but carefully and duly estreat and certifie them every half year into the Exchequer in the Terms of Easter and St. Michael which the example of Hengham a Judge in the Reign of King Edward the first who for reducing an Amerciament or Fine of thirteen shillings four pence to six shillings eight pence in favour and pitty of a poor man was grievously fined and ordered to provide at his own charge the great Clock at Westminster may perswade them not to violate That the Ballance and In and Out of forraign Trade may be observed and reduced into Books to be yearly brought into the Exchequer but not with Blanks fair Seals Covers and Labels as they have used to be to little purpose That the more to encourage Merchants to an honest accompt and payment of their Customes to the King and to deal better with him it may be enacted that where any Ships of any Merchants and their goods and lading shall be taken in times of hostility with any other Prince so as it be not by the carelesness and neglect of the Merchants in carrying prohibited goods or the Captain or owner of the Ships in not making so good a defence or not arming or providing themselves so well as they ought the losses of such Merchants and shipowners duely estimated and proved before the Judges of the Admiralty shall be refunded out of the next Prizes which shall be taken from that Nation Prince or Enemy that took it the accustomed allowances to the Lord high Admiral and others first deducted That the wages of Servants now trebled more then what it was twenty years agone and of Labourers and Workmen very much increased by reason of the intollerable and unbecomming pride of clothes now in fashion amongst them by licence and imitation of times of pride disobedience disorder and rebellion and the folly of some of their Masters and Mistresses enjoyning them to wear clothes too high for them may be limited and ordered to be as they were before these last twenty years that every Master or Mistress that giveth more shall forfeit double the value to the King and that no Servant who hath formerly served in any other place be received or taken into service without a certificate or testimony of their good behaviour from their Maister or Mistress where they last served if they shall not appear to be unreasonable or for malice or any sinister ends to deny the same That the Tenths of all the Fishing in the British or English Seas by Barks or Busses now beginning to be instituted and taken into consideration which in part was intended to be had by King Edward the sixth upon the coasts of Wales Ireland and Baltimore by building a Fort or Castle upon the streight to command as Captain John Smith relates in his discourse of the benefits of Fishing in our English Seas a tribute for Fishing and if industry fail not is like if we but imitate the Hollanders who have hitherto enjoyed that which was none of their own and enriched themselves by our carelesnes to grow up to a great and not to be estimated National profit be paid and accompted for to the King and his Heirs and Successors who may well deserve it when as besides his Soveraignty of the Sea and the guard and protection of them by his Navie and Shipping he hath of late in the midst of his own wants and necessities 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 Customs inward and outward for any the returns to be made by the sale of Fish in the Baltick Seas Denmark and France for seven years for the first entrance into the Trade of Fishing That the rivers in England and Wales not yet navigable and fit to be made navigable may by a publick purchase of the Mills or Wears standing upon them and pulling down the Wears Kiddels hindring it attempted in the Reigns of King Henry the third and Edward the third by several Statutes made for the taking of them away be made navigable and a reasonable Toll or Custome upon every Vessell and Fraight paid to the King his Heirs and Successors That for the better support of our Nobility and the honours which they enjoy and that as starres in our firmament they may be able to attend the Sun their Soveraign and not suffer such Eclypses in their Estates and Revenues as too many have lately done that the Lions which should guard the Thrones of our Kings may not pine away or languish and the stately columns and pillars thereof moulder into ruins and decay and have small or unbecoming Estates to maintain them in the splendor of their Ancestors and the Royal Revenue not to be troubled or lessened by suits or requests to supplie them they may according to the intent and custome of the Fewdall Laws and the locality which ought to be in Earldoms and Baronies not be without some honorary possessions which was so usual and frequent in England as through the three first Centuries after the Conquest the Lands belonging to Earldomes and Baronies were accompted to be parcels and members thereof and the word Honor so comprehensive as it conteined and comprised all the Lands belonging thereunto as well as the Earldomes Baronies and Title which did in sundry of of our former Kings reigns grants pass and comprehend the Land as well as the Titles And that according to that laudable and ever to be imitated example of Thomas late Earl of Arundel and Surrey in obtaining an Act of Parliament in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr for the annexing of divers Baronies and Lands to the Castle and Earldome of Arundel inseparable and unalienable in contemplation of the poverty and small Estates of the then Lord Stafford and some other of the antient English Nobility wetherbeaten and wasted by the injuries of time or the luxuries and carelesness of their Ancestors The Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons and Baronets of England leaving some other Lands to their own disposing for the preferring of younger children payment of debts and supply of necessities which accidents may cast upon them may be ordered to settle annex by like Acts of Parliament the Capita Baroniarum and chief Castles Manors and Lands belonging to their Earldomes Baronies or Estates competent and sufficient to keep up and sustain the honour and dignity thereof from the gripes or defilements of poverty and Adversities not to be aliened or separated from their Earldomes Baronies or Dignities as long as it shall please God to continue them That the antient use of the Exchequer be restored and the Kings revenues carefully collected and answered and that the Justices in Eyre of the Kings Forrests and Chases on this side and beyond Trent Clerkes of the Market and Commissioners and Clerks of the Commissioners of Sewers do duely certifie into the
had forfeited unto him can by an unheard and not easily to be believed ingratitude after his Act of Oblivion and Free-pardon neither deserved nor purchased and preferments bestowed upon them fall into such an oblivion as nature abhorres and humanity must needs blush at and not offer any thing in a benevolence ordered by Act of Parliament instead of a Tax or Subsidie And very many of those which did give any thing some loyal and right-hearted excepted having obtained of the King to give away the principallest Flower of his Crown by releasing of his Tenures in Capite and by Knights service and promised him Tenures in Corde in part of satisfaction would not be pleased to find the way afterwards to give him so much as the twentith part of their yearly vain and unnecessary expences towards the relieving of the publick and his private necessities For the better information therefore of all such who are unwilling to part with a Fancy that the Revenues of our Kings of England are immense or largely sufficient for their occasions and to dispose them to the duty which the Laws of God and Men have commandded and directed and evidence the reason and necessity which the King now hath to demand a supplement of his Revenue and for his good people of England not to deny it him and that the decayes and ruins thereof have not been occasioned only by an heretofore ill-management of the Finances but by time and an age of many ages multiplicity of expences indulgences to the people and necessity of affirs and government which exhausting the radicall heat and moysture have so spent the spirits of the body politick as they have brought it to that feinting languishing and weak condition it is now in It will not be inconvenient from the mountains and hills of time to look down into the valleys of the ages past and take a short view for a longer would better become the designe of a Volume then what is here briefly to be represented of the Revenues of our Kings of England before and since the Conquest CHAP. I. Revenues of the Kings of England IN the Prospect whereof it will be more then a conjecture that those of the Saxon race before the Norman Invasion had in their Heptarchy except Wales and the barren and mountainous part of our Britain to which the distressed Reliques of that Nation had for shelter and safety retired the most part of the Lands and Revenues of the British Kings that Egbert King of the West Saxons and Alured and after them Edgar sole Monarch of Albion and the Saxon Dominions and his Successors having possessed themselves of all the other Kings Estates could not probably be without very large Demeasnes and Revenues and that not only they but all the succeeding Saxon Kings have made the support of themselves Regality Government and Affaires in and by the constant and certain Revenues and profits of their Lands in Demeasne and Service which as a Sacrum Patrimonium and concomitant of the Crown may by the ancient Charters of many of our Kings before the Conquest the grant of the Manor of Malling in the County of Sussex by Egbert King of the West Saxons in An. Dom. 838. distinction of Crown Lands and Terra Regis a great part of which were no other then what was since and is now called Antient Demeasne mentioned and recorded in Doomesday book that Liber censualis and grand Register or Survey of the Lands of the Kingdome precedented by the Book or Roll of Winchester made by King Alfred or Alured a resumption of some of the Crown Lands in the reigns of King Stephen Henry the Second and Henry the Third and several of their Successors the Articles enquired of in the succeeding Eyres a Judgment in 6 Edw. 1. against the Abbot of Feversham for some of the Crown lands which were aliened by King Stephen And the opinion of Bracton a Judg in the later end of the reign of King Henry the Third lib. 2. de legibus consuetudinibus regni Angliae that Est res quasisacra res fiscalis quae dari non potest nec vendi nec ad alium transferri a principe vel a rege regnante quae faciunt ipsam coronam communem utilitatem respiciunt may be understood to be unalienable And by the casuall and uncertain profits revenues of the Crown Jure superioritatis which to such as shall acquaint themselves with the Saxon Lawes Customes and Antiquities will appear to be Escheats and Forfeitures Mines Royall Herriots Reliefs upon the deaths of Tenants in Capite and by Knights Service which in those more gratefull times amounted to very much the benefit of Tolls and Customes Manbote Bloodâ—ite with many other Wita's and Wera's Capitis estimationes mulcts penalties and fruits of the Kingly Prerogative which then and with Wardships Liveries Profits of Annum diem vastum Fines Assart lands and Fines for Incroachments Purprestures and divers other things in many Kings reigns after the Conquest were used to be exactly and carefully collected by the Comites or Earles and Governours of the Shires or Provinces who had the third penny then accounted so much as to become an honourable allowance for their collecting it and the Praepositi Shire Reeves and other Officers of the Crown and in the Courts of Justice as well great as small and the Iters and Circuits of the Justices and that when the sinnes and miseries of our Saxon Ancestors had enriched William the Conqueror and entitled him to the Directum Dominium of all and the utile Dominium of the greatest part of the lands and possessions of England and he had given away much of it to his great Commanders Friends Allies Souldiers many of whom were not without their own patrimonies and great possessions in Normandie and other transmarine parts and glutted them with the spoils and inheritance of the English and had to those large Territories and Demeasnes which he reserved to himself and the Terra Regis and antient Demeasnes of King Edward the Confessor which he united to the Crown a further increase by the no small Estates and Inheritances of some of his after unquiet great Nobility as Edwin Earl of York Ralph Earl of Suffolk William Fitz-Osberne Earl of Hereford Edric surnamed the Forrester Howard le Exul Waltheof Earl of Northumberland and divers other of the English and Normans That which most concerned him and his successors in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry the First the former of whom had his Estate augmented by the temporalties and vacancies of Bishopricks Abbies and Priories and the later by the Attainders and great Estates and Inheritance of Robert Mowbray Earle of Northumberland Robert de Belesme Earle of Arundell and Shrowsbury William Earle of Mortaigne and Cornwall both of them having much in demeasnes and a great deal more in service for Aydes in warre holden of them their Coloni or Glebae adscriptitii socage Tenants which did
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
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
of the Revenues BY reason of the great charges and expences which the Kings of England were at through their severall Generations to protect and defend themselves and their people though some of them as in all other conditions and sorts of men were sound to be less provident then others and more easie to the flatteries of Courtiers or the necessities or importunities of Favourites or Followers as King Edward the second and King Richard the second sixty thousand Knights Fees or maintenance for them given away by William the Conquerour of which the Religious Houses then or in the near succeeding times came to be possessed of 28115. the yearly value of which number of Knights Fees if now they should be estimated but at ten thousand and valued but at the rate of twenty pounds per annum as they seemed to be at the making of the Statute of 1 Ed. 2. would be worth two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least of the improvement Sir Edward Coke reckoning eight hundred and others six hundred and eighty acres to a Knights Fee and others at the least allowing a large proportion would make three millions per annum sterling two hundred and eighty Manors given to Godfry Bishop of Constance which he left to his Nephew Moubray the Isle of Wight Earldome of Devon and Honour of Plimpton given by Henry the first to Richard de Ripariis or Rivers Earldome of Gloucester to Robert Fitz Henry great possessions given away by King Stephen to purchase love and fidelity the great Estates in Land which Maud the Empress was inforced to grant and her Son King Henry the second afterwards to confirme to divers of the great men and Nobility as the Earldom of Oxford to Awbrey de vere Earldome of Arundel to William de Albeney Earldome of Hereford to Miles of Gloucester and of Essex to Jeofrey Magnauile to forsake the usurping King Stephen and the great charge which those twenty years warres expended the wars of King H. 2. in France and with his own Sons there and at home and of seven and forty thousand three hundred thirty three pounds six shillings eight pence expended and given towards the warres of the Holy land great somes of gold and silver sent to the Pope charges of the voyage or expedition which King Richard the first made in person into Asia and the Holy Land and his ransome the Earldomes of Mortaigne Cornwall Dorses Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with all their great possessions being a great part of the Crown Revenues given to his brother John and a great part of the remainder sold The troubles of King John with his boisterous Barons the Stanneries Castles and Honor of Barkhamstead and County of Cornwall granted by King Hen. 3. to his Brother Richard his great warres and turmoils in the Barons warres which drove him to such wants and perplexities as he and his Queen as Matthew Paris tells us were somtimes enforced to seek their daily and necessary sustenance from Monasteries charge of endeavoring at a great rate and price though unsuccesfully to make his Son Edmond King of Sicily and furnishing his Son Edward afterwards King E. 1. with an Army to Jerusalem that of King Ed. 1. in his wars against the Scots and subduing that Kingdom the raising and advancing the unhappy Favorites Gaveston and the two Spencers Father and Son by King Edward the Second and his troubles great expences of Edward the Third in his Conquering of France the Dukedom of Cornwal and Earldoms of Chester and Flint setled upon the Black Prince his Son and the eldest Sons and Heirs of the Kings of England successively preferring of Lionel Duke of Clarence and his many other Sons restoring of Don Pedro to the Kingdom of Castile by the aid of the Black Prince the Earldom of Salisbury Isle of Man Castle and Barony of Denbigh given to Mountacute and one Thousand Marks Lands per annum besides to him and his Heirs for taking Roger Mortimer Prisoner at Nottingham Castle one thousand pounds per annum with the Town and Castle of Cambridge to William Marquess of Juliers and the Heirs of his body Honor of Wallingford and Earldome of Cornwall escheated given to John of Eltham his Brother the penalties and fines of Labourers Artificers and Servants in anno 36. of his reign given to the Commons for three years to be distributed amongst them the maintaining and humoring of severall Factions of the great Nobility by King Richard the second his voyage into Ireland and after misfortunes raising of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset and John Holland his half-Brother to be Earl of Kent and Duke of Exeter dissentions and troubles in the Reign of King Henry the fourth preferring another of the Beauforts to be Earl of Dorset and his establishment as well as he could in his own usurpations Chirk and Chirk Lands in Wales given by King Henry the fifth to Edmond Beaufort second Son of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset the charge of his Conquest of France the seeking to preserve and keep it by Henry the sixth long and bloody Factions and Warres of York and Lancaster Kendal and other great possessions given to John de Foix a Frenchman in marriage with Margaret the Sister to William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk the Earldome of Shrowsbury to the high deserving Talbot the Isles of Guarnsay and Jersey and the Castle of Bristol to Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick the charge of King Edward the fourth in his getting the Crown the Earldome of Pembroke given by him to William Lord Herbert the making of friends and parties by King R. 3. pacifying of Interests by King Hen. 7. his gifts and grants to Stanley Earl of Derby and the dying the white Rose into the Red or uniting of them the voyages and warres of King H. 8. in France preferring of Charles Brandon to be Duke of Suffolk Seymour to be Earl of Hertford Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex Thomas Manors Earl of Rutland Sir Thomas Bolein to be Viscount Rochford and Earl of Wiltshire his contest with the Pope and other great Princes large and great quantities of Religious and Ecclesiasticall Lands given away to divers of his Nobility many of whom had been the former Donors thereof and to divers of the Gentry to corroborate what he had done bring them into a better liking of that action and to be the more unwilling to leave those Lands which he had given them a remission of all debts without schedule or limitation in anno 21. of his Reign endowing six Bishopricks and Cathedrall Churches Pensions for life to many which were turned out of their Cloisters a perpetuall maintenance to the Professors of the Greek and Hebrew Tongues Civill Law Divinity and Physick in both the Universities and to twelve poor Knights at Windsor the warres of King Edward the sixth in Scotland creating of John Dudley Earl of Warwick Duke of
the memory of man upon a meer supposition that there might possibly have been a loyal or good grant or commencement for them every little Manor of those multitudes of Manors and Franchises which the Commons in a Parliament of King Edward the third complained off and proportions of Lands in England many of which are called Manors by supposed Titles or reputation only as so many little Seigniories Jurisdictions or Royalities as they are improperly called have Courts Leet and Baron and free warren some of whom enjoy the honor and profit of the King in trying and executing Felons and many using all manner of inferiour justice upon the Tenants correction of the Affize of Bread and Beer have Tolles Fairs Markets Fishings Waives Estraies Felons goods and of persons outlawed and waived Issues Fines and Amerciaments Wrecks of Sea Deodands Mortuaries Treasure Trove and punishment of breach of the peace c. granted or claimed as belonged to them The not having a Clerk for the King besides the Clerks of the Assizes to keep a Roll of all Fines Amerciaments and Profits due to the King in the Iters or Circuits to estreat and certifie them into the Exchequer as was usual in the Reigns of Henry the third Edward the first and the elder Kings and many of the Justices of peace not duly certifying their Recognizances The letting the Greenwax to Farm with defalcations of such as the King shall grant away which breeds no smal neglect in the payment or gathering of it the not duly making or sending the originall Roll of the Chancery into the Exchequer the posting off many of the Kings Farms and debts de anno in annum by some of the former Clerks of the Pipe not holding the Sheriff to a strict opposal nor inforcing them to pay the monies levied of the Kings before their discharge or departure out of the Court not drawing of debts down into the Cedule Pipae being a more forcible process the heretofore Stewards and Bayliffs of Manors belonging to the Crown not justly accompting in the Exchequer as they ought the not awarding as there shall be occasion Commissions to worthy Gentlemen of every County to enquire of the Kings debts not levied and of the Sheriffs and other his Officers false Accomps ordained by the Statutes of 3 E. 1. c. 19. and 6 H. 4. cap. 3. neglect of the former Clerks of the Estreats and many other abuses crept into evil customes by some Officers or Clerks of that Court and in anno 1641. discovered and published by Mr. Vernon the superfluous number and charge of many Stewards Bayliffs and other Officers imployed which besides the many deceits used by some of them to the King and exaction upon the people did as was informed in their annuall Fees paid and allowed by the King yearly exceed three thousand pounds more then what they accompted for the selling or granting away and dismembring many Hundreds Wapentakes and liberties from the Crown and bodies of the Counties which the Statutes of 2 and 14 Ed. 3. doe prohibit to be aliened The falshood of such as did formerly make kind and easie particulars to such as were to buy or have any of the Kings Lands given them knavery and abuse of Under Sheriffs carelesnes and covetousness of the High Sheriffs in appointing them and not looking better to the performance of their own oathes as well as theirs The not duly accompting for prizes taken at sea and other maritime profits the heretofore sleepiness or slugishness of Justices of Peace in all or most Counties and Cities who being intrusted by the Law to take care of the observation of some scores of Statutes and Acts of Parliament would though their eyes and ears might almost every day perswade them to a greater care of their oathes and the good of their Country too often suffer grosse and numberless offences to increase and multiply and neither punish molest or trouble them or so much as give any information of them and too many of the Clerks of the peace Clerks of the Market and others not duly recording or certifying their Estreates The customes which in all civilized Nations and even amongst the Heathen are de jure Gentium to be paid to Kings and Princes and by the Laws of England and Parliament assent are due to the King who is the Soveraign of the Sea keeps the keyes of his Ports gives safe conduct to forrein Merchants to come hither and by his power friendship and treaties with his Allies neighbour and other Princes obtains the like with many priviledges for his own Merchants to goe and trade thither prevents with no small charges by his Ambassadours kept in their Dominions all injuries procures them right and justice and in case of deniall forceth it are now so daily cosened and put up into other Pockets as notwithstanding all the care taken in the farming or collecting of them though the people upon the retaile are sure to pay them to the full the King as it is believed doth not receive above a third part thereof by reason of the treachery and connivance of the former Searchers or Waiters and the Merchants defraying as they can sometimes confess the pompous charge of their City and Country Houses Wives and Coaches with their purloined Customes and that the cosenning of the King in his Excise yeilds them many times more then their Merchandise and their Apprentices now not taken under three or four hundred pounds a peice can live more like Gentlemen then Servants and purchase all kind of vanities vice and pride with what they likewise filch and take from him and when the Customes are let to farm though the Farmers take them as they are capable of such kind of losses can abuse their consciences and perswade themselves that they do no wrong to the King who is to have onely his Farm or Rent And that howsoever the more they cozen him the better they may be enabled to trade and the more they trade the more may be his Customes The not improving of their Lands other Revenues by raising of their Rents and rates according to the rise of money and provisions which the Subjects have exceedingly and to their great advantage done in their own Estates and Revenues and ten to one more then what was formerly The heretofore demising and letting to farm very many of the Kings Manors and Lands at the old and small Rents for three lives 21. 31. or 40. years in Reversion bespeaking a continuall wasting and weakening of his Revenues before hand Discoveries of information of deceipts or wrong done to his Revenues seldome made and then not without an allowance or gratification craved of three parts in four or a great share to begiven to the discoverers or prosecutors Many mens pretending service to the King but doing all they can to enrich themselves and deceive and lessen him and having by indulgence or cunning escapes from punishment made vice
all wast Lands Commons belonging to the Kings Queens and Princes revenues in England and Wales allotting equall and reasonable proportions for satisfaction of Commoners and by disafforrestation of some Forrests and Chases remote from London or the Kings ordinary Residences the imbanking and taking in of all Lands infra fluxum refluxum Maris high and low watermarks derelicted and forsaken by the Sea or brought thither by Alluvion and added to the firme Land and together with the Lands and Revenues now belonging to the Crown of England never to be aliend rent-charged or leased more then for 21 years or three lives which besides the addition of revenues and profit to the King will very much adde to the livelyhood and industry of many of the people who will be maintained thereby better the Lands and increase subsidies when there shall be occasion And causing the like to be done by a generall inclosure of all that now lies wast and in common in particular and private mens Revenues in England and Wales amounting to some millions of Acres will produce the like benefits to the owners and Commoners who in a gratefull acknowledgement thereof may out of their severall allotments as freewill-offerings to their King pay yearly three pence per Acre to him and his Heirs and Successors That Banks or Mount Piete's be erected in several places of England and Wales as at London York Durham Golchester Norwich Ludlow Denbigh where mony may be lent and Pawns or Securities taken not exceeding the Interest of twelve per cent for a year or proportionably for greater or lesser times and that Commissioners in the manner of a Corporation or otherwise may in every of those places be from time to time appointed by his Majesty his Heires and Successors to order and supervise the management thereof for which his Majesty his Heires and Successors may out of the increase and profit of the said Interest receive and take forty shillings per cent no one particular person being permitted to imploy or put into the said Bank at interest above the sum of five hundred pounds and that no private or particular person putting their monies into the said Bank shall have and receive above the sum of the current or usual Interest in the Kingdom or any other gift or reward whatsoever whereby the intollerable oppression of publick and private Brokers those Baptizati Judaei and Pawn-takers which like Wolves gnaw and devour the poor as sheep when as driven to them by their necessities they are inforced to come to them for succour and give after the rate of fifty or sixty per cent which the hate of Jews to Christians never arrived to and a Christian and Protestant Kingdome ought not to countenance That by sumptuary Lawes concerning Apparrel to be worn by all degrees and orders of people the excess thereof may be regulated and abated with great penalties to the infringers thereof which Athens Sparta and Rome being heathen Common-wealths and England heretofore by sundry good Laws and Statutes unhappily repealed in anno 21 Jac. Spain by Pragmatico's and France by a late Reiglement have found to be an universall good and the Common-wealth of Venice held it to be necessary Nè civium patrimonia nimia intemperantia abliguriantur to keep their Citizens from wasting and spending their Estates being Laws now more then ever wanting in England when as that which wil quickly undo private or particular Families which by their universality do make a Kingdome is so frequent and every where almost to be found in a daily practise and pursuit of pride and that cheating one another to maintain it is the most of the peoples cares and consciences every house almost as to the excess of their vanities and expences beyond their Estates hath a Mark Anthony and Cleopatra in it and too many men and women though not so good or well able to bear it as King William Rufus doe think their clothes not costly enough many of the Nobility and Gentry have wasted and spent themselves almost quite out of themselves and left themselves little more then their Titles and Pedigrees The Citizens doe all they can to our-doe them infolly the Farmers Yeomanry and Countrymen all they can to overtake them and the Servants to come as near as they can to their Masters Ladies or Mistresses And they that first spend themselves to nothing or very near it are like to quit the race to those that come after and they which come last to the brink of ruining their fortunes which will be probably the common and lower ranks of the people are likely to learn by those that ruined themselves before them to stay where they left be Masters of the others Estates And that such as shall wear any habits or kinds of Apparrel forbidden be rated in all publick Assessments according to the estate and quality of such persons as are allowed to wear the like that whosoever shall not be of the degree and quality to keep a Coach or live in the Country not farre distant from the Parish Church and keepeth one shall forfeit and pay 5. l. for every year in which he shall so keep it that the Justices of Peace in every Country be the Collectors of all the penalties concerning Apparel Habits and keeping of Coaches and to have a â—ourth part of the forfeitures upon the receipt conviction or recovery thereof that the Masters and Mistresses of Servants trangressing that Act shall out of the wages due to such Servants pay and answer every of the penalties forfeited by the Servants not exceeding their said wages and stop and detain the same and for their care therein have and receive to their own use one third part in four to be divided of the said penalties and that the residue of all the said penalties ordained and forfeited by the said Act shall be collected and answered to the use of the King and his Heirs and Successors Whereby that grand improvement of all Sins and Wickedness which hath now overspread the Kingdome that consumption of Estates and destruction of good Manners And that high unparralleld and inordinate excess of Apparel and pride which being the canker of all honesty and virtue ruined Rome the Conqueror and Mistress of all the World and as Histories have told us never failed to undo many other Kingdoms permitting or allowing it which our Ancestors and former inhabitants of England would have abhorred and blushed at may be restrained and those sinfull necessities and plenty of all manner of knaveries dishonesties Cheatings and villanies to maintayne it depressed and extinguished which the book of God danger of Sinne Hell and Damnation and all that can be said and done by the Bishopps Ministers Preachers and men of holy Church without the assistance of such sumptuary Lawes can never as experience hath sufficiently told us be able to beat downe extirpate or lessen Which the pretended loss of the Kings Customes by Silkes
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
be by some good Laws restrained and suppressed and that the Aulnage aswell of Cloth as Stuffs may according to sundry Acts of Parliament and other provisions be better looked unto and put in execution That the great and many Deceipts Abuses and Adulterations now used in most or too many Trades and Manufactures surpassing all the Cheats and Tricks of Hocus Pocus or which the Pillories the Court of Star Chamber heretofore punished ingrossings of Commodities or carrying them beyond the Seas on purpose to make a scarcity and bring them in again at double or greater Rates unlawful confederacies to make the Manufactures so slight or evil wrought as they may the sooner be worn out or by a small price paid to the Workmen get the greater Rate in the Retail Bonds or Securities enforced from Workmen not to make or sell at that rate to any other Combinations to inhaunce Prices and so many more ungodly Artifices imployed as Tricks and Trades are now grown to be Termes convertible and the Divels Registers have not precedents enough for them whereby not onely numberless great oppressions are daily exercised upon the people to the impoverishing of many of them by those that like Pikes in the Fish Ponds do live only better then others by devouring and undoing the smaller Frye and industriously imploy themselves therein and at the same time cry out of injustice and oppression where it was not and busied themselves about Religion and Gospel Purity when they never intended nor could not afford to practice it whereby all our English Trade and Manufactures are disparaged and brought into a slight esteem and made to be unsaleable or at very low rates in the parts beyond the Seas and to give place to the Commodities and Manufactures of other Nations more honestly made and if not speedily remedied will render all his Majesties cares of reviving and promoting the English Trade and Merchandise of no avail as long as that Canker or a principal cause of the decay and ruine of it shall be permitted may by some good Laws be restrained and suppressed That the many good propositions heretofore made by Mr. Henry Robinson and some others concerning the Regulation or bettering of the ways of Trade and Merchandise may now after a Committee of Trade in the times of Usurpation and Confusion sleeping too much over it and doing nothing whilst Trade it self came to be almost ruined be taken into a more serious consideration and some good Laws enacted in pursuance of them That the Manufacture of Linnen Cloth the importation whereof from Flanders and other Foreign parts expends the Nation little less then 100000 l per annum by reason that too many of our Wives in England have exchanged their good Housewisfery for Gallantry and Spinning for spending may be more incouraged in England by Injoyning six Acres in every hundred Acres of errable Land in England and Wales to be yearly sowed with Hemp Flex and that there be an Aulnage of Linnen Cloth as well as of Stuffs and Woollen Cloth That our Laws be not as too many of them use to be Still Born or expiring by that time they can be read or recorded or Starved at Nurse but that some good Laws may be made to prevent or cure their Swouning or Convulsion fits and bring them up to the good ends or purposes for which they were ordained and put them in execution That our Paths being restored we may rejoyce in our Laws and Constitutions and abhor those wandring after Dark Lanthorns or the ignis fatuus of newlights which have lead us into many great miseries and confusions That the Excise of Ale Beer Perry and Syder and the charges affliction and troubles which it brings upon the people which before our times of misery would have brought death and ruine any private contriver and was at the first created by Oliver and his Impes to maintain a cursed Rebellion and set up a destroying and detestable Anarchy may be abolished and taken away and the Nation restored to the freedom and quiet which they formerly enjoyed under this our ancicent and excellently composed Monarchy That his Majesties Ancient and just Rights of Royal Pourveyances upon a due Regulation of any evils or oppressions which may be proved to have been committed in the manner of taking of them may be restored to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and that very great Consumption of his Estate occasioned by an enhaunce and trebling of the Rates and prices of Provision for his Houshould which hath laid heavy burdens upon his too small and overmuch impoverished Revenues multiplyed his wants and necessities disturbed and disparaged the order and honor of his house and produced very many great Inconveniences worthy to be remedied by the Parliament and the care which they usnally take for the support of his Imperial Crown and Dignity may be cured And when a long and generall observation and experience can tell every man who is not a stranger to his own affairs or of other men how hard a thing it is for one that is behind hand to overcome his Povertie and get before hand how impossible it will be for a private man to live out of Debt when his yearly and necessary expences and disbursements shall far surmount his Receipts and Revenues how necessary a Treasury Banke or overplus of money which is Robur belli fundamentum ac firmamentum pacis is for a King in times of War and its many chargeable occasions and the power and reputation of it in times of Peace to preserve it and that all Kingdoms and people never were or could think themselves safe without it That in order to publick good and to consolidate the hoped for happiness of King and People which the pretended Parliaments of our late Times of Usurpation busying themselves in laying Burdens and Taxes upon the People for the maintenance of a War and an Arbitrary power and Tyranny and the continuance of their miseries could never find the way or leisure to establish A Royal and Princely yearly Revenue may be settled upon his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and to the end to make the Plaister or the Tent proportionable to the wound and to the cure intended and not make the repaires of his Revenues to be insufficient or more chargeable and burdensome by doing it by parcels or at several times whereby it may ruine before it can be repaired or suddainly after and for the better satisfaction of some of the Purchasers who were the cause of their own and his Majesties troubles and miseries and of the Kings Loyal Party who suffered with him in it The highest monethly Assessement or Tax which in our late times of confusion was One hundred and twenty thousand pounds per mensem may by Assessement or Subsidies or some other way proportionable unto it for the next two years if the Parliament shall think fit be assented unto and yearly collected