Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	acre_n	meadow_n	pasture_n	4,248	5	11.0446	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25624	An answer to the severall petitions of late exhibited to the High Court of Parliament and to His Excellency the Lord General Cromwell by the poor husband-men, farmers and tenants in severall counties of England for the taking away of tithes paid to priests and impropriators.		1652 (1652)	Wing A3446A; ESTC R25887	9,695	27

then the tithe thereof is worth twenty nobles per annum the time the threescore acres are wholy employed in tillage not otherwise But as the whole Revenue of a Parish doth not consist in arable Lands so the same arable is not alwaies plowed and it may with confidence be affirmed That the Clergy who receive the tithes of Corn and Grain together with the small tithes Have hardly throughout England the tenth part of all the Rents and profits of the Lands in their severall Parishes if some of them receive more than the tenth others doe receive much loss For in all those Parishes where the richest pastures doe lye in severall and are employed in the seeding of fat Oxen as also in less fertile pastures where the profits are raised by the brooding up of horses and store-cattle nothing considerable is paid thereout unto the minister And where the pastures are stocked with fat sheep or with Cows for Dayries the tenth of the rent of such pastures is the most that can be expected from a Forainer but less from a Parishioner who also paies no tithes for all the pastures his plow-horses and Oxen for draught do eat up nor for the Leyes and pastures which the flocks of sheep do graze upon which are folded to manure the arable lands Besides the parishioners do commonly blow away all the tithes due for firewood with a smoak penny And the owners of usuall or coppice Woods in many places do not pay the tenth and not a few do let their Underwoods and Springs of woods grow till they be above twenty years growth purposely to defraud the Minister of his tithe And generally in all places the spires or young timber trees which are fallen together with the under-wood which are a considerable part of the owners profit yield nothing to the Minister Adde hereto that of late years much barren ground formerly employed in tillage is converted to Warren for Conies and indeed can no waies be better improved for the benefit of the Common-wealth and the owners profit And as for Forrests Chases Parkes for Deer vast moores great wasts and Commons and under correction the commonable Fens also till of late drained and in hand to be drained conteining 400000. acres As they yield not much to the common good so least of all to the Rector-ministers Furthermore many Manors and Granges in England antiently were and so continue to this day totally exempted from the payment of tithes by Grants Privileges and prescriptions and not Farmes only but whole Parishes doe prescribe de modo decimandi by which the minister doth hardly receive the fortieth part in lieu of his tithe in many places much less Farther 7. To instance that the Minister hath but the tenth There have upon complaints made in Chancery where Towns have been depopulated and converted to pasture Decrees made in that Court That the minister should have in lieu of his tithes the tenth acre in the Parish to hold in severalite and to be laid neer adjoyning to the Parsonage house or in some other convenient places to the Ministers content In which way of exchange the Minister was no loser though the Common-wealth bee by such conditions accompanied with depopulations And the cause why the Ministers lost nothing by such conditions was because before that time about one fourth or fifth part of all the lands in the Parishes were pasture grounds held in severalty or else were meadow and pasture grounds lying in the Common-fields in the bottoms or low places thereof and in heidons and in large drifts for cattle and in the commons and wastes of the manor which were commonable all the year In all which the minister-rector before the commission had little or no considerable profit which by the severaltie for all the year were improoved 8. And whereas the Petitioners pretend much slavery by the Statute made anno 2 Edw. 6. for the setting forth of tithes and also by the Ordinances made this Parliament for the dew payments therof It is well known that there were constitutions made in the Reign of King Edw. the Confessor As also in the Reign of King Edw. first injoyning the payment both of prediall and personall tithes And it is a known truth that for one action which hath for these seven years last past been commenced against any person for Foul tithing there have bin ten actions brought against those who have refused to set forth their tithes openly denying to pay the same aswell to the Minister as to the Impropriator therefore they have just cause humbly to Petition the high Court of Parliament that they would be pleased to adde costs of Suit to the dammages given by that Statute because affected Juries will give as little in Dammage as may be As also that all sales made by the owners of Corn and Grain upon the ground to unknown persons to the intent to defraud the Impropriators and Ministers of their tithes and all such like covenous and feigned devices may be made void and the Contrivers of them punished according to their deserts And because that Statute doth concerne prediall tithes only therefore that some good Law might be made in the behalf of poor Vicars for the recovery of small tithes which if the Vicar insist upon to have according to the value he is clamoured to be contentious if he accept what is given his tithes are converted to Almes And wofull is the condition of those Ministers whose maintenance depends upon the benevolence of the people as also of those parishes who want fit maintenance for their ministers 9 There are in England and in Wales nine thousand seven hundred and twenry five parishes and although the one half of those Rectories were not appropriated as to the number of them yet certainly as to the yearly values the Ministers at this day have not the one halfe of the profits of the tithes of corn and grain because except the Church of Cleve in the vale of Evesham and some others the tithes of all the richest and largest parishes were appropriated And if it be farther considered that not only many of the greatest of them but also the middle sort have by sales by partitions and by other means been devided and come into severall hands Then it may be easily demonstrated that besides the Patrons losses of their right of inheritance in the presentations of fit Ministers to their Churches above the yearly Revennue of one million of pounds at improoved Rates and the Estates of more than ten thousand Families are deeply concerned in this great mutation by the Petitioners intended Therfore 10 For the causes and reasons above recited the Petitioners have with too much boldness importuned the High Court of Parliament and His Excellencie the Lord Generall after the expence of so much blood and treasure for the liberty of the Subjects Persons and Proprietie in their Estates to petition for the taking away of the inheritance and the Freehold Estates for every Incombent hath a free-hold Estate in his tithes from so many thousands of good Subjects without propounding due and full recompence or satisfaction to be given unto them for the same FINIS

will want monies to buy so others will have no will to buy shall an Impropriator be compelled to fell the fairest and best portions of his Tithes and at under-rates to those that will buy and to keep the remain in his hands That were to adde another prejudice to the Impropriator who besides other inconvenience shall be well-neer at as great a charge to inne such parcels of scattered Tithes as formerly he was to inne the whole But if strangers shal be admitted to buy the tithes of those lands which the owners are not able or not willing to buy then it will follow that there must be Landlords and Tenants and in effect as many or more Impropriators than are at this present Lastly who shall determine the yearly value of the tithes to be sold if the anti-tithemongers set the value the purchace no doubt will be under ten years 9. Some of the Petitioners and namely those in the East-Riding in York-shire pray to have the payment of tithes abolished because they were at the first given for the advancement of Popery and for the maintenance of superstitious and idle persons For the like reason the Petitioners may in case they have good success in this Petition pray that all the Sites of the Monasteries and of all other the Religious houses in England dissolved by K. Hen. 8. may together with all their Manors Granges Farms and Lands which amounted to the value of 161100. l. per annum of old Rents and are worth at this day at improved Rents two millions of pounds per annum be taken from the present owners because they were at the first given for the maintenance of idle Monks and Chanting Cannons who depended upon the Popes and were but the Kings half Subjects And bestowed upon the Petitioners because they are poor men and take great pains for their livings The Petitioners are alike grieved with the Ministers of the Gospell for their maintenance by tithes As they are with Impropriators all must be taken away from them It being an easy matter say they to order a more honourable maintenance for them But in what way they declare not We shall not say any thing concerning the Ministers divine right to tithes Nor of the conveniencie thereof for their maintenance We shall proceed in the same way as before and shew to the Petitioners their mistakes in the Clergies Revenue And in their own expectations 1. ALL that which before hath bin declared concerning the taking away of tithes from the Impropriators and giving them to great Landed-men rich men and to purchasors wil be the same to the Ministers of the Gospell who shall have the Rents and profits of their tithes taken from them and put into the purses of rich Land-lords But with more disadvantage to the Minister than to the Impropriator because of the Ministers constant pains in Preaching His care of the souls under his charge with the other duties incident to his calling For which our Ancestors in former times held their Ministers so worthy of tithes and were so consciencious in the dew payment of them That they usually gave their Ministers a Legacie for tithes forgotten to be paid And Mortuaries were paid to the parochiall Ministers for the same cause 2. It was in the times of Popery one of the just grievances which the Cannons had against the Monasteries c. That they received the Rents of the tithes and yet lived 100. miles off and for that many Rectories were appropriated to Religious houses beyond the Seas who gave no relief nor assistance to the Parishes whence they received the profits nor scarce took notice of them whereas the Ministers of the Gospell are resident upon their Cures and doe spend the Revenues thereof amongst their Parishioners They set the able poor on work and relieve the impotent according to their abilities 3. If the Minister doe let his tithes to the Parishioners as many of them doe and more would upon even tearms then the Petitioners the Farmers have as much privilege from their Ministers as they can expect from their rich Landlords after such time as all Lands are made tithe-free But if the Minister doe keep his tithes in his own hands then are they a magazin or store-house for all the poor people in the Parish For there the poor man hath straw for his bed for his Cow and to heat his Oven and grist-corn upon trust till he have earned money to pay for it Thither also the pettie husband-man the badger the waggonier and the Carter that lives by doing works and carriages for other men resort for Chaff for their horses which is a commoditie hard to be gotten in those Counties where use is made of it And there they have for their money horse-corn ready at hand But where the Farmers doe inne their own tithes together with their Crops they will not part with any of those commodities unless in a small proportion to the labourers that depend upon them 4. Whereas the Petitioners pretend that the Impropriators and the Ministers doe hot pay Assessements answerable to the profits they receive herein the Petitioners are much mistaken For it is a known truth that all the Judges in the Courts at Westminster about Anno 1635. did resolve it That tithes were not to be assessed at the tenth part of the Assessement laid upon the Parish because that way was incertain and unequall therefore they resolved that 100. l. per annum in tithes ought to be equally taxed with 100. l. Lands per annum And the high Court of Parliament anno 1649. did enact That all Assessements from thenceforth should be by the pound rate But as for the stock upon the Land that was ordered to be taxed by it self which lawfull favour hath not in many places bin allowed neither to the Impropriator Nor to the Minister because that Farmes and the stocks upon them are in most places taxed undividedly together 5. The Minister is equally taxed in most places for one hundred pound tithes per annum with a forrain Land-lord who receives one hundred pounds Rent per annum of his Farmer in the same Parish which is not just For the Land-lord is at liberty to live where he pleaseth and to follow any calling he best liketh without any deduction of his Rents save for taxes Whereas the Minister is tyed upon great penaltie to Residence and in case of sickness or of just cause of absence must at his charges see the Cure served whereof respect ought to be had in all Assessements laid upon the Clergy Thus it is plain tithes are not undertaxed but rather over-taxed 6. The Petitioners doe farther pretend That they doe pay to the Tithe-mongers the third or fourth part of their whole estates Herein though the Petitioners tell the truth in part yet they conceal the whole truth For howsoever it is generally true that if threescore acres of arable Land be let to Farm for threescore nobles per annum during That