Winter and Sommer at less then 20 shiâ—lings a Chaldron and it was by the Statute of 32 H. 8 cap. 8. ordained That none do sell Phesants or Partriches unto any but unto the Officers of the King Queen or Princes Houses upon the forfeiture of 6 s. 8 d. for every Phesant and 4 s. 4 d. for every Partrich and did by their Charters or allowances of Prescription grant Free-warren and divers other Franchises unto divers Lords of Manors yet matters must be so ordered as the King though he buy with ready mony must be sure to pay dearer for his Butter Cheese Coals Beer Ale Billet Tallwood Faggots Grocery-ware Rabbets Phesants and Partriches then any of his Subjects Took away by the Statute of 5 Eliz. the severity of the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. enjoyning small wages to Labourers and Artificers and ordained That the Justices in every County should by their discretion according to the dearth or plenty of victuals yearly at the Sessions held at Easteâ— assesse how much every Mason Carpenter Tyler other Crafts men Workmen and Labourers should have by the day or year and limit proportions of Wages according to plenty or scarcity and by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King James did amongst other things give a further power to the Justices of every County to limit and regulate the wages and hire of Labourers and Artificers according to plenty and scarcity that Act of Parliament being since expired for want of continuance yet the King in all his occasions and affairs for Workmen and Artificers shall be sure to pay them rates and wages at the highest Did by the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. cap. 6. provide That Butchers Fishmongers Brewers Bakers Poulterers and other Sellers of Victuals should sell them at reasonable prices and be content with moderate gains And by the Statute of 13 R. 2. ca. 8. That all Majors Bayliffs Stewards of Franchises and all others that have the order and survey of victualls in Cities Boroughs and Market Towns where victuals shall be sold in the Realm should enquire of the same And if any sell any victuals in other manner he should pay the treble of the value which he so received to the party damnified or in default thereof to any other that will pursue for the same By the Statute of 25 Hen. 8. cap. 2. when but a year before Beef and Pork was by Act of Parliament ordained to be sold at an half penny the pound and Mutton and Veal at an half penny farthing the pound and less in Counties and places that may sell it cheaper and complaint was made in Parliament that the prices of victuals were many times enhaunced and raised by the greedy avarice of the owners of such victuals or by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same more then upon any reasonable or just ground or cause ordained that the prices of Butter Cheese Capons Hens Chickens and other victualâ— necessary for mans sustenance should from time to time as the case should requireâ— be set and taxed at reasonable prices how they should be sold in gross or by retail by the Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings most honourable Privy Councel Lord Privy Seal Lord Steward the Chamberlain and all other the Lords of the Kings Councel Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings most honourable House Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains under Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer or any seaven of them whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy Seal to be one and commanded the Justices of Peace and Lords of Leets to take a care that the prices and rates of victuals be reasonable Yet the King must not have so much favour and kindness as the Tinientes or Magistrates in the Canarâ—es or other parts of the Spanish Dominions who by reason of their power and authority in the correction and rating of the prices of victuals can have their provisions freely and of gift presented unto them or at small and reasonable rates and prices or as the Lords of Leets the Justices of Assise Justices of Peace Mayors Magistrates of Cities and Corporations might have theirs if they would but put in execution the Laws which are entrusted to their care and charges Nor can have any thing at reasonable rates but is enforced to pay dearer for the provisions of his house then any of his Subjects when as they that could receive his Majesties very large and unexampled Act of Oblivion can only afford him in their Market rates an Act of Oblivion for his protection and care of them and for his many favours and helps in all their occasions and necessities and for forgiving them many Millions of monies sterling or the value thereof and as unto too many of them are willing that our King and Head should in the rates of his victuals and houshold provisions bear the burden of their follies and irregularities Of which the plenty or scarcity of money cannot be any principal or efficient cause as may be verified by an instance or example lately happened in Spain where the calling down of money to the half value to aswage the afflictions of a Famine was so farre from the hoped for effect of abating the prices of victuals and houshold Provisions as they are now well assured that the covetousness of the Sellers and tricks of Trade have added more to the heightning of those rates and prices then any want or abundance of mony And it would therefore well become that part of the People of England who by their intemperance and carelesness as iâ— they were that Nation which dwelt without care against whom the Prophet Jeremy denounced Gods heavy wrath and judgements have brought and reduced themselves and their Estates into a languishing and perishing condition and turned their backs upon the honor of Hospitality to take into their more then ordinary consideration that Sir Anthony Brown a Privy Councellor â—â—to King Henry Eighth did not deviate either from truth or prudence when he said that others apprehension of the Kings greatness did contribute as much to our welfare as our welfare it self or Sir John Russel a vâ—ry valiant as well as wise Statesman Comptroler of the Houshold of King Henry the Eighth and afterwards Earl of Bedford when he declared that the Courts of Princes being those Epitomes through which â—trangers look into Kingdomes should be royally set out with utensils and with attendance who might possess all comers with reverence there and fear elsewhere Or that the learned and reverend Sir James Dier Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-pleas in the 25 th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth committed an error when in the sage and discreet rules left behind him in a Manuscript for the preservation of the Common-wealth he advised that
the pattern of private Housekeepers and the narrow and unbeseeming Customes of their smaller Estates and Families That the wast of honor and the more then ordinary Fragments left in the Kings House as the remainders of the Dyet provided for him and his servants for the food and sustenance of the Poor and such as will be glad of it are but the requisites and appurtenances to the Majesty and Honor of a King that Sir Richard Weston afterwards Earle of Portland and Lord High Treasurer of England Sir John Woâ—stenholme Knight Sir William Pâ—tâ— and others commissioned by King James to make a Reiglement and Espaâ—gne in his house-keeping being men of known and great experience in the management of their own Estates could not then find any such things as have been since laid to the charge of the Kings Officers and Servants in his House that the pretensions not long after of better husbandry in the Kings House by some niggardly contrivances and serving some of the Tables with half a Goose instead of a whole came to no more at the last then the obtaining of the pretenders self ends and an Annuity of 500l per annum for thâ— lives of the pretender his wife and the longer liver of them that the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Housholds yearly Fee of 100 l. the Treasurer of the Housholds yearly Fee of 123l 14s and the Cofferers yearly Fee of 100l measured and proportioned to the antient and former cheapness and means of livelihood would have even then been very deficient for the support of such persons of Honor and Quality if they had not had at the same time some seldome falling expectations of other favours and rewards from a Princely Master and a present liberal allowance for their Tables which although it doth now stand the King by the enhance of his rates and prices in a great deal more then it did formerly yet unto those that received those allowances for their Tables and Dyet it is no more then formerly for if an estimate were taken how much it would cost the King to make and encrease the Salaries and wages of his Servants and Officers of all ranks and sorts which in all the several Offices and Places and Dependencies about the persons of the King and Queen are above one thousand all or most of whom did when the Tables and Diets were allowed intercommune one with another and were with many also of their Servants fed with the Kings Victuals and Houshold Provisions to be according unto the rates of wages Salaries and as much as they are now taken and given in private Families and all were to be paid in money and nothing in dyet the Kings Treasury Purse or Estate would soon be brought to understand that such increased Allowances or other Allowances Pensions Wages and Salaries which must according to the rise and enhance of all manner of things conducing to the support and livelihood of such Servants be now necessarily paid and given over and above the antient Fees and Salaries would arise and amount unto more then all the charge of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them whether it were thirty and five thousand pounds a year or fifty thousand pounds per annum which was laid and charged upon the Counties or more then the King is unjustly supposed to be deceived or cheated by his servants or those which do direct the affairs of his Houshold when it cannot escape every private mans Judgement and experience in house-keeping that he that doth give his servants forty shillings per annum Salary and as much more to be added unto it in certain Fees and Profits well known and calculated to amount unto no more then another forty shillings per annum doth give his servant but four pounds per annum in the totall and is not at all cozened therein and that it would otherwise be no Honour to the King but a diminution of Majesty and a temptation or necessity enforced upon his servants to deceive him if the Serjeant of the Ewrie and the Serjeant of the Bakehouse to mention but a few of many should have but their antient and bare Salaries of 11 l. 8 s. 1 d. per annum and want their antiently allowed Avails and Perquisites That such short and now far too little Wages and Salaries to be given to the Kings Servants in their several honourable and worshipfull Stations would be unworthy for them to receive and dishonorable for the King to give And that the no inconsiderable summe of money which was yearly and usually saved by the venditions of the over-plus of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them and imployed in the buying of Linnen and Utensils for the service of the House the now yearly allowances for Diet to eight principall great Officers and to seaven of the next principall Officers and what his Majesty payeth yearly to others for Board-wages and what is enhanced and laid upon him by unreasonable rates and prices now that his Officers are constrained to buy with ready money and to pay a barbarous Interest and Brocage to provide it compared with what he now spends in his private allowances for his own and the Queens Diet and some other few yet allowed Tables will make a most certain and lamentable demonstration that the King and his Honor were gainers by the Pourveyance os Compositions for them and very great loosers by the taking of them away And that he did meet with a very ill Bargain by the Exchange of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them for a supposed recompence of Fifty thousand pounds per annum intended him out of the Moiety of the Excise of Ale Beer Perry c. But if the abuses committed by the Servants and Officers of the King within the house were so great or any thing at all as is pretended for as to the Pourveyors and those that act without dores the Law hath sufficiently provided they may certainly be rectified and brought under a reformation without the abolishing or totall taking away of the right use of them or that which cannot be spared or by any means be abandoned but may be dealt with as we do by our Wines Victuals or Apparel which as necessaries of life are in their right use to be kept and reteyned notwithstanding any misusage of them Or if the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were so much diverted from the use intended by them yet that will not be any reason for the quitting of them without a due exchange or recompence for that if they were all of them as is meerly fained or fanciâ—d mispent or misimployed yet those that do mispend them and they that have the benefit of them not that I would be an Advocate to justifie the selling of the Kings meat or houshold provisions unto any in the Neighbourhood or any accursed cheatings of the King which I wish might be punished as Felony are neither Enemies or Strangers to the Nation but the Kings Subjects 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
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
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
unworthy sparing and avarice of Subjects in withholding their Oblations from his Deputies and disabling them from relieving the Strangers the Fatherless and the Widows And that the rates of his houshold provisions being much the same or very near unto those which were agreed upon by the Justices of Peace of every County who cannot be understood to be any Strangers to the rates and Market prices of every County might not be now as cheap afforded as they were then or when they were cheaper in the â—3 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth now not much above 130 years agoe when 24 great Bâ—eves were provided for a great and pompous Serjeants Feast at Ely house in London where the King Queen and many of the Nobility the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London were present such provisions being then probably at a greater price then ordinary for 26 s. 8 d. a piece from the Shambles a Carcase of an Oxe at 24 aâ—â— s. 10 d. a piece one and fifty great Veals at 4 s. 8 d. a piece four and thirty Porks at 3 s 8 d. a piece ninety one Pigs at 6 d. a piece Capons ten dozen at 20 d. a piece Kentish Capons nine dozen and a half at 12 d. a piece Capons course nineteen dozen 6 d. a piece Cocks of gross seaven dozen nine at 8 d. a piece Cocks course fourteen dozen and eight at 3 d. a piece Pullets the best at 2 d. ob a piece other Pullets 2 d. Pigeons thirty seaven dozen at 10 d. a dozen and Larks three hundred and forty dozen at 5 d a dozen if the Magistrates of England who are trusted by the Law with the Assiâ—e and correction of the rates and prices of victuals and houshold provisions and the punishment of Ingrossers Forestallers and Regrators did not sleep over their duty or too many of the Justices of Peace and Lords of Leets did not finde it to be more for their own advantages to improve and raise their Lands to the highest rack rather then reduce those now exorbitant rates and prices into that order which the Laws and Statutes of England do intend they should be There being no just cause to complain of our payments to the King for his Pourveyance or any other of his necessary affairs when the cry and daily complaints of our want of money is not so much by reason of our want of Trade as our want of wit by mispending that which should regularly and orderly maintain us and our Families and it is not our want of Trade but our too much trading in pride excess and superfluities which hath brought the Nation into that Hectique Feaver and almost incurable Consumption which hath now seised upon the vitalls of it and would be very evident if a strict accompt and view were taken of what hath been needlesly and vitiously spent within these last twenty or thirty years more then formerly in Apparrel Diet Wine Tobacco Jewels Coaches new Fashions greater Portions given with Daughters then our Forefathers could either have given or thought fitting increase of Servants Artificers and Labourers wages gaming by women as well as men great interest and Brocage paid for money and buying upon Trust to support their vanities and twenty millions sterling lately spent in the enterteynment of the Devil and a most horrid Rebellion and seeking for a Liberty to loose all our own Liberties and may give us to understand that if we had that money again which was so foolishly mispended those that could then lay it out and now want it might subscribe unto this undenyable truth that there would be greater riches and less necessities seen in England then in any other Nation and enough and more then enough to drive the Trade thereof and that whilst the back and belly have vyed who should be most inordinate and profuse the improvement of Rents Wages and Commoditâ—â—s have been to no better a purpose then to improve our vices and the Nationaâ—l as well as particular miseries and damage which are and will be the never â—aâ—ling concomitants and consequents of it For no reason can be given why we should not as chearfully submit to any thing that tends to the support of the King and the Honour 〈…〉 Nation as every Citizen of London and man of Trade will do to the furnishing of Pageants or publick 〈◊〉 for the honor and Reputation of their City or Company or as the Universities sometime do in an Entertainment of the King or their Chancellour though they did at the same time contribute to the Pourveyance or as the People of England did in the 5 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th when the Queen Regent of Scotlandâ—n â—n her return out of France thither desiring to take her Journy through England was by the City of London presented at her fiâ—st coming with Muttons Beefe Veals Poultry Wine and all other sorts of Provisions necessary for the Entertainment of her and her no small Train even to Bread and Fâ—well and when she departed to goe for Scotland was after great and Princely Entertainments by the King at Whitchall conducted by the Sheriffs of London to whose care the King had committed it as farre as Waltham and by all the Sheriffs of all the Counties through which she passed untill she came unto the Borders of Scotland her Enterteynment being provided by the Kings appointment at the charge of the Counties Nor can it be for the honour of the English Nation to come behind the Jews that stiffe necked and Rebellious Race of Mankind in their kindness and returns unto their Kings and Princes who notwithstanding that pedagoguy and hard hand of Government which the Almighty in his eternall Wisdome found necessary to put upon them in their releasing of Servants and letting their Lands lye untilled every seaventh year permitting their Debtors and Mortgagors or Venâ—ors in every Jubile or 50 year to enjoy their Lands and Estates and to be at liberty their many and many times Free-will and Thanksgiving Offerings Peace-Offerings Sin-Offerings costly Sacrifices Feasts unto the Lord and Journeys to Jerusalem the Offerings which were brought and prepared for the building of the Tabernacle in such aboundance a readiness and zeal not now to be found amongst us as formerly in the building of Churches or repair of the Cathedral of St. Paul as God directed Moses by a Proclamation to restrain them from bringing any more and their Males appearing three times in every year before the Lord not empty handed and their very large Offerings also at the Dedication of the Temple when Solomon their King invited them unto it and their Corban or money often given to the Treasury of it could not forget their respects and duty to their Kings in their Presents or Pourveyance for them and their Houshold When God would not suffer the Majesty of Kings shining as the beams reflections of his divine Majesty upon the face of Moses
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