Draft of MINT00858 (Mint 19/2/481)

<493r>

To the R^t Honble y^e L^d Trearer of England.

May it pl. yo^r Lo^p

In obedience to yo^r Lord^ps Reference of 23 November last we have enquiredinto y^e Case of M^r Antony Redhead late Master & Worker of the Mint at Norwich & find it truly stated in the annexed paper on w^ch the said Reference is endorsed. And particularly {illeg}|we| find the Day-books on y^t Mint & the Cashbooks of M^r Redhead & his Clerk & another book composed and signed by the Warden of that Mint we find that M^r Redhead upon the breaking up of that Mint was indebted 2497^li. 16^s. 3^d to M^r Leonard Blofeld for hammered money at 5^s ꝑ oz.

In discharge of this debt M^r Redhead produces three Receipts for 2500^li paid to M^r Blofelds Order out of that Mint, the one dated Aug. 26 1697 for 500^li the other two dated Aug 30 & Sept. 1 1697 for 1000^li each. To which M^r Blofeld & his friends answer that whatever summs were paid to him or his Order out of that Mint upon such private Receipts were \paid|paid in course| for silver imported &/ intended upon the next accounting to be brought to account & set off upon the printed Mint Tickets then payable in course & accordingly were all of them faithfully brought to account as he is ready to make oath: but the Receipts were not always taken up & cancelled as they should have been the endorsm^t on the printed Mint Tickets, as they conceived, implying according to y^e order & course of the Mint that all summs paid untill the day of the endorsment were then accounted for & set off upon the printed Tickets & thereby all private Receipts of such summs untill that day discharged and made voyd which made him & his Agents less carefull to take them up. They say also that about three weeks after the date of the said three Receipts vi{illeg}|z|^t on 22^th Sept 1697 M^r Blofeld accounted w^th M^r Redhead & endorsed 14922^li on two Mint Tickets then paya including all summs paid to him untill that time & that in so short a time as three weeks so great a summ as 2500 could not be forgot, & that in December following he accounted again & endorsed 6443^li. 13^s. 9^d on two other Mint Tickets including all further summs untill that day: By which Accountings & endorsements the said three Receipts (if they be true ones) being looked upon as discharged they were not mentioned any further by M^r Redhead while that Mint stood nor for a long time after but lay neglected till he thought fitt to produce them, as he did also s{illeg}|om|e other Receipts of the same kind w^ch the Importers neglected to take up & cancel & w^ch are now allowed to be voyd.

In examining this matter we find therefore that M^r Redhead did pay several summs of money to M^r Blofeld & some other Importers upon private Receipts without endorsing the summs upon the printed Mint Tickets untill they came to a general recconing upon the Ticket or Tickets next payable in course, & that the Importers did sometimes upon such a recconing neglect to take up their Receipts. That M^r Blofeld did endorse 14922^li <493v> on two Tickets 22 Sept 1697, & 6443^li. 13^s. 9^d more on two others in Decem{ber} following as he alledged & we humbly conceive those endorsements by the cou{rse} of the Mint to be in full of all moneys paid upon those Tickets so as to voyd the said three Receipts unless M^r Redhead can positively prove the payment of more money by 2500^li upon the two first of those Tickets then was Endorsed upon them, w^ch proof is wanting & would infer the cri{me} of undue preference. The Officers of that Mint for preventing misrecconings took an account every two or three days & sometimes dayly of all the monies new coyned & paid away & of what remained in the Treasury, whereby a misrecconing of 2500^li would\might/ soon have been discovered: whereas those three Receipts lay neglected till about Michael{mas} 1699 {M^r} w^ch was two years after the endorsement, M^r Redhead representing that he then found the amongst his paper. About the same time he found also and produced a Receipt of 1858^li left in that Mint by M^r Dashwood another Receiver Importer of publick Hamm{ed} money; but by an Affidavit of M^r Tho Allen Clerk to the Ward. of that Mint made before my Lord Chief Baron Ward y^e 3^d of Iuly 1701 & by other circumstances it appears to us that M^r Dashwood did account for that money & neglect to take up & cancel the Receipt & this |is| now acknowledged also by M^r Redhead. Add {illeg}|about|{illeg} the same time the said M^r Redhead produced also two other Receipts of the aforesa{id} M^r Blofeld besides the three above mentioned both dated in the same month of August 1697 the one for 500^li the other for 1000^li, but by the afors|e|said Affidavit of M^r Allen these summs were accounted for upon the same 22^th of Sept. 1697 & M^r Redhead insists no further upon them. Seing therefore that M^r Blofeld upon accounting 22^th Sept 1697 did neglect to take up & cancel some of his Receipts then accounted for, it may be suspected that he neglected to take up the rest amongst w^ch are the three now produced. For the said M^r Allen in the Affidavit above mentioned affirms further that he hath heard & beleives that he \M^r Redhead/ hath another Note of M^r Blofeld for 1000^li & beleives that M^r Blofeld forgot to take up that Note when he accompted for the money & signed the printed Receipt or Ticket: w^ch Note we take to be one of the three Receipts now produced by M^r Redhead. And M^r Redhead himself affirms nothing further of the said three Receipts then that he found them amongst his papers sometime after that Mint broke up & beleives them to be truely signed by M^r Crowne who was imployed by M^r Demee the Agent of M^r Blofeld. They are in the form of private Receipts so that without M^r Blofelds consent they cannot be allowed by an Auditor either in M^r Redheads Accompt or in that of M^r Blofeld which is now passing. All things being considered we are humbly of opini{illeg}|o|n that they have already been accompted for & ought not to be insisted upon a further. And M^r Redhead himself does not any longer insist peremptorily upon them but submits them to yo^r Lord^ps wisdome.

We further lay before yo^r Lord^p that M^r Redhead at y^e conclusion of the Mint at Norwich was indebted to one M^r Chaplain a Receiver of the Land Tax for 2573^oz 5^dwt of hammered money at 5^s ꝑ oz the summ of 643^li. 6^s. 3^d, & that in M^r Chaplains a|A|ccompt w^ch is past & declared & <494r> a Quetes obteined, M^r Redhead is set insuper for this debt at 5^s 8^d ꝑ oz, whereas M^r Neale should have been set insuper, & that only at 5^s ꝑ oz.

The said M^r Redhead was also indebted to M^r Briggs a Receiver of the Land Tax ~ ~ ~ for 3529^oz 10^dwt of hammered money at 5^s ꝑ oz, the summ of 882^li. 7^s. 6^d. But the Administrators of the said M^r Briggs have passed his Accompts & obteined a Quetus without charging M^r Redhead with this debt. Whence it is presumed that they have either mislayed or lost M^r Redheads Tickets & thereby have been dammaged in the said summ of 882^li. 7^s. 6^d.

M^r Redhead was also indebted to three\four/ other Im|Re|ceivers \M^r {illeg} Briggs/ M^r Fendal, M^r Clark & M^r Thorowgood in the respect{illeg}|i|ve summ{s} of \882. 7. 6/ 1277^li. 16^s. 3^d, 431^li. 2^s. 6^d & 40^li. 6^s. 3^d: for all w^ch his printed Tickets \Receipts/ stand out against him. And these & all other debts above mentioned for silver imported amount to 5772^li. 15^s. 0^d: part of w^ch debt {w}|h|as arisen from the application of the Import\rs/ money to other services of the Mint for w^ch he has allowance in his Accompt now ready to be laid before yo^r Lordship.|,| |& for y^e Remainder we do not find him able to make it good\he seems unable/ M^r Neale is to be set insuper, & M^r Neale\his/ Executive &\or/ Security to be called charged with \{illeg}|it|/|, M^r| not appearing able \Redhead seeming poor & unable/ too pay it {illeg} make sa{illeg}|t|isfaction excepting the         w^ch he has paid by the sale of his for w^ch his goods have been sold.|