INDUSTRIES 



may be judged from the fact that on 28 April 

 1597 the Masters of the Court of Requests 

 were especially urged by the ordnance officers 

 to defer until Michaelmas term the hearing of 

 a suit in which one of the saltpetre men was a 

 party, because there was great need of his 

 service for making saltpetre to be used by 

 Evelyn for making gunpowder, which could 

 not be so conveniently done as in summer.^ 



The patent of 1589 expired at the end of 

 1599, and on 7 September of that year a new 

 one was granted." Both George Evelyn and 

 Richard Hill now retired from the business, 

 and the new patentees in addition to John 

 Evelyn were his brother Robert, Richard 

 Hardinge, John Wrenham and Simeon Tur- 

 ner. In the preamble allusion is made to the 

 damage done to the queen's subjects in the 

 previous making of gunpowder within the 

 realm, by the great consumption of wood, and 

 also by their being excessively charged with 

 the finding of the carriages required in the 

 work. As some palliative to these incon- 

 veniences it is stated that John Evelyn and 

 his fellow patentees were reputed to have 

 contrived some means by which the con- 

 sumption of wood and fuel and the number 

 of carriages required were likely to be greatly 

 reduced. What this invention was we are 

 not informed, and we hear no more of it. 

 The scope of this new patent was extended 

 by the inclusion of the right to the Evelyns 

 and Hill, so soon as a then existing grant to 

 George Constable, already mentioned as the 

 partner of Richard Hill, should have expired, 

 to dig and work saltpetre within those 

 northern counties which had been excepted 

 in the former patent. 



The queen was now^to be served with 

 100 lasts of powder yearly at id. the pound, 

 a saving, as remarked in the contemporary 

 notes, before referred to, on the benefits de- 

 rived from the home manufacture of gun- 

 powder, of no less than ^^5,000 in the year. 

 If required a further quantity of 20 lasts 

 was to be supplied each year. What the 

 powder makers could make over and above 

 the queen's requirements, they were allowed 

 to retail to merchants and other subjects at 

 \Qd. the pound. 



A certificate made by the officers of the 

 ordnance after this patent had been in oper- 

 ation for two years and eight months shows 

 that the patentees had not failed to fulfil 

 their covenant, and had monthly supplied 

 the stipulated quantity of 8 lasts 8 cwt. 

 of good cornpowder.* Not only this, but 



1 S. P. Dom. Add. xxxiii. 80. 

 > Pat. 41 Eliz. pt. 4, m. 8. 

 3 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cdxxxiv. 10. 



n 313 



they had oiFered to serve a much greater 

 quantity if required, and the amount of 

 stock lying in their hands was increasing 

 to such an extent that it was recommended 

 that a request made by Sir Noel Caron for 

 30 lasts of powder and 10 of saltpetre for 

 the States General should be granted. So 

 that at this time not only was it possible for 

 England to produce sufficient saltpetre and 

 gunpowder to satisfy her own needs, but she 

 was able also to supply the very country from 

 which formerly she had drawn her principal 

 supplies of these commodities. 



Besides supplying new powder the patentees 

 had also agreed to renew all such powder as 

 should have grown unserviceable whilst in 

 the Crown's stores. A Pipe Office account 

 shows the total amount of decayed powder 

 issued to John and Robert Evelyn for repair 

 from 22 September 1595 to 9 January 

 1603-4, the quantity of double-refined salt- 

 petre they had received from the Tower 

 stores, and the amount of repaired powder 

 which they had returned.* The total quantity 

 of decayed powder which they had received 

 was 117 lasts 21 cwt. 53 lb., and the total 

 renewed and returned by them 96 lasts 3 

 cwt. 93 lb. Allowing i last 5 cwt. 59 

 lb. for waste, this meant a net deficiency ot 

 20 lasts 12 cwt. I lb., which at various 

 rates per pound was valued at ;^934 \\s. 'i.\\d. 

 Of saltpetre they had received 20,413 lb. 

 and had returned 638 lb., the deficiency of 

 19,775 lb. at %d. per lb. being valued at 

 jf659 3^. ifd. Thus the total amount which 

 the Evelyns were accounted to owe the 

 Crown was ;£i,593 15^. 3^^., but against 

 this had to be set various sums of money 

 owing upon debentures to them and their 

 late father for powder, recompense for divers 

 losses, and money advanced by them to the 

 auditor for his expenses. At the time the 

 account was made up the Evelyns had by 

 payment into the Exchequer of two sums of 

 ^^558 15^. o\d. and ;^30 41. \\d. settled the 

 debit balance against them. 



The patentees were not allowed to enjoy 

 the exercise of their royal licence without 

 some cavilling. A number of arguments 

 drawn up by the law officers of the Crown 

 probably in 1602^ aim at proving that the 

 patent of 1599 did not constitute a monopoly 

 but was useful in policy, equity and by com- 

 mon law, and was not impeached by a pro- 

 clamation of 28 November 1601. That 

 the patentees were not the sole makers of 

 gunpowder in the realm may be seen in the 

 occurrence of the name of another maker 



« Pipe Office Declared Accts. 2708. 

 » S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxxvi. 42. 



40 



