The Contents of His majesties Letters Patents, granted unto Doctor Chambers, for the discovery, and recovery of such debts, as haue been heretofore fraudulently or wrongfully detained from His majesty vpon Sheriffes accounts in the Exchequer, dated Quinto Februarij Anno xxi. R. jacobi.  
HIs majesty being informed, that FRANCIS BVRTON, a clerk appertaining to the Office of the engrosser of the Great Roll,( commonly called, The Office of the Pipe) hath discovered and found out, furthered especially by the means of james Chambers, his majesties Seruant and physician for his Person in Ordinary, diverse frauds, errors, and abuses committed by Sheriffes, undersheriffes, and bailiffs in the not due executing of their Offices, and in the passing of their accounts; as also by some Officer or Officers, Clerks, and Ministers in combining, and conniuing with the said Sheriffes, undersheriffes, and bailiffs in falsifying, corrupting, miscasting, and misacquiting the said Sheriffes accounts, and the Records of the same in the said Office of the Pipe, and elsewhere in the said Exchequer: By reason whereof diuers Debts, arrearages, Rents, Dueties, and sums of money due, and payable, as well in the time of the late queen ELIZABETH, as in the time of His majesties reign, haue been detained, and kept back in the hands of the said Sheriffes, undersheriffes, bailiffs, farmers, Officers, and Ministers, or other persons their Confederates; and are unduly, and wrongfully withholden from his majesty, which vpon the said Sheriffes accounts should,& ought to haue been answered into the Receipt of the Exchequer. For the levying and recovery whereof, several warrants, and directions haue been given, and process awarded, and diverse lands seized into his majesties hands. And forasmuch as( by all likelihood) there be yet more moneys in the like nature due, and payable to his majesty, which haue been likewise fraudulently detained, and are not as yet discovered: His majesty for the more speedy recovering of His due debt, and the better preventing of such abuses, and corruptions in time to come, at the humble svit of his foresaid seruant james Chambers, is graciously pleased to grant him, and his deputies, not onely power and authority to sue for, prosecute, and recover in his majesties name, and to his majesties use, all the Debts and moneys of the nature aforesaid, so wrongfully detained from his majesty, and which grew originally due from, and between the Thirtieth year of queen Eliz. and the Fourteenth year of his majesties reign,( the said xiiij. year being included,& comprehended.) But also( in consideration of the good and faithful service heretofore done by the said Doctor Chambers, and in consideration of his travail, pains, and charges heretofore sustained, and hereafter to bee sustained and expended in and about the discovery, proving, prosecuting, and bringing in of the said debts) The one moiety or half part of all such debts, dueties, and sums of money to his and their use, as shal be so discovered and recovered by him or them, He first bringing in the other moiety, and that free of all charges, and deductions into the Receipt of the Exchequer. In which Grant there is liberty and licence given unto the said Doctor Chambers, and his deputies( in the presence of the Officers) to search the Records in all Offices in the Exchequer, To be present at the Apposals of Sheriffes; and to give Acquitances for the one moiety received by him( the Kings moiety being first paid into the Receipt of the Exchequer:) With command to the Treasurer, Barons, and Officers of the Exchequer, and to all others whom it shall or may concern, to be aiding and assisting unto him in the due execution of the premises. And by the said Grant it is provided, that all power of mitigation, and Composition shall be wholly left unto the order of the Court of Exchequer, and that the said Doctor Chambers, his Deputies, and assigns, shall submit themselves thereunto: As also that the said Grant shall not derogate or be prejudicial to a former Grant made to William Carr Esquire, one of the grooms of His majesties Bed-chamber.  

It is conceived vpon the Reasons following, that this Grant can be no monopoly, or grievance to the subject.  
FIrst, That cannot be termed a grievance in any kingdom, which hath no other end, or whose chief and principal end and object is to discover frauds, errors, and corruptions, and to give every one that which is his due: but this is that, and all, and onely that, which by the said Patent is granted, and authorised to be done: Therefore it is conceived, that this grant can be no grievance.  
Secondly, This grant can be no Monopoly, in regard the Patentee doth not encroach vpon other mens Liberties, or privileges, either in barring any from the like discovery, or hindering of their benefit, if his majesty shalbe so pleased as to bestow any vpon them for the like discovery. Wherefore, &c.  
And to conclude, seeing this Grant containeth nothing in it but a power to detect fraud, and abuse in Sheriffes accounts, and to prosecute in His majesties Name, and bring into His majesties coffers the money thereupon due to His majesty, which hath these many yeeres by past been wrongfully kept back: And that all laws, Statutes, and general Pardons leave such like frauds, deceits, and abuses to be enquired of, and the crime punished by Fine, or otherways, rather then to be pardonned, or any part of the due debt remitted: It is conceived that this Grant, so warranted by the laws and Statutes of this kingdom, agreeable with equity and Iustice, and conformable to the daily practise and common experience of all Nations and people amongst themselves mutually, in matters of Commerce and accounts( from whence it is prouerbially spoken, that false reckoning is no payment) cannot bee called a monopoly or grievance.   

That a sheriff may lawfully in some Cases be brought in Debet de Remanente compoti sui, and called to render an account for moneys due to the crown after the suing forth his Quietus est, and that such their case hath been that are now questioned vpon the discovery made in the Pipe, it is manifest by the reasons following.  
A Quietus est, as it is taken in the account of Sheriffes,( for in other cases it is other ways understood, and in other words expressed) being nothing else but the duplicate, or transcript of the Record of the Sheriffes account,( warranted onely by the subscription of the clerk of the Pipe, or some inferior clerk or attorney there in their several divisions) cannot rightly be said to be a general Pardon, Discharge, or Release of all matters, and Demands concerning the same account, ( accounted for, misaccompted for, or not accounted for:) for that it containeth in itself no one word of general, or final discharge, but onely for so much, and so far forth, as thereby appeareth to haue been therein duly charged, and accounted for, and either paid by the sheriff, or set off from him by good Warrant, and vpon true Information, as illeuiable or dischargeable: So that if it shall afterwards appear, that the said sheriff hath made a false, or corrupt account, either by Nichelling what he, or his deputy hath received,( which is too too frequent amongst them:) or not duly answering that which vpon his own confession and account he standeth charged withall, and acknowledged to haue received; or by combining with the clerk, or Officer who maketh his account: or taking advantage of errors committed through the Clerkes default, in not fully charging, or undue discharging the said sheriff: or by some other such like collusion, practise, or sinister means betwixt the clerk, or other Officer, and the sheriff, in falsifying, corrupting, miscasting, and misacquiting the said Sheriffes accounts, and the Records of the same. It is conceived, That this sinistrous form of dealing can be no bar or hindrance to his majesty, but that he may lawfully( notwithstanding any such false, or corrupt account, and the Quietus est thereupon obtained,) give authority either by Patent, or otherwise to any his Officers, Seruants, or Subiects, yea without any Patent, or new authority, by his ordinary Officers, to sue and call for his due debt, and a better account also, if it shall be requisite.  
If a sheriff bee overcharged by the total of his Totts of the Pipe, green wax, or any other part of his account, and that the error be discovered before he haue finished his account, and bee dismissed out of Court: the clerk of the Pipe, vpon examination, or certificate thereof, doth Ex officio discharge so much against the King, and rectify the account. Likewise after the sheriff is dismissed, if he shall make it to appear that by error he hath been overcharged, or paid more to the crown then his due debt, the clerk of the Pipe doth by the ordinary course of the Exchequer cast up, record, and enter in the foot of such account, that such sheriff Habet in superplus: such a sum, and the law and course of the said Court, provide, that vpon a Record of Remembrance made, testifying the same, and that the accountant challengeth repayment thereof, he shall haue the same superpluss. repaid him, vpon such other account as he shall desire. By the like reason it is conceived to be lawful for the clerk of the Pipe, though a sheriff be cast out of Court( if it shall appear afterward, that through fraud or error he was not fully charged, or hath been vnduely discharged) to cast up,& enter the said debt to bee put in process for the King against the said sheriff, and rectify the said account. Thus was( amongst others) Sir Philip Constable, sheriff of the county of york, in the xxxiij. year of the late queen ELIZABETH, after he had been acquitted in the Great Roll of the fortieth year of the said late queen, and had his Quietus est, vpon review, and better examination, brought in Debet fourscore and thirteen pounds, and thereof threescore pounds was paid in the ninth year of his majesties reign. And that there may be just cause so to do, is sufficiently approved by that, that vnder-Sheriffes, and other the parties themselves, sithence the said discovery, and vpon this course of proceeding, haue already paid one thousand marks into the Receipt, acknowledged to haue been wrongfully kept back from his majesty by error vpon account. And security is given, and promised for payment of one thousand, and three hundred pounds more, that in like manner hath been fraudulently discharged against the crown, and is confessed by the Delinquent. And as concerning the other Sheriffs and accountants, to whom Letters and process haue been directed almost two yeeres since vpon this discovery, for the like debts, there hath not as yet been sufficient matter shewed by any of them to discharge any part thereof against the crown.  
moreover, it seemeth most warrantable, just, and equal, that process hath been awarded against these Sheriffes for certain sums de Remanente compoti sui; because by the same accounts, as they are entred vpon the Record, and haue been compared with the original Records of the Charge, and Discharge of the said accounts, there yet evidently resteth a Debt due by them of the Remainder of their said accounts, notwithstanding they are said to be in Habet, or Quietus est, in the Foot of their accounts in the great Roll. So that they are not called to a new account for moneys they haue Nichelled, or vnduely set from them,( for which nevertheless vpon proof made of the Receipt thereof, no man doubteth but the sheriff is always liable to make satisfaction, and subject to censure,) But are required to make a just account, and payment of so much of the Debts taken in charge by them, as by their own account appeareth they haue received,& are not set from them: Notwithstanding the same by fraud, or error hath ever since been kept back from His majesty; against which they can pled no former satisfaction, because it was never made a debt, or required of them before. Whereupon it follows, that this hath been a discovery of lawful, and good consequence, rather to be advanced and furthered, then suppressed, to the end( as in all other cases of fraud, abuse, and error) the King may haue an honest account of His just debt, and the Records be purged of those falsities and forgeries, the like whereof, the care and conscience of former ages never left them stained, or defaced with.  
The truth of all which allegations, vpon further examination of the particular accounts in question, the Patentee by himself, his counsel, or deputies( if it shall be required) shall make more clearly appear by the Records themselves.  
And where it hath been desired by some of the high Sheriffes,( by whose accounts it appeareth the King hath been defrauded by undue allowances taken, and made by the undersheriffes,& Officers;) That the said undersheriffes and officers should onely be charged, and answer therefore to the crown, in respect the high sheriff knoweth nothing thereof, nor is any ways accessary to any such fraud, or confederacie: It is conceived that so to transfer His majesties debt, were nothing safe for the crown, neither agreeable to law, and equity, forasmuch as the high sheriff onely is the Kings immediate Officer, and consequently liable to give an account of the revenue incident to his charge, and in all equity to answer the Kings majesty such sums of money as his undersheriffes, bailiffs, and others substituted, and authorized by him, haue received and misaccompted for; which the high Sheriffes well understanding, use to take good bonds, and security from their undersheriffes to save them harmless, and for the most part keep the said bonds always by them, after they haue received their Quietus est, for that in common experience they see they are subject to such after reckonings. And vpon suits commenced vpon such occasions diverse great sums of money haue been recovered by the high Sheriffes, from their undersheriffes and their Sureties, by the awards of the Courts of Iustice; As was by Sir Christopher Hilliard, Knight, about the second year of his majesties reign, from the sureties of Stephen Hill, late Vndersheriffe to Sir Christopher Hilliard, Knight, deceased, sheriff of the County of york, in the xxxviij. year of the late Queen, of some one hundreth, of some two, of some six hundreth pounds. And as concerning the Officers or Clerkes( whose doings in some cases cannot bee excused) though the sheriff be not bound to answer for their faults, yet he is to answer the King such of his majesties moneys as he hath paid, or delivered unto them, or others,( being not appointed receivers thereof) vpon their mere motion, suggestion, or persuasion, without any lawful warrant from His majesty, or such as he hath authorized to give warrant: and that the rather because it is not probable, especially where the sums are great( as in the Case of Sir Christopher Hilliard) that the Vndersheriffe, or other accountant, could bee merely cheated, but rather had the greatest share of the moneys so fraudulently kept back from the crown.  
And finally, it seemeth, the Sheriffes, if they haue been wrongfully distrained, or troubled by process through any Officers default( without which it cannot bee) need not molest the high Court of Parliament with their Complaints, for that in such case the ancient laws of this kingdom allow them triple damages, &c.