£600
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 630
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
a fine signature placed centrally at the head of the document, countersigned by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, addressed to the paymaster, Spencer Compton, ordering payments to be made to Sir John Chardin 'for the use of the Vaudois Ministers' and for other uses, to Michaelmas 1709, and authorising payments to be made to Richard Hill for services after that date. 2 pages, 350 x 229mm., one lower corner torn away and expertly repaired, integral blank leaf (old repairs), remains of guard, Windsor Castle, 20 August 1711
Note: Queen Anne (reigned 1702-1714). Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and head of the government. Sir John Chardin (1643-1712) travelled to India and Persia. The document includes authorisation of a payment of £30 'to be Remitted as our Bounty to a Schole at Offenbach'. The British Government had undertaken to subsidise the cost of 7 pastors and 7 schoolmasters from the Vaudois who settled in Germany. As a Protestant exile Chardin was a well known friend of the persecuted Protestants, the Waldensians, from Vaudois, and transmitted funds from the British government to them.