working life of women seventeenth century - School of Economics ...

26 CAPITALISTS CAPITALISTS 27Welling, servant to the late Prince Henry, petitionedfor the erecting of an office for enrolling theApprenticesof Westminster, etc. As this was not granted,she therefore begs for a lease of some concealed lands[manors for which no rent has been paid for a hundredyears] for sixty-one years. The Petitioner hopes torecover them for the King at her own charges.'Lady Roxburgh craves a licence to assay all goldand silver wire " finished at the bar " before it isworked, showing that it is no infringement on theEarl of Holland's grant which is for assaying andsealing gold and silver after it is made. This, it ispointed out, will be a means for His Majesty to pay offthe debt he owes to Lady Roxburgh which otherwisemust be paid some other way.2A petition from Katharine Elliot " wett nurse to theDuke of Yorke" shows that there is a moor waste orcommon in Somersetshire called West Sedge Moorwhich appears to be the King's but has been appropriatedand encroached upon by bordering commoners.She begs for a grant of it for sixty years ; as an inducementthe Petitioner offers to recover it at her owncosts and charges and to pay a rent of one shillingper acre, the King never previously having receivedbenefit therefrom.' The reference by Windebanknotes that the king is willing to gratify the Petitioner.Another petition was received from this same ladydeclaring that " Divers persons being of no corporationprefers the trade of buying and selling silk stockingsand silk waistcoats as well knit as woven utteringthe Spanish or baser sort of silk at as dear rates as thefirst Naples anh also frequently vending the woven forthe knit, though in price and goodness there is almosthalf in half difference." She prays a grant for thirty-' S.P.D. cxi, 121, 1619.S.P.D. clxxx, 66, 1624.".P.D. cccxxiii, 109, 18th June, 1637.one years for the selling of silk stockings, half stockingsand waistcoats, to distinguish the woven from theknit receiving from the salesmen a shilling for everywaistcoat, sixpence per pair of silk stockings andfourpence for every half pair.'Elizabeth, Viscountess Savage, points out that Freemenof the city enter into bond on their admittance withtwo sureties of a hundred marks to the Chamberlainof London not to exercise any trade other than that ofthe Company they were admitted into. Of late yearspersons having used other trades and contrived notto have their bonds forfeited, and the penalty belongingto His Majesty, she begs a grant of such penaltiesto be recovered at her instance and ~harge.~The petition of Margaret Cary, relict of Thomas CaryEsquire, one of the Grooms of the Chamber to theKing on the behalf of herself and her daughters, begsfor a grant to compound with offenders by engrosseringand transporting of wool, wool fells, fuller's earth,lead, leather, corn and grain, she to receive a PrivySeal for two fourth-parts of the fines and compositions.Her reasons for desiring this grant are that her husband'sexpense in prosecuting like case: has reaped no benefitof his grant of seven-eighths of forfeited bonds for thelike offences. She urges the usefulness of the schemeand the existence of similar grants.'Mistress Dorothy Seymour petitions for a grant ofthe fines imposed on those who export raw hides contraryto the Proclamation and thereby make coaches,boots, etc., dearer. The reference to the Petitionstates : " It is His Majesty's gratious pleasure thatthe petitioner cause impoundr. to be given to theAttorneyGeneral touching the offences abovernencioned . . . and as proffyt shall arise to His.' S.P.D. cccxxiii ,7. Bk. ofpeiitioners, Car. I.' S.P.D. ccciii ,65, Dec. 6th, 1635.3S.P.D. cccvi., 27, 1635.