My very good Lord I have received
your letters touching Middleton’s return, and also of the Lord of Buckhurst
renewing of his suit.
For Middleton’s report, he has
not differed much from that I have already informed her Majesty: only this I
consider that this year is more plentiful for the Tin than has been this forty
years before, & that it seems, contrary to former objections that the Mines
rather increase than diminish their portion, & Middleton has not yet
informed nor shall be able till the next coinage, the full quantity.
For my Lord of Buckhurst, he does
not yet arrive to the proffer which I have made to her Majesty: which she shall
better perceive by perusing my notes of information, since by the Agency,
dealing for the half, my undertakers are to pay five thousand pound yearly
& certain. And if the Lord of Buckhurst with his Agents will join for the
other half, he nor they by my offer are excluded, so that the whole to her Majesty
ought to be made ten thousand pounds by year, wherefore his offer is not so
profitable for her Majesty as mine.
Besides the Lord of Buckhurst
persists still in a course whereby her Majesty is much hindered. That is he
practices still my Agents, by devises, and by open benefits, to cause them to
give me over he draws them not from me, but from her Majesty.
It is but since Tuesday at […] night
last at [...]e of the clock, he sent to speak with Alderman Cacher, who came unto
him the next morning, where the Lord of Buckhurst told him that in his suit of the
Tin he had much crossed him wishing he had given him a 1000l he had not
dealt with me, and further if he would draw away his friends, he was assured I
could not but fail in undertakers, which thing if he would undertake for
recompense he offered him a 1000l worth of Tin, for 20l the thousand.
By this dealing I find that I
have all this while mistaken ye Lord of Buckhurst whom I thought that he had dealt
only for her Majesty’s profit, as before he sent me word by one Bullman, encouraging
me to proceed, in this service & he would the like for his part endeavour
the same.
But this dealing conferred with
the like, when he practiced Carmarthen from me and by one Haales, the rest of the
undertakers, whose names I sent your Lordship the contrary does appear.
Also so long as it shall be held
a firm opinion, that the Lord of Buckhurst shall have the suit upon easier
conditions then myself it is hard for me to make it so commodious as indeed
otherways [=otherwise] I may. For who in reason, will give ten, when they know
her Majesty will be satisfied with a much inferior sum.
There is great difference between
my offer & ye Lord of Buckhurst both in certainty and uncertainty for in
the certainty mine is ten thousand pound a year, and in uncertainty as the
quantity of Tin rises as it does this year, and as the merchants shall find it
prosperous to themselves, so her Majesty parting half with them of their gains
to increase her proportion, which as my notes plainly set down may happen to be
20 thousand pound some year, from which good hap, besides the surplus in the 10
thousand pound by year her Majesty does bar herself, by granting it absolutely
to the Lord of Buckhurst for seven thousand six hundred pound a year.
My absence from the City takes
away the commodity which else I might have in more speedy answering of your
Lordship. But I do not doubt, if I may have her Majesty’s indifferent
countenance in the matter, but to make all good that I have informed her. Although
by such dealings as I have afore set down, and others which I reserve to a
fitter time, I say not I, but her Majesty has bene greatly hindered.
I beseech your Lordship that in
this her Majesty’s service, wherein I have labored so long, that you will stand
indifferent between the Lord of Buckhurst and me, and so much the rather to yield
me your favour, by how much you shall see it is more for her Majesty’s profit.
I most heartily thank your
Lordship for your desire to know of my health which is not so good, yet as I
wish it, I find comfort in this air, but no fortune at the Court.
I hope your Lordship has your health
and I shall be glad to hear thereof, and this one thing I have to inform your
Lordship before I make an end, and that is at my coming hither from Charing Cross, the Earle of Derby, was very earnest that he might assure a thousand pound
a year for my daughter’s [...]^finding ^ adding farther that he marveled that
Sir Robert Cecil her uncle & I her father were so slack to call upon it. Wherefore
I shall desire your Lordship as you shall choose best time, that something may
be done therein, my daughter, has put her trust in me, both to remember your
Lordship and her husband wherefore I would be glad, that some certainty were
effected to her mind. Byfleet. This 7 of August, 1595.
Your Lordship’s ever to Command
(signed) Edward Oxenford
Addressed (in Oxford’s hand): To
the right honorable my very good Lord the Lord Treasurer of England. [seal]
Endorsed (in Burghley’s hand): 7
August 1595; The Earl of Oxford. Answer to Middleton’s certificate for the tin
works
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- More on Thomas North as Shakespeare and author of Arden of Feversham. June 14, 2021. “This is also the reason why the title pages included the address of the shop that was selling the book.”
- A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Gutenberg, proto-Hack Writers and Shakespeare. May 26, 2020. “A less well known effect of the Reformation was that many young Catholic men who had taken religious orders in order to receive an education began to lead lives at large from monastic discipline. Like Erasmus and Rabelais they took up the pen.”
- Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not. No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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