Roturiers des Villes non Franches Bourgs Villages a proportion des biens du Taillable sans qu ' il ait estè besoin d' asembler les Estats pour ce suiet those kind of Taxes are paid by the third Estate or Commonalty that is to say by the Inhabitants or common people of the Towns and Boroughts not infranchised or freed from it by the King according to the proportion of their goods or moveables without any assembly of the Estates to that purpose except in Languedoc Provence Burgogne Daulphine and Brittaine where when the King and his Councel have resolved what the Tailles shall be les terres immeubles seulement sont Taillables the lands and immoveables only are tailleable and their near friends the Scots did long agoe so well like of gratitude as they enacted and held it to be a good Law that Lands holden in few Ferme pay and ane certain zierly dewty nomine Feudi Firme may be recognosced be the Superior for none payment of the few dewtie and that twa maner of waies the first ex provisione naturae contractus by operation of law and the nature of the contract for the few Fermorer not pay and his few Ferme for his ingratitude and unthankfulnes Tinis and forfaltis his few Ferme be the disposition of the Law quhilk as zit was not in practique and use in Scotland And the English Landlords were so unwilling to part with any priviledges which brought them in any power gain or profit as where they held any of the Kings antient Demesnes in Fee Farme and the King did cause his antient Demesnes to be Tallied the Lord or Fee Farmer under him would sue forth the Kings writ commanding the Sheriff that in case the lands were auntient Demeasne hucusque consueverit Talliari and was untill then accustomed to be Tallied that rationabile Tallagium ei habere faceret de libere Tenentibus suis in manerio praedicto sicut prius fieri consuevit he should cause the Freeholders of the said Manor to pay unto their Lord such reasonable Tallage as was accustomed And with as much or more reason were the Pourveyances or Compositions for them allowed and established as the hitherto never complained of in Parliament or accompted to be grievances Herezelda Herriot services or Herriots which Skene an Author of great authority amonst the Scots defineth to be gratuitae donationes quae ab husbando seu agricola datur domino suo ratione dominij reverentiae the free gifts or remunerations of the Tenants to their Lords in the reverence and respect which they bear unto them Which the Hollanders those grand contesters for Liberties doe call Laudemia and notably increase their small Revenues in lands with them And in England saith the learned Spelman Non nisi post mortem husbandi solvitur is only paid after the death of the Tenant and differs from a Reliefe for that a Reliefe is in case of Inheritance but an Herriot in a lesser Estate as for life c. and being formerly and in the Saxon times of a greater value by the giving or paying to their Lords Shields Swords Spears Helmets Horses furnished and money according to the several qualities and estates of the Tenants have been since by the example and indulgence of our Princes imitated by the Nobility and Gentry reduced to the best horse or beast and if none to the best houshold stuffe but so greedily attached or seldome remitted by the Landlords as the poor mans single Ewe Lamb in the parable of the Prophet Nathan to David or a Cow which should give the lamenting Wife and Children some nourishment and sustenance are seldome able to escape their Bailiffes or such as are sent to fetch them And if it be reason for the people to make such payments and contributions and observe such respects to their Landlords and subordinate Governors or Superiors as much and greater surely ought they to pay unto their Pater Patriae the protector and defender as well of those that receive those duties as of those that pay them and are and should be enough to awaken and rouze up their gratitudes and imprint in their memories the never enough to be requited benefits and blessings received by our Kings and Princes as much as if with a forfeiture upon the not doing or observing those Agreements they had been as strongly annexed and incorporated into our Lands and Estates as that of the Service or Conditions of Lands given to hold by the Tenures of Knight service which as some Civilians hold ipsi sanguini cohaerent are inherent in the very blood of the Tenants which being the most noble gentile rich and better sort of the people were when the Pourveyance was in being the most fit and likeliest to be charged with the Payments or Contributions towards it and were therefore in several Kings Reigns sometimes singly and often charged with publick Ayds or Taxes and very much more then other of the people as twenty shillings for every Knights Fee granted by Parliament to King Richard the first six and twenty shillings eight pence for every Knights Fee to King John and as much at another time to him towards his Warres in Wales twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee towards his Voyage into Normandy and forty shillings at another time and as much twice assessed in the Reigns of King Henry the third towards his Warres in Gascony twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee by Henry the fourth the Warres in Scotland by King Edward the first and Edward the second and of France by King Edward the third and the personal and chargeable services of most of the Nobility and Gentry therein probably procuring them some relaxation of not having their Fees or Lands so charged as formerly And besides other incidents belonging thereunto are by the Fewdists said to be so more then ordinarily tied up unto gratitudes and the more especiall duties and obligations thereof as such a Tenant forfeits his Lands in Fee Si percipiat magnum periculum domino imminere ultrò sine requisitione servicium non offert if he perceived any danger imminent or likely to happen to his Lord and did not of his own accord offer his service to prevent it or if his Lord were a Captive or in prison ought to contribute towards his redemption or if he should happen to fall into distress was to relieve him as farre say some of the Fewdall Laws which by stipulation or paction being not at the first agreed upon or included in the General words of defending the Lord and his Dignity was with many other their gratefull observances afterwards particularized and deduced from such customes as gratitude only had in process of time introduced and as much as amounted unto the Moiety of one years Rent or si dominum in acie periclitantem deseruerit if he left his Lord in the field and was ingratefull And by our Laws of England if
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
in many as Canterbury York Durham Lincoln Coventry and Lichfield Exeter Ely Winchester and Norwich much abated when as now by the rise of mony and prises they are greatly different from what they then weâ—e and are of some of those Benefices and Spiritual Promotions but the eighth or tenth and of many but the twentieth part And receives his prae-Fines and post-Fines Licences and Pardons of Alienation upon Common Assurances at less then a tenth and many times less then a twentieth part of the true yearly values of the lands or rates which the Law ordering the compositions to be upon oath intendeth him after the example of his Royal Father who permitted the yearly value of lands in Capite and by Knight-service to be found by Juries and Inquisitions at the tenth part of the now true yearly value when as by oath they were to find and certifie the true yearly values and all the Lands of the Kingdome but his own are raised and improved generally ten to one or very much in very many parts and particulars thereof more then what they were two hundred years last past in or about the Reign of King Henry the sixth when as the errable and pasture lands which are now in Middlesex let at fifteen or sixteen shillings per annum an Acre and Meadow commonly at forty shillings and sometimes at three pounds the Acre were in Anno 1 Ed. 3. at a farre lesser yearly value when two Toftes of Land one Mill fifty acres of Land and two acres of Wood in Kentish Town near London was of no greater yearly value then 20 s. and 3 d. and the courser sort of pasture land in Essex now let for 8 or 9 s. the Acre and Meadow at twenty or thirty shillings the Acre was then in that Countie and in many fertill Counties within sixty miles and farre less of London valued but at eight pence per annum and four or five pence the Acre errable and the like valuations were holden in licences of Mortmain in all his extents or values of lands seised for taken into his hands Received their primer seisins at the like small yearly rate and took for suing out of Liveries which may be resembled to a Copiholders admittance not a fifth part proportionably to what is now paid by Copiholders to their Lords of Manors and respites of homage as they were taxed and set in anno primo Jacobi in a very easie manner Did not in the valuation of Lands and Estates as some Lords of Manors have been known to doe whereby to rack and oppress the Widdows and Fatherless employ some Sycophants or Flatterers of the Manor to over-value them or have some Decoyes in the assessing of Fines to seem willing to pay or give as much when they are sure to have a good part of it privately restored unto them again or cause their poor Tenants to be misled and the more willingly cozen themselves by crediting hard and erroneous Surveyes taking Leases of their Copihold Estates or using some other unwarrantable and oppressive devices worse then the Pharisaicall Committees did in the renting of lands they had no title unto when they did put men to box one another by overbidding themselves at their wickedly improving Boxes But did according to his Father King James his instructions given to his Councel of the Court of Wards in the assessing of Fines for the Marriages of the Wards and renting of their Lands which too many of the Nobility and Gentry and other of his Subjects did never or very seldome order the Stewards of their Manors to doe order that upon considerations which might happen therein either by reason of the broken estate of the deceased want of provision for his wife his great charge of children unprovided for infirmity or tenderness of the Heirs incertainty of the title or greatness of the incumbrances upon the Lands they should have liberty as those or the like considerations should offer themselves to use that good discretion and conscience which should befit in mitigating Fines or Rents to the relief of such necessities Suffers the Fees of his Chancery and Courts of Common-pleas and Kings-Bench for the small Seals to be receved as they were in the Reign of King Ed. 3. and the Tenths reserved upon the Abby and Religious lands at no greater an yearly value then they were in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when they were first granted though now they are of a four times or greater yearly value The Fees of the Seals of Original and Judiciall Writs and Process in Wales as they were in the 34. year of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when the English Courts of Justice were there first erected takes six pence a piece for Capons reserved for Rent in Queen Elizabeths time the issues of lands forfeited unto him upon Writs of distringas at such small rates as six shillings eight pence upon one distringas and 10 s. at another which the Law intendeth to be the profits of the Lands distrained betwixt the Teste and the return of the Writs which would have amounted unto twenty times or a great deal more and receiveth his Fines upon Formedons and othe real Actions granted and issuing out of the Chancery at most gentle and moderate rates his Customes inward and outward at easie rates proportionable to such small values as the Merchants advantage to themselves shall give in or the Officers or Commissioners for the King at the Custome-houses shall at randome and without view think to be a favourable and easie estimate Some single ones of which before recited undervaluations besides the profits of the Tolls of Fairs and Markets if rightly and justly paid according to the true improved values or two of the most of them would make up in a constant Revenue unto him a great deal more then the Compositions for his Pourveyances yearly and lately amounted unto by the difference betwixt his rates or prices and those of the Market A due consideration whereof if there were nothing else to put in the Ballance might induce the Earls Marquesses and Dukes of England who have received their honors and dignities from his Royal Progenitors to permit him as well to enjoy his Pourveyance and reasonable support maintenance of the honor of himself and his Royal Family as they doe take and receive of him their Creation monies being antiently a third part of the fines and profits of the Counties whereof the Earls are denominated since reduced to a certain and yearly sum of money when as also not a few of them have had great and large Revenues given them by his Royal Progenitors to uphold and sustein their Dignities and Honors And the Bishops whose Bishopricks and Baronies and most of the Revenues belonging unto them were of the foundation of the Kings Royal Ancestors and received their Investitures and Temporalties from him may if they shall think the Compsitions for Pourveyances ought not
great Talbots or as the Prior of Canterbury did of his Tenants who in every Manor were bound ex antiqua consuetudine providere Priori ibidem de quodam Palifrido competenti tempore novae creations suoe by ancient custome to present the Prior at his election or first admittance a Palfrey fitting for him Or which the Prior of Rochester did of his Tenants of the Mannor of Haddenham in the County of Buckingham who by ancient custome in the eighteenth yeer of the raign of King Edward the third were to Mow and make the Lords Hey Weed his grain in his demesnes pay certain Rent Corn called Booting Corn and five hundred threescore and three Eggs at Easter which in Anno 18 H. 6. were by an agreement made with the Prior of Rochester released for the sum of three pounds and an increase of Rent from thence forward viz. for every Yard land twelve pence every half yard land six pence every Cotland eight pence and every worthy some Tenants so called four pence which is to this day paid and continued And being besides obliged by their customes to the works and services following viz. That every Tenant holding a yard land and the Tenants of two half yard lands ought to plough the Demeasne lands of the Lord two days in the year viz. in Winter and in Lent for which they were to have their dinner allowed by the Lord every Tenant holding a yard land ought in harvest upon a flesh day as also upon a Fish day to be assigned by the Reeve or Bailiff to find two able persons every holder of a half yard every Cotland or Cottogea and every worthy ought to finde the same day one able and lawful person with Hooks or Sickles to reap the Lords Grain in his Demeasnes for which they were to have their dinner allowed them at the charge of the Lord or his Farmer every yard land ought to carry half a quarter of the Lords grain to Oxford being about twelve miles distant to Wallingford neer as much or to Wickham being about ten miles distant being Market Towns near adjoyning to Haddenham and all the Carriers were to have one penny in common to drink the morrow they ought not to work every yard land ought to carry to Marlow eleven quarter of Grain of antient measure at three tearms of the year to be quit from all things by six weeks after and to carry the Lords grain from his demeasnes into his Barn from the furthest field four loads from Dillicot field six loads and if they carry nearer then all the day if it please the Lord also if the Lord shall buy Wood every Yard land ought to carry two loads of Wood from the place into the Lords Yard so it be ready to carry before the Feast of St. Michael otherwise each Yard land should onely carry a horse load so as they may in one day go and return and all that week they should remain quiet likewise if the Lord should build houses he ought to buy Tymber and the men viz. his Coppyholders ought to bring it home viz. each hide every day one Load untill the whole be carryed so as they may in one day go and return also if it please the Lord to send for fish four hides ought to be summoned and two shall go for fish to Gloucester which is about six and thirty miles from thence and other two shall carry it to Rochester upon their own cost and they should remain quiet until they return all the Cotterels and worthy Tenants ought to wash the Sheep of the Lord and to sheer them and fully to perform all thereunto belonging and have nothing therefore and if a theif should be taken in the liberty of the Lord the Cotterel Tenants should keep him And were so due and of so long a continuance as though the Tenants some few onely excepted which would not pertake of the Composition and are still contented to do their work and carriage services did upon a reference made by King James to Henry Earl of Manchester Lord President of his Councel in Anno 1624. to hear and determine the differences betwixt Sir Henry Spiller then Lord of the said Mannor and the Tenants concerning that and other matters within a short time after viz. in the first year of the raign of King Charles the Martyr agree for a Release of the said services not acquitted in Anno 18 H. 6. to pay yeerly unto the Lord of the Mannor and his heirs after the rate of three pence for every Acre and a penny for every Messuage or Cotage which had no land belonging unto it Or as many the like beneficial customes and priviledges at this day enjoyed by the Lords of some thousands or more of Mannors in England which beloned unto the Abbies and Religious houses for which they have quit Rents or other payments not unlike the Compositions for the Royal Pourveyance Or that the Steward of the Kings house should not if the Kings Pourveyance and Prae-emption had not been remitted by Act of Parliament have authority to do as much as the Steward of the Kings house did about the eighteenth year of the Raign of King Edward the second notwithstanding so great priviledges immunities and exemptions granted and confirmed to the City of London command that no Fishmonger upon pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of his goods and chattels should go out of the City to forestall any Sea or fresh fish or send them to any great Lord or Religious house or any person whatsoever nor keep from coming to Town untill the hour appointed for selling be past untill the Kings Achators or Pourveyers should have made their Pourveyance to the use of the King Or that the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Richard the first did not onely give to many Religious houses as to the Priory of Royston in Cambridgeshire divers exemptions and priviledges to be free from Carriages c. but de Regalium domorum aedificatione ac omnimoda operatione of works towards the repair or building of the Kings houses Ac ut silvae eorum ad praedicta opera aut ad aliqua alia nullo modo capiantur that their Woods or Timber should not be cut or taken for that or any other purpose and whose other Royal Progenitors have abundantly furnished diverse Abbies Religious houses with priviledges to be free of Carriage by Carts Summage upon horses de Thesauro ducendo Convoy of the Kings Treasure de operationibus Castellorum Pontium Parcorum Murorum work to be done in the building or repairs of Castles Bridges or Walls de vaccarum solutione quae dari solebant pro Capitibus utlagatorum and the payment of certain Cows or Cattel to redeem the forfeitures of Outlaws and exemptions from payment of Fumage or Chimny money Lestage or licence to carry away from Markets what they had bought or in release or discharge of customes such as at Beleshale in
upon any expedition by land or sea he was to have out of that Manor twenty shillings to feed his Buzcarles Mariners or Seamen or took for every five hides of land or that then esteemed honorable quantity of land a man with him But howsoever if that of Canutus discharging Pourveyance were a Law neither altered nor repealed it did but like his Laws touching Ordeal and delivering over the Murderer to the Kindred other of his Laws which proved to be unpracticable rather make the matter worse then better by his renouncing Pourveyance in his own Demeasnes for that Law and Resolution of his did meet with so little observance as in the Reign of King William Rufus and a great part of the Reign of his Brother King Henry the First the Kings Servants and Court for want of their former provisions grew to be so unruly as multitudo eorum qui curiam ejus sequebantur quaeque pessundaâ—ent diriperent nulla eos cohibente disciplina totam terram per quam Rex ibat devastarent and a multitude following the Court took and spoiled every thing in the way which the King went there being no discipline or good order taken Et dum reperta in Hospitiis quae invadebant penitus absumere non valebant ea aut ad forum per eosdem ipsos quoruÌ„ erant pro suo lucro ferre ac vendere aut supposito igne cremare â—ut â—i potus esset lotis exinde equâ—rum suorum pedibus residuum illius per terram effundere aut aliquo alio modo disperdere solebant and when they could not consume that which they found in the houses whereinto they had broken made the owners carry it to the Market and sell it for them or else burnt their provisions or if it were drink washed their horses feet with it or poured it upon the ground in so much as quique preâ—ognito regis advenâ—u sua habitacâ—l a fugithant every one hearing before hand of the Kings coming would run away from their houses which probably bringing in a dearth or scarcity of coâ—n might be the cause of the Tenants of the Kings Demeasne Lands bringing in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the First for then it was and not before as it appears by Edmerus and William of Malmsbury who lived in his time to the King their Plowshares instead of Corn to Court on their backs and making heavy complaints of their poverty and misery procured that King to change their Rents which before were used to be paid for the most part in corn cattle and provisions and were wont abundantly to supply his houshold occasions and with which in primitivo regno statu post conquisitionem the Kings of England from the Conquest untill then did plentifully as Gervasius Tilburienâ—is who lived also in his Reign hath related defray the charges of their Courts and Housholds into money with six pence in the pound overplus left the value of the mony should afterwards diminish but whether Canutâ—â— his Law were then in force or not or could be sufficient to abrogate those Jura Majestatis Rights or Prerogatives of our English Kings we find King Henry the first after those disorders in his greatest compliance with the English and his need of their aid to defend him against the pretensions and better Title of his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy and his couâ—ting of them unto it per libertates quas sanctus Rex Edwardus spiritu Dei provide sancivit by the antient Lawes and Liberties of holy King Edward which he had granted them and a promise to grant them any other retaining his Pourveyance and putting it into better order for as William Malmesbury hath recorded it Curialibus suis ubicunque villarum esset quantum a Rusticis gratis accipere quantum quoto praetio emere debuissent edixit transgressores vel gravi pecuniarum mulcta vel vitae dispendio afficiens directing and ordering those of his Court in whatsoever places he should abide what and how much they were to receive from the Country people gratis and without money and at what prices and rates they should buy other things under great penalties of money or punishment by death and was optimatibus venerabilis provincialibus amabilis reverenced by the Nobility and beloved by the common people and in his Charter which was for a gâ—eat part of it the original of our Magna Charta where omnes malas consuetudines quibus regnum Angliae iniuste opprimebatur inde aufert he took away all the evill Customs with which England was oppressed Et quas as the Charter saith in parte hic posuit and which were in part recited and with which the discontented Barons Nobility of England claiming their antient Liberties were so well contented in the 14. year of the Reign of King John when Steven Langton Archbishop of Canterbury produced it unto them as gavisi sunt gaudio magno valdè juraverunt omnes quod pro hiis libertatibus si necesse fuerit decertabunt usque ad mortem they greatly rejoyced and swore that they would if need were contend unto death for those Liberties there is no mention of any evil in Pourveyance nor any order for the taking of them away And might as justly rationally continue in the Raign of King Henry the second his Grandchild as that custome or usage for the Bishops and dignified Clergy to take their provisions of the Inferior Clergy and their Carriages or Carts which Pope Alexander in a Councel or Synod held at Rome where were present the Bishops of Durham Norwich Hereford and Bath and divers Abbots sent from England did notwithstanding many complaints not against the Pourveyance it self but the immoderate use of it onely limit and restrain them secundum tolerantiam in illis locis in quibus amâ—liores fuerint redditus Ecclesiasticae facultates in pauperibus autem mensura tenenda to be moderately taken in such places as had more large possessions and Ecclesiastical Revenues and less of those who were in a poorer condition and then and long before the Domini hundredorum Lords or great men having the command or jurisdiction of Hundreds uti comes aut vicecomes as the Eaâ—l or Sheriff of the County had multa inde auxilia tributa sectas aliasque praestationes cum ad utilitatem tum ad voluptateÌ„ CerereÌ„ nempe frumentuÌ„ receperunt c and received many aids tributes and Pourveyances aswel conducing to their profit as pleasure cujus hodie nomine Annuum penditur tributum pecuniarum for which now there is a certain rent in mony paid Nor could the rights of Pouâ—veyance Prae-emption be any thing less then denizend in Scotland or the Northern parts of our British Isles when as the Civil and universal Law of the World was there so long ago entertained and yet continues the great Director and Guider of their Justice where in
as they can they doe with Trumpets Drums and Musick by water in their several Barges adorned with the Banners and Arms of their Companies or Gilds conduct and attend their Lord Maior to be sworn at Westminster although the City of London and every Company in London are abundantly or very well endowed with lands of inheritance of a great yearly value and great stocks of money by Gifts and Legacies And no less reason then the imposing of a penny upon every Broad Cloth brought to sale to Blackwell-hall in London to be paid to the Chamberlain of London to the use of the City for Hallage which the Judges of the Kings Bench in Mich. Terme 32 33 Eliz. in the Chamberlain of Londons Case adjudged to be lawfull because it was as they then declared pro bono publico in regard of the benefits which the Subjects enjoyed thereby and for the maintenance of the weal publick and can not be said to be a charge to the Subject when he reaps benefit thereby and resembled it to Pontage Murage Toll and the like which as appeareth by the book of 13 H. 4.14 being reasonable the Subject will have more benefit by it then the charge amounts unto and that the Inhabitants of a Town or Parish may without any Custome make Ordinances and Bylawes for the reparation of a Church or High-wayes or any thing which is for the weal publick and in such cases the greater part shall bind all the rest And as much to be approved as the wages of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses coming to Parliaments which are taxed and levied of the Counties Cities and Boroughs some few as those which hold any Lands parcel of an Earldome or Barony only excepted and the charges of the Convocation or Clergy assessed upon the Clergy The Synodals Procurations Proxies and payments made and paid by every Minister to defray the charges of the Arch Deacons in their Visitations every year and the Bishops every three years who are enabled to recover them by the Statute of 34 and 35 of Henry the eighth cap. 19. Oblations Easter and other offerings for the further supply and maintenance of the Ministry Tributes Customes and allowances to Governors of Colonies and Plantations as Virginia New-England Barbados c. or 10 s. or some other rate given by Merchants to the Consuls at Venice Smirna Aleppo Ligorne c. towards their support to assist them in the matter of Trade and procuring Justice from the Superiors of the Territories The Pensions Admissions and Payments in the Universities and the severall Colleges and Halls therein for their support with Taxes also sometimes imposed for publick Entertainments of the King Queen Prince Chancellor of the University or some other Grandees although every Colledge and Hall is endowed with large yearly and perpetuall Revenues in Lands the Admittances yearly Pensions and Payments together with the sale and rent of many Chambers in the Inns of Court Chancery or Colledges or Houses of Law towards the maintenance charges and support of the honour of those Societies and contributions not seldome made and enforced towards publick Treatments and Masques the payments and rates in Parishes for Pews Burialls tolling a passing Bell or ringing him and his companions at Funerals which if not enough to defray the charges of the many Feasts and Meetings of the Church-wardens and Petty States of the Parish repairing of the Church new painting and adorning it buying new Bell-ropes casting one or more Bells building the Steeple something higher or making a sumptuous Diall with a gilded Time and Hour-glass are sure enough to be enlarged by a Parish Rate or Tax more then it comes to Or that which is paid by the poor Tankard or Water-Bearers at the Conduits in London where every one payeth three shillings and six pence at his admittance and a penny a quarter towards the support of that pittifull Society Or those contributions sic magna componere parvis to represent great things by small and the vegetation or manner of the growth of an Oak by that of the lowly Shrubs which are made by a more impoverished sort of people the Prisoners for Debt in Ludgate by Orders and Constitutions so necessary is Government and Order and the support thereof even in misery of their own sorrowfull making in their narrow confinements that the Assistant which is monethly chosen by all the Prisoners to attend in the Watch-hall all day to call down prisoners to strangers which come to speak with them change money for the Cryers at the Grates keep an accompt in writing what money or gifts are every day sent to the Prisoners or given to the Box to charge the Steward with it upon the Accompt day see the Accompts truly cast up the Celler cleared by ten of the clock at night of all Prisoners and the Prisoners to be at their Lodgings quietly and civily hath his share of six pence allowed out of the Charity money every night whereof two pence is to be for the Assistant two pence for the Master of the Box and the other two pence allowed in mony or drink unto him which is the running Assistant or unto the Scavenger for bearing 2 candles before him at nine of the clock at night and rings the bell for Prayers is the Cryer for sale at the Markets for the Charity men of light bread taken by the Lord Maior or Sheriffs chumps of Beefe or any other things sent in by the City Clerk of the Market and unsized Fish by the water Bayliffe with many other small employments for which his Salery is four shillings eight pence per moneth and two pence out of the sixteen pence paid by every Prisoner at his first coming And the Scavenger who is to keep the house clean hath for his standing Salery five shillings eight pence per moneth two pence for every Prisoner at his first coming out of the sixteen pence table-money by him paid and a penny out of every Fine imposed upon offenders for the breach of any orders Every Prisoner paying at his first coming besides many other Fees fourteen pence for entring his name and turning the key five shillings for a Garnish to his Chamber-fellows to be spent in coals and candles for their own use or for a Dinner or Supper and sixteen pence to one of the Stewards of the House for Table-money out of which candles are to be bought for the use of the House every night set up in places necessary c. notwithstanding that it hath above 60 l. per annum belonging unto it charged upon lands in perpetuity and many other considerable and misused Legacies which have been setled and bestowed upon that should be well priviledged Prison And as much and more reasonable as the generall protection and defence is above any particular and the publick benefits do exceed any that are private as those payments and services which being derived from gratitude or retribution for
the comfort of the Lands belonging to a Deanery Prebenda or Prebendship of Lands and other Revenues annexed to the Cathedrals many if not most of which with the Deanerles and Prebendships thereunto belonging as the Deanerie and twelve Prebends of Westminster by Queen Elizabeth were of the foundation and gift of the Kings Royal Progenitors Which comfortable and necessary supports of our Bishops administred by their Clergie are ex antiquo and long agoe resembled by some or the like usages in Ireland where the Coloni or Aldiones such as hold in Socage of the Irish Bishops did besides their Rents and Tributes erga reparationes Matricis Ecclesiae quidpiam conferre give something yearly towards the reparation of the Cathedral or Mother Churches and the Herenaci another sort of Tenants so called did besides their annual rent cibarià quaedam Episcopo exhibere bring to the Bishop certain provisions for his Houshold which was very frequent with the Tenants of Lands holden of our English Abbies and Religious Houses by an inquisition in the County of Tirone in anno 1608. it was by a Jury presented upon oath that there were quidam Clerici sive homines literati qui vocentur Herinaci certain learned men of the Clergy who were called Herinaci ab antiquo seisiti fuerunt c. And anciently were seised of certain lands which did pay to the Arch-bishop or Bishop of the Diocess quoddam charitativum subsidium refectiones pensiones annuales secundum quantitatem terrae consuetudinem patriae a dutifull and loving aid and some provisions and pensions according to the quantity of their lands and custome of their Country and the grants of such lands as appeareth by a Deed of the Dean and Chapter of Armach in Anno Domini 1365. to Arthur and William Mac Brin for their lives and the longer liver of them at the yearly rent of a mark and eight pence sterling una cum aliis oneribus servitiis inde debitis consuetis with all other charges and services due and accustomed had in them sometimes a condition of quam diu grati fuerint obedientes so long as they should be gratefull and obedient unto them Wherefore the Barons Nobility and Gentry of England who did lately enjoy those beneficiall Tenures by Knight-service now unhappily as the consequence and greater charges and burdens upon the people will evidence converted as much as an Act of Parliament in the twelfth year of the Reign of his Majesty that now is can doe it into Socage which were at the first only given for service and assistance of their King and Country and their mesne Lords in relation thereunto and have besides the before recited conditions many a beneficiall custome and usage annexed and fixed unto them and at the dissolution of the Abbies and Religious Houses had much of the Lands given and granted unto them and their Heirs in tail or otherwise with a reservation of a Tenth now a great deal below the value can doe no less in the contemplation of their honours dignities and priviledges received from them and many great favours continued unto their Heirs and Successors from Generation to Generation then doe that in the matter of Praeemption Pourveyance or Contribution towards the Composition or serving in of victuals or Provision for his Majesties Royal Houshold and the honor of his House and Kingdome which their Ancestors did never deny The Lord Maiors of London who doe take and re-receive yearly a payment or Tribute called Ale-silver and the Citizens of London who doe claim and enjoy by the Kings Grants Charters or Confirmations a freedom from all â—olls Lastage throughout England besides many other large priviledges and immunities and the Merchants of England and such as trade and trauell through his Ports and over his Seas into forrain parts and are not denied their Bills of Store to free their Trunks and wearing Clothes and other necessaries imported or exported from paying any Custome and other duties which with many other things disguised and made Custome-free under those pretences for which the Farmers of the Customes have usually had yearly allowances and defalcations would amount unto a great part of the peoples pretended damage by the compositions for Royall Pourveyance should not trouble themselves with any complaints or calculations of it when as both Citizens and Merchants can derive their more then formerly great increase of trade and riches from no other cause or fountain then the almost constant â—esidence of the King and Courts of Justice in or near London and the many great priviledges granted unto them and obtained for them by the Kings and Queens of England The Tenants in ancient Demeasne claiming to be free from the payment of Tolls for their own houshold provisions and from contribution unto all wages assessed towards the expences of the Knights of the Shires or Burgesses sent unto the Parliament which Sir Edward Coke believes was in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings Houshold provisions though since granted to other persons and their services turned into small rents now much below what they would amount unto and many Towns and Corporations of the Kingdome the Resiants in the Cinque Ports and Romney Marsh Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colledges and Halls therein and the Colledges of Winton and Eaton claiming to be acquitted from the payment of Subsidies by antient Exemptions may be willing to pay or bear as much as comes to their share in that one of the smallest parts of duty which is not to be refused by such as will fear God and honour the King And all the Subjects of England who enjoy their Common of Estovers in many of the Kings Woods or Forrests Pannage or feeding of Swine with Acorns or fetching of Ferne from thence Priviledges of Deafforrestations Assart lands Pourlieus and Browse wood and have Common of Vicinage and Common appendant not only therein but in most of his Manors by a continuance or custome of the charity or pitty of his Royal Progenitors and where they have no grant to produce for those and many other favours will for refuge and to be sure not to part with it fly to praescription and time beyond the memory of man and suppose that there was a grant thereof because that possibly there might have been one should not think much to let him pertake of some of their thanks and retributions which will not amount to one in every twenty for all the benefits which they have received of his Royal Ancestors or doe yearly receive of him Nor should forget that God Almighty the maker of heaven and earth giver of all good things and bestower of blessings who fed his people of Israel with Quails in the Wilderness where none were bred Manna where none was either before or since and made the Rocks to yeild water did in his Theocraty or Government of them by his Laws and Edicts written
afterwards by reason of the Murrain of Cattel and a more then ordinary unseasonableness of those years twenty quarters of Corn were furnished for the Kings use and taken by the Sheriff of Kent at eleven shillings the quarter as appeareth by a Tally struck foâ— the payment thereof yet extant in his Majesties Receipt of the Exchequer and although that in the year next following by reason of a peace with France and the great victories before obtained against it by the English when the King was rich and the people rich which makes a Kingdom compleatly rich with the riches and spoiles gained thereby and that great store of Gold and Silver Plate Jewels and rich vestiments sparsim per Angliam in singulorum domibus were almost in every house in England to be found and that in the 23. year of the Raign of the said King so great a mortality of men and Cattle happned ut vix media aut decima pars hominum remaneret as scarce a third parâ— and as some were of opinion not above a tenth part of the people remained alive which must needs have made a plenty of money tunc redditus perierunt saith the Historian hinc terra ob defectum Colonorum qui nusquam erant remansit inculta tantaque miseria ex bis malis est secuta quod mundus ad pristinum statum redeundi nunquam postea habuit facultatem insomuch as Rents or Tenants for Lands were not to be had the Lands for want of husbandmen remained untilled which would necessarily produce a dearth and scarcity of Victuals And so great was the misery as the Kingdom was never like to recover its former condition And that in the 25. year of the Raign of King Edward the third by reason of the Kings coyning of groats and half groats less in value then the Esterling money Victuals were through all England more dear then formerly and the Workmen Artificers and servants raised their Wages yet in Anno 12 R. 2. though there was a great dearth yet Wooll was sold for two shillings a Stone a Bushel of Wheat for thirteen pence which was then thought to be a great rate a Bushel of Wheat being sold the year before for six pence And in Anno 14. of King R. 2. in an account made in the Receipt of the Exchequer by Roger Durston the Kings Bayliff he reckons for three Capons paid for Rent four pence half penny for thirteen Hens one shilling and seven pence for a Pâ—owâ—share paid for Rent eight pence and for four hundred Couple of Conies at three pence a couple one hundred shillings In Anno 2 H. 5. the Parliament understood four pounds thirteen shillings four pence to be a good yearly aâ—lowance or salary for a Chaplain being men of more then ordinary quality so gâ—eat a cheapness was there then of Victuals and other provisions for the livelihood of men and for Parish Priests six pounds per annum for their Board Apparrel and other necessaries and being to provide that Jurors which were to be impanelled touching the life of man Plea Real or Forty Marks damage should be as the Statute of 42 E. 3. c. 5. required men of substance good estate and credit did ordain that none should be Jurors in such cases but such as had fourty shillings per annum in Lands above all charges which was so believed to be a good estate in 5 H. 8. c. 5. which was almost one hundred years after as the Parliament of that year did think it to be an estate competent enough for such kind of men In the Raign of King Henry the sixth after that France a great and rich neighboring kingdom was wholy conquered and possessed by the English who had not then learned their wasteâ—ul Luxuries or Mimick fashions and could not with such an increase of Dominion and so great spoils and riches transported from thence hither but be abundantly and more then formerly full of money the price and rates of Victuals was so cheap as the King could right worshipfully as the Record saith keep his Royal Court which then could be no mean one with no greater a charge then four and twenty thousand pounds per annum and in the 33. year of his raign which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred fifty and five by assent of Parliament granted to his son the Prince of Wales but one thousand pound per annum whilst he had Dirt and Lodging for himself and his servants in his house until he should come to the age of eight years and afterwards no more then 2000. Marks per annum for the charge of his Wardrobe Wages of servants and other necessaâ—y expences whilst he remained in the house of the King his â—ather which was then thought sufficient to support the honor and dignity of the Prince and heir apparent of England though now such a sum of money can by some one that mâ—ndeth his pleasure more then his estate and the present more then the future be thrown away in one night or day at Cards or Dice In Anno 37 H. 6. Meadow in Derbyshire was valued but at ten pence per Acre and errable Land at three pence In the 22. year of the Raign of King Edward the fourth which was â—n the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred eighty and two the price and value of six Oxen was at the highest valuation but ten pounds In the seventh year of the Raign of King H 7. which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred ninety and two Wheat was sold at London for twenty pence the Bushel which was then accounted a great dearth and three years after for six pence the Bushel Bay Salt for three pence half penny Nampâ—wich Salt for six pence the Bushel white Herrings nine shillings the Barrel red Herrings three shillings the Cade in the fifteenth year of his Raign Gascoign Wine was sold at London for fourty shillings the Tun and a quarter of Wheat for four shillings In the 24. year of the Raign of King Henry the 8. a fat Ox was sold at London for 26 s. an half peny a pound for Beef and Pork and a half penny farthing a pound for Veal and Mutton was by Act of Parliament thought to be a reasonable price and with gain enough afforded In the fourth year of the Raign of Queen Mary which was in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred fifty and seven when very many families and multitudes of the people of England had been but a little before greatly monyed enriched by the lands spoil or the Monasteries and other Religious houses and their large possessions Wheat was sold before Harvest for four Marks the quarter Malt at four and fourty shillings the quarter and Pease at six and fourty shillings and eight pence but after Harvest Wheat was sold at London for five shillings the quarter Malt at six
of himself and his own posterity to further and advance the peoples cheating and oppressing of one another or to cause the King to pay the dearer or incur so great a damage as now it plainly appears he doth in his house-keeping for want of his Pourveyance when as all the Landed and rich men in England all the Farmers and all the Citizens and Tradesmen of the Nation the later of whom like aqua fortis can eat and make their way to be sauers thorough the dearest or highest rates or prices of houshold provisions by adulterating or raising their Commodities or as a London Brewer lately said concerning the Excise upon Ale and Beer that it should never hurt him whilst there was water enough in the Thames those of that profession being not contented to be repaid by the house-keeper the six pence rated for the Excise upon every Barrel of six shillings Beer unless they may leave out of such a Barrel of Beer six penny worth of Malt and make it by an half Boyling of it to save the expence of fire little better then so much half sodden water and are not satisfied also with such an unchristian cozening of the people and making their drink by such their doings and puting in Broom and other noxious ingredients in stead of Hopps to be as unwholsome as it is weak and naughty unless they may likewise cozen the King of his Dues upon the Excise and put as many tricks as they can upon him and his Laws and Officers and when by these and many other devices they make themselves very great gainers by the Excise in abusing both the King and his people are as busie as any in raising the cry against the Excise as a very great grievance and when all the Mechanick and Rustick part of the Nation workmen day-laborers maid-servants and men-servants shall not onely be savers but gainers by the enhance of rates and prices and the King onely and the poor of the Kingdom be the very great loosers and sufferers by it Or for the interest of the body Politick that the pinch and hardship should lye all on the Princes part and he onely be the greatest looser by his want of Praeemption Pourveyance or Compositions of the Counties as he had formerly be as an Amorite or stranger in our Israel and pay usury for his victuals by being constrained to give two parts in three or more sometimes then fourty per cent for the houshold provisions which his officers and servants do buy or provide for him four parts in five in many things six parts in seven in some other more then the Market rates and prices were in the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth when the Compositions were made by the Counties and willingly assented unto or that now there is a greater plenty of Food and houshold provisions Trade and Manufâ—cture then were in the former ages and all things may be afforded to be sold as cheap as they were retroactis seculis or some hundred years ago or as they were in the four and twentieth year of the Raign of King Henry the eight and cheaper then they were in the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth every thing should be dearer to him then to others or that so great an increase of Rates and Prices as have been within this last hundred years and all the mischiefs and inconveniencâ—s of them which have been brought upon the King and his people by private and particular interests the non execution of good Laws and the neglect and carelesseness of the subordinate Magistrates Justices of Peace and Clerks of the Markets should with an addition be continued and fixt upon the King who if he should resume but his Tolles in Fairs and Markets which the Civilians do rightly enough derive a tollendo from taking many of which are now accompted to be as the proprieties inheâ—itance of private men or Lords of Mannors are in some cases more by the indulgence of the Kings Royal Progenitors and a prescription claimed by long enjoyments or continuance of favors then de jure or were by grants or confirmations allowed where they were before but usurped and with-held from him and a Royalty and prerogative so antiently allowed in the Roman Empire as Valens and Valentinian the Emperors a mercatoribus seu negotiatoribus quae ad domum imperialem pertinent exegerunt necessitatem debitam pensionum ex emolumentis negotiationum did raise a good part of their Pourveyance or provisions for their houshold out of the Tolles or profits made by Fairs and Markets those of the people of England who do claim an exemption from the payment of them and those very many proprietors of Lands or Mannors who by many Royal grants and favors do claim and enjoy the profit of the Tolles would finde to be a greater damage and prejudice unto them then that which the Olivariaâ— party and the troublers of our Israel pretended to be by the Royal Pourveyance or Compositions for them or should as he never doth let his Lands to the uttermost penny measure his gifts or bounties by that of private men and proportion his favors according to his wants or occasions of keeping or saving what he can for himself or the ingratitude or forgetfulness of those which receive them and be as unwilling to answer acknowledge benefits as too many are unto him or take his Reliefs Herriots First fruits Fee Farms Quit Rents Customes Fines for alienation Fines certain or incertain of his Copyhold estates at the full and present value and the Fees for his Seals in Chancery and the other Courts and all his Subsidies according to the alteration of monys the disproportion betwixt the present and the former rates there would be cause enough for them to acknowledge his favouâ—s already received and believe that those small retributions in his Pourveyance or Compositions for them will bear so small a part in the Ballance as they should rather lay their hands upon their mouths and rest assured that they which are daily craving and gaining by the King and blest with a peace and plenty under his government cares and protection should be ashamed to make him to be so great a looser and themselves such gainers by his loss and damages And that it can no way become them to suffer him that granted or confirmed their Fairs and Markets to be oppressed by them pay a shilling and many times more for every groat he disburses for his necessary occasions and at the same time in the distribution of his bounties and rewards give a shilling more for every groat which he intended to give shall be kind to every body and receive in acknowledgement thereof no more then to get keep all they can from him which in their own particular estates would bring no less then ruine to all the people of England and those that so very much enrich themselves by putting him to more expences then
Warwickshire belonging to some Religious house where they were to Mow three dayes at the charge of the house three dayes to Plow and at the charge of the house to reap one day and to have a Wether Sheep or eight pence or twenty five loaves or peices of bread one of the best Cheeses in the house and a measure of Salt and if any horse Colt were foled upon the lands he was not to be sold without licence nor were any of the Tenants to marry a daughter without licence and by the custome of the Township of Berstanestone in Warwickshire horse Colts foled upon the land were not to be sold without licence for which a penny was to be paid nor any of their daughters to be married without licence c. which in divers old Charters and confirmations of our Kings and Princes do frequently occur may evidence that such or the like were once undeniable duties to their Kings and Benefactors and onely released in favor of those which were the owners and proprietors of the lands and priviledges and being now enjoyed were formerly regalities and rights inherent and vested in the Crown of England should retain no liberties or priviledges for himself And that the Quit Rents as they are now called taken by the owners and proprietors of some of the Abby and Religious Lands for Eleemosinae's or Alms-money given by Founders or other charitable persons many a sum of money formerly paid for Mortuaries Pardons Indulgences Pitances or Pourveyances and Oblations which are at this time kept on foot and received under the name and notion of Quit Rents might put them in mind how necessary it is for them to perform the duty of Pourveyance to the King being the heir and successor of many of those which gave them And how unbeâ—oming the duty of subjects pertaking the benefits thereof it would be that the King whose Royal Ancestors Saint Edward the King gave for ever to the Abby of St. Edmonds Bury the Mannor of Mildenhall in Suffolk to buy wheaten bread for the Monks to prevent their necessities of eating Barly bread which he perceived them to do when he came once to visit them King John gave for ever to the Abby of St. Albans and King Edward the first as many other Kings of England have done to other Monasteries and Religious houses gave and confirmed for ever to the Abby of St. Edmunds Bury divers Mannors Lands Tyths and yeerly Revenues of a very great yeerly Revenue to maintain their Hospitalities Pitances and Liuâ—â—es of servants and for the relief of strangers and poor people coming thither should now have his own Hospitality and the means to support it taken from him And that if all the customes priviledges and Royalties as they are called which are now performed and willingly assented unto by Tenants and enjoyed by the Lords of other Mannors by the power and priviledges derived unto them from the King his Royal Progenitors were truely represented and brought to a publike view together with all the priviledges liberties exemptions and immunities granted unto the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England it might be wondered how they that enjoy so much so many liberties favours from the King his Royal Progenitors by grants or prescribed Indulgences should think there could be any reason to deny him those his most just necessary and ancient rights and liberties of Pourveyances or Compositions for them when at the same time they are so carefull to preserve and keep their own And it would be something more then unfitting that the King whose Royal Ancestors have allowed so many of his subjects those priviledges and liberties should be debarred from a greater right and legal liberty in his own case or when he should make his progress to Chester should be refused that priviledge more ancient then the Conquest of having of every Yard land two hundred Capons or Caponets a fat or stand of Beer and a certain quantity of Butter which as appears by the book of Domesday were by custome or Tenure to be provided for him and not enjoy as much liberty as Hugh Earl of Chester did when he could priviledge Nigell de haulton his Constable and his heirs Quod omnia quae ad praedicti Nigelli opus erant necessaria emant ministri sui ante omnes alios in Civitate Cestriae nisi praenominati Comitis ministri praevenerint sine cujuscunque contradictione that his servants should in the City of Chester without contradiction have a Prae-emption before any but the Earles servants and Officers or as the Abbot of Burgh who had a Pâ—aeâ—emption in all necessaries concerning the Abby a priviledge to pay an half penny cheaper then others in every hundred of Herring or the Abbot of St. Albans who was by the Charter of King John to have a prae-emption for any of his provisions to be bought in London as well as any of the Kings Officers the Abbot of St. Edmonds Bury having a like priviledge for his Fodder Corn. That the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Aethelstane was able to give to the Church of Beverlye quasdam avenas vulgariter dictas Hestcorn percipiendas de Dominiis Ecclesiis in illis partibus certain Oats commonly called Hestcorne to be taken out of his Demeasnes and the Churches in those parts which by the dissolution of the Religious houses are now probably claimed and enjoyed by Laymen and did in Anno Dom. 936. ex sua Regalitate by his Kingly authority saith the History of that Foundation give towards the Hospitality and relief of the poor coming to the Hospital of St. Peters or St. Leonards in York de qual bet Caruca Arante in Episcopatu Eboraci unam Travam bladi out of every yard land of errable in the Bishoprick of York one Thrave which is four and twenty sheaves of Corn Et ex consensu Incolarum Episcopatus Eboraci Rex habuit saith that Historian Travas praedictas sibi successoribus suis sic quod exterminaret lupos patriam devastantes and was ofterwards granted by the consent of the inhabitants upon condition that he would destroy the Wolves which wasted that Country Erat siquidem in Diocesi Eboracensi tanta adtunc multitudo luporum quod omnes fere villanorum bestias devorarunt for there were in that Diocess such a multitude of Wolves which King Aethelstane thereupon destroyed as they almost devoured all the Beastes and Cattel belonging to the Countrimen should now that the County and Bishoprick of York have in all the after ages and successions of our Kings not onely received of them many and greater benefits but have been by their many good Laws and Governments protected and defended from all manner of Wolves be denyed so small an observance or retribution as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which were charged upon that County or Bishoprick did amount unto and at the same time do either not
of money raised by Taxes have but enforced a Conquest of less then a sixâ—eenth part of those great and rich Territories which might once have been had at a cheaper rate And if we would but regard the honor of the English Nation and the gratitude which like the blood was wont to circulate and attend their hearts should blush to take a lesser care of the Kings rights and preheminences then our ancestors were accustomed to do who in a Parliament of King Edward the third in the 42. year of his Raign declared That they could not assent to any thing which tended to the dishâ—rison of the King and his Crown to which they were sworn And in a Parliament in the fourteenth yeer of the Raign of King Richard the second did pray the King That the prerogative of him and his Crown might be kept that all things done or attempted to the contrary might be redressed and that the King might be as free as any of his progenitors were Or to deny those ancient rights of Prae-emption and Pourveyance or the former Compositions for them to a King who hath rescued us from a slavery from which we could not redeem our selves and restored all the Factious and Rebellious parties to their forfeited Laws and Liberties Or that he should meet with no better acknowledgements then that those who professed that their lives estates and fortunes should be at his dispose in order to his service and that they would be Tenants in Corde should by denying hâ—s Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them but be Tenants in Ore and by their high rates and impositions upon his houshold provisions make it their business to take ex Ore suo that which should maintain him his houshold And that the King who publickly professed that he was much troubled that his people should come flocking as they did to Whitehal to see him where he had nothing to â—eed them should now be so much necessitated or imposed upon as he is by his want of Pourveyance and the former way of Compositions for them or that the maligners of our English honor and prosperity should publish it in Gath or Askelon or have cause to upbraid us with Hic clarae virtutis honos haec gloria sceptri Hoc magni Decus Imperii tales ve Triumphâ—s Are these the promises This the high renown Great Empires Honor Glory of a Crown Or that our Returns should be no more to a King who doth not as the Commonwealths of Greece the spawn and Nursery of Republikes fill their Treasuries with Taxes impose ten Drachmas upon every house Assessements upon every payment of Silver mony and Taxes upon Beggars Whores and such as were made Free upon Cattle Dung Horses Mules Asses Oxen and 3. pence upon every Dog or the Fumaria Tributa Chimney money leavyed by Nicephorus the Emperor the Chimney money which is now taken in England being of late onely granted by Act of Parliament and consent of the people to supply the decayed revenues of the Crown with a Tax likewise upon every man that grew suddainly rich upon a presumption that he had found some Treasure which by Prerogative belonged to the Emperor a Canon or Canonicum Tributum ordinary or constant yeerly Tribute amounting in the whole to as much as 17 s. six pence besides a Sheep six Bushels of Barley six Bushels of Bran six measures of Wine and thirty Hens imposed upon every village having thirty Chimneys imposed by â—saacus Commenius the Emperor or a Tax upon the rich to excuse the poor Nor as the Romans did whilst they were a Common-wealth impose a Tax or Imposition but in case of present great necessity and by the peoples consent in Parliament de agris Pascuis or a Land Assessement to make an Aerarium or Treasury to supply future emergencies or Collect Aurum vicesimarium a twentieth peuy of every mans estate ad ultimos Casus to support the Commonwealth when it should happen to be â—istressed or a Tax before hand to defray the charge of a war in Gaule when there should be any or Poll-money without common assent and an imposition or Tax upon salt nor raise Taxes and Tributes as they did Tributim a singulis ad Tributum solvendum aerario bellis exinanito to fill again their Treasuries exhausted by War a Tax or rate upon Wine a tenth of all Corn Oyl and fruits of the earth and a twentieth penny of the estates of such as were made free a vectigal or tribute for Fish in Lakes and Fish ponds a yeerly pension for every house in Rome their Aedilitia vectigalia a tribute to maintain their Theaters or Play-houses Siliquaticum a certain Toll in Markets and Fairs Vectigal macelli an Excise upon all flesh and Victuals a Tenth of Legacies the Decumae or Tenths of the profits of Lands given by a Husband to a Wife or a Wife to a Husband if they had no children and a Portorium or custom for exportation or importation of Commodities Did not make his Census or Assessements so poenal in the not due discovery of the peoples estates as the Romans those great pretenders to love and liberty did in theirs wherein wives servants and children were not exempted sub poena publicationis inflicta his qui nollent bona sua aestimari vâ—l mala fide minoris quam valerent aestimari paterentur under the penalty of a forftiture of their goods if they should refuse to have their estates Assessed or suffer them to be under valued and exact a rate to be paid for the burial of such as died extra patriam and were brought home to be buried or such taxes as were afterwards imposed by the Emperors of Rome when that grand and universal Commonwealth revolved into its first constitution and a Monarchy as a third part of the revenues of all men made Free in Italy and a fourth of the Natives or Free-holders imposed by Lepidus and Antonius in their Tâ—iumvirate with Augustus or as Augustus Caesar the best of their Emperors or Monarches did who exacted the fourth part of every mans revenue and the eighth of every mans goods which were made free to furnish an Aerarium militare or Magazin of money for the souldery a Centesima pars or hundred penny of all things sold a twentieth part or penny of all Legacies and grants of inheritance the Vicesima quinta or twenty fifth part of all things sold in the Country Market Towns the Quinquagesima or fiftieth part of wild Beasts brought to be sold and fifteen pence sterling for the peice of money taken out of the Fishes mouth which paid the Poll-money for our Saviour Christ and Peter is by good authors reckoned to be two shillings and six pence sterling for Poll money the hundred part of all things bought or sold within the Empire taxed before the Civil Waâ—s and continued by Tiberius