Draft of MINT00858 (Mint 19/2/481)

<493r>

To the Right Honourable the Lord Treasurer of England.

May it please your Lordship

In obedience to your Lordships Reference of 23 November last we have enquiredinto the Case of Mr Antony Redhead late Master & Worker of the Mint at Norwich & find it truly stated in the annexed paper on which the said Reference is endorsed. And particularly we the Day-books on that 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 per ounce.

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 paid 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 endorsment on the printed Mint Tickets, as they conceived, implying according to the 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 vizt on 22th Sept 1697 Mr Blofeld accounted with Mr Redhead & endorsed 14922li on two Mint Tickets 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 some other Receipts of the same kind which the Importers neglected to take up & cancel & which 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, which 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 might soon have been discovered: whereas those three Receipts lay neglected till about Michaelmas 1699 which 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 Importer of publick Hammered money; but by an Affidavit of Mr Tho Allen Clerk to the Warden of that Mint made before my Lord Chief Baron Ward the 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 about 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 aforesaid 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 which are the three now produced. For the said Mr Allen in the Affidavit above mentioned affirms further that he hath heard & believes that Mr Redhead hath another Note of Mr Blofeld for 1000li & believes that Mr Blofeld forgot to take up that Note when he accompted for the money & signed the printed Receipt or Ticket: which 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 & believes 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 opinion 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 your Lordships wisdome.

We further lay before your Lordship that Mr Redhead at the 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 per ounce the summ of 643li. 6s. 3d, & that in Mr Chaplains Accompt which is past & declared & <494r> a Quetes obteined, Mr Redhead is set insuper for this debt at 5s 8d per ounce, whereas Mr Neale should have been set insuper, & that only at 5s per ounce.

Mr Redhead was also indebted to four other Receivers Mr Briggs Mr Fendal, Mr Clark & Mr Thorowgood in the respective summs of 882. 7. 6 1277li. 16s. 3d, 431li. 2s. 6d & 40li. 6s. 3d: for all which his Receipts stand out against him. And these & all other debts above mentioned for silver imported amount to 5772li. 15s. 0d: part of which debt has arisen from the application of the Importers money to other services of the Mint for which he has allowance in his Accompt now ready to be laid before your Lordship, & for the Remainder Mr Neale is to be set insuper, & his Executive or Security to be charged with it, Mr Redhead seeming poor & unable too make satisfaction excepting the         for which his goods have been sold.