tion by the Comptroller and other officers.[1] The auditors in their turn had an eye upon the Office. A sum of £50 was originally included in the account with the explanation:
'Item more for new presses to be made thorowowte the whole storehowse for that the olde were so rotten that they coulde by no meanes be repayred or made any waye to serve agayne. The Queenes Maiesties store lyeng now on the ffloore in the store howse which of necessitie must preasently be provyded for before other workes can well beginne. Whiche presses being made as is desyred by the Officers wilbe a greate safegarde to the store preasently remayning and lyke-wise of the store to coome whereby many things may be preserved that otherwyse wilbe vtterly lost and spoyled contynually encreasing her Maiesties charge.'
To this is appended a note:
'Not allowid for so moche as the said presseis ar not begonn.'[2]
It may be admitted that the cost of the Revels would have been less if the officers had been in a position to pay for the goods supplied to them in ready money. They probably got small 'imprests' or advances at the beginning of the year when they could, but for the most part they had to obtain credit and satisfy their tradesmen with debentures, redeemable when the accounts had been audited and a warrant under the privy seal for the payment of the certified expenses issued. Elizabeth succeeded to an exchequer already burdened with the debt of past reigns, and the issue of these warrants was often delayed. William Bowll had made it part of his claim to be appointed Yeoman in succession to John Holt that he had made advances for 'payment to the workemen and other poore creditors for mony due unto them in the said office, accordinge to thear necessities before any warant graunted, only for to mayntayn the credit of the said office'. An undated letter is preserved amongst Burghley's papers in which he makes an attempt to recover a sum of £236 due to him for goods supplied over a period of two years and nine months.[3] A similar letter, written on behalf of the creditors and artificers serving the office, and signed by 'Poore Bryan Dodmer a creditour, to saue the labour of a great number whose exclamacion is lamentable', refers specifically to the unpaid balance of the office account on 28 February 1574, which stood at £1,550 5s. 8d.[4] Bryan Dodmer had received
- ↑ Feuillerat, Eliz. 157, 160, 172, 178.
- ↑ Ibid. 186.
- ↑ Tudor Revels, 28; Feuillerat, Eliz. 416; from Lansd. MS. 83, f. 145, misdated in pencil 'July 1597'.
- ↑ Tudor Revels, 29; Feuillerat, Eliz. 412; from Lansd. MS. 83, f. 147. Dodmer was still pursuing a claim in the Court of Requests in May 1576 (Feuillerat, Eliz. 413).
