Draft of MINT00044 (Mint 19/1/121)

<119r>

To the Rt Honble the Lordss {sic} Commrs of his Majts Treary.

May it pl. yor Lordps,

Amongst all the Petitioners for the place of Weigher & Teller, whose Petitions are referred to us I have most experience of {illeg}the abilities of Mr Haynes. The allegations in his Petition are true & while he acted in the Mint he had there a general reputation for integrity, diligence, sobriety, good humour & readiness in business & have been longabout 14 years amongst us he is skilled in all the business of the Mint & in the time of recoyning the hammered money did great service. In these accounts the Officers of the Mint (Mr Neale, Mr Hall & my self mentioned in the Petition & my self) then recommended him earnestly to the Lords Commrs of his Majts Treary as a very fit person to execute the Office of Comptroller under the two late Comptrollers in that time of great business, & when the Comptrollers insisted on Mr Beresford a stranger, Mr Haynes was appointed to take care of the Comptroller's business till Mr Beresford could qualify himself. After the reccoynage {sic} of the hammered money was over Mr Haynes was imployed in the Excise Office by Mr Hall above mentioned who is able to give a further accountcharacter of his abilities & behaviour in both Officers.: Yet Mr Neale till his death Decemb. 99 continued him his Clerk wth a salary of 100℔ ꝑ an in recompence of his services & making upexamining & seeking the Acots of ye five Country Mints. On account of his abilities I have ever since wished for him back into the Mint & if he be not now brought back (as he has been once already at a time when we could not be wthout him) some person unskilled in or business will instead of him come amongst us a success until the late Weigher & Teller other {illeg} {illeg}& Tellers place or intoeither to succeed the late weighersus to succeed either in the place of the late weigher & Teller or in the place wch his successor shall or the new one.the Wardens Wardens Deputy.leave If any of their Principal Officers or their Clerks or Deputies should at any time die or leave the Mint Mr Haynes is qualified to assist till the place can be supplied anew that ye business of the Mint receive no stop. For we want men of skill.

If any other Competitor thinks himself equally qualified in Mint affairs I desire that his character may by any friend who best knows it be put into the hands of the Officers of the Mint that we may examin it by tryall & make a true report thereofof his skill to yor Lordps. But of the qualifications of such Petitioners as have not been conversantare not versed in the Mint affairs we do not pre{illeg}sume to judge. They are recommended to yor Lordps by pPersons better able to judge of their disposition & capacity in generall then we are. What skill men have attained to we can know by seeing them use it but what they will attain to hereafter & in what time we are not able to foretell, We & therefore reccon it a very great advantage to be actually skilled in or business

<119v>

He{illeg}rodotus represents Nitocris above{illeg} mentioned to have been a woman of greater

Herodotus representstells us that there were two famous Queens of Babylon, Seeivanis & Nitocris above above mentioned & that ye latter was {illeg} more skilfull. She+ < insertion from lower down f 119v > + She observing th{illeg}at ye kingdom of the Medes be having subdued many enties & am{illeg}ongst others Nineve & {illeg} was become great & sedatepotent, intercepted & f{illeg}ortified the passages out of Media into Babylon, & the river wch before was streight she made crooked with great windings – < text from f 119v resumes > The river wch was straeght before made {illeg} crooked that it might flow more sedately & wth great windings that it might be less apt to flow be less apt to overflow, & above Babylon dug a Lake {illeg} StadiaEvery way 40 miles broad to keep receive the water of the river as a mist a din spring & keep it for watering the ground{illeg} land. And turning the River she built {illeg} a Bridge over its channel in Babylon & then She built also a bridge over it in Babylon tur{illeg}ning into another channelthe stream into the Lake till the Bridge was built. Philostratus says that she made a {illeg} veta Apollo {illeg} bridge under the River two fathomes broad, meaning an cave arched cave over which the river flowed. He calls her Med Μηδεια that is a Mede. For Berosus tells us that Nebuchadnezzar built {illeg}a pensil Garden upon arches be{illeg}ca{illeg}use his wife was a Mede & right todelighted in mountanous prospects, She also observing that the kingdom of the Medes was become great & sedatewhich were wanting in Babylon wchsuch as abounded in Media but were wanting in Babylon. its probable that she was ye sister of Astyages married Ne{illeg}buchadnezzar upon a leage between their fathers against Nineva

— {illeg}& the many works of Seminarus were extant in divers parts of Asia till the days of Syria