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[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.
To the R
May it please r
By the influence (as it seems to me) & for the advantage of
George Macy
of his ts
there hath been granted a Privy Seal to rps
the said Wardens from impowering the said Wardens & their
Deputies (or whom rps
gather up the forfeitures of Clippers & Coyners & rps
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 deri
ved 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 vili
fying 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
victed 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 th
to enable me to grapple th
gerous as this must be whenever managed thAnd therefore I humbly pray that this duty may not be
annexed to the Office of the Warden of his ts
enjoyned me any longer, at least not without enabling me to go
through it with safety credit & success. All ch
submitted to rps
Is. Newton
Tis the business of an Attorney & belongs properly to e
Attorney lth
as they may to go through it
that it may not be imposed upon me any longer. All ch
humbly submitted to rps