similarly up to his own judgment. His only constraint was that four-fifths of the money was to go to the Treasury. On 18 November 1616, James knighted Mompesson, giving him more authority when dealing with innkeepers. Mompesson's performance of his job was aggressive and avaricious. He expanded his brief to license taverns, which was clearly the historical realm of the Justices of the peace, and he trespassed into the jurisdiction of the Justices in other ways as well. Justices of the Peace were responsible for keeping the domestic peace, and Mompesson would allow taverns closed for ill repute and bad behaviour to reopen if they paid him a stiff bribe/fee. In 1617, Mompesson proposed to Villiers and received a scheme to raise £10,000 in four years by selling decayed timber from royal estates. For performing this public service, he was to receive £1,000 personally in the first year, with another £1,000 due at the end of four years. Evidence would later show that he made over £10,000 profit beyond what he gave to the Treasury, as well as the £2,000 due to him. By the next year, his reputation was such that there was a backlash. Mompesson was given a second monopoly, to investigate the production of gold and silver thread and to charge licensing fees to those who produced it. Furthermore, Mompesson was given the power to imprison those found guilty of producing gold and silver thread without a licence. He immediately set about extorting money from goldsmiths in London. In 1619, Mompesson obtained a position as a surveyor of the profits of James I's New River Company, with a £200 annuity taken from the royal profits. In 1620, Mompesson was granted a licence to make charcoal from coal and, finally, a licence to find and recover "concealed" Crown lands (i.e., property over which the Crown's rights as landlord had fallen into abeyance or had not yet fully been realised). Any lands he discovered valued at less than £200 were his to keep, and those above were to be regulated, with fees, rents, and charges for ingress and egress. Naturally, Mompesson undervalued the lands he "found," consistently discovering them to be under the £200 threshold, and farmers were at high risk. Backlash, trial, and banishment The sentiment against Mompesson was very high in 1620, and Bacon warned Villiers to take away Mompesson's licensing of inns, in particular. Buckingham, however,