A certificate recording the appointment 31 May 1781 of Henry Hastings "gentleman to be collector for ... the district of Colchester and Maldon ... for administering the oaths ... taken by paper-makers ... for proving that paper brought to be stamped as stock in hand, was really, and bona fide made in Great Britain, before the commencement of ... An act for repealing the present duties upon paper, pasteboards, millboards and scaleboards, made in Great Britain, and for granting other duties in lieu thereof ... and also the oath taken by such makers of paper, for ascertaining the value of such paper ...”. The cost of war with America caused the British government to increase taxes. In 1781 the existing excise duty on paper was abolished and replaced with a more complicated scheme which imposed seventy-eight different rates applied on the various types of paper. Transitional arrangements allowed that paper produced before the new system came into force could be taxed at the old rate, the holder of this certificate being required to take oaths from papermakers concerning such previously-manusfactured paper stock
Description:
Caption title., Dated in last line of text: "... in the year of our Lord, One thousand seven hundred and eighty." Added in black ink "one"., Form printed on vellum with blanks filled in ms., With engraved initial letter portrait of George III at head., With embossed stamps of the signers and with postage tax stamps. Remnants of a wax seal on verso along with ms. note., Not in ESTC., Completed in manuscript with signatures and embossed “Excise Office” wafer seals of five Excise Commissioners: David Papillon, William Lowndes, Anthony Lucas, John Pownall, and Charles Garth. With blue paper tax stamp., and For further information, consult library staff.
Title from item., Date from contemporary annotation in lower right corner: JL [monogram] 1758., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., On leaf 162 of an album with spine title: Trade tokens and bookplates., and Contemporary manuscript annotations in brown ink fill the blanks on recto; "To Mr. Legg, Coffee Mill, St. James's Market" written in brown ink on verso.
Title devised by curator., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., On leaf 154 of an album with spine title: Trade tokens and bookplates., and Contemporary annotation in ink at bottom of sheet: Ridding.
Title devised by curator., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., On leaf 154 of an album with spine title: Trade tokens and bookplates., and Contemporary annotation in ink in lower left corner: Clarke.
Title devised by curator., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., On leaf 153 of an album with spine title: Trade tokens and bookplates., and Contemporary annotation in ink in lower left corner: Traffles.
Title devised by curator., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., On leaf 154 of an album with spine title: Trade tokens and bookplates., and Contemporary annotation in ink in lower right corner: White.
A writing sheet engraved with vignettes and the large interior space left blank. At the top is a scene with a throne on a platform in the center at the top of a pie-shaped set of stairs with angels standing along the edges on both the right and the left. Behind the line of angels are crowds of people, with the group from the left seemingly walking towards the right. Along the base of the design is a banner held at either end by cherubs blowing horns, inscribed are the words "Come unto me; ye blessed!" Many of the figures in the crowds wear crowns, one holds a harp and another a censer on a chain. The back of the throne is decorated with three connected triangles, points down and with a crown above the oval head rest, rays of light emanating from all sides. On the left margin are vignettes entitled "The birth" and "The wedding" and on the right "The christening" and "The burial". At the foot of the plate is an image of a dragon-like beast from whose mouth streams a banner bearing the engraved text: “There shall be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth". A large oval shape on the dragon's body is left blank
Alternative Title:
Come unto me, ye blessed!
Description:
Title devised by cataloger., Place and date of publication based on manuscript note at foot of sheet., Lewis Walpole Library impression: Center blank space is filled in with three manuscript poems in black ink entitled 'On resurrection', 'On mortality', and 'On death'. The document is signed in the blank oval on the side of the dragon, "William Lea Yoxall's Christmas piece, December 16th, 1798, Chester"., With three poems entitled “On the Resurrection", "On mortality", and "On death” written in ink at center of sheet., and For further information, consult library staff.