THE HISTORY OF THE Norfolk Steward.
In TWO PARTS.
THE HISTORY OF THE NORFOLK STEWARD CONTINUED.
In TWO PARTS.
Part I. Containing an Account of Mr.
LYN
's private Character, and the Methods by which he grew Rich.
Part II. Containing some farther Account of Mr.
LYN
's Management, and also of his Stating and Ballancing Accounts.
.
Anacreon.
Quocunque modo Rem.
Hor.
LONDON:
Printed, and
Dublin
Re-printed in the Year
MDCCXXVIII
.
PREFACE.
THE following historical Essays were written as a Sequel to one bearing the same Title, published some time since in the
Craftsman,
and communicated to that Author; but he having neglected to give them to the Publick, I have thought fit to become the Editor myself. Whether Mr.
d' Anvers
esteems other Subjects more seasonable at this time; whether he has been intimidated with Prosecutions, or soften'd with Applications, I do not take upon me to determine. I have the Pleasure only to assure the Reader, that I have faithfully collected the Facts that are related in these little Tracts, as they have fallen out from time to time, and shall continue to have a watchful Eye over the Actions of our Steward, and to record them for the Benefit of Posterity, that those who come after us at least may be deterr'd by this Example, from intrusting the Management of their Estates to bad Hands. The Memorialist furnishes Materials for the Historian, and so far he has a right to share in his Fame. Perhaps the Character of this most remarkable Steward may, by my means, be preserved thus to future Times; the Indulgence of this Vanity, and the Consciousness of having done what was in my Power to expose a corrupt Servant, is all the Reward I claim; as a Man has some little Pretence to Merit from the Publick, who only crys out,
Stop Thief.
But before I take leave of my Readers, I humbly intreat, as they desire to be thought candid, or courteous, or to be obliged with any other Epithets, that the most complaisant Writer ever gave them, That they will be so good not to force the Letters in the following Pages, to convey to them any other Meanings than what they stand for in the Order they are there placed, it being the Nature of the Twenty-four Letters in our Alphabet, as I am inform'd, when they are transposed, to give to the Reader what Ideas the Transposer pleases; so large is the Field of Innuendo's: This Caution might perhaps at any other Time or Place than this appear ridiculous; but as some People are very tender, and others very censorious, I thought this not an unnecessary Advertisement.
TO Caleb d' Anvers,
Esq
SIR,
I HAVE the Happiness to be Tenant to Sir
George English,
and there is not one among them who has a more hearty Affection for him and his whole Family, than I have. When this Estate (which he now enjoys, and which, Heaven grant, he and his may long enjoy) was first left to him, by the general Attornment of the Tenants, and the Consent and Act of brave Sir
William,
his Ancestor, I had the pleasure, as a Witness and a Tenant, to sign the Instrument my self: I saw good Sir
William
ratify it, I beheld him soon after expire, and could discern a pleasing Satisfaction in his Features, rising from the Comfort he received in having finished what he believed must make his Tenants the happiest and most easy of any People in our whole County. You will forgive me, Sir, that I thus dwell on the Praise of my good old Master Sir
William:
He was a Man who loved his whole Species, who had a general Benevolence to Mankind; he did not think any Man was born for himself alone, nor could he bear to see any of his neighbouring Landlords use their Tenants ill, or rack them too high; and more than once he has engaged himself in expensive Law-suits, to deliver them from the Hands of the Oppressor. Mr.
Lyn,
of whom I now complain to you, Sir, was one of the Tenants; and tho' his little Copy-hold was then not much in repair, and a little incumbered with Debts, however it has been since improved, he professed himself very zealous, as well as the rest of us, in the Interest of our Landlord, and continued so some Years: But Time proves every thing; and a very little while after he was appointed Steward to our old Master, he began to shew himself; and tho' the Affairs of Sir
George
grew every day worse and worse under his Management, the Affairs of Mr.
Lyn
grew better and better every day. He began to look plump and round; his little Farm was clear of all Incumbrances; his Family, his Friends, his Relations, his Acquaintance, all grew plump likewise, and flourished under his Influence: He had indeed been very liberal to them, not out of his own Money, but his Master's; He put them into all the Employments he could find in the several Manors, and very frequently, when there was no Employment ready, or open, or unenjoy'd by any Relation, Friend, or Dependent of his, he was ready to erect an Office, and to give it a Name and an Appointment out of his Master's Rents, without any Consideration how much his Master was in debt, how detrimental it must prove to his Estate, or how ungrateful it was to the Tenants, who saw, and murmured to see, that their Farms were racked to the highest, to support the Family, and other Self-Interests of Mr.
Lyn.
Well, Sir, our Steward grew rich, he grew ambitious and vain, and haughty, and humorous; and now took it into his Head, that he was as accomplish'd a Gentleman even as Sir
George
himself, and would needs be stiled his
Companion:
He dress'd himself up in Blue, and used to strut about in Pearl Colour Stockings, a Silk Doublet, and a Cap and Feather, and fancy'd he had enrolled himself among Heroes and Gods, so hard it is for a Man in Prosperity to check the Folly of a vain Mind; some time before this whim of bedecking himself in Taffaty and Blue, he had a Fancy to appear in Red; and accordingly one Morning with a very solemn and grave Countenance, he told several of his Intimate
that now he was grown rich, he was resolved to devote himself to the Service of Religion, as a Knight-Errant; that he would rescue Virgins, protect Orphans, destroy Giants, and do every thing praise-worthy, and becoming the great Office of true Chivalry; he exhorted his Friends likewise, who were very honest Men, and meant well, to do the same, and told them their Habiliments ought to be all alike. viz. Red Taffaty, Spurs, Feathers, Caps, Faulchions, &c. So said, so done, they dress'd themselves, they swore on the Evangelists to be good and true Knights, they march'd in an affected Stage-strut round the Town, and made a Shew in their whimsical Dresses that set all the Parish in a Gape. Now one wou'd imagine that Mr.
Lyn
was about to make amends for all his Mismanagement, and that the World, as it had been the worse for him, would be the better too: But this was only a Joke it seems; for as soon as ever he had persuaded his Companions to this, on a sudden he whipt off his Red Taffaty Doublet, and put on a blue one, as I have said, and called himself his Master's Fellow, to the great Surprize of every one. But these Frolicks, you will say, might only take Birth from the jocund Levities of a Head a little giddy with Prosperity, the plaisom Gaities, the
dulce desipere
of a Heart swollen with Joy and Power. We will go on then to consider him only in his Character of Steward.
Mr.
LYN
was no sooner got into the Stewardship, but he with very great Assurance told his Master, that none of his Tenants had any hearty Affection for him, but himself and his Sons, his Brother
Townly
and his Sons, with their Relations and Intimates; that if it were not for his and their Management, Sir
George
would not be able to make any thing of the Estate. And
Isaac Tombrel,
a Relation to a Relation of Mr.
Lyn
's by Marriage, had the Assurance to affirm before young Squire
English,
Sir
George
's eldest Son, at Dinner at the Mansion House in
Leicestershire,
that the Preservation of Sir
George
's whole Estate was owing to Mr.
Lyn;
for which, and other unmannerly and indecent Expressions, he was rebuked, disgraced, and sent back into
Norfolk.
Indeed Mr.
Lyn
used frequently in publick to applaud himself for his good Management of the Estate, and to pronounce himself with great Authority, the only Man in
England
who knew how to keep a Rental. He went farther, and frequently declared that was it not for him, and his great Art and Skill, the Tenants would not pay their Rents, that they would forget all Respect and Duty to Sir
George,
or join with Squire
Welsh
in the Law-suit against him. Tho' Squire
Welsh
and his Law-suit and Prentensions were very low and despised, and almost forgot by every body; yet Mr.
Lyn
always endeavour'd to make his court to his Master, by assuring him, that several of his Tenants, those I mean who held the largest Farms, and whose Hearts were always with Sir
George,
were secretly Favourers of the Pretensions of Mr.
Welsh;
this, Sir, indeed appears to me one of Mr.
Lyn
's greatest Iniquities, as I think a Pick-thank in a Family is most odious Character. But he was resolved to support his Power at the Expence of every thing; and now finding himself, as he imagin'd, at least in Trust and Confidence with his Master, (which we his poor Tenants hope is not really the Case) he raised his Crest, and threw out his natural Bronze. And as Insolence is ever the Mark of a little Mind, tho' conscious to himself of more Crimes than any Man but himself can discover, he slighted his Superiors and despised his Opponents. The Parish-Officers, the Assessors and Collectors of the Land-Tax, the Constables, Portreve, and Jurymen, were all his Creatures, Relations, Dependents or Subdependents, such whose Corruption and Consciences he could depend upon. Thus furnished, thus guarded and supported, he ventur'd on, he levy'd Money upon the Tenants on the most ridiculous Pretence: an old Bridge was to be repaired, a new one to be built, the Parish wanted a Set of Bells, a new Pair of Stocks must be provided; he made them contribute to the keeping several Packs of Hounds; and sometimes Master
Lyn
wou'd demand a round Sum of Money for private Uses, and such as were by no means proper to be known to the Tenants.
SIR
George
has a Park where his Tenants have Time out of Mind been permitted to recreate and refresh at leisure Hours, as often as they pleased; and thro' this Park many of them are oblig'd to pass every Day to their Grounds; Mr.
Lyn,
who valued himself on his Genius for raising Money, order'd his own Man to stand before the Park-Gate, and levy a Penny for the Passage of every Man, when Business or Diversions oblig'd him to pass that way; and this too under the Pretence of setting up a pair of Gates only, tho' the Money levy'd would new pale the whole Park. And this I mention only to shew you how ready he is at Undertakings of this kind.
HOWEVER, notwithstanding all the Discouragements that the Tenants lay under, they might have thriven even under the Stewardship of Mr.
Lyn,
if he had not with the utmost Art and Application laboured to prevent it. The two greatest and known Enemies to Industry and Trade, are Luxury and Gaming: these he carefully encouraged; and in order to this, he invited the Tenants to a large Gaming-table which had been erected indeed in another
Robinocracy,
in the very middle of the Market-Place. To this Gaming-table the Tenants, when they had disposed of their Wooll, their Corn, &c. all hurry'd; and as there is in most Men a Lust after inordidinate Gain, many of them play'd, and every Day left behind them the Labours of their Industry. But Mr.
Lyn,
ever provident for himself, took care that this should turn to his Advantage; for (tho' he never appeared there himself) he always employ'd a few faithful Confidents to play for him, and allow'd them to share in some Parts of the Spoil. It was always his Method when he play'd thus by Deputy, to use loaded Dice, either high or low as he fancy'd; and when some of the Tenants, who by dear Experience were now grown very peery, observ'd Mr.
Lyn
's Dice in play, they would very artfully, as they imagin'd, set their Dice accordingly; that is, if they observed Mr.
Lyn
used high Dice, they set expecting them to run high, and so low, when they saw his Dice run low; but when the Stakes were deep enough to invite Mr.
Lyn
's Acceptance, they were always invisibly changed upon them; and he was by this ingenious Artifice Master of Part of the Property of the Tenants. And as often as he pleased, by this he amassed Wealth, by this means the Manufactures of our Country are very much hurt, and our Trade decreases. This is at present the Case under our most righteous Steward; and they tell me, there is nothing he delights in at this Hour, so much as Gaming by Proxy, and Fox-Hunting.
TO
Caleb d' Anvers,
Esq
The HISTORY of the NORFOLK STEWARD.
PART II. Containing a farther Account of Mr. Lyn's Management; and also of his Method of Stating and Ballancing Accounts.
SIR,
I Believe my
last
hath convinc'd you that Mr.
Lyn
's management of Sir
George
's
Domestick Affairs,
was full as extraordinary as that of his
Lawsuits
with his
Neighbours.
But perhaps you will wonder that he should be suffer'd to go on so long in these Practices; that he hath not been constantly
presented
every
Court-day
for so many repeated Misdoings; or that even all the
Tenants
of the
Mannor
do not unanimously make it their request to Sir
George
(whose Ears are always open to their Complaints) that he would be pleased to remove a Steward whose Mananagement is generally disliked and complained of by all the Tenants. But your Surprize will vanish when you recollect what I have told you in both my former Letters; that all the
Prime Officers
both of the
Parish
and the
Mannor,
as well as most of the
Jurymen,
were his own
Relations
or
Creatures;
that a great number of the
principal Tenants
were bribed into his Interest, and that many others, who had honest Intentions, were afraid to oppose a Man, who had it in his Power to
raise their Rent, distrain their Goods,
or
turn them out of their Farms
at Pleasure, by representing them as
bad Tenants
or
Enemies to their Landlord;
tho' these very People were the best affected to their Landlord, tho' they paid their Rents punctually, and had no other demerit, but that they faithfully adhered to what they conceived to be the true Interest of Sir
George.
In short, it is the peculiar Character of Mr.
Lyn,
That when he took up a Prejudice, however unreasonable, against any of the
Tenants,
he always
made it a POINT
(as he call'd it) to
ruin
them with Sir
George,
and stuck at nothing to compass his End.
YET notwithstanding all this Power, and this extravagant Use of it, there are many Persons of considerable Interest and Figure in the
Mannor,
who have constantly opposed him in all these Proceedings, and have, at present, the Pleasure to see a general Spirit of Resentment rising against him. The Number of his
Opponents
increases daily; whilst many, some even of
those,
who are
obliged
to act with him, are frequently heard to murmur against his Proceedings, in publick as well as private; and others who eat his Bread, as he is insolently pleased to call it, Sir
George
's Bread, the Tenants Bread he means, hang down their Heads; and conscious of their Crime in not opposing his Measures, plead guilty to the Charge against him in their Silence.
THE
Freemen
of the Town, where Sir
George
lives himself, are heartily, almost universally, incensed against him, on
divers Accounts;
particularly for having introduced several
New Customs
amongst them; for always interposing his Authority in their
Elections of Parish-Officers;
for making them pay more for their
Fewel
than the rest of the Tenants; for refusing to read a
Letter
written in their behalf, on this Account, and replying with an insolent Air,
That he did not care a
F—t
for the whole Town.
GREAT Numbers of
poor Tradesmen,
who supplied the late Sir
George
with Necessaries, are ready to starve for want of the Money, he died in arrear to them on that Account; which is the more extraordinary, because Sir
George
had always a sufficient Income to keep a noble Houfe, and pay every body, as indeed he seem'd always inclinable to do; from whence they conclude, That Mr.
Lyn
embezzled great Sums himself, and squandered away others, for his own Vanity and Grandeur, amongst a
worse kind of TRADESMEN
than they are. Nay, what adds to the Provocation is, That Mr.
Lyn
will not satisfy them
whether they shall ever be paid or not.
THE
neighbouring Country Gentlemen
complain of him for
engrossing the Game,
and forbidding them to hunt, or ride in Sir
George
's PARKS, as they used to do.
THE Clergy charging him with recommending Men of slow Parts for Preferment in the Church to old Sir
George,
when any
Livings
fell; of which there was a great Number, during
his Life
and the
Stewardship
of Mr.
Lyn.
THE
Yeomanry
grumble for want of Money, the
Manufacturers
for want of Business, and the
poor Labourers
for want of Bread; and all impute their Misfortunes, I think, after what has been said, not very unjustly, to Mr.
Lyn,
by engaging old Sir
George
in a
needless, expensive
and
chimerical Law-suit,
and thereby preventing the usual
Circulation
of Money in Commerce, by diverting it into other
Channels.
IN short, all Ranks of Men (except a
few particular Creatures
of his own) seem to have their respective Complaints against him, and unite in their Wishes for a
new Steward.
NAY, we have a current Report about the Country, that our
present Landlord
(who is a Gentleman of
great Penetration,
and applies himself very much to
Business
) hath been, for some time, of the same Opinion with his
Tenants;
and altho it may not be convenient to discharge him at present, at least till his Accounts, which are in the utmost Confusion, are audited and settled, yet it is certain that he hath already
clipt his Wings, and so short too,
that he is unable to take his
former Flights.
THIS hath a little sunk his Crest, and soften'd his Behaviour to his
Fellow-Tenants,
tho' he still endeavours to keep up his usual Spirit of
Defiance;
but we can easily observe, from the frequent
Tremulation of his Voice, the faultring of his Accents, his Loss of Temper and Confusion in his Sentences,
that he is inwardly very much
chagrined
and
disturb'd.
YOU may remember, I told you, in my
first,
that Sir
George
's Estate (when he came to it) was charged with an
heavy Debt:
And that when Mr.
Lyn
was call'd upon to give an Account of the
great Sums of Money,
which had passed thro' his Hands, he always refused to do it, and endeavoured to make a Jest of
those
who demanded it. But at length, the general Clamour obliged him to consent to
some Examination;
upon which it appears, even by his
own Account,
that his Master's Estate is so far from being the
better
for his Management, according to his
former repeated Declarations,
that it is
several hundred Pounds more in debt,
than it was before he came into the
Stewardship,
notwithstanding the
great Sums
which ought to have been
yearly
applied towards paying it off.
BUT his
manner of stating Accounts
is so very extraordinary, that I believe you will think it worth relating.
Mr.
Lyn
hath always boasted, that the
Family-Debt
was very much
diminished
within these
ten
or
eleven Years
past, and
defied
his Enemies to prove the contrary. Now, in order to see whether this was true or not, it was proposed, first, to state the
Debt,
as it stood
eleven
Years ago,
is all its Branches.
Then to deduct from it the several
yearly Sums,
which have, or ought to have been paid out of a certain
strong Box,
where the Savings from the Rents, after the Expences of the Family were paid, were constantly laid up, to discharge part of the Mortgage upon the Estate, as it was appointed to do since
that time;
and afterwards to compute the
whole Debt, of every kind,
which the
Family
owes at
present.
It was agreed, I think, that the
Debt, eleven
Years ago, amounted to about 51000
l.
The
strong Box
was said to have produced, since
that time,
about 7000
l.
which reduces the Debt (had no
farther Debt
been incurred, as the Phrase in vogue is) to 44000; and, in whatever degree the
present Debt
should appear to be
less than that Sum,
so much, and no more, ought to be allowed to be
really diminished,
since
that Time,
by the Management of Mr.
Lyn;
since he could not pretend to arrogate to himself the Merit of
paying any Sums, which would have paid themselves
had he let them alone.
THIS seem'd to be a fair
Proposal,
as it was generally esteemed; but fair as it was, Mr.
Lyn
demurred to it. At first, indeed, he crack'd, bluster'd, and defy'd, as usual; at length, with much Difficulty, he agreed to give in some Account. Accordingly he gave in his
own State of the Account;
and a Day was appointed for the
Enquiry;
when that came, he made a
considerable Alteration
in his own Account. And having afterwards acknowledged
that he had quite forgot several other considerable Sums of the Debt contracted,
he run his usual Circle; he asserted, affirmed, deny'd, was positive, was every thing but intelligible; he talk'd in short till he had not only made himself but many of his Hearers giddy. There is not, perhaps, so great a Master in
Europe
of the grand Art of Bambousle as Mr.
Lyn:
The Debt (said he) is incurred, but not increased; there are real Debts and nominal Debts; there are real nominal Debts, and nominal real Debts; there were real Debts and personal Debts, which the Family must pay; there are Debts never-stated tho 'incurred, and Debts which tho' incurred and stated, might never be paid; so that upon the whole you see I have paid off a considerable part of the Mortgage upon Sir
George
's Estate: But when he was told, that tho' it was true that part of the
Norfolk
Mortgage was paid off, yet Sir
George
was really now as much in debt as before, because Mr.
Lyn,
to perform this mighty Deed, had borrow'd just as much upon Sir
George
's Estate in
Leicestershire,
as he had paid off in
Norfolk,
so that the Ballance continued as before; he broke into a loud Laugh, and told the Tenants they knew nothing of Accounts, nor the difference between a Debt incurred and a Debt increased.
BY the Help of these
Distinctions,
and this Jumble of
Sophistries,
he struck off one Article of
above three thousand Pounds,
which he asserted to be a
very good Bargain to the Family;
another of almost
two thousand,
because it was owing to
very bad Management;
and a third of
one thousand,
for no other Reason, that I could hear, than that he did not know how to
justify the contracting
of it, or in what manner to provide
for its Payment.
HE had also the Modesty to place
another considerable
Sum amongst the
Debts discharged,
within
that Time;
which ought really to have been placed amongst
those incurred.
IT is likewise worth observing, that Mr.
Lyn
had previously taken care to puzzle and perplex the
Accounts
as much as possible, in order to secure himself from
Detection,
by chopping and changing the
Securities into different Hands;
borrowing of
one
to pay off
another;
turning
Interest
into
Principal,
and
Principal
into
Interest;
with a thousand other
Arts
and
Stratagems
of the same kind; so that he had a manifest Advantage over
Those
who were not in the
Secret.
NAY, what is still more extraordinary, he stated his Account of
Debts contracted
to
Christmas last only;
whereas he calculated the Sum of
Debts discharged
to
Lady-day
next; a Method of
stating
and
ballancing Accounts,
which was never before practised or heard of in these Parts!
AND yet after all these
Finesses
and
Fallacies,
and
arbitrary Postulata,
the
present Family-Debt
evidently appear'd to be, just as it was
eleven
Years ago,
fifty one thousand Pounds,
or thereabouts.
THO' it is generally believed here, that this Affair will not redound much to the Credit of Mr.
Lyn;
yet it must be confessed, that his
Arithmetical Capacity
is really admirable, and that he hath proved himself, beyond all Contradiction, to be a complete Master of
Addition,
as well as
Substraction.
To be continued as the Steward goes on.
FINIS.