Tenures in Capite and finding of Offices wherein the Evidences being produduced and many Times found did not only find but declare what Estate the deceased was seised of and if the truth did not then appear which could hardly be hid when as the Jury were commanded by the Writ of Diem clausit extremum to inquirâ— upon their Oaths of what Estate the last Ancestor dyed seised of and that the vigilancy and cares of the Feodaries and Escheators who were also to be present to attend them would cause them to be the more careful and if the fraud of the Heir should be able to make its way or escape thorough them the Estate found in the Office would after prove to be an Evidence against them and either overthrow or perplex the Knavery of such wicked designs The Recompence of 100000 l. per Annum if it could be raised without Injustice or the breach of the Laws of God Nature and Nations and our oftentimes confirmed Magna Charta and the inforcing of 19 men in every 20 to bear burdens which nothing at all appertains to them will not be adaequate to the losse of a great part of the Kings Revenue which did serve for the maintenance of his Crown and Dignity and to exempt and ease the Subjects of extraordinary Taxes and Assessements which the Necessity of Princes for the good and Defence of the Kingdom must otherwise bring upon them Nor to the want of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service the Services Incidents belonging unto them being a certain and never failing Defence of himself and the Kingdom Castle-guard Licence of Alienations giving him notice and continuing him safe in the Change of his Tenants being so necessary to Government as some have been grievously fined for alienating their Lands in Capite without it Mariage Dependancy of the Heirs which hold of him Livery and Reliefs Grand Serjeantyes and a great part of the Honour and Priviledges which all other neighbour Kings ond Princes are neither desired to part with nor can he perswaded so much to lessen themselves and their Regalities For gold and Silver and precious Stones or any thing lesse than the whole Kingdom of England it self is not of value or to be compared to the Honour of a King and the homage and duty of his Subjects the Gratitude Faith and Promises of their Ancestors which should descend to them with the Lands holden by those Tenures whenas Omnes habent Causam a primo et ex tunâ— non ut ex nunc are bounden to the Cause which obliged their first Ancestor and Progenitor and are to consider that it is now as it was then a most ready means and help which did and doth naturally and kindly arise for the Defence of themselves and the Kingdom for as it is not the weight of an inestimable Dyamond or Ruby that makes either of them to be better than a Flint or any other Stone but the lustre vertue and scarcenesse of them and that a greater poise or weight of a man makes not a Solomon an Alexander Sir-named the great or an Aristotle but that all men and things are to be esteemed according to the vertues and Excellencyes which are in them so it will not be the yearly Profit in money which was made of the Wardships primer Seisins Liveryes and Incidents which belong to those Tenures but the Homage Dutie gratitude and necessary Attendance in War not only of those that held immediatly of the King but those that were the mediate Tenants and came also with the immediate the grand and mutual Tye betwixt the King and his people and the Regality Prerogative intrinsical and true worth and value of them when there should be any use of those necessary Defences of the King and his Kingdom in making a diversive War or succouring his Friends and Allies which are not seldom or were in more heroick times justly accounted to be as Outworks Ante Murales or Bulwarks of the Kingdom that the Rate which is now offered for those Tenures are but like a Tender or Offer to give the weight in Gold for an incomparable not to be got again and unvaluable Meddal or for Aarons Brest-Plate Moses rod or the Scepters of Princes if they could have been purchased at all and by weight It will be as unsafe as unusual to take money or Turn into a Rent that which in its first Institution and a happy long and right use which was made of it was only intended for a defence of the Kingdom when the King is not likely to be any â—aver by it and shall not gain 90000 l. per Annum his own Income by Licences of Alienation deducted for the clear Profit of the Court of Wards which the Lord Cottington when he was Master of that Court did but a year before the Troubles make as much by it besides the many great and royal Prerogatives which he shall lose to gain more mischiefs and Inconveniencyes to himself his People then at the present can be instanced or numbred The giving the King a Recompence by an yearly Rate amounting to one hundred thousand pounds per Annum to be charged upon all mens Lands Tenements and Hereditaments holden in Capite or Socage by Copy-hold Leases for Lives or Tenants at Will or for yeares will be against right Reason Justice and Equity as well as unwarranted by any hitherto Law or Custom of England to make 19 parts of 20 for so much if not more will probably be the odds that were not liable to Wardships or any imagined Inconveniences which might happen thereby not only to bear their proportionable part of the general Assessements for War but a share also in the burden of others where it could never be laid upon them and wherein they or the major part of them by more than two in three have no Lands in Fee simple Fee taile or by Leases for 100 years or any longer Term nor are never like to be purchasers of any Lands at all and if they had mony to do it are not likely to buy Inheritances if inheritances not Capite or Knight Service Lands when there is by more than 9 parts in 10 of Socage or Copy-hold Lands to be purchased were not nor are like to be in any danger of Wardships or under any fear or Apprehensions of it and render the Capite Land three or four years purchase dearer than it was wont to be and the Socage Lands three or four years purchase the cheaper only to free the Nobility Gentry and men of greatest Riches and Estates in the Kingdom which are subject to those small Burdens which are only said to be in Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service Or if laid upon the Moyety of the Excise upon Ale Beer Syder and Coffee c. or any other native or Inland Commodity will fall upon those that have no Land as well as those which have as upon Citizens Mechanicks Children
have taken it for an addition of Honour and not any lessening to be knighted And had no cause at all to dislike such military Tenures which were not called vassalage as Common People may now mistake the word but from vassus or Cliens qui pro beneficio accepto fidem suam autori benificii obligat or from Gesell a German word which signifieth Socius or Commilito a fellow Souldier the name and profession reason and cause of it being so honourable and worthy Or to deem them to be burthens which were at the first intended and taken to be as gifts and favours which none of the sons of men who are Masters of any sense or reason do use to find fault with but may well allow them to be very far distant from Slavery when as Servitude is properly quum quod acquiritur servo acquiritur Domino when that which is gained or acquired by the servant is justly and properly the Lords and a freeman is contra-distinguished by quod acquirit sibi acquirit in that which he gaineth is his own or hath a property in it and that among the Southern Nations a more gentle and merciful bondage being paternd by that of Abraham and his successors the Patriarchs and allowed by the rules and government of God dura erat servitus Dominorum imperia gravia service or the condition of Servants was hard and the severity of Masters great who had potestatem vitae necis power of life and death over their Servants who having nothing which they could call their own but their misery were put to maintain their Masters out of their labours and enduring vilissima et miserrima ministeria all manner of Slaveries ab omni Militia arcebantur were not suffered to know or have the use of Arms apud Boreales tamen gentes justior suit semper servitus et clementior but amongst the Northern Nations there was a more just and gentle usage of their Servants for that they did devide their Lands Conquests amongst their Souldiers and Servants pactionibus interpositis inter Dominum et servientem de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements betwixt them for mutual defence Which made our English as well as other Nations abundantly contented with it as may appear by the acquiescence of them and the Normans under the Norman and next succeeding Kings and of Edward the Confessors Laws and other English customes retaining them the reckoning of it amongst their liberties fighting for them and adventuring their lives and all that they had at the making of Magna Charta and in the Barons wars wherein those great spirits as Mr. Robert Hill saith so impatient of tyranny did never so much as call in question that great and antient prerogative of their Kings or except against Tenures escuage releifs and other moderate and due incidents thereof The care taken in the Parliament of 52 H. 3. to prevent the deceiving of the Lords of their wardships by fraudulent conveyances or Leases of 18 E. 10. in the making of the statute of Quia emptores terrarum that the Feoffees or Purchasers of Lands holden of mesne Lords should hold by such services and Customes as rhe Feoffor did hold the Registring and Survey of Knights Fees by H. 2. H. 3. E. 1. E. 3. and H. 6. Escuage Aydes and Assessements in Parliament and the Marshals Rolls in time of War and necessity The esteem antiently held of the benefits and liberties accrewed by them insomuch as many have by leave of their Lords changed their Socage Tenures into Knights service and thought themselves enfranchised thereby The value put upon them by the Commons of England in the Parliament of 6. H. 4. when they petitioned the King in that Parliament that all Feoffements of Lands and Tenements holden by Knight service and done by Collusion expressed in the Statute of Marlbridge might upon proof thereof be utterly void The opinion of Chief Justice Fortescue in the raign of H. 6. in his Book de laudibus legum Angliae commending them as most necessary as well for the Common-wealth as for those and their Heirs who held their Land by such Tenures The retaining of it by the Germans who did as most of the Northern Nations saith Bodin libertatem spirare only busie themselves to gain and keep their liberty and from the time of their greatest freedom to rhis present and now also could never tell how to find any fault with them Their Princes Electors of the Empire and the Emperial Cities or Hanse townes who take thrmselves to be as free as their name of freedom or liberty doth import not at this day disdaining or repining at them the Switzers in their greatest thoughts of freedom taking their holding of the Empire in Capite to be no abatement of it The use of them by the antient Earles and Governours of Holland Zealand and West-freezland who having been very successful in their Wars without the use of Tenures in Capite or knights service but finding that ipsa virtus amara alioqui per se atque aspera praemiis excitanda videretur simul uti fisco ac Reipublicae consulerâ—tur saith Neostadius that the hardship of vertue needed to be sweetened with some rewards that the old custom of the Longobards in creating and reserving Tenures in Capite and by knights service would be not only a saving of Charges to their Treasury but a good and benefit to their Provinces or Common-wealth did create and erect such or the like Tenures And to this day by the Scotish Nation in a time and at the instant of their late obtaining if they could be thankful for them of all manner of liberties and freedom do sufficiently evince them to be as far from Slavery as they are always necessary Wherein if the primitive purpose and institution of Tenures in capite knight service and Socage be rightly considered every man may without any violence or Argument used to his reason or Judgment if self-conceitedness and obstinacy doe not choke or disturb his Intâ—lâ—â—ctuals Easily conclude whether if it were now 〈…〉 Choice he would not rather take Land by a Service or Condition only to go to warr with the King or his mesne Lord when Wars shall happen which in a Common course of accidents may happen but once or not at all in his life time then not tarry with him above forty days or less according to his proportion of Fee or Land holden to have escuage of his own Tenants if they shall refuse to go also in person with him and to have his heir if he chanced to die which in times of less Luxury happened not so often but once perhaps in three or four descents to be left in his minority to be better educated than he could have been in his life time married without disparagement and himself as well as his own Childrens estates protected Or accept of a Mannor freely granted him
part of the well being of the Nation not at once but at several times in several ages and several Generations support and uphold them by after Laws constitutions as That no Freeman should from thence give nor sell any more of his lands but so that of the residue of the lands the Lord of the fee may have the services due unto him which belongeth to the Fee Lands aliened in mortmaine shall accrew to the Lord of the Fee 9 H. 3. ca. 32. 36. the Ward shall pay to the Lord of the Fee the value of his marriage if he will not marry at the request of his Lord for the marriage of him that is within age say the Statute the makers thereof of meer right pertaineth to the Lord of the Fee 20. H. 3 cap. 7. The Lord shall not pay a Fine for distraining his Tenant for Services and â—ustomes 52. H. 3 cap. 3. A fraudulent conveyance to defeat the Lord of his ward shall be void cap. 6. The King shall have primer seisin neither the heir nor any other shall intrude into their Inheritance before he hath received it out of the Kings hands as the same Inheritance was wont to be taken out of his hands and his Ancestors in times past if the lands be accustomed to be in the Kings hands by Knight service or Serjeanty or right of Patronage 52. H. 3. cap. 16. If an heir marry within age without the consent of his Guardian before he be past the age of fourteen years it shall be done according as is contained in the statute of Merton and of them that marry after that age without the consent of their Guardian the Guardian shall have the double value of their marriage such as have withdrawn their marriage shall pay the full value to the Guardian for the trespass and nevertheless the King shall have like amends And if the wards of malice or by evil council will not be married by their chief Lords where they shall not be disparaged then the Lords may hold their lands and Inheritance until they have accomplished the age of an heir male that is to wit of twenty one years and further until they have taken the value of the marriage 3 E. 1.22 A Tenaent shall have a writ of mesne to acquit him of his services and if the mesne come not he shall loose the service of his Tenant 13 E. 1.9 Priority of Feoffment shall make a title for wardship cap. 16. the chief Lord shall have a Cessavit against the Tenant if he cease for two years to do his service writs of Ravishment degard allowed to the Lord and the Party offending though he restore the ward unmarried or pay for the marriage shall nevertheless be punished by two years Imprisonment 13 E. 1.35 The Feoffee shall hold his lands of the chief Lord and not of the Feoffor 18 E. 1. Quia emptores terrarum A saving to the King of the antient aydes due and accustomed 25. E. 1.6 The King shall have the wardship of his Tenant which holdeth in chief the marriage of the heir primer seisin assignement of dower to the widdow marriage of the women Tenants deviding their lands in Coparcinery holden of him and they which hold of him in Serjeanty shall pay a Fine at the Alienation 17. E. 2. A Free-man shall doe his homage to his Lord 17. E. 2. Knights Fees shall not pass in the Kings grants without special words 17 E. 2.16 he shall be answered the mesne rates of Lands coming to him by his Tenants death 28. E. 3.4 where sundry of the Kings Tenants holding of him immediately as of his Dutchy of Lancaster did by sundry Recoveries Fines and Feoffments in use defeat the King of Wardships of Body and Lands It was Enacted that the King and his Heirs shall have the Wardship and Custody of the Body and Lands of cestui que use and if they be of full age shall have relief notwithstanding any such conveyance and an exact provision made for Writs to be granted upon the imbesiling of any such Heir Rot. Parl. 22 E. 4. N. 16. 17. The Lord of Cestui que use no will being declared c. shall have a Writ of Right of Ward for the Body and Land and the Heir of Cestuique use being of full Age at the Death of his Auncestor shall pay a relief 4 H. 7.17 Avâ—wry may be made by the Lord upon the land holden of him without naming his Tenant 21 H. 8.19 And no grievance was thought be in them at the time of the making of the Act of Parliament of 27 H. 8 2. when as it was expresly provided by that Act that Tenures in Capite should be reserved to the King of all mannors lands and hereditaments belonging to Monasteries religious houses which had lands Tenements and hereditaments not exceeding the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds which he should afterwards grant for an estate of Inheritance nor did the Parliament in the 31 year of the raign of that King retract that good opinion which was formerly had of them when enacting that the King and his heirs and Successors should be put in actual possession of all mannors lands and hereditaments of any yearly value whatsoever belonging to Monasteries they saved to the King his heirs and Successors all rents services and other duties as if that act had never been made Nor in the Act of Parliament of 32 H. 8. cap. 46. For erection of the Court of wards and Liveries wherin it is acknowledged that Tenures in Capite and wardships with their incidents did of right belong to the King in the right of the Imperial Crown of this Realm In the Act of Parliament of 32. H. 8. And an explanation thereof in 34 and 35 H. 8.5 giving power to those that held lands in Capite and by Knights service to devise two parts thereof reserving to the King wardship primer seisin and Fines for alienation of the third part and Fines for alienations of the Freehold or Inheritance of the two parts The Crown being secured of the Tenure of the two parts by the statute of Quia emptores terrarum Nor at the making of the statutes of 35 H. 8.14 37 H. 8.2 Whereby the King might reserve Tenures in Socage or Capite at his will and pleasure upon grants of lands not exceeding the value of forty shillings per annum belonging to religious houses And that the Kings former right shall be saved notwithstanding any Traverse a remedy for the rents of the mesne Lords where the King hath the wardships 2 and 3 E. 6. cap. 8 And those that held by such Tenures besides the care of so many Acts of Parliament were not unhappy also in that provision of the Common Law where it was an Article or inquiry in the Eyre if any Lord novas levavit consuetudines had charged his Tenant with any new Customes if any Escheators or Subescheators had made any
vel quibuscunque illatis a multis retroactis temporibus et omnia inquisita sub sigillis suis inclusa secum coram Baronagio ad tempus sibi per breve praefixum Four Knights men of known worth and wisdom loving and beloved of their Countryes to enquire what grievances or oppressions the smaller sort of people suffered by the greater and also of all injuries and â—â—ongs done by any person whatsoever either lately or formerly and to certifie it under their Seals to the Barronage which what ever they were or if ever or never recorded for they have not for ought appears been certified or recorded no Record or Historian of that or the after times have said that Tenures in Capite and by Knights service were thereupon retorned to be oppressive or so much as inconvenient Neither are to be found amongst any of those huge heaps of evils which Mathew Paris that sower and honest Monk of St. Albons who lived in those times and especially remarked them hath delivered to posterity The 24 Reformers or Conservators of the Kingdom in that Kings Reign appointed by the Baronage never intimated any thing of their dislike of that honourable institution It was not complained of upon the refusal of Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk Marshall of England Humphry Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex Constable of England and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester and Hertford great and mighty men and of Princely Estates to go at the Command of King E. 1. unto his Wars at Gascony upon pretence that the warning was to short whereby the Kings displeasure was so much incurred aâ— Bohun and Clare to escape the Seisure and forfeiture of their Lands and to purchase his favour again were glad each of them to marry one of his Daughters without any Dowry and surrender their Earldoms Honors Offices and Lands unto him take back Estates thereof in Tayle to them and the Heirs of their Bodies upon their wives to be severally begotten and Bigot surrendring also to him his Earledom and Marshals rod together with all his Lands and taking Back a grant of an Estate for life in his honors and Lands the reversion to the King if he should not have any Issue of his Body begotten the King in Parliament pardoned them and John de Ferrariâ—s and other Earls Barons Knights and Esquires and all other of their fellowship confederacy and Bond and all that held twenty pounds Land Per annum whether in chief of the King or other that were appointed at a certain day to pass over with him into Flanders their rancour and evil will and all other offences committed against him Were not in the Roll of general grievances which the Arch-Bishops Bishops Eaâ—ls Barons and Commons sent him when he was at the Sea side ready to take shipping into Gascoigne concerning his Taxes and other impositions Neither any vestigia or footsteps to be found of any grievance by them in that grand search or inquiry by the Commissions of Traile Baston in or about the 33 of E. 3. after intruders into other mens Lands exactions and oppressions or in the presentments in the Eyres when the Justices thereof in several Kings reigns carefully travailed into the several Counties and places of England and found out and returned the complaints and oppressions of every County and where the Natives themselves the witnesses cannot be supposed to be so much their own enemies as to conceal the Countries oppressions the Jurors were solemnly charged to present them upon their Oaths and if they should omit to do it had the malice of their Neighbours to watch accuse their Perjuries and the severity of the Judges to punish any failings in their duty Or in the Reformation which the Lords Ordainers as they were afterwards called in or about the fifth year of the Raign of King E. 2. pretended to make in that unadvised Commission which he granted them for the Government of the Kingdome No pretence or so much as a murmur against them by the Reformers in Wat Tylers and Jack Straws commotion when they were so willing to overthrow and extirpate all the Nobility and Gentry which should withstand their rude and unruly designs of making all Bondmen free and taking away Villenage and of making Wat Tyler and several other of their party Kings in several Counties and to devise what Laws they listed Or by Jack Cade or Captain Mend-all as he falsely stiled himself when many a grievance was picked up to colour his Rebellion in the reign of King H. 6. but could find nothing of that for a garnish of his Roguery Or Robert Ket the Tanner in the reign of King E. 6. sitting in judgment amongst the Rabble under his tree as they called it of Reformation where Tenures and Wardships being so obvious and every where insisted upon they would not probably have omitted them out of the Roll or list of their complaints if there could have been but a supposition or dream of any grievance in them which being the more noble beneficial and better sort of Tenures may better deserve an approbation of the People and Parliaments of England than Tenures in Villenage which by an Act of Parliament in 25 E. 3.18 may be pleaded and a Villain seized though a libertate probaâ—dâ— be depending And it was enacted in the Parliament of 9 R. 2.2 that if Villaines fled into places infranchised and sued their Lords their Lords should not be barred thereby and by an Act Parliament in 8 H. 6.11 that a Villain should not be admitted or put to be an Apprentice in the City of London and by an Act of Parliament in 19. H. 7.15 If any Bond-man purchase Lands and convey away the Lands the Bond-man being â—estui que use of thâ—se Lands they shall be seised by the Lord. Nor did the Act of Parliament of 25 E. 3. which provided that none should be constrained to find men of Armes Hâ—blers nor Archers but by common assent and grant made in Parliament mistake when it inserted a saving and exception of all those that held by such services Neither did the Commons in the Parliament of 5 R. 2. upon the Repeal in Parliament of the Manumissions of Bond-men extorted from the King by Wat Tyler and his Rout or men of Reformation think they did themselves or those they represented any hurt when they cryed with one voyce that the Repeal was good and that at their request the Repeal was by whole assent confirmed Tenures in Capite and by Knights service were not complained of in the Parliament of 13 R. 2. though the Commons in Parliament had prayed and were allowed that euery man might complain of the oppression of what person or Estate soever without incurring the pain of the Statute of Gloucester which under great penalties prohibited false Newes and Lies of the Nobility and great men of the Realm Chancellor Treasurer Justices of both Benches and other great
as an Escheat annexed to the Crown of England And as litle when any held of the King in Capite by some other Service and not in Chivalry and by Knight Service as the Town of Shrewsbury to cause 12 Towns-men apud Angliae Reges excubare cum in illa urbe agerent To watch and ward about the Kings Person which the affrighted Cromwel with his guilty and terrified Conscience would have been well content with totidemque concomitare cum venatum prodirent and as many to attend him whilst he rode on hunting Or when Richard Pigot of Stanford in the County of Hereford or his Ancestors had two Yard Land given him there by the King to hold in Capite per servitium conducendi Thesaurum Domini Regis which Sir Edward Coke calleth Firmamentum pacis et robur Belli the Foundation of Peace and strength of War de Hereford usque ad London quotiescunque opus fueries sumptibus Domini Regis et in redeundo sumptibus suis propriis et etiam summonendi Episcopium Hereford ad portas Manerij dicti Episcopi de Bromyard si contingat Dominum Regem praedictum Episcopum implacitare By the Service of conducting the Kings Treasure from Hereford to London as oft as there should be occasion at the Kings charge in going thither and at his own in his retorn and to summon the Bishop of Hereford at the Gates or door of his Manour of Bromyard when it should happen that the King should implead him Never troubled the heart of Roger the Kings Taylor when the King gave him a good quantity of Land in Halingbury in the County of Essex tenendum per Serjeantiam solvendi ad Scaccarium Domini Regis unum Acum argenteum quolibet anno in crasâ—ino Sancti Martini To hold the Serjeanty of paying yearly at the Exchequer upon the morrow of St. Martin a silver Needle Nor did the Donees or those who had those Lands of so free a gift or bounty esteem them to be any burden could it be heavy or troublesome to their Heirs or those that should succeed them in those Lands whenas our Kings did successively give away so great a part of the Lands of England as were holden in Capite and by Knight Service either to follow or serve them in the Wars for their own defence as well as theirs or for their attendance whâ—rein they received more honour than their Princes gained by it at their Coronations or other great Solemnities by grand Serjeanty or by petit Serjeanty to present them at some times of the year with a Rose or a Hawk or a pair of Spurs or an Arrow to keep them a Hawk or Hounds provide necessaries in their Progresse for their houshold Expences Sumpter Horses in their Journey to some particular place Straw for their Bed and Rushes for their Chamber as if they gave away all to receive almost nothing for it and so willingly as be put themselves to some trouble to devise what kind of grateful acknowledgments should be made them in a perpetuity or as far as they could reach to a supposed or hoped for Eternity that many of their Tenures where there were not necessaryes in war or peace reserved do seem to be but so far for pleasure and merryment as they did not care what was reserved so it was but something as to hold the Kings head at Sea when he should sail betwixt Dover and VVhitsand or hold the Cord by which the Sail was tyed when the Queen not to shoot with Guns and Canons as some of the Covenanters for the late Kings good could find the way to do at his deer Wife the Queen Mother that now is should pass the Seas into France cum multis aliis with many other sortes and kinds not here to be enumerated without the trouble of a volume which those honester times having a better opinion of gratitude and not thinking it to be so crazy or mortal as now every one finds it to be did liberally create and bestow No wrong was done to them that had Lands given to them and their Heirs by a Mesne Lord before the Statute of Quia emptores terrarum as our forefathers the Saxons long before the Conquest believed when as Byrhtrick a Saxon of great note and eminency in Kent holding Lands of Aelsrick a Mesne Lord did by his last will and testament in the first place give to his natural Lord a Bracelet of fourscore marks of Gold one Hatchet of half as much four Horses two of them trapped two Swords trimmed two Hawks and all his Hounds and to the Lady his wife one Bracelet of thirty marks of Gold and one Horse to intreat that his Testament wherein he devised great quantities of land to divers persons and to charitable uses and the Lords consent was very necessary stand may and prayed his dear leefe Lord that he do not suffer that any man his Testament do turn aside Nor to the County of Hertford or places adjacent when Leofranus Abbot of St. Albans gave in Edward the Confessors reign unto Turnot Waldef and Thurman three Knights the Mannor of Flamsteed in the County of Hertford to be holden by the service ut regionem vicinam contra latrones defendâ—rent to the end that they should defend the neighbour-hood against Thieves And no hurt to the Common-wealth when as the Nobility and great men of England imitating the bounty and munificence of their Kings and Princes for the enabling themselves to serve their King Country did bountifully give much of their own Estates Demesâ—s to divers of their friends followers to hold of them by Knight service or some honourable seldom services about their Persons or Estates As the Earls of Oxford Arundel Norfolk Hereford Essex Hertford Gloucester Leicester Chester Lancaster Northumberland other antient Earls did when they severally gave to those who had so litle wrong done them by their kindness as they have for many ages and doe yet continue men of worship and great estates in their Counties as many as 100 Knights fees many times more and seldome less to be holden of them by Knight service which at the now value of Lands reckoning every Knights fee as Sr. Edward Cooke doth if at 100 l. per annum which is the lowest value would be 10000 l. per annum at 200 l. per an which is the most probable medium rate will amount unto no less than 20000 l. per annum That Harden Castle in Cheshire with the lands thereunto belonging of a great yearly value in the County of Chester was given by an Earl of Chester to be holden of the Earl and his heirs per senescalciam comitum Cestriae by the service of being Stewards to the Earls of Chester Or that the Castle and Mannor of Tunbridge and the Mannors of Vielston Horsmund Melyton and Pettis in the County of Kent were holden by Richard de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford of
tenendi Parliamentum so beleived to be true that King John caused it when he sent our English Laws into Ireland to be exemplified and sent thither under the Great Seal of England it is said that every Earldom consisteth of 21 Knights Fees and every Barony of 13 Knights Fees and a third part of a Knights Fee and were of such a value and esteem as they were wont heretofore to bring Actions and Assizes for them and their Homage and Services And so litle lesse in France as the wealth of that great and populous Kingdom is not as may be rationally supposed enough to purchase of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom the transmutation of their Fiefs nobles into the Roturier or Feifs ignobles nor are the Princes or Nobility of Germany likely to be perswaded out of their antient Rights and Tenures into that of the Boors or common sort of People The Nobility and Gentry of England when their Military Tenures and Dependencies shall be taken from them will not upon necessities of War and Danger according to the Tenures of their Lands their Homages and Oaths of Allegiance and their natural and legal Allegiance be able to succour or heâ—p their Prince and Father of their Country their Defender and Common Parent as they have heretofore done when as they stoutly and valiantly helped to guard their Standard and Lions but for want of those which held Lands of them and the Tenures by Knight service will be forced to abide with Gilead beyond Jordan and not be able to imitate their noble Ancestors nor each or any of them bring to his Service three Bannerets sixty one Knights and one hundred fifty four Archers on Horseback as Thomas de Bello campo Earl of Warwick did to E. 3. in anno 21. of his Raign at the Seige of Caleis or as the Earl of Kildare did to King E. 3. in the 25 th year of his Raign when he besieged Calice when he brought one Banneret six Knights thirty Esquires nineteen Hoblers twenty four Archers on Horseback and thirty two Archers on foot It will take away the subjection of the Bishop of the Isle of Man who holdeth of the Earl of Derby as King of the Isle of Man and not of the King of England and therefore cometh not to Parliament Take away from the King Nobility and Gentry who have Lands holden by Knight service all Escheats of such as die without Heirs or forfeit or be convicted of Felony and the Kings Annum diem vastum year day and wast where the Lands are holden of Mesne Lords the Escheats of those that held of Kings imediately being so considerable as the Castle of Barnard in Cumberland and the Counties of Northumberland and Huntington which the Kings of Scotland sometimes held of England came again to the Crown by them and the power which King Edward 1. had to make Baliol King of Scots and to determine the competition for that Kingdom was by reason it was held of him the Earldoms of Flanders and Artois were seised by Francis the 1. as forfeited being Fiefs of the Crown of France Flanders and many other Provinces forced to submit themselves upon some controversies to the Umpirage of France of whom they held Enervate at least if not spoil our original first Magna Charta which was grante by H. 3. tenendum de se heredibus suis and all our Liberties and the many after confirmations of that Magna Charta will be to seek for a support if it shall be turned into Socage the Libâ—rties also of the City of London all other antient Cities and Boroughs and such as antiently and before 9 H. 3. did use to send Burgesses unto Parliament Alter if not destroy the Charter of K. R. 1. granted to the City of London for their Hustings Court to be free of Toll Lastage through all England and all Sea-Ports with many other Priviledges which were granted to be held of the King and his Heirs and the same with many other immunities granted confirmed by King John with a Tenure reserved to him and his Heirs for where no Tenure is reserved nor expressed though it should be said absque aliquo inde reddendo it shall be intended for the King and the Law will create a new Tenure by Knight service in Capite A Socage Tenure for Cities and Boroughs which have no Ploughs or intermedle not with Husbandry will be improper when as there is not any fictio juris or supposition â—in Law which doth not sequi rationem so follow reason or allude unto it as to preserve the reason or cause which it either doth or would signify but doth not suppose things improper or which are either Heterogeneous or quite contrary Put into fresh disputes the question of precedency betwixt Spain England which being much insisted upon by the Spaniard at the treaty of peace betwixt the two Kingdoms in anno 42. of Q. Eliz. at Calice occasioned by the contests of the Embassadour of Spain and Sir Henry Nevil Embassadour for England it was argued or adjudged that England besides the arguments urged on its behalf viz. Antiquity of Christian Religion more authority Ecclesiastical more absolute authority Political eminency of royal dignity and Nobility of blood ought to have precedency in regard that it was Superiour to the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland and the Isle of Man which held of iâ— that Spain had no Kingdom held in Fee of it but was it self Feudatory to France and inthral'd by oath of Subjection to Charles the fifth King of France in anno 1369. holds a great part of the Netherlands of France Arragon both the Indies Sicily Granado and Navarre Sardinia Corsica and the Canary Islands of the Pope Portugal payeth an annual Tribute to him and Naples yearly presents him with a white Spanish Genner and a certain Tribute Lessen and take away the honour of the King in having the principality of Wales Kingdom of Ireland Isle of Man Isles of Wight Gernesey and Jersey holding of England as their Superiour in Capite Enervate or ruine the Counties Palatine of Chester Lancaster Durham and Isle of Ely if the Tenures should be Levelled into Socage Very much damnifie all the Nobility and Gentry of England who hold as they have antiently divers Mannors and Lands or Offices by grand Serjeanty as for the Earls of Chester which belongeth to the Princes of Wales and the eldest Son of the King to carry before the King at his Coronation the Sword called Curtana to be Earl Marshal of England and to lead the Kings Host to be Lord great Chamberlain of England which is claimed by the Earl of Oxford to carry the Sword called Lancaster before the King at his Coronation due to the Earl of Derby as Kings of the Isle of Man to be grand Faulconner or Master of the Hawks claimed by the Earl of Carnarvon and the Kings Champion at his Coronation claimed
by the Family of the Dymocks in Lincolnshire and very many others holding by divers other grand Serjeanties Prejudice the Families of Cornwal Hilton and Venables who though not priviledged and allowed to sit as Peers in Parliament are by an antient custome and prescription allowed to use the Title of Baron of Burford Baron Hilton and Baron of Kinderton because they hold their Lands per Baronâ—am Disparage the Esquires and Gentry of England the first sort of which being as antiently as the dayes of the Emperour Julian called Scutarii of their bearing of shields in the Wars and the other as our excellently learned Mr. Selden teacheth us called Gentlemen a gente or the stock out of which they were derived or because they were ex origine gentis of noble kind distinguished from them whom Horace termeth sine gente or that they had servile Auncestors had by their fears and prowess in War not only gained great reputation but Lands given to them and their Heirs for their reward support and maintenance from which custome and usage amongst the Romaâ—s saâ—th Pasquier the French in imitation of the Gaules did call those Esquires Genâ—â—â—men Quilz viâ—â—ent estre pourvâ—uz de tels benefices whom they did see so provided with those benefices or rewards Et pour autant quilz veterent ceux cy n' estre chargez d' aucune redevance pecuâ—iare à raison de leurs terres benificiales envers le Prince et outre plus qu'a l' occasion d'icelles ils devoient prendre les armes pour la protection et dâ—ffense de Royaume le peuple commenca de fonder le seul et unique degrè de noblesse sur telle maniere de gens â—or that they did see that they were not charged with any Assessement in money to the Prince by reason of the Tenures of their Lands and that therefore they were upon all occasions to take Armes for the protection and defence of the Realm the people took them to be a degree of Nobility as appeareth by the stature of 1 E. 2. touching such as ought to be Knights and came not to receive that order Take away a great part of the root and foundation of the Equestris ordo and antient and honourable degree of Knighthood in England which was derived and took its beginning from the service of their Lands which were military for the cheif Gentlemen or Free-holdes of every County in regard they usually held by Knights service saith the learned Selden were called Chivalers in the statute of W. 1. touching Coroners and was so honourable a Title as the name of Chivaler was antiently given to every temporal Baron whether he were dubbed a Knight or no. Blast and enernate that also of our not long agoe instituted order of Baronetts which are though there be no Tenure expressed in their Patents held by service in War and a more noble Tenure then Socage Take away the cause and original of that antiently very eminent degree of Banneret when as such as hold Lands in Capite and by Knight service and had many Tenants also holding of them by Knight service were able in a more then ordinary manner to do their King and Country service by bringing their own Banner in the Feild which was to be displaced by the King or his Leivetenant Make our heretofore famous English Nation in matters of Armes and feats of Chivalry to be as a Pastoritium or agreste genus hominum to be Rusticks and Plowmen which the followers of Romulus which were many of them but Rubulâ—i et opiliones Sheppheards and Heardsmen did not take to be a degree worthy the Founders of that great Empire of Rome nor could be content with any lesâ— then that of their Patricij or Equites Senaâ—ors or Knights And was therefore called Feudum nâ—bile et cognoscitur mulâ—is privilegiis inhaerentibus viz. Gardia Fidelitas Homagium Curia Consuetudinâ—s Jurisdictio in Vassallos Banni et retrobannâ— privilegium jus Columbarij jus molendini c. A noble Fee which hath many priviledges belonging to it viz. Wardship Fealty Homage a Court Customes Jurisdiction over Tenants priviledge of Ban and Arriere Ban calling them to War in defence of their Prince a right to have a Dove-house and a Mill the two latter of which others could not heretofore build or enjoy without the Kings licence Equibus liquet ingentem maneriorum nostrorum multitudinem Normannis enim abunde auctam videmus ex privilegiis ad feuda militaria olim spectantibus originem sumpsisse by which it is manifest that our great number of Mannors came to be abundantly increased by the Normans and took their begining from the priviledges belonging to Knights Fees Take away all the Mannors and Court Barons of the Kingdome which being before the statute of Quia emptores terrarum created by the Lords who parcelled out the Lands which the King had before given them to several Friends or Tenants to be held of them and their Heirs by Knight service and some other part in Socage to plow their Lands and carry their Hay c. and to do suit to the Courts of which the Free-holders are said to be the Homage holden for their Mannor in whose Jurisdiction the Lands do lye and are no small part of the legal and necessary priviledges and power of the Gentry or Lords of Mannors over their Tenants which were as Sr. Edward Coke saith given them for the defence of the Kingdome and doe not only very much conduce to the well ordering of their Tenants but to the universal peace and welfare of the Nation in their inferior Orbes and Motions subordinate to the higher Were all at the first derived out of Knight service as evidently appears by Edward the Confessors Laws wherein it was ordained that Barones qui suam habent Curiam de suis hominibus which have their Court consisting of their men and Tenants Et qui Sacham et Socam habent id est Curiam et Jurisdictionem super Vassallis suis have a Court and Jurisdiction over their Tenants are to doe right to their Tenants and by the fall of those many thousand Mannors Court Barons in the Kingdoms which will at the same time dye and perish with the Tenures in Capite and by Knight service Extinguish the Copyhold Estates which belong unto them which by the destruction of the Mannors and Court Barons will also fall for as there can be no Court Baron without Freeholders so no customary Court without Copiholders And once lost or but altered cannot be created again for that now a Subject cannot make a Mannor which must be part in demesnes and part in services to hold of him by services and Suit of Court which is to be by a long continuance of time a tempore cujus contrarij memoria hominum non existit and if there be no Court the Customary Tenants or Copiholders cannot enter their Plaints make Surrenders
Lands as much sometimes as amounted to a third part of a Shire or County were in the Nobilities or great mens possessions some of whom held of the King a 100 or more Mannors and had as many Knights Fees holden of them besides some Castles Forrests Parks and Chases or that the two Escheators which were many times all that were in England the one on this side the other beyond Trent did not nor could not so carefully look to the death of the Kings Tenants which the Statute of 14 E. 3. ca. 8. complaineth of or that the smaller sort of Lands in Capite or mean mens estates were not so much looked after And yet the old Records of the Kingdome do speak a great deal of care and looking after every part of the Kings Revenew the not mentioning in deeds or conveyances of whom or how the Land was holden the more frequent use of Feoffements with Livery seisin in former times which being not Inrolled hindred or obstructed the vigilance of the Escheators and Feodaries their sleepinesse in permitting where any one Mannor or parcel was holden in Capite many other Mannors or Lands of the same Tenure to be found in the same Inquisition by an Ignoramus of the Tenure services the craft industry of many if not most men to evade and elude as much as they can the Law or any Acts of Parliament though when they are sometimes catched they dearly pay for it Or by some other cause or reason not yet appearing many of the said Knights Fees are lost and never to be discovered the Offices post mortem now extant in the Tower of London being in the last year of the reign of King H. 3. in the beginning of whose reign they first began to be regularly found and recorded but 187. in an 35. E. 1 153. in an 20 E. 2 52. of the succeeding Kings untill the end of E. 4. when such Tenures were most valued and respected are in every year but few in number sometimes less than 200 and many times not above 300 in the most plentiful years of those times And of the Knights Fees Lands holden in Capite and by Knight service which are now to be discovered in the greatest diligence of Escheators their better looking unto them in this last Century of years where there hath been an Escheator for the most part in every County to look to the Tenures and Wardships there will not upon exact search thereof appear to be in an 21 Jac. Regis any more than 71.22 Jac. 73 in 2 Car. Regis primi 112 in 3 Car. Regis primi 85. Custodies wardships granted under the great Seal of England which in Wardships of any Bulk or concernment doe most commonly pass that way leaving those of ordinary and lesser value to passe only under the Seal of the Court of Wards and Liveryes in an 10 Car. primi not above 450 offices post mortem some of which did only entitle the King to a Livery are to be found filed returned in an 11 Car. Regis not above 580 which may give us some estimate of the small number which now remains of that huge number which former ages writers talked of that after that rate if there be 10000 Knights Fees holden in Capite there is scarce a twentieth part falls one year with another to make any profit or advantage to the King by Wardships Marriage Reliefs primer seisin c. Nor are there unless by some unluckiness or accidents commonly above one in every three or four discents in a Family holding in Capite which do die and leave their Heirs in minority then also it is either more of less chargeable to the Family as the Males shall be nearer unto or more remote from their full age of 21 or the Females to their age of 16 some of the supposed Inconveniences being prevented by an earlier marriage of the Inheritrixes or the Kings giving the honour of Knighthood to some of the Males in their minoritie which dispenseth with the value of their marriages And yet those Tenures Wardships and incidents thereunto though so antient legal and innocent in their use and institution were not without the watchful eye and â—are of Parliaments to prevent or pluck up any Grievances which like weeds in the best of Gardens or per accidens might annoy or blemish those fair flowers of the Crown Imperial as that of 9 H. 3 that the Tenant by Knight Service being at his full age when his Ancestor dyeth shall have his inheritance by the old relief according to the old custom of the Fees the Statute of Merton in anno 9 H. 3 ca 2. and 3 E. 1 ca 2â— the Kings Tenant being at full age shall pay according to the old custom that is to say five pounds for a Knights Fee or lesse according to proportion ca 4 and 5. The Keeper of the Lands of the Heir within age shall not take of the Lands of the Heir but reasonable issues customs and services without distruction and wast of his men and goods shall keep up the Houses Parks Warrens Ponds Mills and other things pertaining to the Lands with the issues of the Lands and deliver the Lands to the Heir when he comeâ—h of full age stored with Plowes and all other things at least as he recieved them ca 7. A Widdow shall have her Marriage inheritance and tarry in the chief house of her Husband forty days after her Husbands death with reasonable Estovers within which time her Dower shall be assigned if it were not assigned before The Wards shall not be married to Villains or other as Burgesses where they be disparaged or within the age of fourteen years or such age as they cannot consent to mariage and if they do and their Friends complain thereof the Lord shall loose the Wardship and all the profits that thereof shall be taken and they shall be converted to the use of the Heirs being within age after the disposition and provision of their Friends for the shame done unto them a Writ of Mortd'auncester shall be allowed to the Heir with dammages against the Lord that keepeth his Lands after he is of full age Heirs within age shall not loose their Inheritance by the neglect or wilfulnesse of their Guardians 52 H. 3. cap 7 and 16. The Lord shall not after the age of fourteen years keep a Female unmarried more than two years after and if he do not by that time marry her she shall have an Action to recover her Inheritance without giving any thing for her Wardship or Inheritance 3 E. 1 ca. 22. A Writ of Novel disseisin shall be awarded against any Escheator that by colour of his Office shall disseise any of his freehold with double dammages and to be grievously amerced Westmr. 1.3 E. 1 cap. 24 In aid to make the Son of the Lord a Knight or to marry the Daughter there shall be taken but twenty
shillings for a whole Knights Fee and after that rate proportionably ibm 35. If the Guardian maketh a Feoffement of the Wards Lands he shall have a Writ of Novel disseisin and upon recovery the Seisin shall be delivered to the next friend and the Guardian shall loose the Wardship 3. E. 1. ca. 47. Usurpation of a Church during the minority of the Heir shall not prejudice him 13 E. 1.5 Admeasurement of Dower shall be granted to a Guardian and the Heir shall not be barred by the suite of the Guardian if there be collusion 13 E. 1.7 Next Friends shall be permitted to sue if the Heir be â—loyned 13 E. 1.15 If part of the Lands be sold the services shall be apportioned Westmr. 3.2 Escheators shall commit no waste in Wards Lands 28 E. 1 18. If Lands without cause be seised by the Escheator the Issues and Mesne profits shall be restored 21 E. 1.19 where it is found by Inquest that Lands are not holden of the King the Escheator shall without delay return the possession Stat de Escheatoribus 29 E. 1. Escheators shall have sufficient in the places where they Minister to answer the King and his People if any shall complain 4 E 3.9.5 E. 3 4. Shall be chosen by the Chancelour Treasurer and chief Baron taking unto them the chief Justices of the one bench and the other if they be present and no Escheator shall tarry in his office above a year 14 E. 3.8 A Ward shall have an action of waste against his Guardian and Escheators shall make no waste in the Lands of the Kings wards 14 E. 3 13. Aid to make the Kings Son a Knight or to marry his Daughter shall be in no other manner then according to the Statute thereof formerly made 25 E. 3 11. Traverses of offices found before Escheators upon dyings seised or alienations without licence shall be tried in the Kings Bench 34 E. 3 14. An Escheator shall have no Pec of wood fish or venison out of the wards Lands 38 E. 3 13. An Idempnitate nominis shall be granted of another mans Lands seised by an Escheator 37 E 1.2 No Escheator shall be made unless he haue twenty pounds Land per annum or more in Fee and they shall execute their offices in proper person the Chancellor shall make Escheators without any Gift or Brokage and shall make them of the most lawful men and sufficient 12 R. 2.2 An Escheator or Commissioner shall take no Inquest but by such persons as shall be retorned by the Sheriff they shall retorn the offices found before them and the Lands shall be let to farm to him that tendereth a Traverse to the office 8 H. 6.16 Inquisitions shall be taken by Escheators in good Towns and open places and they shall not take above forty Shillings for finding an office under the penalty of forty pounds 23 H. 6 17. Women at the age of fourteen years at the time of the death of their Ancestors without question or difficulty shall have Livery of their Lands 39 H. 6.2 No office shall be retorned into any of the Kings Courts by any Escheator or Commissioner but which is found by a Jury and none to be an Escheator who hath not forty markes per annum above all reprises the Jurors to have Land of the yearly value of forty shillings within the Shire the Forman of the Jury shall keep the Counter part of the Inquisition and the Escheator must receive the Inquisition found by the Iury as also the offices or Inquisitions shall be received in the Chancery and Exchequer 1 H. 8 ca. 8. Lands shall be lâ—t to farme to him that offereth to traverse the office before the offices or Inquests retorned or within three Months after 1 H. 8 ca. 10. the respite of Homage of Lands not exceeding five pounds per Annum to be but eight pence the yearly value of Lands not exceeding twenty pounds per annum to be taken as it is found in the Inquisition except it by examination otherwise appear to the Master of the Wards Surveyer Atturney or Receiver General or three of them or that it shall otherwise appear and be declared in any of the Kings Courts No Escheator shall sit virtute officii where the Lands be five pounds per annum or above the Escheator shall take for finding of an office not exceeding five pounds per annum but six Shillings eight pence for his Fee and for the writing of the office three Shillings four pence for the charges of the Jury three Shillings and for the officers and Ministers of any Court that shall receive the same Record two shillings upon pain of five pounds to the Escheator for every time so offending the Master and Court shall have power to moderate any Fines or Recognisances 33 H 8.22 The Heir of Lands not exceeding five pounds per annum may sue his General Livery by warrant only out of the Court of wards although there be no Inquisition or office found or certified The Interest of every lesser Tenant for Term of years Copy-holder or other person having interest in any Lands found in any office or Inquisition shall be saved though they be not found by office The Heir upon an aetate probanda shall have an oustâ—e le maines and the profits of his Lands from the time that he comes to age and if any office be untruely found a Traverse shall be allowed or a Monstrans de Droit without being driven to any petition of right though the King be entitled by a double matter of Record A Traverse to an office shall be allowed where a wrong Tenure is found an ignoramus â—ound of a Tenure shall not be taken to be any Tenure in Capite and upon a Traverse a Scire facias shall be awarded against the Kings Patentee 2 and 3 E 6. ca. 8. And if there had been any certain or common grievances or so much as a likelyhood of any to have risen or happened by such Tenures and benefits which many were the better for and had no reason at all to find fault with w ch many more were striving to deserve of the Kings of England the Nobility great men of this Kingdom the Parliaments that have been ever since the 8 th year of the reign of H. 3. would not have made so many Acts of Parliament for their establishment or tending to their preservation if we should believe as it cannot be well denyed that Parliaments have been sometimes mistaken and enacted that which they have afterwards thought fit to repeal Yet it comes not within the virge or compass of any probability that Parliaments where all grievances are most commonly represented should for almost four hundred years together in a succession of many Kings Parliaments enact or continue grievances instead of remedies neither find those Tenures to be inconvenient or not fit to be continued or so much as complain of them but as if they were blessings of a
wast in the Wards Lands or seised Lands which ought not to be seised Et omnes illi qui sentiunt se super hiis gravatos inde conqueri voluerint audiantur fiat eis Justitia All that were grieved were to be heard and have Justice done them and the Tenant had his remedy by a writ of ne injuste vexes where his Lord did Indebita exigere servitia And least any thing should but come within the suspition of a Grievance or that the power of the Court of Wards and Liveries and the latitude which the Act of Parliament of 32 H. 8. had given it which was to be as fixed as the trust which was committed to it should in the intervalls of Parliaments or seldomest Cases be any thing like to a burden or Inconvenience the disposing and granting of wardships was by King James his Commission and instructions under the great Seal of England in an 1622. to the end that the people might stand assured that he desired nothing more than that their Children and their Lands which should fall unto him by reason of wardships might after their decease be committed in their neerest and trustiest friends or to such as they by will or otherwise commit the charge unto upon such valuable considerations as are just and reasonable that the Parents and Ancestors may depart in greater peace in hope of his gracious favour their friends may see their children brought up in piety and learning and may take such care as is fit for the preservation of their inheritance if they will seek the same in time Ordered that no direction for the finding of any Office be given for the wardship of the body and lands of any Ward until the end of one moneth next after the death of the Wards Ancestor but to the neerest and trustiest friends of the ward or other person nominated by the Ancestor in the wards behalf who may in the mean time become Suiters for the same among whom choice may be made of the best and fittest No composition agreement or promise of any wardship or lease of Lands be made until the office be found and then such of the friends to have preferment as tendred their Petitions within the moneth they yeilding a reasonable composition The Master Attorney Surveyor and other the Officers of the Court of Wards were to inform them selves as particularly as they might of the truth of the Wards estate as well of his Inheritance as of his Goods and Chattels the estate of the deceased Ancestors and of all other due circumstances considerable to the end the Compositions might be such as might stand with the Kings resonable profit and the Ability of the Heirs estate No Escheatâ—r shall inforce any man to shew his evidence That all Leases of Wards lands except in cases of concealment be made with litle or no Fine and for the best improved yearly rent that shall be offered consideration being had of the cautions aforesaid that no recusant be admitted to compound or be assignee of any wardship That where it shall appear that neither the King nor his progenitors within the space of threescore years last past enjoyed any benefit by Wardship Livery Primer seizin Releif Respect of Homage Fiâ—es or mesne rates of any lands the Master and Councel of the said Court were authorized to remit and release all benefit and profit that might accrew to the King thereby And in all cases where covenants were pâ—â—formed to deliver bonds which were taken concerning the same And that upon consideration of circumstances which may happen in assessing of Fines for the marriages of the Wards and renting of their lands 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 tendernesse of the heir incertainty of the title or greatnesse of incumbrance upon the lands they shall have liberty as those or any other the like comsiderations shall offer themselves to use that good discretion and Conscience which shall be sit in mitigating or abating Fines or Rents to the releif of such necessities In pursuance whereof and the course and usage of that Court as well before as after the said Instructions Wardships nor any Custody or Lease of the Wards or their Lands were not granted in any surprising or misinforming way but by the care and deliberation of the Master and Councel of the Court of Wards and Liveries upon a full hearing and examination of all parties and pretenders they to whom they were granted Covenanting by Indenture under their Hands and Seals with Bonds of great penalties to perform the same to educate the ward according to his degree and quality preserve his lands and houses from waste fell no Coppice Woods grant no Copy-hold estates for lives nor appoint any Steward to keep the Courts without licence and to permit the feodary of the County where the land lieth yearly to survey and superintend the care thereof and had reasonable times of payment allowed them And could not likely produce any grievances in the rates or assessing of Fines for marriages or for rents reserved during the minority of the wards or for primer seisin or any other Compositions when as the Kings of England since the Raign of the unhappy R. 2. and the intermission of the Eyres and those strict enquiries which were formerly made of the frauds or concealment of the Escheators or their Deputies in the businesse of Tenures and Wardships and their neglect or not improving of them most of those former Officers and those that trucked with them not doing that right which they ought to their Consciences and their Kings and Benefactors Have for some ages past been so willing to ease their people or comply with their desires as they have noâ— regarded aâ— all their own profit or taken such a care as they might to retain â—hose just powers which were incident or necessary to their Royal Government but by leaving their bounty and kindnesse open to all the requests or designs of the people have like tender hearted parents given away much of their own support and sustenance to gratify the blandishments or necessities of their Children and not only enervated but dismembred and quitted many of their Regal powers and just Prerogatives in their grants of Lands and Liberties and thereby too much exhausted and abandoned the care of their own Revenue and Treasure as may easily appear to any that shall take but a view of those many Regalities Franchises and Liberties which being to be as a Sacrum patrimonium unalienable have heretofore either been too liberally granted by the Kings Progenitors of which H. 3. was very sensible in his answer to the Prior or Master of the Hospital of St. Johns at Jerusalem or not well looked after in those Incroachments and Usurpations which have been made upon them Or consider the very great cares and providence as well as prudence of former
example of Magistracy put any grievance upon the people when as in the re-building of Ierusalem and to repell the Enemies and hinderers thereof there being as much necessity to defend a City or Commonwealth after it is built or established as it can be in the building framing or repairing of it he ordered the one half of the servants to work and the other to hold the Spears the shields Bows and Habergeons and every one of the builders had his Sword girded by his side and the Nobles were appointed when the Trumpeter should sound that stood by Nehemiah because they were separated one from another to resort thither unto him upon occasion of â—ight or danger and did after their work finished cause the Rulers of the people to dwell at Jerusalem and out of the rest of the people by lot to bring one of every Tribe to inhabit and dwell in there such as were valiant or mighty men of valour and had for overseers the principal and most eminent men and Zabdiel the Son of one of the mighty men David did not turn aside from God nor bind heavy burdens upon the people because he had mighty men about him and that Joshebbassebet the Tachmonite sate like a Constable or Marshal of England chief amongst the Captains nor did Solomon bruise the broken Reeds because he had many Princes and great Officers under him as Benajah the Son of Jehoiada who served his Father David and was Captain over his Guard was over the Host Azariah the Son of Nathan over the Officers like as in England a Lord great Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold Zabud the Son of Nathan Principal Officer and Aâ—ishar as a Treasurer or Comptrouler over the Houshold none of which could take it for any injury to enjoy those great Offices and places during the Kings pleasure but would have esteemed it to have been a greater favour if they had a grant for life and most of all and not to be complained of to have it to them and to their Heirs or after Generations for that all good things and blessings by a natural propension and custom amongst the Sons of men are very desireable to be continued and transmitted to posterity and the sacred Volumes have told us that it is a reward of wisdom and vertue to stand before Princes Nor was it any dishonour to the men of Judah and people of Israel that the Queen of Sheba wondring even to astonishment at the Attendance of Solomons Servants and Ministers and his Cup bearers or Butlers as the Margin reads it pronounced them happy that stood continually before him Or to the Subjects of Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over an hundred and seventeen Provinces that besides his seven Chamberlains or Officers of honour he had the seven Princes of Persia and Media which saw the Kings face and sate the first in the Kingdom Nor any to our heretofore happy Nation enjoying in a long Series and tract of time an envied peace and plenty under famous and glorious Kings and Princes that they did give Places Castles Mannors and Lands of great yearly values to certain great and well-deserving men and their Heirs to serve in great Imployments Solemnities and Managements of State-affairs to the honour of their Soveraigns and the good safety of the People in the Offices of great Chamberlain high Steward Constable or Marshal of England chief Butler of England and the like For when the guift of the Land it self was a great kindness it must needs be a greater to have an honourable Office Imployment annexed to it that an act of bounty done by a Prince in giving the Land should oblige the claim or receiving a far greater in the executing of that Office or Attendance which belonged to it And could have nothing of affinity to a burden when as besides the original guift of the Lands which were very considerable and to be valued many of those personal services by grand Serjeanty were not unprofitable or without the addition or accession of other Bounties and Priviledges as the guift to the Lord great Chamberlain of forty yards of Crimson Velvet for his Robes upon the Coronation day the Bed and furniture that the King lay in the night before the silver Bason and Ewer when he washed his hands with the Towels and Linnens c. The Earl Marshal to have the granting of the Marshals and Ushers in the Courts of Exchecquer and Common Pleas with many other guifts and Priviledges and Dymock who holds some of his Lands by the service of being the Kings Champion and to come upon the Coronation day into Westminster-Hall on Horse-back compleatly armed and defie or bid battel to any that shall deny him to be rightful King of England is to have the Kings best Horse and were not in the least any charge to the people or laid upon them as Cromwel did the stipends of his mock Lords or Officers of his imaginary Magnificence to be paid out of the publick Purse or Taxes as were the self created Lords of his Counsel who had 1000 l. per an for advising him how to fool the people build up himself by the wickedness of some and ruines of all the rest or as the Lord so called Pickering or Chamberlain of his Houshold and the quondam would be Lord Philip Jones who was called the Comptrouler of his Household had to buy them white staves to cause the people to make way and gape upon them No Prejudice to the Common-wealth that the Beauchamps Earls of Warwick did hold Land by right of inheritance to be Panterer at the Kings Coronation and to bear the 3 Sword before him the Duke of Lancaster before that Dutchy came again into the possession of the Kings of England to bear before him the sword called Curtana or the Earls of Derby as Kings of the Isle of Man to bear before the King at his Coronation the Sword called Lancaster which Henry the 4 th did wear when he returned from exile into England or for the Earl of Arundel to be chief Butler of England the day of the Coronation No disfranchisement to the City of London that some Citizens of London chosen forth by the City served in the Hall at the Kings Coronation assistants to the Lord chief Butler whilst the King sits at Dinner the day of his Coronation and when he enters into his Chamber after Dinner and calls for Wine the Lord Mayor of London is to bring him a Cup of Gold with Wine and have the Cup afterwards given to him together with the Cup that containes water to allay the Wine and that after the King hath drunck the said Lord Mayor and the Aldermen of London are to have their Table to Dine at on the left hand of the King in the Hall Or to the Barons of the Cinque Ports who claim are allowed to bear at the Kings Coronation a Canopy â—f cloth
of Gold over him with four Staves and four Bells at the four corners every Staff having four of those Barons to bear it Also to Dine and sit at the Table next to the King on his right hand in the Hall the day of his Coronation And for their Fees to have the said Canopy of Gold with the Bells and Staves Or that at the Coronation of Eliâ—nor Wife to King Henry the third Marchiones de Marchia Walliae videlicet Joannes filius Alani Radulphus de mâ—râ—uo mari Joannes de Monmouth et Walterus de Clifford nomine Marchiae jus Marchiae esse dicebant hastas argenteas inveniendi et las deferendi ad sustentandum pannum Sericum quadratum purpureum in Coronatione Regum et Reginarum Angliae The Lords Marchers of Wales videl Iohn Fitz Alan Rafe de Mortimer Iohn de Monmouth and Walter de Clifford in behalf of the Marches did claim and alleage it to be their right to provide silver Spears or Launces and with them to bear or carry a four square Canopy of Purple Silk over the Kings and Queens of England at their Coronation For those Tenures in grand serjeanty were ever as in all reason they deserved to be accompted to be so honourable as some have made it their Sir-name as the noble Earls of Ormond in Ireland descended from an antient and worthy English Family have done who carry in their Coat of Armes or part of their now marks of honour or bearing the Symbols or remembrance of the Office of cheif Butler in Ireland which with the prisage which is a part of it hath by King E. the 3 d. been granted to the Ancestors of the now Marquesse Earl of Ormond by Inheritance and a Knightly and good Family of the Chamberlaines in England do account it no dishonour to have been descended from thâ— Earls of Tankervile who were Chamberlains to our King H. 1. in Normandy And some branches of the noble Family of the Grey's of Wilton being antient Barons of England holding the Mannor of Waddon in Buckinghamshire of the King per servitium custodiendi unum Gerfalconem Domini Regis by the service of keeping a Gerfalcon of the Kings do use or bear as a badge or marque of honour in their Armes a Gerfaulcon the Mannor of Wymondley in the County of Hertford being holden of the King by Grand serjeanty of giving to the King the first Cup of Wine or Beer upon the day of his Coronation The Family of Argentons being by the marriage of a Daughter and Heir of the Lord Fitz Tece become at the Conquest the possessors of it have thought it honourable saith Camden to bear in their Shields in memory thereof three Cups argent in a feild Gules No oppression to the people of England to be kept safe in their peace and plenty from the Incursions of Foreign Enemies when William the Conquerour fortified Dover a strong and principal Bulwark betwixt England and France with whom we had then continual Wars or Jealousies and gave to Iohn Fines then a Noble Man of great prowesse and fidelity the Custody of that and the rest of the Cinque-Ports with 56 Knights Fees willing him as that Learned Antiquary Mr. Lambard tells us to communicate some parts of that gift to such other valiant and trusty persons as he should best like of for the more sure conservation of that most noble and precious Fort and Castle Who thereupon imparting liberally out of those Lands to eight worthy Knights viz. William of Albrance Fulbert of Dover William Arsick Geffery Peverel William Mainemouth Robert Porthe Robert Crevequer and Adam Fitz-Williams bound them and their Heirs by Tenure of their Lands received of the King to maintain 112 Souldiers amongst them which were so devided by Months of the years as five and twenty of them were continually to watch and ward within the Castle for their several parts of time and all the rest ready upon necessity each of which eight Knights had their several Charges in several Towers and Bulwarks and were contented as well they might at their own dispence to maintain and repair the same Of whom diverse of the Towers and Bulwarks do yet or did but in Queen Elizabeths reign bear their names No inconvenience or mischief to the publique that the Castle and Barony of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire was holden by John Hastings per Homâ—gâ—â—m Wardam Maritagium cum accideâ—it sâ— guerra fuerit inter Regem Angliae Principem Walliae deberet custodire patriam de Over went sumptibus proprijs meliori modo quo poterit pro commodo suo utilitate Regis defensione Regni Angliae by Homage Ward and Marriage when it should happen and if War should be between the King of England and the Prince of Wales was to guard at his own charges the Country called Over went the best way that he could for his profit and benefit of the King and defence of the Kingdom of England No cause of complaint to the Town or antiently called City of Leicester for that veteri Instituto by antient Custom they were to furnish the King with twelve Burgesses or Townsmen when he went to War and iâ— per Mare in Hostes ibat mittebant quatuor Equos usque Londinum ad arma comportanda vel alia quae opus essent he went by Sea were to send four Horses as far as London to carry his Arms or other necessaries Nor to the Town of Warwick to be enjoyned by Tenure to send twelve of their Burgesses or Towns-men with their King to War and qui monitus non ibat centum solidos Regi emendabat he which was summoned and did not go was to forfeit pay one hundred shillings to the King And cum contra Hostes per Mare ibat Rex quatuor Botesuenas vel quatuor libras denariorum mittebant when the King should bo by Sea against his Enemies should furnish four Boat-Swains or Marriners or send four pounds in money No harm done to give Lands at Seaton which Sr. Richard Rockslye Knight did hold by Serjeanty to be vantrarius Regis the Kings fore-footman when he went into Gascoigne donec per usus fuit parisolutarum precij 4d untill he had worn out a pair of Shoes of four pence then the price of a pair of Shooes for a worthy man not 4 s. 6. or 5 s. as they are now Or Lands to another to furnish duos Aâ—migeros two Esquires to march in his Vant-Guard upon occasion of War with the Welch Or that the Princes of Wales ab antiquis temporibus very antiently did hold that Principality and part of Brittain of the Kings of England in Capite by Military or Knight Service and that upon that ground only as he was a leige man and subject of England Leoline Prince of Wales was for raising of War against his Superior Lord imprisoned and hanged or beheaded by King E. 1. and the Principality of Wales
any Court or Rule of Justice is a reasonable Fine commonly adjudged or estimated at two years value and either certain or uncertain are to be paid at the death or alienation of every Tenant which doe as in Socage happen more often and constantly than that of Escuage and Knight Service and have many Payments Forfeitures Restraints and Dependencyes attending that kind of Estate and Inheritance as in some places the Heir to forfeit his Land if after three Solemn Proclamations in three several Courts he comes not in payes his Fine and prayes to be admitted or shall without any reasonable cause of absence wilfully refuse to appear after summons at his Lords Court Baron or to be sworn of the homage or denie himself to be a Coppy-holder payeth not his Fine when it is assessed or sues a Replevin against his Lord distraining for Rent-service payes not his Rent or permits or commits voluntary wast by plucking down an antient built house and building up a new in the place or cutting Timber without licence may be fined or amerced if he speak unreverently of his Lord or behave himself contemptuously towards him is at his Death to pay his best beast or if he hath none the best peice of his housholdstuffe for a herriot and in some places for it varies according to several customes is to give the Lord a certain sum of mony every month during Wars to bear his charges cannot be sworn of the Homage or bring a plaint in the nature of an Assize untill he be admitted Tenant to his Land the Wife shall not have her Bench or Life in her Husbands Copyhold Estate if she marry without Licence of the Lord and in some places if she will redeem it must come riding into the Court upon a â—lack Ram or as in the manner of South Peveâ—ton in Somersetshire being an anâ—ient Dâ—mesne where a Widdow convicted of Fornication shall as an Escheat to the Lord of the Mannor forfeit all her Lands and Goods and the Tenant is by a peculiar custom in some places before he can inforce his Lord to admit any one to his Coppyhold to make a prosfâ—r thereof to the next of the blood or to his Neighbours ab orientesole inhabiting Eastward of him who giving as much as another is to have it and many more inconveniencies and unpleasing customes not here remembred which they who in the Raign of H. 3. and E. 1. Or when Bracton and Fleta wrote were but Tenants at the will of the Lord and by an accustomed and continued charity fixed and setled upon them and their Heirs are now become to be the owners of a profitable and well to be liked inheritance secundum consuetudinem manerij according to the custome of the Mannor could never by any manner of Reason or Justice require a better usage oâ— find the way to complain of untill our late horrid and irrational Confusions when Injustice accused Iustice Oppression complained of Rightâ— and the wickedest oâ— Gains was called the refined Godlinesse and when they got so much incouragement as in the height of a grand and superlative ingratitude to cry aloud and clamour against their Lords who were nothing else but their good and great Benefactors and would make as many as they could beleive that their Coppyhold Estates which were great Acts of Charity in the time of the Saxons were now nothing lesse than Norman Slaveries Are better also than Estates for lives or years which are not unless in case of a seldome happening minority which is otherwise recompenced so happy in their conditions as Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service but are more clogged and incumbred with Covenants or operation of Law then Knight Service as the Tenant to be punished with treble dammage and a forfeiture of Locum vastatum the place wasted for wast committed or permitted to be done in but cutting down an Apple tree in an Orchard or a few Willows or other Trees that grow about the House or plowing up land that was not arrable cannot Assigne his Term or make a Lease of part of it or cut down Timber of Wood without leave of his Lord is stinted to his fewel or firewood and to have so many Loads only to burn is not to carry any dung of the ground is to forfeit his Lease if he pay not his Rent if demanded at the time appointed and many times strict Nomine Penaes for every day after in which it shall be unpaid must carry so many loads of Wood or Coal every year for his Land-lord pay quarters of Wheat Rent Capons a Boar or Brawn a Mutton or fat Calf and the like renewing thereby again the old kind of Socage by their own Covenants or for their own conveniency agreeing to find so many men furnished with Pikes or Musquets in the service of their Land-lords in the time of Wars which was not long agoe done in Ireland by some Tenants of the late Lord Conway which is no lesse then a Military Tenure Wardships and Marriage only expected And whether for lives or years doe live under as many other harsh and uncomfortable Covenants and Conditions as the warinesse distrust or griping of their Land-lords will put or enforce upon them which he that hath not the property of the Land which he renteth and knows it to be none of his own is to endure the more patiently because if he will not take it or hold it so another will be glad to do it and that Covenants and Obligations which were at first but voluntatis at the Tenants will and pleasure before they were entered into do afterwards as the Civil Law saith become to be necessitatis and cannot be avoyded So as Tenures in Capite and Knight service being more beneficial and most commonly less troublesome and incumbred than either Socage or Copyhold Tenures or Estates for lives or years which are more than two parts of three of the Lands of the Kingdom and are yet well enough endured purchased and daily sought for and when all is said that can be truly and rationally alleadged for any good that is in them that in Capite and by Knight service being the most noble and best of Tenures will weigh heavier in the ballance of any reasonable impartial or knowing mans understanding it cannot be imagined from which of the many points of the compasse or Card of the vulgar and unruly apprehensions the Wind or Heriâ—an of the complaints can come which are made against them unless any should be so bruitish as to think the payments of Rent to their Land-Lords or the performing of their oaths when they make Fealty or their Covenants Promises or Contracts are a grievance And therefore until upon any account of truth or reason a just and more than ordinary care of the King shall be reckoned to be a Curse Favour a Fault Protection a Persecution Benefits shall be taken for Burdens Blessings for Bondage performance of promises a Sin and compelling of them an
the broaching of this project ever adventure to ask or give such demands any room or entertainment in their imaginations and is more then the Athenians and Romans ever aimed at who in all their popular and restlesse turmoils seditions and agitations by the people or their Tribunes concerning the Agrarian Laws and making and changing of many other Laws and several forms of Government did never seek to take away or root out those long lasting monuments of benefits and the acknowledgements and returns of gratitude which ought to be made of them More then the people of France in those hard Conditions which they would have put upon the Daulphine of France afterwards Charles the fifth of France in the troubles and imprisonment of his Father King John in England in the Raign of our King Edward the third and the strange and insolent behaviour of the Citizens of Paris towards him when the Provost or Mayor put his own hood half blew half red upon his head compelling him to wear his Livery did all that day wear the Daulphines being of a brown black embrodered with gold in token of his Dictatorship did ever demand nor did in those great afflictions wants which were upon Charles the seventh when he was reproached by his Subjects and the English had so much of France in their possession in the Raign of our King H. 5. and King H. 6. who by their numerous Armies and the gallantry of their nobility and Tenants in Capite and by Knight Service were Masters of the Field as well as of that Crown as he was in disgrace called the King of Berry being a small Province wherein he made what shift he could to defend himself when his Table failed him so that he eat no more in publick but sparingly in his Chamber attended by his domestical Servants had pawned the County of Gyan for mony ever require to be discharged of their Homages and Tenures and the duties and incidents which belonged to them Neither did the Justices or domineering Officers of State in Arragon in their height and extravagancy of power which for some time until by its own weight their Tyranny or the subtile politique patience of their Kings it came to be dissolved into the Royal proper Rights of that Crown Government they excercised over their Kings ever make that to be any part of it nor did the wants of John King of Arragon when he had pawned the County of Roussilion to Lewis the eleventh King of France nor of Ferdinand the Second Emperor when within these forty years in those devouring and destroying Wars of Germany when the pale horse of death and the red of destruction rid up to the bridles in blood he pawned Lusatia and Silesia to the Duke of Saxony and the upper Palatinate to the Duke of Bavaria beget any such motion of the people or Condiscention of their Princes And that unhappy project and design had in all probability no more disquieted our old Albion or Brittain sitting upon a Rock mediis tranquilla in undis in the midst of all our late Storms and Tempests which had broken the bag of Eolus getting loose vied with the raging waves of a distempered Sea who should be most destructive and play the Bedlam Had not a necessity of the Parliament in An. 1645. and their want of mony to maintain their Wars put them again in mind of that way of raising mony all other that could be almost thought upon as far as the mony which should be spared by one meal in every family in a week having been before put in Execution so dangerous and of fatal consequence are sometimes but the attempts or beginning of designs and then as the vote tells us the house of Commons having received the report from the grand Committee which was ordered to consider of raising of monyes for supply of the whole Kingdom after some debate thereupon ordered that the Court of Wards and Liveries with the Primer Seisins Oustres les maines and all other profits arising by the said Court should be fully taken away and be made null and voyd And that the Sum of one hundred thousand pounds per Annum should be raised in this Kingdom instead of the Revenue thereof to be disposed for the good of this Kingdom and that the proceedings of the said Court should continue Statu quo prius untill an Ordinance for taking away the said Court and paying the yearly Sum of 100000 l. be brought in and past both Houses Which might well have been forborn when no general or extraordinary and not otherwise to be prevented evils but only want of mony for ought yet appears did or could perswade them unto it for a Subversion of so grand a Fundamental of the Government Regality and Laws will never be able to avoid the dangerous consequences which will inevitably follow thereupon and though it should be done by Act of Parliament will but produce and usher in many numberlesse mischiefs and inconveniences to the King Kingdom Nobility Gentry and the most substantial and considerable part of the people And will never be recompenced by the benefits hoped for or which may happen by the intended dissolution of that Court and alteration of those Tenures which in the prospect or event will appear if so many to be no more than these Chap. V. The Benefits or Advantages which are expected by the people in the putting down of the Court of Wardes and Liveryes and changeing the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into free and common Socage BY taking away the Service of Warre without the Kingdom when the King or his Lieutenant goeth to warre for forty dayes bearing the Charge of a man and Horse and the payment of Escuage to be assessed by Parliment if he neither go nor send one in his place Respites of Homage petit Serjeanties Fines for Alienation Wardships and payments of Fines for the marriage of the Heirs in minority a rent for the Lands in the interim Reliefs primer seisins Oustre les maines Mesne Rates Liveries and assignment of Widdow Dower The troublesome and powerfull process of the Exchequer costly and long pleadings of their Evidences to avoid seisures for not sueing out Licences of Alienation thereby enforcing them to procure pardons and to plead them Costly Attendance upon Escheators and Feodaries finding of Offices or Inquisitions post mortem producing and finding if the party hath a mind to it of their Evidences Compositions chargeable passing and obtaining grants of the custody of the body and Lands of Wards Trouble and charge of Writs of diem clausit extremum quae plura melâ—us inquirendum Processe of privy Seals Messengers Informations Bills Demurrers as the Case may happen Answers Traverses Replications Rejoynders Commissions Examinations Depositions of Witnesses Orders Hearings Decrees Injunctions all which are but to help to recover or defend the Wards rights and if not in that Court would be
ten to one all that hath been but only surmised of the Court of Wards which being a standing Court where there are no Interestâ— but a care only of the Kings and the Peoples just Rights and their Oaths cannot be so predominant or inchanting as the Interests advantages or designs of single Persons And it is not now to learn that the Mischiefs done to Infants and their Estates are more where they be in Socage then in Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service that there is a great difference between accompts that are to be made to a Court and impartial Auditors and where the Guardians will accompt when or where they list and give no security for true Accompts and discharge of their trust and without it are not to be trusted for that many times they faile in their Estates and are impoverished and the Evils that have happened to the heir of Hele or of Davenport where some of the Souldiery which were formerly Tradesmen have in the usurpations of authorities made themselves to be more then like the Master of the Wards and tossed and tumbled their Estates and Marriages at their pleasure and complaints are obvious where an Heir by the unconscionablenesse of Socage Guardians have by the spoyl and wast of their Woods and Estates been damnified ten or twenty thousand pounds The Kings Tenants will be enabled to alienate their Lands to such as may be open enemies or ill affected to his Person Succession or Government Which will leave him a lesser power over his Subjects in relation to his â—enants and those that hold of him then every Gentleman and Lord of a Mannor hath in England over his Coppy-holders or such as hold of them by Leases for lives or years Which every Land-Lord finds aswel as believes to be so necessary as Citizens and Burgers and all manner of Land-Lords doe both in litle and great estates and leases especially provide against letting setting or assigning without their license first had in writing unless it be sometimes to Wives or Children which in the Kings case in matter of free-hold was in 32 H. 8. allowed his Tenants so as they left a full third part to descend to the Heir The education of the Heirs in minority of Recusants or persons disaffected to the King or his Government or to the Orthodox Religion Provisions for protections for younger Children and care of payment of Debts preservation of the Wards Estate Woods and Evidences will be neglected The finding of Offices or Inquisitions post mortem of the Auncestor and the true extent and quantities of the Mannors and Lands and many times the finding or mentioning of Deeds or Evidences in the Offices which in antient aswell as latter times have given a great light and help to titles and descents of Land and the recovery and making out of Deeds or Evidences lost will now be laid aside and all things left in the darkness of ignorance and incertainty Genealogies and Pedigrees which by such Offices have only since the beginning of the raign of King H. 3. been deduced and brought into great certainties will now be left like those of the Welch to beleive one Ap after another and Ap John Ap Jenkin Ap David and whatsoever the wild traditions and boastings of our New men or upstarts and our Bards or undertaking ignorant Painters to draw money out of their credulous customers purses shall be pleased to fancy and shall not be so happy as the Jews in their return out of their captivity who were not to seek for the registers of their Genealogies but be like the dull Thracians who are said to have so short a memory as not to count above the number of 4 or 5 Or being like a House with the windowes or lights only backward or as a people with their eyes only in their backs and in the time to come not be able to give an account of our Ancestors further then our Grand-Fathers And no other course or way being yet found to preserve the memory or right of Armes or certainty of descents of our Nobility and Gentry the people which the more Peysant and Mechanick part will be glad of will be left to fool and make one another believe their own Rhodomantadoes and Delusions Cause increase and multiply contention betwixt the Kindred and near Relations of the Orphans and Minors in striving who shall have the Manage and Protection of their Lands and Estate or as too often happens most cleanly or hypocritically deceive or ruine them or make an Interest or Advantage for themselves friends or kindred by their Marriages which in these last twenty years and the practise of Counterfeit Religion and Honesty calling every successfull knavery a Providence of the Almighty who not only hates but will punish it can take 500 l. or or more at a time to make Matâ—hes where they pretend great friendships and in an Age of all manner of cheating and cunning devices to maintain Pride is become the beneficial imployment of many that would be thought to be Gentlemen or people of great respect or worship and if a Trades-man or Citizen whose riches and influence have of late been too much upon all men or their estates in the Kingdome more especially those that are prodigal or vitious should get a Guardian-ship may doe as the Dutch are now complained of who out of their Weis Camer Chamber or Court of Orphans can send their monyes to trade as far as the East-Indies not for the Childrens but for their own advantage and in the mean time make delayes and pretences enough not to pay them their money insomuch as a young Girle whose Parents dyed when she was but three years old was of late so out of patience with Petitioning and attendance untill she was 17. as shee had almost clawed out the Grefâ—â—erâ— or Registers eyes and in the chase of such controversies which upon pretences of nearer of kin weakness of Estate in some or bad life and conversation and unfitness in other may aswel be lengthened and made to be very chargeable as those are concerning Executors or Administrators which doe too often make the Infants money and Estates the lamentable paymasters Whereas in the Court of Wards Controversies or Competitions for Wardships were by reason of the instructions and rules by which they walked easily and quietly determined in an hour or litle more time spent Summarily and upon Petition only in the Council Chamber of that Court. There will not be that ready help or care which was used to be for the preservation of the Wards estate from false or forged Wills fraudulent or forged Conveyances unjust Entries and pretended Titles and other Incumbrances Nor for Tenants in Tayl and their Heirs whose Deeds being found in the Offices did many times prevent their disherision by Heirs by second Venter and forged Conveyances or Wills Creditors cannot for want of such Offices sound know how the Debtors Lands are setled or what is in Fee-simple