e whole enterprise might have failed had not pressure been
brought to bear to make the inhabitants of the city use the New River
water to the exclusion of other supplies. In 1616, three years after the
New River had been opened, the lords of the council wrote (23 Dec.) to the
mayor and aldermen informing them that it was the king's wish that,
inasmuch as few persons used the new supply, the city authorities should
see that all such houses as could conveniently use it should be made to
use it, for it was not to be supposed, said they, that two Acts of
Parliament and an Act of Common Council affecting the health and safety of
the city should be passed to no other purpose than to injure those who
undertook so useful a work on the part of the city.(75) So again, in the
following year (1617), when the brewers of London wished to erect
waterworks on their own account at Dowgate, they were stopped by order of
the Privy Council, and told to take their water from the New River, which
had been made at great expense, "was of great consequence to his majesty's
service, and deserved all due encouragement."(76) Even the civic
authorities themselves were forbidden (11 April, 1634) to improve the
supply from Tyburn, on which they had already expended much money, for
fear of injuring the interests of the shareholders of the New River
Company,(77) who had but recently received their first dividend.(78)

(M24)

Soon after the completion of the New River, Middleton applied to the City
for a loan. The whole of his own capital had been sunk in his vast
undertaking, and he required an advance of L3,000. The loan was granted (8
Sept., 1614) for three years at six per cent., security being given by his
brother Thomas, the lord mayor, Robert, another brother, and Robert
Bateman.(79)

(M25)

In 1622 (19 Oct.) James conferred on Middleton a baronetcy--a new
hereditary title recently established for supplying the king with money to
put down the Irish rebellion.(80) Middleton, however, appears to have been
too poor to pay the sum of L1,000 or so for which the new title was
purchasable; at any rate the money was not exacted.(81) A baronet in the
city of London (by the way) enjoyed the special privilege of exemption
from serving as sheriff. "It was unfit," wrote James to the lord mayor (11
Nov., 1613), "that a gentleman called to the quality of a baronet should
be afterwards called to be sheriff," and he declared that he would have
"no such preced