upon view of the duplicates it did not appear to them to prevail
so much in the Country parishes. The Assessors generally alledged
for excuse that what they had done was to satisfy the charges of
Collection the making of the Books and such like and that many
persons refused to pay their Assessment by reason whereof little
more could be raised than sufficient to satisfy the Treasurer the
legall Sum the upon view of the Books it appears to Your
Committee that in most of the parishes the assessment has been
almost practically raised. The Assessors of St. Anns Westm did
acknowledge their fault and confess that they did it knowingly
to give an opportunity to the Collector to raise a Sum of money
for the support of himself and a numerous Family which
must otherwise have been burthenfome to their parish
and to the end of their Assessment have deceitfully added
the words Sum Total £11:19s:5d: Tho' they mention in the title
that £7 only was charged upon their parish But upon casting
up the Book by some of your Committee it appears to Your
Committee to amount to £17 and upwards It appears that all
the Collectors who are for the most part the Beadles either
in their own right or as Deputys did this with their Eyes open
in regard none of them have paid more to the Treasurer's use
than the sum charged upon their parish by the legall rate
and they acknowledged that the money by them raised over
and above what they had paid to the use of the Treasurer was
still in their hands. Your Committee had it in their intention
to have caused all the Originall Collecting Books to have been
cast up to see what has been actually collected and
consequently what remains in the Collectors hands but that
has not been yet done for want of an opportunity of seeing
those Books which they Confest they had destroyed. In the
course of this enquiry it appeared that several parishes to
prevent any oppression upon them had ordered the just Sum and
no more to be paid out of the Land tax But this precaution appears
also to have been abused for upon view of the receipts in some of
those parishes Your Committee entertained a suspicion that
they had paid their proportion in a year wherein No trophy
Money was ordered to be assessed Viz. the year from Midsummer
1720 to Midsummer 1721 and the annext receipt for St. Pancras is
expressly so And it appears also by the Originall Warrants annexed
that warrants were filled up by the Clerk to the Lieutenancy and
signed and sealed by three Deputy Lieutenants and issued into
the parishes of St. Margaret Westmr and St. Giles in the Fields