Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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A78263
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The case of the orphans and creditors of the city of London
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Reading, Nathaniel, d. ca. 1712.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C1120; ESTC R231175
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17,284
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16
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Lordship confirmed it and ordered a Lease to be made thereof to Mr. Thomas Puckle for 21 years paying into the Chamber one Third part of the clear Profits thereof for the first seven years a Moiety for the second seven years and two Third parts for the last seven years of the said Term whereby they already brag of getting above 40000 l. and no manner of care is taken that the Poor Orphans shall receive one Penny by it Nor is this all the Order of the 1st Instant which your Lordship published in â—he Gazette being as followeth This Court out of their deep sence of the deploraâ—le Condition of the State of the Chamber of London and the great Debt from hence due to Orphans and others having formerly appointed a Committee to inspect the same and consider by what means any Branch of its Revenues may be improved and then to make Report thereof unto this Court The said Committee was now by this Court earnestly desired to proceed thereupon with the utmost Diligence and Dispatch And whereas there have been several Insinuations made That the Estate and Revenue belonging to this City is sufficient both to pay the said Orphans and also defray the necessary Charge of the Cities Government This Court did now firmly resolve and declare That all Improvements that can be made over and above the Charge of the Government shall be duly applied towards Payment and Relief of the said Orphans and others And that if any of the said Orphans or others can make any discovery unto the said Committee how any part of the said Revenues may improved they shall be recompenced for the same propotionable to such Discovery Is not only in contradiction to that of the 17th of January but is in no sort an Answer to the said Third Proposal or your Lordships Promise The Orphans expected that upon the sense and Condition and Debt and Consideration and Inspecting in your Printed Order mentioned your Lordship would peremptorily have ordered the Inspection so long laboured for That the Quantum of the necessary Charge of the Government should have been therein inserted That you would firmly have resolved and declared that you would for the Honour of your Court and the satisfaction of the World have at least experimented the offer which though your Lordship terms but an Insinuation you well know 't is proposed to be made good by Security above all exception They expected you should have said that 9000 l. per An' had been exceedingly too much for the Orphans to allow to the Charge of that Government by the Male-Administration whereof so many Hundreds of them have been Ruin'd and at present want Bread. But they expected not that by the recompence you promise you would give a half part to a Discoverer when but a Third is asked you Nor that you designed the Second part of the Cole-Duty-Concealment and give a prodigious Reward for Defrauding the Orphans The Orphans however are not singly disappointed Mr. Reading expected that after his having laboured day and night in this admirable Undertaking and been at great Charge and suffered great Damage thereby and never received more than a 40 s. Fee your Lordship and all about you would at least have recompenced him with Thanks and that the lean Encouragement which your first Order gave him would not have been omitted in that of the Gazette Yet instead thereof and in Ill performance of the kind professions your Lordship made him some about the Chair to gratifie your transport against him because he Friendly advised your Lordship to give the Moneys for the late Vacancies among the perishing Orphans by way of Expiation have publickly told the Orphans that Mr. Reading had deluded and inveigled them that your Lordship had discarded him and threatnened in case they Subscribed to his Proposals they should never receive 6 d. And reproached for his Sufferings in the late days of Perjury and Persecution and for his being unrewarded since Would your Lordship and they have been so just as to have declared at the same time that Mr. Reading was offered great Sums and Preferments to have shed Royal and Innocent Blood by Swearing falsely and that he rather chose to be Ruin'd here than to wrong his Conscience and had your Lordship Published the following Address of the House of Commons in the same Gazette Mr. Reading who is a very ill Advocate for himself would have silently submitted to his being disregarded for his Indefatigableness in the Service of the Crown he valuing himself upon having done his Duty and the Feast of a good Conscience while others drink Muscadine and Orphans and daily devour Widows and Houses at their second Courses The Address was thus 8 April 1679. May it please Your MAJESTY WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled having according to our Duty made enquiry into the Damnable and Hellish Plot against Your Majesty's Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion have upon Examination discovered that Nat. Reading Esq hath Industriously and against the Duty of a Loyal Subject held frequent Correspondences with several Lords and other Persons that stand Committed for High Treason And also used his utmost Endeavours to prevent and suppress Your Majesty's Evidence And as much as in him lay to stifle the Discovery of the said Plot and thereby to render the same fictitious and of no reallity And by such undue means to prevent the Malefactors from coming to Justice Therefore We Your said Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty that You will be graciously pleased to Command that a Commission of Oyer and Terminer do imediately issue forth for the Tryal of the said Nathaniel Reading that so he may be brought to publick Justice Mr. Reading Humbly Proposeth on the Behalf of the Orphans 1st That the Lease which you have ordered to be made for the Office of Out-Roper may not be Executed the Orphans being ready to allow three full fourth parts during the whole Term for the same which is muh more than Mr. Murry offers you 2dly That no new Lease be granted but to the Orphans they allowing the value for the same And that all Vacancies of Places which you pretend to be in your Gift may for the future be offer'd to the Orphans they being duly qualified and allowing valuably for the same 3dly That the many Thousands of Pounds which you are laying out about Dowgate Leystall and other matters equally inconsiderable while your Chamberlain declares to the Orphans he hath not 500 l. in Cash may be apply'd to their Relief That your Lordship would afcertain the necessary Charges of the City Government and that you would joyn in Petitioning His Majesty that He would Graciously please to Grant His Commission to the Persons undernamed or such others as He shall approve of for the due managing of all Profits any ways arising by His Letters Patents to your Tustees and out of the same to pay such yearly Sum into your Chamber as His Royal Wisdom shall direct And that the remainder may be applied for the Payment of the said Orphans and Creditors On the Behalf of His MAJETY The Right Honourable The Lord Chancellor The Earl of Sunderland The Earl of Castlemain Sir Nicholas Butler Collonel James Porter The King 's Vice-Chamberl and Robert Brent Esq On the Behalf of the CITY Sir John Shorter Sir Bartholomew Shore Sir Humphry Edwin Mr. Alderman Mawson Mr. Alderm St. Aumand Sir John Parsons On the Behalf of the ORPHANS Sir William Turner Sir William Pritchard Sir Peter Rich. Alderman Hern. Sir Thomas Vernon Sir Henry Tulse Sir William Russel Alderman Duncombe Mr. George Finch Mr. Percival Gilborn Mr. Thomas Farmyn Mr. Francis Chamberlain Mr. Peter Pickering Mr. Ralph Box. Mr. Joseph Bowles Mr. Robert Midgly Mr. Deputy Carpenter Mr. Joseph Smart Mr. John Short. Mr. Thomas Langhorn Mr. Michael Warring Lastly If your Lordship will well consider the Judgment against your Charter And be content with the Governing part under His Majesty And take from the Orphans that large Allowance fer it and repay them what hath been pocketed contrary to Trust Mr. Reading doubts not but so to improve His Majesty's Charity to the Orphans that the greatest number of them may be pay'd within a very short time Should not your Lordship oppose this Innocent Experiment you would make this 88 happily remarkable and avert that Desolation which otherwise must overwhealm this Flourishing City and which will not be in the power of the Ligislature to Repair For the Crys of the Oppressed increase daily they are gone up and their Avenger is Mighty Bene facere Et male Audire Regium est NATHANIEL READING
Deliberation hath been had concerning the same And that he is ready to make it appear that your Honourable Court and your Trustees by His Majesties Letters Pattents since the said Judgment stand Impowered to give your Petitioners satisfaction out of what His Majesty hath already granted to you an Honourable Provision for the constant support of your Government of the City being first Established and Secured For as much that the severe Circumstances which your Petitioners are reduc'd to permit them not to lye down under their Ruines while so happy a Discovery can enable them to contribute any thing towards their own preservation And for as much that your Petitioners can in no sort doubt But that your Honourable Court will cheerfully endeavour to redeem the Glory of your once Renowned Chamber and to the utmost of your Powers promote so just a Work especially since the fresh and great Demonstrations which our Gracious Soveraign who hath Commissionated you thereunto hath given of his transcendent Charity towards the Relief of some Orphans assures us of his Royal Inclinations to Relieve us all in case you shall find it necessary to be Address'd for on our Behalfes Your Petitioners beseech your Lordship that a Committe of your Honourable Court may be appointed for meeting some of your Worthy Trustees in the presence of some of your Petitioners for Hearing the said Mr. Reading therein and that they may be attended with what they shall conceive needful to Enable them to make a speedy Report concerning the same And your Petitioners c. The Proposition of Mr. Reading made on the 17th of January 1687. To the Right Honourable Sir John Shorter Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen on Behalf of 1400 Orphans of the City of London SEveral of the Orphans to whom great Summes were due from your Chamber dying in Prison and Starving for Want and their Friends not able to get Money out of your Chamber to Bury them And upon the 18th of December last several Widows being told by you in Court that you could not pay them half a Crown per Pound and many offering to take six Shillings per Pound And Importuning Mr. Reading who had long been their Councel to study their Relief And a Petition having been presented to your Honourable Court the 19th following purporting his having happily discover'd a way to Enable you to pay them their Principal and Interest And their having Subscrib'd an Agreement for allowing him five Shillings per Pound for a Reward and praying your Referring his Proposals to the Consideration of a Committee But the same being put off to the 22th following and he then being violently Oppos'd and Discourag'd therein and Order'd to bring his Proposals in Writing upon this day And thereupon divers refusing to Subscribe to the said Agreement though they had Faithfully promis'd it And others Unconscionably designing to take the advantage of the said Proposals and not to give him any Reward and thereby Obstructing his Proceedings thereupon not only to their own but to the Damage of others also And he being ready to make out the certainty and the particulars of his Proposals to the everlasting Renown of His Majesties Charity to the said Orphans and to the great Advantage of the City also In case your Court will according to their Oaths and Trust do what in you lyes to the Encouragement of the said Subscriptions Mr. Reading proposeth thas upon your Ordering this day such Encouragement to be given that Subscriptions may be gain'd to half the Sum due to the said Orphans which long since would have been done had it not been obstructed He will in the presence of the Right Honourable the Earl of Castlemain Sir Nicholas Butler the Kings Vice-Chamberlain and Mr. Brent on the behalf of His Majesty and of Sir William Turner Sir William Prichard Sir Peter Rich and Mr. Alderman Herne on the behalf of the said Orphans fully and plainly discover to the Committee for your Revenues First How you may make an Honourable Provision for the Support of the Covernment of the City Secondly How that being Establish'd you are Enabled to pay the said Orphans Thirdly And lastly How to raise a Noble Fund for your Chamber and to pay its other Debts In order whereunto he proposeth that no new Lease be made under the City Seal before the said Honourable Persons have the Offer thereof for the Benefit of the said Orphans And that in the presence of the Keeper of your Records he may have Liberty to Inspect them in order to the making it manifest to your Selves that you have such powers to pay the said Orphans In case of Non-complyance herewith Mr. Reading declares That he will never attend you more therein but take such other Measures for Relieving the said Orphans as His Majesty shall please to direct Shorter Mayor Martis 17 die Januarii 1687 / 8 Annoque Regni Regis Jacobi Secundi Angliae c. Tertio WHereas this Court hath often taken into Consideration the great Debt due to Orphans from the Chamber of London And being desirous to examine the State of the Cities Revenue and to understand what Provision may be thence made for payment of the said Orphans doth refer it to Sir Peter Daniel Sir Humphrey Edwin Mr. Alderman Mauson Sir William Ashurst Mr. Alderman Gardiner Sir John Eyles Mr. Alderman Chamberlain and Mr. Sheriffes or any three of them to Inspect and Examine the State of the Cities Revenue and Inform themselves in the best manner they can what Provision may be made thereby or what other Method may well be used for payment of the Orphans And afterwards this Court receiving this day a Petition from several Orphans of this City taking notice of Proposals offer'd to be made by Mr. Reading for payment of their Portions due from the Chamber any Praying a publick Encouragement for proceeding thereupon And in a Paper now deliver'd to this Court in Writing by the said Mr. Reading it being propos'd That he will in presence of certain Honourable Persons and some Eminent Citizens of this City discover to a Committee of this Court how all the Orphans may be pay'd and a sufficient Provision left to Maintain the Cities Government out of the Cities Revenue with some particulars therein desired in order thereunto This Court being willing and ready to give all Encouragement to any Discovery that can be made or Means devis'd by him or any other Person for payment of the said Orphans And also to Gratify and Reward all such Persons as shall do any Service therein doth refer it to the said Committee to Receive and Consider of any Proposals the said Mr. Reading or any other Person or any of the said Orphans or their Friends shall make touching payment of their Portions And all particulars they shall represent or desire in order thereunto and they to give any Directions they shall judge requisite in the prosecution of this matter and from time to time make Report unto this