In a MS. chronicle, now before me, of remarkable events which occurred,
in connexion with the history of the city of Norwich, from the earliest
period to the year 1716, compiled by an inhabitant of the place named
Nobbs, of whom a word or two at the end of this note, occurs the
following passage:
"This year (1695) the parliament made an act for remedying the
coin of the nation, which was generally debased by counterfeits,
and diminished by clipping, and _laid a tax upon glass windows_,
to make good the deficiency when it should be taken in. And, for
the speedy supply of money to the subjects, upon calling in of the
old money, there were mints set up in York, Bristol, Chester,
Exeter, and Norwich. The mint in Norwich began to work in Sept.
1696. Coined there 259,371_l._ The amount of plate and coin
brought into this mint was 17,709 ounces."
These quantities are identical with those given by Blomefield (_History
of Norwich_, fol., 1741, p. 300.).
1. The duties chargeable on windows, as now collected, were _regulated_
by Sched. A. of 48 Geo. III. c. 55.; but, assuming the correctness of
Nobbs' statement, is it generally known that this tax _originated_ in
the year, and under the circumstances, above recorded?
Bishop Burnet (_Hist. Own Time_, 8vo., 1833, vol. iv. pp. 252. 258.),
describing the proceedings taken by parliament for rectifying the state
of the coinage, without telling us by what means the money was raised,
says (p. 290.):
"Twelve thousand pounds was given to supply the deficiency of the
bad and clipped money."
Is this sum the amount of the proceeds of the tax laid, as our chronicle
records, upon glass windows? If so, or from whatever source obtained, it
may, in passing, be remarked, that it appears to be ridiculously
inadequate to meet the requirements of the case; for, according to the
Bishop, in another place (p. 316.):
"About five millions of clipped money was brought into the
exchequer, and the loss that the nation suffered, by the recoining
of the money, amounted to two millions and two hundred thousand
pounds."
The window duties have of late provoked much discussion, and it would
prove of some interest, if, through the medium of your pages, any of
your correspondents would take the trouble to investigate a little
further the subject of this note. It very easily admits of confirmation
or denial.
2. The principal reason, however, for now writing, is to request answers
to the two following Queries: 1. What amount of money was respectively
coined during 1696, and the following year, in the cities of York,
Bristol, Chester, and Exeter? and 2. In what parish of each of these
places, including Norwich, was the mint situated?
And now let me add a sentence or two respecting the compiler of the
above-named chronicle, which I am induced to do, as his name is closely
connected with that of one of the most celebrated controversial writers
of the Augustan age of Anne and George I., the friend of Whiston, of
Newton, and of Hoadley, and the subject of Pope's sarcastic allusion:
"We nobly take the high priori road,
And reason downwards till we doubt of God."
It appears, on the authority of a MS. letter before me, dated Aylsham,
Norfolk, Jan. 25, 1755, and addressed to Mr. Nehemiah Lodge, town clerk
of Norwich, by Mr. Thos. Johnson, who was speaker of the common council
of that city from 1731 to 1736, that Nobbs
"Was many years clerk of St. Gregory's parish in Norwich, where he
kept a school, and was so good a scholar as to fit youths for the
university, amongst whom were the great Dr. Samuel Clarke, and his
brother, the Dean of Salisbury."
The old man's MS. is very neatly written, and arranged with much method.
It was made great use of, frequently without acknowledgment, by
Blomefield, in the compilation of his history; and besides the chronicle
of events immediately connected with the city, there are interspersed
through its pages notices of earthquakes, great famines, blazing stars,
dry summers, long frosts, and other similar unusual occurrences. The
simplicity, and grave unhesitating credulity, with which some of the
more astonishing marvels, culled, I suppose, from the pages "of
Holinshed or Stow," are recorded, is very amusing. I cannot refrain from
offering you a couple of examples, and with them I will bring this
heterogeneous "note" to a close.
"In the eighth year of this king's reign (E. II.) it was ordained
by parliament, that an ox fatted with grass should be sold for
15_s._, fatted with corn 20_s._, the best cow for 12_s._; a fat
hog of two years 3_s._ 4_d._; a fat sheep shorn 14_d._, and with
fleece 20_d._; a fat capon 2_d._, a fat hen 1_d._, four pigeons
1_d._ And whosoever sold for more, should forfeit his ware to the
king. But this order was soon revoked, by reason of the scarcity
that after followed. For, in the year following, 1315, there was
so great a dearth, that continued three years, and therewith a
mortality, that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead;
horses, dogs, and children were eaten in that famine, and thieves
in prison plucked in pieces those that were newly brought in, and
eat them half alive."
But, again, sub ann. 1349:
"This year dyed in Norwich of the plague, from the first of
January to the last of June, 57,374 persons, besides religious
people and beggars; and in Yarmouth, 7053. This plague began
November the first, 1348, and continued to 1357, and it hath been
observed that they that were born after this had but twenty-eight
teeth, whereas before they had thirty-two."
This latter notice refers to the first of those three destructive
epidemics which visited Europe during the reign of our Edw. III., and
are so frequently mentioned in ancient records. It is styled the
"Pestilencia Prima et Magna, Anno Domini 1349, a festo Stæ. Petronillæ
usque ad festum Sti. Michaelis." (Nicolas, _Chron. of Hist._, p. 345.)