AN ACCOUNT OF THE GAINS OF THE Late SPEAKER WILLIAM LENTHALL, In answer to a Letter.  
Printed in the Year. 1660.   


SIR,  
THere is now again the Report of the great gains of your friend the late Speaker, so fresh in every one's Mouth, and so much related to his prejudice, and danger, that 'tis most necessary that the truth of it should come to public view. And because I have heard you so rationally discourse the contrary, and assuring me that never any one in any great employments made so little, nay nothing of advantage by them; I therefore earnestly desire you to relate to me under your hand what you then assured me, for I am very unwilling that that which is not, should be a cause of his ruin. Let me desire you to hasten this to me, for if I can judge, it concerns your friend very much to be vindicated in this particular, so expecting your answer, I remain  
From Your assured friend and servant, G. G. the 14. June 1660.   

SIR,  
I Am very glad you have given me the opportunity to vindicate my old friend the late Speaker in those reports of his great gains, in the hazardous, and troublesome employments he hath undergone. 'Tis not easy to rectify a great mistake when it is spread in almost every ones opinion, which is commonly believed without Examining the probability of it. I have been very strict in the informing myself of the particulars, and would not have put my hand to them, if I had not been an Eye witness of the truth of what I affirm from the first time he entered the House as Speaker, to the last that he sat there. You cannot be unacquainted with the greatness of his practice before he was called to that employment; for I having seen his accounts, 'twas more than two thousand pounds per an. which now for twenty years he hath lost. In the first two years of his Speakership he kept a public table, and every day entertained several Eminent Persons, as well belonging to the Court, as the Members of Parliament. The King takeing this Expense of his into consideration, gave him six thousand pounds, of which there is not to this day the one half of it paid. Immediately after the unhappy war broke out, and it was his chance to have his fortunes lie in the activest part of it, so that his Estate for five years yielded him nothing. The Office of Master of the Rolls falling by the death of Sir Charles Caesar, it was conferred on him; but for some years he did not clear his charges, there being but little proceed in the Courts of Justice, and there being great diminutions of the profits of that place which his predecessors enjoyed, but he did not by reason that Wardships were taken away, the profit accrueing by them to eight hundred prounds per an. at the least, and also the Bishops who on every Creation, or Translation paid a considerable fee to him, which was always esteemed worth five hundred pounds per an. and the Fines on orginal writs, which were the most advantageous fees that belonged to it; so that Wardships, Bishops, and the Fines on Originals being taken away, there was a loss to the Office in its profits, two thousand pounds per an. at the least: yet notwithstanding he performed a greater duty to the dispatch of business than has been done by any in that employment before him, and this I think his greatest Detractors will acknowledge. But that which occasions most the Report of his gains, proceeds from the fee of five pounds, which was given him by both Houses upon Compositions; and considering how much that is in Opinion, and how inconsiderable in the reality of it, makes me as much wonder at the confident Report, as the readiness it has in finding a belief. What he received by them is so certainly to be known, that if any will but examine the Journal Books of the House, there they will find every fee for Pardons that he received; and besides there is the Clerks, and the Sergeant that attend the House have their fees as well on the Pardons as the private Bills, and is a check to him, so that he cannot deceive any one that will but inquire, and with the strictest enquiry that I can make, both by the Books, and the attendance on the House, I cannot find that ever there could be more coming to him then two thousand two hundred and twenty pounds, and this is the utmost that ever he made on Pardons and private Bills. There was due to him, as there is to every Speaker a fee of five pound per diem, which from his first sitting to the last he never received one farthing of; Nor did he ever take any sum of Money, any gift of land, or any other Recompense or Reward. What other employment he has had, the labour was so great, and the requital so small, that whosoever succeeded him had a salary for his pains; yet he performed his duty to the place with great Expedition to all, without any. You have now the reality of what he has or could gain, there being no other way whereby one penny could be supposed to come to him; and I hope it will give you, and all such as you shall think fit to communicate it to, full satisfaction, as is doth me, that I can affirm this for a truth, and also that I am  
Your most humble servant, J. N. London, this 19 June, 1660.  
FINIS.