An account of the vicissitudes of pursuing coinage offenders Isaac Newton c. 611 words The Newton Project Oxford 2016 Newton Project, University of Oxford

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 c. summer 1696, c. 611 words. Treasury

[NC places the document in the summer of 1696, immediately after the cessation of clipping (hammered coin ceased to be legal tender in May).

Printed in NC, 4: 209-10.

Refers to the provisions for coinage offenders' estates to fall to the Mint warden or his deputies, and complains that they are counter-productive. Such forfeitures compromise Newton's perceived impartiality in prosecuting, though in fact they rarely cover the cost of collecting them. Clipping has ceased [thanks to the recoinage], and counterfeiters have for the most part been driven out of London, but only so as to become more numerous elsewhere. The reward of £40 recently offered to successful informers [by an act of 3 May 1695] has only served to make their testimony suspect. 'I do not find that the prosecuting of Coyners was imposed upon any of my Predecessors [as warden] (tho some of them have done it).' Newton receives neither reward nor competent assistance for work 'so vexatious & dangerous', and which exposes him 'to the calumnies of as many Coyners & Newgate Sollicitors as I examin or admit to talk with me'. Such prosecutions should be made the province of the King's attorney and the solicitor general.

 MINT 19/1/438-9, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK UKSurreyKew, RichmondNational Archives MINT 19/1/438-9 c. summer 1696 England English Holograph Unknown Hand Unknown Hand (1) MintClippers, Coiners and Embezzlers MintCorrespondence Catalogue information compiled by Rob Iliffe, Peter Spargo & John Young Catalogue exported to teiHeader by Michael Hawkins Transcribed by Will Scott

To the RtRight HonbleHonourable the Lords Commissioners of his MajtiesMajesties Treasury.

May it please yoryour Lordships

By the influence (as it seems to me) & for the advantage of George Macy EsqrEsquire late Clerk to several successive Wardens of his MajtsMajestys Mint & a Prosecutor of Clippers & Coyners there hath been granted a Privy Seal to yoryour LordpsLordships & to the said Wardens from impowering the said Wardens & their Deputies (or whom yoryour LordpsLordships should appoint) to seize & gather up the forfeitures of Clippers & Coyners & yoryour LordpsLordships to defray therewith the charges of those that prosecute & reward those that merit in these matters.

But those seizures & forteitures for want of other rewards are either privately pocketed by my Agents or sold off to them that forfeit or where they come to my knowledge are ballanced & sunk by my Agents Bills & since the ceasing of the clipping trade suffice not to pay for the charge & pains of recovering & gathering them up, & are also a discouragement to Prosecutions by the Offence they give in Courts of Justice for being derived to me out of their ancient channel & by exposing me & my Agents to the censure of prosecuting men for the Estates so that the clipping & coyning trades instead of decreasing did in the time of my Predecessors grow to the greatest height. And the Coyners are now thinned in this City, yet by their flight from hence & by the turning of clippers to coyners, they seem more numerous in other places where I cannot reach them.

And the new reward of forty pounds per head has now made Courts of Iustice & Iuries so averse from beleiving witnesses & Sheriffs so inclinable to impannel bad Iuries that my Agents & Witnesses are discouraged & tired out by the want of success & by the reproach of prosecuting & swearing for money. And this vilifying of my Agents & Witnesses is a reflexion upon me which has gravelled me & must in time impair & perhaps wear out & ruin my credit. Besides that I am exposed to the calumnies of as many Coyners & Newgate Sollicitors as I examin or admit to talk with me if they can but find friends to beleive & encourage them in their false reports & oaths & combinations against me.

I do not find that the prosecuting of Coyners was imposed upon any of my Predecessors (tho some of them have done it) or is438191is consistent with thathet the Privy Seale. For he that gathers up the estates of convicted criminals should not intermeddle with their prosecution. Nor is there any reward or encouragement appointed for my service in these matters, nor am I provided wthwith any competent assistance to enable me to grapple wthwith an undertaking so vexatious & dangerous as this must be whenever managed wthwith diligence & sincerity. And therefore I humbly pray that this duty may not be annexed to the Office of the Warden of his MajtsMajestys Mint nor enjoyned me any longer, at least not without enabling me to go through it with safety credit & success. All wchwhich is most humbly submitted to yoryour LordpsLordships great wisdome.

Is. Newton

Tis the business of an Attorney & belongs properly to yethe Kings Attorney & Sollicitor GenllGeneral, & vthey are best able to go through it especially wthwith such assistance as they may can procure. to go through it.. And therefore I humbly pray that it may not be imposed upon me any longer. All wchwhich is most humbly submitted to yoryour LordpsLordships great wisdome.

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