patent and his coining and circulation of the copper money were fraudulent and ruinous to Ireland. Both Houses sent Addresses to the King soliciting His Majesty for the aforesaid reasons to resume the coinage into his own hands. The King in reply assured the Irish Parliament that he would enquire into and punish any abuses committed by the patentee. And Lord Carteret, Principal Secretary of State, wrote to the Lord Lieutenant on 10th March 1724 (n.s.), to send to London all necessary papers and witnesses for establishing a charge of fraud against the patentee in a “trial upon sciere facias” before a jury in London. This requirement was addressed to the Lord Lieutenant three times; but although the witnesses’ expenses were to be paid, the Irish authorities declined to send over any persons, papers, or materials whatsoever to support the charges made against His Majesty’s patent and the patentee. The King therefore referred the Irish Addresses to a Committee of the British Privy Council, whom he empowered to make an independent investigation as to Mr. Wood’s copper and coins. The Committee in their Report, dated from the Council Chamber at Whitehall, the 24th day of July 1724, remarked upon the very extraordinary circumstance, “that in a matter that had raised so great and universal a clamour in Ireland, no one person could be prevailed upon to come over from Ireland in support of the united sense of both Houses of Parliament of Ireland; and that no papers, no materials, no evidence whatsoever of the mischiefs arising from this patent, or of the notorious frauds and deceit committed in the execution of it, could now be had, to give your Majesty satisfaction herein.”
The facts ascertained by the Committee were that the want of copper money in Ireland had been represented[1] and proved before the issuing of the patent; and, so far from obtaining the patent in a clandestine and unprecedented manner, that Mr. Wood was one of several candidates for it; also, that the Law-Officers of the Crown consulted Sir Isaac Newton at every step. Sir Isaac Newton, Edward Southwell, Esq., and John Scrope, Esq., tested the copper used by Mr. Wood. A further testing was now made in presence of the Committee of the Privy Council, both as to its absolute goodness and value, and also as to its excellence compared with previous coinages for Ireland; and their Lordships were satisfied that Mr. Wood’s coinage was superior to all before it, and that, far from being defective, it rather exceeded the conditions of his patent.
The patent was for fourteen years only, and the quantity of copper was limited to 360 tons, or £100,800 sterling, to be issued gradually year after year. £17,000 only had been issued up to the date of the complaint. The Committee recommended the authorities in Ireland to withdraw all hindrances and prohibitions to the circulation of the copper halfpence and farthings; but that for the satisfaction of the people of Ireland, and according to Mr. Wood’s own suggestion to the Committee, the total circulation should be restricted to £40,000. The King issued a proclamation accordingly.
The King’s grant and the patentee’s character and conduct were completely vindicated. But the only true ground of complaint being indisputable and unchangeable, namely, that “William Wood, Esq.” was not an Irishman — and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Grafton, being no match for Dean Swift — it would appear that arrangements were made whereby the King vacated the patent in the following year. The memory of Mr. Wood was honourably kept up by his worthy son, Charles, whom we are next to notice.
XI. Mr. Charles Wood.
The fourth son of William Wood was Charles Wood (who died in 1799), assay-master in Jamaica for thirty years, a man remarkable for energy and ability, and of such high moral and religious principles that, notwithstanding the notorious corruption of the age, he never took a perquisite. On his return home he married, and built Lowmill Ironworks, near Whitehaven; and removing from Cumberland into South Wales, he erected the Cyfarthfa Ironworks at Merthyr Tydvil. At Jamaica he signalized himself by a discovery (substances and products, although known to the inhabitants of uncultivated regions, are always said to be undiscovered until made known to the scientific world), as to which Knight, in his Cyclopaedia of Industry, says, “Platina, or Platinum, is an important metal which was first made known in Europe by Mr. Wood, assay-master in Jamaica, who met with its ore in 1741.” I give an abridgement of the statements contained in the “Philosophical Transactions.”
- ↑ The expression “not worth a rap” is derived from a wretched metallic token called a rap, which was in circulation in Ireland owing to the want of copper halfpence.
