This Proclamation, so long as it was observed, must have put a considerable check to the use of these Carriages; nor can I think it could operate much in the King's favour, as it would hardly be worth a Coach-Master's while to be at so great a contingent charge as the keeping of Four Horses to be furnished at a moment's warning for his Majesty's occasional employment. We are to construe this, then, as amounting to a prohibition, on account of the certain expence which must follow an uncertain occupation. The nature of this penalty, as I may call it, was founded on the Statute of Purveyance, not then repealed.
But there was another co-operating cause that suspended the use of Coaches for a short time, which was the introduction of the Hackney Chairs, which took place a very little while before the Proclamation. They arose from the incommodities stated in the Royal Edict, and, no doubt, tended in some measure towards the suppression of the Hackney-Coaches; till by degrees being found incompetent to answer all their seemingly intended purposes, we shall see the Coaches, in about two years time, return into the streets, and resume their functions. But to proceed with the History of the Chairs. At the critical time, then, when Government was devising measures to prevent the increase of Coaches as much as possible, for the reasons alleged in the Proclamation, there stepped in a Knight, by name Sir Saunders Duncombe, a Gentleman-Pensioner, and a travelled man, who proposed the introduction of Chairs, after the model he had seen abroad[361]. This was in the year 1634; when Sir Saunders obtained an exclusive Patent for the setting them forth for hire, dated the first day of October, for the term of fourteen years. The number is not specified, but left perhaps indefinite, it being impossible to say what would be necessary in a new device of this sort, tending to be beneficial to the introductor, as well as convenient to the Publick. The tenor of the Grant, omitting the words of course, runs thus:
"Charles, &c.
"Whereas the several Streets and Passages within our Cities of London and Westminster, and the Suburbs of the same, are of late time so much encumbered and pestered with the unnecessary multitude of Coaches therein used, that many of our good and loving Subjects are by that means oftentimes exposed to great danger; and the necessary use of Carts and Carriages for the necessary Provisions of the said Cities and Suburbs thereby also much hindered. And whereas, our servant, Sir Sanders Duncombe, Knight, hath lately preferred his humble Petition unto us; thereby shewing, that in many parts beyond the Seas, the people there are much carried in the Streets in Chairs that are covered; by which means very few Coaches are used amongst them: and thereof he hath humbly besought us to grant unto him the sole using and putting forth to hire of certain covered Chairs, which he will procure to be made at his own proper costs and charges, for carrying such of our loving Subjects as shall desire to use the same, in and about our said Cities of London and Westminster, and the Suburbs thereof.
"Know ye, that we, of our princely care of the good and welfare of all our loving Subjects, desiring to use all good and lawful ways and means that may tend to the suppressing of the excessive and unnecessary number of Coaches now of late used in and about our said Cities, and the Suburbs thereof; and to the intent the said Sir Sanders Duncombe may reap some fruit and benefit of his industry, and may recompense himself of the costs, charges, and expences, which he shall be at in and about the directing, making, procuring, and putting in use of the said covered Chairs, of the purpose aforesaid; and for divers other good causes and considerations, us hereunto moving, of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and by these Presents, for Us, our Heirs and Successors, do give and grant, unto the said Sir Sanders Duncombe, his Executors, Administrators, and Assigns, and to his and their, and every of their, Deputy and Deputies, Servants, Workmen, Factors, and Agents, and to all and every such person and persons as shall have power and authority from him, them, or any of them, in that behalf, full and free Licence, Privilege, Power, and Authority, that they only, and none other, shall or may, from time to time, during the term of fourteen years hereafter granted, use, put forth, and lett to hire, within our said Cities of London and Westminster, and the Suburbs and Precincts thereof, or in any part of them, or any of them, the said covered Chairs, to be carried and borne as aforesaid.
"Witness Ourself at Canbury, the First day of October[362]."
The place principally hinted at in the above Grant, or Patent, seems to have been the City of Sedan in Champagne; where, we are at liberty to suppose, these covered Chairs being most in use, they obtained with us the name of Sedan Chairs, like the local names of Berlin and Landau[363].
These new Vehicles, hitherto unseen in our orbit, had, doubtless, patrons among the beaus and fine gentlemen of the age; though, in their general utility, they manifestly could not be so commodious as Coaches, were it for no other reason than that they could carry but one person. They might prevail with persons of a certain rank and description; but the opulent Merchant, and others in a similar line of family life, still were in want of a conveyance of greater capacity; a circumstance which would depress the Chairs, and gradually hasten the re-introduction of the Coaches, and which, as has been observed, took place accordingly in little more than two years. The following special commission was therefore granted by the King, A. D. 1637, wherein the number of the Coaches seems rather to have enlarged, and the management of them was placed in the department of the Master of the Horse. It runs essentially in the following words:
"That we, finding it very requisite for our Nobility and Gentry, as well as for Foreign Ambassadors, Strangers, and others, that there should be a competent number of Hackney Coaches allowed for such uses, have, by the advice of our Privy Council, thought fit to allow Fifty Hackney Coachmen in and about London and Westminster; limiting them not to keep above Twelve Horses a-piece. We therefore grant to you [the Marquis] during your Life, the Power and Authority to license Fifty Hackney Coachmen, who shall keep no more than Twelve good Horses each, for their, or any of their, Coach and Coaches respectively. You also hereby have Power to license so many in other Cities and Towns of England as in your wisdom shall be thought necessary; with power to restrain and prohibit all others from keeping any Hackney Coach to let to hire, either in London or elsewhere. Also to prescribe Rules and Orders concerning the daily Prices of the said licensed Hackney Coachmen, to be by them, or any of them, taken for our own particular service, and in their employment for our Subjects; provided such orders be first allowed by us, under our Royal Hand."[364]
We may observe that the article of Purveyance is here very gently touched upon, and confined to a sign-manual. Mr. Anderson supposes that there must have been many more than fifty Coaches introduced by the above allowance of twelve horses; but it seems rather to imply that no Coach-Master should engross more than six Coaches to himself. This also might be a tacit mode of preserving a supply of horses to be purveyed for the King when necessary.
One may collect from hence that private Coaches were sparingly kept, by the mention of the Nobility and Gentry.
Hitherto we have found the Hackney Coaches under the regulation of the Crown, or its immediate Officers; but we are now to look for them at a time when the Monarchical Government was suspended, during the Protectorate. Whether the Master of the Horse received any emolument from granting the above Licences, is not apparent; but under the Commonwealth we find that the Coaches became subject to a tax towards the expence of their regulation; for by an Act of Oliver's Parliament, A. D. 1654, the number of such Coaches, within London and Westminster, was enlarged to two hundred[365]. The outlying distance was also augmented to six miles round the late lines of communication, as the Statute expresses it; by which I conceive that the greatest distance was extended to nine miles, including the three prescribed, or rather enjoined, by the regulating proclamation of King Charles I. in the year 1635. By this Act of Oliver's Parliament, the government of the Hackney Coaches, with respect to their stands, rates, &c. was placed in the Court of Aldermen of London; and as, of course, this new business would require Clerks, and other officers, to supervise it, the Coach-Masters were made subject to the payment of twenty shillings yearly for every such Coach.