August 1645: An Ordinance for a Monethly Assessment upon the county of Lincoln.

August, 1645

[6 August, 1645.]

Monthly rate of £2800 on Lincolnshire for its defence.; Persons assessed by former Ord. to be assessed in like manner by this.; Additional members of Committee.; Powers of Committee.;Treasurer.; Treasurer's, Collectors', and Clerks' Allowances; Register Books.; Treasurers, etc., accountable to Committee.; Penalty for Treasurers and Collectors that neglect their office.; Standing Committee.; Powers.; To reside in County and relieve each other.;Values of Horses, etc. lost to be deducted from soldiers' pay.

Whereas the county of Lincoln hath raised a considerable number of Horse, Foot and Dragoons for their necessary defence, and must be at a great charge in maintaining the same and their garisons, and in providing other things requisite for the defence and safety of the said County, and without the raising of Moneys to defray the charge, the County cannot be preserved in such safety as is necessary; it is therefore Ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, and by Authority of the same, That for the intents and purposes aforesaid, there shall be Monethly Charged, Rated, Taxed and Leavied upon the said County, from the first of July last, the sum of Two thousand eight hundred pounds, until the first of Ianuary next (if in the mean time the two Garisons of Newark and Belvoir shall not be Reduced to the Obedience of the King and Parliament:) And be it further Ordained, That every person and persons within the said County, that were or ought to be Assessed or Taxed by vertue of an Ordinance of Parliament, Intituled, An Ordinance for raising and maintaining of Forces for the defence of the Kingdom, under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax Knight, shall be Assessed and Taxed by this present Ordinance in the same maner as they are or ought to be Assessed and Taxed by vertue of the forementioned Ordinance, and shall be liable to as great Forfeitures and the Penalties for not Paying, Assessing, or Rating the Sum or Sums to be Assessed upon them, as they should or might have been Assessed, if the same had been Assessed by the beforementioned Ordinance; and the persons or Committees named in the said Ordinance, together with Edmond Ellis, William Oldfield, Iames Harrington, Arthur Samuel, Thomas Williamson, Iohn Welthorp, Humphrey Walcot, Thomas Copledike, William Lister, Edmond Nelthorp, and Richard Williamson, Esquires; Iames Trolop, Michael Muckton, Gent. Francis Fisher, Barnaby Bowtel, Esquires; William Thomson, Richard Filkin, William Davison, John Disney, Richard Bryan, Iohn Wincop, and Nehemiah Rawson, Gent. are by vertue hereof added to them for the Assessing, Collecting and Leavying of the said Moneys in the said County, are named and trusted in this Ordinance, and have as full Power and Authority given them by this Ordinance, to nominate and appoint Collectors and Assessors, and to Leavy, Distrain, Fine and Imprison, and Sequester, as they or any of them have by vertue of the said last mentioned Ordinance: And if any person or persons shall finde him or themselves agrieved at any Assessment made by vertue of this Ordinance, and shal make their complaint unto any three or more of the Committee before whom the Assessment was alowed, that then the said Committee, or any three or more of them, shall have power hereby to do Justice therein, according to the true intent of this Ordinance: And the said Collectors shall pay the several sums by them Collected and Leavied unto William Bury, Gent. Treasurer, who is to issue forth the same for the use and Service of the said County, by the Vote of the Major part of the said Deputy Lieutenants, or any three of them present, and by their Order in pursuance thereof under their hands, and not otherwise. And it is further Ordained, That three pence half peny in the pound shall be allowed for every Sum of Money which shall be Collected and paid, whereof one peny shall be for the several Collectors, two pence for the said Treasurer, and one half peny for the Clerks pains: And the Treasurer aforesaid shall keep a Register Book of the several Sums Received and paid out by him; And the said Committees, or any three of them, shall have hereby power and authority given them, to call all Treasurers, Collectors and others that have, or any time shall be thought to have any of the Moneys in their hands, to an Accompt; And if any of them shall refuse to Accompt, or to pay in the Moneys wherewith they are charged, That the said Committee or any three of of them shall Fine them double the Sum charged upon them, which if it be not paid within six days after the same is set, and notice thereof left at his or their dwelling house; It shall be lawful, to and for the said Committee to issue their Warrants to distrain for the same, and if there be not sufficient distress wherewith to satisfie, Then the said Committees may imprison the offender herein, and Sequester his Estate, until the money charged and the Fine set be Leavied and paid; And in case the said Treasurers and the Collectors shall refuse or neglect to Leavy or receive the sums of money to be Assessed and set by vertue of this Ordinance; It shall be lawful for the said Committee, or any three of them to fine the said Treasurer, or Collectors, not exceeding the Sum of twenty pounds, and to Leavy the same by way of Distress and sale of their goods, or by imprisonment, as they shall think fit: And it is further Ordained, that the Deputy Lieutenants and Committees of the said counties, or any five or more of them, Three whereof to be Deputy Lieutenants, shall be a standing and constant Committee in the said county, who shall have hereby power to put in execution all former Ordinances whatsoever heretofore made, touching the affairs of that county, according to the said Ordinances, as if they had been particularly named in the said Ordinances; And for the better effecting of the premises, the said Deputy Lieutenants and Committee, or any five of them as aforesaid, shall be resident in some convenient place within the said County, and shall have power to Adjourn them selves from time to time, and from place to place within the said County, as they shall think fit; And after five or more of them shall have set fourteen days, then the minor part of the said Committee to be free, and they to send for so many others in their stead, and the major part there still to remain other fourteen days, & then they also to be free, sending for three others, and so to change the Committee successively during the troubles, or till further Order be taken, giving notice from time to time to them which are to succeed, six days before they are to make their appearance at the appointed place, and such as fail according to notice, their names to be certified to the House of Commons by the residue of the Committee then upon the place; And it is further Ordered, that the said Committee shall have power to call to an Accompt all such Soldiers, whether Troopers or others, as shall any way causlesly or negligently loose or imbezle any Horse or Armes committed unto them, not being lost in services, and to deduct out of their pay so much as the said Horse or Armes shall amount unto: And lastly it is Ordered, that the said Standing Committee shall have and be alowed five shillings per diem a piece towards their necessary charges.

Mablethorpe, etc. exempted.

Provided always, that this present Tax and Leavy shall not extend to the inhabitants, or Towns, or places of Mablethorpe, Winthorne cum Stain, Streeby cum Woodthorpe, and Maltby, in respect of their great loss lately sustained by the Sea.