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to be so, by a certificate conceaved by Sr Euble Thelwall & Mr Gerrard vpon the aforesaid hearing & signed by Sr | Euble Thelwall for mortalities sake in the tyme of the late great visitacõn, Mr Gerrard being then not in Towne. | And as concerning the howse in the Interrogatory mencõned called there Hunsdon howse in wch the foresaid office is nowe | kept the deponent at the foresaid hearing, would haue forced the plaintife to purchase his moiety therof but the Commissioners | hold the same altogether vnreasonable, as this deponent conceaveth, and in noe wise to concerne the plaintife, | yet thought fitt that the plaintife Barker should take the same at such yearly rent, as indeifferent persons chosen by | the plaintife & defendant should think yt worth, & as such a comodious howse might be had for, as may also appeare by the | foresaid Certificate, but for such tyme as the office should be kept there.
24. To the xxiiiith Interrogatory this deponent saith that the seuerall articles mencõned in this Interrogatory dated 30th May 1624 | & viith of March, 1624 were signed by the said Commissioners & parties and by them agreed vpon. And there is prouision | made in the decree & in the former of the said articles for the defendants daughter and her husband & children & by the decree | and the fiue articles the defendant was to bring in his said daughter to ioyne in sale of the said lands and by the latter of | those articles, the defendant was also to procure Christopher Barker to ioyne therein, and therein is an expresse article § | enioyning the sale of Vpton to paie towards the office, wch nevertheles the defendant or his said daughter refused to ioyne | in the sale of the said Vpton, as hath beene confessed. But for the manner and matter of the provision in the said decree | & articles for the said Sara and her husband & children, this deponent referreth himself to the said decree & articles, but | he conceaueth that the provision in the decree mencõned for the said Sara was not to come to her, till after the decease | of the said plaintiffe & his wife & the said Xrofer Barker, and that provision was alterred & laid to yssue out of the said § | office by the said articles made and agreed after the decree.
25. To the xxvth he saith, that there is a reservacõn of power to the Commissioners both in the foresaid decree & in the subsequent | articles by assent of the parties, to heare & determine such doubts and questions as should arise touching the decree | & former articles, & in the latter articles there is an expresse Clause, that in the drawing vp of the then intended | decree, the said Sr Euble Thelwall Phillip Gerrard and Thomas Jones, should haue full libertie power, & authority | vpon pervsall of the former decree & those latter articles to incert and add such further words & circumstances of explanacõn | addicõn and amplificacõn on both sides, as they in their wisdoms & discretions should thinck fitt, as in & by the said | decree & articles respectiuely (wherevnto this deponent referreth himself) may appeare. And this deponent doth conceaue, | that that reseruacõn of power to themselues might well be a motiue or inducement to the Commissionrs the rather to lett | xxth per Centum <to> passe in the decree, for that they might reduce yt, or take yt off at their pleasures, as this deponent thinketh.
26. To the xxvith Interrogatory this deponent deposeth & saith, that the copies of the letters now shewed him dated the xviith § | July 1623 & xxvth July 1623 are the true copies of those lettres wch Mr Gerrard sent signed wth his owne | hand to the said Mr Jones, wch this deponent knoweth, for that he examined those copies wth the originalls, and he further | saith that he heard the said Mr Gerrard affirme in the yeare 1625. that there was a new decree drawne by him or | the said Mr Jones, or by their order or consents in this cause, & that some things rested in their the said Commissioners brests wch | were to be incerted into the said decree before the same should be passed, and the plaintife or his wife or their friends or all | of them desiring to knowe those thinges the Commissioners replied that they were not fitt to be knowne, til the plaintife & his wife | had leuied a fine & sealed a deed of vses, & perswaded them to dispatch that fine, & told them that the accompt for the | office was finished and agreed vpon, & that yt should never be questioned more by the defendant Norton, & that they the Commisssioners | had determined all thinges as touching the office, or to that effect, And those things so reserved in the Commissioners brestes | and to be incerted into the decree, this deponent conceaueth to be mencõned in the foresaid report or certificate | conceaued by Sr Euble Thelwall & Mr Gerrard & signed by Sr Euble Thelwall for mortalityes sake as aforesaid | Mr Gerrard being then out of Towne as aforesaid.
27. To the xxviith Interrogatory hee saith that the note in this Interrogatory mencõned now showed him of bookes & other things as | were printed in the said office from the xxth of December 1622 to the xviith of June 1626. was composed by this | deponent & extracted out of certaine accompt books of the office, wch the deponent by the now Commissioners direcõn deliuered | to the defendants or substitutes handes or both to pervse. And this deponant doubteth not but the foresaid books of Accompt | will warrant all the impressions mencõned in that note, if the same be weyed & considered by iudiciall | vnderstandinges experienced in such affaires and skild in the course of the said office but true it is by reason | the defendant or his subsitutes haue kept the accompts of the said office very disorderly & confusedly in this deponents | Iudgement & not at all produced any cleere certaine or constant accompt of the worke imprinted in the office | the foresaid note in [3 words illegible] not easie to be vnderstood, but this deponent doth conceaue that the wages | allowed vpon the foresaid bookes to the workmen loadeth to their worke, wch are thinges certainely knowne & those | works added answereth and warranteth the foresaid Impressions in the foresaid note in this deponents iudgement. | But for the certaine numbers of the seuerall impressions mencõned in the said note as aforesaid this deponent | cannot precisely speake to, but knoweth that the like impressions wth a lesse ouerplus of paper then is allowed | to them did produce vpon everie impression in former tymes vsually ?for many yeares together, far greater | numbers then the defendant is now charged wth by the said noate.
29. To the xxixth Interrogatory this deponent saith that for 6000li of the 8000li wch the defendant was to haue for the office | the Commissioners did allow him to haue but fiue in the hundred wch in the said decree is said to be done for good | reasons, & parte of those reasons this deponent conceaveth to be those : first for that in giuing him 8000li they | gaue him more than they intended, or sawe iust cause for, as some of them acknowledged had not the plaintife | voluntarily assented therevnto. Secondly for that there was monie then due & in the handes of ye Sequestrators | wch the defendant was to have in short tyme after, & yet the plaintife paid vli per Centum for the same. And thirdlie | for that the proffitts of the office were to come in weekly & were to be accompted for but euery sixe monethes | by the decree.
31. To the xxxith Interrogatory this deponent saith that he hath knowne the practise and vse of the office for the space of | sixteene yeares, & in the yeares before the said office came unto the defendants handes, the vsuall impressions consisted | of 3000 & 6000 & the allowance of overplus in those times were vpon euery impression of 3000. 200. & vpon | every impression of 6000. 400. viz vpon euery three reames of paper fower quires, & those allowances perfected the | Impressions aforesaid of 3000. & 6000 as aforesaid, & produced commonly aboue the said Impressions of 6000. | 200, or 250. or thereabouts, and sometymes as many more & so prorata for the Impressions of 3000. & for | euery greater and lesser number, And since the defendant came to the said office the like numbers in the Impressions | haue beene kept as afore, & greater allowances made by one quire of paper in euery three reames, as this deponent is informed, but what those ouerallowances haue produced, this deponent knoweth not for that hee was barred by | the defendant or his substitute to haue due inspecõn thereof, and noe orderly Course hath beene obserued to this | deponents vnderstaning therein, but this deponent conceaueth that an exact accompt of paper bought & deliuered | to the presse & of workes returned & deliuered from the presse to the warehowse might cleere this question in the | greatest parte if expert Stationers had the Accompt in handeling. And he saith further that to his knowledge | if the overallowances in the defendant time haue made the like produccõns (as well they might in common reason and | as he coneaueth) then by the computacõn aforesaid, there are farre more bookes to be added vpon every | Impression
Daniel Hills Nath. Weston
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Impression as aforesaid then the defendant is charged wthin the note specified in the xxviith Interrogatory.
32. To the xxxiith Interrogatory he saith that he conceaueth and beleeveth yt to be verie true, that the aforesaid | office hath not bene executed to the best aduantage for the plaintifes benefitt since the said decree, and the | reasons that induceth this deponent so to conceaue, are, for that divers of the debts that were due to the | office, and good debts in common repute, at the dissolucõn of the sequestracõn, of the said office, haue become | neglected and forborne, contrary to the former custome & vse in the said office, and for that there hath beene | noe Accompt nor booke kept of the worke of the office from the presse to the warehowse, that this deponent could | ever see for want whereof in all likelyhood great losses haue bene susteyned, if not to the defendant yet to the plaintife | who cannot come to knowe neither what is become of the paper yt self brought in & charged vpon the | accompt, nor what the same produced nor yet what was imprinted, otherwise then collectinge the same § | by the wages paid to the workmen. And he further saith that the vse in former tymes was to keepe one | booke for the entrie of paper bought, & payment for the same & one other for paper deliuered to the presse out of | the warehowse & of the worke printed therevpon & receaved back from the presse into the warehowse § | whereby yt might appeare still what was printed, what sould, & what remayned wch bookes hath not bene | kept as this deponent knoweth of, so that yt is impossible to knowe the certaine truth of thinges and other | booke or bookes ought to haue beene kept of all receipts and payments, none of all wch bookes haue bene | dulie and orderly kept since the said decree, to this deponents vnderstandinge. And he saith also that hee | Agents of their dealinges in their Copartnershippe of the office, And that divers sommes of monie that never | came in time into the generall accompts, nor common accompt bookes of the office were entred into those | private bookes or notes, for this deponent did find at one tyme divers such parcells amounting to a great | value that proceeded of the office, and the defendant being chardged therewith was inforced to confesse the | same, & to bring them to accompt, And he cannot conceaue the reasons of the defendants or his substitutes | keeping such private bookes or notes vnles yt was thereby to hide & obscure the true profitts of the office | from the plaintifes Agent, wch by the decree he was to be privie vnto, & could not be councealed in case | they should have beene entred in the generall accompt bookes of & for the office. And this deponent knoweth | not in wch of those bookes all the receipts of the office were entered, nor that they were at all entred | all in any bookes, but referreth himself therein vnto the said generall & private bookes, wch if they | be trulie kept should manifest the truth thereof.
33. To the xxxiiith Interrogatory this deponent saith that hee conceaveth the said office was chiefely | mismanaged by the defendant or his substitute, and the accomptes disorderly kept in that there were | noe exact accompts kept of all bookes and paper printed since the decree, as is vsed by the company | of the Stationers, wherein the defendant hath a stock goinge, & in not ?inuring the debts & in trusting | out the stock contrary to the course of the office as aforesaid. And as to the moiety of the stock | of the office in the Interrogatory mencõned the xviiith of June last, he saith it consisted | much of dead wares and he conceaveth that the total of the moity of the said stock at that tyme | was not worth 2000li to be sould for ready monie, and at the tyme of the Sequestracõn the stock | of that moiety in bookes & debts did amount vnto by the accompt then taken by the defendants Agente | and others to seaven thousand pounds or thereabouts. And more he saith not to this Interrogatory.
Daniel Hills
Nathaniel Weston |
