so Essential to government as they spared no cost in their Epulis or Caresses of the people and was for many Ages past congeniall and connatural to the English Nation who are abundantly taken with it and justly accompted to be such an handmaid to Piety as Geffery Earl of Essex and Eustace his Wife did in the Reign of King Henry the second grant to the Nunnery of Clarkenwell totam decimam totius victus procurationis provisions saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman illorum domus suae familiae suae the Tithe or Tenths of all the victuals and provisions of their house and family And Maud of Mandevill Countesse of Essex and Hertford in the beginning of the Reign of King H. 3. confirming the said Grant doth it in more express words viz. ubicunque fuerimus de panibus potibus carnibus etiam de piscibus wheresoever they should be of bread drink flâ—sh and fish And was such an effect of the magnificence grandeur of the minds of the English Nobility as Roger Earl of Warwick in the 23. year of the Reign of King Henry the first did grant unto Richard the Son of Jvo his Cook afterwards taking the Sirname of Woodlow from their residence at Woodlow in the County of Warwick besides the Mannor of Woodlow with divers Lands and Priviledges thereunto belonging and a Yard land in Cotes in the County aforesaid given by the said Earle to him and his heirs the Office of Master Cook in his Kitchin to him and his Heirs which his Father theretofore held with all Fees of his Kitchen belonging to the Master Cook both in Liveries and Horses as the Esquires of his Houshold then had of which Alan the Son of that Richard being also in the said Office in the house of William Earl of Warwick Son of the said Earl Roger who it seems could produce no Charter in writing thereof obtained a grant and confirmation of the said William Earl of Warwick of the said Mannor Lands and Office for which the said Alan gave unto the Earl ten shillings in money twelve Geâ—se and a Fikin of Wine And a late experience if antiquity had been altogether silent of the benefits which do come by it hath sufficiently declared unto us the no dull operation or impulse of it in that since the happy Restoration of King Charles the second and the Kingly Goveâ—nment a Gentleman high born and of a great â—xtraction retiring into a Country where some part of his Estate doth lye about one hundred miles from London did by an Housekeeping and Hospitality becoming him and his great Ancestors so winne the hearts and love of the people though they were of a different Judgement and profession of Religion which usually begeâ—s more animosities and ill will then it should do as he became their darling whilst he was with them and their sorrow and cause of tolling their Bells backwards as a signe of some disaster when he had occasion for a little while to leave them And a Gentleman or Faber fortunâ— suae one that but lately had made his fortunes in as remote a Country from London and of some new fangled opinions in Religion distastfull enough to many in his Neighbourhood did only by a charity of giving unto some numbers of poor people of the place wherein he lived Beef and Pottage at his door twice or thrice every week in the year so gain the love of the people as they that would not otherwise have shewed him any love or favour did not deny him either of them When as too many can lay aside and neglect the care of obliging and gaining the hearts and affections of their Neighbours and Tenants and making any shift to furnish and provide the excess and sinfull superfluities both of the belly and the back will not let the belly want it nor the back be without it And those that have no mind or will to pay or make the King any recompence for his Pourveyance or Compositions can without any grudging see the Pourveyance of the City of London that Queen that sitteth like the afterwards unhappy City of Tire upon many waters covereth all our Island and her Citizens by seeking to buy as cheap as they can and to adulterate as much as they can and sell as dear as they doe all their wares commodities can make a costly enhance of all manner of houshold provisions and extending their desires and attempts for that purpose to the remotest parts of the Kingdome do by ingrossings combinations and other unlawfull Artifices of Trade bring the fatness of the Flock and the delicacies of Sea and Land to feed and furnish out the Luxuries of her own Inhabitants and such as have a will to be infected with it and make the whole Island to be too little to maintain her vice and avarice insomuch as Salmons which at Monmouth being above 100 miles distant from London were wont to be sold there for ten groats a piece are now before hand bespoke and bought up by some Londoners or their Agents for ten shillings a piece and the Towns-men that did before eâ—joy a priviledge that all the Salmons brought to that Market should be first brought to the Kings Bord and no Forreigner suffered to buy any untill the Town were first served can now see themselves bereaved of their Prae-emption as well as the King is whose Progenitors did at the first bestow it upon them In Lincolnshire above 70 or 80 miles from London do so ingross and precontract for all wild fowl Ducks and Mallards as the Gentry of that Country where they are bred and should have some cheapness plenty of them are resolving to be Petitioners to the Justices of Peace at the next Quarter-Sessions that the Heglers and men of London may not be suffered to raise the pâ—ices of their Wild-fowl nor carry them out of the Countâ—y untill it be first served And as if all were not enough to enrich themselves and undo others can upon any accident or occasion or but a supposiâ—â—on of things which may happen make and dresse up their pretences and supposed causes of pâ—ices to be raâ—sed and eâ—hanced to the great oppression and burden of all that are to buy of them and but upon a late likelihood of Warres betwixt us and the Netherland united Belgick Provinces whilst we are Masters of the Seas and not under any probability of having our Seas disquieted or Trade interrupted have so greatly before hand raised the rates and prices of Sea-coal Sprats Salt and the most part of transmarine Commodities as they that shall believe that those and many more of their exactions which they will put and enforce upon the people by reason of a probability of that Warre will without any just cause or reason for it in a short time amount unto more then six hundred thousand pounds may well be understood neither to prejudice the truth or their judgements in it
of the Kingdome 3. And there shall be an enhaunce of prices and Market-races which since the acquittall or laying down of the Pourveyance or Compositions for it are already about London and Westminster found to be at the least two pence in a shilling more then it was before which being a sixth part will when it shall be raised and made to be an ordinary rate through the adjacent Counties to London and Westminster make no inconsiderable burden or charge to the Inhabitants and a greater if either all or some part of that more thâ—n formerly raised price shall by necessity or imitation and the vast and excessive pride of most sorts of people diffuse and spread it self into all other parts of the Kingdome and a great deal more if those insana praetia unreasonable rates shall as they are most likely by the high rack of the Rents of Lands Servants and Laborers wages and all manner of Commodities which are sold either for the Belly or the Back or for necessity or pleasure creep and climb higher and higher untill pride and excess shall have made our heretofore more prudent and frugall England by too many of her Natives want of money for want of wit to be a Bankrupt Which may well be suspected when as experience the Mistress of Fools but the guide and direction of wiser people hath assured us that the price extorted from the King will make the Nobility pay the dearer and the rates which their example will enforce or entice the Gentry to pay will infect and prejudice the Marketings of the Common and buying part of the people as we have lately seen in the rates and prices of Horses not by reason of any exportation or scaâ—city manage or fitness for warre or extraordinary swiftness for running or races but by the careers of Prodigality Humour Affection or Fancy of too many of the Nobility or Gentry mounted from ten or twelve pounds price for a horse for a man of worship within thirty years last past to the ordinary rate of 20 30 40 or 50 l. and sometimes 100 l. which hath unnecessarily drawn some hundred thousand pounds sterling out of the purses of such who are but small friends to their own Estates in bidding too much and accustoming the Sellers to demand or insist upon such excessive and reasonless rates and prices 4. And by the want of Progresses when the King not having his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and Carriages as formerly shaâ—l not be so able as he should to make our Pool of Bethesda itinerant and visit the severall Parts of his Dominions either for his recreation or the better survey and inspection of the Government and his peoples grievances as King Alfred King Edgar and King Henry the first and all their Successors his Majesties Royall Progenitors were wont to do whereby to diffuse their comforts and graces with which many a Family and many a Town and Corporation have been blessed and bettered and otherwise would not have had an opportunity to obteyn them 5. When there shall be necessities and poverty put upon some hundreds of Families which were either his Majesties Servants or in relation unto them and upon many an Housekeeper in Westminster and the Neighbourhood of the Kings Residence who have had a great part of their subsistence by the influence of it 6. And the Peoples damage and losses shall likewise be heightned and increased by the many cravings and projects which the wanting or necessitous part of the Kings Court may trouble both him and his people withall 7. Or by the casting the King into importunate and irresistable necessities and forcing the Lyon to hunt and range the Fields and Forrests and prejudice the people more then otherwise he would in the quest and pursuit of what is but his own or to couch and lye down in his den and resolve to lay his paw upon what are his own rights and be less liberall in his favours 8. Or by denying him what is his own be for want of a lesser summe of money for defraying of necessaries a cause of raising Subsidies or Taxes which cannot be so equally or justly charged as to even and make them to be no more then the summe of money demanded and to be furnished 9. And by compassing and encircling their Sovereign with wants and pressures more then would otherwise be if he had either his own or a sufficient supply make themselves the efficient causes of what they compleyn of and by being stubborn stiffneck'd unquiet and disobedient instead of duty and retributions to a gracious King for the daily blessing of peace plenty protection pardons and multitudes of favours gifts and grants out-do the ungratefull Israelites in murmuring with Quails in our Mouths not in the Deserts of Arabia but a more plentifull Land then that which was said to flow with milk and honey And a cause also of increasing their own Taxes which are more many times the impositions by themselves upon themselves then impositions of their King and rendring themselves thereby as much guilty of folly as they that will not be diswaded from planting and sowing Weeds and Tares and will notwithstanding come weeping home from their expected better harvest for that their Carts are not pressed down with sheaves of Corne and Wheat and their labour was but to fool themselves All which and many more inconveniences losses and damages to the people by the Kings want of the Royall Pourveyance or Compositions for them which was the smallest and least chargeable part of an yearly thankfulness and oblation which ever was given to a King by a people would neither happen nor needs to be at all If they would but remember the days of old the kindness of the King and his Royall Progenitors and the chearfully heretofore paid Duties and retributions of their forefathers and take it for some of their happiness that they are not by God Almighties displeasure for their unthankfulness put in minde of their former miseries by any new adversities or made to keep an yearly Passeover with bitter Herbs And now that the Royal Revenue hath been so much impaired by a continual bounty unto many of themselves or their Ancestors and their supplyes of it doe fall very short of what was expected or intended and the Fifty thousand pounds per Annum intended as a Recompence for the Pourveyance or Compositions for them proves to be not only not a recompence sufficient but a meer nullity and if it had come up as high as it was supposed appears to be but a damage and a Canker or Gangreen eating up or taking away too much of the rest of the Kings Revenue Be sorry that it is so and make haste to returne again those little oblations unto their King when London and 12. or more adjacent Counties unto it do yearly gain 20 times more by the Residence of himself and his Courts of Justice then they doe amount unto and doe unto him in the easing
his Crown Lands turned from small and easie old-fashion'd Reserved Rents upon Leases for Lives or years into Estates of Inheritance and very many Liberties as Fishings Free-Warrens Court-Leets Court-Barons Eschetes Felons Fugitives and Outlaws Goods Deodands Forfeitures Waiss Estraies Fines Amerciaments retorn and execution of Writs and in some Manors a liberty of receiving to their own use Fines for licenses of concord or agreement upon the making of Conveyances and Post-Fines upon Fines leavied in the Kings Courts Profits of the year day and wast and all Fines Issues Amerciaments returned set or imposed upon any of their Tenants in any of the Kings Courts or by any Justices of Assize or of the Peace With many other Franchises Liberties and Participations of his Regality which they do now enjoy tanquam Reguli as little Kings in their several Estates and Dominions in many of them more by claim and prescription allowed by the favour and indulgence of the King and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors Kings and Queens of of this Nation unto them and their Posterities then by any any Grants they can shew for it very much exceeding in yearly profit and conâ—ent the small charges which they have used to have been at for the Pourveyance or Provisions for the Kings Houshold Take his Fee-farme Rents which do amount unto above threescore thousand pounds per annum but according to their first and primitive small reservation though the Lands thereof be now improved and raised in some a ten and in others a twelve to one moâ—e then they were then accompted to be either in the intentions of the Donors or Donees and many other his Fee-Farmes of some casuall Profits and Revenues granted to Cities and Corporations which do now ten to one exceed what they were when they were first granted Grant and confirme to the Vulgus or Common people many great immunities and Priviledges as Assart Lands and permit them to enjoy in his own Lands and Revenue large Common of Pasture and Common of Estovers and Turbary in his Forrests and Chaces and protect from oppression in that which are holden of their Mesne Lords their Copihold Lands Customes and Estates which being at first but temporarily permitted and allowed patientia charitate in quoddam jus transierunt are now by an accustomed and continued charity taken to be a kind of Tenant Right and Inheritance Grants and permits many Charters of Liberties Privileges and Freedoms to the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England and Wales and to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of London all Issues Fines and Amerciaments retâ—rned and imposed upon them in any of the Kings Cours freedome from payment of Tolls and Lastage in their way of an universall and diffused Trade in all places of England and for a small Fee Farme Rent of Fifty pounds per annum for the Kings Tolls at Queen-Hithe Billingsgate and other places in the City of London accepted in the Reign of King Henry the Third suffers them to have and receive in specie or mony towards their own Pourveyance as much as would goe a good way in his Allows the Tenants in antient Demesn their Exemptions from the payment of Toll for their Houshold Provisions which in the opinion of Sir Edward Coke was at the first in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings houshold Provisions and suffers the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colleges and Halls therein Colleges of Winchester and Eaton and the Reâ—ients in the Cinque Ports and Rumney Marsh to enjoy a Freedom from Subsidies Who together with all the people of England may by the Accompt of benefits received by and from him and his Royall Progenitors and Predecessors know better how to value them if they had not received them and if he should but retire himself into himself and withdraw his bounties from us Or take his Customes and Imposts inward and outward Reliefs Ayds Subsidies Fifteens Tenths and First-fruits Profits of his Seals Pâ—ae-fines Post-fines Licences and Pardons for alienation of Lands Fines upon Foâ—medons and reall Actions at the full value and rate which the Law will allow and the rise of money might perswade him unto or take all occasions to invade or clip the peoples Liberties and Privileges as they do his Or seise and take advantage of the forfeitures of our sufficiently misused Fairs and Markets which without the many inconveniences of Barrage Billets peages or Tolls taken at many places as they pass thither as the people of France and our Fashion makers are tormented with do yield and save the people yearly in that which otherwise would be lost some hundred of thousands pounds per annum or should withdraw his favours and countenance from the Trade which our Merchants have into forreign Parts since the Reign of Queen Mary by the benefits and blessings of the Leagues and Alliances of him his Royall Progenitors made with forreign Princes continued with a great yearly charge of Embassadours Ordinary and Extraordinary sent and received and render it to be no no more then it was in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the difference of the gain of forreign Trade and Merchandize betwixt the little which was then and that which is now by reason of the East-Indie Turkie Muscovie Ligorne and East-land Trades and our many flourishing American Plantations would appear to be some millions sterling money in a year And were notwithstanding never so gratefull to our King for it as the English Merchants of Calais were whilst King Edward the Third caused the Staple of Wool to be kept there who so ordered the matter as the King spent nothing upon Souldiers in defence of the Town which was wont to cost him eight thousand pounds per annum and the Mayor of that Town could in Anno 51 of the Reign of that King furnish the Captain of the Town upon any Rode to be made with one hundred Bill-men and two hundred Archers of Merchants and their Servants without any wages Or if the Peoples Liberties acquired by the munificence and Indulgence of our Kings since the making and confirming of our Magna Charta in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Third now 437 years ago when they took it to be for their good as well as the Kings to give him a Fifteenth part of all their Moveables not by a conniving and unequall but a more real and impartiall Taxation in recompence and as a thankfull Retribution for their Liberties then granted and confirmed which are now as many again or do farre exâ—ed them were buâ— justly valueâ— or if the benefits accrewed unto forreign Merchants or those of our own Nation by the Charâ—a Mercatoria granted by King Edward the First in the 31 year of his Reign to the Meâ—chants Strangers and confirmed by Act of Paâ—liament in Anno 27 Ed. 3. for the releasing of an antient Custome and Duty to the Kings
to reckon it to his Landlord and demand an allowance for it The Counties and Places which did pay most towards the furnishing of the Kings Household provisions being those which abound most with them and were the greatest gainers by their neighbourhood to the constant residence of the King and his Courts of Justice And those which were more remote had but little charged upon them as all the 13 Shires of Wales but three hundred sixty pounds per annum Herefordshire One hundred eighty pounds per annum and that large County of York as big as three others but four hundred ninty five pounds per annum And may tell us how irrationall and uneven it will be for the people of England to rank with or above the care of their souls and Religion their endeavours to preserve their Liberties Customes and Privileges some of which are hard and severe enough as the forfeiture of the Widows Estates for life in their deceased Husbands Copyhold Estates of Inheritance for marrying a second Husband unless they shall come into the Court Baron of the Lord of the Manor riding upon a Black Ram and acknowledge such a fault committed or the custome of the Manor of Balshale in the County of Warwick where the Lord of the Manor was to divide the Goods and personall Estate of the deceased with his Wife and Children the custome of the Manor of Brails in the same County not to marry their Daughters or to make their Sons Priests without licence of the Lord of the Manor or of the Manor of Brede in the County of Sussex where the Widows are not to be endowed or have dower of any of the Lands of their first Husband if they shall marry again The custome of some Manors that the Copiholder shall not sell his Lands unto a Stranger untill he shall have first offered it unto the next of Kin or Neighbour ab oriente solis dwelling on the East side of him who giving as much as others would do for it are to have it or where the Copiholder is to give his Lord a certain summe of money towards his charges in the time of Warre or to forfeit his land if summoned unto the Lords Court doth wilfully make default or that the Lord or Lady of the Manor of Coveny in the County of Cambridge should have for every Fornication or Adultery committed in the Manor a Lecherwyte or penalty of 5 s. and 2 d. for selling a Hog without licence of the Lord of that Manor and five shillings for a Licence for any one of the Tenants Daughters to be married And yet do all they can to infringe and abolish those iust ancient and legall Rights and Privileges of the Kings which should protect and defend them and theirs and being rationabilia legitimè praescripta most reasonably and lawfully prescribed ought to be inviolabilia quia nec divino juri nec legibus naturae Gentium sive municipalibus contradicunt inviolable when they contradict not the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the Laws of the Land as if all that is to be found in our Laws and reasonable Customes should be only to protect the peoples Rights and Liberties and the inferiour Members of the Body Politique and to diminish and abrogate that of the Kings the superiour more noble and therefore the more to be respected or as if the power of a Prince should be the better when it is weakest a blind or decrepit pennyless Captain or Generall more usefull for their Warres then a Sampson a David or a Solomon as full of Riches as Wâ—sdome and a Wooden Sword more for that purpose then one of Iron and Steel or that of Goliah How unjust as well as unreasonable it would be for the People of England to rack and raise the Rents and rates of their Lands and Commodities increase their own Revenues and prices of victuals and houshold provisions five or six to one more then it was when the Compositions for the Pourveyance was agreed upon in the third or fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and lay the burden thereof only upon the King make him to be as an Amorite or Stranger in our Israel and his own dominions paying an enhaunced and oppressing Rate and Interest for food and provisions for himself and his houshold and to receive his rents and other monies due unto him after the old rate and buy at the new take little more then four pence instead of a shilling in every summe which is paid him and pay twelve pence for every groats worth which he hath occasion to buy and drive or inforce him by buying all by the penny and being left to the mercy of the Sellers to such a prejudiciall necessity or custome as would certainly undoe and ruine all the Nobility Gentry Clergy Tradesmen Mechanicks and People of England if they should but imitate him And would without the help of our Sâ—â—taries or Levellers have ere now destroyed and ruined the two famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge those great Lights and Fountains of Learning in our Nation and have brought their Towring Colledges Halls and glorious Buildings into their Rubbidge or little more then a story to talk of as Travellers sometimes do of the heretofore University or Publique School of Stamford if the Act of Parliament in 18 Eliz had not better provided for them and ordained that a third part of the rents of the Lands belonging unto them should be for ever reserved and paid in Corn Malt and other Provisions at their election Or now to deny it him when as if he or his Father or Royall Progenitors could have foreseen any dislike or complaining of such an ancient and unquestionable Right of the Crown he or they might by a restraint of their Bounties and Indulgencies have made themselves not only savers but gainers by it or reserved more then that in their multituds of Grants and Fee-Farme Rents And did never as Cromwell that dissembling and devouring Hiena or Wolfe of the Evening dig or teare up by the roots as many of our Laws and Liberties as he could upon a pretence of defending and protecting them call our Magna Charta in the worst Latin that ever Brewer or Englishman spake Magna Fartae imprison the Lawyers that pleaded for the Peoples liberties and was so little sensible of their being tired or impoverished with Taxes as he could when he was lieutenant Generall of the Army of Reforming Harpies give some Gentlemen of the County of Bedford who complained of their heavy burdens and the poverty of that County no better an answer or ease then that he would never believe they were unable to pay Taxes as long as they could whistle when they did drive their Plows and Carts Nor did after the horrid Murder of his Father and his own Exile and sufferings by an almost twenty years Rebellion of the greatest part of his Subjects grown rich with the plunder and spoyl of