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Rare Signed George Carteret Dated 1663 in the Midst of His Rise & Fall as Treasurer of the Navy
Rare Signed George Carteret Dated 1663 in the Midst of His Rise & Fall as Treasurer of the Navy
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Carteret George


Rare Signed George Carteret Dated 1663 in the Midst of His Rise & Fall as Treasurer of the Navy

Bifold manuscript document signed, 7" x 11.5" on laid paper. Scripted to recto of first page, balance of pages blank, docketed to verso of second page. Dated "17 July 1663", and signed by George Carteret as "G Carteret". Overall toned, and grubby. Expected folds with light creasing with small 1" separation at fold.

 

A rare example of a Carteret Signature on an order for “Seven thousand fifty-six pounds one shilling, & eight pence…for and towards the whole charge of four thousand men appointed for six months service at Sea…” Loyal to the Stuarts during the English Civil War, Carteret received ample grants of land in North America and was one of the proprietors for both the Carolinas and New Jersey (which he named after his native island). The town of Carteret is named after him, and Elizabeth is named in honor of his wife. After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Carteret won appointment as Treasurer of the Navy, in which capacity he issues this appropriation. RARE.

 

Carteret's amazingly complicated life brought him from fortune to massive debt, and back to fortune. At about the time of this document, England had seen much upheaval, Cromwell's strong hand no longer on the helm, the country began to drift into anarchy. In Scotland, however, was General Monck, a strong man who had always managed to keep clear of politics. He marched south to restore order. At first he had no intention of recalling Charles, but he soon saw that nothing but the old form of Government by King, Lords, and Commons gave any hope of stability. On 8 May 1660 he persuaded Parliament to proclaim Charles as King. As soon as Carteret heard this he came post-haste to London. The King had appointed him Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household; so it was his job to get Whitehall ready for its new tenants. (Two deaths in the Royal Family postponed the Coronation until April 1661).

 

The most exacting of his tasks was the Treasurership of the Navy, As Treasurer of the Navy Carteret had another house in Deptford dockyard. This he made his chief home. Deptford was then a pleasant little Kentish town, surrounded by cherry orchards. He soon found the Treasurership no bed of roses. Cromwell had taken pride in his navy, but in the long interregnum everything had gone to pieces. Carteret inherited a debt of £678,000; yet the Commons granted him in his first year only £169,000, and in his second £172,000. Not until 1663, when money came in from the sale of Dunkirk to the French, could he balance his accounts. But this relief was only temporary. In 1665 England drifted into war with Holland, the strongest sea power in Europe; and he was called on to equip 160 ships with all that such a struggle required. The Navy was bankrupt. The sailors were actually being paid in IOU tickets, which they had to cash ashore for what they could get for them.

 

"The men of the Breda", wrote Pepys, who was now Carteret's Clerk of the Acts, "are breaking the windows of our office, swearing they will not budge without money". In three dockyards the men struck, refusing to do another stroke of work until they received their pay. And now, when money was most needed, the Plague and the Fire upset the whole machinery of taxation. In this crisis Carteret threw his own fortune into the scale. He borrowed £280,000 by pledging his own property, and so kept the fleet at sea. But the war went badly. The Dutch sailed up the Thames, burnt or scuttled the ships at Chatham, and towed down the River the Royal Charles, the pride of the British Navy. A scapegoat had to be found. Before this happened Parliament had called for an audit of the Naval Accounts, and Pepys had confessed in his Diary "Our method of accountancy, though it cannot, I believe, be far wide of the mark, would not abide a strict examination". Carteret's enemies began to whisper the ugly word, embezzlement. Three and a half million pounds for the Navy had passed through his hands. He was rich, but the Navy bankrupt. What was the explanation? Seventeenth century book-keeping was so unscientific, that parliamentary committees might well find the figures unintelligible; but the recent publication of the Calendar of Treasury Books settles the problem. The editor had before him documents which the committees never saw, and his verdict is "The lasting impression which they leave is that of a capable, honest body of officials, struggling vainly against absolutely insuperable difficulties."

 

In 1666, when the trouble began, Carteret exchanged posts with the Earl of Anglesey, who was Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; but he could not, of course, escape accounting for the money he had received. Parliament eventually appointed a Commission of nine, none of them politicians, but businessmen accustomed to deal with complicated accounts, who after many meetings presented a long and detailed report. They discovered a number of mistakes. In 90 cases for example, payments had been entered twice; which Carteret could only plead were errors in book-keeping. When Parliament debated this report, the Lords voted with only one dissentient that "Sir George Carteret hath done nothing contrary to his duty as Treasurer"; but the Commons by a majority of three resolved that "Sir George Carteret be suspended from this House". They meant at their next meeting to impeach him, but the King prorogued Parliament. In 1670 he was allowed to return to his seat, but he never regained his old influence. Not until 1676 was he repaid the last of the money that he had advanced for the Navy; and in 1677 "full and absolute discharge" was granted to him and his heirs for "£700 which appears due to the King on his Accounts as Treasurer of the Navy".

 

Having been acquitted of dishonesty, but he undoubtedly suffered from "an inordinate love of riches". He acquired an amazing fortune. Privateering was always profitable, for it meant helping oneself to other people's property. At the Restoration he was already worth £50,000. His salary as Vice-Chamberlain ran into four figures, together with many perquisites. A rich man must find investments, of which most important was his venture further north. The chain of English colonies on the American seaboard was cut in two by the Dutch colony of New Netherlands. In 1663 four Englishmen bought land there from the Indians and were ejected by the Dutch. The Privy Council ordered Carteret and Sir John Berkeley to investigate. They reported that the "incredible insolence" of the Dutch made it desirable that they should be dispossessed. So Charles gave the whole colony to his brother, the Duke of York, and sent frigates to annex it. The Dutch, taken completely by surprise, offered no resistance, and New Amsterdam, their capital, was renamed New York in honour of the Duke. He rewarded Carteret and Berkeley with a share in the loot, and in this way Carteret obtained his second (the present) New Jersey.


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