minxerit in patrios â—ineres as one who had pisssed upon his Fathers or Countries Ashes and as Murderers or Adulterers denyed them the Sanctuary if they sought it of the Church And when the Kings Royal Progenitors have taken so much care to prevent the decay of Tillage as by the Statute of 25 H. 8. cap. 13. to ordain that no man should keep more then two hundred sheep upon any land taken to farme and for the increase of Tillage plenty and cheapness of Corn did by the Statute of 2 Ed. 6. cap. 13. ordain that no Tithes should be paid for wast or Heath ground improved unto Tillage untill seaven years after the improvement by the Statute of 4 Jac. cap. 11. made a Provision for Meadow and Pasture and the necessary maintenance of husbandry and tillage in the Manors Lordships and Parishes of Merden alias Mawerden Boddenham Wellington Sutton St. Michael Sutton St. Nicholas Marton upon Lugg and the Parish of Pipe in the County of Hereford by the Statute of 7 Jac. cap. 11. That none should spoil corn and grain by untimely Hawking and by another Statute in the same Parliament That Seâ—-sands might in Devonshire and Cornwall be fetched from the sea to manure Lands paying reasonable duties for the passage through or by other mens Lands with Boats and Barges And the Assize of Bread throughout the whole Kingdome is by the Statute and Ordinance of 51 H. 8. to be yearly made and regulated by the Baker of the Kings house do take all the care they can that the Bread for his Houshold and Oats and Provender for his horses may be at the dearest rates and a great deal more then any of his Subjects do pay And although he and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors have made the best provisions they could for the breed of Cattle and cheapness of meat by the Statute of 24 H. 8. cap. 9. forbidding the killing of weanling Calves under the age of two years That a milch Cow by the Statute of 2 3 Philip and Mary should be kept for every sixty Sheep and a Calf reared for every 120 Sheep By an Act of Parliament in 8 Eliz. cap. 3. That no Sheep should be transported and by several Acts of Parliament and otherwise encouraged the drayning of huge quantities of Fenne Lands and the imbanking of Marshes and Lands gained from the Sea and his now Majesty hath of late to help the breeders and sellers of Cattle in their reasonable prices thereof prohibited by an Act of Parliament the bringing in of any Cattle which were heretofore usually and yearly brought into England in great heards out of Scotland and Ireland and doth yearly by his Royal Edicts and Proclamations as many of his noble Progenitors Kings and Queens of England have usually done enjoyned the strict observation of the Lent will notwithstanding for want of his Pourveyance or much of his houshold Provisions as they ought to be served in kind constrain him to pay in ready money intollerable dear rates and prices for that which his Officers have occasion to buy for the Provision of his Household Who speed no better when they buy or provide his Fish of those who might have had so much duty and honesty as to afford it cheaper when his Royall Predecessors by the Statutes of 13 E. 1. cap. 47. and 13 R. 2. cap. 19. ordained severe penalties upon those that do take and destroy Salmons Lampries or any other Fish at unseasonable times or destroy the spawn of Fish By the Statute of 22 Ed. 4. cap. 2. That Salmons Herrings and Eâ—les be duly packed By the Statute of 11 H. 7. cap. 23. That Englishmen may import and bring into England Fish taken by Forreigners By the Statute of 2 Ed. 6. cap. 6. that no Officer of the Admiralâ—y should exact any thing of them which travailed for Fish By the Statute of 5 Ellz. cap. 6. Fishermen and Mariners shall not be compelled to serve as Souldiers upon the Land or upon the Sea but as Mariners except in case of Enemies or to subdue Rebellions By the Statute of 13 Eliz. cap. 10. allowed Sea-fish and Herring to be transported in English Ships with cross sails without payment of Customes By the Statute of 39 Eliz. cap. 10. ordained Aliens to pay for salted Fish and salted Herrings to be brought by them into England such Customes as shall be imposed in forreign parts upon the salted Fish and Herrings brought thither by Englishmen And our now gracious Soveraign mainteyns a great Navy to assert and defend his Dominion and his Subjects sole right of Fishing in the British Seas and hath of late in the midst of his own wants for the better encouragement of his People to seek their own good and that which our British Seas will plentifully afford them given all his Customes inward and outward for any the retorns to be made by the sale of Fish in France Denmark and the Baltick Seas for seaven years from the first entrance into the intended Trade of Fishing And when the Mayor of Kingstone upon Hull or his Officers can at the same time obteyn of them better penyworths and according to the directions of the Statute of 33 H. 8. cap. 33. have so good a Pourveyance allowed them as they can take of all Fishermen priviledged for every last of Herring xxd. for every hundred of salt Fish iiii d. for every Last of Sprats viii d. of every person not priviledged for every Last of Herring iâ— s. iiii d. for every hundred of Salt-fish iiii d. and for every Last of Sprats viii d. as they did before the making of the said Statute And when our Laws which have their life and being from the King and his Royall Progenitors have by the Statutes of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. cap. 22. and 2 and 3 Philip and Mary cap. 5. provided that the prices of Butter and Cheese be not enhaunced nor any transported without licence That the prices of Ale and Beer shall bâ—â—he Statute of 23 H. 8. be assessed at reasonable rates and the Barrels and Kilderkins gauged That Spices and Grocery Ware shall by the Statute of 1 Jac. cap. 19. be garbled and not mingled That Woods by the Statute of 35 H cap. 17. 13 Eliz. cap. 5. shall not be converted into Tillage or Pasture And by the Statutes of 7 Ed. 6. cap. 7. 47. cap. 14. that an Assize shall be kept as to the measures only of Coal Tallwood Billeâ—s and Faggots And some of our Princes have given by their Charters many great Liberties Immunities to the Companies of Brewers and Woodmongers And King James did in or about the 11 th year of hâ—s Râ—ign upon his granting of some priviledges to the Town and Colleries of Nâ—wcastle upon Tyne cause the Host-men or Oast-men of Newcastle to covenant to and with the King which they have seldome or never at all observed yearly to serve the City of London and places adjacent with Sea-coals
of England of permitting their Officers and Servants to take what the King pleased out of Forreign Commodities and Merchandize brought into England upon payment of such rates as he pleased which amount unto no small yearly profit for an Exchange and grant by the Merchants Strangers of three pence per pound now called the Petit Customes of all forreign Merchandises imported except Wines for every Sack of Wool forty pence for every 300 Wolfels forty pence and for every last of Leather to be exported half a mark over and above the Duties payable by Denizens were but rightly estimated Or the benefits which the Subiects of England have had and received by the Act of Parliament made in Anno 14 Ed. 3. granting that all Merchants Denizens and Aliens may freely and safely come into the Realme of England which before they could not or durst not adventure to do without speciall licence and safe conduct under the great or some part of the Seal of England with their Goods and Merchandize and safely tarry and return paying the Subsidies and Customes reasonably due together with the ease and benefit but to the great loss and damage of the Crown which the Merchants of England as well as those of forreign Parts have by the loss of Calais since Queen Maries time and the remove of the Staple from thence whither all Goods Exported out of England were to be first brought a Custome Inward the second time paid and for so much which may be believed to be the greatest part as was again from thence Exported into other Countries the Customes a third time paid which made the Customes and Subsidies only for Goods Exported in the later end of the Reign of King Edward the Third and during the Reigns of King Richard the Second Henry the Fourth Henry the Fifth and the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth as appeareth by the Records of the Exchequer to amount unto threescore or threescore and ten thousand pounds per annum which according to the valuation of mony at this day saith Sir John Davies the ounce of Silver being raised from twenty pence unto five shillings would amount unto two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum And the difference betwixt the payment of Customes and Subsidies then paid three times over for one and the same thing and the payment of it but once as is now used with many other great benefits beyond a valuation not here particularized And consider how unworthy it would be for the Natives and People of England after many Knights Fees and Lands freely given and granted by the Kings Royall Progenitors to their Forefathers and their Heirs to be holden by Knight-service and in Capite of which if the sixty thousand Knights Fees and more reckoned by antient Authors should be no greater a number then ten thousand and valued but at twenty pounds per annum as they were reckoned in anno primo Edwardi secundi they would amount unto two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if but at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least â—mprovement would amount unto three Millions per annum besides great quantities of other Lands being twice or thrice as much more in the severall Reigns of his Majesties Royall Progenitors freely granted and given unto otheâ—s of them and their Heirs to be holden in Socage to endeavour to extinguish the right use of them and forget their Obligations to their Prince and Common Parent and his Royall Progenitors And in too many of their Actions and business cozen or beg all they can from him and in stead of saying Domine quid retribuam Lord what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits make it the greatest of their care imployment and business not only to take but keep from him all they can even at the same time when they had obteyned of him an unparralleld Act of Indempnity and Oblivion and to to forget all their evil designes and offences intended or committed against him and his blessed Father and to pardon and give them as much as fifteen or sixteen millions sterling in the Arrears of his own Revenue and two or three hundred millions Sterling at least for the forfeiture of theirs And might have remembred how they promised him their lives and fortunes and to be his Tenants in Corde and with what a Princely and Fatherly affection he told their Representatives that he was sorry to see so many of his good people come to see him at Whitehall and had no meat to feed or entertain them and how ashamed and unwilling they are in their ordinary and daily Actions and Affairs to come behind or be upon the score one to another in their reciprocations retributions and retorns of gratitudes and take it to be a disparagement not to out-vie or undo one another therein how willingly they can part with their money to their children at School to make Oblations or Presents to their School-masters at their Intermissions or Breaking up of School at Christmas Easter or Whitsontyde a course newly invented by School-masters to better their Allowances and Incomes and chargeable enough to the Parents as may appear by the Offerings at a Christmas made unto some Capital School-Masters which have singly amounted unto five or six hundred pounds which with the Beds and Furniture and silver Spoons to be brought thither by the Boarders and left behind them at their departure do make as great or a greater charge to many Parents then what they were ever rated for the Pourveyance And how accustomed and willing an expence all people are desirous to put themselves unto pro honestate domus for the good and content of any Inne Tavern or Alehouse to make them some recompence for but coming into those houses upon any occasion or necessity of business And can notwithstanding so readily finde the way to that unchristian River of Lethe and sinne of unthankfulness which God and all good men do abhorre and the most fierce and savage of the Beasts of the field Fowls of the Ayr do scorn to be guilty of and make it their business to desire the King to foregoe his Pourveyance and take a seeming recompence of fifty thousand pounds per annum for it of the moyty of the Excise to be raised out of the Moans and Laments of the multitude which are the labouring and poorer sort of the people to free richer and better able from their heretofore small Payments or Contributions in Cattle and other Provisions for the Royall Pourveyance now that England enjoyeth a greater plenty then ever it did by some hundred thousand Acres of Fenne Lands drained many Forests and Chases deafforrested mâ—ny Parks converted unto Tillage or Pasture great quantities of other Lands inclosed and as much or more of Abby and Religious Lands retorned into Lay-hands fewer Taxes and publique Assessments by one to ten then are in the Kingdomes and Dominions of Spain France Empire of
when he came down out of the Mount from his conference with him to be abated or lessened but shewed his care of it in the severe punishment of the gain-saying of Corah Dathan Abiram and their saying that Moses took too much upon him and is and ever hath been so essentiall very necessary to the preservation of Authority and Government and the Subjects and People under it as Saul when he had incurred the displeasure of God and his Prophet Samuel desired him not to dishonour him before the People And David when he heard how shamefully his Embassadours had been abused by the King of Ammon ordered them to stay at Jericho untill their beards were grown out The Romans who being at the first but Bubulci and Opiliones a rude Company oâ— Shepheards Herdsmen and were looked upon as such a base and rude Rabble as the Sabines their Neighbours scorned to marry or be allyed with them did afterwards in their growing greatness which like a torrent arising from a small assembly of waters did afterwards overrun and subdue the greatest part of the habitable World hold their Consuls in such veneration as they had as Cicero saith magnum nomen magnam speciem magnam majestatem as well as magnâ—m potestatem as great an outward respect and veneration as they had authority and were so jealous and watchfull over it as their Consul Fabius would rather lay aside the honour due unto his Father from a Sonne of which that Nation were extraordinary obseâ—vers then abate any thing of it and commanded his aged Father Fabius the renowned rescuer and preserver of Rome in a publique Assembly to alight from his Horse and do him the honour due unto his present Magistracy which the good old man though many of the people did at the present dislike it did so approve of as he alighted from his horse and embracing his Son said Euge fili sapis qui intelligis quibus imperes quam magnum magistratum susceperis my good Son you have done wisely in understanding over whom you command and how great a Magistracy you have taken upon you And our Offa King of the Mercians in An. Dom. 760 an Ancestor of our Sovereign took such a care of the Honour and Rights due unto Majesty and to preserve it to his Posterity as he ordained that even in times of Peace himself and his Successors in the Crown should as they passed through any City have Trumpets sounded before them to shew that the Person of the King saith the Leiger Book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honour in all which did either see or hear him Neither will it be any honour for Christians to be out-done by the Heathen in that or other their respects and observances to their Kings when the Romans did not seldome at their publique charge erect costly Statues and Memorialls of their gâ—atitude to their Emperours make chargeable Sacrifices ad aras in aedibus honoris virtutis in their Temples of Honour and Virtue could yearly throw money into the deep Lake or Gulfe of Curtius in Rome where they were like never to meet with it again pro voto salute Imperatoris as Offerings for the health and happiness of their Emperouâ—s and all the City and Senate Calendis Januarii velut publico suo parenti Imperatori strenas largiebant did give New years-gifts to the Emperour as their publick Parent bring them into the Capitol though he was absent and make their Pensitationes or Composition for Pourveyance for their Emperours to be a Canon unalâ—erable Or by the Magnesians and Smirnaeans who upon a misfortune in Warre hapned to Seleucus King of Syria could make a League with each other and cause it to be engraven in Marble pillars which to our dayes hath escaped the Iron Teeth of time majestatem Seleuci tueri conservare to preserve and defend the Honor and Majesty of Seleucus which was not their Sovereign or Prince but their Friend and Ally Nor any thing to perswade us that our Forefathers were not well advised when in their care to preserve the honor of their King and Country they were troubled and angry in the Reign of King H. 3. that at a publick Feast in Westminster-Hall the Popes Legate was placed at the Kings Table in the place where the King should have sate or when the Baronage or Commonalty of England did in a Parliament holden at Lincoln in the Reign of King Edward the First by their Letters to their then domineering demy-God the Pope who was averse unto it stoutly assert their Kings superiority over the Kingdome of Scotland and refuse that he should send any Commissioners to Rome to debate the matter before the Pope in Judgement which would tend to the disherison of the Crown of England the Kingly Dignity and prejudice of the Liberties Customes and Laws of their Forefathers to the observation and defence of which they were ex debito prestiti juramenti astricti bound by Oath and would not permit tam insolita praejudicialia such unusuall and prejudiciall things to be done against the King or by him if he should consent unto it Or when the Pope intending to cite King Edward the Third to his Court at Rome in Anno 40 of his Reign to do homage to the See of Rome for England and Ireland and to pay him the Tribute granted by King John the whole Estates in Parliament did by common consent declare unto the King that if the Pope should attempt any thing against him by process or other matter the King with all his Subjects should with all their force resist him And in Anno 42 of King Ed. 3. advised him to refuse an offer of peace made unto him by David le Bruse King of Scotland though the Warâ—es and frequent incursions of that Nation were alwayes sufficiently troublesome chargeable so that he might enjoy to him in Fee the whole Realm of Scotland without any subjection and declared that they could not assent unto any such Peace to the disherison of the King and his Crown and the great danger of themselves Or that William Walworth he gallant Mayor of London whose fame for it will live as long as that City shall be extant was to be blamed when he could not endure the insolency of the Rebel Wat Tyler in suffering a Knight whom the King had sent to him to stand bare before him but made his Dagger in the midst of his Rout and Army teach his proud heart better manners Or Richard Earl of Arundelâ—nd â—nd Surrey did more then was necessary when as he perceiving before hand the after accomplished wicked designe and ambition of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and titular King of Leon and Castile did before the downfall of that unhappy Prince King Richard the Second complain in Parliament that he did sometimes go arme in arme with the King and make
his men wear the same colour of Livery that the Kings servants did Or that it was ill done by the Parliament in the 14 th year of the Reign of that King when they petitioned him that the Prerogative of him and his Crown might be kept and that all things done to the contrary might be redressed Or that the Lords Spirituall and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled in the 16 th year of the said Kings Reign did not well understand the good of the Kingdom when upon a Debate and consideration of the Popes Usurpation and Incroachments upon the Kings Regalities and his Holiness Provisions made for Aliens and Strangers by the benefices of the Church of England they did unanimously declare that they and all the Leige Commons of the Realm would stand with the King and his Crown and Regality in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against him his Crown and Regality in all points to live and to dye Or that our forefathers were not to be imitated in their stout assertions of the Rights of their Kings and their Regalities when in their zeal thereunto Humphry Duke of Glocester when the Pope had wrote Letters in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth in derogation of the King his Regality and the Church-men durst not speak against them he did throw his Letters and Missive into the fire and burn them Or that it can be well done by us to withhold from him that small retribution of Pourveyance which is a Duty established by a fourfold obligation composed of a Right or Duty a very antient Custome backt by the Laws of God Nature and Nations the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and a contract made and continued by the people to their Kings built upon the best and greatest of considerations which the Prophet David in the 15 th Psalm if it had not been as it is beneficiall to the people but to some loss or damage adviseth not to be broken and enforce him for want of it to give over his Housekeeping and deprive him of that Loadstone which might amongst many other of his daily graces and favours attract and draw unto him the love and affections of his people the most iron rusty hearted Clowns or leave our Trajan no wall for his â—erba Parietaria sweet smelling flower to grow upon Or that it can be any honour for our Lords and Ladies who received their honour from the King and his Progenitors and were in the Saxon Times called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords and Ladies from their Hospitalities and giving of bread to see and not seek or help to remedy the greatest dishonour which in the consequence of it was ever put upon the Fountain of honour and a King of England in Solio in his Throne and full possession of his Kingdome and so much the more and without an example because it is not in the Time of a Rebellion but a happy Restauration and in the time of Peace after an end or conclusion of an intestine and barbarous Warre and so notorious as it hath been told in the Streets of Gath and Askalon and stirred up some unmannerly fancies and pictures made by some of our envious Neighbours in reproach of it Or that there can be any reason that those that think it reason that the King should recompence them for their losses and damages susteyned in his service in doing their duty unto him should not be as willing to give him an ease in his losses by any agreement made with them which proves to be prejudiciall or a damage unto him or that we may not give our selves in assurance that the Baronage of England who in a Parliament in the 20 th year of the Reign of King Henry the Third refused to consent to an Act of Parliament for the legitimation of such children as were botâ— before marriage to Parents afterwards married and clapping their hands upon their swords cryed una voce with one voice nolumus mutare leges Angliae we will never consent to change the laws of England would now if they were living say more and bewail the downfall of the Honor of their King and Country And not only they but all the then hospitable Gentry and Commonalty of England Lament to see so good and gracious a King allied to all the greatest Houses and Princely Families of Christendome by a discent farre beyond the most antient of them and an extraction of blood equalling if not surpassing the greatest of them and as well deserving of his People want the means to support a Magnificence as high and illustrious as any of his Royall Progenitors and not to be able for want of his Pourveyance to give his Servants Diet or Wages and that some of the principall of them as the Treasurer and Comptroller being sworn by the Orders of the House that all things in the Kings House be guided to the Kings most worship and that they search the good old rule worshipfull and profitable of the Kings Court used before time and them to keep and better if they can should have so much cause as they have to weep as the Priests did at the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and complaining that the beauty is departed from the Kings house his Servants are become like Harts that find no Pasture and they that did feed plentifully are desolate in the Streets Wonder what wild Boar out of the Forrest or Fox out of the Wood have so destroyed and laid wast the Vineyards and the Gardens the Beds of Spices the Roses of Sharon and the Lilies of the Vallies that some of our Temples should be gloriously re-edified and our Zion repaired and yet the glory of our Solomon and his housekeeping not restored but his Servants ruined and their names as to their pay and maintenance blotted out of the Registers that the Winter should be past the Rain over and gone the Flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of the Birds come and the voyce of the Turtle heard in our Land and the State and Magnificence of our Solomon and his Royall housekeeping which would have heretofore astonished a Queen of Sheba should be now most needlesly exchanged for a desolation and bear all the marks upon it of a languishing Honour That the Courts and Palace of our most gracious King Charles the Second by a mischance of quitting his Rights of Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them should as to many of its Attendants have all the year turned into an Ember week and be about Noon or Dinner time like the silence and want of Company at Midnight or a representation of the middle Isle of the Cathedrall of St. Pauls in London destitute of all its Walkers or Company but such as had nothing to buy their Dinner withall which heretofore begot the reproachfull adage or saying usually cast upon such men of distress
of his burdens as he and his Royal Progenitors have done unto them in any of the complained of burdens of them and their Forefathers by many times laying to sleep some good Laws Constitutions which though at the making thereof they were most just and rationall would now by the rise of silver two to one more then formerly the change of Times and Customes be very prejudiciall and burdensome unto them As King Henry the First did by no Law or Act of Parliament but his own good will and promise calculated only for that present Age or Reign but since observed by all his Successors in the change of his rent provisions into Rents of money many of which being now and ever since paid in small quit-rents made that part of the People very great gainers and that King and his Heirs and Successors to be loosers more then Fifty thousand pounds per annum or the greatest extent of the Nations yearly charge for the Royall Pourveyance or Compositions for them did ever amount unto And as the Asise of Bread Bear and Ale in 51 H. tertii which holds no proportion with the now Assize or rules for Bakers and Brewers but very much differs from it and exceeds it was not for many ages past and in some plentifull years in our memory kept when Corn Wheat and Malt did fall within the virge or direction of that Act of Parliament or Ordinance rather of the King without an Act of Parliament Nor did hold those kind of Trades to the Assize made and appointed by King Henry the 7 th nor by any Act of Parliament or otherwise restrain the Shoemakers to the prices appointed by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. repealed in the 5 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when there was an allowed transportation of Leather and scarcely half so many Cattle bred in England and brought from Ireland and Scotland nor any Leather at all imported from Russia as it is now in great quantities when they do now by their own and the Tanners knaveries and enhaunces take for a pair of shoes which in the Reign of King Edward the 2 d. might be bought for the use of a good Knight or Gentleman for a groat and in Yorkshire for some of the best Gentry of that County in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but for little more where also a pair of shoes for a Lady of a good Extraction and Quality were in the begining of the Reign of King James sold for sixteen pence and a pair of shoes for a man in the memory of middle aged men were made and sold in London for two shillings six pence and eight groats a pair no less then four shillings eight pence at the lowest and many times five shillings and six pence or six shillings a pair which as Mr. Richard Ferrour hath judiciously and ingeniously observed doth yearly cheat and cozen the people besides the inconveniences by ill wrought and half tanned Leather six or seaven hundred thousand pounds or a Million Sterling per annum which might well have been spared or better employed And be as willing to ease his burdens and grievances as Queen Elizabeth that mirrour of Women and Princes was in theirs by the repealing of so much of the Statute for limiting the wages of labourers in the 25 th year of the Reign of King Edward the Third when Churches Castles and Abbies weâ—e wont to be built as concerned the wages of Labouâ—ers that Master Masons Carpenters and Tylers should take but three pence a day and others of that Trade but two pence a day a Tylers boy a peny per diem that none other should take above a penny for a days work for mowing five pence for reaping of Corn in the first week of August two pence and in the second week and unto the end of that moneth not above three pence And by the making of an Act of Parliament that the wages of Artificers and Labourers then six times more then they were at the time of the making of the said Act of Parliament in the 25 th year of the Reign of King Edward the Third should be yearly assessed by the Justices of the Peace and Magistrates in every County City and Town corporate at their Quarter-Sessions with respect unto the plenty and scarcity of the time and other circumstances necessary to be considered for that as the praeamble thereof declared the wages and allowances limited and rated in former Statutes were in divers places too small and not answerable to that time respecting the advancement of the prices of all things belonging unto Artificers and Labourers that the Law could not conveniently without the great grief and burden of the poor Labourers and hired men be put in execution and to the end that there might be a convenient proportion of wages in the times of scarcity and plenty Which was the cause that King James by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of his Reign upon compleynt that their wages were not rated and proportioned according to the plenty necessity and scarcity and respect of the time as was politiquely intended by the said Queen Elizabeth did amongst other provisions give a further power authority to the Justices of Peace in every County at their Quarter Sessions from time to time to limit and regulate the wages and hire of Labourers and Artificers although their wages and hire were then much encreased and are since very excessive and immoderate which by an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martir being continued untill the end of the first Session of the then next Parliament is for want of continuance expired and did repeal as Queen Elizabeth and other of our Kings also did many an Act of Parliament in regard of Inconveniences or damages arising to the people or because they did not answer the expectations of the makers thereof And may as little grudge the King his Pourveyance or Compositions for them though the richer part of the people who are only contributory to the Pourveyance or Compositions for them may by their own excessive raysing of all manner of prices of houshold provisions and their unreasonable gains by it seem to be something more then formerly burdened with it as they did the late King Charles the Martyr his indulgence to them and dispensing with a Decree made in the Starre-Chamber in the 11 th year of his Reign by the Lords of his Privy Councel and other the Judges of that Court after consultation had with Judge Hutton and Judge Croke who were well known to be very great well-wishers to the peoples just and legall liberties and the other reverend Judges and divers Justices of the peace of the Kingdom confirmed by the Kings Letters Patents under the great Seal of England which did forbid the Vintners to dress any meat for their Guests or Strangers and limited the Inkeepers of London and
the Reign of King Henry the 3. bring an Assise or Action against him for it for as for our Industrious Speed setting forth in his History of England that Rhese ap Gruffith Prince of Wales coming out of Wales as far as Oxford to treat of a Peace with King Richard the First did take it in so high a scorn and indignation that the King came not in person to meet him as he returned home into his own Country without saluting the King though Earl John the Kings only Brother had with much honour conducted him from the Marches of Wales thither and that by that means the hopes of the expected peace vanished and came unto nothing hath observed that the meanest from whom love or service is expected will again expect regard And therefore the care of our Kings was not a little imployed in that way of imparting of their favours and increasing and cherishing the love and good will of their people when King Henry the Seventh whose troubles and tosses of fortune before he came unto the Crown had together with his learning and princely education made him a great Master in Policy and good Government and one of the wisest Kings that ever swaied the English Scepter did in his prudent Orders concerning his Court and Houshold and the State and Magnificence which he desired to be observed therein communicated unto me by my worthy and learned Friend William Dugdale Esquire Norroy King at Armes out of an ancient Manuscript sometimes in the custody of Charles de Somerset Knight Lord Herbert and Gower Chamberlain unto that King amongst many other Orders for the honour of the King and his House ordain that If any straunger shall come from any Noble-man or other the Gentilmen Huysshers ought to sette him in suche place convenient within the Kyngs Chamber as is mete for hym by the discrecion of the Chamberlain and Huyssher and to comaunde service for hym after his degree and the sayd Huyssher ought to speke to the Kings Almoigner Kerver and Sewer to reward hym from the Kings Board this is to say if the said Straunger happen to come whan the Kyng is at dynner Item The Gentilman Huyssher if there come any honourable personnes to the Kyng at any other tyme they ought to call with thaym the sayd personnes to the Seller Pantry and Buttry and there to commaund forth such brede mete and drynke as by his discretion shall be thought metely for thaym and this in no wise not to be with sayd in noon of thies Offices aforesayd It is to the Kings honor Item that no Gentilman Huyssher bee so hardy to take any commaundement upon him but that it may be with the Kings honor by hys discretion in these matiers to myspende the Kings vitail but where as it ought to be and if he doo he is nat worthy to occupy that rowme but for to abide the punishment of my Lord Chamberlain Item A Gentilman Huyssher ought to commaund Yeomen Huysshers and Yeomen to fetche bred ale and wine at afternoon for Lords and other Gentilmen being in the Kings Chamber whan the caas soâ— shall requyre Which and the like Magnificences of Hospitality in the Houses and Courts of our Kings and Princes supported by the Pourveyances without which the elder Kings of England before the Conquest could not have been able to susteyn the charge of their great and yearly solemn Festivals at Christmas Easter and Pentecost when ex more obsequii vinculo antiquissimo as that great and learned Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman hath observed by duty and antient custome the Lords and Barons of England did never fail to come to the Kings Palace where the Magna Concilia wittena gemotes conventus sapientum now called Parliaments were at those times to be holden and kept cum ad Curiam personam ejus exornandum tum ad consulendum de negotiis regni statuendumque prout fuerat necessarium providere de rebus illis Rex solebat corona redimitus profastu Regio se in omnibus exhibere for the honor of the King and his Court who then with his Crown upon his head and other Princely habiliments did use to shew himself unto the people and advise what was necessary to be done for the good of the Kingdom And was such an attendant upon the Grandeur and Honour of their Monarchy as it began with it and continued here amongst us till the Councill of some foolish and factious Shrubs had by a fire kindled in our then unhappy Kingdome overturned our Cedars of Libanon and made an accursed and wicked Bramble their Protector and was so necessary to the Government and Authority of our Kings and the encrease and preservation of the love and obedience of the people as we find it neither repined nor murmured at in the Reign of King Alfred who being of an almost unimitable piety and prudence and to whom this Nation ows a gratefull memory for his division of the Kingdom into Shires and Hundreds and for many a Politique Constitution did now almost 800 years ago keep a most Princely and magnificent House and a numerous company of Servants gave enterteynment of diet and lodging to many of the sons of his Nobility who were therein trayned up to all manner of Courtly and honourable exercises had three Cohorts or Bands of Life-guards every Cohort according to the ancient computation consisting if they were Horse of 132 and of Foot of a great many more the first Company attending in or about his Court or House night and day for a moneth and returning aftewards home to their own occasions tarried there by the space of two moneths the second Cohort doing likewise as the first and the third as the second by their turns and courses and had a good allowance of money and victualls in the House or Court of the King who had his ministros nobiles qui in curio Regio vicissim commorabantur in pluribus ministrantes ministeriis noble and great Officers in his Court which attended in their courses and took so much care also for them as in his last Will and Testament he gave cuilibet Armigerorum suorum to every one of his Esquires 100 marks Or that King Hardi Canutus caused his Tables to be spread four times every day and plentiously furnished with Cates and commanded that his Courtiers Servants and Guests should rather have superfluities then want any thing That William Rufus when he had built Westminster Hall 270 foot in length and 74 in breadth thought it not large enough for a Dyning Room King Richard the Second kept a most Royall Christmas where was every day spent 26 or 28 Oxen 300 Sheep with Fowl beyond number and to his Houshold came every day to meat ten thousand people as appeared by the Messes told out from the Kitchin unto three hundred Servitors and was able about two years before when the Times began to be
Germany and other Kingdomes and Principalities of Christendome the Republique of Venice and that Corporation of Kings the States of Holland and the united Provinces greater Improvements of Lands and prices for the fruits of the Earth then former ages ever saw or attained unto ten to one more Cattel Sheep Swine and Poultry fed and sold in England then formerly a freedome from the Popes and Romes former and many daily heavy Taxations carrying away much of the Revenues thereof the universality of the people 10 or 20 times richer in moveables and household Furniture then ever their Forefathers were every man of 10 or 20 l. Land per annum now having one if not many pieces of Plate in his house heretofore not to be found but in the houses of the Nobility or persons of great quality many Alehouse-keepers a piece of Plate if not as many as his occasions call for instead of Black poâ—s every Artizan a piece or more of Plate and many of the richer sort of Citizens Merchants and Retayloâ—s do take themselves to be disparaged the Sons of contempt if they have not half and others almost all their Table-service in Silver Plate their Dyning Rooms and Lodging Chambers richly hung with Tapestry of 30 40 or 60 l. a suit too many of their Wives hung with Pearl Neck-laces Diamond Lockets and the most costly sort of Jewels and little Tablets of their Husbands Pictures richly enameld or set in gold at the charge of 25 or 20 l. a piece to hang at the outside of their hearts and some of the retailing part of them think they come to farre behind their betters if they have not a kind of Sâ—ate or Carpets to spread within their Chambers or Apartments or shall not be enough talked of or looked upon if they have not an Indian Foot-boy with a Coller of Silver about his neck to attend them and their delicacies and wantonness better attended then the afterwards destroyed and vagabond Jews ever had when the Almighty sent his Prophets to preach and inveigh against their excessive pride and wickedness a greater by many degrees more then heretofore increase of Trade untill our long and accursed Rebellion spoyled it more money put by Countrymen and such as were not Traders to Interest and Usury which may shew how great an overplus many have beyond their necessary expences then former ages were acquainted with as much Wood and Timber sold in our late times of prodigality as would have bought the Fee-simple and Inheritance of all or the greatest part of the Lands of the Kingdome many Rivers made navigable and Havens repaired the loss of Cattle and damage by Inundations and some unruly Rivers prevented by several Statutes oâ— Commissions of Sewers Depopulations prohibited many an unjust Title in concealed Lands made good after sixty years quiet possession Interest for money lent reduced to a lower rate then formerly and Brocage forbidden divers Statutes restraining Aliens not being denâ—zend to Trade or keep Shops the bringing of silver Bullion into England by our Merchants encouraged transportation of Gold and Silver prohibited Merchants of Ireland and Aliens ordained to employ their moneys received in England upon the Commodities thereof many great Factories and Trades erected and encouraged the Lands of Wales greatly improved and freedome formerly denyed had of Trade and Commerce with them the Marches of Wales secured from the Incursions of the Welch and the Northern Counties from those of the Scots abundance of Markets and Fairs granted more then formerly great store of Cattle brought in yearly from Ireland and Scotland and many a good and beneficiall Law and Act of Parliament made to remedy the peoples grievances and better enabling them to performe those very ancient and legall duties of Pourveyances or Compositions for them Which may with us be understood to be the more reasonable when the Pourveyance or Compositions for them in England if they did yearly charge the people or amount unto as they did not fifty or sixty five thousand pounds per annum or thereabouts did not yearly draw out of their Puâ—ses or Estates so much as that which is yearly laid out in their buying of Babies Hobby-horses and Toyes for their Children to spoyl as well as to play withall or in the yearly charge of the Counties in the amending of the High-wayes Treatments given to Harvest folk Expences of an Harvest Goose or Seed-Cake given to their Plowmen and keeping a Wake or Parish Feast every year or the monies which the good women in every Parish and County do gladly rid themselves of in their Gossipings at the Birth of their Neighbours Children and many other most triviall chearfull and pleasing disbursements and nothing near so much as this last years excess in the wearing of Perrukes or Periwigs some at three pounds others at five or ten pounds price which Clerks and the smallest size of Tradesmen and Journymen Apprentices Baâ—beâ—s and Vintners boys must of necessity have to hide their heads and little wit is Or in the womens long needless Trains or unreasonable length of their Gowns every Lady or Gentlewoman or many ridiculous proud Citizens Wives being certainly not Dutchesses or Countesses or allowed to have their Trains carried up to shew the length of their vanities and informe the Common people who do with abhorrence behold them how much better it would be to bestow that ten or twenty pounds per annum so foolishly expended upon the Poor in charity and almes deeds then to make their tails the Beesoms or Deputy-Scavengers of the streets or places where they walk or the mony which hath been lately expended in altering or putting too many of the Common people into the low crowned little Hats or flat Caps to cover the folly of every Absalom or Inhabitant in a hideous bush of hair or Periwig or their adorning them with as many Ribbons as the vanities they are guilty of or in the yearly or never murmured at charges or expences of almost all sorts of people as well in the Countries as Cities in the exchanging or following of Fashions as if they were to make all the hast possible they could to purchase them lest there should not be fools enough in the Nation or that the ridiculous French Ape should not have enough to be of his Livery or Retinue And as to the severall kinds of all those severall particulars would make the foot of the Accompt to be a great deal more then that of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which was so easie and petit as in most of the Counties of England it was many times not singly rated or assessed but was joyned with some other Assesse And in Kent where ten or twenty times more being gained by the Kings residence at Westminster more was paid then in any one County of England was so little felt and regarded as a Tenant paying One hundred pounds rent per annum for his Land did not think it worth his care
fallen upon the Orphans or fatherless Children of that part of the People and their Estates when the Wolves shall be made the Keepers of the Lambs and every indigent or wastfull father in Law shall be a Guardian to those whose Estates he makes it his business to spend and ruine or to transferre upon his own Children and the charge and trouble of Petitions at the Councell Board or more tedious Suits in Chancery to be relieved against them the pay of more Life-guards or a small standing Army to keep the People within the bounds of their duty and secure good Subjects from the mischief intended by the bad frequent Musters of the Trained Bands more then formerly and of an Army to be hired upon an occasion of an Invasion or the transferring the sedem belli or miseries of warre into an Enemies Country much whereof would not have needed to be if the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service those stronger Towers and Forts of our David those Horsemen and Charriots of our Israel and alwayes ready Garrisons composed of the best and worthiest men of our Nation not hirelings taken out of the Vulgus nor unlettered unskilfull and uncivilized nor rude or debauched part of the people but of those who would fight tanquam pro aris focis as they and their worthy Ancestors ever used to do for the good and honour of their King and Country and the preservation of their own Families as being obliged unto it by the strongest tyes and obligations of law and gratitude which ever were or could be laid upon the fortunes Estates Souls and Bodies of men that would have a care but of either of them Or to put in the Ballance against the benefits which they had in the preservation of their Woods recording their discents and titles to their Lands and many a Deed and Evidence which would otherwise have been lost or not easie to be found and the help and ayd which their heirs in their infancies have never failed of in all their Suits and Concernments And the seldome abuses of some naughty Pourveyors and the complaints thereby do not any thing neer amount unto the immense gains of the people of some millions sterling per annum in their vast improvements of their Lands and Estates by the rack and rise of rents enhaunce of Servants and Labourers wages and all commodities in all parts of the Kingdome before and since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Compositions for the Pourveyance were made and agreed upon may seem but a very small yearly Retribution to the King or his Royall Progenitors for permitting so much as shall be reasonable of it And the People of England might better allow him those small and legall advantages which are and will be as much for publique good as his own then they do themselves in many of their own affairs one with another in many of their particular private ends advantages wherein the will and bequests oâ— the dead their Hospitalls Legacies or Gifts to charitable uses are not nor have been so well managed as they ought to be As may be instanced in those multitudes of charitable Legacies or Gifts in lands originally cut out and proportioned to the maintenance of certain numbers of poor or for some particular uses which by the increase and improvement of Rents before and since the dissolution of the Abbies Religious Houses and Hospitals did very much surmount the proportions which were at the first allowed or intended for them And with more Reason and Justice then the City of London and many of their Guilds and Fraternities do now enjoy divers Lands which were given for Lamps and other superstitious uses for which they compounded by order of the Councell Board with King Edward the Sixth for twenty thousand pounds and more then that which that and many other Cities and Towns do take and receive for Tolls which being many times only granted for years or upon some temporary occasions are since kept and retained as rights besides many Gifts and Charitable Uses since the dissolution of the Abbies and Religious Houses amounting to a very great yearly value which by the improvement and rise of Rents beyond the proportion of the Gifts or the intention of the Givers have been either conveyed by Jâ—yntures or leases to wives or children or much of the overplus which came by the improvement or concealed Charitable Uses converted by the Governours of many a City and Town Corporate to the maintenance of themselves the Worship of the Corporation and many a comfortable Feast and Meeting for the pretended good of the 〈◊〉 people thereof who are but seldome if at all the better for it Some of which not to mention any of greater bulk or value may appear in a few instances instead of a multitude of that kind dispeâ—sed in the Kingdom as two Closes of Land or Meadow Ground lying in the Parish of Shoreditch in the County of Middlesex given by Simon Burton Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London in the year 1579. unto St. Thomas Hospital upon condition that the Governors of the said Hospitall should yearly give unto 30 poor Persons of the said Parish on the 21 22 or 23 dayes of December for ever the summe of eight pence a piece Mr. William Hanbury Citizen and White-baker of London did by a Surrender in the year 1595. give unto Elizabeth Spearing certain Copihold Lands in Stebuâ—heath and Ratcliffe in the said County to pay the Parson and Church-wardens of the said Parish for ever to the use of the poor People there two and fifty shillings yearly which by consent of the Parish is by twelve pence every Wednesday weekly bestowed upon the Poor abroad And Mrs. Alice Hanbury Widow by her will did in the same year give unto Mr. George Spearing a Tenement in the said Parish wherein William Bridges a Taylor then dwelled upon condition that the said George Spearing his Heirs and Assignes should yearly pay to the Churchwardens of the said Parish and their Successors to the use of the poor and impotent People thirteen shillings and four pence And that whether the King be enough recompenced or not at all recompenced for his Pourveyance it would be none of the best bargains for the Subjects of England or their Posterity to exchange or take away so great and nâ—â—â—ssary a part of his Prerogative or support of Majesty as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were which in the Parliament in the 4 th year of the Reign of King James were held to be such an inseperable Adjunct of the Crown and Imperiall dignity as not to be aliened and some few years after believed by that incomparable Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Chancellor of England to be a necessary support of the Kings Table a good help and justly due unto him And the Learned both in Law and Politiquâ—s in other Nations as well as our own have told us that such Sacra
his Crown Lands turned from small and easie old-fashion'd Reserved Rents upon Leases for Lives or years into Estates of Inheritance and very many Liberties as Fishings Free-Warrens Court-Leets Court-Barons Eschetes Felons Fugitives and Outlaws Goods Deodands Forfeitures Waiss Estraies Fines Amerciaments retorn and execution of Writs and in some Manors a liberty of receiving to their own use Fines for licenses of concord or agreement upon the making of Conveyances and Post-Fines upon Fines leavied in the Kings Courts Profits of the year day and wast and all Fines Issues Amerciaments returned set or imposed upon any of their Tenants in any of the Kings Courts or by any Justices of Assize or of the Peace With many other Franchises Liberties and Participations of his Regality which they do now enjoy tanquam Reguli as little Kings in their several Estates and Dominions in many of them more by claim and prescription allowed by the favour and indulgence of the King and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors Kings and Queens of of this Nation unto them and their Posterities then by any any Grants they can shew for it very much exceeding in yearly profit and conâ—ent the small charges which they have used to have been at for the Pourveyance or Provisions for the Kings Houshold Take his Fee-farme Rents which do amount unto above threescore thousand pounds per annum but according to their first and primitive small reservation though the Lands thereof be now improved and raised in some a ten and in others a twelve to one moâ—e then they were then accompted to be either in the intentions of the Donors or Donees and many other his Fee-Farmes of some casuall Profits and Revenues granted to Cities and Corporations which do now ten to one exceed what they were when they were first granted Grant and confirme to the Vulgus or Common people many great immunities and Priviledges as Assart Lands and permit them to enjoy in his own Lands and Revenue large Common of Pasture and Common of Estovers and Turbary in his Forrests and Chaces and protect from oppression in that which are holden of their Mesne Lords their Copihold Lands Customes and Estates which being at first but temporarily permitted and allowed patientia charitate in quoddam jus transierunt are now by an accustomed and continued charity taken to be a kind of Tenant Right and Inheritance Grants and permits many Charters of Liberties Privileges and Freedoms to the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England and Wales and to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of London all Issues Fines and Amerciaments retâ—rned and imposed upon them in any of the Kings Cours freedome from payment of Tolls and Lastage in their way of an universall and diffused Trade in all places of England and for a small Fee Farme Rent of Fifty pounds per annum for the Kings Tolls at Queen-Hithe Billingsgate and other places in the City of London accepted in the Reign of King Henry the Third suffers them to have and receive in specie or mony towards their own Pourveyance as much as would goe a good way in his Allows the Tenants in antient Demesn their Exemptions from the payment of Toll for their Houshold Provisions which in the opinion of Sir Edward Coke was at the first in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings houshold Provisions and suffers the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colleges and Halls therein Colleges of Winchester and Eaton and the Reâ—ients in the Cinque Ports and Rumney Marsh to enjoy a Freedom from Subsidies Who together with all the people of England may by the Accompt of benefits received by and from him and his Royall Progenitors and Predecessors know better how to value them if they had not received them and if he should but retire himself into himself and withdraw his bounties from us Or take his Customes and Imposts inward and outward Reliefs Ayds Subsidies Fifteens Tenths and First-fruits Profits of his Seals Pâ—ae-fines Post-fines Licences and Pardons for alienation of Lands Fines upon Foâ—medons and reall Actions at the full value and rate which the Law will allow and the rise of money might perswade him unto or take all occasions to invade or clip the peoples Liberties and Privileges as they do his Or seise and take advantage of the forfeitures of our sufficiently misused Fairs and Markets which without the many inconveniences of Barrage Billets peages or Tolls taken at many places as they pass thither as the people of France and our Fashion makers are tormented with do yield and save the people yearly in that which otherwise would be lost some hundred of thousands pounds per annum or should withdraw his favours and countenance from the Trade which our Merchants have into forreign Parts since the Reign of Queen Mary by the benefits and blessings of the Leagues and Alliances of him his Royall Progenitors made with forreign Princes continued with a great yearly charge of Embassadours Ordinary and Extraordinary sent and received and render it to be no no more then it was in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the difference of the gain of forreign Trade and Merchandize betwixt the little which was then and that which is now by reason of the East-Indie Turkie Muscovie Ligorne and East-land Trades and our many flourishing American Plantations would appear to be some millions sterling money in a year And were notwithstanding never so gratefull to our King for it as the English Merchants of Calais were whilst King Edward the Third caused the Staple of Wool to be kept there who so ordered the matter as the King spent nothing upon Souldiers in defence of the Town which was wont to cost him eight thousand pounds per annum and the Mayor of that Town could in Anno 51 of the Reign of that King furnish the Captain of the Town upon any Rode to be made with one hundred Bill-men and two hundred Archers of Merchants and their Servants without any wages Or if the Peoples Liberties acquired by the munificence and Indulgence of our Kings since the making and confirming of our Magna Charta in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Third now 437 years ago when they took it to be for their good as well as the Kings to give him a Fifteenth part of all their Moveables not by a conniving and unequall but a more real and impartiall Taxation in recompence and as a thankfull Retribution for their Liberties then granted and confirmed which are now as many again or do farre exâ—ed them were buâ— justly valueâ— or if the benefits accrewed unto forreign Merchants or those of our own Nation by the Charâ—a Mercatoria granted by King Edward the First in the 31 year of his Reign to the Meâ—chants Strangers and confirmed by Act of Paâ—liament in Anno 27 Ed. 3. for the releasing of an antient Custome and Duty to the Kings