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1. Reports, &c. of the Comrs of Excise to the Lords of the Treasury, namely:—On the memorial of William Crosse as to an erroneous method of gauging casks; on an anonymous letter concerning William Harrison, and others, accused of disaffection. They say, “We have looked into the book called the Pilgrims, mencioned in that letter, and find the same to have been printed so long since as the year 1701; that it appears to be an impertinent foolish book, intended for a comedy, but to contain nothing that is scandalous or seditious. We have made particular enquiry concerning William Harrison, author thereof, and cannot discover that he has at any time writ verses in praise of Sacheverell, or reflected on the memory of the late King William, or on the Duke of Marlborough, but have been informed, that in the latter part of her late Majtys reigne, he set up for a great advocate for that administration, & since his Majtys accession, has taken those libertys in his discourse, which we conceive can admit of no other construcc[i]on, than that of his being a friend to the Pretender, and have therefore discharged him”; on arrears due to the Civil List of his late Majesty King William; letter transmitting an establishment of the Excise officers, with their salaries and allowances; on the gross and net produce of Excise from hops, candles, and new duties; for a clause to secure the duties on liquors and exciseable commodities carried coastways; on the payment of 72,244l. 16s. 7¾d. into the Exchequer; on methods used by the maltsters in working malt for exportation; on the gross and net produce of the hereditary and temporary rates and duties of excise. 9 papers and several enclosures.
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2. Four papers relating to Lotteries. 8 pages.
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3. Estimates of debt, repairs, rebuilding, &c. in the Royal Navy, including two letters. 7 papers.
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4. Various papers connected with the Pay Office, including estimates for the guards, garrisons and land forces, and for the plantations, and Minorca and Gibraltar. 13 papers.
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5. Letters and papers connected with the Victualling Office relating to French, Portuguese, and Scotch salt, and to provisions for Gibraltar, Placentia, and Annapolis Royal. 5 letters and enclosures.
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6. Two memorials from the Board of Works for payment of the debt of the office. 2 pages.
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| Undated or Imperfectly Dated, but supposed to be of the Year 1717. |
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7. Memorial of the poor French Protestants who receive the charity of his Majesty through a committee, to the Lords of the Treasury, praying as well for what remained in arrear during the late Queen's reign as in that of his Majesty's. They were allowed 15,000l. a year, and there was due during her Majesty's reign, 3,500l. The arrears for the first two years of the King had been paid or ordered, but nothing was ordered for the current year.
Also an “Accot of what has been paid to the French refugees since his Mats accession to the Throne.” 3 pages.
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8. Petition of Mary Whiting, widow, sister of Captain John Walton, deceased. Petitioner's brother served the Crown many years at sea and in the army, and his last post was that of Lieut.-Governor of the Virgin Islands, where he resided above two years, during which time he made very material surveys, plans, and observations for the settling of those islands “in such manner that it might have been of the greatest advantage to the trade and navigation of this kingdom, as well as have broke the severall gangs of pyrates, and prevented the robberys they have since committed.” These schemes were favourably reported on, but he was so wearied out, having expended upwards of 2,000l. and all his substance, that he was forced to pray his Majesty that his salary, &c. might be paid. The Board of Trade reported thereon that the salary and a gratuity ought to be paid. An Order in Council issued to the Lords of the Treasury to relieve him, but notwithstanding his daily solicitations, he could get no success, and died at the petitioner's house, who was forced to be at the expense of his burial. Prays payment, being a widow with seven children in great misery.
Copy of his commission as captain of foot. Also copy of the petition. 4 pages.
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9. A financial paper entitled, (1) “The Annuities examined as to the first purchase, the subscription & remainder;” (2) “The Redeemables examined as the sums advanced, subscribed and remaining.” Undated, but after 1716. 1 page.
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10. Statements of what is due to the troops of the King of Great Britain, Elector of Brunswick and Lunebourg: namely, “from the province of Holland, from the province of Utrecht, North Holland,” and “de la Generalité;” and for extraordinary wages, waggon money, and forage of the troops of the above, as well as for the 12th battalion of Rantzau and the Regiment of Bothmer. (French). In various years between 1702 and 1716. Undated, but after 1716. 10 pages.
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11. Petition of Robert King, Esq., one of the sureties of Mr Robert Peters, late Receiver-General of Taxes for the co. of Hertford, to the House of Commons. Has in several petitions laid his case before the Lords of the Treasury. Thinks it a very great hardship that be should be proceeded against at the suit of the Crown, since 2,257l. 4s. 10½d. has been paid into the Exchequer, and the Crown has actually received 3,007l, 1s. 3d. deposited in Lord Carnarvon's hands to pay the debt, and may receive the remainder of the debt from Sir Roger Mostyn's office, when the Lords of the Treasury order it to be paid. After 1716. 2 pages.
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12. Memorial for Patrick McDowall, of Edinburgh, gent. In right of his father-in-law, has a claim on the Government for 910l., with interest since the year 1696. Sir Robert Walpole, Chancellor of the Exchequer, told him he could not expect the English to pay the Scots' debts, and until he could find a fund in Scotland undisposed of, he could not expect payment. The retoured duties or fines payable by the vassals of the Crown in Scotland, upon their being admitted tenants, are not disposed of, and there is no regular account of them brought into the Exchequer. The tenants ordinarily give bonds to the sheriffs of the counties where the estates lie, to be accountable for these fines when called for; and being small sums and attended with trouble and expense, they are seldom or never enquired for; and when Parliament men happen to be admitted tenants, they procure gifts from the Treasury of the duties or fines payable by them.
The few duties or quit rents payable to the Crown out of the estate of the late Earl of Seaforth in the north of Scotland, have not been paid since the Rebellion, the lands not being yet sold, and the rents cannot be levied but by military force; prays that he may have a warrant for receiving such duties until the debt and interest thereon is paid.
[? About 1717.] 1 page.
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13. Rules and regulations for preventing frauds committed by ships trading from the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey to Great Britain and Ireland. [? 1717, or a little later. An Act mentioned as passed in the 3rd year of his present Majesty.]
Also a “scheme of officers.” 5½ pages.
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14. Petition of Nicholas Paxton, attorney-at-law, to the Lords of the Treasury. Was employed by the Government to go into Scotland to collect evidence against the Scotch prisoners that were to be tried at Carlisle. After an examination of the prisoners in the several prisons of Edinburgh, went to Stirling to examine the prisoners there, by which he procured very material witnesses. After he had collected all the evidence he could get in Scotland was ordered to go to Carlisle, where amongst the prisoners brought to be tried, he procured several, who had no estates to forfeit, to become witnesses against others, by whose attainder for high treason many considerable estates became forfeited to the Crown. Was the only solicitor for his Majesty for managing the trials there. These prosecutions detained the petitioner for five months from his private affairs, by which his business is entirely ruined, several of his clients having been obliged to put their affairs into other attornies' hands, and others having taken a distaste to petitioner for his having engaged in that service. Prays their Lps, in consideration thereof, to nominate him to succeed Mr Montague in the offices of Solicitor to the Stamp Office and Register and Controller of the Clerks and Apprentices' Articles and Indentures, now vacant by the death of Mr Montague.
Minuted:—“The place is dispos'd of.”
Also certificate in his favour. 2½ pages.
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15. Petition of John Roope, storekeeper of Alicant Castle, to the Rt Honble James Lord Viscount Stanhope, First Ld of his Majty's Treasury, &c. The Comrs for determining the debts of the army still demur to the auditing and certifying the balance due to petitioner (222l. 12s.), for provisions laid into the castle of Alicant. Prays that he may not be thrown into a gaol in his old age, as a recompense for his faithful services, viz., in the Irish transport, in Newfoundland, Alicant, and in the Battle of Villa Viciosa, where, and in Newfoundland, he was taken prisoner and lost all, and had hard imprisonment. [Undated, but end of 1717.]
Letter on the same subject. Dated 14 Sept. 1717. 2 pages.
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16. “The case of Mr Sausmarez, concerning his petition presented to the King's most excellent Majesty, referred before ye Right Honorable James Stanehope, Baron Elevaston, and Viscount Mahon, and ye others, Lords of his Majesty Treasury.” Showing that the Island of Guernsey from the Conquest has been solely governed by the Kings of England as their ancient domain, annexed to the Crown by the Conqueror: that his Majesty and his predecessors have an undoubted right to change, repeal, &c., the laws or customs in the said island as they please; that the island has never been liable to the laws, customs, or usages of England, nor to any taxes, &c. payable here by the subjects of England, because ye said island has never been parcel of England; that generally all the grounds, &c. are holden by grant in fee from the Crown in most reigns; that the domain which is granted is an advantage for the poor inhabitants, because 'tis spent amongst them. Prays for a favourable report of his case to his Majesty. [Between 1717 and 1721.] 1½ pages.
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17. Memorial for the Comrs and Trustees for Forfeited Estates in Scotland to the Lords of the Treasury, asking for directions about the settlement for purchases made by the York Buildings Company. [? About the year 1717.] 1 page.
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18. A memorial of what is demanded by the Earl of Breadalbane for his services and losses by the King's troops in his house garrisoned for two years; according to the affidavits before the justices of the peace at Edinburgh and Perth. 1716 and 1717.
He claimed 3,610l. 0s. 8d., besides two years' rent of the grounds. He says, the whole house is ruinous, the floors burnt, wainscoting likewise so, roof damaged by rains and neglect, the windows broken, &c., so that it will require to be rebuilt. 1 page.
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19. Petition of Gabriel Napier to the Lords of the Treasury. Was commissary for the horses employed in the train of artillery at the battle of Shirriffmoor, where there were several horses killed and others lost, and for which Commissary Burroughs refused to make any allowance, as it was before he was appointed commissary-general. Was continued commissary for the horses set out by the shires of Stirling, Clackmannan, and a part of Perthshire, in the expedition to the north, where there were several horses and furniture lost. Was also employed by the Duke of Argyle to raise and receive 700 horses that were demanded from the shires of Air, Lanark, Renfrew, Dumbarton, and town of Glasgow, for which he had no reward. Prays inquiry and an order for payment. ? 1717 or 1718. 1 page.
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20. Petition of Mr John Shields, of Doncaster, in the co. of York, milliner, and James Cowen, of Owston, gardener. William Thompson, of the city of York, a reputed Papist, having at several times attempted to seduce several persons in the county of York, and particularly the wife of petitioner and James Cowen, the petitioner, from the Protestant religion to the Church of Rome, they thereupon applied to the justices of the West Riding, and particularly to Thomas Wesby, of Ranfeild, who took informations and bound petitioners to prosecute Thompson for high treason. Petitioners preferred an indictment of high treason against Thompson but the trial did not come on, and petitioners had to attend at the Lent assizes before Sir John Fortescue Aland, Knt, one of the Barons of the Court of Exchequer. Thompson was acquitted, but it was thought good to commit him to the Castle of York, where he continued a prisoner. Expended thereon 57l. 9s. 3d. Pray relief. [1717 or 1718. From Sir John Fortescue Aland being a Baron of the Exchequer.] 1 page.
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