And for the better awnswering of the Revenues of the Queen's Majesty's Customes and Subsidies in the Porte aforesaide, the saide Commissioners have ordered and farther appointed, That from and after the Feast of Easter next comyng, there shall no Stranger, or Strangers borne, whether he or they be, or shalbe made Denizen, or not, as well inhabit, or be commorant in, at or upon, any of the saide Wharfes or Keyes, or any parte of them; (the Stilliard except) and that every Tenaunt or Keeper of every of the saide Keys, Wharfes and Stayers, shall from time to time be bound in suche Some or Somes of Money, to the Quenes Highness Use, her Heires and Successors, as by the Treasorer of England, or other Officers of the Quenes Majesty's Courte of Theschequour, for the time being, shalbe thought good and convenient, upon Condition that there shalbe no Goods, whereof Custome or Subsidy is of shalbe due, laide on Lande at their Keyes, Wharfes and Stayers, or shipped or put from thence upon the Water, to be carried over the Seas by way of Merchandizes, before the said Goods be entred in the Quenes Custome-Books in the saide Porte. And also to be laden in the Presence of the saide Searcher or one of his Servants, for the time being, and discharged and laide on Land in the Presence of one of the Wayters for the time being: And other Articles to be put in the saide Condition, as to the saide Treasorer and Officers hereafter from time to time shall seem good, mete and convenient, as the Case shall require. And that all Creeks, Wharfes, Keyes, Lading and Discharging Places in Gravesend, Woolwich, Barking, Greenwich, Deptford, Blackwall, Limehouse, Ratcliff, Wapping, St. Katherines, Tower Hill, Rotherhithe, Southwark, London-bridge, and every of them, and all and singular Keyes, Wharfes, and other Places within the City of London and the Suburbs of the same, or elsewhere within the saide Porte of London (the several Keyes, Wharfes, Stayers, and Places before limited and appointed only except) shall be from henceforth no more used as Landing or Discharging Places for Merchandizes, but be utterly debarred and abolished from the same for ever, by force of the said Statute and other the Premisses.

Winchester. Richard Sakevile, Wa. Mildemay.]

These Wharfs and Keys commonly bear the Names of their Owners, and are therefore changeable. I read, in the 26th of Henry VI. that in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the East, a Tenement called Passekes Wharf, and another called Horners Key in Thames Street, were granted to William Haringdon Esq;. I read also, that in the sixth of Richard II. John Churchman, Grocer, for the Quiet of Merchants, did newly build a certain House upon the Key, called Wool-wharf, in the Tower Street Ward, in the Parish of Alhallows Barking, betwixt the Tenement of Paul Salisbury on the East Part, and the Lane called the Water Gate on the West, to serve for Troynage, or weighing of Wools in the Port of London: Whereupon the King granted, that during the Life of the said John, the aforesaid Troynage should be held and kept in the said House, with Easements there for the Ballances and Weights, and a Counting-place for the Customer, Controulers, Clerks, and other Officers of the said Troynage, together with the Ingress and Regress to and from the same, even as was had in other Places, where the said Troynage was wont to be kept, and that the king should pay yearly to the said John (during his Life) 40s. at the Terms of St. Michael and Easter, by even Portions by the Hands of his Customer, without any other Payment to the said John, as in the Indenture thereof more at large appeareth.

And here at the Custom House we will stay a little, to make some few remarks of Matters relating to it in former Times.

About the Year 1554, or 1555, under Queen Mary I. a Commission was given forth to certain Commissioners for the cessing of the new Rates; whereof the Lord Paget and Sir John Baker were the chief; the one Lord Privy Seal, and the other Chancellor of the Exchequer. Who observed this Rule, to underrate the most necessary Commodities that came into the Realm, to draw them hither; and to overrate the superfluous Commodities inward, to drive them away: And generally they did under rate and underprize all Foreign Commodities of that they were ordinarily current for, lest a Glut here of any of those Wares might bring them under their Rates: and that the Merchants might not say they were valued to the utmost that before lacked a good part of that they were then rated at. And so Peter Osborn, Remembrancer to the Lord Treasurer, divers Years after informed him.

There was also, long before this, a Book of Rates in King Henry VII.'s Time.

One Needham about the Year 1570 and odd, wrote a Book for shewing and correcting the Abuses of Customers, of Shippers, of Merchants, &c. and sent it privately to the Lord Treasurer, with his Letter, to this Tenor; That he thought it his Duty justly and truly to open to his Honour such Notes and Knowledge, as by his Service and travel he had gather'd in 10 or 12 Years, by searching how to reform such Abuses, Deceipts and Disorders, as were used all England through against the Queen's Majesty, both by her Officers belonging to the Customs, as also by Merchants and Shippers; and how they might be redressed, and her Highness justly answered her Rights and Duties. And also, his farther Opinion how to reform such Wrongs, as the said Officers and their Clerks, and their Clerks Clerks used against the Merchants and Shippers, by raising new Duties, delaying them from Bills, Cockets and other Writings, and not observing the Hours and Times appointed them to be at the Custom House, and give Attendance to receive her Majesty's Duties, and dispatch the Merchants and Shippers. All which good Orders, that had been appointed both for