A further writ was issued in Oct. 1634 and directed to the justices of London and other seaports, requiring them to provide a certain number of ships of war of a prescribed tonnage and equipment, or their equivalent in money, and empowering them to assess the inhabitants for payment of the tax according to their substance. The distinctive feature of the writ of 1634 was that it was issued, contrary to all precedent, in time of peace. The citizens of London immediately claimed exemption under their charter, while other towns, demurred to the amount of their assessment; but no resistance on constitutional grounds appears to have been offered to the validity of the writ, and a sum of £104,000 was collected. On Aug. 4 1635, a second writ of ship money was issued, directed on this occasion, as in the revoked writ of 1628, to the sheriffs and justices of inland as well as of maritime counties and towns, demanding the sum of £208,000, which was to be obtained by assessment on personal as well as real property, payment to be enforced by distress. This demand excited growing popular discontent, which now began to see in it a determination on the part of the king to dispense altogether with parliamentary government. Charles, therefore, obtained a written opinion, signed by ten out of 12 judges consulted, to the effect that in time of national danger, of which the Crown was the sole judge, ship-money might legally be levied on all parts of the country by writ under the great seal. The issue of a third
writ of ship-money on Oct. 9 1636, made it evident that the ancient restrictions, which limited the levying of the impost to the maritime parts of the kingdom and to times of war or imminent national danger, had been finally swept away, and that the King intended to convert it into a permanent and general form of taxation without parliamentary sanction. Payment was, refused by Lord Saye and by John Hampden (q.v.), a wealthy Buckinghamshire landowner. The case against the latter (Rex v. Hampden, 3 State Trials, 825) was heard before all the judges in the Exchequer Chamber, Hampden being defended by Oliver St John (q.v.) and Robert Holborne, and lasted for six months. Seven of the 12 judges, headed by Finch, chief justice of the common pleas, gave judgment for the Crown, and five for Hamp den. In 1639 Charles ventured again to issue a writ of ship money, but for the comparatively small sum of 170,000. In 1641, by an Act of the Long Parliament, introduced by Selden, the illegality of ship-money was expressly declared.