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Place and Profit: an Examination of the Ordnance Office, 1660–1714 the Alexander Prize Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

H. C. Tomlinson
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Extract

As far as Professor Trevor-Roper was concerned public office in the seventeenth century was commensurate with wealth, and the gaining of office was one of the causes of such rises of the gentry that occurred before the civil war. This view has been substantially modified by a number of historians who have delved more deeply into the mire of departmental records, and have concluded that the rewards of officialdom were usually modest, especially under Elizabeth I and Charles I, and that the more spectacular beneficiaries were small in number. Very little work on the profits of office in the later Stuart period, however, has been atttempted. Excellent departmental studies on the post-Restoration Treasury, for instance, exist, but although they detail the official salaries of treasury personnel they do not indicate all the remunerations that they might expect from their daily toil. One of the main reasons for this neglect is the lack of evidence on which to base any far-reaching conclusions on the unofficial spoils of office. Myriads of departmental records are extant but they do not throw much light on illicit profiteering. It would be a very careless official who admitted all his gains in his accounts or departmental correspondence. Such evidence as does exist in official documents is necessarily scanty and has to be pieced together with scraps of information from private sources. Even then some of the remaining evidence has to be treated with circumspection for, as Professor Hurstfield has pointed out, allegations of corruption are not necessarily good evidence and have to be heavily substantiated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 25 , December 1975 , pp. 55 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1975

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References

1 Trevor-Roper, H. R., The Gentry, 1540–1640 (Economic History Review, Supplement I, 1953)Google Scholar; idem, ‘The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century’, Past and Present, xvi, (1959), pp. 31–64.

2 See, e.g., Stone, L., ‘Office under Queen Elizabeth: The Case of Lord Hunsdon and the Lord Chamberlainship in 1585’, Historical Journal, x (1967), pp. 279–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558–1641 (Oxford, 1965); Aylmer, G. E., ‘Office Holding as a factor in English History, 1625–42’, History, xliv (1959), pp. 228–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, The King's Servants: The Civil Service of Charles I, 1625–42 (London, 1961); idem, The State's Servants: The Civil Service of the English Republic, 1649–60 (London, 1973).

3 Baxter, S. B., The Development of the Treasury (London, 1957)Google Scholar; Roseveare, H. G., The Treasury (London, 1969)Google Scholar; Sainty, J. C., Treasury Officials, 1660–1870 (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Roseveare, H. G., The Treasury, 1660–1870: the Foundations of Control (London, 1973)Google Scholar.

4 Hurstfield, J., Freedom, Corruption and Government in Elizabethan England (London, 1973). PP. 173 ffGoogle Scholar.

5 Ehrman, J., The Navy in the War of William III (Cambridge, 1953), p. 176Google Scholar.

6 Compare a list of 1663 (P.R.O., W.O. 49/112) with one of 1619 (B.L. Add MS. 36,777, fols 14v–16r).

7 For a full list of exchequer payments c. 1670 see Staffs. County Record Office, D.1778/v, 71.

8 Ibid.

9 P.R.O., S.P. 29/189, no. 33, Legge to Arlington, 23 Jan. 1666/7.

10 P.R.O., S.P. 29/215, no. 37, memorial, 27 Aug. 1667.

11 B.L., King's MS. 70, f. 13, instructions, 25 July 1683.

12 P.R.O., S.P. 29/112, f. 166r, order, 13 Feb. 1664/5.

13 B.L., King's MS. 70, f. 34v, instructions, 25 July 1683.

14 For an indication of the size of the ordnance establishment see P.R.O., W.O. 54/20–72, ordnance quarter books, Sept. 1660–Dec. 1714.

15 In Sept. 1716, for instance, when a new artillery train was established, £61 IOS. was paid to the clerk of the ordnance and £42 5s. to the master's chief clerk; P.R.O., W.O. 47/29, p. 226.

16 See below p. 59.

17 Ffoulkes, C. J., Inventory and Survey of the Armouries of the Tower of London (London, 1916), i, p. 35Google Scholar.

18 Marsh also claimed the rights of patronage at other places but this was quashed; P.R.O., W.O. 55/330, pp. 333–34.

19 Reid, W., ‘Commonwealth Supply Departments within the Tower and the Committee of London Merchants’, The Guildhall Miscellany, ii (09 1966), pp. 319–52Google Scholar.

20 For the establishment of the office in 1660 see P.R.O., W.O. 54/20, quarter book for Sept. 1660.

21 These were Lord John Berkeley, Sir John Duncombe and Sir Thomas Chicheley. For their patent of appointment see P.R.O., C/66, 3061. They were succeeded on 4 June 1670. Sir Thomas Chicheley was appointed sole master-general; C/66, 3117.

22 P.R.O., S.P. 29/215, no. 37, report, 27 Aug. 1667.

23 ibid.

24 P.R.O., S.P. 29/112, ff. 166–68.

25 P.R.O., S.P. 29/189, no. 34, Legge to Arlington, 22 Jan. 1666/7; W.O. 51/8, f. 30v, payment to Legge, 6 Apr. 1667; Cal. S.P. Dom., 1666–67, p. 556, warrant 11 Mar. 1667 (n.s.).

26 P.R.O., W.O. 48/13, p. 161, payment to Batchler, grounded on warrant 2 Dec. 1670; W.O. 54/32, quarter payment note of compensatory payment from 24 Mar. 1673/4; W.O. 48/27, 22 Feb. 1688/9, payment to Franklyn. W.O. 47/18, p. 305, 15 Feb. 1695/6; Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/I i, 780.

27 Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/v, 41; unsigned memo.

28 P.R.O., W.O. 54/28, 29; W.O. 48/12, p. 106, payment to George Marsh, 26 July 1673.

29 P.R.O., S.P. 29/189, no 34, Legge to Arlington, 23 Jan. 1666/7.

30 By warrant of 29 Apr. 1662; P.R.O., 30 37/14. Compton was master from 1660 to his death in 1663.

31 This and other salaries have been calculated from the ordnance quarter books; P.R.O., W.O. 54/20–72, Sept. 1660–Dec. 1714.

32 Cal. S.P. Dam., 1673–75, pp. 54 (warrant to Chicheley, 11 Dec. 1673), 66–67 (petition of Knollys and report by lord keeper); Cal. S.P. Dom., 1687–88, no. 401, p. 81, 9 Oct. 1687; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1689–90, p. 97, 10 May 1689; P.R.O., MS. Cal. S.P. Dom., Anne, p. 901, 20 Nov. 1712, grants of £300 p.a. to Tichburne, Goodricke and Hill.

33 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1687–88, no. 377, p. 76, allowance to Shere, 26 Sept. 1687; P.R.O., W.O., 48/29, 13 Aug. 1690, payment to Charlton; W.O. 46/6, pp. 105–6 (petition of Bridges and letter to Marlborough re the lack of payment of this award. Back payment was eventually made to him totalling £1,500); W.O. 48/48, list 30 June 1710, 1st payment, 4 Apr. 1710.

34 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1665–66, p. 261, warrant 21 Feb. 1666 (n.s.); P.R.O., S.P. 32/5, no. 75, warrant Apr. 1694; Cal. S.P. Dom., 1696, p. 162, warrant, 2 May 1696.

35 Churchill Coll. Cambridge, Erle MS., 2/13; Craggs to Erle, 7 July 1705. Trumbull was prepared to allow his deputy one-third of his salary; B.L., Add. MS. 52,279 (his diary, 30 Oct. 1685).

36 In 1698 the officers were paid £4,125 for acting as master general for 2¾ years, 1690–93 (P.R.O., W.O. 48/37, p. 284, 26 Nov. 1698), despite the ruling at the Treasury some months previously that such interim salaries should be saved; Cal. Treas. Books, 1697–98, p. 95, 25 May 1698. The auditors of the imprests queried the payment but it was finally allowed; Cal. Treas. Books, 1702, p. 97, 8 Dec. 1702; Cal. Treas. Books, 1703, pp. 75–6 (18 Aug. 1703), 401 (10 Sept. 1703); P.R.O., T 1/162, no. 31(a), warrant 10 Sept. 1703.

37 P.R.O., S.P. 29/112, ff. 166–68, order 13 Feb. 1664/5.

38 P.R.O., W.O. 46/4, p. 8, board to Romney, 28 Apr. 1696.

39 P.R.O., W.O. 55/488, p. 57, 22 Mar. 1704/5.

40 P.R.O., W.O. 55/386, p. 151, preamble to warrant, 13 May 1661.

41 Ordnance officers were exempt from taxes on these salaries, although an Act passed after the Revolution only exempted those military officers in muster by the muster-master general of the army. For a discussion of this question see P.R.O., T. 1/27, no. 30 (petition); T. 1/29, ff. 147, 163; W.O. 46/3, pp. 11, 12, 13, 31–2, 70. In subsequent years exemptions were allowed; W.O. 46/5, p. 128; W.O. 47/23. p. 332; W.O. 47/25. pp. 100, 485–86; W.O. 47/28, pp. 17, 94.

42 Prices, were, of course, subject to seasonal variations, but in the late seventeenth century both agricultural and industrial prices appear to have fluctuated around a fairly level trend. See Outhwaite, R. B., Inflation in Tudor and Early Stuart England (London, 1969), pp. 10–11Google Scholar, table and fig. 1.

43 For these lists see Chamberlayne, John, Magnae Britanniae or the Present State of Great Britain (22nd edn, London, 1708)Google Scholar, part ii, book iii.

44 Mingay, G. E., English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1963), pp. 20–23Google Scholar.

45 Although King's figures seem too low. See King, Gregory, Two Tracts …, ed. Barnett, George E. (Baltimore, 1936), p. 31Google Scholar.

46 Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/v, 27, report 28 Oct. 1684; D. 1778/v, 71, report 30 Apr. 1688; P.R.O., W.O. 48/40, list 30 June 1702; W.O. 48/50, list 31 Mar. 1712 (3rd and 4th payments); W.O. 49/226, copies of bills for the 1710, 1713 remains. No allowances appear to have been paid for those involved in the 1679 and 1686 remains, although a retrospective payment of £25 to the principal officers and £10 to the clerks was later made for the 1679 remain. In 1683 only the clerks were paid.

47 P.R.O., 30 37/17, warrant 20 October 1668; W.O. 51/11, f. 48r, 12 Feb. 1669/70.

48 P.R.O., W.O. 51/15, f. 90v; W.O. 48/19, p. 297.

49 P.R.O., W.O. 48/6, pp. 93, 228 (£20 to clerk of ordnance, £15 to other principal officers, and £20 and £10 to clerks); W.O. 55/332, p. 96, warrant 9 Jan. 1666/7; W.O. 48/52, list 31 Dec. 1713, 2nd payment, £20 each to clerks in ordinary and £10 each to extraordinary clerks for war services.

50 P.R.O., W.O. 48/14, p. 48.

51 P.R.O., W.O. 48/25, p. 197.

52 P.R.O., W.O. 55/336, ff. 1–2.

53 E.g., P.R.O., W.O. 46/1, f. 261r, £30 to storekeeper Watkinson at Hull, 11 Jan. 1682/3; W.O. 51/4, f. 62r, warrant 30 Sept. 1664, for £60 to 20 labourers.

54 P.R.O. 30 37/14 (warrant 3 June 1662, 21s. per week between four gunners for service at Whitehall); W.O. 48/14, p. 34 (payment to Loop 2s. 6d. per day for same); W.O. 44/714 (petition of feed gunners re 20s. formerly paid on every firing day).

55 E.g., Cal. S.P. Dom. 1670, p. 140 (warrant 30 Mar. 1670); P.R.O., W.O. 48/9, p. 535, payment of £600 to widow of George Clarke for his service ‘during the late rebellion and usurpation’. This was an exceptionally high sum. See P.R.O., W.O. 47/19a, pp. 383, 426 (two payments of £10 to widow of firemaster); P.R.O., W.O. 47/5, p. 220 (£50 to widow of man killed in moving a great gun).

56 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1685, no. 1603, p. 325, Sunderland to Dartmouth, 8 Sept. 1685; Cal. S.P. Dom., 1680–81, p. 101, warrant 10 Dec. 1680; Cal. S.P. Dom., 1703–04, p. 470, 5 July 1703.

57 Hist. MSS Comm., Ormonde, n.s. vi, p. 244, Longford to Ormond, 3 Dec. 1681; Cal. S.P. Dom., 1686–87, no. 1751, P. 422, warrant, 9 May. For the circumstances surrounding Trumbull's dismissal, see his diary, B.L., Add. MS. 52,279.

58 P.R.O., W.O. 51/26, f. 58r, payment to Legge, 7 Oct. 1682; W.O. 48/42, list, 30 June 1704, payments to Granville and Bridges; W.O. 48/26, 29 May 1688, payment to Shere; W.O. 48/10, pp. 135 (payment to Sherburne), 174 (payment to Marsh). I have no record of travelling payments to the clerk of deliveries or the treasurer.

59 P.R.O. 30 37/14, warrant 9 Jan. 1662/3 for 6s. 8d. to Fleetwood; W.O. 51/7, f. 132r, 3 Nov. 1666 (payment to Cheltenham at 10s. per day for the first four days and then 6s. 8d.); W.O. 48/17, p. 50, 14 June 1679 (payment to Hubbald at 10s. per day); W.O. 48/18, p. 406, 29 June 1680 (payment to waggon master at 10s. per day).

60 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1685, no. 2101, p. 420, warrant 23 Dec.; Cal. S.P. Dom., 1696, p. 33, Feb. 1696 (n.s.), warrant; P.R.O., W.O. 48/33, p. 449, 12 Dec. 1694, payment to Romer; W.O. 48/48, list 31 Dec. 1709, 12th payment to Moore.

61 P.R.O., W.O. 48/10, p. 132; W.O. 48/12, pp. 163–64 (payments to Chicheley of £112 and £120); W.O. 48/24, 26 Jan. 1685/6; W.O. 48/26, 28 Jan. 1687/8 (payments to Dartmouth of £252 and £140).

62 P.R.O., W.O. 47/23, p. 93; W.O. 47/24, p. 183.

63 P.R.O., W.O. 47/25, pp. 74, 168, 329 (£543 and £696 to Erie (lieutenant), £350 to engineer Lilly).

64 P.R.O., W.O. 47/29, p. 86, 17 Apr. 1716; W.O. 47/31, p. 74, 21 Mar. 1717/18.

65 Tower, Armouries library, plan c. 1685.

66 See B.L., King's MS. 45, f. 45, house on Plymouth gunwharf, 1715; King's Top. Coll., xi, t, u, w, elevations and plans of houses for labourers, storekeeper and clerk on Portsmouth gunwharf, 1717.

67 See P.R.O., W.O. 44/714, petitions of Hooper (endorsed 23 Feb. 1685/6) and Katherine Reade, endorsed 24 Oct. 1689.

68 P.R.O., P.C. 6/18, p. 198, 10 May 1683, order that such practices should cease; W.O. 47/32, p. 157, 16 Apr. 1719, no house should be let without leave.

69 The clerk of deliveries was allowed £20 in lieu of a house, which rent was later doubled; P.R.O., W.O. 48/11, p. 123, payment to Fortrey; W.O. 48/47, list 28 June 1709, 4th payment to Craggs. Moore senior, as assistant surveyor, received £20 p.a., Povey, the storekeeper at Portsmouth, £10 p.a., and the eleven labourers at Portsmouth and Chatham £4 p.a. each; W.O. 51/8, f. 116; W.O. 48/9, p. 398; W.O. 48/46, list 14 Aug. 1707, 14th payment.

70 Quoted in Western, J. R., Monarchy and Revolution: the English State in the 1680s (London, 1972), p. 88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 P.R.O., P.C. 2/55, 4 Mar. 1660/1; W.O. 55/330, pp. 304–6, 7 June 1661.

72 ‘[It is] impossible … by any rigour whatsoever to keep officers either in peace or war from irregular gain in their places … unless their lives be rendered easy and comfortable to them by constant pay of good salaries’; P.R.O., S.P. 29/215, f. 69r, 27 Aug. 1667.

73 Swart, K. W., Sale of Offices in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1949), pp. 45 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 B.L., King's MS. 70, ff. 6v–7r, 1683 instructions to master-general; P.R.O., W.O. 46/2, p. 22, order 6 May 1684 re Watkinson's place at Hull; W.O. 47/31, p. 252, 4 Sept. 1718; W.O. 47/32, p. 318, 4 Aug. 1719.

75 Foxcroft, H. C., The Life and Letters of Sir George Savile (London, 1898), i, p. 29Google Scholar; Cat. S.P. Dom., 1679–80, pp. 268 (Gwyn to Conway, 25 Nov. 1679), 372 (Rawdon to Gonway, 14 Jan. 1680 (n.s.)).

76 Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/I i., 155, Wharton to Legge, 21 July 1665.

77 Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/I i., 780.

78 P.R.O., W.O. 55/388, f. 51r, 22 Mar. 1663/4.

79 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1666–67, p. 459, 18 Jan. 1667 (n.s.).

80 P.R.O., S.P. 29/443, no. 3.

81 P.R.O., S.P. 63/333, no. 127, Essex to Arlington, 19 Apr. 1673; S.P. 29/189, no. 34, Legge to Arlington, 23 Jan. 1666/7; Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/v, 24, report of Duxbury; W.O. 47/19a, p. 130, 3 Nov. 1668; W.O. 44/714, petition of Lowe; W.O. 55/1782, Trollapp to board, 9 Dec. 1684.

82 P.R.O., W.O. 55/388, f. 32r, petition of thirty-seven gunners, 3 Feb. 1663/4.

83 P.R.O., T. 1/23, no. 3, ff. 13–18, Guy to board, 1 June, board's report, 1 July 1693.

84 P.R.O., W.O. 55/337, ff. 102v–O3r, Schomberg to board, 7 Feb. 1689/90. See W.O. 44/715, petition of John Grahme re a commission to De Cardonnel, ‘who inserted his own name’ for the place of gentleman of the ordnance.

85 P.R.O., W.O. 55/336, f. 173V, Holford to Goodricke, 11 Aug. 1689.

86 P.R.O., W.O. 55/1796.

87 E.g. a twelve gallon cask of ale and a promise of ‘a keg of ale and a furkin of good butter’; ibid., Duxbury to Hubbald, 7 Aug., 7 Sept. 1687.

88 In March 1685/6, for instance, Duxbury authorized Hubbald to pay a 5s. piece and 2s. 6d. to two clerks, Whiteing and Scattergood; ibid., same to same, 3 Mar. 1685/6.

89 Ibid., Wharton to Hubbald, 30 Sept. 1687.

90 Ibid., Hooke to Hubbald, 2 Dec. 1687.

91 Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/I i, 780, testimony of Hubbald, 14 Dec. 1680.

92 P.R.O., W.O. 55/334, f. 16v, 8 Oct. 1685.

93 Ibid.

94 See Albion, R. G., Forests and Sea Power: the timber problems of the Royal Navy, 1682–1862 (Cambridge, Mass., 1926), pp. 50–51Google Scholar.

95 Taken from a transcript of Pepys's Navy White Book by Professor Matthews in the possession of the librarian of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, pp. 61 ff., 24 Sept. 1664.

96 Pepys Diary, ed. Wheatley, H. B. (London, 1904–1905), iv, p. 234Google Scholar, 24 Sept. 1664.

97 Staffs. C.R.O., D. 1778/v, 71.

98 B.L., King's MS. 70, f. 42r, 1683 instructions.

99 He was suspended from office for a time for allowing private goods worth £115 to be put on board an ordnance ship, and he claimed in his defence that there were many instances of officials not being penalized for similar offences. Blenheim Palace MS., B I 23; P.R.O., W.O. 46/4, p. 54, Pendlebury to board, 4 Aug. 1699.

100 P.R.O., W.O. 55/1802.

101 Ibid.

102 The Bulstrode Papers, i, 1667–75 (1897), p. 64, 26 09 1668 (Robson, ThomasGoogle Scholar, a Chatham storekeeper, selling ordnance in Flanders for 2,000 livres); P.R.O., W.O. 47/31, p. 127, 2 May 1718 (storekeeper at Edinburgh Castle changing good arms for bad).

103 See, e.g., P.R.O., W.O. 46/1, ff. 212r, 250, 253r, 255r, 268–69 (embezzlement of stores at Hull); Cal. Treas. Books, 1681–85, p. 375 (same); W.O. 46/4, pp. 66 ff (embezzlements at Dover Castle); W.O. 49/112, report on gunners taking powder from cartridges; W.O. 55/1802, embezzlement book 1701–17; W.O. 47/7, pp. 113, 114, 122; W.O. 47/19a, pp. 8, 10, 27, 39, 157, 177, 245, 323, miscellaneous embezzlements.

104 E.g. P.R.O., W.O. 47/29, pp. 95 (27 Apr. 1716), 232 (18 Sept. 1716), 271 (15 Nov. 1716, desertions with ordnance cash); W.O. 47/29, p. 169, 12 July 1716; W.O. 47/30, p. 39, 20 Feb. 1716, misappropriation of wages.

105 Ashley, R., ‘The Organisation and Administration of the Tudor Office of Ordnance’ (Oxford Univ., B.Litt. thesis, 1973), p. 125Google Scholar.

106 … ‘a treasurer's own bond would not answer the many accidents which may happen, as in case a treasurer dies his under officers may convert the cash to his own use … and the circumstances of a treasurer at his death may be such … that his heir may not think it in his interest to make up either his accounts or his cash’. P.R.O., W.O. 46/4, pp. 49/50, board to Romney, 6 July 1699.

107 P.R.O., W.O. 49/111, testimonies of Freeman, Marshall, Walker, Herringe, Tough.

108 Staffis. C.R.O., D. 1778/I i, 780, ‘The Answer of Sir George Wharton. …

109 Ibid., ‘Sundry Informations … touching … Conyers.’

110 ‘The Answer of Sir George Wharton …’. Ibid.

111 Ibid.

112 P.R.O., W.O. 47/8, 15 Feb. 1665/6; W.O. 47/19a, p. 251, 1 Apr. 1669; ‘Sundry Informations … touching … Conyers.’ loc. cit.

113 Ibid., D. 1778/v, 24, report of Duxbury, May 1679. He apparently accepted payments of over £70 from ordnance creditors. He also acted as middleman in a bargain between a powdermaker and a French merchant for the sale of 1,000 barrels of the king's gunpowder, and he resold decayed gunpowder to powder-makers, for which transaction he received £370 18s. 6d.

114 William Cobbett's Parliamentary History (London, 1806–1820), vi, pp. 1001–03Google Scholar (15 Feb. 1710/11), 1026–31 (4 June 1711); Richard Chandler's History … of The House of Commons (London, 1742–1744), iv, pp. 363–66; v, pp. 7–8Google Scholar. Two ordnance officials, William Churchill, a deputy treasurer, and his brother-in-law, John Pearce, a treasury clerk 1701–13, were involved in abuses in the contracts for transporting prisoners. Ibid. James Craggs, ordnance clerk of deliveries 1703–11, 1714–15, was also indicted by the commissioners of accounts for paying huge bribes in order to gain army clothing contracts. Ibid., pp. 79 ff (report 13 Apr. 1714). There is no evidence, however, of these officials having indulged in these practices within the Ordnance Office.

115 See P.R.O., W.O. 54/20–72, ordnance quarter books. The offices of feed gunner (until the reorganization of the 1680s) and of gentleman of the ordnance were also held in conjunction with clerkships.

116 Straker, E., Wealden Iron (London, 1931), p. 200Google Scholar. These were his profits for that year: £2,179 16s. from sales totalling £5,966.

117 P.R.O., T 1/58, f. 298, petition of Sir Polycarpus Wharton.

118 From July 1664 to May 1678 the Browne family of gunfounders supplied something like 3,871 tons of iron guns worth about £136,693; P.R.O., W.O. 51/4–20, passim, ordnance bill books. Wharton's profits on the 32,852 barrels of gunpowder he supplied between Dec. 1687 and Apr. 1695 (V.C.H., Surrey, ii, p. 326) must have been well over £8,000.

119 P.R.O., W.O. 49/112, n.d. (? early 1660s). They also indicated that their allowances were no greater than those paid in the time of Henry VIII, ‘when a shilling would go further than ten now’.

120 See petitions of clerks; P.R.O., W.O. 46/6, pp. 2–3, Mar. 1703/4. In 1741 it was still reported that the salary of some of the under clerks had not altered since the Restoration, ‘notwithstanding the almost inconceivable increase of business and the vast increase in the price of necessaries’; W.O. 55/1796.

121 P.R.O., W.O. 46/2, pp. 208–10 (Watkinson to Dartmouth, 20 Apr. 1684), 217 (same to board, 13 May 1684), 301 (same to same, 13 Dec. 1684).

122 P.R.O., W.O. 55/1796, Duxbury to Hubbald, 31 Mar. 1686.

123 Sherborn, C. Davies, A History of the Family of Sherborne (privately printed, 1901), pp. 83 ffGoogle Scholar. B.L., Sloane MS. 836, ff. 85–86 (draft petition); Sloane MS. 1048 (petition); Sloane MS. 4067, f. 148 (petition); P.R.O., T. 1/80, p. 108 (petition).

124 I am thinking of men like George Legge, Lord Dartmouth, master 1681–89; Sir Henry Goodricke, lieutenant 1689–1702; Sir Jonas Moore, senior, surveyor 1669–79; and Sir Edward Sherburne, clerk of the ordnance 1641–42, 1660–88. See D.N.B.

125 Quoted in Albion, , Forests and Seapower, p. 52Google Scholar, from Pepys' Diary, 19 Dec. 1663.

126 See e.g. Eaton, D. B., Civil Service in Great Britain (New York, 1880), pp. 61, 69–70Google Scholar.

127 See Swart, , Sale of Offices, p. 55Google Scholar; Western, , Monarchy and Revolution, pp. 116–17Google Scholar.

128 in some respects corruption today in the emergent African nations seems to be at a similar stage as it was in early modern England. See Andreski, S., The African Predicament (London, 1968)Google Scholar, chap. 7 (‘Kleptocracy or Corruption as a System of Government’). I a m very grateful to Miss Lesley Allen for this reference.

129 See Ashley, , ‘The Organisation and Administration of the Tudor Office of Ordnance’, pp. 130 ffGoogle Scholar; Prestwich, Menna, Cranfield: Politics and Profits under the Early Stuarts (Oxford, 1966), pp. 218, 221, 392 ffGoogle Scholar.