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england_n	act_n	great_a	king_n	3,209	5	3.5341	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78279	The case of Thomas Violet citizen and goldsmith of London, before the honourable committee of Parliament, for regulating the abuses in making gold and silver wyre, and lace.	Violet, Thomas, fl. 1634-1662.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1662 (1662)	Wing C1190dA; ESTC R173503	6,054	9

THE CASE OF Thomas Violet Citizen AND GOLDSMITH OF LONDON Before the Honourable Committee of PARLIAMENT for Regulating the abuses in making Gold and Silver Wyre and Lace Humbly Sheweth THat in January 1634. the Wardens and some of the Company of Goldsmiths petitioned the Late King CHARLES of blessed memory and His Privie Councel touching the detriment which arose by the undue practices of the Gold Refiners and Wiredrawers in the unlawfull consumption of a great Masse of Silver made yearly into Wire for Gold and Silver Lace and Thread c. The Lords of His Majesties Privie Councel Ordered them to attend the Attorney General to the end the Stat. of H. the 7. made against the same abuses might be put in execution There being a complaint of many abuses in selling and making Gold and Silver Lace the King commanded me and som others to buy up small parcells of Gold and Silver Lace Spangles Wire and to assay the same Mr in the 14. year of his said Reign did grant to your Petitioner the Office for rectifying the abuses aforesaid for three lives whereof your Petitioner and one other are yet in being as by the Coppy of the Record exemplyfied under the Great Seal appeareth which I here humbly present That His said late Majestie intending the absolute settlement of the office for rectifying of the said abuses by reason of the great service your Petitioner had done his Maiestie amongst other things in the said Letters Pattents conteined is graciously pleased to confirm the said Office on your Petitioner notwithstanding his said late Majestie His Heirs or Successors should at any time afterwards publish or make any other Proclamation Commission or Instructions to alter the said Letters Patents Vide the coppy of the Letters Patents Folio 37. 38. 39. That your Petitioner did for above five years execute and keep the said Office the due execution of all and every the matters in the said Letters Patents conteined on the part and behalf of your Petitioner to be done and performed immediately after the said Petitioner received the said Letters Patents and according to the said Letters Pattents did give eleven Bonds to His Majesties use for performance of the said Letters Patents Viz. One Bond of the penalty of one thousand five hundred pounds wherein your Petitioner stands singly bound and ten other Bonds wherein ten other sufficient persons stand severally bound for your Petitioners true performance of the said Letters Patents in two hundred pounds a piece as by the Records remaining in the Kings Majesties Remembrancers appeareth That your Petitioner by the occasion of the late unhappy troubles hath not made any benefit of his said Letters Pattents being under sequestration and is by His Councel infirmed that your Petitiners Letters Patents cannot fully take effect unless confirmed by Act of Parliament He therefore the premises tenderly considered humbly prayeth That his said Letters Patents may by the Act and Favour of this present Parliament be Ratified and Confirmed with such Orders and Powers as in Justice you think fit in consideration of his right And also in consideration of his great losses imprisonments hazards for his Majesty and His Royal Father to his damage above twenty thousand pounds as he hath proved it by the Testimonies of many Witnesses of honour estates and credit and all of them the Kings suffering Servants And as in duty bound shall pray c. THOMAS VIOLET Several Reasons humbly presented to the Honourable Committee of Parliament concerning the Gold and Silver Wyer-drawers by Thomas Violet of London Goldsmith And against the confirming by Act of Parliament a Patent obtained from his Majesty about the 2. of Oct. in the 13. year of his Majesties Reign for Letters Patents to be passed to incorporate the Trades of Refiners of Gold and Silver and the Gold and Silver Wyer-drawers c. 1. THat Henry Smith Esq may be ordered to bring in to the Honourable Committee the Letters Patents granted to the said Society or Corporation of Wyer-drawers in Octob. last that so your Honours may see what you grant by Act of Parliament and what they desire and your Petitioner may have a copy of the said Patent to object against the legality of it to put in his just exceptions thereunto to this Honourable Committee 2. And liberty to produce to your Honours his Majesties Royal Fathers Grant under the Great Seal to mee of the said Office dated 7. Sept. 14. Carol. primo for the regulating all these abuses 3. Thereupon your Honours may see my right in Law and do me Iustice according to Right and Equity that so my Patent may be approved on and confirmed by Parliament I being the first that discovered all the Gold-Refiners and Wyer-drawers abuses 1635. to King Charles the First and his Privy Councel and for five yeares kept them in such order that all these Manufactures of Gold and Silver wyer and thred was made as the Plate or money of the Kingdome and I will by Gods assistance reduce them to the same order again 4. Whereas now there is nothing but disorder and deceit in the making all these manufactures neither hath Henry Nevel skill to mend these abuses it is a trick of the Wyer-drawers to abuse the Kingdome as they did formerly to procure a Corporation by Act of Parliament to cozen the Kingdome 5. Upon view of my Patent under the Great Seal your Honours will see his now Majesty hath been mis-informed and abused in his Grant for I have all the power granted twenty four yeares ago under the Great Seal of England and I humbly hope having suffered twenty thousand pounds losse and eight yeares imprisonment being robbed of almost all I have in the world I shall not after all my Troubles be flayed alive by Henry Nevel Esq of my office which I executed for five years and know as well how to regulate these trades and every branch thereof as any man in England Indeed the Gold wyer-drawers think I know too much for them and therefore they desire Nevel Smith Esq who they can lead by the nose by reason of his ignorance in this businesse who hath unduely obtained the Kings Patent 6. Mr. Nevel is like Dean Murrey in King James's time he loved to get into Church livings but could not preach Nevel Smith loves to get my office for nothing which is worth about one thousand pounds a year so much for several yeares I made of it and cost mee above three thousand four hundred pound to his late Majesty and great Officers of State 7. There is in this act a power that Henry Nevel his Executors and Administrators shall Assay all silver and all silver shall be brought to one place and to take Constables and seize all gold and silver lace which he his Executors c. shall find to be cours silver Surely this Gentleman hath been a Goldsmith or a Refiner that so great a skill and trust must be placed in his hands when we find

him altogether ignorant in every branch of this profession After-ages will not believe so much ignorance and confidence to be in a person of quality to pretend to that he doth not understand nor I believe his Executors nor Administrators to take away my right I beseech your Honours observe 8. If the Goldsmiths that go to the mint with their gold or silver to coyne should be their own assay-masters the Kings money would hardly be standard if the silver-workers made assay of their own plate no wise man will think it would be sterling These Wyer-drawers are now at their own wills to make their silver at what finenesse they please put in as much silk to silver as they please they have melted down all the heavy money in the Kingdom to the great ruine of the Kingdom they hinder the Kings Mint by out-buying the same and should they now get this Corporation and have an ignorant governour that is no Artist as Henry Nevel Esq labours to obtain whereas formerly they committed one fraud they will by authority of Parliament be out of the gun-shot of the law 9. The Wiredrawers are angry with me because I have formerly strictly tied them to make good gold and silver wire and thread if they work according to the Law I cannot hurt them but if they abuse the Kingdom in slight and base Manufactures my security and my self must make it good we are bound in the Exchequer to do it and therefore I have and shall prevent them to my power They would have Mr. Nevil in my place that hath no skill and then they would cozen the Kingdome as some of them have done formerly by this act of Parliament the Wardens and Assistants have the power to do what they list Mr. Nevil is but named as a cypher to get their Charter by his Friends Your Petitioners humble prayer is that by your Honours Justice for his Majesties service this Manufacture be put under some strict Rule and Order and that nothing may passe under your Honours hands that may preiudice your Petitioners Grant which he hath under the great Seal of England for the regulating the said Manufacture I have humbly to recommend to your Honours great wisdom the due consideration of these several following heads and humbly leav them at your Honours feet and though they may not please the Wire-drawers yet I am sure they be for his Maiesties service It is true there is twenty thousand souls in London live and have dependance on this Manufacture and that made King Iames and King Charles suffer this Manufacture to be made here It is worthy of consideration the great damage his Maiesty sustains in the losse of his Customs the losse and preiudice of his Maiesties Mint by suffering the silver after it is imported into this Kingdom to be made into Silver Lace c. to be diverted from Coine which would pay a duty of coynage and augment the stock of the Kingdome which is now converted into this Manufacture the valew imployed in Gold and Silver yearly is about one hundred thousand pounds a year in Gold and silver Lace Wire c. which was it converted into coine every year and so passed between men would drive a million for commodities a year in Trade to the great improvement of the Kingdome by Commerce and Trade That upon calculation it will be found the King in point of Customs his losses about ten thousand pounds a year by suffering this Manufacture to be made in England as will appear upon calculation of his Maiesties Book of Rates of his Customes I humblie pray the book of Rates at the Custom-house may be viewed by your Honours to see when the gold and silver thread payes That as this day by this Corporation there is no Excise laid on this commoditie which under favour humbly submitting to your great wisdomes is a commoditie may bear an Excise as well and better than almost any thing in the Kingdome gold and silver Lace is a superfluitie and it is the wearers payes the Excise not the Silkmen Wiredrawers or other Tradesmen this Trade his Maiesty doth allow in favour of the poor women Spinners and other poor people that are above twenty thousand souls who onely have their livelyhood from this Manufacture or else for the reasons aforesaid it would not be allowed to be wrought in England for as it is now made for this last twenty years all the heavie currant silver is melted down to make this Manufacturie I humbly pray this offence may by Act of Parliament be made Felonie and the same punishment for transporting gold and silver without the Kings licence if this be not done in a short time there will neither gold nor silver be left in the Kingdom all the gold in a manner is already gone and the silver follows apace Therefore my humble Petition to your Honours is that your Honour settle such an excise on this Manufacture at the least two pence in the Ounce Troy being so much as his Maiesty loseth in the coynage of the same to be approved and confirmed by the Parliament for and towards his Maiesties losse in his Customes and in his coynage by suffering this Manufacture to be wrought in England the Customes is above three times as much That your Honours would Order for the future that no inferiour persons as servant-Maids and other mechanick people shall wear gold or silver Lace it being an abuse to persons of honour men and women to have mechanick people and servants to wear gold and silver Lace many servant Maids of four pound a year do lay out half of it in gold and silver Lace which causes many great inconveniences by vanity to come to them by lewd courses to steal and pilfer their Masters moneys 10. If Mr. Nevel be confirmed by Parliament to be the head Officer to assay and seal all gold and silver if his ignorance in this office should ever be complained of to his Majesty or the Privy Councel he must be expelled by the same power that put him in by order of Parliament to be put down 11. The assay-master of the Tower is upon his oath the assay-master of Goldsmiths Hall is upon his oath this act of Parliament appoints Henry Nevel to be assay-master and to seize all adulterate gold and silver wyer and Henry Nevel knowes not how to make an assay of gold or silver nor knowes not when he sees course silver from fine this manufacture will be well assayed by a Gentleman that is not an Artist in silver thred wyer or lace how can he swear by another mans skill 12. Ignorant officers in places of great skill and trust which must be executed on oath is that that abuses the King and Kingdome this Gentleman is ignorant in every branch of the trade yet by this Act of Parliament is to have an ob the ounce Troy for silver wyer 2 d. the ounce Troy for silver foliat 1 d. the pound Haverdupois for all