Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	know_v	see_v	1,629	5	3.2042	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44350	An account of several new inventions and improvements now necessary for England, in a discourse by way of letter to the Earl of Marlborough, relating to building of our English shipping, planting of oaken timber in the forrests, apportioning of publick taxes, the conservacy of all our royal rivers, in particular that of the Thames, the surveys of the Thames, &c. : Herewith is also published at large The proceedings relating to mill'd-lead-sheathing, and the excellency and cheapness of mill'd-Lead in preference to cast sheet-lead for all other purposes whatsoever. : Also A treatise of naval philosophy, / written by Sir Will. Petty. ; The whole is submitted to the consideration of our English patriots in Parliament assembled.	T. H. (Thomas Hale); Petty, William, Sir, 1623-1687. A treatise of naval philosophy.	1691 (1691)	Wing H265; ESTC R28685	111,893	310

Practice of England want its confirmation by the like of several Forreign Nations to wit the Dutch Portuguese and Spaniard the first of which are equally observant with us in the sheathing their Rudder Irons and the Back of their Posts with Lead or Copper upon all Ships bound in the way of the Worm and for the two latter not only the Rudders but the whole Bodies of their Ships under Water even of their Gallions themselves have of long time been and are well known at this Day to be entirely sheathed with Lead which concurrence of these two latter Nations seems in this Cause so much more considerable than that of any other by how much not only their Voyages are the longest their hazards therein from the Worm the greatest and Cargoes the most valuable of all that Navigation knows but for that the Hulls of their Ships abound the most with Iron-work as having all that in the fastening of our Plank we perform with wooden Trunnels done by them with large Spikes of Iron 4. Lastly Were this Spoil of Iron-work chargeable with nothing but what is contained in the Lead and Nails these pretended Effects of theirs would be constant and uniform in all Ships alike sheathed whereas nothing is more frequent than the Instances of their Inequality as will enough appear from a bare Observation of what lies before your Lordships in this very Report of the Navy-Officers Forasmuch as this Company dare put the whole Credit of their Cause upon that one Issue viz. of your Lordships ever finding an Equal Consumption of Iron-work under Water whether upon the same or different Ships at any one time or equal distances of time the Account now before you of the twenty Ships that have passed this Method of Sheathing affording a most ample Proof of this Inequality by having eight of them loaden with Complaints and every one of them different from the rest and at different times from it self while we are yet to be told whether the other twelve were not as we are sure some of them were free from all ground of Complaint To our Second Undertaking we conceive the real Causes of this Evil that is to say so much thereof as is Extraordinary to be these three 1. The perfunctory Performance of the Smiths Part in this Affair by some Deficiency either in the choice mixture or temper of his Metal or failure to give it its due welding or working Forasmuch as by this alone can be reconciled the forementioned Disparities in the Duration of Iron-work whence otherwise can it be that all other circumstances whereto that Disparity can be referred being the same but the matter one particular Piece of Iron shall remain undiminished three times as long as that next to it and this not only in sheathed Ships as in the Case of those before you but unsheathed too as to give but one Instance in a Cause where every Ship is another appears in the Swiftures first Voyage to the Streights with Sir Rich. Rooth where two of her Rudder-Irons were eaten entirely in pieces and shifted at her return in Portsmouth-Dock while at the same time the rest though all put on together several Years before were found as firm and unwasted as at their first fastening The consideration and thorough conviction of which led this Company in the Year 1678. when these Complaints were most active and the Lords of the Admiralty's Inquisitions into the Reasons of it the more pressing not only to Communicate to them and the Navy-Officers their Opinions therein but at their own hazards and the Ordinary Price to become Undertakers themselves for what further Rudder-Irons should be from thence called for whether at home or abroad by any Lead-sheathed Ships Which Proposition was not only approved of but the Officers of the Navy as has been already said by Orders upon Orders from their Lordships directed to see the same instantly put and continued in practice But whence it was that those Orders me● with no better complyance or how it came to pass that so certain speedy and chargeless an Expedient of coming by the Truth in a matter of this Importance and after a provocation too so publick and seasonable as that of the Henrietta's Rudder-Irons above mentioned could be so disregarded as never once to be set on Tryal your Lordships will be best informed from them themselves by whom variety indeed of Ships were sent to Sea subsequent to the said Orders but without any call or notice given thereof to this Company that his Majesty might have the proof and benefit of the Service so much expected from them and required from the said Officers both by the King and Lords on this occasion 2. The manifest and knowing Omission of the Persons charged in seeing the said sheathing brought on to do in this case what the practice of all times and at this very day both in the Kings and Merchants Service has made a s●anding and necessary piece of care to be exercised in the fitting forth of all Ships sheathed and unsheathed bound on Forraign Voyages namely The parcelling or laying with Tarr and Hair all the Iron-work under water before the sheathing in case of the former or the forementioned Capps in case of the latter be brought over them In which as we are ready to appeal to the Surveyor of the Navy or whoever else is conversant in the Rules and Methods of Ship-Building for the Truth of what is here asserted and what is owned in some of the Navy Officers own Evidences and particularly in a Letter of Sir R. B's so do we willingly referr our selves to the same Surveyor for the Truth of this suggestion of ours touching the under Officers omitting the performance of this their known Duty of laying the Iron-work under water at their bringing on the sheathing of the said Ships And if so and that this Companies pretensions in this Method of sheathing never extended further than to answering the efficacy cheapness and other circumstances of advantage appertaining to the prevention of the Worm as the Act of Parliament and their Contract with the King abundantly prove what more Reason is there for their being held accountable for the Consequences of this Omission in the Kings Officers than for that of starting of a But-head in a Ships side that never had its due fastening It being no part of their Undertaking to answer for the Tightness of their sheathing when laid on and droven with Nails further than for its unpassableness not to the Water but to the Worm And that being allowed what can be more demonstrable than that the neglect of ordinary Cautions must be attended with the ordinary Evils those Cautions were provided against Of which that this of giving the Iron-work of these Lead-sheathed Ships their ordinary Defence against the Salt-water by Parcelling or laying them with Tarr and Hair under their Sheathing is one we shall not need to confirm to your Lordships by more than the single Instance of the

to strengthen her and saying Lord have Mercy on the Men who depend on that sheathing if the Ship be not strong enough her self without it One would think now my Lord that after so great a King so judicious in all Naval Mechanicks had approved the great usefulness of this Invention and after all his eminent Master-builders and who were the only Shiprights disinterested from opposing it in regard their subsistence depended only on their Salaries from the Crown had done so too it should be some potent and weighty Objection that should be a Remora to ●●s progress But according to the idle conceit of the Fish Remora which mens so●tishness hath made a vulgar one namely that it can stop the motion of a Ship under sail and some vain Authors have essayed in print to give reasons for such energy of that Fish and other Authors have attributed the cause of that Fish's power to that mighty nothing of occult qualities whereas the true cause of that vulgar Error was what an old famous Naturalist said of that● Fish Flent venti saeviant procellae semper Navem immobiliter tenet which implies no more but that notwithstanding ●ny violent Tempests it always did stick to the Ship immoveably a superstitious vain imagination of an impossibility namely of the Mill'd Lead corroding the Iron-work through some occult quality hath been made use of as the Remora that hath hindred the progress of this Invention when it was so fairly under sail and had made so good a Voyage for the Crown as to bring it above Cent. per Cent. profit besides the great advantage in sailing But it is no matter of Raillery to observe that many excellent and most useful Inventions have been run down in the World by superstitious Fancies and Imaginations and fortifying impossibilities with occult qualities insomuch that our late Act for burying in Flannel that was of such benefit to the publick was once in danger of being run down by an idle Notion of an impossibility that intoxicated the beliefs of the Mob namely that the Air was likely to receive putrefaction by Flannels making the Dead to sweat and as reasonably may the populace here imagine that the New-River-Water conveyed to dress their Meat through Pipes of Lead will corrode their entrails if Lead hath such an occult quality to corrode Iron And as well may we be afraid to take the Venice Treacle because of its being long kept in boxes of Lead But your Lordships Iudgment is so excellent that it cannot be imposed on by a Non Causa pro Causa or any other fallacy and that I might totally avoid the least suspicion of one who would impose either on your Lordship or on any of Mankind while under the shelter of your Lordships Name I write to the World I have here fairly and candidly set forth the Matters of Fact in the Transactions the Settlement of this Invention hath occasioned on the Stage of the World My Lord I know it is fit for your Lordships entire satisfaction and that of others that I should mention what ensued upon the Company 's Reply to the Navy-Board before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty In short one of those Lords who was likewise a Member of the Privy Council was by that Admiralty-Board desired to carry both that Report and Reply to the Council-Board And upon reading the Report his Majesty in Council was pleas'd to referr the whole matter back again to those Commissioners of the Admiralty and whereupon the Company addressed themselves by the Memorial herewith also published desiring that for the greater clearness of the matters complained of that what the Navy-Board or the Company had further to say might be laid down before them in Writing It is fit I should here acquaint your Lordship that the Companys Reply was drawn by the excellent Pen of Mr. Pepys and whom the Author of that most elaborate Book The happy future State of England doth deservedly call the great Treasurer of Naval and Maritime knowledge and of the great variety of the Learning which we call Recondita Eruditio And it is no reflection on the Integrity of those Gentlemen of the Navy-Board who made the complaining Report against this Invention when I shall say that Mr. Pepys his Character justly renders him aequiponderous to them in Moral and much superiour in Philosophical and Political Knowledge and the universal Knowledge of the Oeconomy of the Navy But before there was any further proceeding his Majesty thought fit to supersede that Commission for executing the Office of the Lord High Admiral And the King then taking the Admiralty into his own hands and the Company having thoughts to Petition his Majesty to hear the whole Matter himself they were by some Persons newly put into the Navy-Board who had for several Years shewed their approbation of the Mill'd-Lead Sheathing advised to offer to that Board a New Proposal to sheath at a rate certain by the yard ●qu●re and with an intimation that the Navy-Board would take it more kindly and that they were by this time satisfied that their former Complaint was by misinformation This Advice was approved and a new Proposal laid before the Board the 20th of December 1686. which was much approved by Mr. Pepys saying That he doubted not but they would comply with it and declaring that on his part when it came into his way he would promote it as he had a full Conviction to use his own words that it was a great Service to the King and whether for that there was no occasion for a good while to sheath any of the Kings Ships or by reason of a great deal of peremptory business calling for the time of that Board or by the Company 's happening to be slack in their application I know not but it seems that after a years time that Board was pleased to referr to two of their own Members Sir Phinehas Pett and Sir Anthony Dean who had both of them been Master-builders the Consideration of the Company 's new Proposal Nor could the Company wish for more equal Iudges of the Mill'd-Lead Sheathing than those two worthy Persons who so well understood it and had formerly done so much right to it upon all occasions as judging it so much for the King's service But the Kings service calling them from the Navy-Board to a long stay at Chatham to which place it stood not with the Company 's convenience to repair and there press them to make their Report and a long Sickness seizing on Sir Phinehas Pett at his return from Chatham and he being shortly after his recovery employed in a Iourney about the King's service in some other of his Majesty's remote Yards or what else being the true Cause thereof as your Lordship may judge so it is that the said Proposal which is herewith also printed lies still before that Board without any further proceedings thereon ever since My Lord I have now let your Lordship see how I have

water under the Lead Sheathing found very much corroded and eaten insomuch that some of them were gotten out by the Caulkers with their Spike-Irons The Spikes and Nails also under water under the Lead-sheathing almost eaten to pieces the like whereof the Officers at Portsmouth say they never found in any Ship not sheathed with Lead although their Iron-work had been drove twice as long All her Bolts drove new about five years before See the Officers Certificate 6 Octob. 1677. Rose Sheathed 1674. In haling her on shore to clean in 1682. the' two lower Pintells and Gudgeons of the Rudder-Irons quite eaten off and the third almost off so that the Rudder was found to be unhung See Sir R. B's Letter 21 September 1682. Harwich Sheathed 1675. upon the Careening abroad in February 1675. 6. the Iron-work found much eaten with Rust about the Stern especially the Rudder-Irons imputed to the Copper Nails that fasten the Lead-sheathing See Sir Iohn Narbrough's Letter 20. of February 1676. When in the Dock Anno 1677. her Rudder-Irons Stirrups Staples c. found very much corroded and consumed and rendred unserviceable and the Nonsuch's Rudder-Irons c. being at the same time in the Dock very good and firm although she had them on several years before the Herwich See Sir Iohn Kempthorns Letter April 1677 Upon her cleaning September 1682. all the heads of the Bolts found eaten away on both sides and as well those as the Ragg-bolts eaten away to nothing and so also the Rudder Irons so that she must have Bolts drove on both sides before she can go to Sea and have new Rudder-Irons See Sir R. B's Letter 24 September 1682. James Gally Sheathed in October 1676. her bottom was viewed in February 1677. in Livorne mould and the Lead found all cracked in every Seam from one end to the other as bad or worse than the Eagle when she came from Guinny and her Rudder-Irons eaten clear asunder her Rudder-Irons were there mended and in October following her Rudder new hung at Tangier the Irons being all again eaten in pieces See Sir Iohn Wyburns Letter and Account she was repaired at Woolwich in December 1679. and her Lead-sheathing stript off the same being crackt in several places and the Rudder-Irons being eaten by the Rust were forced to be shifted See Mr. Shishes Letter December 15. 1682. Charles Galley Sheathed 1676. Sir Iohn Narbrough in Iuly 1678 writes That the Rudder-Irons were defective so that he must send her home the ensuing Winter See his Letter Iuly 30. 1678. Upon stripping off her Lead-sheathieg Anno 1680 her Rudder-Irons under water found so much decayed that she was supplyed with new ones likewise all the Bolt-heads under water in the but-ends of her Planks quite eaten off and most part of the heads of the Ryder-bolts and the Bolts in the Scarfs of her Keel and Stern See Mr. Shishes Letter December 15. 1682. Plymouth Sheathed 1677. Sir Io. Narbrough being in her in Iuly 1680. writes that her Rudder-Irons begun to be much eaten with rust so that he believes he must be forced to send her home that Winter See his Letter Iuly 30. 1680. Foresight Sheathed 1674. upon stripping her Sheathing off all her Rudder-Irons under Water so much decayed that she was supplyed with new ones likewise all the Bolt-heads under Water in the but-ends of her Plank quite eaten off and most part of the Heads of the Ryder-bolts and the Bolts in the Scarfs of the Keel and Stern King-fisher Sheathed 1677. stript off in Nov. 1680. and her Rudder-Irons under Water found so much decayed that she was supplyed with New ones likewise all the Bolt-heads under Water in the but-ends of the Plank were quite eaten off and most part of the Heads of the Ryder-bolts and the Bolts in the Scarfs of the Keel and Stem all the Rings that were clenched on the ends of her Bolts were eaten off and the ends and the reaching of the Ship crackt every seam of her from the rung-heads upwards so that upon a Survey of the Shipwrights the Sheathing was ordred to be taken off See Mr. Io. Shishes Letter 15 Decemb. 1682. Woolwich Sheathed 1677. repaired in Iuly 1681. and the sheathing taken off by reason the Plank was defective under Water and the Rudder-Irons so much eaten with rust they were forced to unhang the Rudder and new hang it again Assistance Sheathed Octob. 1677. she had a new set of Rudder-Irons 27 Months after the former being very much eaten and the Lead was forced to be cut away in many places for the seams being crackt she is now in want of another sett of Rudder-Irons See Mr. Jo. and Tho. Shishes Letters 15 Decemb. 1682. Henrietta Sheathed in 1672. in her Voyage from Tunis to Tripoly her Rudder wrought it self out of the Irons hanging only by the uppermost Pintell the Irons were very much decayed and the ends of the Pintels eaten away they made a shift to hang it again Flemish Fashion securing it with a Top-chain after that when she was at Martha her Rudder was unhung again and the Irons shifted and when she came to Leghorn to carreen the Rudder was had on shoar and fixt with new Irons and 4 or 5 new Stirrups put to secure the false Keel Upon the Ships being in the Dock at Chatham 1677. the Rudder-Irons under Water were found very bad and much eaten and wasted away but the Braces and Gudgeons very good and serviceable most of her Bolts under Water also found in a very bad Condition being likewise very much eaten and wasted See Certificate from the Officers at Chatham Apr. 20. 1678. Mary Sheathed 1672. in 1677. her Stirrups both afore and abaft of the false Keel found quite eaten and unserviceable as also the Staples are quite decayed the Pintells much eaten with rust and too small for the Gudgeons See Officers at Portsm Certificate Apr. 20. 1682. Note There were only Eight of these Ships complained of by the Navy-Officers when they made their Report 28 Octob. 1682. but they having afterward given in this Scheam of Complaints to the Commissioners of the Admiralty 20 Dec. following to do them right this last is Printed To some of which no Answer is given as wanting opportunity to enquire or not thinking it necessary the Answers to the rest with what is hereafter said in the Certificates sufficiently proving the constant inequality of the Iron-works duration on all Ships some of the Lead-sheathed Ships Iron-work lasting much longer than others and also than others sheathed with Wood so that the Lead-sheathing can be no ways chargeable with the decays in the Iron-work The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having read the foregoing Reply to the Officers of the Navy's Report thought fit by one of them a Member of the Privy Council to lay the same before that Board who being attended by both sides upon hearing were pleased to make the Order following viz.

for this great inequality we constantly find in the lasting of the Rudder-Irons and other Iron-work in all Ships whether sheathed either way or not at all may not be known to them which we always look upon to come from the Smith in the better or worse mixing welding and working his Iron Nor can I imagine how the Lead-sheathing should be any cause of the great decay in Iron-work for we use in Wood-sheathing to Capp the Bolt-heads with Lead and many times to sheath the Rudder-Post and Beard of the Rudder with Lead And for the Nails their Heads are so thin and small that I do not see how they should continue so long in the sides of a Ship as some of these Ships have been sheathed and at stripping appear not at all to be diminished in their substance and yet communicate such a corroding mischief to the Iron-work as some would have it but if such a thing were well parcelling the Bolts would secure them and the Rudder-Irons can decay in no Voyage so fast but by having a fresh set always on Board opportunity may be found time enough to shift them which would very well be contrived rather than to lose so many other great Benefits that Lead-sheathing brings with it to his Majesties Service as well as to the Publick This is I think the substance of what your Lordship would be satisfied in and if you desire any thing more particularly you may command Your Lordships most c. Phin. Pett April 12. 1688. PURSERS Certificates for the Goodness of Sheathing-Lead to line the Bread-rooms THese Certifie That the Bread-rooms of his Majesties Ship Royal Catherine being lined with Lead did very well preserve the Bisquet insomuch that during the term of her Voyage 1672 and 1673. there was not any Bisquet damaged Jacob Bryan THese are to Certifie That his Majesties Ship the Fairfax Bread-rooms were lined with Lead about two years since and that the said Bread-rooms was Bread for nine or ten years which during the said time was not removed or stirred and was at the expiration of the said time as good as when it was first put in and received no damage by wet or damp to the prejudice of the Bread William Rivers Ian. 24. 1674. SIR YOu having a desire to hear how the leading of the Bread room of the St. David was a preservation of the Bread I do assure you that if it had not been for the leading of it it would not have lasted half so long for I was two years in the said Ship and the very last of our Bread did hold out to be as good as the first Ian. 5. 1673 4 Wilm New THese do Certifie whom it may concern that the Bread-room belonging to his Majesty's Ship the Happy Return are lined with Lead which Lead hath for eight Months together preserved the Bread from any Damage without being stirred and it was in as good Condition as at first putting in Feb. 23. 1673 4 Maur. Linch THese are to Certifie that the Bread-room of his Majesty's Ship Royal Prince being lined with Lead did very well preserve the Bisquet insomuch that during the last Voyage betwixt 1 May 1673. and 24. Octob. following there was not in the term of the said Voyage any Bisquet damaged Triamer Pickstock THese are to Certifie that the Bread-room of his Majesty's Ship St. George being seeled with Lead did preserve and keep our Bread in very good condition the whole time that she was at Sea Sept. 10. 1674. David Willis Perhaps it may be acceptable to some Readers to have a glancing and shorter View of the Company 's Answer to the Officers of the Navy's Report and Complaints to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty against the Lead-sheathing and therefore it is thought fit that the Reader be entertained therewith as the same was also drawn by the Pen of that ingenious Person Mr. Pepys viz. A BRIEF OF THE Controversie Depending between The Officers of the NAVY AND Sir Philip Howard and Company TOUCHING The late Invention and Practice of Sheathing his Majesty's Ships with LEAD SIr Philip Howard and Company Interested in the Manufacture of Mill'd-Lead and Contraction for the same with the Officers of the Navy for the use of his Majesty being surprized with a late Report to the Lords of the Admiralty from the said Officers in prejudice of this Invention did in right to hi● Majesty and his Service no less than to it and themselves present their Lordships this Day with a Reply to that Report containing an ample Deduction and State of the whole Matter whereof the following is an Abstract Shewing THat this Company becoming Masters of the said Invention Anno 1670 they in the same Year submitted it as a Matter of publick Import to the Examination and Censure of Parliament Where after passing the most solemn and strict Methods of Inquisition in both Houses it received their Approval and Confirmation by an Act granted to that Effect in Terms most Expressive of their satisfaction in it and Intentions of Encouragement to its Inventors After which it was by his Majesties Command immediately put in Execution first upon the Phoenix and then successively upon other of his Ships But not without continued Industry and Combinations employed against it by Persons interested so to do until by a three years proof of its Efficacy in contradiction to all that had been objected against it and more particularly from the satisfaction his Majesty received concerning it in his personal View and Observation o● its success upon the Phoenix he was pleased to put an end to the same in the Year 1673. by an Order from the then Lords of the Admiralty solemnly establishing this Method of sheathing in Exclusion to all that had been till then used in the Navy Notwithstanding which the said Officers thought fit to take yet two Years more for its Probation in all five Years before they would make it the King 's by entering into any Contract for it with this Company Which then viz. in the Year 1675. they did and that not only with a Condition of securing the benefit of it to his Majesty for Twenty Years to come which was the whole Term the Company had then remaining in it but an express Declaration of their entering into this Contract Upon sufficient experience had of the goodness and usefulness of this Invention both as to the Lead and Nails All this neverthesess not sufficing against the Private Interests concern'd to expose it a new Exception was soon after rais'd upon the score of a Pretended Discovery made of some Occult Quality in the Lead by which the Rudder-Irons and other Iron-works of his Majesties Ships under water were said to be in an unusual Degree eaten and corroded with Rust. Upon which his Majesty and the Lords of the Admiralty did by several and repeated Orders in the Months of April and May 1678. not only recommend and press upon the

things that may be so easily contradicted I assure you my Covering at Tooting lyes very well and I do not doubt but it will so continue indeed I am very proud of it and I do not think there 's a finer and better Covering in England at least not of Cast-Lead for I have Sheets thereon about twice as long as I ever heard the Plumber pretended to Cast being 34 Foot long and I was very well satisfied after a great deal of Discourse with the Plumber before I began that your Mill'd Lead was cheaper in the whole Work and would prove much better and being exactly equal which theirs is far from would last longer than theirs and I see no cause yet to alter my Opinion Upon your request to have something from me in Writing on this Occasion I could say no less and suppose this may suffice from 28 Aug. 1690. SIR Your Humble Sevant Robert Sanders Dr. Chamberlain's Letter Mr. Hale WHen I last saw you you shewed me a Paper addressed by the Plumbers to the Navy-Board wonderfully decrying your Milld-Lead commending their own and because that amongst several other places which they ●ay were covered with Mill'd-Lead that in a short time being very defective were taken up and new laid with Cast-Lead they mention mine in Essex-Buildings to have been one you then desired me to give two or three lines in Writing of the truth thereof which I could not reasonably deny you and I do here assure you that the same Mill'd-Lead which was first laid on about twelve Years since upon two Platforms at my House there remains on still very well free from any such cracks or flaws and ridges they complain of which I have reason to believe would not have continued so well if they had been covered with Cast-Lead for that the Cast-sheets which were laid upon the Cornish next the Street before I came to the House were afterward in many places so crack'd and cockled that about eight Years ago as I remember the Plumber took it up or great part of it and new laid it again I considered also of the Charge of both wayes before I made use of the Mill'd-Lead and was then satisfied that the whole was cheaper to me and would prove better than if I had laid it with Cast-Lead of the size the Plumber proposed and I continue of the same mind still all which I thought fit to say upon this occasion and leave it to you to make use thereof as you please and am 26 Aug. 1690. SIR Your Humble Servant Hugh Chamberlain Mr. Hoy's Letter about Mr. Fox's Lead-Covering Mr. Hale ACcording to your desire I waited upon my Friend Mr. Fox and acquainted him that the Plumbers in a Memorial by them presented to the Navy-Board had alleadged that several Houses amongst which his House in Surry-street was mentioned to be one formerly covered with Mill'd-Lead had been since strip'd and covered with Cast-Lead and desiring to know the truth of it he did assure me that their Allegation was absolutely false for that the Mill'd-Lead formerly laid on by you still remains there not stirred which he would have shewn me but was then a little indisposed being but newly return'd from Tunbridge and the access to it being by an Engine which would have required his Company I was unwilling to trouble him but will wait upon him again whenever you desire Sept. 1. 1690. SIR Your Servant Clement Hoy. Mr. Letchmere's Letter Mr. Hale YOu shewed me a Paper which the Plumbers gave in to the Navy-Board wherein they much complain of the defects of the Mill'd-Lead boasting of the excellency and durableness of their Cast-Lead and say that where the Mill'd-Lead has lain a few Years it hath so crack'd flaw'd and rose in ridges that after the Owners have been at great Charge in the daily patching and mending of it they have at last been forced to take it up and lay Cast-Lead in its room But I doubt these Plumbers mistake the one for the other for I know very well their Cast-Lead had all these ill qualities they complain of for upon a House of mine where Mr. Clark now lives next Door to the Bell in Fryday-street which was covered with Cast-Lead at the first Building after the Fire I do averr that after such rising and cockling and its being patch'd almost all over about eight Years since the Tenant was forc'd to strip it and new lay it and I well remember I allowed 10 l. towards the charge and I fear in a few Years it will be in as bad a Condition as ever for it is already patch'd in divers places and had I had the good Fortune to have known time enough of your Mill'd-Lead I am very well satisfied from my own Observation of such Places where I have since known it laid and the reason of the thing it self and the charge thereof a Man paying for no superfluous Lead as in the other you do that I might have saved Money and have had a far better and more durable Covering on my House than now I have SIR I am so well satisfied of the excellency of your Mill'd-Lead and of the greatness of its worth for all uses beyond Cast which is notwithstanding all the Care that can be used in the Casting of it full of great unevenness and other defects that I could say much more than I have on this Subject but I always thought it a very impertinent thing to spend too much time in arguing against Transubstantiation it being maintained by the impudence of a Party that resolve they will not be convinc'd and I take the only reason why the Plumbers oppose your Mill'd-Lead to be this because their Interest is concerned and I think they are as much in the right in so doing as those Persons are in the wrong that make use of their Cast-Lead when the other may be had 27 Aug. 1690. SIR Your Humble Servant Tho. Lechmere Mr. Lightfoot the Lady Portland's Steward's Certificate WHereas Mr. Hale did this day shew me a Paper from the Company of Plumbers directed to the Honourable Commissioners of the Navy wheriin they had preferred Cast-lead far before Mill'd-Lead and withall had there inserted several Persons of Quality and others among whom was my Lady the Countess of Portland's Name that her House had formerly been covered with Mill'd-Lead and since with Cast-Lead Now these are to Certifie that my Lady the Countess of Portland's House neither was nor is covered with Mill'd-Lead but upon altering the form of the Building and making some additions thereto about Eleven Years since she covered the back part with Cast-Lead which still remains but not without yearly repairing of late occasioned by cockling and rising of the Lead into a ridge which afterwards cracks and so are obliged to patch it with Soldar as in several Places we have since 't was laid on As Witness my Hand this 30th day of August 1690. Robert Lightfoot Mr. Martin's Letter YOu told me that some