Draft of MINT00858 (Mint 19/2/481)

<493r>

To the Rt Honble ye Ld Trearer of England.

May it pl. yor Lop

In obedience to yor Lordps Reference of 23 November last we have enquiredinto ye Case of Mr Antony Redhead late Master & Worker of the Mint at Norwich & find it truly stated in the annexed paper on wch the said Reference is endorsed. And particularly {illeg}we find the Day-books on yt Mint & the Cashbooks of Mr Redhead & his Clerk & another book composed and signed by the Warden of that Mint we find that Mr Redhead upon the breaking up of that Mint was indebted 2497li. 16s. 3d to Mr Leonard Blofeld for hammered money at 5s ꝑ oz.

In discharge of this debt Mr Redhead produces three Receipts for 2500li paid to Mr Blofelds Order out of that Mint, the one dated Aug. 26 1697 for 500li the other two dated Aug 30 & Sept. 1 1697 for 1000li each. To which Mr Blofeld & his friends answer that whatever summs were paid to him or his Order out of that Mint upon such private Receipts were paidpaid in course for silver imported & intended upon the next accounting to be brought to account & set off upon the printed Mint Tickets then payable in course & accordingly were all of them faithfully brought to account as he is ready to make oath: but the Receipts were not always taken up & cancelled as they should have been the endorsmt on the printed Mint Tickets, as they conceived, implying according to ye order & course of the Mint that all summs paid untill the day of the endorsment were then accounted for & set off upon the printed Tickets & thereby all private Receipts of such summs untill that day discharged and made voyd which made him & his Agents less carefull to take them up. They say also that about three weeks after the date of the said three Receipts vi{illeg}zt on 22th Sept 1697 Mr Blofeld accounted wth Mr Redhead & endorsed 14922li on two Mint Tickets then paya including all summs paid to him untill that time & that in so short a time as three weeks so great a summ as 2500 could not be forgot, & that in December following he accounted again & endorsed 6443li. 13s. 9d on two other Mint Tickets including all further summs untill that day: By which Accountings & endorsements the said three Receipts (if they be true ones) being looked upon as discharged they were not mentioned any further by Mr Redhead while that Mint stood nor for a long time after but lay neglected till he thought fitt to produce them, as he did also s{illeg}ome other Receipts of the same kind wch the Importers neglected to take up & cancel & wch are now allowed to be voyd.

In examining this matter we find therefore that Mr Redhead did pay several summs of money to Mr Blofeld & some other Importers upon private Receipts without endorsing the summs upon the printed Mint Tickets untill they came to a general recconing upon the Ticket or Tickets next payable in course, & that the Importers did sometimes upon such a recconing neglect to take up their Receipts. That Mr Blofeld did endorse 14922li <493v> on two Tickets 22 Sept 1697, & 6443li. 13s. 9d more on two others in December following as he alledged & we humbly conceive those endorsements by the course of the Mint to be in full of all moneys paid upon those Tickets so as to voyd the said three Receipts unless Mr Redhead can positively prove the payment of more money by 2500li upon the two first of those Tickets then was Endorsed upon them, wch proof is wanting & would infer the crime of undue preference. The Officers of that Mint for preventing misrecconings took an account every two or three days & sometimes dayly of all the monies new coyned & paid away & of what remained in the Treasury, whereby a misrecconing of 2500li wouldmight soon have been discovered: whereas those three Receipts lay neglected till about Michaelmas 1699 Mr wch was two years after the endorsement, Mr Redhead representing that he then found the amongst his paper. About the same time he found also and produced a Receipt of 1858li left in that Mint by Mr Dashwood another Receiver Importer of publick Hammed money; but by an Affidavit of Mr Tho Allen Clerk to the Ward. of that Mint made before my Lord Chief Baron Ward ye 3d of Iuly 1701 & by other circumstances it appears to us that Mr Dashwood did account for that money & neglect to take up & cancel the Receipt & this is now acknowledged also by Mr Redhead. Add {illeg}about{illeg} the same time the said Mr Redhead produced also two other Receipts of the aforesaid Mr Blofeld besides the three above mentioned both dated in the same month of August 1697 the one for 500li the other for 1000li, but by the aforsesaid Affidavit of Mr Allen these summs were accounted for upon the same 22th of Sept. 1697 & Mr Redhead insists no further upon them. Seing therefore that Mr Blofeld upon accounting 22th Sept 1697 did neglect to take up & cancel some of his Receipts then accounted for, it may be suspected that he neglected to take up the rest amongst wch are the three now produced. For the said Mr Allen in the Affidavit above mentioned affirms further that he hath heard & beleives that he Mr Redhead hath another Note of Mr Blofeld for 1000li & beleives that Mr Blofeld forgot to take up that Note when he accompted for the money & signed the printed Receipt or Ticket: wch Note we take to be one of the three Receipts now produced by Mr Redhead. And Mr Redhead himself affirms nothing further of the said three Receipts then that he found them amongst his papers sometime after that Mint broke up & beleives them to be truely signed by Mr Crowne who was imployed by Mr Demee the Agent of Mr Blofeld. They are in the form of private Receipts so that without Mr Blofelds consent they cannot be allowed by an Auditor either in Mr Redheads Accompt or in that of Mr Blofeld which is now passing. All things being considered we are humbly of opini{illeg}on that they have already been accompted for & ought not to be insisted upon a further. And Mr Redhead himself does not any longer insist peremptorily upon them but submits them to yor Lordps wisdome.

We further lay before yor Lordp that Mr Redhead at ye conclusion of the Mint at Norwich was indebted to one Mr Chaplain a Receiver of the Land Tax for 2573oz 5dwt of hammered money at 5s ꝑ oz the summ of 643li. 6s. 3d, & that in Mr Chaplains aAccompt wch is past & declared & <494r> a Quetes obteined, Mr Redhead is set insuper for this debt at 5s 8d ꝑ oz, whereas Mr Neale should have been set insuper, & that only at 5s ꝑ oz.

The said Mr Redhead was also indebted to Mr Briggs a Receiver of the Land Tax ~ ~ ~ for 3529oz 10dwt of hammered money at 5s ꝑ oz, the summ of 882li. 7s. 6d. But the Administrators of the said Mr Briggs have passed his Accompts & obteined a Quetus without charging Mr Redhead with this debt. Whence it is presumed that they have either mislayed or lost Mr Redheads Tickets & thereby have been dammaged in the said summ of 882li. 7s. 6d.

Mr Redhead was also indebted to threefour other ImReceivers Mr {illeg} Briggs Mr Fendal, Mr Clark & Mr Thorowgood in the respect{illeg}ive summs of 882. 7. 6 1277li. 16s. 3d, 431li. 2s. 6d & 40li. 6s. 3d: for all wch his printed Tickets Receipts stand out against him. And these & all other debts above mentioned for silver imported amount to 5772li. 15s. 0d: part of wch debt whas arisen from the application of the Importrs money to other services of the Mint for wch he has allowance in his Accompt now ready to be laid before yor Lordship., & for ye Remainder we do not find him able to make it goodhe seems unable Mr Neale is to be set insuper, & Mr Nealehis Executive &or Security to be called charged with {illeg}it, Mr not appearing able Redhead seeming poor & unable too pay it {illeg} make sa{illeg}tisfaction excepting the         wch he has paid by the sale of his for wch his goods have been sold.