escape from being reannexed to the Exchequer neverthelesse it is not a little strange that the said Dutchy Court of Lancaster should both then and ever since be continued by it self at so great a charge for so small a revenew it having cost the Crowne since the said first yeare of Queen Mary neare upon two hundred thousand pounds which might have been saved if the same had been then annexed to the Exchequer and there managed in such manner and sort as was then intended by the Parliament But it may seeme more strange when it shall be made to appeare that the generall and particular Receivers Bayliffes and Collectors of the Court of Augmentations which by the true meaning of the Parliament Anno 1. Mariae when the said Court was annexed to the Exchequer were intended to be discharged and put to their pentions and the said Revenew to be from that time brought in and answered by the Sheriffes of each County according to the ancient course have beene ever since continued in the Exchequer to the unsupportable burthen and charge to the Crown and infinite grievance of the Subject it having cost the Crowne since the dissolution of the said Court Anno 1. Mariae for the private ends and respects of some few not so little as six hundred thousand pounds which might have been saved if the Revenews of that Court had been managed in the Exchequer according to the said ancient course and in such sort as was then intended by the said Parliament But besides all this to make good the old maxime Vno inconvenienti concesso mille sequuntur it will appeare that in all this time there hath beene no manner of controlement of the Accompts of the said generall and particular Receivors Bayliffes and Collectors of the said Revenews amounting to 100000 pounds per aunum and upwards as namely the Receivors have not beene sworne to their Accompts yearly their tallies not joyned their accompts not entered with the two Remembrancers nor delivered into the Pipe as by an expresse Article Anno 1. Inter Hil Record an 1 Mâ—riae ex parte Rem Thess Articulo 9. Mariae upon the annexation of the said Court of Augmentations to the Exchequer is ordained to be yearly performed by the twentieth of March and so lately certified by the Barous of the Exchequer as is formerly alledged the said Accompts having been ever since left to the determination and keeping of the sait Auditors in their particular assignments without any maner of controlement by meanes whereof there may be many great concealements in the said accompts which none of the Kings Officers in the Exchequer can discover but the Auditor himselfe And for the grievances which have been by the same meanes occasioned to his Majesties Subjects by reason of the multitude of Supers and Arrerages of Rents which from time to time ever since have depended in those Accompts upon the Farmers Bayliffes and Collectors of the said Revenewes And upon the Receivors themselves some for 5000 l' some 10000 l' some more some lesse both in the time of the late Queen Elizabeth and the late King Iames The infinite numbers of estalments and seisures of the lands of Receivors and their sureties and of the lands which came from the said Debtors by purchase or discent and orders of Court concerning the same in the time of the said K. Iames before the Stat. of 21 Iac. for discharging of old debts in his now Maâ—â—â—â— time together with the loud outeries against messengers lately imployed at the prosecution of some patentees for old debts for bringing in the like arrerages of Rents behind which depended in some of those accounts some for 10 some 20 some thirty yeare before they were sent in proces will sufficiently testifie And as if the continuation of the foresaid Receivers and other needlesse and unprofitable Officers and Accomptants had not beene burdensome enough to the Crowne there have been of late introduced added two new Receivers and two new Auditors for the Revenue of Recusants with sundry directions procured for transferring the charge of the said Revenues from the great Roll of the Exchequer to the said new Auditors and for superseding of all proces to Sheriffes other then for such debts owing by Recusants as their Messengers cannot levie as also for the payment of so much thereof as the said Sheriffes should leavie to the hands of the said new Receivers respectively which was formerly used to be paid into the Kings Receipt How farre this bold attempt together with the Non-obstantes in the Leases of Recusants lands might have trenched as well to the subversion of the good lawes made against Recusants as to the diversion and consumption of the said Revenue if this Parliament had not been so seasonably called by his Majesty may wel be imagined And if the removing and altering of the ancient bounds betweene neighbour and neighbour bee forbidden by the Law of God as a great offence and a cursed thing by reason of the great trouble and unquietnesse which is caused thereby how much more do they offend which remove and alter the ancient bounds which our forefathers have set betweene the King and his people either in the constitution of the Exchequer or in the execution of the Lawes and Statutes of this Kingdome appointed and limited for the government and ordering of the Kings Revenews there In which case it were to bee wished that some severe Law might be made for the punishment of those which under any specious pretence whatsoever goe about to procure any warrant for the altering or removing any the bounds formerly limited or ordained for the answering and bringing in of the said Revenews unlesse it be by Act of Parliament seeing so great mischiefes and inconveniences both to the King and Subject ensue thereby And if it be true that Sheriffes have been time beyond memory of man the Receivors of all the certaine rents and debts whatsoever belonging to the Crown within the limits of their Bailywicks other then such as are to be immediately paid into his Majesties Receipt of Excheq or into his Chamber Wardrob to the cofferer of his houshold or the like how absurd a thing is it for the Sheriffe having received such rents â—r debts from the Kings Tenants or debtors to pay the same over to one of the Kings Receivors for him to pay into the Kings Receipt and not to pay the same immediately into the Kings Receipt with the other moneies due upon his Accompt or why the Farmer or Collector being to pay his rent or charge into the Kings Receipt should not rather pay the same to the Sheriffe then to a Receivor who must be paid for portage besides other allowances from the King According to which supposition I conceive it would seeme a strange peece of husbandry to the Crowne if the Collectors or Farmers of the great Customes and Collectors of the Subsidies in every County who are to pay their moneyes into
the most part left to bee written for who if they had but a Cow or any poore Utensills were driven from time to time to make their peace with the Sheriffes Bailiffe in the Countrey with some of their poore estate which the said Bailiffes tooke as it were nomine districtionis to their own use without answering any part thereof to the King to the greater impoverishing and sometimes undoing of the said poorer sort of the Kings subjects In consideration whereof and for the better preventing of the like abuses for time to come it was in the time of the late King James thought fit by the Treasurer Chancellor Vnder-Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer All mens care no mans care that there should bee for ever an Officer in the Exchequer called the Surveyor of the Green-wax formerly mentioned who should take speciall care to see the said Revenue better managed and from time to time to attend the Court and acquaint the Barons therewith as the case should require And this was upon the matter agreeable with an ancient Statute made in Anno 27. E. 1. Stat. anno 27. E. 1. By which it was provided that at one time certaine every yeare one Baron and one Clerke of the Exchequer should goe through every Shire of England to examine and view the Acquittances of Sheriffes and their Bailiffes touching Green-wax and to inroll them and also to heare and determine complaints made against Sheriffes and their Clerks and Bailiffs that had been done concerning the premises and the offenders to bee grie vously punished It being conceived that the discontinuance of that good ordinance had occasioned the many abuses and grievances aforesaid In the last place the remedy for preventing the like abuses and misdemeanors in generall both towards the King and his Subjects for time to come is That speciall care bee taken to see that the ancient course of the Exchequer and the Lawes of the Kingdome formerly mentioned for the better and more timely and husbandly answering and the more due and legall charging and discharging of the Kings Revenues bee strictly observed and kept and to see that due punishment be inflicted upon the violators there of accordingly As also to see that all those fore-going causes which hinder the Kings service therein and the quiet of his Maties subjects be removed And especially that the Sheriffe in his yeare according to his Proces sent unto him out of the Exchequer in the Lent Vacation and Summer Vacation without any respect of persons doe his uttermost to levie all such debts and summes of money as shall be so written to him as a foresaid And yet where I say without respect of persons I desire to bee rightly understood that the persons of all the English Nobility and their Dowagers Barons and Baronnesses are exempted from all arrests for the Kings debts as by the Prerogative Writ before mentioned may appeare And so are the persons of all and every the Knights and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament so long as the Parliament continues Neverthelesse in my best understanding and observation I doe not finde but the Rents and Debts due to the King have in time of Parliament been levied by Sheriffes upon the issues and profits of their lands and goods Moreover forasmuch as the Kings Majesty his Heires and Successors may be much hindred by the negligence and connivence of the Officers of the Exchequer by reason of a late Statute made in the one twentieth year of the reigne of the late King James whereby it is provided that all and every Sheriffe and Sheriffes within the Realme of England and Dominion of Wales their Heires Executors and Administrators and their Lands Goods and Chattels shall bee absolutely discharged of all and all manner summe and summes of money which hee or they shall leavie or receive unlesse such Sheriffe or Sheriffes shall bee called in question for such summe or summes of money pretended to bee leavied and received by them or any of them and not accompted for within foure yeares next after they have finished or shall finish their accompts and had their Quietus est That for preventing thereof some Act may bee passed in Parliament that where any Sheriffe or Sheriffes which since the making of the said Act or at any time hereafter have or shall procure and obtaine any such Quietus est by meanes whereof they or any of them are or hereafter shall bee by force of the said Act discharged or acquitted against the King his Heires or Successors of or for any summe or summes of money by them leavied and not answered upon their said accompts or of or for any untrue or double allowance upon their said accompts that in all such cases the Officer or Officers who have or shall make any such Quietus est and have not nor shall not within the time by the said Statute limited by some proces or other proceedings in the Exchequer called or call the same in question against the said Sheriffes their Heires Executors or their Lands Goods or Chattels for preventing the losse and prejudice which otherwise may happen to the Crowne thereby and every Officer by whose default any such summe or summes of money by force of the said Statute shall bee lost to the King his Heires or Successors being thereof lawfully convicted shall pay and forfeit to the use of his Majesty his Heires and Successors all such summe and summes of money as the said King his Heires or Successors shall or may lose thereby to be recovered against the said officers their Heires Executors Administrators their Lands Goods and Chattels in such manner and sort as the same might have been recovered by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme against the said Sheriffes if the said Act had not beene made And that in all such cases where by the Lawes of this Kingdome and the course of the Exchequer any Officer or Officers of the said Court are to deliver any Accompt or Accompts into any Office or Offices of the said Court by and at some certaine time so as proces may bee made upon such Supers and Debts as are or shall bee depending in the same accompts upon any person or persons So as for default of their delivering in of any the said accompts in due time any the said Supers or Debts shall be afterwards required and recovered against the purchasers of the Lands of any such Debtor or Debtors by whom the said Supers or Debts were so due or against their Sureties which might have been recovered against the said Debtors themselves if the same accompts had been delivered in due time that such Officer or Officers so making default in delivering of the said accompts in due time shall and may for their neglect therein being thereof lawfully convicted be subject to discharge the purchasers of the said Debtors lands and their suerties against the King his Heires and Successors and to satisfie and pay what the said principall Debtors
CONSIDERATIONS For regulating the EXCHEQVER In the more timely answering better husbanding and more orderly and safe conduct of the Revenues of the Crown into his Majesties Coffers as hath been heretofore used by Sheriffes And for freeing the Subject from all unjust vexations concerning the same With the Causes and Remedies of the inconveniences which have been occasioned by the breach of the Lawes and ancient course of the Exchequer As also for the better enabling and easing of Sheriffes in the execution of their Offices and passing their Accompts Per C. Vernon de Scaccario Dom. Regis Printed by Tho. Harper and are to be sold by Matth. Walbanke Lau. Chapman Wil. Cooke and Ric. Best 1642. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE SIR IOHN CVLPEPPER Knight Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of his Maties Exchequer one of his Maties most honorable Privie Councell and one of the Knights of the Shire for the County of Kent this Parliament May it please your Honour I Have here adventured by the truest Copies I could meet withall to doe my best in these times of wished reformation to represent and set foorth the portraiture of the Exchequer as it was in its first institution and best perfection so neere to the life as I could sitting so farre off To the end it might by a right understanding thereof be restored to its ancient forme and proper working In the description whereof as it was in its said first institution and perfection the great wisedome and providence of our Ancestors will appeare principally in these three points First that no one Officer was to bee trusted alone in the receiving charging discharging or issuing forth of the Kings Revenues In that the Annuall or Great Roll of the Exchequer being the Lord Treasurers Roll and of so great esteeme in all ages as that it hath been the Center and Repository wherein to all the Revenues of the Crowne as well in the Exchequer as from all other Courts were and still are to be reduced was not intrusted with the Lord Treasurer alone but the Chancellor of the Exchequer by his Substitute or Deputy is designed and appointed to write and keepe a double or counterpart thereof for controlment sake The second point wherein their great wisedome and care appeared was In that as no Rent or Debt was to be charged in the said Annuall or Great Roll upon any the Kings Subjects but by good and just matter of Record so the same being once charged was not to be discharged againe or to bee set and posted of de anno in annum or otherwise prolonged but by like matter of Record lest the same might thereby grow desperate or become a grievance to his Majesties subjects And the third and last point was In that for avoyding of all superfluous and un-necessary charge to the Crowne and subject by having over-many hands in the Kings Purse they did provide and fore-see that the Exchequer should not be charged with moe persons then was necessary And to that end that the Sheriffe of every Shire and County should bee the constant Minister for leavying and bringing in the Rents and Debts belonging to the Crowne Which Rules if they had been observed and continued in the Exchequer according to their said first institution many great losses and inconveniences which have beene occasioned both to the King and Subject by the breach and discontinuance thereof might have been prevented as in the insuing Treatise will appeare The causes which moved me at this time contrary to my my owne will and approbation as knowing my owne insufficiencie to publish this Treatise so unworthy of such and so great a subject as this is were principally these which follow namely First that such unperfect Copies upon this subject as had at any time come to severall hands under my name might bee rectified and put into some method of coherence conducing to the worke intended A second cause was to give satisfaction to some of my neere friends who by their importunities over-hastily before I could well deliberate thereof thrust mee forward to doe it as conceiving I might give some light and furtherance thereby to the great worke intended for the establishing and ordering of his Majesties Revenue and the cutting off and taking away the superfluity of expences and abuses of Officers concerning the same And in the last place I was the rather induced to give way thereunto in regard I speake nothing of my selfe but what I have authority for either by good matter of Record or from the Lawes and Statutes of this Kingdome That which now remaines on my part to be desired is That your Honour being at this present in the vacancie of a Lord Treasurer the chiefest Officer of the Exchequer and one in whom his Majesty upon contemplation of your owne worth hath reposed so great a trust and superintendencie over his Revenues will be pleased so farre to patronize these poore Indeavours of mine howsoever performed with great weaknesse and want of judgement as upon reading over the whole and weighing the severall Authorities Proofes and Reasons which are therein cited and set downe for warrant and confirmation thereof they may for the matter bee found worthy of your acceptation And as there is a fitnesse of Dedication from me in this kinde due to your Honour in respect of your high place and authority in the Exchequer so more particularly for your Noble favours already shewed to mee and mine whereby I am obliged and must ever acknowledge my selfe to be Your Honours most humble and devoted servant Christopher Vernon Although the Printer used great diligence in the review and examination of his proves before hee committed the same to passe the Presse yet because he was not wel acquainted with my hand nor with the Exchequer termes some mistakes happened one time when I was absent In regard whereof the understanding Reader for his better satisfaction of those mistakes and omissions is desired that bee will first cast his eye over the Errata in the end of this Booke Considerations FOR Regulating the Exchequer c. THE Court of Exchequer is one of those foure Courts at Westminster which Chancery Kings Bench. Common Pleas Exchequer in the common opinion had their beginning by the fundamentall lawes of this Realme time beyond the memory of man And for the due answering and managing of the Revenues of the Crown both certaine and casual The said Court hath been supported with great and ancient priviledges and high authority by and under the survey rule and government of a Lord Treasurer Chancellor Vnder-Treasurer Chamberlaines and Barons of the said Court. And that the said Court now is and hath been anciently distinguished and knowne by the Superior or Vpper and the Inferior or Lower Exchequer The Superior being also knowne by the Title of Scaccarium Computorum And the lower by the Title of the Receit where the Kings moneyes are paid to certaine Tellers and Tallies stricken for the same for discharge of such Farmers
Vsher by Inheritance doth the upper Exchequer The said under Chamberlaines make all searches in the Treasury for any Records at the suit of the parties and copies and exemplifications of the same whereof the Fees are divided betweene them and the keeper of the Lord Treasurers key The cutter of the Tallies is another Officer in the Receipt The cutter of the Tallies of the Lord Treasurers guift who provideth seasoned and proportionable hasells and cutteth them to fit lengths into fouresquare sides to the end they may the better be cloven and written upon and casteth them into the Court from time to time as any of them be called for and receiveth his dividend Fee with the Clerke of the Pell the scriptor talliar and Vnder Chamberlaines of the party that sueth it out The foure ordinary Messengers of the Receipt The foure ordinary messengers of the Receipt whose places are now in the Kings gift are Pursuyvants attending upon the Lord Treasurer for carrying his letters and precepts to all the Customers Controllers and Shearchers throughout the land who are to ride and goe upon any other his Majesties Messages where it is his Lordships pleasure to command them Thus much in briefe concerning the Inferior Court of the Exchequer called the Receipt I have been the more large in setting downe the particular grounds and Rules of the Exchequer according to the common Lawes and Statutes of this Realme and the ancient course of the said Court for the charging discharging bringing in and answering of the Revenues of the Crowne both certaine and casuall and that especially for these reasons following First that the wisedome and providence of our Ancestors may appeare in providing for the indempnity of the King and his Subjects wherein principally care is to bee taken that as nothing is to bee charged so nothing to bee discharged but by matter of Record Secondly that no one Officer is trusted alone with the bringing in charging discharging receiving or issuing out of the Kings Revenues insomuch as for the better and more orderly controlment and security thereof all the said Revenues both certaine and casuall are to bee reduced from their originall fountaines and heads into the Annuall or Great Roll of the Exchequer Stat. de Rutland Anno 10. E. 1. being the old Channell or Pipe for conveying the same into the Kings Receipt And from the said Annuall or Great Roll not onely for the reasons formerly alledged but for controlment sake proces is first to be written to the Sheriffes by the Controller of the Pipe who yearly writes a duplicate of the said Annuall or great Roll for the better controlment thereof And that this is and ought to bee so the constant course now observed and continued in the Offices of the two Remembrancers of the Exchequer will make it unquestionable for that neither from the originals of the Chancery nor for any other debts or summes of money recovered for the King in either of their Offices any proces is made to the Sheriffes by either of them for leavying thereof but the same are at this day as formerly hath been used â—â—st drawne downe from thence and charged in the said Annuall or great Roll according to the ancient course of the said Court and the said statute of Rutland Anno 10. Edw. 1. And the like course hath been alwayes used and observed concerning the Accompts of Collectors Customers Receivers of Bishops Temporalties and all other Accomptants whatsoever within the survey of the Exchequer For though they be declared by the Auditors before the Treasurer Chancellour and Barons or all or some of them and entred in the Offices of both the Remembrancers yet they are not thereby fully determined before they come to the Pipe where they are to remaine upon Record for ever as the Kings and Subjects evidence and where their Tallies being first examined and joyned with their Foyles are to bee allowed and the Debts and Supers therein depending if any such bee entred in the said great Roll so as proces may be written from thence for levying thereof as before is observed And as there is no one Officer in the Superior Exchequer solely trusted so it is most evident that in the inferior Court there is to bee a concurrence of many Officers in the trust for the Tellors Bill is not delivered to the party which payes the money nor trusted with any one Officer to charge the said Tellor therewith but it is entred with the Clerke of the Pell and with the Controllers of the Pell and againe entred with the Auditor of the Receipt who files the same and the stocke of the Tally delivered to the party for his discharge and yet this to be no discharge for him till it be rejoyned with the other part and allowed in the great Roll. All which caution without doubt hath been by the great wisedome and experience of our Ancestors found necessary to be imposed and observed for preventing of the frauds and abuses which otherwise would ensue to the Crown many falsities having been anciently discovered in Tallies for want of joyning as Hill Record Anno 3. E. 4. Rot. 10. ex parte Rem Thes cum multos aliis and both in the time of the late Queene Elizabeth and King Iames of blessed memory Many such falsities having been discovered in Tallies for want of joyning so as I may conclude this point with Gervasius Tilburiensis That no Officer is solely trusted with the Kings Revenues no not the Treasurer himselfe And the reason which hee gives for it is that besides the controlment of the great Roll being the Treasurers Roll by the Chancellors Roll there was a third Roll to bee ordained Quia saith he triplex funis difficile solvitur And thirdly and lastly that it may appeare that the Sheriffes onely were the constant Officers and Ministers for leavying and bringing in the certaine Revenues and Debts of the Crowne And that the ordinary proces of the Exchequer to Sheriffes for leavying and bringing in therof was and is most sufficient and efficatious as to the King and most secure and safe as to the subject in case they shall conceale any thing upon their accompts which they shall so receive as hath been formerly observed And that there will bee no need of Resort to bee made for the imployment of Messengers The imployment of messengers altogether illegall or to make use of any such Arbitrary or Illegall courses so burdensome to his Majesties subjects for bringing in any part thereof if the same be written out to Sheriffes in due time and the Sheriffes strictly holden to the answering there of without posting and setting off de Anno in Annum his Majesties good debts and Farmes but by just matter of Record according to the ancient course of the Exchequer and the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme And if the use of Messengers or any other arbitrary course were allowable it is probable that the nupriall Queens of this