Report of the Committee of the House of Commons appointed to enquire into the Miscarriages of the Officers of the Mint
Iovis, 8th: die Aprilis; 9o Gulielmi Tertii.
Mr Arnold reported from the Committee appointed to enquire into the Miscarriages of the Officers of the Mint, the Matter as it appeared to the said Committee, & the resolutions of the Committee thereupon; which he read in his place, & afterwards delivered in at the Table; Where the same were read & are as followeth; viz
That the Mint by the Charter thereof, is a Corporation, consisting of the Warden, the Workers, and Moneyers, & other Ministers:
The Warden or Keeper of Exchanges of Bullion. & New Coined Monies, is, by his Office, a Magistrate, set over the Exchanges, or Mints, to do Right & Iustice to the Members thereof, in all their Complaints & Differences, excepting in causes of Freehold & causes realting {sic} to the Crown: Standing Orders are made by him, the Master. Comptroller or any Two of this|em| |whereof he is one; he takes care of the Buildings and pays the charges of Repairs first allowed by the Master, Comptroller and Assay Master, or any two of them| whereof the Master to be One; He supervises the whole process of the Coinage, & pays the Charges thereof & the Saleries of the Officers; except the Ma|sters| Salary & Wages, & such Salaries & Wages, as are appointed to be paid by the Master: With the Consent of the General of the Mint of Scotland, he makes the Standard Weights for the Mint of England & Scotland.
That the Workers are the Master & his Melter, Refiner & Assay Master, with their Assistants Clerks & Under Workman. The Master upon any new Occasion of Coinage, contracts with the King, by Indenture, & according to the Indenture, by the Assistance of his aforesaid \Servants/ receives, melts or refines assays & allays the Gold & Silver to be coined: & runs it into Standard Bars, & delivers those Bars by Weight, to the Moneyers:
That the Moneyers draw, cut out, size, blanch, edge & coin, those Bars into Monies, Sissel & Brockage back to the Masters by Weight: these live in the Country, attend the Mint whenever called, take Aprentices, & form themselves into a Government by electing one of them to be their Provost.
That the other Ministers are, the Comptroller, Assay Master, Surveyor of the Meltings, Weigher & Teller, King's Clerk, Clerk of the Irons &c: These & the Warden are standing Officers, with set Saleries, to see that the Workers & Moneyers do their duty, in Working & Coining the Gold & Silver: The Workers & Moneyers except the Master, are no standing Officers, nor have Saleries; but as Workmen receive Wages, after a certain Rate in the Pound Weight, for all the Gold & Silver they work & coin.
The Comptroller is in behalf of the King, a Cheque upon the Master in his Accounts & upon the Assay Masters in their Assays; he makes a Comptrollment Roll every Year, upon Oath, of all the Bullion Molten, with its Allay, & of all the Monies Coined that Year; and supervises the whole Coinage; & with the Warden & Master, locks up the Gold & Silver, & the Pix & Coinage Duty.
That the Assay Master is in behalf of the King, Cheque upon the Master, for his Assays, & keeps books of all the Gold & Silver, as to the quantity & Fineness; & of the Pot Assays: When the Importer & Master disagree about the price of Bullion, the Assay Master, in the presence of the Warden & Comptroller, assays the same, & the Master then receives it & stands charged with it, according to the Assay Master's Report; That the Surveyor of the Meltings is, in behalf of the King, a Cheque upon the Melter to see that the Gold & Silver, & its Allay, set out, & nothing else be put into the Melting Pot, & that the Pot Assays be duly taken out & carried to the Assay Master: he keeps a book of all the Gold & Silver Molten with the Allay put into it{.}
That the Weigher & Teller weighs all the Gold & Silver brought into the Office of Receipt, either before or after Coinage, & when it is requisite he tells it there.
That the Kings Clerk registers the Papers that pass between the Treasury & the Mint: also he & the Warden & Comptroller, by their Clerks at least two or three of them in behalf of the King, rate & standard all the Gold & Silver brought into the Mint; & examine the Pots set out by the Master; & enter these Accounts in Day Books. Ledger Books & Books of Drs & Crs:
That the Clerk of the Irons business is, to keep an Account of all the Dies made & hardened by the Smith; & when they are worn out he sees them defaced in the presence of the Warden, Master & Comptroller; He now keeps an Account of all the Dies that are sunk; & for that End, has One of the Keys to the Great Press & to the Box of the Puncheons.
That there are also two Auditors; who Yearly examine & allow the Accounts of the Warden, Master & the Comptrollment Roll: Also an Engraver two Engineers & Smith & above 200 Labourers, & ordinary Workmen not necessary to give an Account of, nor of the extraordinary Clerks & Ministers employed by the Master on this present occasion, for recoining the clipped hammered Money & the Plate.
That it hath appeared to your Committee That in the Mints of York & Norwich, there lieth dead very great Sums of hammered Money uncoined; by the Negligence of the Officers of those Mints; whereas at the Mint at the Mint at Bristol, there is now \weekly/ coined 15000L P Week: That there hath appeared a very great Neglect, both in the Moneyers & Officers of the said Mints, & that speedy care ought to be taken therein.
That the Committee finding by the examinations of the Officers of the Mint, that almost the sole government in making the Money not only at the Tower, but in all the Mints at Bristol, /2\ York, /1\ Chester, Exeter & Norwich, depended on the Moneyers, who pretended to be a Corporation, the Committee \Called/ for the Provosts & others of the Moneyers, & required them to produce their Charter; which after many trifling delays & excuses, they pretended was left by them in the Hands of the late Comptroller of the Mint, Mr Hoar deceased; The Committee sent for Mr Hoar's Execatrix; who delivered into the Committee several Grants, Charters, & Inspeximus's, with other papers relating to the Mint, but no Grant to the Corporation of Moneyers:
The said Provost &c Moneyers being again required to produce their Grant or Patent, they then pretended That their Grant or Patent \Charter/, was by them left with the Lord Chief Baron: but when that was brought it proved only a Decree of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, to exempt some of the Moneyers from bearing Parish Offices & paying some duties, particularly therein mentioned.
That Mr Braint the Provost of the Moneyers, declared he never had any Grant or Charter in his hands And believth what Charter there is to be in Dr Newton the present Warden's Hands.
Mr Neale, a worthy member of this House, and Master-worker of the Mint, declared at the Committee that he always looked upon the Moneyers as a Corporation.
Dr Newton present Warden of the Mint, declared that he had never seen any such Grant or Patent to the Moneyers, & believed, they had no other Charter but the general Charter of the Mint, which he had in his possession, & was read over by the Committee & contained no such Privilege or Powers as are now claimed by the Moneyers.
That one Hunter who was a Servant to the Moneyers conveyed away several of the Mint Dyes: That it appeared either a Connivance or a great Neglect, in the Person entrusted with the Dyes: & that both the said Hunter & one Scotch Robin, who was also concerned in the same Fact, sheltered themselves in the Mint in Scotland.
That it appeared to the Committee, that if the Melter & Assay Master of the Mint at the Tower or any other Mint, shall agree & have a right understanding in the worst sense, between them that they may cheat the King & the Public, of Vast Sums, & yet the constitution of the Mint cannot prevent them.
The Committee doth observe, that the present Assay Master & the present Melter of the Tower have married Two Sisters. And that notwithstanding the last Melter Mr Sheldon, gave up his Place of Melter, as not able to Melt the Silver at {illeg}{d} per ℔ {illeg}ight & bear all the Hurt & Loss, yet Mr Ambrose the present Melter hath got a great Estate & keeps his Coach{;}
The like is between the Master & Wardens of Goldsmiths Company The Assay Master of the Mint, as to their being a Cheque upon the Standard, & the Assaying of Silver & Gold, & if there should be a Conspiracy either between the Melter & Assay Master of the Tower, or between the Master of Goldsmiths Hall & the Assay Master of the Tower, the King & Nation may be defrauded of Vast Sums, if not prevented by some Comptrol over each of them; nor will the Pix Box, as the Iury that sits or serves on that Assay, prevent it as the Law now stands, therefore to be prevented by a new Law.
The Committee does observe, that notwithstanding the very great Trust, the Melter, the Assay Master & the Moneyers, who have commonly £10{illeg},000 of the King's & of the Nations Money in their Hands, & when the Plate comes in, will have greater Summs, having given no security to the King, nor to the Mint to answer the same{;}
The Committee does observe, that a Scire facias was brought by King Iames against Henry Slingsby Esqr. for not doing his Duty as Comptroller of the Mint in the Tower{:} And he was turned out but on application of his good Friends, he had £500 Per Ann for his Life
That the Committee do find, by the ancient Establishment of the Mint, that {S}even Shillings was allowed for the Coinage of a Pound of Gold, & One Shilling & Six Pence for One Pound Weight of Silver, & One Shilling for One Pound Weight of Gold & One Pennyweight of Silver to the King.
That the Scavunage, which is a Duty formerly paid towards the Coinage; but is taken away by Act of Parliament, & £500 Per Ann settled in lieu thereof.
By a Patent produced to the Committee, granted by the late King Iames to Thomas Neale, Hoare & Charles Duncomb Esqrs, it appears, That for the Coinage of the Copper Half Pence & farthings, that 20d P. H. was allowed for Coining & Milling the same in the Tower: & that £1.0 {Plent}, should be paid to the King out of the Profits of the same.
That the Committee do observe, that a new Patent is granted to several Commissioners for Term of Years; & they do change all tin Half Pence & Farthings
That the Committee hath had several Complaints, that the said Tin Farthings & Half Pence are not yet changed, but that several Thousand Pounds worth lie yet unchanged.
<5r>That Mr Lawrence of St Peter's the Poor, London, Haberdasher, informed the Committee, that he hath very often pressed the present Commissioners for the making of Copper, Halfpence & Farthings, & their Officers at their Office, to change him some part of the worth of £200 he had by him of good Tin Halfpence & Farthings; which they refused to do, & have refused above two Years last past but did proffer him, for \{illeg}/ 50 in new milled Money or Guineas they would change him ten Pounds worth of his Tin Halfpence, & Farthings, & sell him \{illeg}/50 worth of new Copper Farthings; & so proportionably for h is Two hundred Pounds;
And that he knows of several £1000 worth of Tin Half Pence & Farthings that are left in several Warehouses in London & Southwark, of poor Country Tradesmen & of Tradesmen of the poorer sort of the Suberbs of London to their very great loss; & the said Office do refuse to change the same contrary to the express Words of their Patent or Grant, from his Majesty, it being the only acknowledgement or Rent, that they pay to the Crown, was the charging & taking in of Tin Halfpence & Farthings, which hath been a cheat to the poorest trading People of England above £100,000.
That Mr Iohn Shorey, of St Michael, (a{)}[1] {[}Backcasham{]} Pewterer, saith, that because he could not (though he very earnestly endeavoured for above Two Years with the Commissioners & Officers of the Copper Farthings) change his Tin Halfpence & Farthings, he has been forced to melt down above £1.00 Sterling worth, to his very great Loss & Damage: And that he bought some of them of the Officers of the Copper Office:
That Mr Iohn Dyer his Neighbour hath melted down £200 Sterling worth; to his great Loss.
That he knoweth what Mr Wm. Lawrence hath before informed to be true, to his Knowledge:
That he was at a Committee of the Commissioners of Copper Farthings; about a Fortnight since; & they told him, they did not care to change any more Tin Farthings, but that they would pay him 10s a Month for every £100 worth; which is but the Interest of this said £100. And they did proffer him if he would pay them £100 in new milled Money or Guineas, & £5 in Tin Halfpence & Farthings, they would pay him £105 in Copper. Halfpence & Farthings: That he sent their own Bills to them for above £75, & they did nor would pay him but £1.15 in a whole Year's time.
And further saith, That, when the King is beyond Sea & the Parliament up, the Commissioners would change no Tin Farthings; but sold several £1000 worth to \the/ Country Shopkeepers: & the City cry out of this Oppression, as a very great Scandal & Abuse to the King, Parliament & whole Government.
<6r>That by the late Act of Parliament, One Shilling & Two Pence was allowed for the Melting, Milling & Edging of the Silver Money to be coined, which {if}{illeg}{dit} the great Officers have thus distributed,
| To the Moneyers for every ℔ weight of melted Silver | 9″ |
| the Master Worker | 3′,, |
| the Smith that does all the Work | {illeg}′,, |
| {illeg}ounding, Blanching & Edging | 1′,, |
Mr Ambrose agreed with the Lords of the Treasury for {illeg}{d} P lb, for melting all the clipped & hammered Money, to be melted at the Exchequer.
That the Committee observes, the King still pay 1s6d P ℔ for the Coinage besides the Charge of the Carriage to the Tower, notwithstanding the late Act or claimed that he should pay but 1s2d.
That the Committee do observe, that this distribution is very unequal, some of the Workers having to little & others to much, And the Committee is of opinion, that it would be cheaper for the King & better for the mint & Coinage, if all the Monyers & Officers had Saler|a|ries paid them by the King & that no fee should be taken of the Mint but of the King
That it appeared to the Committee, by the confess|ion| of Mr Saml Shepperd, & also by an Account under his own hand delivered, that he had received out of the Profits of the Master Worker's Place from the 12th of Iune 1696 to the 19th Ian {f} of the same the sum of £5996.11.1 which he took & received to his own use, by virtue of a Mortgage & Assignment of £10,500 made to him, by the Master Worker Man, in the Mint, in May last.
That the Committee doth further observe that Mr Hall a very carefull & dilligent Officer, & is the Master Workers Deputy, & doth almost the whole business of the Mint in Mr Neale's absence, hath but £400 Salary & that not paid by the Master Worker, though upon the modestest Computation his Profits will come to £14,000 this Year, yet the King pays him this £1.00 Per Ann on a new Establishment, which charge the Committee think very reasonable; & that Mr Shepperd or the Master Worker should ease the King of paying the same.
It also appeared to the Committee by the Accounts sent from the several Mints in the Country, that there are no Assay Masters in some of the country Mints.
And that in the Mints at York & Norwich there are far greater deficiencies, than in any of the other Mints; viz in that at York by above £2800 & that of Norwich by above £500, the several Accounts of the several Mints, which the Committee cannot make up and balance exactly, the Officers of the said Mints pretending, that they \have nor/ cannot yet make up the same untill they have melted down their several sweeps.
And the Committee do observe, that the said Men have two Offices in the said Mint, & some of the said Offices are or should be Ch{ec}ques or Comptrols on the other, as Melter & Comptroller, as in York Mint; by which the Committee is informed, that the King lost in Melting down the Clipped & hammered Money; {illeg}040 in Weight in the standardizing the said Money, for at the first Melting the loss is not borne by the Melter but by the King, the Melter being charged with the loss after the Silver is Melted & Standardized & the King bears the loss both in Melting & Refining, as Dr Newton the Warden of the Mint informed this Committee.
That the Committee do find by several informations & particularly by the information of Colonel Colt, a Member of this House, that the Plate marked both with the Tower & Goldsmiths Hall Mark though it hath no sodder in it doth not when it is melted hold to be a Standard, by 6d, 8d or 12d in the Pound, Troy Weight, which is a very great Fraud & Abuse to the People, that pay for Standard Plate, & ought to rematied, especially at this Time
<7v>That it appeared to the Committee, that £320 Per Ann Salary was allowed for the Master-graver, his Assistant, Clerk, Servants & Workm{a}|e|n, that old Rotter & his three Sonns was brought over by King Charles the Second, & the said £325 allowed to the father, with the Addition of £450 Per Ann by Patent under the great Seal to the Three Sons viz £150 a piece for their several Lives, which have been constantly paid him that remained here, notwithstanding one of them went several Years since into Flanders, & the other fled to France, where he is now in the French King's Service: And
Thomas Neale Esqr a Member of this honorable House & Master worker of his Majesty's Mint produced articles of agreement made between him & the younger Rotter, to pay him, the said Rotter over & above the said £325 Per Ann & £450 Annuity, the further Sum of £800 Yearly Though it appeared to the Committee at the same time that Henry Harris Esqr was sworn into the Office of Graver at His Majesty's Mints, & hath a Patent for the same, & that the said Rotters are not only violent Papists & refuse to take the Oaths or to subscribe the Association, as by Law they ought to do, yet they still continue in the house belonging to His Majesty's Mints, hath a Patent for the same \Mint graver, & have received the said three/ Salaries over & above what they have receive{d} from France; for it appeared to the Committee by Two Letters out of France, written by Daniel Arthur, who is out lawed for High Treason & directed to the said Rotter, with two several Bills of Exchange from France, even since the Act of Parliament which makes it capital to hold communication, with France; which letters were taken in the house of one Connigs; a Merchant amongst several other very treasonable Papers & Correspondencies:
And it further appeared to the Committee, by the evidence of Mr Aron Smith, that he hath seen another letter from the said D. Arthur to the said I. Rotter, wherein he mentioned the stipend or Salary from the French King to the said Rotter. And it appeared to the Committee by the Information of several witnesses, as Mr Brown Mr Fox, Mrs Pigeon & others, that Iohn Rotter the younger was in the company of Rookwood & Bernardo the Assassinators; when they were apprehended; & was suspected to be in that Conspiracy himself; having at that time provided him-self of Horses & Arms, at his own House in Essex, where he entertained very ill company to the \great/ terror of the Neighbourhood: that there hath been Messengers sent out & a warrant of High Treason against him, by the Honble the Lord Lucas, but he is fled from Iustice. The Committee do observe, that old Rotter is still continued in the Gravers House in the Tower, though will not nor did ever own the King, or do any One thing as Graver since the Revolution: And that the Governor of the Tower hath declared to some Members of this Committee, that he is a dangerous person to be in the Tower & that he would remove him if he could.
Report of a Committee of the House of Commons upon the State of the Mint
9th Willm 3d.
(8th April 1697)
[1] (a) Suplied from the Original Report.
