A HISTORY OF SURREY 



the period of Sir Polycarpus's lease, may be 

 briefly epitomized. 



Polycarpus Wharton was directed by the 

 Ordnance to take a lease for twenty-one 

 years of the great powder works at Chil- 

 worth, and entered into a contract to that 

 effect on i January 1677-8. He had, it is 

 said, been bred in the art of making gun- 

 powder and seems to have been first employed 

 to supply powder to the government on 

 30 July 1673.* The Chilworth mills were 

 in so ruinous a condition when Wharton 

 entered on his lease that the expenditure of 

 a sum of ;^ 1, 5 00, paid out of his own pocket, 

 was necessary to make them serviceable. By 

 the terms of the contract the rent, the grow- 

 ing necessary repairs, and the incidental 

 charges, amounting in all to j^i,ooo yearly, 

 were to be paid by the Ordnance when the 

 mills were not employed by the Crown, and 

 it is stated that they were not so employed 

 during one-sixth of the term. Yet for ten 

 years Wharton could obtain no reimburse- 

 ment for his expenses, aud then he was per- 

 suaded to waive his contract, to accept ;^2,ooo 

 by way of debenture of which he never could 

 receive a penny, and to enter into a new con- 

 tract for keeping the works at his own charge 

 during the remaining eleven years of the lease. 

 In return for this he was to supply 1,200 

 barrels of powder a year over and above his 

 proportion with other powder makers. The 

 date of this contract is given in the account 

 of Wharton's ' hard case ' as 22 December 

 1687, but the books of the Ordnance Office 

 refer to one of the date 14 July 1688.' 



The narrative goes on to relate how little 

 the Ordnance officials respected the terms 

 of their second contract with Wharton. 

 Whereas from the date of it until 27 April 

 1695 the total amount of powder supplied to 

 the Office by all makers was 98,920 barrels, 

 of which Sir Polycarpus's proportion should 

 have been 51,685, he was only allotted the 

 making of 32,852. The making of the 

 deficiency of 18,833 barrels had been appor- 

 tioned to foreigners and others to keep their 

 works employed while those of Chilworth 

 stood still. Nor was this all the injustice he 

 had met with. The annual quantity of 1,200 

 barrels over his proportion to be supplied by 

 him was ignored by the Ordnance Office, so 

 that by April 1695 he had been deprived of 

 making the extra number of 9,600 barrels 

 over his regular quantity, the total deficiency 

 being 28,433 barrels, or very nearly a half of 



\^\ O. Ordnance, Stores Issued, vol xlvi 

 Ibid. Bill Bk. II. vol. xxxviii. fo. 



25- 



the total quantity he could claim it as his just 

 right to supply. 



And all this slighting of the claims of the 

 Chilworth maker had occurred, it is repre- 

 sented, in spite of the feet that at the be- 

 ginning of the war that was then being 

 waged, the great expense that Sir Polycarpus 

 had been at in erecting new works and 

 engines, had made his mills alone able to sup- 

 ply the stores with 325 barrels of powder 

 weekly throughout the year, a quantity 

 'much more than all the other powder 

 works in the kingdom could then furnish,' 

 and for want of which ' it had been impossible 

 that the fleet could have been timely supplied 

 with powder both at that and other times 

 since.' 



Among Sir Polycarpus's other services to 

 the State was that of imitating the German 

 powder which was much esteemed for its 

 great strength. In January 1 680-1 he had 

 at King Charles II.'s request been ordered to 

 send two able persons to Germany to receive 

 Prince Rupert's instructions in the art. This 

 order had been countermanded and Wharton 

 had been desired to imitate the powder in 

 England, which he did, it is said, to such 

 perfection that in one year his powder upon 

 trial before the king and Prince Rupert was 

 found to exceed the German powder greatly in 

 strength and yet able to be made at a much 

 cheaper rate. Encouraged by the king he 

 had erected mills near Windsor, 'much 

 differing from the common sort,' and sufficient 

 to make forty barrels weekly of this powder. 

 These mills had cost him £2,yoo, yet never 

 could he receive recompense nor had he 

 made any quantities of the new powder for 

 the service of the State. 



In all Sir Polycarpus is said to have been 

 a sufferer by his twenty-one years' lease of 

 Chilworth mills to the extent of ^^24,000. 

 This includes a sum of at least ;^3,5oo loss 

 by blowing up of works and sinking of barges 

 laden with goods, and also apparently the 

 loss he had sustained by the payments to him 

 during the last six years of his lease being 

 made by tallies which he could only discount 

 at from ten to thirty per cent. The result 

 of all these hardships and injustice was that 

 in 1 710 Sir Polycarpus was languishing in a 

 debtor's prison from which the dilatoriness of 

 the government in considering his memorials 

 and reporting upon his case seemed little 

 likely to release him at the time when the 

 story printed in Aubrey's work was related. 



The Chilworth mills in the year 1700 



consisted of three several works known 



respectively as the Upper works, the Middle 



works and the Lower works. They are so 



326 



