Giles Mompesson - Licensing Monopoly and Graft

Licensing Monopoly and Graft

Mompesson was born in Wiltshire. He grew up into a small, swarthy individual with black hair. He entered Hart Hall, Oxford in 1600, but left without a degree the next year for Lincoln's Inn; he later departed there without becoming a lawyer. In 1606 or 1607, he married Katherine, the daughter of Sir John St. John, one of the most prominent men in Wiltshire. Through his father-in-law's influence, Mompesson became a Member of Parliament for Great Bedwyn in 1614. Another daughter of John St. John (and thus Mompesson's sister-in-law) married Edward Villiers, the half-brother of George Villiers, and Mompesson's connection to George Villiers was the key to his later despotism. George Villiers became James I's favourite (and alleged lover), rising to the rank of Duke of Buckingham by 1616, and Mompesson was quick to use his family connections. His infamous career was tied directly to that of George Villiers and James I.

In 1616, Mompesson used his influence to propose to Villiers that there be a commissioner of inns. Justices of the peace were in charge of granting licences to taverns, but there was ambiguity about inns. While Fulke Greville, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, disapproved of the legal standing of Mompesson's plan, Sir Francis Bacon, then the Attorney General, felt that it was legal, and Villiers urged the king to pressure the exchequer to approve the plan. Mompesson therefore became one of three commissioners of inns in 1617. The fines that he could levy against inns out of compliance was left to his discretion, and the fees that he could charge to license an inn were similarly up to his own judgment. His only constraint was that four-fifths of the money go to the Treasury. On 18 November 1616, James knighted Mompesson to give him more authority when dealing with innkeepers.

Mompesson's performance of his job was aggressive, unethical, and avaricious. He expanded his brief to licence taverns, which was clearly the historical realm of the Justices of the Peace, and he trespassed into the jurisdiction of the Justices in other ways as well. Justices of the Peace were responsible for keeping the domestic peace, and Mompesson would allow taverns closed for ill repute and bad behavior to reopen if they paid him a stiff bribe/fee.

In 1617, Mompesson proposed to Villiers and received a scheme to raise £10,000 in four years by selling decayed timber from royal lands. For performing this public service, he received £1,000 personally the first year, with another £1,000 due at the end of four years. Evidence would later show that he made over £10,000 profit beyond what he gave to the Treasury, as well as the £2,000. By the next year, his reputation was such that there was a backlash. Mompesson was given a second monopoly, to investigate the production of gold and silver thread and to charge licensing fees to those who produced it. Furthermore, Mompesson was given the power to imprison those found guilty of producing gold and silver thread without a license. He immediately set about extorting money from goldsmiths in London. In 1619, Mompesson obtained a position as a surveyor of the profits of James I's New River Company, with a £200 annuity taken from the royal profits. In 1620, Mompesson was granted a licence to make charcoal from coal and, finally, a licence to find and recover "concealed" Crown lands (i.e., property over which the Crown's rights as landlord had fallen into abeyance or had not yet fully been realised). Any lands he discovered valued at less than £200 were his to keep, and those above were to be regulated, with fees, rents, and charges for ingress and egress. Naturally, Mompesson undervalued the lands he "found," consistently discovering them to be under the £200 threshold, and farmers were at high risk.