24S 



appears that M. Briot, the chief engraver of the royal mint, was 

 not yet so much under the influence of the two houses as to 

 shrink from obeying the commands of his sovereign. We learn 

 from the journals of the house of commons, that on the 23rd of 

 July the house was informed that a week or ten days previously 

 a quantity of materials of all sorts belonging to the royal mint, 

 which had been sent by M. Briot, were stayed at Scarborough 

 by Mr. Jo. Stevens, captain of one of the ships of the fleet then 

 at sea, and riding about that port ; and directions were given 

 that the committee of the navy should send for M. Briot to be 

 examined respecting the business ; and it was resolved that 

 Captain Stevens had done well in stopping the materials, as no 

 authority appeared for transporting them, and he was ordered 

 to detain them in his hands until he received further directions 

 from the house. ^ It is not very improbable that some of the 

 articles intended by M. Briot to be conveyed to York, after- 

 wards reached their destination, but we may reasonably con- 

 clude that the several circumstances I have mentioned would 

 defeat the king's intention of setting up a mint at York pre- 

 viously to his final departure from the city, which took place on 

 the 16th of August. 



From York the king removed to Nottingham, and from 

 thence to Shrewsbury, where in a speech to the people, on the 

 28th of September, he said, " I have sent hither for a mint, and 

 I will melt down all my own plate." ^ This did not escape the 

 notice of parliament. On the 5th of October the Commons 

 ordered that the officers of the mint should be required not to 

 suffer any officer, workman, or instrument belonging to the 

 mint, or coining, or graving, to quit their charge or to be 

 carried from thence without the authority of the house. ^ 

 Notwithstanding this prohibition, the king, having obtained 

 the assistance of the officers of the Aberystwith* mint, set up a 

 mint at Shrewsbury, which, according to Lord Clarendon, 



» Commons' Journals, Vol. II. p. 687. ' Husband's CoU., p. 623. 



3 Commons' Journals, Vol. II. p. 795. 

 . * The Aberystwith mint was established about the year 1621, for the purpose 

 of striking money from silver produced in the principality. Hawkins, p. 160. 



