Article I. THat in the Years 85 and 86 there were granted me (as Treasurer for Tanger) two Privy Seals of 50000 l. each, for paying the Arrears due to the Petitioners and Garrison there, at the time of its demolishing.

Answer. 'Tis acknowledg'd.

Art. II. That I have receiv'd upon these Privy Seals 90000 l.

Answ. The Total receiv'd thereon is 72200 l. and no more; there resting unpaid of the same at this day 27800 l.

PROOF, A Constat from the Exchequer, under the Hand of Sir Robert Howard.

Art. III. That I did for a long time clandestinely keep from them, the knowledge both of the said Seals and Mony; making to my self in the mean time considerable profit of the same.

Answ. The little Truth, or possibility of any, in this Suggestion, ap­pears;

• 1. From the diversity of the Publick Offices (accessible to all En­quirers) through which every Privy Seal, as well as Exchequer Payment, necessarily passes; to the rendring the concealment of either wholly im­practicable.
  • PROOF, The known Number (no less then 6) and Methods of those Offices.
• 2. From their having had in constant Pay, a Messenger and Solicitors of their own appointment and Number, daily attending between the Treasury, the Exchequer, Themselves, and Me; for the looking after and advertising them of every day's proceeding, relating to this Affair.
  • PROOF, Their own Hands.
• 3. From a Comparison easie to be made, of the Dates of my Receipts for Monies out of the Exchequer, and those of theirs upon their Payments from Me. Which will be found seldom distant 3 days, never 7; but on the contrary, the advancements of Mony on my side for the most part to pre­cede by much greater distances, the actual Payments from the Exchequer to me.
  • PROOF, Sir Robert Howard's foremention'd Certificate; their own Original Acquitances; and my frequent Reports of both to the Lords of the Treasury.

Art. IV. That I have (besides my Salary from the King) taken from them upon every Payment, 12 d. poundage and 4 s. per l. Composition-Mony, amounting together to 25 per Cent. necessitating them to compound or sell me their Arrears upon my own Terms.

Answ.

• 1. That 12 d. per l. was by Their own joynt Order to Me in writing, stopt out of every of their Payments; to be disposed of by a distri­bution [Page 2] of their own, among several Persons by themselves named (of whom My Self but one) in express Requital for a Service, nothing relating to my Treasurership, which they then own'd to have been done them in the col­lecting, examining, and adjusting, the numerous, perplex'd, and clamorous Reckonings and Scores depending at Tanger, at the time of its demolition, between Them and the Military Officers there. A Work of several Months continu'd Labour; and what for the Moment of it, they owe the Recovery of their whole Estates there entirely to. And for the acknowledgement thus made for it; as it was on My part neither desired nor expected, but came long after the Service was done; so was it done with so declared a Satis­faction on Theirs, as to have been afterwards by themselves not only fre­quently confirm'd; but in a Representation of their own, to the Lords of the Treasury, touching the Method of My then Payments to them (even with this Defalcation) reckon'd for no Abatement.
  • PROOF, The Originals of their said Order, Representation, and other Papers under their Hands.
• 2. That as to the 4 s. per l. the pretended Composition-Money; I have it to observe, that for so much of their Debt, as the Lords of the Treasury thought fit to enable me to discharge with Mony in specie, the same was strictly made good to them as I received it, without the least Defalcation, other then that before mention'd. But when, upon the Lords becoming less satisfied herein, from some later Notices that toucht the general Merit of the Petitioners Claims, and their being thereby led to a Backwardness in further burthening the King with the Charge of Extraordinary Interest for raising Mony for them, the Petitioners found themselves unable by any applications to obtain, for many Months together, any further Supplies; notwithstanding a Proposition they had long before made to their Lord­ships, of abating 6 per Cent. per Annum for two years, towards the easing his Majesty in that Charge. They became restless Soliciters to me, for the imploying my Credit (with the aid of the Allowance they had so unsuc­cessfully offer'd to the Lords) for procuring them the advance of their Monys upon the Fonds I should next be supply'd with towards it. Which from my regard to the Condition of the Petitioners, and at the instance of the late Noble Lord, my Honoured Friend the Lord Dartmouth, their known Patron, I was prevail'd with to do; and did it with such effect, as by my own Credit alone, and Friends, to have raised them every Penny they have since receiv'd; and with it clear'd the whole of what either of Right, or by Promise in his Majesties Name from that Noble Lord, they then had, or now have to pretend to, payable by my hand, from the King. And this upon terms of Abatement so much beneath what is here suggested of 4 s. per l. and yet more, that of 25 per Cent. as not to have ex­ceeded 2 s. per l. or 5 per Cent. Which is lower by 1 per Cent. than what themselves (as before) had offer'd to the Lords for the same Service, with no acceptance; and was not only received as an Office most grateful to them at the time of its Transaction, but has ever since with like Thank­fulness been on all occasions acknowledged to me by them for such.
  • PROOFS, Their Proposition to the Lords, with other Evidences under their Hands, besides an Appeal to their own Memories.

Which being the Case of these two Defalcations (both of them by their own Desires, and both for their own Service only) I do, as Treasurer, [Page 3] utterly Disclaim the having receiv'd from any of them the least Considera­tion in the Execution of my Office, other than the bare Salary allow'd me for it by the King. But so much the contrary, as out of a singularity of Tenderness to the Petitioners, to have wholly remitted to them a Claim to Poundage, which Universal Practice through every Part of the Publick Service, both by Land and Sea, makes a Right of the Treasurers, upon all Stopages for Debts made by Consent for the Use of private Creditors.

And so much I value my self upon the Sincerity of my Proceedings past, and the Truth of all my present Allegations herein, as to be ready to repay Ten-Fold, for every Penny I shall upon Proof be found to have directly or indirectly, by my self or others, taken or receiv'd, from any one of the Petitioners, upon any Account whatever, beyond what I here declare.

Art. V. That through my unjust Dealings, many of these Inhabitants have perish'd, and some of them in Goal.

Answ. How far this may in Fact be true, I know not. But this I know; that as this is the first time of my ever meeting with it; so is it not (be it true) to be charg'd upon the want of any thing within my Cognizance due to them from the King, or within my own power to have been otherwise helpful to them in. Witness the Many of them, whom I have succour'd, both by my private Charity and other good Offices; And Some, who at this very day owe their Freedom to my only Forbearance of them, for Monies due and unsatisfied, which in their Distresses I have supply'd them with, upon None or at most upon Common Interest.

PROOF, Their own Memories, or (that failing) other Evidences ready to be shewn them under their Hands.

Art. VI. That I have 20000 l. upon these Privy Seals at this Day Resting in my Hands.

Answ. So far is it from my being Debtor, either in this or any other Sum upon these Seals; that every Penny of Money I have pay'd to the People of this Place since Midsummer 1688. (which is now little short of 7 Years) has been out of my own Purse, to near 3000 l. more than ever I received thereon. And this, without a Farthing of it Reim­bursed, or any Fond yet supply'd me for securing its Reimbursement, to this Day.

PROOF, My several Reports of the State of my Receipts and Payments to the Lords of the Treasury; with the general and particular State thereof accompanying this.

Art. VII. They therefore Pray, That I may be obliged to Account for the said Monies.

Answ. An Account goes herewith of every Sum, great and small, by me Receiv'd and Pay'd upon each of these Privy Seals; shewing the Value of each Sum, the distinct Day of each Receipt and Pay­ment, the particular Hand from or to which the same has been so Re­ceived or Pay'd, and on what Account.

PROOF, The Exchequer- Constat for my Receipts, and Original Acquitances for my Payments.

Art. VIII. And that I may Pay them their just Due.

Answ. The Gross of their Debt from his Majesty, payable by Me, was cleared within the Year 1687, and the small Remainders thereof, since. So as to have left no one Penny of this their Tanger-Debt (to which alone his Majesty stood Intitled by any Promise of the Lord Dartmouth's) unsatisfied to any one Inhabitant of them (within my Notice) for full 6 Years past.

PROOF, The foremention'd Accounts and Reports, with their own Original Acquitances.

Which having said, and therein valued my self upon no Private Asserti­ons of my own, or even my Oath (which yet, if required, I am ready to give) for the Truth of any Particular; but upon Evidences, either wholly in­contestable, or such as the Petitioners themselves are most concern'd to support the Credit of; I take Liberty only of subjoyning this one Appeal for the Whole, to the Right Honourable the Lords of the Treasury, before whom this Matter has wholly lain. Whether within the Ten entire Years of its Negotiation, any one Word of Complaint, or Exception there­to, has ever come before their Lordships; from whose Hands, and un­der the Protection of the Noble Lord before Named then Living, they could not have wanted a quick Relief; without needing to have Exposed, either Themselves to the Consequences of so many Years Want of it, if Due: Or Me (if otherwise) to the Disappointments, which such an Interval might have brought upon any Accomptant, less Fortunate in the Order and Preservation of his Papers, than on this Occasion it has been my good Hap to be.

And from whence it comes at this Distance to be now first raised by them, will receive a satisfactory Opening, so soon as by this my Answer and its Proofs, I shall have acquitted my Self as I ought, to the Con­tents of their Petition.