File Clenennau letters and papers 445 [RESTRICTED ACCESS] - William Maurice, to the Rt Hon. Sir Robert Cecil, Principal Secretary, and one of HM Privy Council,

William Maurice, late deputy lieutenant of Caernarfonshire, by the direction and at the request of the inhabitants of the said county, humbly informs his Honour that whereas the said county being a maritime county and open to Ireland and other foreign parts, and withal the most part thereof being a hilly, mountainous and bare country, and therefore rather spacious than populous, so the greatest number of men to be appointed for trained bands (and so certified to his Honour) in that county was but 400, which afterwards upon a second certificate, by reason of mortality that there happened, had to be diminished to 300. And whereas in all former levies wherein the county was best able, the proportion of men sent out of that county was but half the number of Denbighshire or Montgomeryshire and the third part of less of Shropshire (which may well allow five for one), yet some three or four years ago by some wrong suggestion or interference to his Honour, Caernarfonshire was doubly charged in levies of men and money, which has brought the county to extreme want of the one and defect of the other. Since July 1598, 515 men have been sent out of that poor shire, and no more out of Denbighshire or Montgomeryshire which should by any due proportion double their number, and not many more out of Shropshire that might treble their men well. Whereby Caernarfonshire was compelled to send forth not only diverse of the trained bands but also man necessary servants of husbandmen, so that there is now a great scarcity of both. Ask for relief in future. For example in Sept. last there went out of that poor county of Caernarfonshire three score and one, out of Shropshire but three score, which might better have spared 300. Draft.