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that age without the consent of their Guardian the Guardian shall have the double value of their marriage such as have withdrawn their marriage shall pay the full value to the Guardian for the trespass and nevertheless the King shall have like amends And if the wards of malice or by evil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
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
under them and if any evil happened unto them either endured it with them or willingly ventured their lives with them others attribute it to the Saxons ubi jus antiquissimum feudorum semper viguit et adhuc saith the learned Craig religiose observatur where the feudal Laws were and are yet most religiouâ—ly observed and Cliens and Vasallus in matters of Fâ—wds and Tenures are not seldome in the Civil Law and very good Authors become to be as Synonimes and used one for the other And the later Grecians since the Raign of Constantine Porphyrogenneta in the East and the Roman Emperors in the West before since the Raign of Charlemain or Charles the great were not without those necessary defences of themselves and their people And such a general benefit and ready and certain way of ayd and help upon all emergencies in the like usage of other Nations making it to be as a Law of Nations There hath been in all or most Kingdoms and Monarchies of the World as well Heathen as Christian a dependency of the Subject upon the Prince or Soveraign and some duties to be performed by reason of their Lands and Estates which they held under their Protection and in many of them as amongst the Germans Saxons Franks and Longobards and several other Nations descending from them Tenures in capite and Knight service were esteemed as a foundation and subsistency of the right and power of Soveraignty and Government and being at the first precariae ex domini solius arbitrio upon courtesie at the will only of the Prince or Lord were afterwards Annales from year to year after that feuda ceperunt esse vitalia their Estates or Fees became to be for life and after for Inheritance So as by the Law of England we have nâ—t properly Allodium saith Coke that is any Subjects Land which is not holden of some Superior and that Tenures in capite appear not to be of any new institution in the book of Doomsday or in Edward the Confessors dayes an 1060. in King Athelstans an 903. in King Canutus his Raign in King Keâ—ulphus his Raign an 821. or in King Ina's Raign an 720. In Imitation whereof and the Norman no slavish Laws and usages which as to Tenures by the opinion of William Roville of Alenzon in his Preface to the grand Customier of Normandy were first brought into Normandy out of England by our Edward the Confessor the Customs Policies of other People and Kingdoms prudent Antiquity having in that manner so well provided by reservation of Tenures for the defence of the Realm William the Conquerour sound no better means to continue and support the Frame and Government of this Kingdom then upon many of his gifts and grants of Land the most part of England being then by conquest in his Demeasne to reserve the Tenures and Service of those and their Heirs to whom he gave it in Capite and by Knight Service and if Thomas Sprot and other antient Authors and Traditions mistake not in the number of them for that there were very many is agreed by the Red Book in the Exchequer and divers Authentiques created 60215 Knights Fees which with their Homage incidents and obligations to serve in Wars with the addition of those many other Tenures by Knights service which the Nobility great men and others besides those great quantities of Lands and Tenements which they and many as well as the King and others our succeeding Princes gave Colonis Hominibus inferioris notae to the ordinary and inferior sort of people to hold in Socage Burgage and Petit Serjeantie reserved upon their guifts and grants to their Friends Followers and Tenants who where to attend also their mesne Lords in the service of their Prince could not be otherwise then a safety and constant kind of defence for ever after to this Kingdom And by the Learned Sir Henry Spelman said to be due non solum jure positivo sed gentium quodammodo naturae not only by positive Law but the Law of Nations and in some sorts by the Law of Nature Especially when it was not to arise from any compulsary or incertain way or involuntary contribution or out of any personal or moveable estate but to fix and go along with the Land as an easy and beneficial tye and perpetuity upon it and is so incorporate and inherent with it as it hath upon the matter a co-existence or being with it and Glanvil and Bracton are of opinion that the King must have Arms as well as Laws to Govern by and not depend ex aliorum Arbitrio it being a Rule of Law that quando Lex aliquid concedit id concedit sine quo res ipsa esse non potest when the Law granteth any thing it granteth that also which is necessary and requisite to it And therefore the old oath of Fealty which by Edward the Confessors Laws was to be administred in the Folcmotes or assemblyes of the People once in every year Fide et Sacramento non fracto ad defendendum regnum contra Alienigenas et Inimicos cum Domino suo Rege et terras et honores illius omni fidelitate cum eo servare et quod illi ut Domino suo Regi intra et extra regnum Britanniae fideles esse volunt by faith and oath inviolable to defend the Kingdome against all strangers and the Kings Enemies and the Lands and dignity of the King to preserve and be faithful to him as to their Lord as well within as without the Kingdom of Britain which was not then also held to be enough unlesse also there were a tye and obligation upon the Land and therefore enacted that debeant universi liberi homines secundum feodum suum secundum tenementa sua arma habere illa semper prompta conservare ad tuitionem Regni servicium Dominorum suâ—rum juxta preceptum Domini Regis explendum peragendum every free man according to the proportion of his Fee and Lands should have his Arms in readinesse for the defence of the Kingdom and Service of their Lords as the King should command And it was by William the Conqueror ordained quod omnes liberi homines fide et Sacramento affirment quod intra extra universum Regnum Willielmo Regi Domino suo fideles esse volunt terras honores suos omni fidelitate ubique servare cum eo contra Inimicos Alieniginas defendere that all Free-men should take an Oath that as well within as without the Realm of England they should be faithful to their King and Lord and defend every where him and his Lands Dignity and Estate with all faithfulnesse against his Enemies and Foreiners Et Statuit firmiter precepit ut omnes Comites Barones Milites Servientes Teneant se semper in Armis in Equis ut decet oportet quod
detruncatione vel alijs modis juxtâ— quantitatem delicti puniat To be an Hangman or Executioner of such as were condemned to suffer death or any loss of Members according to the nature of their offences could neither be parted with or taken to be any thing but a benefit And that a claim was made by one thâ—â— held Lands in the Isle of Silly to be the Exeâ—cutioner of Felons which there was then usualy done by letting every one of them down in a Basket from a steâ—p Rock with the provision only of two Loaves of Barly bread and a pot of water to expect as they hung the mercy of the Sea when the Tide should bring it in And that those which held by the easy and no dishonourable Tenures of being Tenants in Capite and Knightâ—service should as Mr. Robert Hill a learned and judicious Antiquary in the beginning of the Reign of King James well observeth rack and lease their Lands to their under Tenants at the highest Rents and Râ—tes and neither they nor their Tenants call that a slavery which though none at all may seem to be a far greater burden than any Tenâ—nt in Capite and by Knight service which holdeth of the King or any Tenant that holdeth by knight service of a mesne Lord endureth when as the one is always more like to have the bag and burden which he must pay for laid upon him in his Bargain then the other who is only to welcom a gift or favour for which he payeth but a grateful acknowledgment Nor is there in that which is now so much complained of and supposed to be a Grievance which whatever it be except that which may as to some particular cases happen to the best and most refined Constitutions and the management thereof hath only been by the fault of some people who to be unfaithful and deceive the King in his Wardships or other Duties have some times cast themselves into the trouble and extremityes which were justly put upon them for concealments of Wardships or making fraudulent conveyances to defeat the just Rights of the King or their superiour Lords or by some exorbitances or multiplications of Fees since the erecting of the Court of Wards and Liveries by an Act of Parliament in 32 H. 8. any malum in se original innate or intrinsecal cause of evil or inconvenience in them Active or Prâ—xime meerly arising from the Nature or Constitution of Tenures in Capite and Knight Service To be found upon the most severe examinations and inquiries which may be made of them nor are they so large in their number as to extend or spread themselves into an universality of grievances nor were or are any publick or extraordinary Grievance CHAP. III. Tenures of Lands in Capite and by Knight service are not so many in number as is supposed nor were or are any publick or general grievance FOr the Number of Knights Fees which were holden in Capite and by Knight service of the King have by tract of time Alienations Purprestures Assarts incroachments deafforrestations and concealments been exceedingly lessened and decreased 28015 which were said to be parcel of the 60215 knights Fees created by William the Conquerour being granted afterwards by him or his successors to Monasteries Abbyes Priories and religious houses or parcelled into Glebes or other endowments belonging to Cathedrals Churches and Chantries or given away in Mortmain and very many quillets and parcels of Land after the dissolution of the Abbyes and religious houses not exceeding the yearly value of forty shillings And now far exceeding that value granted in Socage by King Henry the eighth besides many other great quantities of dissolved Abbyes and religious Lands granted to be holden in Socage Much of the Abbye Lands retained in the Crown or Kings hands as part of the Royal Patrimony and many Mannors and great quantities of Land granted to divers of the Nobility gentry and others with reservations many times of Tenures of but half a knights Fee when that which was granted would after the old rate or proportion of knights Fees have been three or four knights Fees or more and somtimes as much or more then that no rule at all as touching the proportions of Lands or Tenures being then in such an abundance of Land and Revenue as by the dissolution of the Abbyeâ— came into the Kings hands or disposing 〈◊〉 all kept which might have made many knights Fees were not seldom granted with a Tenure only of a twentieth or fortieth and sometimes an hundreth part of a knights Fee whereby the knights Fees which were granted to the Religious houses being almost half of the number which William the Conquerour is said at the first to have created might well decrease into a smaller number and many of those which diverse of the Nobility and great men held of the King as those of Ferrers Earl of Darby and the Earls of Chester those that came by marriage as by one of the Daughters and Heirs of 〈◊〉 Earl of Hereford and Essex by escheat as the Earldome of Clare or by Resumptions Dissolution of Priors Alienâ— Knights of St. John of Hierusalem Attainders Escheats or Forfeitures which in the Barons Wars were very many or holden as of honors c. Merging and devolving into the Royal Revenue did take of very many of the number especially since the making of the Act of Parliament in 1 â— 6. cap. 4. that there should be no Tenure in Capite of the King by reason of Lands coming to the hands of him or any of his Progenitors Heirs or Successors by Attainders of Treason misprision of Treason Premunires dissolution or surrender of Religious Houses And not a few of the Mesne Lords and those which held also of the King did make as great an abatement in their Tenures by releasing and discharging their services before the making of the Statute of Quia emptores terrarum granting Lands in Socage Franck Almoigne or by copy of Court Roll and casting out a great part of their Lands as well as the Kings of England did not Forrests Chases many vast Commons which they laid out in Charity for the good of the poorer sort of people infranchising of a great number of Copyholders selling giving away many and great parcels of their demesne Lands disparking of many of their Parks deviding them into many Tenements to be holden in Socage endowing of Churches Chantries religious houses the like the forrests Chases and Commons of the Kingdom making very near a tenth part in ten of the Lands of the Kingdom and the Socage Lands Burgage Franck Almoigne and Copyholds more than two parts in three of all the remainder of the Lands of the Kingdom So as it is not therefore improbable but that there are now not above ten thousand or at most a fourth part of those 62015. Knights Fees to be found And that in antient and former times either by reason that great quantities of Mannors and
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
as in the late warrs of Denmark where they were concerned to adventure through many dangers to ayde the Danes against the Swedes found their design more out of order then it would otherwise have been for that the Seamen where they doe not use to impresse would not be perswaded to goe at all without a greater pay then ordinary And whether that discharge of the Emperor Charles the 5 th did absolve them from their Clientelage or holding of the Empire or no it is well known that they keep all or most of the incidents belonging to Tenures in Capite as their Laudemia's or Reliefs Investitures Fines for Alienation and the like and living under those great burthens and otherwise intollerable Taxes Contributions and Excises which are made only tollerable by their hostilities and depraedations exercised upon Spain and its Dominions do notwithstanding almost in every Frontier Town in the winter time make their Inhabitants hold by a kind of Service as to their own defence in the alotment of every house or street to break dayly a proportion of Ice in times of Frost in their Town Ditches The Assessements for horse and foot Arms and charge and pay of Armies and so much as for Ribbons and Trophies as they are now called which in the time of our Military Tenures the people were not at all or so much troubled with will swell and be the greater when so many as were to be contributary in a more especial manner shall be exempted from that and put under the general Assessement which will make the burthen to be the heavier and will be as little for the ease of the people as if all the many Hospitals and Almes-Houses in England which were built and endowed at the great charge of the Founders with large and perpetual Annual Revenues in many Parishes and places in England and the great number of Charities and charitable uses which since the Protestant Religion established in England have by wills and Testaments been given to the poor should be taken away and put to other uses as those loving and tender hearted Statesmen the late committee of Slavery rather than Safety or the Rump Assembly were about to do and put into some Godly Treasury and they that must pay a great deal more in their Rates and Assessements for the poor left to make Affidavits that the remedy was taken away and a Disease put in the place of it The King who is Pater Patriae the great and careful Parent and Father of his people and who by God Almighty is trusted with the Welfare Protection and Defence of them shall only have that part of the Court of Wards and kind of Prerogative left unto him to provide and take care for Lunatiques and Ideots Shall not now enjoy that antient and well performed trust of protecting the Fatherless nor have that power in looking to Orphanes and their Estates in their Minorities as the Dutch and States of Holland have who though the people under the Jurisdiction of that Republique do hold neither by Knight Service of it nor can be well said to hold in Soccage or as Fieâ—â— Roturier where they have so little Land but by Navigation rather and Commerce have their Wees Kamer or Court of Orphanes do not think it fitting to trust them and their Estates to the Mothers although they have thereby a Custom and Pacta antenuptialia a Joyntenancy and power of dispose to their own kindred nor the kindred on either side to make their profit by them and sub amici fallere nomen under a colour of love and kindnesse either ruine them or leave them to ruine themselves by selling them and others good bargains And shall not have so much privilege as the City of London hath who by antient Custome have an absolute Court of Wards in the City though it passe under the name of the Court of Orphanes as may appear by their antient Customs viz. The Mayor and Aldermen that are for the time by custom of the City shall have the Wardships and Mariages of all the Orphans of the said City after the death of their Ancestors although the same Ancestors do hold in the City of any other Lord by what Service soever Ought to inquire of all the Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels within the said City appertaining to such Orphans and safely keep them to the use and profit of such Orphans or otherwise commit the same Orphans together with their Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels to others their Friends by suâ—ficient Surety found of Record in the Chamber of Guild-hall to maintain conveniently the said Orphans during their nonage and their Lands and Tenemâ—nts to repair and their said Goods and Chattels safely to keep and thereof to render a good and loyal accompt before the said Mayor and Aldermen to the profit of the same Infants when they shall come to their age or when they shall be put to a mistery or shall marry by the advice of the said Mayor and Aldermen And that in all Cases except that it be otherwise ordained and disposed for the same Orphans or for their Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels by the expresse words contained in the Testaments of their Ancestors And no such Orphans ought to be married without the assent of the said Mayor and Aldermen and also where Lands or tenements Goods and Chattels within the City are devised to an Infant within Age living with his Father and that such an Infant is no Orphan yet by usage of the said City the said Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels shall be in custody of the Mayor and Aldermen as well as of Orphans to maintain and keep them to the use and profit of the same Infant except that the Father of the Infant or some other of his Friends will find sufficient surety or Record to maintain and keep the said Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels to the use and profit of the said Infant and thereof to render a good and loyal accompt as is aforesaid And may if the Kings Court of Wards shall be dissolved and the Tenures in Capite taken away be indangered or petitioned against which within these last twenty years hath been a notable Engine and peice of Artillery of the factious who made great use of Petitions many a causeless complaint to overturn any antient useful constitution of the Kingdom well approved Rights and Liberties of the people in general or of some men in particular Will renverse and overturn many of the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom throw them with their heels upwards into a Ditch of all manner of evils and confusion which will so increase and fall upon them and us as no after endeavours by any new Bills or Acts of Parliament will be able to rescue them and being once dead or destroyed will not meet with any that either can or will be able to call them like Lazarus out of the grave or
Servants and the like and heaviest uâ—on the poorer sort of people and be a burden which the lowly Cobler and reverend Applewomen the Botcher and Stockingmenders in their pittiful subterraneous Tenements and the poor Women which in the Streets do cry Fruits and Fish by a double retail and pay twelve pence a week for the loan of twenty shillings and pawn a Petticoat for security the Chimney Sweepers Brooom-men and Beggars cannot escape Will be no good way of raising mony nor an Honourable Revenue and though it might become the Dutch in their grand necessities of War where they have but few Gentlemen will not be for the honor of England and the Nobility and Gentry of England to have their provisions of War and Defence arise out of so low a businesse as Aâ—e and Beer and make the Brewers and Ale-house-keepers to be as it were the Tenants in Capite and to supply the Knight Service in the exchange of that which is but pretended to be a Greivance for a most certain and undeniable greivance and for one Greivance if it could be proved to be one for a Seminary and complication of Greivances and to take away wardships from the estates of 1 in every 20. of the people when they should happen and make 19 in every 20 to be every day in every yeare in wardship to an Excise upon a considerable part of their dayly Dyer and Sustenance That small Sum of 100000 l. per an may upon any discontent of the people by reason of the payment of that Excise be Petitioned against or taken away by Parliament or by some insurrection or mutiny of the common people which Naples and France this Kingdom can tell us do sometimes happen and the wisdom of Kings and Princes do use to suspect and provide against or if some other unlucky difference which God avert should happen betwixt the King and his people may fall into the Case or Example of the Customs and Poundage and Tonnage in the beginning of the Raign of his late Majesty which being stopped by the Parliament and declared against did put him into unâ—it necessities and made those unhappy controversies and misunderstandings betwixt him and many of the shorter Parliaments which disabled him from aiding his Friends and Allyes and was the beginning of our never enough to be lamented national Calamities and Reproaches and proved to be the ruine and disturbance also of a great part of Christendome Such an imposed or continued excise will by the Arts and Deceipts of the Brewers and Ale men and those that gather and pay it in the first place be as all excises commonly are double charged upon the people who instead of 100000 l. per an laid upon their Beer Ale will by the abuse which will be committed therein as to quantity and quality lay and charge another 100000 l. per an upon the people and the Brewer in every 6 d. or 12 d. Excise to be laid upon every Barrel of six shillings Beer will be sure to make his Beer so as he shall get double if not more than that Excise amounts unto And as it could never have been at first setled without the awe and help of Garrisons Troops of Horse and Companies of Foot in every County and City and the Souldiers assistance to enforce and gather it from those that would not pay it or were not able so in all probability it will be now again never be brought into a constant yearly Revenue without a constant formerly used way of keeping a standing Army at the charge of sixty or ninety thousand pounds per mensem or the month which will be more troublesome and chargeable than 52 Escheators and as many Feodaries who may be men of wisdom Integrity good Estates in their Countries for there will be a great difference between the charge or yearly Revenue of the Court of Wards which is made up of many small parts and favourable and easy Rents Fines and compositions quietly gathered and paid in by the Justice and Order of a Court of Wards honest and responsable Officers and 90000 l. per annum being to be Collected by this Excise at the charge of as much for every month in the year from the ruder and most ignorant part of the people who will not Tributorum causam quaerere sed quaeri sooner murmure and complain of Taxes or Tributes than rationally enquire into the causes of them and by a weeping woful Arithmeticque of the poor and inferior sort of people in every County be reckoned to be no great part or peice of Husbandry to purchase off 90000 l. per annum yearly charges to free those that held in Capite at the rate of 100000 l. or rather 200000 l. per annum which is to be paid out of the Excise and pay 90000 l. per mensem or 60. or 30000 l. per mensem besides for collecting of it besides the free quarterings and other insolencies of the common Souldiers And by making that part of the Excise perpetual give the people to understand that the next occasion given or made may introduce a perpetuity of Excise upon all other things which to have been introduced but upon a temporary and not like to be long lasting necessity would before Olivers Sadle had been put upon the peoples backs have put them into multitudes of Complaints And in the Raign of King James and that of our late blessed Martir King Charles before he was driven from his Throne would have been but only in the advising of it more Capital and offensive than that which was charged upon the late Earl of Strafford and made more in one single fault or crime than all the accumulations of Crimes against him could arrive unto and was so dreadful to this Nation and before hand hated as they were afraid of every thing that tended that way So as in a Parliament in the Raign of King James some of the House of Commons having been informed that the King had imployed a Gentleman into Holland to inquire concerning the manner manage of their Excise which as afterwards appeared upon examination was but for curiosity and learning sake were so troubled at it as the Gentleman hardly escaped a vote whether he should not be most severely punished And whether Excise or not Excise will if those Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which have hitherto been as the Life and Land-guards of the King and his people should be taken away some other wayes of means are to be found out to supply it for the people being sworn by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to assist and defend the King and all his Rights and Jurisdictions if they would not defend him and take a care of those Oaths will likely be willing enough to defend themselves in defending him Or if they should not their Representatives in Parliament would as they have for this twenty years last past not only assesse them but make them