SOMERSETSHIRE SEQUESTRATIONS. 61 



That ordinance expressly enacts, " That all the real and 

 personal property as weU of certain Bishops therein named, 

 as of aU such other persona, either ecclesiastical or civil, as 

 raised arms against the Parliament or voluntarily contri- 

 buted (not being under the power of the King's party), 

 any money, horse, plate, arms, ammunition, or other aid 

 towards the maintenance of any force against the Parlia- 

 ment, and also two parts in three of the property of all 

 Papists," should be seized and sequestered into the hands 

 of Committees and Sequestrators, named for the several 

 counties throughout England, who were to remit all moniea 

 received for rents of estates, the sale of stock or goods, or 

 othervvise, to certain officers in London, to be disposed of 

 as the Parliament should direct. 



By subsequent ordinances, the wives and children of 

 delinquents were allowed one-fifth part of the property 

 sequestered, for their maintenance ; and (with certain 

 exceptions) the delinquents themselves were permitted to 

 Compound for the forfeiture, by payment of a composition 

 not exceeding two years value of the estates sequestered, 

 and a Committee sat at Goldsmith's Hall to conduct the 

 negotiations and assess the amounts to be paid. 



The Sequestrators were remunerated by a per centage 

 of Is. in the pound on the monies remitted by them to the 

 Treasury ; and with a party not over scrupulous in the 

 means employed, this was manifestly good policy, as it 

 could not faU to excite activity and zeal in their officers, 

 and to increase the number of delinquents and forfeitures. 

 Accordingly, we find that both by their own exertions, as 

 well as by the assistance of their agents and spies, they 

 were niost successful in " getting up " cases, scouring the 

 country for intelligence, and setting a watch upon the 



