Treasury Books and Papers: June 1737

Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, Volume 3, 1735-1738. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1900.

This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.

'Treasury Books and Papers: June 1737', in Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, Volume 3, 1735-1738, (London, 1900) pp. 317-324. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books-papers/vol3/pp317-324 [accessed 11 April 2024]

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

June 1737

June 2.
Whitehall,
Treasury
Chambers.
81. Present: Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Dodington, Sir George Oxenden. Lord Sundon, Mr. Winnington.
A memorial from the Countess Dowager of Portland read in reply to the Earl of Pembroke's memorial, concerning their dispute. Referred to the Surveyor General [of Crown Lands], and a copy to be sent to the Earl of Pembroke.
Order for the issue, out of this week's cash, of the following for the Civil List:—
£ s. d.
To foreign ministers on their ordinaries and extraordinaries to 1736, Christmas 13,786 0 0
To the Treasurer of the Chamber on bills and Lord Chamberlain's warrants to same time 8,656 10 3
Order for the issue out of Exchequer bills on land tax 1737 of 38,816l. 18s. 1d., and 4,061l. 6s. 3d. out of arrears of malt 1735, granted towards the supply of 1737, for services required by the Treasurer of the Navy in his memorial of the 23rd and 25th ult., now read.
[Treasury Minute Book XXVIII. p. 27; Letter Book XIX. p. 441.]
June 6. 82. An account of the Supplies for the year 1737. (Total supply, 3,282,182l. 11s.d. Total exependiture, viz.:—Part thereof paid, 1,136,996l. 0s.d., part remaining to be paid, 2,145,186l. 10s.d., as against a residue of ways and means undisposed, 2,117,065l. 5s.d., thus leaving a debit balance, deficiency of grants anno 1737, of 28,121l. 4s. 11¾d.) 1 sheet.
[Treasury Board Papers CCXCV. No. 25.]
June 8.
Whitehall,
Treasury
Chambers.
83. Present: Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Sundon, Mr. Winnington.
“Let the Countess of Portland know that my Lords hope to be at leisure in eight or ten days to hear the matter in difference between her Ladyship and the Earl of Pembroke, and that she shall have timely notice thereof.”
Order for the issue to the Treasurer of the Navy, out of supplies anno 1737, of 3,000l. for Flag pay as by his memorial of the 6th instant.
A memorial in the name of Giles Brown and Company read importing a discovery of a great concealment in the public revenues on their being guaranteed a third of what shall be recovered thereupon. The proposers are to open and explain their proposal so far that their Lordships may have some reasonable grounds to treat with them thereupon.
[Treasury Minute Book XXVIII. p. 28; Letter Book XIX. p. 441.]
June 14. 84. Report to the Treasury from T. Walker, Surveyor General of Crown Lands, on the memorial (a.) from Jane, Countess Dowager of Portland, concerning her dispute with the Earl of Pembroke and the encroachments by said Earl on the ground adjoining his house in Privy Garden, Whitehall. 1 page.
Appending:
—(a.) Said memorial to the Treasury, with Treasury order of reference, dated 1737, June 3. 3 pages.
(b.) Representation to the Treasury from the Earl of Pembroke in reply to (a.) “… the wall of my terrass next Queen Mary's Garden was not a single wall, but had several other walls joyning into it, which together at the bottom formed rooms, and the rooms above were the apartments of Queen Mary, so that these walls together composed the very ruins and rubbish (which are the express words of my lease), granted to me to build upon when I might think proper….” 11 pages.
(c.) Same to same from same, adding further observations on Lady Portland's memorial. 1 page.
(d.) The Countess of Portland to the Surveyor General of Crown Lands, in reply to the said Surveyor's letter of March 28 last, concerning the Earl of Pembroke's memorial to the Treasury. 3 pages.
(e.) Copy of the Earl of Pembroke's lease, dated 22nd July, 3 Geo. II. 4 pages.
(f. and g.) Two plans of the properties. 2 sheets.
[Treasury Board Papers CCXCV. No. 28.]
June 15. 85. Treasury warrant to the Surveyor General of Crown Lands to make forth a constat or to send to the proper auditor for a particular of a slip of ground on the east side of St. James's Park, outside the wall in the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, of which the Right Hon. Charles Viscount Fane prays a reversionary lease.
Prefixing:—Said Surveyor's report dated 1734, September 5, to the Treasury on Viscount Fane's memorial for the above. Said slip of ground was formerly held by the Keepers or Rangers of said park till 1663, when a term therein was granted by the Duke of Albemarle, then Keeper of said park. Subsequently said term was purchased in by Charles II. for 260l., and the ground used for the conveniency of feeding fowls and birds in said park. About 1680 some five feet in breadth was pared off by Barebone and the rest of the builders of Duke Street and Delahaye Street, by means of which encroachment the present breadth is only 25 feet. On finishing these streets there were divers applications by the inhabitants for leases of this slip of ground. Sir Edward Hales obtained a lease of it 7th December, 3 James II., &c. Details subsequent leases, and proposes a valuation for renewal.
[Crown Lease Book IV. pp. 222–4.]
June 15.
Whitehall,
Treasury
Chambers.
86. Present: Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Dodington, Lord Sundon, Mr. Winnington.
“The 3,000l. for the Privy Parse is to be issued put of this week's cash.”
Nathaniel Nelson, at the recommendation of Mr. Crowle and Mr. Maisters, to be a landwaiter at Hull, loco George Healey, deceased.
“Transmit a report from the principal officers of the Mint, dated the — day of — about the value of the currency of the gold and silver coines in Ireland to the King in Council, by annexing the same to a report from my Lords thereupon.”
The memorial of the Paymaster of the Forces on the proposal of Sir Joseph Eyles for remitting the subsistence money to Gibraltar and Minorca 1737, June 25, to August 24 read and agreed to as follows, the rates of exchange being certified to be as usual:— 15,650 dollars for Minorca, payable at sight in gold, at 55d. per dollar; 24,750 dollars for Gibraltar, payable at sight in gold, at 54½d. per dollar. [Treasury Minute Book XXVIII. p. 29.]
June 17. 87. The Duchess of Buckingham to [? John Scrope], concerning her offer for the lease of the estate and alum works of her late son, Mr. Herbert Sheffield's proceedings against her, and the general hardness of her case. “My jointure subscribed in the year twenty of 1,000l. per an.… the revenue my Lord dy'd concluding it could never have been stop't, the 1,200l. per an. from the Crown, and was pay'd on my account, and not, as a great Lady is pleas'd to say, D[uchess] of M[arlborough], that it was for secret services given to the Duke of Bm. It was a sum too great for no services, and too little, I should think, for reall ones. Besides the loss of my son's income for his maintenance, join'd in his minority to my fortune, was an aid to it of 2,000l. per an. of late years, and the decision lately given of principle money of 80,000l. given against me makes on the whole a retrenchment of my revenues annualy that I reckon'd on, possest once, and want to be suported by of value upwards of 6,000l. per an.… All these inconveniences and delays at least I now expect in my Irish jointure, and already the payment is stopped on the disputes in the Anglesea family, makes it very necessary for me, Sir. to settle my affairs.” Begs to have the delay in the passing of the lease to her cut short. 7 pages.
[Treasury Board Papers CCXCV. No. 30.]
June 17. 88. Report to the King from the Lords of the Treasury on the representation from the Lord Lieutenant and Council of Ireland, concerning the state of the gold and silver coins current in that kingdom, said representation having been referred to the Treasury by order of the Queen in Council of date 1736, November 24. For better information have transmitted the said representation to the late Master Worker and the principal officers of the Mint. Transmit herewith the opinion of the said Master Worker, and express agreement therein.
Appending:—Report to the Treasury from John Conduitt, Master Worker, Richard Morgan, Deputy Warden, and Chas. Smyth, Deputy Comptroller of the Mint, dated Mint Office, 1736–7, January 29. Have considered the said representation, which sets forth that the valuing gold higher there than in England and the larger pieces than the lesser, occasions a great want of silver coins and smaller pieces of gold, and much distresses trade, praying that the gold coins both English and foreign may be rated at the quantity of English silver they usually pass for in England, with the allowance of some small advantage to the lesser pieces, and that the price of foreign silver coin may be raised to the middle price of silver bullion in England, being 5s.d. per ounce.
“We beg leave to represent to your Lordships thereupon that the gold of Portugal (which is the foreign gold that is chiefly current in Ireland) is worse in fineness than it was when the value of it was fixed in Ireland, and the guinea has since been lowered in England, and is still much too high in respect of the price silver bears here and in most other countries, and therefore it is highly reasonable and necessary to reduce the gold in Ireland at least as low as it is in England. We humbly propose that the weights and values of the gold coins may be fixed according to the paper hereunto annexed, in which the weight of the several pieces is exact and the sub-divisions thereof as near as a quarter of a grain. And to avoid fractions and encourage the importation of the smaller pieces one farthing is added to the value of the quarter Moidore and the quarter Pistole, one halfpenny to the half Pistole, half Moidore and 4s. 6d. Portugal piece, and one penny to the 9s. Portugal piece, and four pence is deducted from the value of the 3l. 12s. piece, and two pence from 1l. 16s. piece, as proposed in the representation from Ireland. And as it is notorious that the heavy gold pieces are culled, and hardly any but light current it seems adviseable to insert in the proclamation the usual clauses for making an allowance for light pieces and concerning scales and weights.
“Though five shillings and fourpence halfpenny is certainly the nearest middle price of standard silver in bullion in England the raising silver foreign coins to that price may be attended with many inconveniencies, for scarce any of them that are current are standard, those of the same specie differ in fineness very much from each other, many have been much debased within a few years, and the making them current at a higher rate by tale might encourage a further debasement.”
Value [to be] set upon the severall species of gold coins current in the kingdom of Ireland.
Weight. Value.
Dwt. Grs. £ s. d.
The Guinea 1 2 9
(And all other pieces of the same species in proportion.)
The Moydore
6 22 1 9 3
The half Moydore 3 11 0 14 8
The quarter Moydore 1 17½ 0 7 4
The quadruple Pistole of Gold or Doubloon 17 8 3 13 0
The Spanish or French double Pistole of Gold or the Doubloon or Double Louis d'or 8 16 1 16 6
The Spanish or French Pistole of Gold 4 8 0 18 3
The Spanish or French half Pistole of Gold 2 4 0 9 2
The Spanish or French quarter Pistole of Gold 1 2 0 4 7
The French Louis d'or of the new species 5 5 1 2 0
The French half Louis d'or of the new species proportionably 2 14½ 0 11 0
The French quarter Louis d'or of the new species proportionably 1 17¼ 0 5 6
The piece of new Gold coin of Portugal 18 10½ 3 17 8
The piece of new Gold coin of Portugal 9 1 18 10
The piece of new Gold coin of Portugal 4 14½ 0 19 6
The piece of new Gold coin of Portugal 2 0 9 10
The piece of new Gold coin of Portugal 1 0 4 11
[Warrants not relating to Money XXV. pp. 462–4.]
June 22. 89. Royal sign manual to the Attorney or Solicitor General, countersigned by the Lords of the Treasury, and dated from St. James's, for preparation of a bill to contain one tripartite indenture, one part of which is to pass under the Great Seal of Great Britain, between the King of the first part, the Prince and Princess of Wales of the second part, and Sir Robert Walpole, Alexander Denton, a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Chancellor to the said Prince, and Henry Arthur Herbert, Esq., Treasurer to the said Prince of the third part, granting to the said Walpole, Denton, and Herbert an annuity or yearly rent of 50,000l, to commence and take effect from the death of the said Prince of Wales, and to continue during the life of the said Princess, 40,000l. of the said sum to be charged on the Post Office, as by the Act of 9 Annæ, and 10,000l. out of the hereditary Excise: all in trust for the use of the said Princess for her better support after the death of said Prince, and during her natural life.
[King's Warrant Book XXXII. pp. 354–60.]
June 23.
Whitehall,
Treasury
Chambers.
90. Present: Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Dodington, Mr. Winnington.
“The new Commission [for the Treasury] was opened by the Lords now present and read, and is as follows” [left blank].
John Naylor is to have 50l. for his extraordinary care and pains in attending the respective Committees the last Session of Parliament on the business about iron, and on the business about the Middlesex Justices of the Peace.
“State how the coynage revenues in the hands of the Master of the Mint ought by law to be secured, and the certain yearly sum directed to be issued thereout for the service thereof. This on reading a peticon of Mrs. Conduit, the widow of John Conduit, Esq., late Master and Worker of the Mint, to be directed in what manner she should pay over 30,000l., being part of the ballance of coynage money remaining in her husband's hands.”
[Treasury Minute Book XXVIII. pp. 30–1.]
[After
June 24.]
91. An account of the income and issues of His Majesty's Civil List revenues between midsummer 1736 and midsummer 1737. 2 pages. [Treasury Board Papers CCXCV. No. 34.]
92. Statement of the remains at 1737, March 25, and of the 1737 midsummer quarter's income of the Sinking Fund, and of the demand thereupon. 1 page. [Ibid. No. 35.]
93. Statement of payments to the Great Wardrobe for the separate years from 1727, June 24, to 1737, June 24. (Total, 264,828l. 1s. 2d.) 1 page. [Ibid. No. 36.]
94. Account of payments to Sheriffs for surpluses on their accounts and rewards on convictions of felons for the years 1733, midsummer, to 1737, midsummer. 1 page. [Ibid. No. 37.]
June 25. 95. Treasury order for the execution of a Lord Chamberlain's warrant to the Duke of Montagu to deliver to Grey Maynard furniture, detailed, for His Majesty's service at St. James's, Kensington, Hampton Court, &c., including inter al. seven dressing-glasses for the House of Lords in walnut tree frames for the great Officers rooms, and one dressing-glass for the Prince of Wales's robing-room there, to cover the bar of the Painted Chamber, green serge to cover a new door to the Lord Chamberlain's robing-room, and scarlet cloth to cover seats in the new gallery to be erected; also orders to the Arras worker to clean, repair, and new line tapestry in being in His Majesty's palaces, and to put up tapestry at Hampton Court. All at an estimate of 1,425l.
[Lord Chamberlain's Warrant Book II. 81–2.]
[Before
June 28.]
96. Petition to the Treasury from John Lateward, wharfinger, present lessee of the Custom House quay and warehouses. Petitioner and his father have been lessees of said quay and warehouses these sixty years past, and petitioner's lease will not expire till Christmas next, from which date the Treasury have agreed with Sir Jonathan Cope to take a lease of said quay or wharf and the warehouses. By their minute of February 8th last the Treasury have offered petitioner the option of the wharf without the warehouses at a rent of 750l., being the full rent petitioner hitherto paid for both for these last 21 years, coupled with the condition of giving the Treasury immediate possession of said warehouse, “which being then all lett and full of merchants' goods” was impracticable. As petitioner has been for several years tenant to the Crown for Wool Quay, which joins the Custom House Quay, and has been always held in joint tenancy with it petitioner agreed to the rent of 750l., and to quit the warehouses at midsummer. On his refusal to quit the warehouses at Lady Day, the Customs Commissioners being ready to pull down the warehouses and rebuild, vindictively let the wharf to another person from Christmas next. Prays relief in the premises.
Endorsed:—28th June 1737, read and rejected. 2½ pages.
[Treasury Board Papers CCXCV. No. 40.]
June 28.
Whitehall,
Treasury
Chambers.
Present: Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Sundon, Mr. Dodington, Mr. Winnington.
The report of the Surveyor General of Crown Lands of the 1st instant on George Prissick's proposal for a lease of the estate and alum works at Mulgrave and Seaton read and approved. Said Surveyor is to make out a constat, and rate same with a view to an Exchequer lease for 31 years, taking the Attorney and Solicitor General's advice thereupon as to the Covenants, &c., and for securing the Crown from all claims with respect to the rents on certain private contracts for laying up other alum works to benefit these before they reverted to the Crown.
Same from same of the 14th instant read on Charles Sheffield's petition for relief against the rents reserved on the private contracts for alum works laid up, in regard the Crown is in possession of the [above] alum works, for the benefit of which these contracts were made. Referred to the Attorney and Solicitor General for their opinion, whether the Crown in law or equity ought to indemnify petitioner from said contracts.
Tuesday afternoon appointed for hearing the difference between the Earl of Pembroke and Lady Portland.
Mrs. Conduitt to pay over the 30,000l., in part balance of her late husband's account as Master and Worker of the Mint, forthwith into the Exchequer, taking a tally for same as Imprest money repaid, for which the auditor will allow her in discharge on her accounts.
The petition of John Lateward, wharfinger and lessee of the Custom House quay and warehouses, concerning matters in difference between him and the Customs Commissioners, read and rejected.
George Holmes's petition read for incident charges in providing necessaries for the Record Office in the Tower for six years past, and for an additional salary in lieu of house rent and necessaries for the future. He is to exhibit a bill of the particular charge he has been at from year to year, “so as they may, if reasonable, be paid as the former bills have been.”
Wm. Spencer is to be paid 20l. by Mr. Paxton for his services and sufferings in disarming two ringleaders.
Order for the issue to the Treasurer of the Navy of 59,021l. 19s. 1d., out of the 1,000,000l. appropriated out of the Sinking Fund towards supply anno 1737, for services as in his memorial of this day.
Order for the issue to the Paymaster General of the Forces, out of same, of 131,247l. 10s., for services as in his memorial of this day.
Same for same, out of the Civil List Revenues, as follows:—
£ s. d.
To the Cofferer of the Household 15,000 0 0
To the Treasurer of the Chamber 1737, Lady Day quarter 6,203 9 11
To the Messengers 1,000 0 0
To Mr. Steuart, Lady Day pensions 1737 10,701 10 6
To Mr. Selwyn, for the Princesses 1,257 0 0
To Mr. Poyntz, for the Duke of Cumberland 2,000 0 0
To the Lords of the Treasury 2,000 0 0
To Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer 400 0 0
To the Duke of Richmond, for Extraordinaries of the Stables 4,000 0 0
To the Judges, for Easter term last 6,582 10 0
To Mr. Schutz 770 12 6
To the Clerks of the Treasury 325 0 0
To Thos. Mann, et al. 142 10 0
To Mr. Lawton, et al. 867 11 0
To sundry Sheriffs 2,036 7 8
[Treasury Minute Book XXVIII. pp. 32–3; Letter Book XIX. p. 442.]