THE WINDOW-TAX, LOCAL MINTS, AND NOBBS OF NORWICH.
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 259,371l. 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 15s., fatted with corn 20s., the best cow for 12s.; a fat hog of two years 3s. 4d.; a fat sheep shorn 14d., and with fleece 20d.; a fat capon 2d., a fat hen 1d., four pigeons 1d. 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.)
COWGILL.