ever will be of any great Riches or are capable thereof But such will as have these things abounding in them good Ports advantageous Laws for Trade good Wooll and good quantities thereof much and well Wooded with plenty of Iron Stone and Pit Coales with Lands fit to bear Flax with Mynes of Tin and Lead Scotland is a thin and lean Kingdom and wanting in these things England is a fat Kingdom and hath all these things in it Yet the Lothean Lands in Scotland are twenty four years purchase At Edinburgh there is a Grand Register and in each County a particular one and no man can be there deceived in a Purchase unless it be his own fault England is at sixteen years Purchase The reason is obvious why Scotland must be so and why England is so But a voluntary Register in England will cure all and put us six years purchase above Scotland For as I formerly said as our Honour and Honesty is so will be our Riches and Riches bring Trade and Trade brings strength to an Island And for want of good Titles let the world judge what a Condition we are coming into I will give you one small Instance what the poor decayed Trade and Clothiers of England would be able to do in easing themselves and making their Trade comfortable if they had but the Authority of the Law to Register all their Houses and Lands Take it from the City of Salisbury there I make the Precedent and as it would be with them so it would be with all the Towns in England who deal in the Wollen and Iron Manufacture Suppose the Clothiers in and near Salisbury have two thousand pounds a year in free Lands and their Lands were by Law fixt under a Register then the Anchorage and Foundation of a Bank will be at least fifty thousand pounds And immediately tumbles into them all the idle Moneys nay Moneys now under Ground and good part of the plate ten Miles round The Usurer will pray and the Men and Maid-servants will beg to take in their Moneys Immediately one hundred thousand pounds will be brought in and at four in the hundred What will this do to the poor Clothiers Nay what will it do to each Gentleman and all men near Salisbury that have or keep Sheep I say the help and present Credit of this great Bank and Cash will raise the price of Wooll and set the Poor at work Thereby enabling the Tenants to pay their Rents keep the poor of the Parish bring the Clothiers and the City into a Comfortable Condition but most of all it will prevent the Trade departing this Kingdom which of necessity it will do if not timely prevented For the Irish Wooll carried away with their Beef to Holland France and Germany their making Cloth of cheap Wooll with cheap Victuals with Moneys at three in the hundred will out do us and undo us too if 〈…〉 prevented Eight years since I discovered 〈…〉 of the Worse Manufacture and the Reasons which he made publique in his first Book The same that may be done at Salisbury by this way may be done by all the Towns in England that depend upon any of our own Manufactures And in this case here 's nothing desired but that Men thus qualified with Lands may employ it by the Authority of the Law to the good of themselves and mankind and to be justly honest to all Now methinks I hear many of Salisbury say But how may this be done which you say I tell you how desire your Parliament Man to draw you up a Bill and carry it into the House the next sitting But you will say he will not do it Then get your Bishop to do it You will say he is no Lawyer Pray tell him it is easier than making the River Navigable But a Register and the River Navigable together will do rarely well Well if the Bishop will do the one I will do the other I will only tumble over a few papers wherein are my Observations when I surveyed the River The Preamble of the Bill to be carried into the House of Commons for putting the City of Salisbury and the Free Lands within ten Miles thereof under a voluntary Register with some Heads of the said Bill WHereas there past an Act of Parliament in the _____ Year of his Majesties Reign that now is for making the River Avon Navigable from the City of Salisbury to the Town of Christ-Church and so into the Sea so as Boats Barges and Lighters may come up the said River to the City of Salisbury and so down again into the Sea for carrying and recarrying of Wood Coles Corn and all other Commodities to and fro And whereas the said River is begun to be made Navigable and some considerable Sums of Money are laid out about the said Work which if once finished will tend much to the benefit and fur therance of Trade to the said City and Country thereabouts And whereas there hath formerly been a great Trade in the said City and Country adjacent in the making and working in the Wollen Manufacture which is now much decayed and if not timely prevented will be worse the occasion whereof is the want of present Money and Credit for the Clothiers to drive their Trades to be by them had when wanted and that at low and easie Interest And finding that in many places beyond the Seas Trade is much advanted by the Lands being under a Register and in Taunton Dean in England the Town and Mannor there being under a Register hath in a strange manner given life ease and benefit to the Trade there and thereabouts whereupon that place is much enviched And to the end that the River of Avon when made Navigable may answer the Charge of making it so and the wollen Trade in Salisbury and thereabouts may be encouraged Wherefore be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled That from and after the twenty fifth day of June one thousand six hundred seventy and seven all manner of person or persons that shall desire it may and shall have their Free-hold Lands and Houses Registred at the Registers Office within the City of Salisbury which shall lye within the said City and within ten Miles thereof accompting two thousand yards to the Mise Provided such Houses and Lands so to be Registred with their Names Metes and Bounds be first set up and affixed three Lords Days upon the Church Door of the Parish where such Lands are And that the Minister with one of the Church-Mardens and one of the Overseers of the Poor first certifie under their Hands and Seals the doing of the same with a true Copy of the Paper so affixed to the Register with forfeiture of twenty pounds and three Months imprisonment to any person or persons that shall take down or deface the said Writing during the time
and Corn I answer thou maist at any time take up Ten or Twelve pounds or more upon a Mortgage of thy Bank-Corn to buy Materials to work into Manufacture Child I charge thee tell this to thy VVife in Bed and it may be she understanding the benefit that will be to her and her Children by this way she may turn Dutch-VVoman and endeavour to provide some Moneys which she will save to buy Corn And by these two ways of having cheap Bread and Drink and Credit out of the Bank to take up Moneys at any time when wanting certainly here thou wilt have sufficient Revenge of thy former Task-Masters Consider thy fingers and hands are thy own and now they are imployed for thy benefit and advantage and not for others with cheap Bread and Drink with Moneys at all times when wanted and if thou dyest leaving a VVidow behind thee assure thy self my Daughter need not stay long for a Husband for thou leaving her Bank-Corn and good store of hands to work there will be old striving for her as there is for VVidows that have many Children in other parts where this just delightful profitable saving and honourable way is practised Secondly Thou wilt unavoidably ruine Pawn-Brokers and it is high time or else they will by their great Interest ruine all the Poor and to me it is no less then a Miracle that the Pawn-Brokers had not long since ruin'd all the poor People in and about London by high Interest Marshals-VVrits Imprisonments and the dreadful effects now practised Now Children if you will pawn your Clothes and take them out on Saturday Nights and carry them in on Monday-Mornings or pay Thirty or Fourty in the Hundred for your Moneys I shall take no pity of you Thirdly Thou wilt have no occasion for a Lawyer but mayest follow thy business quietly if thou wilt and be in a condition to augment the number of thy Hands and so increase thy Estate and be able to set at work the idle Poor which now Beg and Steal then thy Neighbours will love thee for taking their Poor off them and thou wilt increase in Riches and at last it will be Strive as strive can who shall have the Poor even as now they strive at the Sessions-house for Persons to carry to Barbadoes or Virginia But my Child remember it is thy Corn and Malt in Granary and the Credit which that Corn and Malt gives thee which is the cause of all this I will now leave this subject only I must lay a charge upon all my Daughters whose Husbands work in Mechanick Arts That they force their Husbands to eat good Wheaten-Bread made of Corn that is taken out of the Bank-Granary and also that they force them to drink good Ale and Beer that is made of Malt taken out of the Bank-Granaries But I know many will say Here is a new way which was never heard of before to prevent poverty and the increase of beggary No Friend it is not so there is a great City beyond the VVater in the Civil-VVars was much destroyed where this Rule Order and Government is now practised and it was high time for that place to fall on this way for the VVars had wholly beggar'd them Necessity many times brings good things to pass I pray God this may be the time with us Necessities force hard and decay in Trade comes posting on I must now mind all my Children who labour in the Mechanick Art who are resolved to have Corn for Bank-Credit of a Story being a worthy Mans observation in Holland which the Bank at Amsterdam sends to the Parties who lent them Moneys Sir William Temple to come and fetch their Moneys lent with Interest they come with Tears in their Eyes desiring them to continue it longer If this Bank-Credit by Corn Granaries were here well fixt the very like would be with the Mechanicks who have Corn in Bank there being no Security at present to be had comparable to what this would be I must desire my Children or some of them which can well spare Moneys to buy a Book of Trade lately set out by a worthy Gentleman wherein you will perfectly see Mr. Roger Cook That all Trades must and will flourish according as the means is used in promoting them and that Rule Order and Policies in Trade by Sea and Land Ease Cheapness with conveniences for Trade have been the means of setting up the Dutch to this great growth and strength they are now at And in Reading that Book you will perfectly see as in a Glass your own condition as now it is as also what it would be if the thing I treat upon were here well fixt by a good Law Now I will take a step to Worcester and Discourse the poor Clothiers there but I know they are all of one Lip a bad Trade and they do not know when it will mend neither do they know which way it may be mended well because they are Neighbours and Countrey-men I will take in the Clothiers of VVorcester vvith the Cap-makers of Bewdley and Stuff-Weavers of Kidderminster and as they are Neighbours in one County and deal all in the VVool so I will fix them all together in One Granary at New Brunswick near Stratford upon Avon And for that they shall have equal benefit in all things relating to the said Granary I have here drawn the form of the Bill to be presented to the Parliament for the building and ordering the Bank-Granary and the Corn at New Brunswick which shall be put therein with all persons thereunto related BE it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Incorporated-companies of Clothiers of the City of VVorcester and Town of Kidderminster with the company of Cappers of the Town of Bewdley in the said County to erect and build one or more Granaries at New Brunswick near the Bridg at Stratford upon Avon in the County of Warwick being the Lands of Sir John Clapton Knight to hold and keep Corn of all sorts for the use and benefit of the said companies of Clothiers and Cappers and that the said companies may have and take Lands sufficient to make a good and sufficient High-way for Carts and other Carriages to come to and from the said Granary or Granaries provided the said companies of Clothiers and Cappers first pay or cause to be paid to Sir John Clapton or his Assigns for so much Land as they shall use or have occasion for not under Thirty years purchase and in case there shall arise any difference about the value of the Land so to be made use of then it shall be in the power of the Mayor of Stratford upon Avon and any two of the Aldermen of the said Town to set down and award how much
have forc'd Trade out of your City some of them are not within the power either of the Law or your Magistrates to prevent but some are and these which may be done with ease I question not but your Magistrates will use their endeavours to bring them to pass The which are putting all the New Buildings in the City of London under a Register and procuring a Law to pass to enable the several Companies of Handicraft Tradesmen in London hereafter mentioned to have power to make the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury to build Granaries to hold Corn with Mills or any other Engines to go by Water to be made use of for the good and benefit of the several Companies whereby Art will be incouraged and Trade convenienced The Names of the Companies are as followeth and the Copy of the Bill to be carried into Parliament for the accomplishing of the same follows after The Company of Weavers the Company of Pin-Makers the Company of Turners the Company of Water-men the Company of Silk-Throwers the Company of Felt-Makers the Company of Pavers the Company of Cloth-Workers the Company of Plasterers the Company of Joyners the Company of Embroiderers the Company of Brick-Layers the Company of Smiths the Company of Armourers and the Company of Carpenters The Form of the Bill to be carried into Parliament for the making of the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury and for building Publick Granaries near the said River with liberty to set up Mills and Engines to go by Water for the use and benefit of the several Companies of the Handicraft Trades in the City of London called by the Names of Weavers Pin-Makers Turners Water-men Silk-Throwers Felt-Makers Pavers Cloth-Workers Plasterers Joyners Embroiderers Brick-Layers Smiths Armourers and Carpenters WHereas it is evidently made appear That all Manufactures in England may by the advantage of having constantly good and cheap Uictuals as also ready Moneys at all times to drive their several Trades live comfortably and thereby provide plentifully for their Wives and Children And whereas it is lately found out and discovered that the said Benefits may with much ease be made applicable unto several of the Companies of Handicrafts within the City of London and the way for the doing thereof is to have liberty to make the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury and to set up publick Granaries and Engines near the said River for the use of the said Companies Therefore be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Incorporated Companies of Meavers Pin-Makers Turners Mater-men Silk Throwers Felt-Makers Pavers Cloth-Morkers Plasterers Ioyners Embroiderers Bricklayers Smiths Armourers and Carpenters to make the River Sharwell Navigable from the City of Oxford to the Town of Banbury in the County of Oxford and to build Granaries for holding of Corn with liberty for making of Mills for grinding thereof with Licence and leave to set up Engines to go by Mater for the use and benefit of the several Trades mentioned in this Act. And for that it shall not be any ways prejudicial to the Owners of any Land which shall be Cut or made use of for making the said River Navigable or building the said Granaries Hills or Engines Therefore be it Enacted That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Lord Keeper or Lord Chancellor of England to grant a Commission under the Great Seal of England thereby Authorising Fifteen of the knowingest able Gentlemen of the County of Oxford to be Commissioners to set down and settle what and how much shall be paid for the Lands so to be Cut or made use of and the Moneys to be paid before there is any act or thing done in cutting any of the said Lands so to be made use of And it is further Enacted That any Seven of the said Commissioners shall be sufficient to make or do any act according to Iustice and good Conscience and all Rules Orders Decrees being so made done shall bind all Parties concerned their Heirs all other Persons whatsoever And be it further Enacted That all the Benefit of the said River Sharwell and the Barges and Boats employed thereupon with the Granaries Hills and Engines to be built shall be and enure to the several Companies named in this Act and to their Successors for ever And be it further Enacted That it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Companies and their Successors to put Corn in the said Granaries and the same to be Registred with the Clark of each Company as to the time it was put in and the nature kind and quantities of the said Corn And from and after such time the said Corn is in Granary no Sale Mortgage or Conveyance shall be good but such as is Entered with the Clark of the particular Companies and at the Guild-Hill with the Register there employed for that purpose And in case any of the said Parties dye having Corn in Bank it shall go and enure one Third part to the Midow of the Party deceased the other two Third parts thereof to be dirided share and share like amongst all the Children of the Party deceased only the youngest Child excepted which shall have one share and a half being in most necessity the better to help to breed him or her up And that the Husband is and shall be for ever disabled to make any Incumbrance upon the said Corn in Bank without the consent of his Wife and she joining with him under her Hand and Entred in the Clark of the Companies Book and with the Register at the Guild-Hall then the property of the said Bank Corn shall be legally altered and not otherwise any Law Statute Usage or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding In reading my Book of England's Improvement by Sea and Land you will see the Causes laid open and plain of the decay of Trade and Manufactures in England and the Reasons of the low Rates the things must of necessity be sold for I have already set and appropriated the Clothiers of Worcester the Weavers of Kidderminster and the Cappers of Bewdley to have the benefit of a Granary near Stratford upon Avon Now I am for fixing the several Companies of London who work in the laborious Arts in Granaries upon the River Sharwel near Anslo Bridge in the County of Oxford about seven Miles from Oxford The Arms of the several Companies are in the Map of Rivers in this Book affixed wherein you may plainly see That if the River Sharwel were once made Navigable from Oxford to Anslo Bridge and the Granaries built in that place for the several Companies then all the Rich Corn Countries toward Banbury and Brackley would be on the Back-side of the Granaries and would at all times
Trade of London and many other parts also The Damage whereof to the City of London Bargemen Country-men and Trade is at least fifty thousand pounds yearly The particulars how I will make out if desired or commanded And it is a misery that the Barges should lye on ground a Month or six Weeks as they did this year and the poor Barge-Masters should be forc't all that time to maintain so many men as of necessity they must besides the Tradesman in London wants the Commodity to sell To the Kings most Excellent Majesty the humble Petition of the Barge-Masters Westward upon the River of Thames and their Servants humbly sheweth THat in the one and twentieth Year of the Reign of King James of blessed Memory there was an Act of Parliament pass'd upon the humble Petition and desire of the City and University of Oxford for making the River of Thames Navigable from the said City to Burcott and for maintaining the same at the charge of the said City and University and by the said Act liberty is given for Bargemen and Water-men to bring Barges and Boats up the said River to carry and recarry all manner of Goods and Merchandises for the good of the City of Oxford and the Publick And of late years the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Windsor and others have made Navigable the River of Avon in the Counties of Worcester Gloucester and Warwick and are about making some other Rivers Navigable which when finished will tend much to the benefit of Trade between Cheshire Shropshire Herefordshire Worcestershire Gloucestershire Staffordshire Warwickshire Oxfordshire Bristol and most part of Wales to London by carrying Commodities down the River Severne and so up the River Avon and from thence to Oxford by Land and so to London by Water whereby the High-ways and Bridges will be preserved and the Goods carried and recarried at two thirds of what they now pay by Land which will be of great advantage to Trade But may it please your Majesty so it is that the River Thames is not as yet made perfectly Navigable as it ought to be and as it was intended by the Act of Parliament whereby the City of Oxford and the rest of your Majesties Subjects and Barge-men are deprived of the benefit intended them by the said Navigation and many times the Barges lye on ground three Weeks or a Month together for want of water which might be prevented by making three Holds for water in the River Sharwell near Oxford to be let down as flushes in dry times as also one Lock to be made at Swift Ditch one pair of Gates at Sutton one Turn-pike a Mile below Sutton with two Flushes to be taken out of the River Kennet with two places to be made for Flushes one near Windsor the other near Chersey all which being done will so plentifully supply the River with water that not only the Barges coming from Oxford and Abington but many other places will have the benefit thereof and bring them clear to London without stay The Premisses considered your Petitioners most humbly pray that your Majeshy will be graciously pleased to appoint Mr. Robert Yarranton a person able in that Affair to survey the defects of the said Navigation and to make Report thereof from time to time to the Commissioners appointed for the same And that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to signify unto the said Commissioners your pleasure that so good a Work may be forthwith perfected according as is directed in the said Act and that your Majesties Subjects and Barge-men may have the benefit of passing and repassing with their Goods and Barges up and down the said River from Oxford to Burcott without paying any Tax or Imposition for the same unless by Law due and that Orders and Rules may be made by the Commissioners for the good and well Governing both of the Navigation Millers and Bargemen as is by the Act directed And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall daily Pray c. When the River Thames is perfectly made Navigable to Oxford as it ought to be then to make the River Sharwell Navigable unto Anslo Bridge will cost about 2500 l. the building of four Granaries each Granary to hold fourteen thousand Quarters of Corn six thousand pounds all Materials being very dear in that place for building of Mills and some Wheels to draw Wire and for other use 500 l. for building of twenty Houses for habitation for persons employed about the Trade and in the Granaries 2000 l. all which is ten thousand pounds which is but one Shilling a piece from each man of the several Companies the Number thereof being two hundred thousand persons as they themselves say If these Granaries were fixt some other Companies may go up the little River to Whitney and build Granaries there and some may go up the Thames as far as Ratcot-bridge and build Granaries there and so the good Corn growing in the heart of England would be applyed to London which will so convenience the people working in the several Manufactures that the Trade will wholly return to the City again for hands being maintained at work with cheap Victuals will make cheap Commodities and cheap Commodities will enlarge Trade I intend to write one Sheet more particularly setting forth the way of bringing the Trade to London again and feeding the Poor with cheap bread and drink which you shall have printed on the one side of a Sheet of Royal Paper and on the other side a Map of the Rivers which will be serviceable to the Design with the places convenient and fit to build Granaries with the Arms of the several Companies in the said Map One of each Map being set in a Frame is intended to be sent to each Hall in London there to receive the opinions of such as the benefit of Granaries is intended for In the multitude of Councellors there is safety Now I must make a step to Westchester and endeavour to find out how the River Dee may be made so Navigable to Bangor-bridge that thereby it may be made communicable with the River Severne In the Month of July 1674. I was prevailed with by a Person of Honour to survey the River Dee running by the City of Chester into the Irish Sea and finding the River choked with the Sands that a Vessel of twenty Tuns could not come to that Noble City and the Ships forc'd to lye at Neason in a very bad Harbour whereby the Ships receive much damage and Trade made so uncertain and chargeable that the Trade of Chester is much decayed and gone to Leverpool and that old great City in danger of being ruin'd if the River Dee be not made Navigable by Act of Parliament and Ships brought to the City I have formerly drawn a Map of the New River to be made to bring up the Ships to the City side which Map was presented to the Duke of York by the Lord Windsor and Colonel Warden and therein