard Sands in the country. Capt.Lieut. John Sherrard in Sir Francis Compton's troop. Lieut.
Robert Wattson in Yorkshire. Ensign Samuel Lord in Lord
Frescheville's troop. Ensign Edward Tomes in Sir T. Armstrong's
troop. George Barnardiston, the General's secretary. |
|
List of the officers of Col. Pearson's regiment now extant.
Lieut.-Col. John Romsey at Bristol. Capt. Adam Bolton in
Lancashire. Lieut. William Ash. Ensign Thomas Tesman in
Lord Frescheville's troop. Ensign Boys in Lord Oxford's troop.
Quartermaster William Reines in the country. At foot, "Per me
Lord Marquis." Endorsed, "Blankfore." [Ibid. No. 30.] Annexed, |
|
Note. Thomas Smithe was a quartermaster and cornet under
Marquis Schambourge (sic) in Portugal. Richard Towneley
and Thomas Coningsby ensigns—of Major Windham's troop.
(Probably earlier than the preceding paper.) [Ibid. No.
30 i.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Lord [? Shaftesbury] to Lord —. I very much approve
of what Lord Mordaunt and you told me you were about
and should, if I had been in town, readily have joined with
you, or on the first notice have come up, for it is certainly all
our duties and particularly mine, who have borne so great
offices under the Crown, to improve any opportunity of good
understanding between the royal family and the people and not
leave it possible for the King to apprehend that we stand on any
terms that are not as good for him as they are necessary for us.
Neither can I fear being accounted undertakers at the next
meeting of the parliament, for I hope it will never be thought
unfit for any member of the Lords to give the King privately
their opinion when asked, when in former days through all the
northern kingdoms nothing of great moment was acted by their
kings without the advice of the most considerable and active
nobility, though they were not of the ordinary Privy Council,
such occasions being not always of that nature as required the
assembling of either the great council or the parliament. Besides
there are none so likely as us nor no time so proper as now to
give the only advice I know truly serviceable to the King,
affectionate to the Duke of York and sincere to the country,
which is a new parliament, which I undertake at my time to
convince your lordships is the clear interest of all three, but
in the meantime I must beg yours and Lord Mordaunt's pardon
that I came not up as I intended, for I hear from all quarters
of letters from Whitehall to give notice that I am coming to
town, that a great office with a strange name is prepared for me
and such like. I am ashamed I was thought so very a fool.
Methinks they should know me better, but I assure you no place
or condition will invite me to Court during this parliament,
nor till I see the King thinks frequent new parliaments as much
his interest as they are the people's right, for till then I can
never serve the King as well as I would or think a great plan
safe enough for a second adventure. When our great men have
tried a little longer, they will be on my mind. In the meantime
no kind of usage shall put me out of that duty and respect I
owe the King and Duke, but I think it will not be unwise for
men in great offices that are all at their ease and where they would
be to be ordinarily civil to men in my condition, since they may
be assured that all their places put together shall not buy me
from my principles. [Copy in the hand of Thomas Barnes, from
whom are numerous letters in S.P. Dom., 1675–78, passim. (Lord
Mordaunt succeeded in 1675 aged 17 or 18.) Ibid. No. 31.] |
| [1676.] |
Richard Kearney to the Duchess of Portsmouth. Petition
stating that about six weeks ago he gave in a petition to her
setting forth that he has a list of several lands, leases, rentcharges
and moneys clearly in his Majesty's disposal of about 1,000l.
a year, which were never discovered or set out to any person,
which he prayed to be passed in letters patent to the Duke of
Richmond and Lenox according to articles to be passed betwixt
her Grace and the petitioner, and that she referred the petition
to Dr. Taylor, to whom the petitioner gave the whole state of
his discovery, which was produced to Sir John King (ob. June,
1677), her counsel, which he found very feasible and good,
whereupon Dr. Taylor and the petitioner agreed that his Majesty's
letter to the Lord Lieutenant should be taken out by her for
passing the said lands to the Duke in letters patent in Ireland
and that the petitioner should be at all charges for so doing and
recovering the same, whereof he is to have one third part of the
whole and be reimbursed his charges out of the principal before
any division, and therefore praying, in regard that, if the petitioner
be not in Ireland before next term with the said letter to issue
summons to the persons concerned, the Duke will lose a year's
rent and that the petitioner has a great charge of wife, family
and farms behind him, that she may make her speedy address
to his Majesty for the letter, which the petitioner will solicit in
Dr. Taylor's absence. [S.P. Ireland, Car. II. 349, No. 80.]
Probably annexed, |
|
The Duke of Richmond and Lenox to the King. Petition for
a letter to the Lord Lieutenant to pass the lands, etc., mentioned in the annexed list, which were concealed but discovered
with great charges by the petitioner, to him and his heirs
under the reservations of the former leases and under the
usual quit-rent payable out of such land. [Ibid. No. 80 i.] |
|
Draft of the letter to the Lord Lieutenant desired in the above
petition. (All these three documents are in the same hand.)
[1½ pages. Ibid. No. 80 ii.] |
| [1676 ?] |
Margaret Walters alias Thicknesse to the King. Petition
stating that she has a cause depending and that Capt. John
Magragh, a pensioner, who receives his pension at Mr. Hughit's
(Hewitt's) office at the Horse Guard is a chief witness, who
takes her adversary's part against her and keeps out of sight,
but appoints another to receive his pension, and therefore praying an order that Mr. Hughit may not pay the pension to any
of the captain's attorneys, till he appear in the said cause.
[Ibid. No. 81.] |
