is made to six ounces of Silk but three ounces of Silver the Silk many times heavy died the Wearers many of them are cozened and their garments spoyled And many other Cheats and frauds I could particularize 9. When I delivered an Accompt of these gross deceipts to the King and Lords and upon examination they finding these Abuses to bee so frequent both amongst Refiners Silkmen and Wyer-drawers The King and Lords of his Councel having often imployed mee in these Discoverics of the fraudes of the Wyerdrawers They ordered mee Thoms Violet Anno 1635. to bee Surveyer and Sealer of all these manufactures for three lives under the Great Seal of England And to have and receiv to my own use One Halfpenny the Ounce for Wyer and 4 Pence the pound Venice for all gold and silver Thread I Sealed and Surveyed And prohibited all persons to put silver or gold Thread to Sale before it was warranted by the Seal of my Office being the Rose and Crown In consideration of this Fee aforesaid I Covenanted and put in Securitie to the late King in the Exchequer That if any gold or silver Thread Spangles Purls Oes or Wyer should bee Surveyed and Sealed or passed out of my Office either by mee or my Deputie which was cours or adulterate silver under sterling or not justlie made the Thread with a due proportion of silver at the least five ounces silver to three ounces silk I was bound and am bound to this day to answer and pay all Damages to any person grieved or wronged in the Nation concerning the Premises And neither the Wyerdrawers nor Silkmen could in Parlament produce one parcel of silver thread that I sealed in the Office or that was sealed by my Officers to be cours silver or under the Standard And for five years I caused this Manufacture to bee made so exactly as the money and Plate of the Nation is now made and the best gold and silver Thread in the world Without my Fees which were allowed mee under the great Seal of England I could not bee at the Charge of searching and Sealing and without my Sealing and Surveying I cannot warrant this Manufacture of gold and silver Thread and Wyer c. to bee good and truely made both for the fineness of the silver and a due proportion of silver to a due proportion of silk and without this Regulation everie workman is left to do what hee list both for the fineness of the silver and the due proportion of silver to silk And at this day for want of my Office many frauds and deceipts are put on the Nation and all them that wear this Manufacture which I am bound to prevent or make good the Damage to the Nation or to any that shall bee deceived Which cannot bee exspected from mee unless I receiv my Fee to defray my Charge and hazzard I run in warranting all this Manufacture to bee good and justly made And of the justice and Equity of this I conceiv there can bee no dispute May it pleas your Highness NOw at this day the Manufacture of gold and silver Thread Wyer Spangles Oes c. is under no Rule nor Regulation either for the Fineness of the silver or the just and due making the silver thread with a due Proportion of silver to a due proportion of true died silk but it is left to every one to do what hee lists and to Cozen the Commonwealth and to cull and melt down the Coins of the Nation And if the Refiners can get but the Goldsmiths to melt down the heavie Coins as shillings sixpences and halfcrowns which they do at this day and as they are wont to do ever when silver is above the price of the Mint or when wee have Wars with Spain then generally silver is dearer then the Price of the Mint The Refiners think themselves clear and the Law cannot touch them if they buy heavie shillings and sixpences melted into Ingots And by this way all the heavie currant silver monies and Coin of this Nation is melted down This heavie English silver monie for the greater part is called and weighed by Goldsmiths in Lumbard-street who keep people purposely to cull and weigh the heavie shillings and sixpences of this Nation when silver is dear May it pleas your Highness Wee shall not have monie to buy and sell nor to hold Commerce nor pay Rent or publick Duties if this mischief bee not stopped When I was an Apprentice I delivered with mine own hands for one Mr Eman's Account who was my Master to Alderm Gibbs above thirtie thousand Pounds of heavie shillings sixpences and halfcrowns which hee bought of my Master Mr Timothy Emans a Goldsmith in Lumbard Street The said Mr Emans then being a publiuqe Cashier for severall Marchants and receiving their monie and keeping their Cashes by which means hee culled and caused to bee culled and melted everie year in heavie shillings and sixpences above Thirtie thousand pounds a year from the year 1624 to the year 1630 into Barrs or Ingots And there was many Goldsmiths in Lumbard street at that time everie of these years did melt as much heavie English monie and some of them more then Mr Emans did And English silver was at that time so scarce one could hardlie get white monie Anno 1629 for gold but now almost all the silver and almost all the gold is gon the silver melted down for gold and silver Lace The gold almost all Transported that in a payment of ten thousand pounds one shall not receiv Ten shillings in gold Alderman Gibbs would never have these shillings sixpences and halfcrowns from Mr Eman in Kinde but the propeâ—â—ie altered and melted into Ingots though hee knew and bargained for English monie by the name of Swarg to bee melted without fraud being a common word amongst the Goldsmiths for heavie English monie Whereupon my Master commanded mee to put in everie Ingot so much Copper as the silver wasted which was about a farthing the ounce For Mr Eman selling the heavy shillings halfcrowns and sixpenses to other Refiners and Silver-smiths in Kinde without melting would not bear the waste of melting Mr Gibbs 's English money into Ingotts But Alderman Gibbs finding my Masters Silver a farthing in five shillings courser then other Goldsmiths in Lumbard Sreet Silver was who melted down Mr Alderman Gibbs had a pair of Assay Ballances in his closet and when hee questioned mee about this Business hee weighed above sorrie severall Assayes of my Master Eman's silver with the Standard Piece and all of them fell out one penny weight short and then hee took about forty other Assayes of one Mr Bradshaw's Silver as hee told mee and Alderman Gibbs said to mee This is heavy English mony in Ingots which I have and do daily buy of Mr Bradshaw and weigh your Masters Assayes against his So I did and found my Masters Silver all one penny weight short of Mr Bradshaw's Silver Thereuppon Alderman Gibbs was
nor the Transporting treasure stopped if som cours were not speedily taken to discover these great abuses and already all the Gold is Transported out of the nation and the Silver followeth apace and this is the Certificate of all the chief officers of the Mint 3. December 1647. About November 1647. The Citizens of London petitioned the Parlament against the Transporters of Gold and Silver shewing the great mischiefs that came to the City thereby The 18 of August 1649. The Counsell of State ordered that a Committee should bee appointed to take into their considerations the business of the Coyn and the Par between this and other Nations and that there bee care taken that the Coyn of this Nation may bee kept from carrying away out of the Nation And to consider of som means how the Mint may bee set on work In pursuance of this last Order the then Counsell of State did give order for the draught of an Act which was drawn by order of the Committee for the Mint And I Thomas Violet was required by the Counsell of State to attend this business And upon severall meetings and debates of severall Honorable members of the then Counsell of State The draught of an act of Parlament against transporters of Gold and Silver was finished and left by order of Parlament in Mr. Augustin Garlands custody and the said Act was twice read in the Hous about the 12 of Aprill 1653. following called for again and apointed to bee finished as apears by the Journals of the Hous But other mighty business did intervene May it pleas Your Highness It was easily to bee discerned that som guilty Marchants who had been guilty of Transporting of Gold had hindered this Act from passing and I know all the Members in that Parlament were not free from transporting gold and silver and that made some of them say as long as they sat within the Parlament wall that Act against transporting gold culling the English coyns or buying of gold and silver contrary to the law should never pass the hous Former Ages have made transporting gold and silver Fellony as appears by severall Statutes And all such as Cull and melt the currant Coyns of the Nation to forfeit treble the value of the monies they have melted or caused to bee melted And by the Statute of 6 Ed. 6. cap. 19. who soever gives more for Gold or Silver then it is or shall bee declared by the Kings Procamation to be currant for within this his Highness Realm that all the said coyned monies gold or silver so exchanged every part and parcel thereof shall be forfit and the parties so offending shall suffer Imprisonment by the space of one year and make fine at the Kings Pleasure I have for these many years pressed for an act of Parlament to bee made according to the Statute of 14. Rich. 2. cap 12. for Comissions to go through the Nation to enquire of such as have conveyed the gold and silver out of England to the prejudice and damage of the Nation 9. Ed. 3. cap. 3. 17. Rich. 2. cap. 1. 2. H. 4. cap. 4. 4. H. 4. cap. 10. 9. H. 5. cap. 1. 2. H. 6. cap. 6. 4. H. 7. cap. 13. 1. H. 8. cap. 13. By all these aforesaid Laws and Statutes your Highness's predecessors endeavored stricktly to looke to the preservation of the Coyns of the Nation May it please your Highness THere was about twenty milions of gold and silver coyned in the Tower from the year 1622. to 1645 as will â—ppear by the Mynt books upon a calculation which The Clerkes can quickly finde out to a penny and all this gold is already transported the currant silver coyns all culled and the heaviest transported or melted to make gold and silver lace and that monies which remains is clipped and light And these mischiefs have been acted by perticuler persons and will every day increas without some speedy and timely remedy bee had to find out the Offendors The currant Silver coyns of the Nation have been greatly spent in making the manufacture of gold and silver wyer thread c. formerly in the years from 1624 to 1630. There beeing then a war with Spain Starling silver was sold by the Goldsmiths for five shilling and three pence and five shilling and four pence the ounce Now the money in the Tower is coyned at five and a pence So that all but the clipped and verie light mony was melted down to make plate and gold and Silver wyer and thread And this was known to bee the generall practice of almost all the Goldsmiths and Refiners in London I most humbly say There is never an honest Goldsmith in London that will have the face to deny this to bee a trueth Silver was then so scarce that in payment of a thousand pounds you should receiv nine hundred pounds in gold and then in 1629. men were troubled to get silver monie for gold Silver was so scarce The East India company bought up in those years Spanish monie and dollers and gave four shilling 10 pence a peice for them which is five pence in a peice of Eight more then they will make in the Mint Now your Highnes hath a warr with Spain the fountain of Silver is diverted for the present so that silver riseth and so consequently the Goldsmith weighs and culls all the Silver that passeth through his hands And as the market riseth so doth the Goldsmith lighten his plummet or weight hee culls the Mony of the Nation with till at last they will cull and melt it all up Som Goldsmiths in Lumbert street contrary to the law have bought and sold Milions of Gold till now at last they have bought sould all the Gold out of the Nation and the currant Silver coyn of this Nation is following after a great pace and will stil follow except a strict Law bee made to discover the offendors and bring them to severe justice to deterr others there will be no mony left in the Nation neither gold nor silver The sad effects of such a mischeif is not suddenly apprehended for no great action can be don without monie And the long Parlament though they could not then agree for the passing of an act against the Transporters of Gold and Silver yet they excepted all such as transported Gold or Silver or culled or melted the currant coyns or bought or sold gold and silver contrary to the Laws and statutes of the Nation from the generall Pardon A Commission to enquire and find out the offendors directed to skillfull discreet persons and authorized by act of Parlament according to former presidents will bring in good store of monies towards the payments of publique debts May it pleas your Highness for the Regulating of Gold and Silver thread If the Refiners and wyer drawers bee not tyed to refine all the silver for their manufactures in one place and not to melt any silver but what shall bee Imported from beyond the Seas or shall proceed from burnt silver Returns of their Manufacture and this to bee duely and strictly enjoyned them and that culling and melting of the currant Silver monie of the Nation for these manufactures Bee for the future made Fellonie and strickt Rules and ordinances to provent all the frauds formerly practised both by the Refiners and wyer-drawers which offences are by me most humbly presented to your highness the Parlament for a redress and reformation If there bee not such officers and Ministers appointed as aforesaid This manufacture will never bee regulated nor the frauds prevented I do also implore your Highness Grace and Justice for the Restoring mee to my place which I had and to have such sees as formerly I Received and I to warrant the Manufacture to bee justly made to the nation or pay the damage to any that are damnified by any gold or silver thread sealed in my Office And that your Highness and the Parlament will bee graciously pleased out of your Benignity favorabily to accept of these your loyall subjects Endeavours to do your Highness and the common wealth most humble and faithfull service which shall for ever oblige mee dayly to proceed and for ever to Remain your humblest Loyall Subject September 29 1656. Thomas Violet
PROPOSALS HUMBLY PRESENTED To his Highness OLIVER Lord Protector of England c. and to the High Court of Parlament now assembled For the calling to a true and just Accompt all Committee-men Sequestrators Treasurers Excize and Custom-Commissioners Collectors of Monethly Assessments and all other Persons that have been entrusted with the Publick Revenue or have in their Custody any thing of value appertaining to the Common-wealth WITH Several Reasons for the Doing thereof and the Waies how it may bee exactly done and several Presidents by Acts of Parlalament for the due and strict execution of the same for the Honor of God and Ease of the good People of this Nation in general in their Taxes ALSO For the Regulating of the Manufacture of Gold and Silver Thread and Wyer and for the passing an Act against Transporting Gold and Silver and against Melting down the Currant Silver Monies of the Nation LIKEWISE A Narrative of the Proceedings in the Court of Admiraltie against the Silver-Ships Sampson Salvador and George By THO. VIOLET of London Goldsmith Prov. 11. 10. When it goeth well with the Righteous the City rejoiceth And when the Wicked perish there is shouting Josh 7. 19 20 21. Luke 16. 1 2. LONDON Printed Anno Domini M. DC LVI To His Highness OLIVER LORD PROTECTOR OF England Scotland Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging May it pleas Your Highness AMongst the Roman Emperors the name Pater Patriae was held their highest title of Honor and the surest support of all good Princes hath been the Peoples hearts For where the Tongue-string and not the Heart-string make's the musick the harmony may and doth many times end in discord Queen ELIZABETH that glorious Queen and England's Deborah used to say Give mee my People's hearts and wee shall not need to ask their purses and this Maxime never deceived her With what easshee got aids from the Nation in Parlament the Records of her Reign shew The chief point that made the People so free to grant in those daies was they knew by forty four years experience shee was sparing and frugal her self and God blessed her with a wise and prudent Counsel And in point of managing her Revenue That shee never forgave her Accomptants or Receivers of her publick Revenues where it was possible to bee levyed The State had had millions of money now in bank had they followed her Rules to take a strickt accompt of all their Receivers The monies belonging to her Crown as I humbly said was never forgiven Insomuch as som of her greatest Servants and Favorites dying in her debt shee would not discharge their Heirs or Executors but held their Lands under extent till shee was paid the uttermost farthing saying Shee would not forgive any Officer that was an accomptant for the publick monies was not hers to give And the Earl of Leicester Secretary Walsingham and Lord Chancellor Hatton for all their being great Pillars in the Common-wealth and greatly in her favor having gotten to bee in her debt their several Lands were held under extent after their deaths till every penny was paid her Though som of their Heirs petitioned yet they were forced to pay the uttermost farthing receiving this answer from the Queen That if the People should know that shee prodigally gave away the publick Treasure they might justly denie her when shee had occasion in Parlament or otherwaies An excellent Rule at this time and at all times for all sovereign Princes to follow May it pleas Your HIGHNESS About the Spanish Invasion in 88 Queen Elizabeth borrowed of the Merchant Adventurers about One hundred thousand pound and kept that money by her for above one year and paid it exactly at the day with interest after 10 per cent though shee made not any use of one penny of it but put it in bank with the rest of her Treasure This shee did out of her fore-cast and providence that so if the Spaniards had landed shee would not then bee to seek for Treasure for to pay her Souldiers and supply her occasions Her wise rich and provident Grandfather Henry the 7th shee reading his Life and Reign could teach her that Rule never to let her Exchequer bee empty hee leaving as is recorded in Richmond Hous Seventeen hundred thousand pound in gold which is now by computation according to the present value neer five millions By these courses that glorious Queen got such reputation for good husbanding and prudent managing her Revenues and principally by her just repayment and by her sparing the publick Treasure that in many of her Parlaments the subsidies and fifteons granted â—â—re intreated and pressed on her as a beâ—evolence and free-will offering of the People to her with many expressions of thanks from the Parlament for her good and gracious Government And somtimes their voluntary bounty hath been such that the Parlament hath granted more than shee would accept and the Queen hath with thanks her self in Parlament returned Subsidies again Her Fame extending beyond Solomon's even to the farthest and greatest Monarchs in the world The Grand Seigniour sending his Imperial salutes and desiring her Peace and Amitie with Commerce and Trade And the Emperor of Russia admiring her great Valor in offering to affront and assault and begin a Warr with the King of Spain at her desire did grant to the English Merchants for the respects hee bore to their glorious Queen Elizabeth many great Privileges and Immunities in his Empire for Him and his Successors for ever which were inviolably observed by his Successors till about the year 1650. Shee usually said Shee desired that her Subject's Purses should bee her Exchequer For as long as they were rich shee could not bee poor These Princelie and Popular Expressions took so with all her Subjects rich and poor that shee never stirred out of the Court but shee had the Acclamations Praiers and Praises of Thousands of her People both in City and Country And shee would shew the like tenderness and affection to her People And this Blessing God bestowed then on this Nation that Prince and People were of one Minde one Heart and one Faith except som few Catholicks Her watchfull eie was ever over them and that strengthened by God's blessing her hands that in her time shee did such great things in her greatest Difficulties her Affairs were carried smoothly on by the prudence of her Counsel If Grievances were by the Commons in Parlament presented unto her it was in such a decent form shee alwaies keeping the dignity of her State Imperial that the People's Grievances appeared unto her like the tears of the Turtle and the mourning of Doves Som of the Representations of their Grievances in Parlament I have seen and read to this effect That if there was any thing expressed otherwise then they should have represented That her Majestie would cast the vail of her Grace upon it and give a favorable and benign Answer and Interpretation of their humble Petition And
Suits for Debts shall recover his Costs and Dammages That the Kings Suits shall bee preferred and his Debt first paid and satisfied Magna Charta cap. 18. That Lands entailed shall bee liable to the payment of the Kings Debts And the King may recover his Debt against the Executor of his Creditor How the Kings Debt shall bee levyed when his Debtors Lands shall come to severall mens hands and possessions The Statute of 7. Edw. 6. cap 1. Provides several Penalties and Forfeitures to bee inflicted upon all Officers and Accomptants that shall conceal any Duty and not pay the same in due time And that Officers and Accomptants shall upon notice delcare what money they have received and not accompted for and upon commandment make payment of the same within ten daies next after notice upon pain or forfeiture of loss of their Offices The Statute of 34. Hen. 8. cap. 2. sets down the Forfeitures of High Collectors and general Receivers of Fifteens and Subsidies and all other Loans and Taxes that do not pay the money by them received to the Kings use to such person and at such time as hee shall bee appointed And that the King shall at his pleasure charge the said Collector or Receiver and their Heirs Executors and Administrators A Proclamation from his Highness to require all Accompatants to deliveâ— in a perfect accompt upon their oaths of their Receipts and Payments within a certain time or els to suffer the penalty of the Law and select persons to bee nominated to inspect these Accompts and by what Orders all monies were paid with four shillings the pound for every moneth the said monies shall bee laid out by them for profit but deteined and not paid within three moneths next after the receipt The Statutes of 13. Eliz. cap. 4. and 27. Eliz. cap. 3 Provides that Treasurers Receivers and Accomptants Lands shall bee liable for the payment of their Debts to the Queen her Heirs and Successors And that the Queen her Heirs and Successors may sell and dispose of their lands c. and against whom the same sale shall bee good and how the Queen her Heirs and Successors may use the lands of the Treasurers Receivers and Accomptants indebted which hee or they hath or have purchased in the names of other persons c. The Statute of 1â— Eliz cap. 7. Provides that the Statute of 13. Eliz. cap. 4. shall extend to under-Collectors Receivers and Accomptants of Tenths and Subsidies of the Clergie to make their lands goods c. liable for satisfying of such monies as they have collected and received and not paid and accompted And that every such under-Collector and Receiver shall accompt in the Exchequer for his Receipt as other Collectors and Receivers do The Statutes of 52 Hen. 3. cap 23. and 13 Edw. 1. cap. 11. Provides that all Accomptants that do withraw themselvs and have no Lands c. whereby they may bee distrained Then their bodies to bee attached and imprisoned and caused to make their Accompts And the punishment of the Sheriff or Goaler that letteth an Accomptant Committed escape May it pleas your Highness AT the beginning of our late troubles some men having designed unto themselves to make themselves great in the midst of the common Calamities and to fish in troubled waters disturbed the most excellent cours of the Exchequer and to compass their fraudulent designs which they had craftily laid erected Private Treasuries as Goldsmiths hall Gourney hous Worcester hous Haberdashershall Weavers hall Drury hous Custom hous Excise Office Treasuries for the Publique Plate of the Nation at Guild hall and infinite other places throughout this Nation were erected and pettie Exchequers where the publique monie was kept and the publique Accounts by that means interwooven one with another and almost all of them managed by persons equally guilty and excessively covetous as well City Commissioners and Treasures as Country Commissioners and Treasurers So that ordinary Clarks and slight fellows being crept into imployment to finger the publique monies some by buying of the Goldsmiths light and clipped monies and then puting the said light and clipped monies amongst the publique Treasure It was observed by all that paid moneis in to the Treasurers that the Tellers would not receiv a clipped shilling and when they paid it away for the State their Payments were full of clipped money which clipped money they bought of Goldsmiths to the value of many score of thousand pounds and this was twenty times cull'd over and over and now they are fain to take it in the Country or to receiv none The clipped monie was like a hors in a mill it went round the Treasurers would receive none but bought it of the Goldsmith the Goldsmiths would melt no clipped money they bought but sell it to the Treasurers and Cashiers this was paid to the Army they paid it for their Quarters the Farmer payes it to his Landlord the Landlord brings it up to London and sells it to the Goldsmith at 15l 20l 25l in the hundred loss thinking it is melted and hee shall never more bee tronbled with it but the Goldsmith sells it as aforesaid and at my Gentleman's next quarter payment his money is paid him again so that the Nation by this trick hath been mightily cheated by publick Cashiers and they have many of them gotten great Estates some Five thousand some Ten thousand some Fifteen thousand some Twenty thousand some Thirty thousand some Forty thousand Pounds apiece And if these pettie Varlets which were but servants and underlings have gotten such vaste and great Estates by their craftie and fraudulent actions being but young sucklings in comparison of many of the great Treasurers their masters what have these great Treasurers then gotten whose ravening paunches have devoured the wealth and substance of the Nation May it please your Highness I could name them by scores but that I forbear at present till Justice do personally single them out for in every County City Corporation and almost in every Parish in England and Wales there is very few Parishes in the Nation without some of these Unjust Stewards Committee-men Sequestrators and Treasurers I most humbly beseech Almighty God to put it into Your Highness 's and the Parlaments hearts to say particularly to every unjust Treasurer Committee-man Sequestrator Excise-man Commissioner of the Customes Commissioner and Trustee for the Sale of Delinquents Estates Treasurer for the publique Plate and every other person that shall bee proved to have the publick monies in his hands as was said to the unjust Steward in the Gospel How is it that I hear this of thee Give an accompt of thy Stewardship for thou mayest bee no longer Steward Your Highness and the Parlament may see by the former recited Laws and Statutes what care all former ages had to see the Kings Debts and Rents duely paid and accompted for and that no fraud should bee put upon them their Heirs or Successors To prevent all frauds
Which will increas your Highness Revenue some thousands of pounds yearly And that your Petitioner may bee Ordered by your Highness to attend the Committee for Trade with his draught for the regulation of this Manufacture And as in duty bound your Petitioner shall pray c. THO. VIOLET Whitehall May 8. 1655. HIs Highness referreth this to the Consideration of the Committee and Counsel for Trade to enquire into the particulars and certifie their opinion Nath. Bacon May it pleas your Highness THe late King Charles and his Privy Counsel would never suffer that the silver courrant Coins or Plate of the Nation should bee wastâ—d in this Manufacture for the making of gold or silver Thread What the Refiners and Wyerdrawers did spend of the Plate and Coin in these Manufactures it was and is against the Laws of the Land And by the very Monopolie that the King granted to Alderman Wollaston and Aldermam Gibbs An. 1636. for to be his onely Agents for refining one Hundred thousand pounds a year of Forrain Silver for making this Manufacture yet in that Project of Gibbs and Wollaston they Covenant with the King not to Refine or caus to bee melted down any the Courrant Coin or Plate of the Nation and that they should melt none but Forrain Bullion which shall be Imported for the making this aforesaid Manufacture And many of the Privy Counsel then were for the total putting down of the making and wearing this Manufacture here in England as causing an excessive Expence to all Sorts and Conditions of people as being a Vanitie that the Nation might well bee without But then it was considered by the King and his Counsell the multitude of Women spinsters and other people that had their subsistance out of it and in that regard the Manufacture was continued but under strict Rules for the due Regulation and that all the Workers should conform to the same and they did promise an humble conformity and I Thomas Violet was appointed under the Great Seal of England to take the care and Charge of Sealing and Surveying all these Manufactures to prevent the former cheating and Cosennage both of Wyerdrawers Silkmen and Refiners The several frauds I clearly proved under the hand of Mr Jackson the sworn Assay-master of Goldsmiths hall and I cut and defaced all sleight cours and deceitfull gold or silver Thread Spangles wyer c. which Office I did justly and faithfully execute for almost Five years and prevented all former Abuses and caused the workmen to work their silver for these Manufactures as exactly and justly as the Plate or Money of the Nation is made during the time I regulated the Manufacture by my sealing of it This I have proved under the hand of many hundred Spinsters who petitioned for the Restoring mee to my Office again Your Petitioners most humble prayer to your Highness is that the Honorable Committee for Trade now having this Business under their examination and having the particulars in this Petitition in consideration may bee by your Highness ordered to make their Report and to take care for the preservation of the Bullion and Coins of the Nation And that all Silver made for this Manufacture bee melted at a Publique place and Viewed and Registred that so none of the Coins or Plate of the Nation bee melted down for any of these Manufactures And to appoint such Officers as they shall conceiv may bee fit for the regulating of all Abuses in the Manufacture and for the best advantage of your Highness The honorable Committee for Trade have given the wyerdrawers and Refiners several dayes for the propounding of wayes for regulating of the said Trade and to prevent the abuses by-past and to preserve the Coin and treasure of the Nation But instead of that the Wyerdrawers have presented the Draught of a Corporation to the Committee of Trade which if it should bee granted unto them in that way they have presented the same They would melt and caus the Goldsmiths to melt for their use in a few years all the heavie Gold and Silver Coin and Plate of this Nation And indeed they are come to that confidence that they think to cozen all people that wear Gold and Silver And to get a Charter for the doing thereof that so they may work Iniquitie by a Law May it pleas your Highness THere was a Complaint made to the late King Charles and the Lords of his Privy Counsel January 25. 1634. And an Information given by some of the Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths touching the detriment and dammage which ariseth by the undue Practices of some Refiners and Gold-wyer-drawers of London by melting the currant Coynes and Bullion of the Nation And several Depositions against the Refiners of London were presented to the King and his Counsel at White-hall of very high and heynous Crimes by some of the Wardens and Company of Goldsmiths and no doubt but the Company of the Goldsmiths have the Copies of these Papers in their Hall There-upon Mr Attorney General Bankes received a Command from the said King and Lords to prosecute the Statute of 4. Hen. 7th against such Refiners and Gold-wyer-drawers as hee should finde to bee Offenders and to see the Penalties might bee recovered And upon further examination of these most heynous Offences an Information was put into the Starr-Chamber by the Kings Attorney General Bankes against Alderman Wollaston and Alderman Gibbs for melting and procuring several Goldsmiths to cull and melt the currant Silver Coynes of the Nation And for the unlawfull buying and refining of the said heavy currant English Monies and for unlawfull buying and refining Gold and Silver and for several other Abuses practised by them contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Nation as appeareth at large by the Kings Attornies Information in the Starr-Chamber against them Some of the Wyer-drawers of London seeing the Winde blow at that Corner to prevent the danger approaching on them petition the said late King in the behalf of themselvs and divers other Wyer-drawers of the City of London the second of April 1635. In which Petition they set forth that there are many Abuses daily practised and done in the said Trade of Gold and Silver-wyer-drawing and the manufuctures thereof and that their Trade was under no Government That they desired his Majesties most gracious care in suppressing the promiscuous use by ordering them into a Government Therefore they pray That such as have served for the Trade or such as they should deem fit to use the same and one or two Refiners that may refine Gold and Silver to bee used in the Trade may bee made a Corporation with a non obstante of the Statute of 4. Hen. 7. or any other Statute or Proclamation And that they may bee Incorporated and have two Wardens and twelve Assistants and to have a fitting Officer for their Company and raising money for necessary Charges And that no Gold or Silver thread may bee put to sale
unless it bee sealed with This Restraint ought now to bee carefully looked after and to make the melting down of Shillings Sixpences half Crowns and five Shilling pieces Felony And strictly to forbid upon severe Penalties all Goldsmiths not to presume to bee Cashiers and Receivers of Merchants monies by which means they have formerly and do at this day cull and melt down the heavy English money The Goldâ—miths have by buying and selling English Gold above the currant price bought and sold all the Gold out of the Nation to the unspeakable dammage thereof And now there is no other Remedy to get Gold back in the Nation but by raising of it as some would have it shortly wee shall have no Silver Coyn left in the Nation and then wee must raise that to get back our Silver again And by this means all setled Revenues and Landlords will lose so much in their estates as you raise Gold and Silver the Seal of the Company And upon these Conditions they offered to pay his Majestie his Heirs and Successors for ever One thousand pounds yearly and over and above two pence the ounce for all Forain Bullion that shall bee used in their Trade And humbly petition That his Majestie would bee pleased to publish his Proclamation to forbid any to practise any the said Trades or Manufactures or Drawing or Spinning of Gold or Silver Thread or Wyer other than such as should bee Incorporated Upon this Petition his Majestie granted this following Reference viz. 2 Aprill 1635. HIs Majestie referreth this Petition to Mr Attourny General To take the same into consideration together with the Earl of Holland's Petition and certifie his opinion R. Freeman This Petition I have readie to bee produced Sr John Bankes Attournie general certifies back to the late King to this effect viz. That hee did not discern any inconvenience that the Gold Wyerdrawers who offer his Majestie upon their voluntary Petition One thousand pounds a year and two pence for everie ounce of Bullion which should bee used by them should bee incorporated for their better government according to their Petition so that they bee tied to some certain Conditions amongst which they were not to work any of the currant heavie Monie of this Nation nor any of the Plate of the Nation for any Manufacture of Gold or Silver Thread or Wyer they were not to use any Silver in their trade but Forrain Bullion and no more than yearlie should bee imported by their means and the Manufacture made according to the Standard or better Hereupon the Refiners Alderman Wolaston and Alderman Gibbs c. seeing themsellves exposed to the Law by the information of some of the Wardens and Company of the Goldsmiths informing against them and Mr Attournie General Banks by Order of the King and Lords prosecuting them in the Starr Chamber for high Crimes and Misdemeanors the Refiners viz. Alderman Wolaston and Alderman Gibbs c. Petition the late King in An. 1635. for his grace and mercy and making their humble Application to the then Attournie general Bankes and Sr J. Cook Secretary of State and to Sr William Beecher and several others whom they paid and gratified with great sums of money to get their pardons I being privy thereunto and desired and requested by them to use all my endeavors to keep Sr John Wolaston off from being indighted upon high Crimes and Offenses which Alderman Wolaston was charged with by Sr Henry Mildemay and some of the Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths which I did by Secretary Cookes power and I did assist them to get their Pardons and spent my money and used all my endeavors and interest freely And at the earnest entreatie of Alderman Gibbs who with many tears besought mee to do it for Gods sake I having a little before made my peace and paid to the King two thousand Pounds for my pardon for Transporting Gold and Silver and by that means being intimately acquainted with Sr John Cook then Principal Secretary of State and Mr Attourney General Bankes and Sr William Beecher Clark of the Counsel I could and did get for Alderman Wolaston and Alderman Gibbs great favour of them I managed their business so amongst them that the edg of Justice was blunted and Sr Henry Mildemay's Commission revoked and all his endeavors to undoe Alderman Wolaston and Alderman Gibbs I disappointed by the power of the aforesaid persons And I am confident they paid them well for it for in those times there was nothing done by Courtâ—ers for Cittizens without money and I am sure I in my particular found it so But I never would accept or take of Alderman Wolaston or Alderman Gibbs for my expenses and pains one farthing though they often times then offered mee their pretended great acknowledgments And this I do say is true as I shall answer before God I did it freely upon the account of Frendship I bare unto Alderman Gibbs And how well and justly Alderman Gibbs and Alderman Wolaston requited mee for getting them their Pardons of the King in 1636. the Common Counsel of London and many honorable members of Parlament know and heard at a common Hall in January 1643. when Alderman Wolaston beeing Lord Major and Alderman Gibbs were the chief Informers against mee in Guild Hall and incensed many honorable members of Parlament and the body of the Citie of London against mee as a malignant and vicious person And this Alderman Gibbs did by along winded Speech openly at Guild Hall And som few daies before they abused and villified mee before a Committee of Parlament at Goldsmiths Hall and procured mee to bee sent to the Tower through their unjust Information But God in his good time will finde their iniquity out for since it hath been proved what Alderman Wolaston hath been to the Government and that makes him uncapable to bear Office in the Commonwealth How God will dispose of Alderman Gibbs this Parlament that time will present And what Service I have don to this Nation I most humbly leav it to the considerations of all true English men I saved the Nation at one time three hundreed Thousand Pounds in the year 1652. A summ of money more then all the Goldsmiths and Refiners are worth put them all together And in doing that service I most humbly say I clearly shewed my Dutie and Affection to this Nation and shewed I was no Malignant When Alderman Wolaston and Alderman Gibbs do so much for this Nation I shall take them to bee better men then now I do After many dayes Attendance of Alderman Wolaston and Alderman Gibbs at the Counsel-table and at the Attourny General Sr John Banke's Chamber Upon condition that Alderman Wolaston and Alderman Gibbs Their Pardon 's under the Great Seal of Enland will shew the offences they were guilty of for men need not take a Pardon if they be not guilty and faulty I refer my self to the paticulars in their Pardons what offenses