Complaint about encroachments on Mint jurisdiction

<407r>

To the Rt Honble the Lords Commrs of the Treary

May it please yor Lordps

The Mint is a place not subject to any military power but is immediatelydirectly under the King & Council & Counthe Ld Treasurer or Commrs of the Treasury & its own Officers. And by the Indentures of the Mint & on order of K. Charles II no persstangers {sic} can be lodgelive or lodge in the Mint without leave of the Officers of the Mint, & by an Order of K. Charles II all strangers were turned of out of the Mint & prohibited to live there any more without the leave of the Ld Treasurer & Chancellour of the Exchequer. bBut notwithstanding these Orders Constitution General Compton the Leieutenant Genera of the Tower has brought the Earl{illeg}e of Oxford into the House of the Comptroller of the Mint, & there put a guard upon him, as if that house was & by consequence the whole Mint was under his jurisdiction.

My Lords, the safety of the Coynage depends upon keeping the Mint out of the hands of athe military powerGarrison, & the safety of Prisoners depends upon keeping them in a legal custody under the jurisdiction of their keepers And I am humbly of opinion that not only that the Prisoner be removed into a legal custody bu but also that something be done which may hinder this invasion of the Mint from being drawn into president hereafter.

All wch &

[1]

I. Newton

Wheras Moyder [have upon the Assay {illeg} in weight & fineness been found worth but one pound seven shillings & seven pence farthings & by reason of their being a forreign coyn have bee[the Receivers] being recoined into Guineas produce but one pound seven shillings & seven pence farthing & by reason have & of the charge of recoining them, they have been brought down to one pound seven shillings & six pence: this is to give notice that