To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know ye, that we whose names are hereunto set, and seals affixed, being the major part of the Chief Commissioners and Governors for the management of the receipt of excise, and other duties put under our management and receipt, in pursuance of the powers and authorities to us given, have constitued, deputed and appointed [blank] ...

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