Henry Brouncker

Description Will of Henry Brouncker of Saint Kitts and Nevis , West Indies Date 01 December 1769 Catalogue reference PROB 11/953 Dept Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Series Prerogative Court of Canterbury and related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers Piece Name of Register: Bogg Quire Number: 398 - 446 Image contains 1 will of many for the catalogue reference

Number of image files: 1

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May 5. 88. Report to the Treasury from the Customs Commissioners, dated Custom House, London, on the conduct of the officers concerned in collecting the 4½ per cent. and Enumerated Duties in Barbados and the Leeward Isles. In 1738 despatched Robert Dinwiddie, Surveyor General of North [sic] America, to inquire into said conduct on the complaint of Patrick Wilson, Comptroller of Basse Terre, against his collector, Henry Brouncker, for frauds and irregularities. In view of said Dinwiddie's report and of the observations thereupon of the Comptroller General [of Customs], have found it necessary to have a retrospect into the management and behaviour of the several collectors [of said duty] as far back as 1734, when a new set of instructions had been issued to them in consequence of former experience of their ill conduct. On consideration of Dinwiddie's report hereon, and of several papers relating to these matters, find that the collectors and officers in general have been guilty of great frauds and neglect. They have taken Pistoles in payment at 23s., and afterwards disposed of them on their own account at 28s. per Pistole without giving the Crown credit for the difference. They have charged for wastage on goods received in kind for duties, although same have been shipped off immediately and without wastage. Under pretence of want of money to pay salaries they have disposed of the King's sugars at low prices and made fictitious sales thereof, being themselves the purchasers. The collectors of Barbados, St. Kitts and Parham in Antigua have not complied with the form of the oath to their accounts as required by the instructions given to Mr. Dunbar in the Customs Commissioners' letter of 1736, May 8. Great frauds have been committed by the collectors in shipping off large quantities of sugar without payment of the 4½ per cent. duty, as appears by the accounts of the Comptroller General of Customs of sugars exported from the islands, and of same imported into Great Britain from 1734, Xmas, to 1738, Xmas. [See these accounts supra Vol. IV. p. 23 items 71 and 72. Said accounts should be treated as appendices to the present paper.] From these it appears that the said imports exceeded said exports by 29,787 hogsheads, this being, therefore, the quantity that has escaped paying duty in the islands. By the like comparison for 12 years the difference amounts to 126,800 hogsheads. With regard to Barbados at least half of all the sugars there made are improved or clayed sugars; whereas the collector has accounted to the Crown for only a sixth part thereof as improved or clayed sugars. The fraud on this head in four years amounts to 9,356l. Can only conclude that [Charles] Dunbar has partaken in the frauds. Have therefore dismissed him from his employment of Surveyor General of Barbados and the Leeward Isles. As the Comptroller General of Customs has represented that from the irregular and imperfect manner in which the accounts of the several collectors have hitherto been transmitted home it is impossible for him to make out the true balances due to the Crown from said collectors, have appointed Dinwiddie to proceed to said places to settle and adjust the accounts of the several collectors. After consideration of the order of the Customs Commissioners of 1705–6, made in consequence of the proclamation of 1704, by which the collectors were directed to receive the enumerated duties after the rates settled by said proclamation, have directed said collectors to be surcharged in their accounts with any difference that may appear between the rates so settled, and their manner of accounting for said duties. Further renew a former application to the Treasury for the enumerated duties (being laid by an English Act of Parliament) to be received in sterling money, the Attorney General having recommended this in his opinion of date 1715, Nov. 17, on which a presentment was made to the Treasury by the Customs Commissioners, 1715–16, March 15. Propose to employ Patrick Wilson in the 4½ per cent. revenue for his services rendered as above.
Endorsed:—1743, June 29. “My Lords approve of this report.” 5 pages.
Appending:—(a) Scheme proposed to the Treasury by Robert Dinwiddie, containing an estimate of the annual produce of each island (Barbados, St. Christopher, Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua), and a proposal for collecting the 4½ per cent. duty thereon in cash, viz., by agreement with the legislature of each island, the payment to be secured to the Crown by Acts of Assembly in the respective islands. “The Enumerated Duties being by Act of Parliament are not taken notice of in the above calculation.” 4 pages. [Treasury Board Papers CCCXI. No. 2.]