should be And that it was and will be for the good of the people unless the oppressing and cheating one another shall be understood to be for their good that the King and his subordinate Magistrates should correct and regulate the deceits and excess of rates and prices in Markets as those of the Fishmongers of London were by King Edward the first when they were fined five hundred Marks pro illicitis negotiis Forstallamentis aliis transgressionibus in officio suo Piscatorum for Forstallings and other unlawful practises in their Trades or as King E. 3. did when upon a Complaint made by the Commonalty of the City of London that the Butchers such a watchful eye was then kept more then now upon the deceits of Trade did stick and fasten the fat of great or fat Oxen upon the flesh of the lean whereby to promote the sale and price in deceptionem populi to the damage and deceipt of the people he commanded the Maior to provide a remedy or as an Assise of Bread and good and needful Ordinances for Bakers Brewers Inholders Vintners and Butchers was set and made there being an old Assise book made and Ordained in Anno 12 H. 7. by the Lords of the Privy Councel to Queen Elizabeth viz. John Archbishop of Canterbury Sir Christopher Hatton William Lord Burghley Henry Earl of Derby Charles Lord Howard Henry Lord Hunsdon Thomas Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Knowles Sir Thomas Heneage Sir John Fortcâ—cue and Sir John Wolley or the Decree if had been observed which was made in the Star Chamber the thirteenth day of November Anno 11. of the Raign of King Charles the Martyr after consultation had with diverse Justices of the Peace and the Certificate of all the Judges of England viz. Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Sir Robert Heath Knight Sir Humfrey Davenport Knight Sir John Denham Kt Sir Richard Hutton Knight Sir William Jones Knight Sir George Croke Knight Sir Thomas Trevor Knight Sir Geâ—rge Vernon Knight Sir Robert Barkley Knight and Sir Francis Crawley Knight and confirmed by the Kings Letters Patents under the great Seal of England the 14. day of December then next following that No Inkeeper or Ostler within the Cities of London and Westminster or ten miles distant who have since made such excessive rates as have affrighted many of their Customers away who finde it less chargeable to come to London in passage Coaches or send their horses back into the Country to finde out more honest Inkeepers should take above six pence for Hay for a horse standing night or day nor more then six pence for a peck of Oats of the measure called Winchester measure No Tavernor or Victualler selling Wine by Retail should sell or make ready for sale any sort of Flesh Fish or other victual save bread nor procure to be set up the Trade of a Cook within the same house or in any Shop or Room thereunto belonging or in any house near adjacent nor permit or suffer any Flesh Fish or other Victual except bread to be brought into the house to be there eaten by any of his Guests And did likewise upon hearing of divers Inkeepers who could not deny but that the rates before specified were competent further ordain that where Grain and Hey should at a further distance from London be sold at lesser prices there the rates prices should be accordingly And that that Ordinance should continue in the County of Middlesex untill it should be made to appear to the Justices of the Kings Bench and in other Counties and places to the Justices of peace that because of the increase of prices in the parts adjoyning greater rates should be necessary to be permitted and that thereupon other rates should from time to time be set and being set were commanded and enâ—oynâ—d to be strictly and duely observed untill by the like authority they should be altered And cannot deny but that if the King and his Royal Progenitors if they could ex praevisione by some foresight of things to come of which supernatural eminencies there is a non datur or denyall even to Kings and Princes have understood that their ancient and lawful rights of Pourveyance and Prae-emption would in return of all their benefits daily and yearly heaped upon their subjects have been ever thought to have been a grievance or oppression or endeavored to be withheld from them they might have saved as much and more as that would have come unto by reserving upon all their bounties and grants or Leases of their Mannâ—rs or Lands their Pourveyance or houshold provisions or when they gave Lands of inheritance rendring small or disproportionate Rents or Fee Farms to the greater yearly value which they now appear to be might have added so much of Pourveyance or provisions as might have taken away that causeless murmur against the Pourveyance which our old Saxon King Aethelstane who raigned here in Anno Dom. 938. understood to be so necessary for his housekeeping as when he had subdued the Welâ—h Princes made them his Tributaries he caused them to Covenant with him at Hereford not onely to pay him yeerly twenty pounds weight of Gold and three hundred of Silver but five hundred head of Cattlâ— with Hawks and Hounds to a certain number towards which payment by the Statutes of Howel Dâ—a saith our Industrious Speed the King of Aberfraw was charged at sixty six pounds an Early Composition rate for Pourveyance the Prince Dinemore and the Prince of Powys being to pay the like sums of money And that now to deny it unto the Crown is a greater injustice and injury then to have denyed it to Queen Elizabeth King James or his son King Charles the Martyr or in some hundred years before for that then our Kings and Princes might have preserved themselves and their successors from the rapines and unconscionable rates and prices of houshold provisions which some of his subjects might have forborn to impose upon their King though they do it upon others That if in the Raign of King Henry the seventh a Law or Act of Parliament had been made that for one hundred and fifty years after to the end to make a Treasury or provision of money which Common-wealths and many Kingdoms are not without for the protection and defence of the people against invasions or emergent evils the prices taken in the Markets more then formerly over and above the genuine and real worth of the Commodities should be collected and laid up for the good of the Publike or that all that took Lands to Farm should pay ten times the former yearly value and all things bought in the Market should like the King of France his Salt be for some things at three or four times or for others at ten fifteen or 20. times beyond the true value it would not be imaginable how near the peoples murmuring would have arrived to that of the Children of Israel in the Desart when they
Last take upon them for the payment of all the Herrings that shall be sold by their assent to any persons and the hundred of Herring shall be accompted by sixscore and the Last by ten thousand That the people of London at such Fair shall bring the Last from Yarmouth to London for one Mark of gain and not above That the Fishers be compelled to bring the remnant of their Herrings not sold in the Road of Kirkley to the Fair to sell them so that none sell Herring in any place about the haven of Yarmouth by seven miles except in three Towns of Yarmouth that is to say Easton Weston and Southton unless it be Herrings of their own Fishing The Chancellor or Treasurer taking to them Justices and other the Kings Council shall have power to ordain remedy touching the buying and selling of Stock-fish of Saint Botolph and Salmon of Barwick and of Wines and Fish of Bristâ—ute and else-where to the intent the King and his People may better be served and have better Markets then they have had before this time and that the Ordinances by them made in this party be firmly holden Doggers and Landships of Blackney Haven shall discharge their Fish there the price of Dogger-fish and Loichfish that is to say Lob Ling and Cod shall be assessed by the Advice of the Merchants and Rulers comming to the Fair of Blackney and of the owners of the ships before any sale be made which shall be holden during the Fair Every man shall buy Herrings openly and not privily at such price as may be agreed betwixt him and the seller And no man shall enter into bargain upon the buying of the same till he that first cometh to bargain shall have an end of his bargain greable to the seller and that none increase upon other during the first bargain Londoners and other shall sell victualls by retail Sweet wines may be sold by retail at the price of Gascoyne wines Victuallers shall have but reasonable gains according to the discretion of the Justices of Peace there shall be but eight Bushels striked to the Quarter the severall measures of vessels of wine Eels Herrings and Salmons and vessels of Oil and Honey to be gauged 12 E. 4. ca. 8. Divers Patents being granted under the great Seal of England to divers persons to be Surveyors and Correctors of beer ale wine and victuals within divers Cities Boroughs and Towns it was ordained That they should be void and that the Mayors Bayliffs and chief Governours of Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate shall be the only Searchers and Surveyors of victualls for that every City Borough and Town of substance in England for the most part have Court Leeâ—s and views of Frank-pledge holden yearly within the same Cities Boroughs and Towns surveying of all victualls therein and correction and punishment of the offenders and breakers of the Assise of the same which ought not to be câ—ntraried Ordinances made by Guilds Fraternities and Companies of Trade shall be examined and approved by the Chancellor Treasurer of England or Chief Justices of either Benches or three of them or by Justices of Assise in their Circuits to prevent and hinder unlawfull Ordinances as well in prises of wares as in other things to the Common hurt and damage of the people When any victualler is chosen Officer in any City except London York and Coventry Borough or Town Corporate which by virtue of his Office should have the Assising and Correction for selling of victualls that then two discreet and honest persons neither of them being Victuallers shall during that time be sworn truely to sess and set the price of victuals such as sell false and mixt Oils to be searched and punished and such as destroy wild â—oul whereby formerly the Kings most honourable Houshold and the houses of Noblemâ—n Prelates were furnished at convenient prices to be punished Upon complaint made for enhauncing of prices of victuals the prices thereof shall be assessed by the Kings Councellors and Officers and they which have victuals to sell shall sell them at the same prises The Prises of the But Tun Pipe Hogshead c. of all kinds of wines when it shall be sold in gross shall be set by certain of the Kings great Officers Whosoever shall buy or sell any Fâ—sant or Partridge saving the Officers of the Kings Queens or Princes houses shall forfeit for every Fesant six shillings eight pence and for every Partridge three shillings four pence to the King Conspiracies made by Victuallers touching selling of victuals shall be grievously punished Taverns may be appointed in every City Borough or Town Corporate to sell wine by Retail None shall retail wines but in Cities Market Towns c. Vintners which sell by Retâ—il in Towns Corporate shall be assigned by the head Officers thereof and in other Towns by the Justices of Peace And 2 3 Ed. 6. by a temporary Act expired with the time therein limitted which may shew the minds and intents of the makers and what was then thought convenient for that small part of time and being probably only done upon some grounds or reasons of State for the present or in ease of the people or some popular designe of the then ruling Lord Protector was not then nor at any time after thought fit to continue any longer it was ordained That no Pourveyor or other person by authority of any Commission or other Warrant shall during three years then next ensuing pourvey or take for the provision of the Kings Houshold his Sisters or any others any Corn Beeves Muttons c. Wood Coal Straw Hay or any kind of Victuals without the full consent of the owner and at such price for ready money as the owner or Pourveyor can agree nor shall take for any of the Kings Affairs or the Warres or otherwise any Goods Chattels or other things whatsoever saving Barges Ships Carts and things necessary without the consent of the owners and at such prises for ready money as the owner Pourveyâ—rs can agree except Post-horses for which shall be paid a penny a mile and the King will allow to the owner of every Cart taken for his houshold four pence a mile and for the Warres and other Carriages three pence a mile The Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Privy Seal and the two Chief Justices or any five four or three of them are authorised to set prises of wine and none to sell either in gross or by retail above those prises No Cattel shall be bought but in open Fair or Market but by a Butcher provisions of houshold Butter or Cheese shall not be bought to be sold again except it be by retail in open Shop Fair or Market Forestallers and Regrators shall be punished Badgers and Drovers licensed by three Justices of the Peace
should be assessed by the said Clerk of the Market in avoiding her Highness displeasure and further punishment at her Graces pleasure Which as to the enforcing of reasonable rates and pâ—ises for victuals and houshold provisions was no more then that which all Maiors and Bailiffs of Cities Boroughs Merchant Towns and others and of the Ports of the Sea and other places are by the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. cap. 6. authorised to doe and is to be given in charge and inquired of by the Justices of Peace of every County at their Quarter Sessions For if by the rules of Reason Policie and Prudence it was alwayes adjudged to be necessary and profitable for the people in general that the King or Prince should restrain them from deceiving or oppressing one another or not permit the cunning false or richer part of the people to deceive and put what rates or prises they please or can heighten and invent upon the plain dealing honest simple hearted poor and necessitous part of them but should rather resist the Nimrods Tormentors of them and by putting them into some method of righteousness imitate the care and designs of the Almighty to succour relieve and help the poor and needy And that it can never be for the good of the Nation so to encourage the evils and deceitfulnes of mens hearts one towards another as to suffer every one to hatch or spawn as many cheating and cozening tricks perjuries deceipts and false or aequivocal oathes as they can possibly or under a counterfeit shew of godliness make contrive and invent to blind deceive delude or oppress one another or to be like Cut-purses Jews Bandities Wild Arabs or crafty deceitfull Bannyans to the well-doing as well as well-meaning little part of the people or like Rooks cawing wrangling and making a noyse in the trees make it their perpetual business when they are not asleep to steal and filch away one anothers Nests and provisions and being guilty of as bad themselves to be in a perpetuall watch of keeping as well as they can their own whilest they are busie in stealing from others or to make old England to be a Country of Rooks and Jackdaws It cannot be certainly adaequate to any rule of Justice that the King who is to make it his daily care to provide peace plenty and benefits for all his Subjects regulates by his Magistrates and Officers rates and prices of victuals at Markets and Fairs moderates and abates such as are excessive and unreasonable and by Law may seize as forfeit the Court Leets of Lords of Manors for not providing Pillories to punish offending Bakers and ordaineth by his Laws that every Lord or other having the priviledge of a Market shall forfeit it if he have not a Clerk of the Market to look unto it should provide blessings for every one but himself and partake of none or very little of them and that his Subjects should not be at liberty to cozen and oppress one another and yet every man should be at liberty and make it his designe and business to cozen and lay burdens upon him which would be as little for the good of the body politick as it would be in the body natural to wear the head downward and make it to be subservient to the business and humor of the ignoble and less to be taken care of parts of the body Or to give liberty not only in a Siege or publick necessity like that of Samaria but at all other times unto as many as will like the gain or content of it to be as Bears and Wolves one to another and by hardening of their hearts and oppressing one another make a Wilderness and Desert in our Land of Canaan which if well ordered flows with more then milk and honey and by reason of an universall pride ingrossing enhauncing and cheating to maintain it cause a dearth when there may be a plenty And reducing him thereby into the condition of the King of Israel in that Siege when an Asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver and the fourth part of a kab of Doves dung for five pieces of silver enforce him to answer as he did the woman which cryed unto him Help my Lord O King if the Lord doe not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the Barn floor or out of the Wine-presse Or that the King when he shall as the King of Israel did in an unseasonable and dry year search the Land for grass to save the peoples horses mules and beasts alive should let his own not pertake of his cares but perish whilst he mittigates unjust and unconscionable rates and prices in the Markets beÌ„ himself exposed to all manner of unconscionable and deceitfull dealings Which his just and alwaies until now allowed right of Praeemption which heretofore made the Kings provision for his houshold when it was bought in the Markets or Fairs to be much cheaper then what were bought upon the vie or endeavours who should give most to purchase it at such unreasonable prices as the Sellers could strain or scrue them unto And the Commissions not seldome made by his Royal Progenitors to the Sheriffs and other Officers and Magistrates which had the delegated power of Assise and Correction of Markets and unreasonable prices and the rating of them to make his houshold provisions and where the Pourveyors and the owners could not otherwise agree were to be rated and ascertained as some Acts of Parliament and Statutes have appointed by Constables and some honest men of their Neighbourhood upon their oaths which cannot be supposed to make or admit them to be high or immoderate together with a due regulation of the Markets by the Clerks of the Markets and that care with the Law enjoyneth the Lords of Manors in their Court Leets the Sheriffs in their Tornes the Justices of Peace of every Countie and the Magistrates of every City and Towns Corporate to take in the supressing of unreasonable prices Forestallers Ingrossers and Regrators which are no small part of the causes of them would have prevented or greatly lessened And the Markets would not have risen to that excess of price which is now heavily complained of and every where to be met with by the sleepiness or sluggishness of Magistrates and Justices of the Peace neglect of their oathes and duties which are too often and easily obliterated or put out of memory by sprinkling or dipping them in the waters of some Lethe or Oblivion or by some unrighteous or unbecoming partialties connivance and kindness to their Neighbours and friends or such as they would make to be their friends a timerousness or unwillingness to displease or irritate such as are or may be their enemies or the allurements and temptation of their own Interests in letting their Lands at the rack or very much dearer then it was when the Kings price or compositions were agreed upon and by tentering the Tenants Rents
for a greater observance is certainly to be tendered unto the King even in that particulâ—r of Praeemption which may well be believed by all that are not Quakers whose Tenants all the people of England are mediately or immediately by some or other Tenure Then that which is usually done to Lords of Manors Justices of Peace or Country Gentlemen by their Tenants or poorer sort of Neighbours who if they chance to catch any Woodcocks or Partridges in any of those Gentlemens Lands will bring them to their â—ouses to sell at such cheap and easie rates as they shall please to give for them and if which seldome happens they should carry them to the Markets and not thither are sure enough to be chid for it and crossed and denied in any greater matter which they shall have to doe with them And is but that or a little more curtesie which Butchers Fishmongers and other Tradesmen selling victualls or provisions in great quantities and all the year or often unto their constant Customers will not for their own ends fail to doe or neglect or to sell unto them at easier rates then unto others and find themselves to be many times no loosers by it insomuch as some have lately well afforded to sell to a constant Customer for great quantities at the same rate it was 40 or 60 years before And the Compositions of the Counties for Pourveyance to serve in Beefe Mutton Poultry Corn Malt and other provisions for the Kings Houshold and the maintenance and support of it at a more cheaper rate then the Markets yeild which when they were first set was but the Market rate or a little under long agoe made and agreed upon by the greater Officers of the Kings Houshold and some Justices of Peace in every County and easily and equally taxed and laid upon the whole and not upon any particular man which was poor or of a small Estate not fit to bear it May be with as much and more reason allowed and chearfully submitted unto as those many now called quit rents or Rent services which the most of our Nobility Gentry and others not for some few of them doe yet hold some of their Tenants to their antient and reasonable Customes doe receive and their Tenants easily and willingly pay for their several sorts of â—apola Gavels or Tributes charged upon their Lands before and since the Conquest in Kent a County recounting with much comfort of their many Priviledges and beneficiall Customes and most parts of England as Gavel Erth to Till some part of their Landlords Ground Gavel Rip to come upon summons to help to reap their Corn Gavel Râ—d to make so many perches of hedge Gavel Swine for pawnage or feeding their Swine in the Lords Woods Gavel werk which was either Manuopera by the person of the Tenant or Carropera by his Carts or Cariages Harth-silver Chimney-money or Peter-pence which some Mesne Lords do yet receive Were Gavel in respect of Wears and Kiddels to catch Fish pitched and placed by the Sea coasts Gavel noht or Fother or Rent Foder which did signifie pabulum or alimentum ut Saxones antiqui dixerunt and comprehended all sorts of victuals or provisions as the old Saxons interpreted it for the Lord probably in his progress or passing by them and was in usage and custome in the time of Charlemaigne the Emperor about the year of our Lord 800. when the people of Italy Regi venienti in Italiam solvere tenebantur pro quo saepe etiam aestimata pecunia pendebatur were to provide Foder or provisions for the King when he came into Italy in liew of which money to the value thereof was sometimes paid and was long after taken to be so reasonable as it was by the Princes and Nobility of Italy acknowledged in an Assembly to be inter Regalia as a Prerogative due to the King And after the Conquest for Aver Land or Ouver Land carriage of the Lords Corn to Markets and Fairs or of his domestick utensils saith the learned and Judicious Mr. Somner or houshold provisions of the Lord or his Steward when they removed from one place to another sometimes by horse Average sometimes by foot Average one while within the Precinct of the Manor thence called In average and at other times without and then called Out Average whereupon such Tenants were known by the name of Avermanni or Bermanni Smiths Land holden by the service of doing the Smiths work the not performing of which several services so annexed to the said several sorts of Lands and their Tenures made them to be forfeited which though not exchanged and turned into Rents Regis ad exemplum in imitation of the indulgence and favour of King Henry the first to the Tenants of his demeasne Lands either then or shortly after but many of them as appeareth by Mr. Somner continuing in Kent to the Reign of Henry the third others to Edward the first and Edward the third and some in other places to the Reign of King Henry the sixth and in all or many of the Abbies and Religious Houses untill their dissolution in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth notwithstanding that the Lords of Manors and Leets receiving those free or quit Rents as they were called of their Freeholders and Tenants belonging unto their several Manors in lieu and recompence of those services did or ought in their Court Leets twice a year holden cause to be presented and punished any unreasonable prises for provisions or victuals sold in Markets Fairs oâ— otherwise or if they have not Leets are when they are Justices of Peace authorised to doe it and by that untill their Interests perswaded them to let their Tenants use all manner of deceipts in their Marketings and get what unreasonable prises they pleased so as they themselves might rack their Rents farre beyond former ages might have had their provisions untill this time at as low and easie rates as the Kings prouisions and Compositions were at when they were rated and set by the Justices of Peace in the severall Counties and all others of their Neighbourhood might also have enjoyed the benefit of the like rates which the Law intended them And the King may as well or better deserve and expect as many Boons or other services as the Nobility and other great men of the Kingdome doe notwithstanding many Priviledges and Indulgences granted by their more liberall Auncestors and better bestowing their bounties to their Tenants And to be furnished with Carts and Carriages at easie rates as well as the Earl of Rutland is at this day for nothing upon any removall from Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire to Haddon in Darbyshire and elsewhere from one place to another with very many Carts of his Tenants which are there called Boon Carts when as all Lords or Gentlemen of any rank place or quality in the Kingdome doe take it to be no burden or grievance to their
benefits received which highly pleasing the Almighty and being lovely in the eyes of all men which are not only enjoyed but held fast and enforced by all the Nobility Gentry and richer sort of men in England when it happens to be denied as the services and customes of all their Tenants to grind their corn at their Lords Mill or baking their bread at his common Oven in some Borough or Market Town The Reliefs in Tenures by Knight Service or Chivalry fixed and appropriate unto those Fewds and Tenures and paid at the death of every Tenant dying seised being at the first never condescended unto by the Tenants by any paction or stipulation betwixt them and their Lords But although there was antiently and originally betwixt the Lord and the Tenant mutua fides tuendae salutis dignitatis utriusque saith Bodin a mutual obligation betwixt the Tenant and the Lord to defend one anothers Estate and Dignity or as Craig saith pactionibus interpositis de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements to defend one another were lately notwithstanding received and taken by the Nobility and Gentry as a gratitude and in that and no other respect were by the Tenants willingly paid unto them The Reliefs paid by the Heirs of Freeholders in Socage after the death of their Ancestors which being not paid by Tenants for years by a rack Rent do appear to have no other commencement but in signum subjectionis gratitudinis a thankfull acknowledgement for benefits received Or those duties payments which many Lords and Gentry doe enjoy in Cumberland Westmerland and many of the other Northern Counties which were not at the first by any original contract or agreement as to their Tenants particular services for so it could not be a custome but the Tenants at the first upon the only reason of gratitude untill it had by length of time and usage uninterrupted gained the force of a custome and that the succeeding Heirs and Tenants were admitted according to those customes did as willingly observe and acknowledge them The Fines incertain at the will of severall Lords which the Nobility and Gentry of other parts of England do receive and take of their Copihold Tenants under the penalty of a forfeiture if not paid in a reasonable time after they were assessed and the priviledges which they retain of seising their Tenants Copihold Lands as forfeit whether the Fines were certain or incertain if they sued Replevins against them distraining for their Rents or Services and had no other parents or originall untill custome had settled it then the Tenants gratefull acknowledgements of the Lords or his Ancestors former kindess and benefits bestowed upon them or their Progenitors And the Socage Lands and Freeholders might be Tallied or have a Tax laid upon them by their Lords at their will and pleasure as their necessities or occasions required as well before as after the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo made betwixt the years 25 34 Ed. 1. and if it had been an Act of Parliament and not a Charter could bind only the King as to his extraordinary but not to his legall Tallages untill custome by the kindness or favour of time and the curtesie and good will of their Lords did permit them by a desuetude of imposing and a well rellished custome of the Tenants not paying to enjoy their easie and cheap bargains and freedome of their Lands for which they should doe well to remember better then they doe their Benefactors and be more mannerly and gratefull then of late they have been and were before those indulgencies held to be so accustomed and usual as it was not seldome found by Inquisitions and Juries upon oath that such or such land was holden Et Talliari potest c. And might have Taxes or a greater Rent laid upon them by the Lord of the Manor in so much as the Kings demeasne Lands were not free from Tallage which will be evident enough by a presentment of a Jury of Nottinghamshire before the Justices in Eyre in anno 8 E. 1. or King Edward the first when the Kings Letters Patents of a Grant of the Town of Retford to the Burgesses thereof and their Heirs in Fee Farm was found and mentioned in these words viz. Edwardus Dei gratia c. Sciatis nos concessisse c. Burgensibus nostris de Retford quod ipsi eorum haeredes de cetero habeant teneant ad feodi firmam de nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum villam nostram de Retford cum pertnen reddendo inde nobis haeredibus nostris per manus suas proprias decem libras per annum ad Scaccarium nostrum ad festum Sancti Michaelis pro omnibus serviciis c. Salvo inde nobis haeredibus nostris Tallagio nostro cum nos haeredes nostris Dominica nostra per Angliam fecimus Talliari c. reserving to himself and his Heirs a Fee Farme Rent of ten pounds per annum and the power of Tax or Tallage or improving what he had granted unto them when he should have occasion to make a Taxe or Tallage upon all his Demesne Lands in England And untill Rents were racked of which the Kings of England and the Officers of their Revenue in land were seldom or never yet much guilty that Rents were improved as high as the profits of Lands all the Lands of England except the Copihold Customary lands by Fines certain the curtesie of time and their Landlords suffering their good will and charity to be reduced into thankless customs escaped it were liable to be made contributaries to many of the necessities or occasions of the Lords of Manors who formerly did not make Leases and take Fines to lessen the rents as they doe now by a high rate or rule of interest and disadvantages procuring their rents to be advanced as it were in the name of a Fine before hand nor if the Lands were holden in Capite by Knight service untill time and their Princes favours had disused it could make a Lease unto any Tenant of such Lands but by licence and then also for no longer a term then 3. or 7. years And their Lands and Rents except Capite and Knight-service and Copihold land and lands in Frank Almoigne being capable of no higher Rents or improvement cannot now be any more by them Tallied which in effect is but a calling for more rent or raising it which every Landlord may do where his Tenants are at Will or when their Leases are expired when they are now all but those Lands before excepted as to the King and the mesne Lords and the Lands of the Freeholders and Cop holders at the utmost or a very high rent And such Tallage is at this day not laid aside by our Neighbours of France in very many places were les Tailles se paient par ceuz du Tiers estat c'est a dire par les habitans
of any but had their remedies by a writ of ne injuste vexes where their Lords did indebita servicia exigere require customs and services not due or writs to command their Lords to keep their Courts when the necessities of Justice the Tenants required them seising them if they did not do Justice causing their Lands to be seised for not holding of their Courts or for wrongful proceedings or requiring unreasonable rents services taking unreasonable Amerciaments the like gives remedies by his Courts of Chancery Common-Pleas Kings-Bench Exchequer to any unreasonable exactions or hard-heartedness of their Landlords those Acquittances and Freedoms which the King and his most illustrious Progenitors have given many of the people of England to be free de omni praestatione of furnishing Corn Lamb and Wooll to the use of the Forresters of Buckstall or assisting them in the Chase when the King comes to hunt or of Tristris to hold Grey-hounds or of Sumage or carriages by Horse or Carts or Chiminage for travelling through the Forrests or of Bridgebote to be quit of making of Bridges in the Forrests or their bounds and granting likewise that antient priviledge to the Nobility Bishops Barons coming to Parliament or returning from thence to kill one or two of his Deer in any of his Forrests Chases or Parks should be as unwilling to see his Royal Liberties Legal Customs and Priviledges infringed denied or taken from him as their own But if neither gratitude for benefits and favours recieved in particular by every Family Kindred Generation in the Nation one time with another from the King or his Royal Progenitors immediately or mediatly nor contracts nor customs can oblige or perswade to that small part of Subjects duty in the Praeemption or royal Pourveyance or compositions for it which Oliver his Complices the Contrivers of much of our late sins shame and misery taught them by a strange mistaking to call a burden or grievance They should not deny them as retributions oblations which they are to make unto their King if he or his royal Ancestors had not in every age Kings reign given them any honours dignities estates lands liberties or priviledges for his protection only care of them and for their peace plenty good Laws the happiness imparted by them which is not to be out-weighed by any assistance which they can give unto their Prince Defender of their faith as well as their estates or as tributes which Peter Martyr a godly learned foreign Protestant Divine caâ—â—â—d hither by K. Ed. 6. to assist in the work of Reformation saith are veluâ—i symbola subjectionis mercedis cujusdam eorum laborum qui sua propria neglexerint ideo necesse est ut de publico provideatur as signes of subjection and retributions for their cares of the people whilest they neglect their own affairs and therefore it is fit they should be provided for out of the publick by Tributes which besides the allowance which our Saviour Christ the Son of God the greatest of Legislators gave of them were so necessary and usuall as feré cum Regibus esse nata nullamque penè gentem fuisse unquam quae Regibus atque Magistratibus suis de publico non solvent tributa unanimis est Historicorum ac Politicorum consensus they were as antient almost as Kings and brought into the world with them saith Besoldus and it is the unanimous opinion of all that know any thing of history and policy that there never was Nation in the world which did not pay tributes to Kings and Magistrates And may deem his just and legall prerogatives and reasonable priviledges and customes in his rights of Pourveyance to be as deservedly belonging unto him his Royall Crown and Dignity as Swans not and marked and Whales Sturgeons which Bracton tells us do propter privilegium de jure gentium by priviledge and the Law of Nations belong unto the Crown and Porpoises Dolphins and all other Fishes strange for bulk rarity or quality for that by custome the Soveraign Prince say the ancient Sea Laws of Oleron ought to have his share demand or pleasure therein and with good reason for the Subject owes obedience and tribute to his Soveraign who may as his Ancestors grant Kaiage Plankage and ought to hâ—ve as much right as great a privilege not yet rest ained oâ— taken away by his Royal Progenitors assent to any Act of Parliament in his Praeemtion and royal Pourveyance as King Henry the third had in the fourth year of his reign who being to transport his Army into France commanded by his Proclamation omnes victualium mercatores all Market folk in the Counties of Berk. Southt Somerset Dorset and Wiltshire quod veniant ad Portsmouth cum victualibus quod nullum mercatum teneatur in Comitat. praedict quamdiu c. to bring victuals and provisions to Portsmouth and that no Markets should in the mean time or as long as the Army there continued be kept in the said Counties which would of necessity abate the prices Or as King Ed. 1. did in anno 34 of his Reign assigne Robert Bacon the Sheriffe of Cambridge and Huntington Shires ad bladâ— emenda infra Ballivam suam per visum ordinationem Willielmi de sancto Georgio Gulielmi de Say milit mitend usque Berwicam super Twedam ad expensas hospitii exercitus Regis in guerra Scotiae to buy and provide corn within his Baliwick by the view and assistance of Sir William St. George and Sir William de Say to be sent and conveyed to Barwick upon Twede for the provisions of the Kings Houshold and Army in the warres of Scotland viz. 40 quarters de frument 425. quarters Brasii prec quarter 4 s. 425 quarters 3. avenae prec quarter 2 s. 6 d. 40 quarter of corn and 425 quarter of Malt or Barley at 4 s. a quarter and 425 quarter of Oats at 2 s. 6 d. Or as King Ed. 3. had by his Letters Patents in the three and thirtieth year of his Raign to seise and take Falcons and Hawks to his use and limit the price of them en le Cite de Londres les lieux environ cibien en â—au come en terre cest a scavoir le falcon gentil pour 20 solz le Tersel gentil pour 10 solz le Laner pour demy mark destre payer par les mains des ses viscâ—nts in London and the parts adjacent as well upon the water as the land that is to say twenty shillings for the Falcon-gentil ten shillings for the Tersel-gentil and a noble for a Laner to be paid by the Sheriffs which hath an affinity or neer resemblance with Solomons Merchants receiving the linnen-yarn which came from Egipt at a price Or to grant a Toll without act of Parliament as well before as since the Conquest
for murage or repair of the walls of Towns as Ipswich Harwich Newcastle upon Tine Ludlow c. or Cities as London Norwich York Bristol c. which must of necessity raise the rates of commodities brought thither to be sold and by the same power or authority remit or release them and being granted to many Cities or Towns but for three of seven years or as to London for five years or some other short term since expired is as may be feared under a colour of custome or praescription as yet continued Or being Soveraign of the British seas to take weekly for all Herring taken therein six pence for every Ton and the like for other fish every three weeks either of his own Subjects or forraign Nations or for his Admiral under him to take the tenth of all the Prizes or Ships of his Enemies taken at the Sea and money for Anchorage paid by every Ship for their quiet riding in the river of Thames or any of the Kings Harbours And with as good reason as the Burrow Mealis in Scotland where quilibet Burgensis debet domino Regi pro Burgagio quinque denarios annuatim dicuntur incorporari annexique Fisco patrimonio Regis every Burgess was to pay five pence per annum for his mealis which Sir Henry Spelman interprets to be a Farme appropriated to buy provisions in regiae mensae apparatum for the Kings Table or Houshold and are said to be incorporate and annexed to the Patrimony of the King and his Exchequer Or as the Provost of Edenburgh or other borough Towns in Scotland may take and receive four pence upon every quarter of Malt of ilk Brewster quhe brewes aill all the zeir four pennies and for â—ne halfe zeir twâ— pennies As the Apprisers of flesh are appointed to apprise it at the Kings price ilk dayes of the Markets and to admit the eath of the â—â—sâ—er in that matter And as by the Statutes of King David the second it was ordained that for relief of the inward parts of the Realm quhair woll hes course and quhilks ar burdened with customes and that the remanent parts of the Realm may be made equall with them in all services and burdings It is Statute that certain sommes and quantities of victuall quhareof there is abundance in these utward parts sick as Marts beir and sicklike sall be taken up zeirly at the Chamberlains command to the expenses of the Kings house according to the prices quihilk in auld times used to be taken up in these places Queen Mary the Lord Governour and Lords of secret Counsell havand respect to the great and exorbitant dearth risen upon the will and tâ—me Fowles ordained the prices thereof as 5 s. Scottish the Swan the black Cock and gray hen six pennies twenty of their pennies being but two pence the Woodcock four pennies and the dousâ—n of Laverocks and uthers small birds four pennies c. And by as good reason as King James the sixth his Majesties Grandfather confirmed the Acts of Parliament made by his noble Progenitors for the stanching of dearth of Victuals and setting order and price on all Stuffe and ordained all Earls Lords Barons as well within regality as royalty and their Bailles to landwart and the Provestes and Bailles of all Bâ—rrows and Cities to cause the said Acts to be put to due execution every ane within their boundes and Jurisdiction respective makand and constitutand them Justices to that effect with power to make and appoint Statutes and Ordinances for the special observation of the saidis Acts at every head Court zierly Assigned money and victuals of several Shires and places in Scotland to the keeping of the Castles of Edinburgh Dunbartane Strivilinge and Blacknes Declared the tenths of all Herrings taken in the Scottish Seas to be due unto him as King of Scotland and all infestments and Alienations in few ferme or utherwaies and all dispositions quhatsumever in all time bygane and to cum of the Assise Herring to be nil and of no avail because the said Assise Herring pertanis to the King as ane part of his Customes and annexed property And by as much or a greater warrant or assent of reason as King Henry the 5. of England did in a Patent or Grant of the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland to James de Boteler Earl of Ormond authorise him ad victualia sufficientia necessaria pro expensis hospiâ—ii sui ac Soldariorum suorum in quocunque loco infra terram predictam per Provisores hospitii sui alios ministrossuos unacum Cariagio suâ—ficienti pro eisdem tam inâ—ra libertates quam extra feodo Ecclesie duntaxat excepto pro denariis suis rationabiliter solvend capere providere juxta formam diversorum Statutorum de hujusmodi provisionibus ante haec tempora factorum to take victuals sufficient and necessary for the expences of his Houshold and his Souldiers by his Pourveyors and other Ministers in any place whatsoever in Ireland with carriages sufficient for the same as well within liberties as without the Fees of the Church only excepted at reasonable prises according to divers Statutes made concerning provisions And was so well grounded upon Law and reason as all the succeeding Lord Lieutenants or Deputies of Ireland have ever since not wanted those necessary priviledges to attend their high honourable trusts imployments could so little be parted with in the 19. year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when Sir Henry Sidney was Deputy of Ireland as the Earl of Desmond the Viscount Baltinglas other unquiet spirits refusing to pay the provision or Ceasse as they there called it for the Lord Deputies house the Souldiers in Garrison which the learned Camden saith was exactio rei Annonariae certo pretio provisions to be furnished at a certain rate or price ad alendum proregis familiam militesque praesidiarios for the Lord Lieutenants or Deputies Families the Souldiers in Garrison quasi non exigenda nisi ex authoritate Parliamentaria as not due unless it were ordained by authority of Parliament sending over their complaints into England the Lords of the Privy Council upon the hearing bate thereof committed them and those which remained in Ireland and had sent them were in like manner imprisoned untill they should submit to the payment and furnishing thereof for that it appeared by the Records of that Kingdome to be antiquitus institutum an antient constitution jus quoddam Majestatis a part of the right appertaining to the soveraign Power Praeeminence or Kingly Praerogative quae legibus non subjicitur nec tamen legibus adversatur ut Jurisprudentes judicarunt which being not against the Laws was not to be subjected to them saith that worthy Historian the Queen then only ordering the Lord Deputy to use as much moderation as he could in taking those Provisions or Pourveyances And as
the King and his then more then ordinary numerous retinue could expend he was which many that were then present can testifie enforced by a Proclamation to forbid the bringing in of great quantities or more then was necessary And if the rates which Queen Elizabeth accepted her provisions to be served in by the Counties had been agreed to have been paid in money and not in kind and had by the fall of the Markets which the Lawes well executed would in a Kingdome of peace and plenty have easily brought to pass been too high a rate and more then the provisions served in kind would have amounted unto those who made that agreement for themselves and the Counties and places which they represented could not have receded from it no more then she or her Successors if the provisions served in kind should have grown cheaper or might have been had for less money or been bought by her Officers at easier rates then the Compositions could without the help of a Proviso with honour or Justice have desired that her provisions might not have been served in kind by the several Counties of England and Wales but that the money or rate then agreed upon to have been the price of those provisions should have been yearly paid into the Exchequer to be disposed of for that purpose which probably might have been the reason that at the first agreement made by several Counties for the Compositions some for 3 years some for four and some for seven there was a proviso that either party disliking which until our mad times or quarrelling with the fifth Commandement and finding fault with every thing that fed not the rebellious humour was not at all done by the Counties should be at liberty and free from that agreement For there can be no reason unless ingratitude and unreasonableness neglect of Laws and Duties breach of Faith and Contracts and reasonable Customes unto the King and Soveraign shall be installed virtues and put in the seat of reason and understood to be no otherwise that when all the Lands of the twelve adjacent and neighbour Counties of London have been so exceedingly and to such a height improved and the Lands of all the other Counties of England and the Dominion of Wales have by neighbourhood and communication largely likewise and more then formerly improved and raised their rents and estates by the rise and greater prices given for Corn Cattel Victuals and all other Houshold Provisions more then they were heretofore the Landlords made to be so very great gainers and the Tenants if they be no great gainers sure enough to be made savers by heightening the prices of Corn Cattel and all other victuals and houshold provisions the King only should bear the burden and not partake of some of the fruits if there were nothing else to require or deserve it of their great advance and increase in all their Estates and Revenues And that he by whose power alliance and interest with forreign Princes the People of England doe enjoy the trade as well inward from forâ—aign parts as outward into them the many priviledges and immunities procured for our Merchants by his famous Progenitors and Predecessors as that of Burgundy and the Neatherlands France Spain Portugal Ligorne the Russian or Muscovy Trade the Hanse or Hamborough Turkish and East-Indie Trades for all which but Burgundy and the East-land Trades our Merchants are beholding to Queen Elizabeth and King James the Rex Pacificus with the Trades now begining to florish in and with our English Colonies in Virginia Bermudas Barbados St. Christophers Meviâ— New-England and Sianam c. which doe serve to augment our plenties and delicacies in England and his protection of them and all their Trades with forreign Princes by his Leagues Confederacies and Ambassadors and allowing them the freedom of the Seas and Ports and that beneficiall Trade for the London Woodmongers or Colliers to Newcastle upon Tine for coals where their Chaldrons by which they buy are more then double to what they sell and measure by at London and the owners of the Colleries to gain their custome doe not only sell at cheap and easie rates but give and allow them for nothing seven and sometimes eight or nine Chaldron of their great and double chaldrons or measures in every twenty or score of chaldrons and notwithstanding their easie and small rates can by engrossing and keeping them upon the River of Thames unsold and a combination and confederacy among themselves sell their coals at 24 or 30 s. a single or London chaldron and think that also not to be gain or profit enough unless they can upon any Frost or increase of winter weather or the news sometimes but feigned or pretended that a Ship or two of coals were cast away by storms raise their coals 2 3 5 10 or 20 shillings more in a chaldron when they please to the damage of the Rich and great oppression of the Poor who buy their coals by the peck and must pay a greater rate for them then their labours small earnings every day from 4. in the morning until 12. at night will amount unto and did in the times of Rebellion and pretence of Gods glory to be advanced by it continue their mystery of trade and oppression to such a height impudence as when it was proved at a Sessions at the Old-Baily in London that they might sell cheaper and the Lord Maior and Justices had put a rate upon coals and ordered that they should sell accordingly neither the fear of Laws or Magistrates was able to perswade them to an obedience or diswade or deterre them from their Liberty of sinning should be denied such a legal antient and reasonable duty And may believe that the granting and permitting of Marts Fairs and Markets at home and the improvement of his Subjects Estates Revenues a five times moâ—e in some places and ten in others within the space of 200 years last past and 20 times more then what they were before that period by their peace and liberties may very well deserve so small an acknowledgement and return and so petit a priviledge as the having of a Praemption and his Provisions served in for his household at reasonable prices which is no more then what the Law it self enjoyneth to be done unto all the People and Subjects of England from the highest to the lowest and to the poorest as well as unto the aboundantly or indifferently rich And that when in our Magna Charta or great Charter of our Liberties the Praeemption Pourveyance was not denied upon present payment for all under 40 shillings and for the rest within forty dayes after and the Cart-taking upon the payment of ten pence a day for a Cart with two horses and fourteen pence a day for three secundum antiqua pretia after the old rates for which now are allowed better rates and being afterwards confirmed by King Henry the third in a solemn procession
of the King Arch-Bishops Earls Barons and the most eminent men of the Kingdome with candles or torches burning in their hands in Westminster Hall denouncing excommunication direfull curses and Anathema's against the Infringers thereof by the candles or torches flung upon the ground and wishing that so their souls might burn in hell And the same Magna Charta being by thirty Parliaments since confirmed and accompted to be part of the peoples Birthright It can be no less then the greatest of reason that those his Liberties and Priviledges mentioned and agreed therein should be as well preserved unto him as those of the people unto them and with the greater reason in that his were alwaies his own and many of theirs but newly granted them And that he was not in the confirming of Magna Charta without some care of preserving his own rights and priviledges as appeareth by his Writ or Proclation better in former times then now obeyed sent unto the Sheriff of York in these words Cum probis hominibus nostris libertates concesserimus per Cartas nostras in quibus continetur that which we have of that excellent Law and Charter being by many learned men believed to be but a Transcript quòd nihilomninus salve sint omnibus libertates liberae consuetudines quas prius habuerunt libertates nostras de quibus maxime specialis mentio in Cartis praedictis facta non est nobis volumus inviolabiliter observari unde tibi districtè praecipimus quatenus omnes libertates nostras usitatas tempore domini Johannis Regis patris nostri quas quidem nobis non subtrahimus ex speciali mentione facta in praedictis Cartis nobis facias firmiter observari nullius obstante reclamatione sicut usitatae fuerunt temporibus antecessorum nostrorum maxime tempore predicti patris nostri wherein he having granted that their Liberties which they had before should not be prejudiced commanded him that all his Liberties and Priviledges which were not specially mentioned and granted away in those Charters should be specially observed notwithstanding any allegation to the contrary as they were used and accustomed in the times of his Ancestors and especially in the Reign of his Father King John For the reason which gives Aaron and his Sons the Clergie their Tythes and Pourveyance should perswade the people to think the Composition for Pourveyance to be no burden when as it is as short of the Tithes as one unto a hundred And it should be reason if any thing can be reason and it be not fled after Astraea into the upper Regions and left some counterfeit and false resemblance instead of it that all or many or most of the males and men of England and such as in the Court Leets and elswhere have taken the Oath of Allegiance which all the men of England and their generations are so born under as by the Laws and Customes of England it is and ought to be as Connaturall and Congaeniall unto them and the Oath of Supremacy to maintain and defend the Kings Rights and Jurisdictions and all the Citizens and Freemen of London and other Cities and Corporations of England taking an Oath to the like purpose all the Freeholders of the Kingdome holding of him immediately swearing in their homage and fealty to doe him service and be faithfull unto him all the Copiholders holding of him swearing unto him their Fealty and all the Freeholders and such as hold of their mesne Lords by Knights service or Socage in their homage and fealty unto them excepting their allegiance and duty to the King should have as great a care not to deny him those parts of his Jurisdictions Praeeminences and just rights as they would not to perjure and forswear themselves or bring the curses and woes attending such grievous sins or the breach of that part of Magna Charta upon the heads of them and their posterities which a Kings assent to any Acts of Parliament for the taking away or extinguishing such individua annexa Coronae jure diadematis potestatis atque authoritatis inseparable parts of Majesty and the Rights of his Crown Regal power and Prerogative If any Law or Sanction could enable him to that which all Laws both Civil and Common doe deny will not be sufficient to acquit or discharge for although the dispensation of Oathes by those to whom and for whose benefit they were made be in some cases allowed by the Canon Law and some Roman Casuists doe believe that violation of oathes have been well dispensed withall by those for whose interest and benefit they were made it will not be hard to determine in the greatest veneration of Parliaments which are to be obeyed actively or passively and of whose acts no man is so much as to think evil that Laws of that kind when they shall be by importunities and necessities made or enacted against the Lawes of God and right reason cannot give an absolution for oathes violated nor if they could be excused for the not payment of those most necessary duties to their King and common Parent in foro humano in this world will ever be excused in foro animae in the next And if the Parliament in Anno 18 Eliz. took it to be for the good of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge that the Colleges Halls and Houses for Students therein should receive the third part of their Rents in Corn and Mal◠and ordered them so to doe and that their Tenants who had then have since such comfortable Bargains and Leases under them as every man is glad to purchase or get them and inroll themselves for their Tenants wherein if a deer year comes once in 7 or 10 years and their Bargains happen to be so much the worser as the prises which are to be ruled according as the like was sold the Market day next before the Rent day exceeds the former or cheaper prices the yearly profit notwithstanding of their Lands being alwaies more then the Rent and six or nine cheap years to one may pacifie their complaints or grudgings the King certainly may expect as much or more care to be had of him and his house-keeping as there was of the Universities Colledges and Halls and not to be denied in his particular of Pourveyance or compositions for it that which every man thinks reasonable in his own Nor to be made so great a sufferer under those heaps of mischiefs and inconveniencies which by the great and excessive rates and prises put upon victuals and household provisions daily more and more encreasing doe assault and lessen his too smal a Revenue Neither should be rendred more helpless and in a worser condition then the Lords of Leets Sheriffs in their Turns Justices of Peace in their Counties Magistrates in Cities and Towns Corporate Judges in their Circuits the University of Oxford who hath liberty to punish the breakers of the Assise of Bread Beer and Ale and
the University of Cambridge who may require the Maior of the Town to make the Assise in the presence of the Chancellor of that University and if it be not well observed may himself punish the offenders by the authorities and power only derived from the King Who may with better reason justice and equity claim and keep his Rights of Praeemption Pourveyance and compositions for it then the Stret gavel was in 4. Ed. 1. claimed by the Lord of the Manor of Cholmton in the County of Sussex that every Tenant of that Manor should yearly give two shillings then a good summe of money pro itu reditu for his going out of the Manor or returning into it or as the Town of Maldon in Essex did in the fifteenth year of the Reign of that King claim by antient custome Totteray which was a payment of four pence for every bushel and a half of corn sold there 4 pence for Stallage and a Mark penny viz. 1 d. per illos qui truncos extra domum in vicis ejusdem ville habuerunt for every one which had pipes or gutters laid or made out of their houses into the streets de omnibus pascentibus mariscum de pecoribus of all that had cattel going or feeding in the Marsh for every Horse two pence Oxe two pence Bullock a penny and for every five Sheep two pence quae praestatio vocatur which in the language of the Civil and Common Law was usually understood to be Pourveyance or furnishing of necessary provisions Or as the Town of Yarmouth which was made a Port or Haven by Letters Patents of King Edward the first did antiently and doe now take and receive of the Herring-Fishers a certain Prize of Pourveyance of Fish and Herring towards the maintenance and repair of their Haven Or as the Lord Roos of Hamlake from whom the Earls of Rutland are descended did claim and enjoy as belonging to Belvoir Castle custumam ibidem vocat Palfrey silver quae levari debet annuatim de villis a Custome called Palfrey silver which ought to be levied every year of the Towns of Botelesford Normanton Herdeby Claxton Muston Howes Barkeley Queenby aliis Hamlettis and of other Hamlets Or as King Edward the third had to send his Writ or Comâ—â—ssion to the Magistrates of the Town of Barwick 〈◊〉 Tweed to inquire Si pisces marini Salmones in aqua de Tweed capt usque villam praedictam duci in vico vocat Narrow Gate venditioni exponi de custumis inde Regi solvend if the Sea Fish and Salmons taken in the River of Twede were brought to the Town of Barwick upon Tweed and put to sale in the street called Narrow-gate and of the Customes to be paid for them to the King More especially when the Judges in 11 Hen. 4. did resolve it to be Law as well as reason that the Pourveyor or taker for the King might take victuals or provisions at a reasonable price to the use of the King against the will of the party â—elling them Which unless the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the Laws of the Land reasonable Customes Liberties Rights and Priviledges should be all and every thing in the peoples own cases and concernments and nothing at all in the Kings and that the duty of Subjects honor of the King and support and maintenance of him who supports and defends them and all that is theirs in their just and legal Interests should be but as the Astronomers lines and terms of art in the firmament as Zones Tropicks Meridian Zodiack and the Ursa major and minor c. meerly imaginary and undemonstrable may with as much or greater reason be understood to be no burden as the late design if it should take effect of the Petition of the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London lately presented vnto the House of Common in Parliament in order as they alleage to the honor happiness and prosperity of the Kingdom that the Governor Deputy and Assistants of their desired Company of thâ—â—nglish Merchants trading into Italy and the Dominiâ—â— of the French King and the King of Portugal and of all other Merchants thereafter to be taken into that Association may besides other emoluments to be taken of the Merchants have power for the maintenance of the Government to take and receive upon all goods to be exported and imported not exceeding one twentieth part of the Customes as they are on all goods except Wines and on wines not exceeding one fourtieth part of the Customes as they now are Which twentieth part after no greater a reckoning then four hundred thousand pounds per annum for the Customes which if not too much defrauded are more likely to be eight hundred thousand pounds per annum will be twenty thousand pounds per annum and if eight hundred thousand pounds per annum will come near unto as much as the pretended losses of the Counties in the Compositions for the Pourveyances And the people of England would find the Pourveyance and Compositions for them to be for their own good and profit as well as there is a great and every where to be acknowledged reason for it not denied to be reason in their own cases affairs dealings one with another by the want of greater benefits if the King should shut up all his Ports and forbid all Trade with forreign Merchants inward or outward as some Kings and Princes have commonly and ordinarily done and as Common-wealths and those that call themselves Estates do as well as Kings and Princes in case of hostilities and upon reason of State or some other extraordinary occasions Or put down as God forbid he should or seise as forfeited by misuser which many will be found to have deserved all the Fairs and Markets in the Kingdome or some great part of them or forbid for some time as hath been antiently done all the Markets in two or three Counties and command the people to bring their victuals and provisions to be sold where the Kings or the Publick necessities or occasions wanted them or allow but one or two in a County at the chiefest or greatest of Cities or Towns or as King Henry the third did strictly command the assise of bread wine beer and victuals to be kept in Oxford in debito statu secundum precium bladi sicut in aliis Burgis Villis as it ought according to the price of corn and as was used to be in other Towns and Burrows threatning them that if they neglected to doe it he would seise and take the Town into his own hands and at the same time setting a rate or price upon wines gave the Magistrates of that Town to understand that whoever did otherwise ad corpus suum graviter se caperet omnia vina sua a Vice-comite suo Oxon. in manum suam capi praeciperet should be arrested and
or avarice by taking advantage of some particular persons folly or over-bidding and keeping up the excessive rates of the Market to the same or a more unreasonable price and not being willing to let them fall again to a lower price though there be plenty and reason enough to do it unlawful combinations and confederacies of Trades men to raise their prices or cause their wares to be made Slight or insufficient unconscionable adulterating of Commodities and making them seem what they are not to raise the greater prices evil Artifices of Forestallers of the Markets Ingrossers and Regrators who for their own ungodly gains can make a dearth and scarcity in the midst of plenty and like Caterpillars spoil and devour the Hopes of the years fertility the Landlords racking of rents and the price of all manner of houshold provisions and other things raised by the Tenants to enable them to pay them an universal pride and vanity of the Nation and enhaunce of prices to support them plunder miseries and desolations of War numberless tricks and deceipts of Tradesmen and fraud of the common and Rustick part of the people in the Counties neer London in keeping many of their Cattel half a mile or some little distance from the Fairs untill the Evening or much of the day be spent to make them to sell at greater rates frequent deceits of stocking or Tying up the Udders of Kine a day before hand to make them swell and seem to give great store of Milke And as many other tricks of Trade and deceit as the Devil and deluded consciences can invent And truely looked upon as causes or concurrent parts of the cause of the now grand and most intollerable inhaunce of the rates and pâ—ices of Victuals houshold provisions and other Commodities there will be little or no room for the supposed plenty of Gold and Silver to be either a cause or so much as any part of a cause of it Nor can be well imagined when as notwithstanding that betwixt the middle of the Raign of King Henry the eight and the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the Gold and Silver Mines of the West Indies had by the Spanish cruelty to the Indians and their almost extirpation afforded such quantities of these baites of Satan and temptations as two hundred and sixty millions of Gold did appear by the Records of the Custom house of Sivill to have been brought from the West Indies into Spain all the plenty of that riches either by our Merchants bringing in of Bullion from Spain and its other Kingdomes and Provinces by Commerce or return of Merchandize did not so in England raise enhaunce the rates and prices of Victuals and houshold provisions but that we finde the Parliament of 24. H. 8. ordaining that Beef Pork Mutton and Veal should be sold by the weight called haber dupois no person should take for a pound of Beef or Pork above one half penny nor for a pound of Mutton or Veal above half penny farthing did believe they might be reasonably so afforded And the rates of Victuals and houshold provisions notwithstanding so increasing as in the yeer following It was ordained That Governors of Cities and Market Towns upon complaint to them made of any Butcher refusing to sell victuals by the weight according to the Statute of 24 H. 8. ca. 3. might commit the offenders toward untill he should pay all penalties limitted by the said Statute and were enabled to sell or cause to be sold by weight all such victuals for ready money to be delivered to the owner and if any Grasier Farmer Breeder Drover c. should refuse to sell his fat Cattel to a Butcher upon such reasonable prices as he may retail it at the price assessed by the said Statute The Justices of Peace Maiors or Governors should cause indifferent persons to set the prices of the same which if the owner refused to accept then the Justices c. should binde him to appear the next Term in the Star Chamber to be punished as the Kings Councel should think good And the same Parliament Enacting That upon every complaint made of any enhauncing of prices of Cheese Butter Capons Hens Chickens and other Victuals necessary for mens sustenance without ground or cause reasonable in any part of this Realm or in any other the Kings Dominions the Lord Chancellor of England the Lord President of the Kings most honorable Councel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlaine and all other Lords of the Kings most honorable house the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains under Treasurer and the Barons of the Kings Exchequer or seven of them at the least whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy seal to be one should have power and authority from time to time as the cause should require to set and tax reasonable prices of all such kinde of Victuals how they should be sold in gross or by retail and that after such prices set and taxed Proclamation should be made in the Kings name under the great Seal of the said prices in such parts of this Realm as should be convenient for the same Was not of opâ—nion that the plenty of Gold and Silver were any cause of the enhaunce of the prices or rates of Victuals but did in the preamble of that Act declare That forasmuch as dearth scarcity good cheap and plenty of such kinde of Victuals happeneth riseth and chances of so many and diverse occasions that it is very hard and difficult to put any certain prices to any such things yet nevertheless the prices of such Victuals be many times enhaunced and raised by the greedy covetousness and appetites of the owners of such Victuals by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same more then upon any reasonable or just ground or cause to the great damage and impovershing of the Kings subjects Siâ— Thomas Chamberlaine qui mores hominum multorum vidit urbes who by his several Embassages fâ—om England into Foraign Countries in the Raigns of Kiâ—g Henry the eighth and King Edward the sixth was not a little acquainted with the customes of other Nations aswell as his own did in the Raign of King Edward the sixth in a Treatise entituled Policies to reduce the Realm of England unto a prosperous wealth and estate dedicated unto the Duke of Somerset then Lord Protector assign the causes of the high prices and dearness of Victuals far less then what is now to be abasing of Coyn and givâ—ng more then Forty pence for the ounce of Silver ingrossing of Commodities the high price of Wooll which caused the Lords and Gentlemen being by the suppressing of the Abbies and liberality of King Henry the eight waxen rich to convert all their grounds into Sheep Pastures which diminished Victuals ten Lordships to the great decay of Husbandry
pay those Thraves of Corn which would far exceed the Pourveyance charged upon that County or have compounded for them or do pay them to such as have obtained Grants of the Lands and Revenues belonging to that Hospital Or that he whose Royal Ancestor King Henry the second took a care as appears by the black book in the Exchequer that the Barons of the Exchequer who were then taken to be a part of the Kings houshold should have their provisions at easier rates then others Et de victualibus suae domus in urbibus Castellis maritimis nomine consuetudinis nihil solvunt Quod si minister vectigalium de hiis quicquam solvere compulerit dummodo presens sit serviens ejus qui suis usibus empta fuisse oblata fide probare voluerit Baroni quidem exacta pecunia restituetur inde in integro improbus exactor pro qualitate personae pecuniarum penam luet and pay nothing for custom for the victuals or provisions for their houses in Cities Castles and Maritime places and if any Officer should compell them to pay any thing for them whilstâ—their servants were ready to testifie and prove that they were bought to their use the money was to be again restored and the party so wickedly exacting it amerced or fined according to the quality of his person And that our succeeding Kings and Princes causing a Pourveyance and provision of Diet to be made for the Justices of Assize Justices of the Peace at the Assizes Sessions by the Sheriffs in every County making an allowance for the same out of the Exchequer Q. Elizabeth in Anno 1573. finding that to be troublesome inconvenient for the Sheriffs ordained that charge to be defrayed out of her Coffers as may appear by a Copy of a letter from the Lords of her Privy Councel communicated unto me by my worthy and learned friend Mr. William Dugdale and here inserted and that expence being since ordered to be defrayed out of the Fines and profits of the Counties after the rate of four shillings per diem at the Assizes Sessions to every Justice of the peace and two shillings per diem to the Clerk of the Peace and the King being at more then 10000 l. per annum charges to the Judges of the superior Courts at Westminster who by their Circuits do to save his people a great deal more charges cause a cheap and impartial Justice to be twice in every year brought into every County and is at many other yeerly expences to others in the administration of Justice for which Cromwell and his fancied Parliaments thought a large yeerly allowance to be little enough makes an yearly allowance of one thousand one hundred and six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence per annum to the Lord President of Wales and the Justices attending that Court for the provisions of their Diet with an allowance of Dyet to the Justices of Wales in their great Sessions twenty four shillings per diem to the Domestick Clerks or servants of the Lord Chancellor an allowance of Forty Marks per annum to the Kings Remembrancer in the Exchequer which may shew what cheapness was formerly for the diet of himself and of his eight Clarks who ought to table with him the like for the Treasurers Remembrancer and his twelve Clarks and to the Clark of the Pipe five pence per diem for his diet every day when he sitteth in Court and the like to the Comptroller of the Pipe should be now put to seek his own Provisions or Pourveyance at the dearest most disrespectful rates or that the Kings servants and Officers of his houshold in whose honor or dishonor the Majesty whom they serve as that of David was in the reproach of his servants or Embassadors sent to the King of Ammon is not a little concerned should now for want of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them complain that the beauty is departed from the Kings house his servants are become like Harts that finde no Pasture and they that did feed plentifully are desolate in the streets And that the servants of the Abbot of St. Edmunds Bury were in a better condition when as he could allow John de Hastings the Steward of the Courts of his Mannors who claimed the said Office by inheritance a Provision when he came at night unto him for eight horses and thirteen men with an horse load of Provender and Hey sufficient Wine and Beer twenty four Wax Candles in the Winter time and twelve in the Summer eight loaves of Bread for his Greyhounds two Hens for his Hawks pro se hominibus suis honorabilem sustentationem in Cibo potu and an honorable provision for himself and his servants in meat and drink And as those of the children of Israel which returned from the Captivity lamented the difference betwixt the glory of the first and second Temple bewail the desolation of the house wherein the Kings honor dwelled and the alteration reducing of it to what it is now from that which it was in the raigns of Queen Elizabeth King James or King Charles the Martyr And that Foraigners and Strangers who were wont so to magnifie and extoll the Hospitality state and magnificence of the King of Englands Court and house-keeping as that Philip Honorius after an exact survey of many other Kingdoms and their Policies hath publikely declared that no Nation in the world goeth beyond our Brittain in the honor of the Kings Court and houshold in maggior numero di servitori con maggior distinctioni d' officii e gradi multitude of servants Officers and distinction of degrees and cannot be ignorant of the respects and honor done by all Nations to Foraign Princes though no Monarchs or their superiors in their passages and journeys through any Towns or Cities beyond the Seas by making them presents of Wine Fish Oats and the best of houshold provisions which those places afforded and that even those mechanick souls of Hamborough and Amsterdam can think it worthy their imitation shall finde the King of England whose Ancestor Offa King of the Mercians in Anno Dom. 760. would be so little wanting to himself and his posterity in the preserving the honor and rights of Majesty as he ordained that even in times of peace himself and his successors in the Crown should as they passed thorough any City have Trumpets sounding before them to shew that the person of the King saith the Leiger book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honor in all which either see him or hear of him to be so scanted de ea sublimitate amplitudine augustaque illa Majestate in that honor and reverence which his predecessors would never abate any thing of as his Officers and servants like some Beggars who are not used to be trusted with a Mess of Pottage to be put into their hands when they buy it at the
exemption by an Assessement to be made for that purpose Or by the West Indians in Guaxara who by order of the high Justice do deliver unto Fryers travailing that way if they have no money Horses to ride on or to carry their carriages or provision without money so that at their departure they write it down in the Town book what they had spent and not abide above four and twenty hours in the Town where by a contribution their expences are defrayed Or by the old Irish one of which being a Tenant of Termonland or Land belonging to the Church and unwilling to change his old customes for new said to the Bishop of Dermot of whom he held his Lands non debet dominus mutare censum antiquum sed si careat rebus necessariis vaccis pinguibus c. debet ad nos miâ—tere Et nos debemus subministrare nam quaecunque nos habemus Domini sunt nos etiam ipsi illius sumus My Lord ought not to change his ancient Customes Rents or services due out of the Land but if he wanteth necessary provisions for his house and family as fat Cows c. we ought to furnish them for whatsoever we have are his and we our selves are the Lords Or by the modern Irish or inhabitants of Ireland who notwithstanding the Pourveyance or Compositions for Pourveyance and Prae-emption allowed to the Kings Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom could since the abolition of that most useful necessary custome in England offer if Fame did not mistake her self an yeerly supply of 3000. Irish Oxen or Cattel towards the support of the King and his Family and have besides in their Act of Parliament lately made for the execution of his Majesties Declaration for the setlement of that kingdom consented That the Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Kings Bench the Lord Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer and the Master of the Rolles or any other his Majesties Officers of that Kingdom for the time being shall and may have and receive such Port Corn of the Rectories Impropriations or Appropriate Tythes forfeited unto or vested in his Majesty his heirs â—nd successors which have been formerly paid or reserved Or by the Scots a people never as yet exceeding or so much as keeping even pace with their neighbors of England in civilities kindness and gratitudes who when their King Malcolme who raigned in Scotland in Anno Dom. 1004. had given and distributed all the Lands of the Realm of Scotland amongst his men and reserved na thing as the Act of Parliament of 22 Jac. 3. beareth in property to himself but the Royal dignity and the Mute hill in the Town of Scone could give and grant to him the ward and relief of the heir of ilke Baron quhan he sold happen to deceis for the Kings sustentation And did notwithstanding so well esteem and allow of those ancient rights of Pourveyance or Compositions for them as in the Raign of their King James the 4. in the year of our Lord 1489. The Lords spiritual and temporal and uthers his Leiges did declare in Parliament that it was the Kings property for the honorable sustentation of his house according to his Estait and honor quhilk may not be failized without great derogation of his noble Estaite and that his true lieges suld above all singular and particular profit desire to prefer the noble Estaite of his Excellence like as it was done in the time of his maist noble progenitors of gud minde And did therefore think it neidful expedient and reasonable And did statute and ordain that full derogation cassation and annullation be maid of all Gifts Donations Infeftments Fewes life Rents given by his Hieness to quhat sumever person or persons sen the day of his Coronation swa that all Lands Rents Customes Burrow Mailles Fermeâ— Martes Mutton Poultery avarage carriage and uther Dewties that were in the hands of his Progenitors and Father the day of his decease notwithstanding quhat sumeuer assignation or gift be maid thereupon under the Great Seal Privy Seal or uthers be all utterly cassed and annulled so that the haill profits and Rents thereof may cum to the King to the honorable sustentation of his house and noble Estaite Or so much degenerate from the Brittaines our Ancestors and predecessors who were heretofore so glad of any occasions to express their love and honor of their Princes as when they made their progress or had any occasion to visit any of their houses they flung the doors off the Hinges and gave them open hearted and free entertainment Nor deny those respects and duties to our Kings which no other Nations do refuse to their Kings or Princes which may make us to be an hissing and reproach to other Nations and by using our head so ill to be esteemed as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 people without an head or the Sciopedes who are reported to have such large feet as they can when they please cover their head with it and never let it be said that when a factious and rebellious part of our people could in the year 1656. suppose it to be their Interest to exchange with Cromwell their Antichrist or Mahomet their Religion Laws and liberties for his Tyrannical and Arbitrary will and pleasure and petition him in their Conventicle or pretended Assembly of Parliament that he would besides the remainder of the Kings Queens and Princes Revenues not disposed of except Forrests and Chaces and the Mannors thereunto belonging and of all the Lands of Delinquents in the Counties of Dublin Kildare Clare and Katerlaugh the forfeited Lands in Scotland which were great and considerable two parts of the Recusants Lands in England not compounded for and all Debts Fines Penalties Issues and casual profits belonging to the Keepers of the liberties of England so miscalled which was by them and their fellow Usurpers setled upon him and was of it self a Revenue too great for all the Brewers of England to accept of ten hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum to be leavyed upon the people with such other supplies as should be needful to be raised from time to time by consent of that which they Nick named a Parliament and three hundred thousand pounds per annum to be raised for the charge of the Administration of Justice and support of Government which he thinking not enough to serve his wicked occasions designes or desires to â—lay or keep in exile the heir of the Kingdoms tells his dutiful Parliament at a conference in April 1657. that the charge of the Government would yearly amount unto ninteen hundred thousand pounds sterling and therefore though the war with Spain should cease desired that the thirteen hundred thousand pounds per annum might have six hundred thousand pounds per annum more added thereunto and that that could be willingly assented unto and all the Loyal party enforced and driven to submit
and the greatest of Customes because it was not gained as most of the peoples Customs or Prescriptions were the best of which had no other originall then the continuance of favours of those that bestowed and permitted them to be enjoyed or a neglect of taking or calling for duties untill time had over-run and covered them with that which is now called a Custome or Prescription but were established by a threefold obligation composed of a Right or Duty a very antient Custome backt by the Lawes of God Nature and Nations and a Contract made and continued by the people to their King built upon the best and greatest of considerations which the Prophet David in the 15 Psalm if it had not been beneficiall but to some loss or damage adviseth not to be broken And merited the bettter observance in that Queen Elizabeth did but the year before call into her Mint and reduce unto pure silver the monies which her Father King Henry the eighth had so much debased with a mixture of brass as it was scarcely half the value in silver which made the price of commodities so much or a great deal the dearer and by her Edicts did all she could to bring down the prices in the Markets which then began to swell more then there was any cause for and in her composition and agreement with many or most of the Counties of England and Wales the next year after did but accept of what then they understood might as the learned and judicious Mr. Camden hath informed us justo pretio at a reasonable or Market rate be well afforded And the Lords of Manors who according to the several customes thereof think it not unreasonable to enjoy their Chevagia or Chiefage which Cowel takes to be pecunia Annuâ— data potentiori tutelae patrociniique gratia a small yearly payment paid by Tenants as acknowledgments for favours and help received or to be received and take their reliefs of their Tenants in Socage in some places by custome a years value and in some but half as much and in others more according as their customes vary the least of which in value of money doth twice exceed what it amounted unto formerly enjoy their Free Warrens and Fishings with many other Priviledges and immunities by Grant or Prescription and with the Yeomanry and lower ranks of people can be content to claim the benefit of their Customes de non decimando of paying no Tythes at all for Lands formerly belonging to the Cistercians Knights Templers Hospitlers or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem or of a modus decimandi of paying but a penny or some little yearly summe of money in lieu of all Tithes and make an inheritance of the greatest part of 3845 Impropriations with the Smoke-pennies or Peter or Chimney pence which being formerly paid unto some Abbies and Religious Houses and coming afterwards to the Crown in the Reign of King Henry the eight and granted out again by him are in many places as Appendants unto some Manors paid unto this day And think it no grievance to enjoy them and many other priviledges which wereby Grants or Exemptions by Papal Constitutions designed to Religious and not any Lay uses And the customary services of their Tenants to repair wayes and Bridges contribute to the maintenance of a Priest or Preacher or to the marriage of poor Maids or to carry Milstones some miles distant to their Milnes to doe suit of Court or be Butler Baker or Carver at some Festivals and can notwithstanding all the sometimes tedious Suits in Law of their Tenants who hold by Fines incertain and their complaints cram'd in a great purse made of many little ones attended with staves and ill-smelling shoes and feet travailing for relief to Westminster Hall and the superior Courts of Justice with store of out-cries of grievances and oppressions filling every Alehouse they come in with the lamentable tediously told stories of that which they doe many times but guess to be like them raise their Fines for admittances unto two years present value which amounts unto sixteen or twenty times as much as the antient value and demand and take ten or thirteen shillings an Acre to reduce the Fines incertain to a smaller certainty Can take the Optimum Animal or best horse or beast for a Herriot at the death of their Tenants when it exceeds the value of as much as 40 or 50 or 100 to one of what it was at the Conquest when it was reduced from a greater to that lesser rate and within a month or less after take as much as they can get for an Admittance of the Widdow or Heir of the deceased which in Copihold Estates differs very Little from a Relief and in some places as in Cumberland Westmerland and some adjacent Northern Counties compel them besides their formerly perilous enjoyned services annexed to their Lands to be ready night or day to repell the incursions of their plundering and unruly Scottish Neighbours to pay a thirtieth penny after the rate or assise of their old rents upon every Alienation and a twentieth upon the death or change of a Landlord which were formerly more easie and have been since only raised to those higher rates in regard of a greater value since put upon lands houshold provisions and commodities should not murmur at the small oblations which in no burdensome great or general contributions are to be made unto the King for the maintenance of himself and his Royal Family And the Copiholders who can when they please think themselves happy in their customes of Fines certain which patientia charitate in jus transiâ—runt crept by the charity and sufferance of their Landlords into that which they doe now call Tenant rights when as the lands which they do now hold is in the improved yearly value ten or sixteen or twenty times in many places more then the former yearly value and are by so much beyond the intention either of the Lords or Tenants the Grantors or Grantees when those Fines certain were at the first set or accepted and in those Tenant Rights as they call them and many of their Customes have in many places large Pastures and Meadows of many Acres yearly thrown out at Midsummer or the first day of August or some other time in the Summer or latter end thereof for a Township to inter Common for three quarters of every year or some months and in some places have Common belonging to their Copyholds for paying to the Lord of the Manor yearly as in Grayes Case in Hil. 37 Eliz. a hen five eggs much increased in price since that collateral recompence as it was in that case resolved to be was first taken continued and preserved unto them by the care of the King and his Laws by Inquiries formerly in the Eyres or Circuits de novis consuetudinibus levatis if any oppression or new customs were imposed by their Lords and no sooner complained