A HISTORY OF SURREY 



at this period the former had been nearly or quite suppressed. The 

 iron masters had eluded the vexatious trammels of the Tudor legislation 

 sometimes, but now in the unparliamentary period of Charles' govern- 

 ment they were marked down as a source of money, commissioners being 

 appointed to compound with them for breaches of the law on pain of 

 Star Chamber proceedings. This was in 1636 and 1637.* Yet the 

 county must have been fairly flourishing. In the assessment to ship 

 money in 1636, while Kent and Berkshire and the counties in the south- 

 east Midlands were assessed at between j and 6 a square mile, Surrey 

 was assessed at between 6 and 5 on the same scale as Essex, Suffolk, 

 Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and 

 Leicestershire ; higher than Norfolk, Hampshire and Devonshire and 

 many others ; more than twice as highly as Yorkshire, three times as 

 highly as Lancashire and the three northern counties. Though the 

 impost was unconstitutional there is no reason to suppose that it was not 

 fairly assessed. Southwark raised the average of the Surrey assessment. 

 It was naturally the most highly rated place in the county, 350 being 

 required from it in 1636. Farnham parish stood at 94, Godalming at 

 90, Kingston at 88, Guildford at only 53." There must have been 

 a genuine decay of trade for the county town to have sunk so far in 

 rateable value ; Reigate at 60 and Dorking at 58 were both above 

 it. Ship money was assessed on both real and personal property. It 

 was trifling in amount on individuals, but was generally disliked and 

 often resisted in inland shires as being unusual. The successive sheriffs 

 of Surrey, Sir Anthony Vincent in 1637 an ^ Nicholas Stoughton in 

 1638, had difficulty in collecting it. 3 In the first instance none had 

 refused to pay, 4 but a spirit of resistance grew up in Surrey as elsewhere. 

 Stoughton wrote to the Council on May 7, 1638, that people refused 

 payment and threatened the collectors with actions, and the distresses 

 could not be executed. Cattle taken for distress at Blechingley were 

 forcibly rescued. 6 In fact Nicholas Stoughton, a Puritan and friend to 

 the Dutch, against whose naval insolences ship money was needed, mem- 

 ber for Guildford in the Long Parliament and active opponent of the 

 king, was not very anxious that ship money should be collected if he 

 could get out of it decently. Most of it seems ultimately to have been 

 paid. On January 28, 1638, only 300 was in arrear for the whole 

 county, 54 in Southwark, 10 5J. zd. in Guildford, and small sums 

 from individuals, such as I $s. from the Earl of Annandale. 



Another hardship had befallen Surrey which though not general to 

 the whole kingdom had also affected many counties. In the straits to 

 which Charles' government was driven for money in the time when 

 Parliaments were suspended and direct taxation in the form of subsidies 

 was out of the question, and forced loans were given up in accordance 

 with the Petition of Right, the king had turned to a strict definition of 



1 Rymer, Fcedera, xx. 68, 161. See Appendix, Ship Money Assessment. 



8 Bruce's St. P. Dm. Ch. I. 1638. 4 Ibid. Ch. i. November 15, 1635. 



8 Ibid. 1638, vol. cccxlviii. 

 402 



