the Clergy and three entire Subsidies and three Fifteenths and tenths and three hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Subsidies unpaid to Queen Elizabeth Anno 7. an Ayd to make his Son Prince Henry a Knight Anno 18. two Subsidies of the Laity and three of the Crergy Anno 21. three Subsidies and three fifteens of the Temporalty and some Subsidies of the Clergy Primo Car. primi three entire Subsides by the Spiritualty 3. Car. five entire Subsidies granted by the Spiritualty and as many by the Temporalty great sums of money raised by Ship-money and by an Act of Parliament for Poll-money pawning all his Jewels and the benefit for some years of Coynage of two hundred thousand pounds of Spanish Bullion and returning the value in English Commodities All which being great supplies and easements to the charges and burdens of our severall and successive Kings and Princes and were not without some charge in the collection would have been much greater if the people of England keeping close to a long custome of not only getting all that they can from their Kings and Common Parents but returning as little as they could of their Aydes or Thanks unto them would have permitted them to arrive to a just or true valuation or any more then a small part of what they should be content to rate one another at having by an Act of Parliament in 6. Ed. 3. obtained of the King that from henceforth all Aydes should be taxed after the old manner and not otherwise the Subsidies being most commonly rated but at two shillings eight pence in the pound for goods and four shillings in the pound for lands with consideration of debts and other diminishing circumstances and put in the Ballance and compared with that which was given to the people by the Confirmations of divers Kings and Queens of Letters Patents and Lands given therein Coronation Pardons the General Pardons of 21 Jac. those in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and of some of our later Kings and Princes for in the Reigns of many of the former they were not so frequent general or usuall The Act of Parliament of 21 Jacobi Regis for debarring the Kings Title to concealed Lands after sixty years possession where nothing within that time had been answered or paid to the Crown or was in super and the last all-surpassing Act of Indemnity and General Pardon granted by King Charles the second would be farre surmounted by those and many other beneficiall Acts of Parliament granted in every King and Princes reign of liberties and benefits to the people And were not enough or sufficient to repair the decayes of the Regal Revenues or keep them from a consumption occasioned by their vast charges of our Kings as well in times of warre as peace to keep their people in safety peace and plenty nor to cure the Revenue of a Hecticque Fever of almost 500 years continuance though some of our Kings and Princes took some parts of Trade into their own hands to supply their necessities as the Wool by King Ed. 1. Tinne by Ed. 3. that and corn by Hen. 6. and Beer transported by Queen Elizabeth and notwithstanding the care and provision of divers Parliaments to have the Crown Lands not alien'd or wasted and the care of the Laws of England that the grants of the King shall be void where he is deceived or not truly informed The Ordinance in the 21 of Richard the second that whatsoever should come to the King by Judgment Escheat Wardship or any otherwayes should not be given away That of primo King H. 4. ca. 6. that in a Petition to the King for Lands Offices or any Gift the value thereof shall be mentioned and of that also which they have had of the Kings gift or of other his Pregenitors or Predecessors before and in case it be not their Grants shall be void and repealed the Ordinance of 21 R. 2. that the Procurer of any gift should be punished continued untill 7 H. 4. untill the King should be out of debt under penalty of forfeiting the double value for moving or procuring any such suit The Statute of 4 of H. 4. cap. 4. that the King grant no Lands or other Commodities but to such as shall deserve them and if any make demand without desert he shall be punished by the Councell and not obtain his suit In 11 Hen. 4 That Petitions for any such Grants delivered to the King be examined by his Privy Councell lest the Kings wants should light upon the Commons and in 2 H. 6. That all the profits by Wards Marriages Reliefs Escheats and Forfeitures should be expended in helping to defray the charges of the Kings Houshold an account of the Kings Revenue in 1. Hen. 6. in England Ireland Wales and Aquitaine and of his charges and expences delivered into Parliament by Ralph Lord Cromwell Lord Treasurer of England and the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester and divers of the Lords of the Kings Councell appointed to consider thereof the Acts of Parliament in 18 and 43 Eliz. That the Queen should be answered for the overplus of the value of Lands granted by her Letters Patents after the rate of threescore years purchase The abating in several Kings Reigns the expences of Houshold and of their Retinue Favourites Gifts and Rewards and lessening of charges in Warre by Tenures in Capite and Knight Service Aydes to make their eldest Sonnes Knights and for the marriage of their eldest Daughters Profit of Annum diem vastum Aides and Assistances by Grand and Petit Serjeanties Aurum Reginae or something presented to the Queen in former Kings Reigns upon Grants of Lands or Estate Licences to Trade with prohibited Merchandize raising their Customes and sometimes farming out their Ships Fines upon licences of Alienation or Pardons Espargne of the Royall Revenue by the Marriages of the Heirs of the Nobility and Gentry of great Estates and transplanting and inoculating of great and Noble Families and Estates into one another not only for their good and advancement but the peace and welfare of the Kingdome and the checque which King James gave to suits and importunities at Court after that he had given away too much of his English Crown Lands to his craving Countreymen of Scotland publickly declaring what kind of Suits or Requests might be demanded of him and what he would not grant his orders to have once in every quarter of a year Certificates or Accounts of moneys issued for his Houshold Wardrobe Jewel-house Chamber Navie and Stables and his care and advice with his Privie Councel for supplies of his Revenues and regulating his expences for that the Exitus was every year by affairs troubles and cares of State disturbances and accidents often happening a great deal more then the Introitus the disbursements farre exceeding the incomes the ordinary receipts coming farre short of the ordinary disbursements and the extraordinaries very much out-going the ordinaries CHAP. III. Ruine and Decay
charge of the Wards or others concerned therein be unnecessarily as they have been inrolled at length or otherwise with the Auditors of that Court when as the same was recorded before by other Officers of that Court to which the Auditors may have a free access and at any time take extracts out of them 13. That a severe Act of Parliament be made against such as shall misuse or wast any Wards Estate Lands Woods and Timber committed or granted to them or any personal Estate which belongeth unto them or shall not give the Wards fit education or shall disparage them in their Marriages or marry them without any competent Portion or shall not within a moneth after the death of such Ward or coming to his or her age of one and twenty years make a true accompt and payment unto the said Ward or his or her Heirs or Executors of all that shall be by them due and payable to him or them by reason of the said Wardship upon pain to pay to the use of the said Ward his or her Heirs Executors or Administrators besides the said moneys due and payable to the use of the said Ward double costs and damages expended or sustained therein That all Lands hereafter escheated and forfeited to his Majesty in cases where there shall be no restoration to the next in discent or remainder be inseparable and as a Sacrum patrimonium annexed to the Crown never to be aliened leased or charged with any Rent-charge or Annuity further then for life or one and twenty years That all Corporations of Trade may besides Fines and Amerciaments to be imposed and taken to their own use have also power to impose Fines and Amerciaments to the use of his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors and have no power to release or discharge any Penalties and Issues forfeited to the King And that the Town Clerks of Cities and Towns Corporate and Clerks of every Corporation or Company of Trade shall be bound by Oath and Recognizance to the King to certifie and estreat into the Exchequer all Fines Issues and Amerciaments forfeited and lost at two usuall Terms in every year that is to say Easter and Michaelmas That the By-lawes of every Corporation and Company of Trade and every City and Town Corporate which ought to be perused and approved by the Lord Chancellor of England and Lord Chief Justices of either Benches or Justices of Assize or any three of them and are not to be contrary to the Lawes may be according to the Statute of 19 Hen. 7. cap. 7. perused and allowed by them That upon every bloodshed or breach of the peace as by the Civil Law in forreign parts and heretofore was anciently used in England by the Common Law thereof a reasonable mulct or penalty be imposed to be gathered by the Magistrates as the Drossaerts do in many places in Holland and be answered to the King though the parties do agree or release and discharge one another That all Misericordia's which are now the only Vestigia's left of that antient Custome and Prerogative in Cases of Nonsuits and Pleas of Non est factums not verified may be put into certain reasonable penal sums duly collected and answered to the King his Heirs and Successors which besides an annual and casual profit to his Majesty will quiet and lessen contentions and bring a great ease to the people That in cases of Manslaughter there be before any pardon granted a reasonable satisfaction made according as it was heretofore practised in our Lawes of England both before and since the Conquest made to the wives and children of the Deceased or if none to the next of kindred unless the parties concerned shall otherwise agree their recompence or satisfaction and an Estimatio capitis or value of the party offending also paid to the King That upon convictions of Adulteries Fornication as was antiently used there be paid to the King a penalty proportionable to the offence and that in all Tryals for Manslaughter Murder or other crimes that hard and unreasonable custom now and heretofore used in England that witnesses may not be brought heard or examined against the King be abolished and that all good and lawfull testimonies which may tend to the discovery of the fact may be as in other Cases and Tryals heard and received That there be in every Circuit as antiently a Clerk besides the Clerk of the Assize appointed to enter in a Roll the Fines imposed by the Justices and to make Estreats thereof duly into the Exchequer That in all Actions of Trespass or any other Action to be brought in the Court of the Kings Bench at Westminster or by Quo minus in the Office of Pleas in the Court of the Kings Exchequer at Westminster or in the Court of the Marshalsea or Court of the Virge of the Kings Palace at Westminster whereupon any declaration shall be in debt there be upon the first Process or Writ such Fines paid to the King and in such manner as have been antiently and are now paid to the King upon actions of debt retornable in the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster And that upon every such first Writ the Plaintiffs Attorney doe in order thereunto indorse the just sum in debt which he intendeth to declare upon That every Merchant or Trader that shippeth any goods to be exported or unlades any imported shall under his hand attested or if need be upon his oath deliver unto his Majesties Farmers or Customers a true note or Cocquet of all such goods exported and imported and the true contents and value thereof And that whosoever shall wittingly or knowingly deceive his Majesty his Heirs or Successors therein shall for the first offence forfeit five times the value and for the second ten times the value and for the third to be disfranchised and never more permitted to trade And that every conviction of any such offence shall if pleaded be a bar to them in any Action to be brought commenced and prosecuted by them That once in every three years Commissions be issued to carefull and worthy men in every County and City uninterressed to enquire of all charitable uses and the imployments and abuses thereof and if need be to put a better order therein for the future and that the Arrears be also collected and paid the one moity to his Majesty and the other to be imployed to the charitable uses That Commissions be likewise issued now more then formerly necessary by the dissolution of Monasteries and Religious Houses and the great disuse of Hospitalities and Almes deeds to enquire and certifie the number of Poor requiring almes in every Parish in every County and City that all vagabond and wandring Beggars be returned to the several Parishes where they were born and where it cannot may be reduced to some Parishes in every County or City less troubled then others with poor and more able to maintain
them that the Church-wardens or Governours of every Parish as is usually done in Holland where by their excellent orders and care of their Poor very few are to be seen either wandring or miserable may upon poverty happening to any Family or the death of a Father or Mother of children goe or send to their houses as the Commissioners de aflictis at Amsterdam usually do lift up the broken hearted and enquire what are their necessities or what there is to maintain them and accordingly make provision for them by relieving the aged sick or impotent providing work for such as are able and putting out of children at fitting ages to be Apprentices or to service or some other imployments wherein we may well hope for those good effects which the like courses in France by the erecting of the Hospitals de dieu or other Hospitals in or about Paris have lately assured that the encrease and decrease of the poor in every Parish and the Collections and Assessments for them and Legacies and charitable uses given to the poor be yearly certified to the Clerk of the Peace of every City County at the Quarter Sessions to be holden after Michaelmas to be by him entred into fair Books with Calenders and Tables fitted thereunto publickly read before the Justices at the next Quarter Sessions after to the end that the Justices there assembled may duly consider thereof and make such further orders and Provisions as shall be fitting and requisite And that when the English Captives at Algier shall be released and no more likely to be in that condition the one pound per cent granted by Act of Parliament for that purpose or the like allowance and proportion for seven years to be allowed out of the Custome-house may be imployed to relieve and make a stock for the Poor of England And in regard that such as sue at Law in forma pauperis notwithstanding all the cares which have been hitherto taken by the Courts of Justice in assigning them Counsel and Attornies and ordering that no Fees should be taken they doe for want of money and those cares and diligences which are only purchased and procured by mony many times but tire themselves to no purpose and after many years expence of time and labour in trudging to and fro with their foul and tatered Bundles and Papers wither away die in the hopes of that which for want of a due assistance and vigorous prosecution they could never bring to pass That an Utter-Barrister or Councellor at Law be once in every three years appointed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being and to continue for that time and no longer in the high Courts of Chancery and the Courts of Kings Bench Exchequer and Dutchy of Lancaster and a Sergeant at Law in the Court of Common-pleas to be for the like time nominated and appointed by the Lord chief Justice of the Court of Common-pleas for the time being to be of councell assistant for all rights and duties of men and women suing in forma pauperis and as Counsel to assist and help the poor of the respective places in the prosecution and recovery of all Legacies and charitable uses given to them or penalties given or ordained by any Statute to be had or levied for their use or any Parish collections and assessements withheld from them for which they shall take no Fees but in a reasonable manner upon the recovery thereof or end of the said Suits And for their better encouragement may in all the Courts of Justice of this kingdom according to their said several nominations and appointments as well Superior as Inferior have a prae audience in those other causes next to the Councel learned of the Kings and Queens of England and the Prince or Heir apparent That in every County and City there be a publick Work-house to imploy the Poor in the manufacture of Woollen or Linnen cloth making fishing Nets or other Manufacture and that for their better encouragement they may as they doe in Holland after a competent number of hours in every day imployed in the work of the Publick be allowed two hours in a day to work for their own advantage notwithstanding that their lodgings diet and fitting apparrel be defrayed out of the Publick and that the Governours thereof may for their encouragement have the benefit and liberty of Exportation and Importation of any the said commodities without any Custome to be paid for the same upon the Certificate of the next Justice of Peace of such County or City upon the oath of every such Governour that the said quantities to be exported were made or wrought at the said publick Workhouse and upon the oath of such Governour that the commodities imported are to be imployed and used only in the said publick Workhouse And that the kindred of Poor living in any part of England and Wales not taking almes or overburdned with poverty may be sought out and enforced to a reasonable contribution according to their abilities towards the maintenance or providing for such Poor and decayed as within the eighth degree are of their own blood and lynage and where it may be put them into such a way of living as may exempt them from the fate of common servants or people taking almes or from being placed in common Workhouses that by such means and provisions to be made for the Poor which our Acts of Parliament and the careless and many times purloyning Collectors and Overseers of the Poor in severall Parishes have not yet performed And that all Nobility Gentlemen and others excepting such whose constant and necessary attendance upon the persons of the King Queen or Prince shall not permit the same having an Estate of Lands of Inheritance of the yearly value of one hundred pounds per annum or more above reprises and their houses of residence in any Parish of England or Wales not keeping their Christmas in the said house or Parish shall at every of the said Feasts pay unto the Poor of the said parish the sum of forty shillings or proportionably according to that rate of his or their Lands lying or being in the said Parish besides their other payments to the Poor collected and assessed in the said Parish That so the multitude of Beggars in England may no more be a Byword amongst other Nations that there may be no complaining in our streets nor such dismall and sad spectacles as the leprous blind lame and aged people and young children crying out for bread and ready to starve for want of food or clothing nor so many counterfeits or tricks to make an ill use of charities to uphold their lazy and ugly condition of life That the Clerks of the Peace and Assizes and every Justice of Peace shall take their oathes not to release or discharge or respite any Fines Issues Recognizances and Amerciaments forfeited due to the King
Magna Charta and Charta Foreste fortieth part of every mans goods towards the payment of his debts and a thirtieth part afterwards granted by Act of Parliament much of his Forrests and Woods converted to errable land his Parks of Woodstock and Gillingham ploughed many Grants made in his minority revoked his great Officers as Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent Chief Justice of England and others called to account Ranulph Britton Treasurer of his Chamber fined in one thousand marks a great summe of money given by the City of London to be made Toll-free every one that could dispend in land fifteen pound per annum ordered to be knighted or pay a Fine great summes of money gained by composition with Delinquents at seven years value of their Lands by the DictuÌ„ de Kenilworth his houshold charges lessened a meaner Port kept less Almes given his Jewels and the Crown royal pawned Plate sold to pay his debts at no greater a value then the weight though the workmanship did cost as much and the golden Shrine of Edward the Confessor forty shillings for every Knights see twice assessed for his warres in Gascony great sums of money raised of the Iewes the banishment of the Poictouins and his half-brothers who had made it too much of their business to beg what they could of the Revenue and by his own sometimes sitting in the Exchequer to preserve it thirty two thousand pounds sterling received of Leolin Prince of Wales propaee habenda and a resumption of divers of the Crown Lands which had been aliened Nor by an Inquiry in Anno 4. of King Ed. 1 by Act of Parliament of the Castles Buildings Lead and Timber of the Kings his Demeasnes Parks Woods extent of Manors forrain Parks and Woods Pawnage Herbage Mills Fishings Freeholds Cottages Curtilages customary Tenants Patronages Perquisitâ—s of Courts Liberties Customes and Services a Subsidie in Anno 6. of his reign of the twentieth part of every mans goods towards the charges of his warres in Wales the Statute of Quo warranto in Anno 18. to inquire and seise into the Kings hands all liberties usurped a Subside in anno 22. of his reign upon Woolfels and Hydes transported a tenth of all goods the eighth of the goods of the Citizens and Burgesses a twelfth of the rest of the Laity and a moiety of the Clergy in anno 25. and in anno 26. the ninth penny of the Commons the tenth penny of the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury and the fifth of York taking away much monies from the Priors Aliens payment by the Clergy in anno 23 of all such summes of money which they had promised to pay to the Pope towards the maintenance of the Holy warres and half a years value of their Ecclesiasticall livings and promotions abased monies four hundred and twenty thousand pounds fifteen shillings and four pence raised from the Jewes and a farre greater summe afterwards contribution of ships and ship-money by the maritime Coasts and Counties in case of danger and invasion sixty five thousand marks of silver received for Fines of some corrupt Judges and great summes of money likewise for forfeitures by an Inquisition or Commission of Trail Baston A fifteenth of the Clergy and a twentieth of the Temporalty to King Edward the Second in anno primo of his reign the moveables and personal Estate of the Knights Templers in England Contribution of ships and ship-money by the maritime Counties a fifteenth in anno 6. and the great and rich confiscated personall Estates of the two Spencers Father and Son and an Ordinance made pro Hospitio Regis concerning the regulation of his Houshold Thirty thousand marks paid to King Edward the third in anno 2. of his reign by Robert Bruce King of Scots to release his Soveraignity to that Kingdom a tenth of the Clergy Citizens and Burgesses and a fifteenth of others granted in anno 6. of his reign Aids of ships ship-money by the Sea-coasts and in an 13. the tenth sheep of all the Lords Demeasnes except of their bound Tenants the tenth fleece of wool and the tenth lamb of their store to be paid in two years and that such of them or their Peers as held by Baronie should give the tenth of their grain wool and Lamb and of all their own Demeasnes and two thousand five hundred sacks of wool given by the Commons anno 14. the ninth of the grain wool and lamb of the Laity to be paid in two years the ninth of the goods of the Townsmen and the fifteenth of such as dwelt in Forrests and Chases anno 17. forty shillings for every Sack of wool over and above the old rate anno 18. a Disme by the Clergy of Canterbury for three years two fifteenths of the Commons and two dismes of the Cities and Towns to be levied in such wise as the last in an 20. two fifteens to be paid in two years anno 21. two shillings upon every Sack of wool granted by the Lords without the Commons in anno 22. three fifteens to be paid in three years All such treasure as was committed to Churches throughout England for the Holy warre all the goods of the Cluniacques Cistercians and some other Orders of Monks half the wools of the Laity and the whole of the Clergy the jewels of the Crown pawned imprisonment of his Treasurer abasing some of his 〈◊〉 and ordaining some of his Exchanges of money to be at London Canterbury and York monies abated in weight and made to pass according to former value and the profits which the forrain Cardinals enjoyed in England during their lives taken into his hands one hundred thousand pounds received for the ransome of John King of France great sums of money for the ransoming of David King of Scotland Philip afterwards Duke of Burgogne Jaques de Bourbon and many of the French Nobility fifty shillings granted by Parliament in anno 43. for every sack of wool for six years by which imposition only as the Trade of Wools and Cloathing then flourished the King as it was computed might dispend one thousand marks per diem fifty thousand pounds by the Laity and as much by the Clergy granted him by the Parliament in anno 45. to resume his right in France a Poll-money by Act of Parliament of four pence for every person of of the Laity that took not almes of every Clergy-man beneficed twelve pence and of every Religious person four pence in anno 50. and a resumption of divers of his Crown Lands A Subsidie in the first year of K. Richard the second levied upon the great men to spare the Commons Poll-money of every person above fifteen years old Fines of seaventeen shires in anno 21. and causing them to pay great summes of money for aiding the Duke of Gloucester and Earles of Arrundel and Warwick the Bohemians which pestered his Court banished and a resumption of divers of his Crown Lands A tenth of the Clergy and a Subsidie