Assessments

Assessments.

II. 122. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, (fn. 1) complaining that one Owen Saintpire, a cook of the City, committed by him to prison for refusing to pay his just contribution for the service of Her Majesty, and for disobedience to the Lord Mayor and the Government of the City, had entered his action of wrong imprisonment in the King's Bench against the Chamberlain and other officers of the City, and beseeching his Lordship to call the matter into the Court of Chancery.
12th November, 1595.

II. 150. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Chamberlain, informing him of the commercial of John Frederick, a freeman, to the Compter, for refusing to pay the sum of 26s. 8d., the amount of his assessment for the public service.
26th March, 1596.

II. 151. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord High Admiral, (fn. 2), (fn. 3) as to the complaint made by Mr. Frederick against Mr. Sebright, (fn. 4) touching the assessment made upon him for defence of the realm, and defending Mr. Sebright against his accusations.
31st March, 1596.

II. 154. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Mrs. Walleson Woolhouse, widow of a freeman, residing at Fulham, informing her that unless she directed the payment of 10l. 8s. 4d., the amount to which she had been assessed for the public service, her name would be returned as a defaulter.
2nd April, 1596.

II. 172. Letter from the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to the Lords of the Council, informing them of the refusal of divers officers of the Court of Chancery, the Court of Wards, the King's Bench, and Common Pleas, inhabiting houses within the liberties of the City, especially Fleet Street, to pay the fifteenth levied upon them for the service of Her Majesty, and asking for further instructions from their Lordships thereon.
5th June, 1600.

II. 208. A copy of the same.

II. 360. Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor and the other Commissioners for the Aids in the City, directing a return to be made of the sum or sums of money already levied, the sums remaining in the hands of Collectors, and the sums Compounded for by Deans and Chapters, and other spiritual persons, and appointing a Commission to inquire into the subject.
13th July, 1609.

VI. 82. Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor, reciting that they had ordered that all persons under the degree of a Lord of Parliament or Privy Councillor, dwelling within the City and Liberties, should, in respect of their houses there, contribute on all occasions to the finding of Men, Arms, and Weapons in all assessments made for such services; and that they were informed divers Knights, Gentlemen, Doctors of the Civil Law and of Physic, Strangers, Officers of the Exchequer and other Courts of Westminister, and of the Custom House, and others of good quality and ability, inhabiting many of the best houses in the City, refused to serve in person, or to provide and furnish arms, or pay the money assessed upon them towards the charge of musters and training. They therefore direct the Lord Mayor to call all such persons so refusing before him, and command them to contribute without further delay or excuse, and, in the event of refusal, to take bond of them for their personal appearance before the Council on a day to be named, and further to certify the amounts required of them, and their answers.
Whitehall, 12th April, 1626.

VI. 170. Letter from the Lords of the Council to................., explaining the reasons why the Commissions for the last Subsidy had not been previously issued, and expressing their opinion that steps should be taken to advance the assessment of those best able to bear it, and who in former payments had been too much undervalued; also requesting that steps might be taken for hastening the time of payment, and forwarding with the Commissions the Rolls of the Recusants as returned to the Exchequer.
Whitehall, 31st March, 1629.

IX. 64. Petition from the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to the King, stating that the surplus of an assessment made in the City in the late troublous times, and deposited in the Chamber, and paid out for the use of the then Militia, had been demanded by William Whorwood, Esq., upon a warrant of the King, and beseeching His Majesty to withdraw the same, the money having been originally raised illegally, and all since paid out, the Chamber not benefiting in any way.
Sans date.

IX. 65. Letter from the Lords of the Council (to the Lord Mayor), upon the raising of Subsidies, and requesting him to make it generally known, that although the tax amounted to four shillings in the pound on land, and two shillings and eightpence on goods, yet men had not been taxed above the twentieth part of the yearly value of their lands, and so proportionally for their goods;—seeing how desirable it had become that there should be a more equal assessment, the yearly value of lands being generally much improved by inclosures, disparking, draining, &c., sufficient persons should be appointed as Collectors, who should take care that men living in one place where they had small estates, and got themselves assessed there, did not escape the assessment in other parts of the county where they possessed larger estates.
14th August, 1663.

IX. 101. Petition of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to the House of Commons, complaining of the great proportion of the Monthly Assessments laid upon London over the neighbouring places, which had been the means of causing a number of Merchants and wealthy inhabitants to remove out of the City into the suburbs, where they paid one shilling as against twenty shillings in the City, thereby weakening the estate of the same, and praying that a more equitable arrangement might be made.
Signed, Weld. (fn. 5) Sans date.