benefits received which highly pleasing the Almighty and being lovely in the eyes of all men which are not only enjoyed but held fast and enforced by all the Nobility Gentry and richer sort of men in England when it happens to be denied as the services and customes of all their Tenants to grind their corn at their Lords Mill or baking their bread at his common Oven in some Borough or Market Town The Reliefs in Tenures by Knight Service or Chivalry fixed and appropriate unto those Fewds and Tenures and paid at the death of every Tenant dying seised being at the first never condescended unto by the Tenants by any paction or stipulation betwixt them and their Lords But although there was antiently and originally betwixt the Lord and the Tenant mutua fides tuendae salutis dignitatis utriusque saith Bodin a mutual obligation betwixt the Tenant and the Lord to defend one anothers Estate and Dignity or as Craig saith pactionibus interpositis de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements to defend one another were lately notwithstanding received and taken by the Nobility and Gentry as a gratitude and in that and no other respect were by the Tenants willingly paid unto them The Reliefs paid by the Heirs of Freeholders in Socage after the death of their Ancestors which being not paid by Tenants for years by a rack Rent do appear to have no other commencement but in signum subjectionis gratitudinis a thankfull acknowledgement for benefits received Or those duties payments which many Lords and Gentry doe enjoy in Cumberland Westmerland and many of the other Northern Counties which were not at the first by any original contract or agreement as to their Tenants particular services for so it could not be a custome but the Tenants at the first upon the only reason of gratitude untill it had by length of time and usage uninterrupted gained the force of a custome and that the succeeding Heirs and Tenants were admitted according to those customes did as willingly observe and acknowledge them The Fines incertain at the will of severall Lords which the Nobility and Gentry of other parts of England do receive and take of their Copihold Tenants under the penalty of a forfeiture if not paid in a reasonable time after they were assessed and the priviledges which they retain of seising their Tenants Copihold Lands as forfeit whether the Fines were certain or incertain if they sued Replevins against them distraining for their Rents or Services and had no other parents or originall untill custome had settled it then the Tenants gratefull acknowledgements of the Lords or his Ancestors former kindess and benefits bestowed upon them or their Progenitors And the Socage Lands and Freeholders might be Tallied or have a Tax laid upon them by their Lords at their will and pleasure as their necessities or occasions required as well before as after the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo made betwixt the years 25 34 Ed. 1. and if it had been an Act of Parliament and not a Charter could bind only the King as to his extraordinary but not to his legall Tallages untill custome by the kindness or favour of time and the curtesie and good will of their Lords did permit them by a desuetude of imposing and a well rellished custome of the Tenants not paying to enjoy their easie and cheap bargains and freedome of their Lands for which they should doe well to remember better then they doe their Benefactors and be more mannerly and gratefull then of late they have been and were before those indulgencies held to be so accustomed and usual as it was not seldome found by Inquisitions and Juries upon oath that such or such land was holden Et Talliari potest c. And might have Taxes or a greater Rent laid upon them by the Lord of the Manor in so much as the Kings demeasne Lands were not free from Tallage which will be evident enough by a presentment of a Jury of Nottinghamshire before the Justices in Eyre in anno 8 E. 1. or King Edward the first when the Kings Letters Patents of a Grant of the Town of Retford to the Burgesses thereof and their Heirs in Fee Farm was found and mentioned in these words viz. Edwardus Dei gratia c. Sciatis nos concessisse c. Burgensibus nostris de Retford quod ipsi eorum haeredes de cetero habeant teneant ad feodi firmam de nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum villam nostram de Retford cum pertnen reddendo inde nobis haeredibus nostris per manus suas proprias decem libras per annum ad Scaccarium nostrum ad festum Sancti Michaelis pro omnibus serviciis c. Salvo inde nobis haeredibus nostris Tallagio nostro cum nos haeredes nostris Dominica nostra per Angliam fecimus Talliari c. reserving to himself and his Heirs a Fee Farme Rent of ten pounds per annum and the power of Tax or Tallage or improving what he had granted unto them when he should have occasion to make a Taxe or Tallage upon all his Demesne Lands in England And untill Rents were racked of which the Kings of England and the Officers of their Revenue in land were seldom or never yet much guilty that Rents were improved as high as the profits of Lands all the Lands of England except the Copihold Customary lands by Fines certain the curtesie of time and their Landlords suffering their good will and charity to be reduced into thankless customs escaped it were liable to be made contributaries to many of the necessities or occasions of the Lords of Manors who formerly did not make Leases and take Fines to lessen the rents as they doe now by a high rate or rule of interest and disadvantages procuring their rents to be advanced as it were in the name of a Fine before hand nor if the Lands were holden in Capite by Knight service untill time and their Princes favours had disused it could make a Lease unto any Tenant of such Lands but by licence and then also for no longer a term then 3. or 7. years And their Lands and Rents except Capite and knight-Knight-service and Copihold land and lands in Frank Almoigne being capable of no higher Rents or improvement cannot now be any more by them Tallied which in effect is but a calling for more rent or raising it which every Landlord may do where his Tenants are at Will or when their Leases are expired when they are now all but those Lands before excepted as to the King and the mesne Lords and the Lands of the Freeholders and Cop holders at the utmost or a very high rent And such Tallage is at this day not laid aside by our Neighbours of France in very many places were les Tailles se paient par ceuz du Tiers estat c'est a dire par les habitans
Roturiers des Villes non Franches Bourgs Villages a proportion des biens du Taillable sans qu ' il ait estè besoin d' asembler les Estats pour ce suiet those kind of Taxes are paid by the third Estate or Commonalty that is to say by the Inhabitants or common people of the Towns and Boroughts not infranchised or freed from it by the King according to the proportion of their goods or moveables without any assembly of the Estates to that purpose except in Languedoc Provence Burgogne Daulphine and Brittaine where when the King and his Councel have resolved what the Tailles shall be les terres immeubles seulement sont Taillables the lands and immoveables only are tailleable and their near friends the Scots did long agoe so well like of gratitude as they enacted and held it to be a good Law that Lands holden in few Ferme pay and ane certain zierly dewty nomine Feudi Firme may be recognosced be the Superior for none payment of the few dewtie and that twa maner of waies the first ex provisione naturae contractus by operation of law and the nature of the contract for the few Fermorer not pay and his few Ferme for his ingratitude and unthankfulnes Tinis and forfaltis his few Ferme be the disposition of the Law quhilk as zit was not in practique and use in Scotland And the English Landlords were so unwilling to part with any priviledges which brought them in any power gain or profit as where they held any of the Kings antient Demesnes in Fee Farme and the King did cause his antient Demesnes to be Tallied the Lord or Fee Farmer under him would sue forth the Kings writ commanding the Sheriff that in case the lands were auntient Demeasne hucusque consueverit Talliari and was untill then accustomed to be Tallied that rationabile Tallagium ei habere faceret de libere Tenentibus suis in manerio praedicto sicut prius fieri consuevit he should cause the Freeholders of the said Manor to pay unto their Lord such reasonable Tallage as was accustomed And with as much or more reason were the Pourveyances or Compositions for them allowed and established as the hitherto never complained of in Parliament or accompted to be grievances Herezelda Herriot services or Herriots which Skene an Author of great authority amonst the Scots defineth to be gratuitae donationes quae ab husbando seu agricola datur domino suo ratione dominij reverentiae the free gifts or remunerations of the Tenants to their Lords in the reverence and respect which they bear unto them Which the Hollanders those grand contesters for Liberties doe call Laudemia and notably increase their small Revenues in lands with them And in England saith the learned Spelman Non nisi post mortem husbandi solvitur is only paid after the death of the Tenant and differs from a Reliefe for that a Reliefe is in case of Inheritance but an Herriot in a lesser Estate as for life c. and being formerly and in the Saxon times of a greater value by the giving or paying to their Lords Shields Swords Spears Helmets Horses furnished and money according to the several qualities and estates of the Tenants have been since by the example and indulgence of our Princes imitated by the Nobility and Gentry reduced to the best horse or beast and if none to the best houshold stuffe but so greedily attached or seldome remitted by the Landlords as the poor mans single Ewe Lamb in the parable of the Prophet Nathan to David or a Cow which should give the lamenting Wife and Children some nourishment and sustenance are seldome able to escape their Bailiffes or such as are sent to fetch them And if it be reason for the people to make such payments and contributions and observe such respects to their Landlords and subordinate Governors or Superiors as much and greater surely ought they to pay unto their Pater Patriae the protector and defender as well of those that receive those duties as of those that pay them and are and should be enough to awaken and rouze up their gratitudes and imprint in their memories the never enough to be requited benefits and blessings received by our Kings and Princes as much as if with a forfeiture upon the not doing or observing those Agreements they had been as strongly annexed and incorporated into our Lands and Estates as that of the Service or Conditions of Lands given to hold by the Tenures of Knight service which as some Civilians hold ipsi sanguini cohaerent are inherent in the very blood of the Tenants which being the most noble gentile rich and better sort of the people were when the Pourveyance was in being the most fit and likeliest to be charged with the Payments or Contributions towards it and were therefore in several Kings Reigns sometimes singly and often charged with publick Ayds or Taxes and very much more then other of the people as twenty shillings for every Knights Fee granted by Parliament to King Richard the first six and twenty shillings eight pence for every Knights Fee to King John and as much at another time to him towards his Warres in Wales twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee towards his Voyage into Normandy and forty shillings at another time and as much twice assessed in the Reigns of King Henry the third towards his Warres in Gascony twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee by Henry the fourth the Warres in Scotland by King Edward the first and Edward the second and of France by King Edward the third and the personal and chargeable services of most of the Nobility and Gentry therein probably procuring them some relaxation of not having their Fees or Lands so charged as formerly And besides other incidents belonging thereunto are by the Fewdists said to be so more then ordinarily tied up unto gratitudes and the more especiall duties and obligations thereof as such a Tenant forfeits his Lands in Fee Si percipiat magnum periculum domino imminere ultrò sine requisitione servicium non offert if he perceived any danger imminent or likely to happen to his Lord and did not of his own accord offer his service to prevent it or if his Lord were a Captive or in prison ought to contribute towards his redemption or if he should happen to fall into distress was to relieve him as farre say some of the Fewdall Laws which by stipulation or paction being not at the first agreed upon or included in the General words of defending the Lord and his Dignity was with many other their gratefull observances afterwards particularized and deduced from such customes as gratitude only had in process of time introduced and as much as amounted unto the Moiety of one years Rent or si dominum in acie periclitantem deseruerit if he left his Lord in the field and was ingratefull And by our Laws of England if
he or his heirs did not unto the Lord or any of his Heirs of whom the Lands were holden his services within two years was upon a Cessavit per Biennium brought by the Lord and no sufficient distress to be found to forfeit the Lands so holden And from no other source or original was derived Escuage for the Tenants by Knight service not attending the King or their Lords in the wars which as Littleton saith was because the Law intendeth and understood it that the lands were at the first for that end freely given them whence also came the Aide to make the eldest Sonne of the King a Knight and to marry the eldest Daughter and the like assistances or duties unto the mesne Lords as gratefull acknowledgements for the Lands holden of them which the Freeholders in Socage are likewise not to deny and were not at the first by any Agreement betwixt the King and his particular Tenants nor likely to be betwixt the mesne Lords and their Tenants when the Lands were given them for that some of the mesne Lords might probably be without Sonne or Daughter or both or any hopes to have any when they gave their Lands and their Grants doe frequently mention pro homagio servicio in consideration only of homage and service to be done And being called auxilia sive adjutoria Aids or Assistances to their Lords who could not be then in any great want of such helps when the portions of Daughters were very much in vertue and little in mony and the charges of making the eldest Son a Knight the King in those dayes bestowing upon all or many of them some costly Furres Robes and the other charges consisting in the no great expences of the furnishing out the young Gentleman to receive the then more martial better used and better esteemed honour of Knighthood were reckoned by Bracton in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the third inter consuetudines quae serviciae non dicuntur nec concomitantia serviciorum sicut sunt rationabilia auxilia amongst those customes which are not understood to be services nor incidents thereof if they be reasonable But were de gratia ut Domini necessitas secundum quod major esset vel minor relevium acciperet and proceeded from the good will of the Tenants to help their Lords as their occasions or necessities should require Et apud exteros saith Sir Henry Spelman non solum ad collocandas sorores in matrimonium sed ad fratres etiam Juniores milites faciendos And with some forreign Nations as the Germans old Sicilians and Neapolitans not only towards the marriage of the Sisters of their Lords but to make also their younger Sons Knights For the good will and gratefull retorns of the Subjects to their Kings and Princes and of the Tenants to their Lords were not only since the Norman Conquest but long before practised and approved by the Britains the elder and most antient Inhabitants of this our Island and other world as is manifest by the Ebidiu or Tributum paid per Nobilium haeredes Capitali provinciae domino the Heirs of the Nobility or great men after the death of their Ancestors to the Lords or chief of the Province like unto as Sir Henry Spelman saith our relief which Hottoman termeth Honorarium a free gift or offering And that learned Knight found upon diligent enquiry amongst the Welch who by the sins of their forefathers and injury of the Saxons are now contented to be called by that name as Strangers in that which was their own Country that that Ebidiu was paid at a great rate non solum è praediis Laicis sed etiam Ecclesiasticis not only by the Laity but the Church-men And being not discontinued amongst the Saxons was besides the payment of Reliefs attended with other gifts and acknowledgements of superiority as well as thanks for Gervasius Tilburiensis in the Reign of King Henry the second when the people of England had not been so blessed and obliged as they were afterwards with the numberless Gifts Grants and Liberties which in the successive Reigns of seventeen Kings and Queens after preceding our now King and Soveraign were heaped upon them found oblata presents gifts or offerings to the King to be a well approved Custome and therefore distinguished them into quaedam in rem quaedam in spem some before hand for hopes of future favours and others for liberties or other things given and granted by the King and the Fine Rolles of King John and Henry the third his Son will shew us very many Oblata's or Free-will Offerings of several kinds which were so greatly valued and heeded as King Henry the third and his Barons in or about the 23 year of his Reign which was thirteen or fourteen years after his confirming of Magna Charta did in the bitter prosecution and charge of Hubert de Burgo Earl of Kent and chief Justice of England demand an Accompt de donis xeniis of gifts and presents amongst which Carucagii or carriages were numbred spectantibus ad Coronam appertaining to the Crown And upon that and no other ground were those reasonable Lawes or Customes founded that the King might by the Laws of England grant a Corody which Sir Henry Spelman ex constitut Sicul. lib. 3. Tit. 18. defineth to be quicquid obsonii superiori in subsidium penditur provisions of victuals made for superiors Et ad fundatores Monasteriorum and to the Founders of every Monastry though by the Constitutions of Othobon the Popes Legat in the Reign of King Henry the third the Religious of those houses were forbidden to grant or suffer any to be granted or allowed è communi jure spectabat corrodium in quovis suae fundationis monasterio nisi in libera Eleemosina fundaretur it belonged of common right to grant a Corrody in any Religious houses of their foundation if not founded in Franke Almoigne disposuit item Rex in beneficium famulurom suorum corrodium c. likewise the King might grant to any of his houshold servants a Corrody in any houses of the foundation of the Kings of England and as many were in all by them granted as one hundred and eleaven which that learned Knight conceived to be an argument that so many of the Monasteries were of their foundation Et issint de common droit saith the learned Judge Fitzherbert in his Natura Brevium and also of Common Right the King ought to have a reasonable Pension out of every Bishoprick in England and Wales for his Chaplain untill the Bishop should promote him to a fitting Benefice Which if the compositions for Pourveyances being reduced into contracts and a lawfull custome were or should be no other then gratitudes may be as commendable and necessary as those well approved Examples of thankfulness recorded in holy writ of Abrahams giving King Abimelech Sheep and Oxen
Capiti cordique suo oppitulari debeat precipue ad dignitatem Regiam Regnique auhoritatem publicam tuendam cum ut membrum particeps fit gloriae qua Caput fruitur every subject ought to assist his King as he would do his own head and heart and more especially to maintain and defend his Kingly dignity and authority for that every member in the body pertakes of the good and honor which the head enjoyes That it cannot be for the good or happiness of subjects to necessitate the power of their Prince or enforce him to try how far it can extend or prevail to free himself from wants or pressures incumbent upon him when as common observation can tell us that small Brooks or Rivolets being stopt or obstructed in their creeping Maeanders or way unto the greater Rivers who are to conduct and lead them into the great assembly or collection of waters will go out of their former gentleness and either inforce a passage by inundations or break their way through all the Barricadoes which can be made to restrain them and that the more they are endeavored to be restrained the more they do rage and easily overcame and bear down before them all that can come in the way of their combined fury stirred up and heightned by the necessities which were put upon them That a want of Revenue in a King to discharge common and ordinary necessaries makes necessitatem invincibilem violentam which saith Aristotle proposito electioni prohibet obstat such an irresistable and violent necessity as it enforceth that which was never intended nor would otherwise have been done which the Wisdom Spirit of God in the vision which he shewed unto the Prophet Ezekiel of the building order of the Holy City the Revenues of the Prince held fit to prevent by a competent Revenue That Armies do notwithstanding all the cares and commands of their Generals and the severest Laws and Discipline of war prohibiting spoil rapine or plundering break out for want of pay and necessaries into all manner of disorders and oppressions and that we need not enquire of the days of old or the Ages past of the numberless mischiefs and inconveniences which have inevitably followed the wants of Princes and the effects of power put on or let loose by necessities And may sadly remember that the people of England denying the late blessed King and Martyr his Customes of Tonnage and Poundage did not onely put him and the cause of his Protestant Allies and friends into many disadvantages for want of those aides which he would otherwise have been enabled to give them and enforced him to fall short of his desires and intentions therein but to give way to many of his craving Scots and wanting servants to take in the assistance of his Royal Prerogative and stretch it further then ever he intended That notwithstanding all the care which he could take that such grants and letters Patents should not transgress or go beyond the bounds of the Law and the right reason and use of it and did upon the granting of many of those Patents cause the Patentees to become bound in Recognizances of great penalties to surrender up their grants and letters Patents if at any time he or his Councel should equiâ—e it And had of his own accord in the year 1639. and 1640. by his Proclamation called in above thirty of such Patents and Commissions as either had been or were likely to be grievances unto the people and in the beginning of that long and unhappy Parliament had graciously condescended to th annulling or abolition of all that did but resemble grievances or were but likely to produce them And that those Letters Patents Commissions and Grants which were called Projects and Innovations were invented and promoted by many Citizens Tradesmen Gentlemen others who being none of the Kings servants did court and wo the Kings Prerogative unto it and busily employed some of the Kings servants to go shares with them in the gain or profit thereof none or very little whatsoever was pretended coming to the King or his Treasury began with the necessities which a causeless discontented part of the people did most unadvisedly and undutifully put upon their King whom they would not suffer to be at any rest untill he had ingaged himself and his Allies in a war with Spain and the then greatly prevailing house of Austria for the recovery of the Palatinate and to make a breach with France for the relief of Rochel and the Hugonots and left him afterwards in the midst of the troubles expence and danger thereof without any aid or assistance to go through as well as he could with it And may now understand how much better it had been to have acquiesced in the many precedents and authorities of the Kings just and legal power of sending his writs to the Cinque ports and many maritime Towns Counties many if not all of whom were by Tenure or Custom in lieu of many liberties priviledges granted unto them by the Kings Royal Progenitors which they do yet enjoy to send or furnish out a certain number of Ships as their own charges when the King should have any publick occasion or necessity to have continued the Kings most just ancient rights and regalities in his Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which by Land together with a fixed certain aid of Shipping contributed by the Cinque Ports and Maritime Towns and Counties would together with his Commissions of Array have enabled him upon a short warning never to have wanted most puissant and gallant Armies and Forces both by Land and by Sea consisting not of hirelings and strangers but such as would have fought pro Aris Focis for their own as well as their Princes interest and would not easily turn their backs betray or fly from their Wives and Children and their own Estates then to put the King for want of them to a yearly charge of no less than eight hundred thousand pounds per annum by Sea and by Land for the peace security honour of the Nation which did not before cost the late King fourscore thousand pounds per Annum Or to be charged with an everlasting Excise as to the moiety of the Excise of Ale Beer Sider Perry c. which did noâ— the last year amount unto more than one hundred five thousand pounds per annum in recompence of the yearly profits of the Kings Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service and what he looseth by his want of Pourveyance and Compositions for them both which did yearly amount unto a far greater benefit what an ill bargain both the King and the people have by the laying by of the one and granting the other how small an advantage the people got by their heretofore invisible Keepers of their Liberties who did all they could to keep them from them or by Oliver their
great Talbots or as the Prior of Canterbury did of his Tenants who in every Manor were bound ex antiqua consuetudine providere Priori ibidem de quodam Palifrido competenti tempore novae creations suoe by ancient custome to present the Prior at his election or first admittance a Palfrey fitting for him Or which the Prior of Rochester did of his Tenants of the Mannor of Haddenham in the County of Buckingham who by ancient custome in the eighteenth yeer of the raign of King Edward the third were to Mow and make the Lords Hey Weed his grain in his demesnes pay certain Rent Corn called Booting Corn and five hundred threescore and three Eggs at Easter which in Anno 18 H. 6. were by an agreement made with the Prior of Rochester released for the sum of three pounds and an increase of Rent from thence forward viz. for every Yard land twelve pence every half yard land six pence every Cotland eight pence and every worthy some Tenants so called four pence which is to this day paid and continued And being besides obliged by their customes to the works and services following viz. That every Tenant holding a yard land and the Tenants of two half yard lands ought to plough the Demeasne lands of the Lord two days in the year viz. in Winter and in Lent for which they were to have their dinner allowed by the Lord every Tenant holding a yard land ought in harvest upon a flesh day as also upon a Fish day to be assigned by the Reeve or Bailiff to find two able persons every holder of a half yard every Cotland or Cottogea and every worthy ought to finde the same day one able and lawful person with Hooks or Sickles to reap the Lords Grain in his Demeasnes for which they were to have their dinner allowed them at the charge of the Lord or his Farmer every yard land ought to carry half a quarter of the Lords grain to Oxford being about twelve miles distant to Wallingford neer as much or to Wickham being about ten miles distant being Market Towns near adjoyning to Haddenham and all the Carriers were to have one penny in common to drink the morrow they ought not to work every yard land ought to carry to Marlow eleven quarter of Grain of antient measure at three tearms of the year to be quit from all things by six weeks after and to carry the Lords grain from his demeasnes into his Barn from the furthest field four loads from Dillicot field six loads and if they carry nearer then all the day if it please the Lord also if the Lord shall buy Wood every Yard land ought to carry two loads of Wood from the place into the Lords Yard so it be ready to carry before the Feast of St. Michael otherwise each Yard land should onely carry a horse load so as they may in one day go and return and all that week they should remain quiet likewise if the Lord should build houses he ought to buy Tymber and the men viz. his Coppyholders ought to bring it home viz. each hide every day one Load untill the whole be carryed so as they may in one day go and return also if it please the Lord to send for fish four hides ought to be summoned and two shall go for fish to Gloucester which is about six and thirty miles from thence and other two shall carry it to Rochester upon their own cost and they should remain quiet until they return all the Cotterels and worthy Tenants ought to wash the Sheep of the Lord and to sheer them and fully to perform all thereunto belonging and have nothing therefore and if a theif should be taken in the liberty of the Lord the Cotterel Tenants should keep him And were so due and of so long a continuance as though the Tenants some few onely excepted which would not pertake of the Composition and are still contented to do their work and carriage services did upon a reference made by King James to Henry Earl of Manchester Lord President of his Councel in Anno 1624. to hear and determine the differences betwixt Sir Henry Spiller then Lord of the said Mannor and the Tenants concerning that and other matters within a short time after viz. in the first year of the raign of King Charles the Martyr agree for a Release of the said services not acquitted in Anno 18 H. 6. to pay yeerly unto the Lord of the Mannor and his heirs after the rate of three pence for every Acre and a penny for every Messuage or Cotage which had no land belonging unto it Or as many the like beneficial customes and priviledges at this day enjoyed by the Lords of some thousands or more of Mannors in England which beloned unto the Abbies and Religious houses for which they have quit Rents or other payments not unlike the Compositions for the Royal Pourveyance Or that the Steward of the Kings house should not if the Kings Pourveyance and Prae-emption had not been remitted by Act of Parliament have authority to do as much as the Steward of the Kings house did about the eighteenth year of the Raign of King Edward the second notwithstanding so great priviledges immunities and exemptions granted and confirmed to the City of London command that no Fishmonger upon pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of his goods and chattels should go out of the City to forestall any Sea or fresh fish or send them to any great Lord or Religious house or any person whatsoever nor keep from coming to Town untill the hour appointed for selling be past untill the Kings Achators or Pourveyers should have made their Pourveyance to the use of the King Or that the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Richard the first did not onely give to many Religious houses as to the Priory of Royston in Cambridgeshire divers exemptions and priviledges to be free from Carriages c. but de Regalium domorum aedificatione ac omnimoda operatione of works towards the repair or building of the Kings houses Ac ut silvae eorum ad praedicta opera aut ad aliqua alia nullo modo capiantur that their Woods or Timber should not be cut or taken for that or any other purpose and whose other Royal Progenitors have abundantly furnished diverse Abbies Religious houses with priviledges to be free of Carriage by Carts Summage upon horses de Thesauro ducendo Convoy of the Kings Treasure de operationibus Castellorum Pontium Parcorum Murorum work to be done in the building or repairs of Castles Bridges or Walls de vaccarum solutione quae dari solebant pro Capitibus utlagatorum and the payment of certain Cows or Cattel to redeem the forfeitures of Outlaws and exemptions from payment of Fumage or Chimny money Lestage or licence to carry away from Markets what they had bought or in release or discharge of customes such as at Beleshale in
that valiant Saxon King and his own and others treachery gained and gotten to himself the whole Kingdome murdered Edmond Ironsides kindred and friends denied his children their fathers right in the Kingdom of the West Sexes banished them deprived his Cousin Olaus of the Kingdome of Norway and acting an haughty and domineering Tyranny thought his Prerogative to be so boundless that he took it ill that the Sea which is only commanded by him that stilleth the raging waves and rideth upon the wings of the wind did not adore his feet and run back like the river Jordan and having Demeasns Provisions enough of his own for the maintenance of his Houshold and lazy and unruly Lourdanes did in a contrivance of some ease to the people in small or less considerable matters the better to please them and assure his new Dominions sapientum adhibito Consilio by advice of his Parliament or Councill in Anno 1010. ut quo prius opprimabatur onere populum liberaret that they might be freed from the burden with which as he said they were formerly oppressed amongst other things by a Law Order and Command his Officers as the learned Mr. Lambard hath out of the old English or Saxon published it ut ex aratione praediis suis propriis quae sibi fuerunt ad victum necessaria suppeditent neque alius quisquam victui sui adjumenta praestare invitus cogatur atque si eorum aliquis hoc nomine mulctam petierit is proprii capitis estimationem Regi dependito that out of his own Demeasnes they should provide necessaries for his Houshold and that none be compelled to furnish any provisions And if any of his Officers should impose any penalty upon them for not furnishing such provisions he should himself forfeit or pay a great sum of money amounting to near as much as he was worth But as John Bromton who wrote in the Reign of King Edward the third hath recited that Law it doth something differ from that which Mr. Lamberd hath mentioned and is only in these words praecipio praepositis meis omnibus ut in proprio meo lucrentur inde mihi serviant nemo cogatur ad firmae adjutorium aliquid dare nisi sponte sua velit all his Reeves or Officers were commanded that they should make the best profit they could of the Kings Lands for his use and that no man should be compelled to add or pay any thing more then his Rent or Farme unless he should do it of his own accord Et si quis aliquem inde gravabit werae sua Reus sit erga Regem and if any should disturb them therein they should forfeit and pay a Fine to the King And that Law or Edict or Proclamation rather then a Law taken as it is either in Bromton or Lambard was but only intended as the title and body of it signifieth de victu ex praediis regis concerning his Tenants in his own Lands and Demeasnes and any provisions to be made by them over and above their Rents but did not discharge Cart-taking or other parts of the Royal Pourveyance in his own Demeasnes nor extended to any Lands or people other then the Kings own Demeasnes and can signifie no more then his desire to spare the Tenants of his own Lands from being charged with any provisions for his House who as Sir Edward Coke saith in his Comment or Annotations upon Magna Charta and the Statutes of Articuli super Chartas being the Kings Tenants in antient Demeasne have ever since enjoyed many great priviledges as to be free from payment of Toll paying of wages to the Knights of the Shire which serve in Parliament and the like And were by speciall priviledge granted by William the Conqueror to have upon Judgements obtained against any that did them wrong double the forfeitures and penalties or damage which were to be adjudged to any other And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mr. Somner saith in his Glossary victum propriè sonans signifying only some provision of victuals reserved it is not likely that the firmae adjutorium in Bromtons Translation of that Law or Edict of King Canutus could be meant or expounded that no provisions should at all be paid for then it would have signified the whole Rents to have been acquitted if no moneys had been used to have been paid together with provisions Or if as the judicious Sir Hen. Spelman saith the word Farme doth import tam redditus pecuniarias ex elocatis provenientes quam Annonarias as well for rent in money as corn and other provisions for housekeepings pro caena prandio corrodio convivio epulis et omni mensae apparatu sumitur and is taken for a Corrody Supper Dinner Feast or any other provision to furnish the Table and that some money and some provisions were paid for their Rents it remains a doubt what that favour intended by Canutus his Law or Edict should be interpreted to be or how much of that Kings provisions towards the keeping and maintenance of his house were by him remitted or if it shall be understood to have been only in alba firma quae argento penditur non pecude only in money which if at all was very seldome used in those times that also must be denied to have been either the meaning or practise of that Law or Edict of Canutus when as the Tenants of the Crown have been found to have paid their provisions for Housekeeping in Edward the Confessors reign before the Conquest and after in the reigns of William the Conqueror William Rufus and part of the reign of Henry the first so as the way to get out of it will be in all probability to understand it to be no otherwise then a foâ—bidding the rapines and the outragious taking of the peoples Cattel Corn and Provisions by his unruly Danes who had so lately been invading and plundering enemies and were scarcely denizend For in the same Parliament we find his Law that Dona potionis honoraria aliaque debita Dominis officia in suo semper statu immutato manerent honorary oblations or customes for drink with other duties of Tenants to their Lords should continue as formerly and remain unchangeable And the Customes of England afterwards extant and to be found in old Charters and Doomsday book do accordingly often mention Bordland to find provisions for the Lords Houses or Tables droâ—Droâ—land to drive their Caâ—tel to Fairs Markets c. Berland to bear or carry provision of victuals or the like for them or their Stewards in their remove from place to place Poâ—ura or Drinklan or Scot ale a Contribution by Tenants towards a â—otation Drinking or an Ale provided to entertain the Lord or his Steward coming to keep his Courts Gavel Malt Gavel Corn ad deferâ—endum cariandum ad costas expensas tenentium usque ad granarium and to carry it at
should be assessed by the said Clerk of the Market in avoiding her Highness displeasure and further punishment at her Graces pleasure Which as to the enforcing of reasonable rates and pâ—ises for victuals and houshold provisions was no more then that which all Maiors and Bailiffs of Cities Boroughs Merchant Towns and others and of the Ports of the Sea and other places are by the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. cap. 6. authorised to doe and is to be given in charge and inquired of by the Justices of Peace of every County at their Quarter Sessions For if by the rules of Reason Policie and Prudence it was alwayes adjudged to be necessary and profitable for the people in general that the King or Prince should restrain them from deceiving or oppressing one another or not permit the cunning false or richer part of the people to deceive and put what rates or prises they please or can heighten and invent upon the plain dealing honest simple hearted poor and necessitous part of them but should rather resist the Nimrods Tormentors of them and by putting them into some method of righteousness imitate the care and designs of the Almighty to succour relieve and help the poor and needy And that it can never be for the good of the Nation so to encourage the evils and deceitfulnes of mens hearts one towards another as to suffer every one to hatch or spawn as many cheating and cozening tricks perjuries deceipts and false or aequivocal oathes as they can possibly or under a counterfeit shew of godliness make contrive and invent to blind deceive delude or oppress one another or to be like Cut-purses Jews Bandities Wild Arabs or crafty deceitfull Bannyans to the well-doing as well as well-meaning little part of the people or like Rooks cawing wrangling and making a noyse in the trees make it their perpetual business when they are not asleep to steal and filch away one anothers Nests and provisions and being guilty of as bad themselves to be in a perpetuall watch of keeping as well as they can their own whilest they are busie in stealing from others or to make old England to be a Country of Rooks and Jackdaws It cannot be certainly adaequate to any rule of Justice that the King who is to make it his daily care to provide peace plenty and benefits for all his Subjects regulates by his Magistrates and Officers rates and prices of victuals at Markets and Fairs moderates and abates such as are excessive and unreasonable and by Law may seize as forfeit the Court Leets of Lords of Manors for not providing Pillories to punish offending Bakers and ordaineth by his Laws that every Lord or other having the priviledge of a Market shall forfeit it if he have not a Clerk of the Market to look unto it should provide blessings for every one but himself and partake of none or very little of them and that his Subjects should not be at liberty to cozen and oppress one another and yet every man should be at liberty and make it his designe and business to cozen and lay burdens upon him which would be as little for the good of the body politick as it would be in the body natural to wear the head downward and make it to be subservient to the business and humor of the ignoble and less to be taken care of parts of the body Or to give liberty not only in a Siege or publick necessity like that of Samaria but at all other times unto as many as will like the gain or content of it to be as Bears and Wolves one to another and by hardening of their hearts and oppressing one another make a Wilderness and Desert in our Land of Canaan which if well ordered flows with more then milk and honey and by reason of an universall pride ingrossing enhauncing and cheating to maintain it cause a dearth when there may be a plenty And reducing him thereby into the condition of the King of Israel in that Siege when an Asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver and the fourth part of a kab of Doves dung for five pieces of silver enforce him to answer as he did the woman which cryed unto him Help my Lord O King if the Lord doe not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the Barn floor or out of the Wine-presse Or that the King when he shall as the King of Israel did in an unseasonable and dry year search the Land for grass to save the peoples horses mules and beasts alive should let his own not pertake of his cares but perish whilst he mittigates unjust and unconscionable rates and prices in the Markets beÌ„ himself exposed to all manner of unconscionable and deceitfull dealings Which his just and alwaies until now allowed right of Praeemption which heretofore made the Kings provision for his houshold when it was bought in the Markets or Fairs to be much cheaper then what were bought upon the vie or endeavours who should give most to purchase it at such unreasonable prices as the Sellers could strain or scrue them unto And the Commissions not seldome made by his Royal Progenitors to the Sheriffs and other Officers and Magistrates which had the delegated power of Assise and Correction of Markets and unreasonable prices and the rating of them to make his houshold provisions and where the Pourveyors and the owners could not otherwise agree were to be rated and ascertained as some Acts of Parliament and Statutes have appointed by Constables and some honest men of their Neighbourhood upon their oaths which cannot be supposed to make or admit them to be high or immoderate together with a due regulation of the Markets by the Clerks of the Markets and that care with the Law enjoyneth the Lords of Manors in their Court Leets the Sheriffs in their Tornes the Justices of Peace of every Countie and the Magistrates of every City and Towns Corporate to take in the supressing of unreasonable prices Forestallers Ingrossers and Regrators which are no small part of the causes of them would have prevented or greatly lessened And the Markets would not have risen to that excess of price which is now heavily complained of and every where to be met with by the sleepiness or sluggishness of Magistrates and Justices of the Peace neglect of their oathes and duties which are too often and easily obliterated or put out of memory by sprinkling or dipping them in the waters of some Lethe or Oblivion or by some unrighteous or unbecoming partialties connivance and kindness to their Neighbours and friends or such as they would make to be their friends a timerousness or unwillingness to displease or irritate such as are or may be their enemies or the allurements and temptation of their own Interests in letting their Lands at the rack or very much dearer then it was when the Kings price or compositions were agreed upon and by tentering the Tenants Rents
enforce them in requital thereof and care of themselues to stretch as much or more the prices of their Cattel and Commodities because their Landlords were insatiable and did never think their Rents high enough raised as long as they could find any pretences to raise them higher or any one to give them the utmost penny when they should not be able to pay their Rents maintain their wives and children and have some little comfort or incouragement by their honest labours unless they should as much as they could make every thing as dear as they could and imitate or exceed them All which combining and strongly confederating together his mersere malis have brought many an evil upon the Kingdome made our Atlas burthen much the heavier the poorer sort of the people to be greatly impoverished and devoured like sheep and the landed and richer part like the Israelites with Quails in their mouths murmurring in the midst of their peace and plenty and thinking that to be thanks enough for them and all their Mannah And like those which distempering their bodies and breeding and causing their own diseases are unwilling to acknowledge themselves to be the Authors of what they complain of but would willingly make the aire and heavenly influences to be in the fault and when they make the high wayes the fowler by their own travailing and riding in them and the worse for the next that shall come after them will lament the deepness or foulness of them Or as Landlords which can grievously complain and wonder at the high rates of Flesh Fish Corn Butter Cheese and other houshold provisions at the Markets when the enhauncing of their own pride extravagancies and profit to maintain them and sequestring themselves from the virtues and hospitalitie of their more beloved and honored Ancestors when they have any thing to buy themselves will not as they should lay the blame upon their own letting their Lands by exact and strict measures of the Acres Rods and Perches to the utmost rack and farthing and in many places by as much indiscretion as unconscionableness apportion and limit the wood which the Tenants are to burn or use by the loads as if it were something more pretious or to be brought by degrees to be weighed by the pound or ownces and will have more rent many times to be paid for it then can possibly be made of it with as many nomine paenes and impossible to be kept Covenants and restrictions as hard-hearted curiosity and diffidence can contrive and invent to the sometimes ruine or great losses of the Tenants in their endeavours to improve and make their Farms yeild as much as their Rents doe amount unto which necessitates them to sell every thing which they have to sell at the highest rates And by so letting their Lands at the highest rent and ten times higher then their Grandfathers some only few good and worshipfull imitators of their Progenitors virtues excepted or as much as can be gotten are not only the greatest cause of the enhaunching of all prices of provisions but by making another as great an advantage to themselves Do when as they do not pay Rents as their Tenants doe for the Lands out of which they raise their commodities add to the prejudice of the Buyers by holding of them up to the rates and humour of the Markets and getting as much as they can possible for what they themselves do sell and send to the Markets And by such or the like profitable and beneficiall customes which are sweet in the mouth or unto the taste but may be bitter in the stomach or digestion of making their benefits by the losses or oppression of the Buyers which at the Markets with those reckoned and included which are at home and to be fed with what is bought or brought from thence are forty for one that are sellers and those that have either Lands of their own or at a Rent are not one in every twenty for those which have not have very much enlarged their own Estates and impoverished the Commonalty Wherefore all those of our Nation which like the wanton at last unhappy Sybarites now troubled with a great deal more under a slavish government and dominion of the Turks then the crowing of the Cocks in the night time to disturb their sweet sleeps or repose which once they were so foolish as to account an inconvenience would but summon in their consciences and a right understanding of causes and effects to the Tribunal of reason and observe the dictates of that and common right The Praeemption which was never used to be denied to praeheminence but alwayes attended it as an insepeperable Concomitant and Consequence and so esteemed to be rational as the rude and unmannerly Dutch with their heads in a piece of a Rug and their good manners running out of their knees can afford it to the lowest rank of their Heeren self-created Lords or States or to a Schepen or Sindic Sheriffe or Recorder of a Town would not be found to be a grievance and where any Priviledges as there ought to be many are associate and incorporate with Soveraign Majesty the King of England under whose grants and allowance only every Seller as well as Buyer at Fairs and Markets claims and enjoyes the liberty of buying and selling should not himself be unkindly used or his Pourveyors debarred the liberty of a first Buyer which was in Anno 720. or thereabouts understood to be so necessary and inherent to Kingly authority and Supereminence the reverence respect and duty belonging unto it and a priviledge so just and reasonable and becoming Subjects to be well contented with and the Regality of Kings not to part with as King Ina one of our Saxon Kings did by a Law prohibit Fore Fang or Captio Obsâ—niâ—rum quae in Foris aut Nundinis ab aliquo fit priusquam Minister Regis ea caeperit quae Regi fuerint necessaria the taking or buying of houshold prouisions by others in Fairs or Markets before the Kings Minister or Pourueyor took those things which were necessary for the King the words of that Law as the learned Sir Henry Spelman hath in the Version rendred them de Fore fang 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Saxon signifying ante or before and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prendere or to take i. e. de preventione decrevimus per totam Angliam quod idem judicium teneri debet We ordain that this Law of Prevention or Praeemption be firmly holden throughout all England And is more fit to be allowed unto the King whose just Rights and Jurisdictions every man is sworn or ought to swear to maintain and defend If there were no fifth commandement in being or any other Praecept in Scripture to honour and obey the King then unto Lords of Manors having Markets and Fairs belonging unto them or the Lord Maior or Sheriffs of London or the Magistrates of any other City or Town Corporate in England
for a greater observance is certainly to be tendered unto the King even in that particulâ—r of Praeemption which may well be believed by all that are not Quakers whose Tenants all the people of England are mediately or immediately by some or other Tenure Then that which is usually done to Lords of Manors Justices of Peace or Country Gentlemen by their Tenants or poorer sort of Neighbours who if they chance to catch any Woodcocks or Partridges in any of those Gentlemens Lands will bring them to their â—ouses to sell at such cheap and easie rates as they shall please to give for them and if which seldome happens they should carry them to the Markets and not thither are sure enough to be chid for it and crossed and denied in any greater matter which they shall have to doe with them And is but that or a little more curtesie which Butchers Fishmongers and other Tradesmen selling victualls or provisions in great quantities and all the year or often unto their constant Customers will not for their own ends fail to doe or neglect or to sell unto them at easier rates then unto others and find themselves to be many times no loosers by it insomuch as some have lately well afforded to sell to a constant Customer for great quantities at the same rate it was 40 or 60 years before And the Compositions of the Counties for Pourveyance to serve in Beefe Mutton Poultry Corn Malt and other provisions for the Kings Houshold and the maintenance and support of it at a more cheaper rate then the Markets yeild which when they were first set was but the Market rate or a little under long agoe made and agreed upon by the greater Officers of the Kings Houshold and some Justices of Peace in every County and easily and equally taxed and laid upon the whole and not upon any particular man which was poor or of a small Estate not fit to bear it May be with as much and more reason allowed and chearfully submitted unto as those many now called quit rents or Rent services which the most of our Nobility Gentry and others not for some few of them doe yet hold some of their Tenants to their antient and reasonable Customes doe receive and their Tenants easily and willingly pay for their several sorts of â—apola Gavels or Tributes charged upon their Lands before and since the Conquest in Kent a County recounting with much comfort of their many Priviledges and beneficiall Customes and most parts of England as Gavel Erth to Till some part of their Landlords Ground Gavel Rip to come upon summons to help to reap their Corn Gavel Râ—d to make so many perches of hedge Gavel Swine for pawnage or feeding their Swine in the Lords Woods Gavel werk which was either Manuopera by the person of the Tenant or Carropera by his Carts or Cariages Harth-silver Chimney-money or Peter-pence which some Mesne Lords do yet receive Were Gavel in respect of Wears and Kiddels to catch Fish pitched and placed by the Sea coasts Gavel noht or Fother or Rent Foder which did signifie pabulum or alimentum ut Saxones antiqui dixerunt and comprehended all sorts of victuals or provisions as the old Saxons interpreted it for the Lord probably in his progress or passing by them and was in usage and custome in the time of Charlemaigne the Emperor about the year of our Lord 800. when the people of Italy Regi venienti in Italiam solvere tenebantur pro quo saepe etiam aestimata pecunia pendebatur were to provide Foder or provisions for the King when he came into Italy in liew of which money to the value thereof was sometimes paid and was long after taken to be so reasonable as it was by the Princes and Nobility of Italy acknowledged in an Assembly to be inter Regalia as a Prerogative due to the King And after the Conquest for Aver Land or Ouver Land carriage of the Lords Corn to Markets and Fairs or of his domestick utensils saith the learned and Judicious Mr. Somner or houshold provisions of the Lord or his Steward when they removed from one place to another sometimes by horse Average sometimes by foot Average one while within the Precinct of the Manor thence called In average and at other times without and then called Out Average whereupon such Tenants were known by the name of Avermanni or Bermanni Smiths Land holden by the service of doing the Smiths work the not performing of which several services so annexed to the said several sorts of Lands and their Tenures made them to be forfeited which though not exchanged and turned into Rents Regis ad exemplum in imitation of the indulgence and favour of King Henry the first to the Tenants of his demeasne Lands either then or shortly after but many of them as appeareth by Mr. Somner continuing in Kent to the Reign of Henry the third others to Edward the first and Edward the third and some in other places to the Reign of King Henry the sixth and in all or many of the Abbies and Religious Houses untill their dissolution in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth notwithstanding that the Lords of Manors and Leets receiving those free or quit Rents as they were called of their Freeholders and Tenants belonging unto their several Manors in lieu and recompence of those services did or ought in their Court Leets twice a year holden cause to be presented and punished any unreasonable prises for provisions or victuals sold in Markets Fairs oâ— otherwise or if they have not Leets are when they are Justices of Peace authorised to doe it and by that untill their Interests perswaded them to let their Tenants use all manner of deceipts in their Marketings and get what unreasonable prises they pleased so as they themselves might rack their Rents farre beyond former ages might have had their provisions untill this time at as low and easie rates as the Kings prouisions and Compositions were at when they were rated and set by the Justices of Peace in the severall Counties and all others of their Neighbourhood might also have enjoyed the benefit of the like rates which the Law intended them And the King may as well or better deserve and expect as many Boons or other services as the Nobility and other great men of the Kingdome doe notwithstanding many Priviledges and Indulgences granted by their more liberall Auncestors and better bestowing their bounties to their Tenants And to be furnished with Carts and Carriages at easie rates as well as the Earl of Rutland is at this day for nothing upon any removall from Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire to Haddon in Darbyshire and elsewhere from one place to another with very many Carts of his Tenants which are there called Boon Carts when as all Lords or Gentlemen of any rank place or quality in the Kingdome doe take it to be no burden or grievance to their
as they can they doe with Trumpets Drums and Musick by water in their several Barges adorned with the Banners and Arms of their Companies or Gilds conduct and attend their Lord Maior to be sworn at Westminster although the City of London and every Company in London are abundantly or very well endowed with lands of inheritance of a great yearly value and great stocks of money by Gifts and Legacies And no less reason then the imposing of a penny upon every Broad Cloth brought to sale to Blackwell-hall in London to be paid to the Chamberlain of London to the use of the City for Hallage which the Judges of the Kings Bench in Mich. Terme 32 33 Eliz. in the Chamberlain of Londons Case adjudged to be lawfull because it was as they then declared pro bono publico in regard of the benefits which the Subjects enjoyed thereby and for the maintenance of the weal publick and can not be said to be a charge to the Subject when he reaps benefit thereby and resembled it to Pontage Murage Toll and the like which as appeareth by the book of 13 H. 4.14 being reasonable the Subject will have more benefit by it then the charge amounts unto and that the Inhabitants of a Town or Parish may without any Custome make Ordinances and Bylawes for the reparation of a Church or High-wayes or any thing which is for the weal publick and in such cases the greater part shall bind all the rest And as much to be approved as the wages of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses coming to Parliaments which are taxed and levied of the Counties Cities and Boroughs some few as those which hold any Lands parcel of an Earldome or Barony only excepted and the charges of the Convocation or Clergy assessed upon the Clergy The Synodals Procurations Proxies and payments made and paid by every Minister to defray the charges of the Arch Deacons in their Visitations every year and the Bishops every three years who are enabled to recover them by the Statute of 34 and 35 of Henry the eighth cap. 19. Oblations Easter and other offerings for the further supply and maintenance of the Ministry Tributes Customes and allowances to Governors of Colonies and Plantations as Virginia New-England Barbados c. or 10 s. or some other rate given by Merchants to the Consuls at Venice Smirna Aleppo Ligorne c. towards their support to assist them in the matter of Trade and procuring Justice from the Superiors of the Territories The Pensions Admissions and Payments in the Universities and the severall Colleges and Halls therein for their support with Taxes also sometimes imposed for publick Entertainments of the King Queen Prince Chancellor of the University or some other Grandees although every Colledge and Hall is endowed with large yearly and perpetuall Revenues in Lands the Admittances yearly Pensions and Payments together with the sale and rent of many Chambers in the Inns of Court Chancery or Colledges or Houses of Law towards the maintenance charges and support of the honour of those Societies and contributions not seldome made and enforced towards publick Treatments and Masques the payments and rates in Parishes for Pews Burialls tolling a passing Bell or ringing him and his companions at Funerals which if not enough to defray the charges of the many Feasts and Meetings of the Church-wardens and Petty States of the Parish repairing of the Church new painting and adorning it buying new Bell-ropes casting one or more Bells building the Steeple something higher or making a sumptuous Diall with a gilded Time and Hour-glass are sure enough to be enlarged by a Parish Rate or Tax more then it comes to Or that which is paid by the poor Tankard or Water-Bearers at the Conduits in London where every one payeth three shillings and six pence at his admittance and a penny a quarter towards the support of that pittifull Society Or those contributions sic magna componere parvis to represent great things by small and the vegetation or manner of the growth of an Oak by that of the lowly Shrubs which are made by a more impoverished sort of people the Prisoners for Debt in Ludgate by Orders and Constitutions so necessary is Government and Order and the support thereof even in misery of their own sorrowfull making in their narrow confinements that the Assistant which is monethly chosen by all the Prisoners to attend in the Watch-hall all day to call down prisoners to strangers which come to speak with them change money for the Cryers at the Grates keep an accompt in writing what money or gifts are every day sent to the Prisoners or given to the Box to charge the Steward with it upon the Accompt day see the Accompts truly cast up the Celler cleared by ten of the clock at night of all Prisoners and the Prisoners to be at their Lodgings quietly and civily hath his share of six pence allowed out of the Charity money every night whereof two pence is to be for the Assistant two pence for the Master of the Box and the other two pence allowed in mony or drink unto him which is the running Assistant or unto the Scavenger for bearing 2 candles before him at nine of the clock at night and rings the bell for Prayers is the Cryer for sale at the Markets for the Charity men of light bread taken by the Lord Maior or Sheriffs chumps of Beefe or any other things sent in by the City Clerk of the Market and unsized Fish by the water Bayliffe with many other small employments for which his Salery is four shillings eight pence per moneth and two pence out of the sixteen pence paid by every Prisoner at his first coming And the Scavenger who is to keep the house clean hath for his standing Salery five shillings eight pence per moneth two pence for every Prisoner at his first coming out of the sixteen pence table-money by him paid and a penny out of every Fine imposed upon offenders for the breach of any orders Every Prisoner paying at his first coming besides many other Fees fourteen pence for entring his name and turning the key five shillings for a Garnish to his Chamber-fellows to be spent in coals and candles for their own use or for a Dinner or Supper and sixteen pence to one of the Stewards of the House for Table-money out of which candles are to be bought for the use of the House every night set up in places necessary c. notwithstanding that it hath above 60 l. per annum belonging unto it charged upon lands in perpetuity and many other considerable and misused Legacies which have been setled and bestowed upon that should be well priviledged Prison And as much and more reasonable as the generall protection and defence is above any particular and the publick benefits do exceed any that are private as those payments and services which being derived from gratitude or retribution for
Henry the third his Sonne by their Magna Charta Agreement or Accord made with their then powerfull Barons and Church men and a discontented and seditious Commonalty since reduced into Lawes and confirmed by thirty Acts of Parliament wherein the people having many liberties granted them by those Kings the great Lords Prelates and superior part of the Clergy of whom they held which they could not then claim as rights but were to be received as favours and as much to be valued as their pardon and indemnity which was granted unto them by the same Charter King John therein promising them that all those Customes and Liberties quantum ad se pertinet erga suos omnes homines de regno suo tam Laici quam Clerici observent quantum ad se pertinet erga suos as much as belonged to him he would observe towards all men and that all as well Laick as spiritual should as much as belonged to them observe them towards such as held of them And by the late King Charles the Martyr who took but one hundred pounds for the Relief of an Earldome which was antiently accompted to be but of the yearly value of four hundred pounds per annum the least of which are now three or four thousand pounds per annum very many double as much and some sixteen or twenty thousand pounds per annum when as the hundred pounds was then according to the now value of silver above three hundred pounds And to disburse in houshold provisions according to the difference betwixt the rates and prises of victuals as they were in the Reign of King Edward the second which was above 80 years after the granting and confirming of Magna Charta by King Henry the third when a Capon was sold for two pence and what they are now will not be the fourth part as to some sort of provisions and victuals and as to others not the sixteenth of that hundred pounds for the Relief of an Earldome and so proportionably in other reliefs and the summe of five pounds for the relief of a Knights Fee which is but the fourteenth part according to the difference betwixt the antient and then value of the lands belonging unto a Knights Fee now estimated but at three hundred pounds per annum many of which are four or five hundred pounds per annum and others of a greater yearly value as the lands are lesser or more improved nearer or farther distant from London the grand Emporium of the Trade and Commerce of the Nation and the residence of the King and his superior Courts of Justice And are but the Antiqua Relevia antient Reliefs which King Henry the first in his Charter of Liberties granted to the people did not reduce unto any certain sums but ordered to be justa legitima And but two hundred Marks for the Relief of a Marques and two hundred pounds of a Duke although there were at the time of the making of those great Charters neither Dukes nor Marquesses in England or any such Titles in being and one hundred pounds for the relief of a Baron And if the warres had not hindred him from those and other his dues but 20 s. for every Knights fee according to the Statute in anno 3 E. 1. towards the marriage of his eldest Daughter and making his eldest Son a Knight and no more of every twenty pounds per annum in Socage Did not according to the Equity and Preamble of the Act of Parliament de anno quinto Eliz. cap. 4. which in regard that the wages and allowances limited and rated in former Statutes were in divers places too small and not answerable to that time respecting the advancement of prices of all things belonging unto Servants and Labourers and that the Law could not conveniently without the great grief and burden of the poor Laborers and hired men be put in execution and to the end that there might be a convenient proportion of wages in the times of scarcity and plenty did repeal so much of the said former Statutes as concerning the working and wages of Servants and Labourers and enacted that the wages of Artificers Labourers and Servants should be yearly assessed by the Justices of the Peace and Magistrates in every County City and Town Corporate with respect to the plenty and scarcity of the time and other circumstances necessary to be considered endeavour to raise them to any higher sums or make them proportionable to the present values of lands and money rates and prices of victuals And by the favour of his now Royal Majesty who delighting in the vestigiis and pathes of his many indulgent and Royall Progenitors though his own very great wants and necessities and their daily importunities might have advised him not to have kept the road of his Ancestors liberality and bounty but to reserve some kindness for himself and his more urgent occasions did not as King Henry the third and several other Kings of England his Successors cause his Taxes Assessements by Parliament to be assessed upon oath according to the full and true value of the peoples Estates or as was done by King Edward the sixth since the Statute of 6 Ed. 3. for restraining the Parliament aids to the old Taxation upon the assistance or relief then so called given unto him by Parliament and make enquiries upon oath of the best values of the substance of such as were to pay that Relief Dismes and Subsidies and by the oaths also of those who were to pay them and caused some to be sworn to value clothes to the end that the King might receive payment of Relief for every cloth or as Queen Mary did cause an enquiry to be made upon oath of the value of the goods and lands of such as were lyable to the payment of Fifteens Dismes and Subsidies in the 2 3 4 and 5 years of her Reign But in his Assessments Aids or Subsidies granted by Parliament did imitate his Royal Father King Charles the first who took and received all his Subsidies at two shillings eight pence in the pound for goods and moveables and four shillings for lands and immoveables with defalcation of debts and consideration of a greater then ordinary charge of children assessed by an express exception without oath and the Commissioners left at liberty to assesse themselves and the Assessors according to the old and easie Taxations Takes and receives his First-fruits or the first years value of Bishopricks Spiritual Promotions and of Benefices not under ten marks per annum and Vicarages not under ten pounds per annum since treble those values as they are said to be in the Kings books and for the Tenths of their Spirituall Promotions after no greater a rate or yearly value which no Act of Parliament ever obliged him to doe then they were long agoe valued with some very small encrease or raising long since in a very few of the Bishopricks but
and the greatest of Customes because it was not gained as most of the peoples Customs or Prescriptions were the best of which had no other originall then the continuance of favours of those that bestowed and permitted them to be enjoyed or a neglect of taking or calling for duties untill time had over-run and covered them with that which is now called a Custome or Prescription but were established by a threefold obligation composed of a Right or Duty a very antient Custome backt by the Lawes of God Nature and Nations and a Contract made and continued by the people to their King built upon the best and greatest of considerations which the Prophet David in the 15 Psalm if it had not been beneficiall but to some loss or damage adviseth not to be broken And merited the bettter observance in that Queen Elizabeth did but the year before call into her Mint and reduce unto pure silver the monies which her Father King Henry the eighth had so much debased with a mixture of brass as it was scarcely half the value in silver which made the price of commodities so much or a great deal the dearer and by her Edicts did all she could to bring down the prices in the Markets which then began to swell more then there was any cause for and in her composition and agreement with many or most of the Counties of England and Wales the next year after did but accept of what then they understood might as the learned and judicious Mr. Camden hath informed us justo pretio at a reasonable or Market rate be well afforded And the Lords of Manors who according to the several customes thereof think it not unreasonable to enjoy their Chevagia or Chiefage which Cowel takes to be pecunia Annuâ— data potentiori tutelae patrociniique gratia a small yearly payment paid by Tenants as acknowledgments for favours and help received or to be received and take their reliefs of their Tenants in Socage in some places by custome a years value and in some but half as much and in others more according as their customes vary the least of which in value of money doth twice exceed what it amounted unto formerly enjoy their Free Warrens and Fishings with many other Priviledges and immunities by Grant or Prescription and with the Yeomanry and lower ranks of people can be content to claim the benefit of their Customes de non decimando of paying no Tythes at all for Lands formerly belonging to the Cistercians Knights Templers Hospitlers or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem or of a modus decimandi of paying but a penny or some little yearly summe of money in lieu of all Tithes and make an inheritance of the greatest part of 3845 Impropriations with the Smoke-pennies or Peter or Chimney pence which being formerly paid unto some Abbies and Religious Houses and coming afterwards to the Crown in the Reign of King Henry the eight and granted out again by him are in many places as Appendants unto some Manors paid unto this day And think it no grievance to enjoy them and many other priviledges which wereby Grants or Exemptions by Papal Constitutions designed to Religious and not any Lay uses And the customary services of their Tenants to repair wayes and Bridges contribute to the maintenance of a Priest or Preacher or to the marriage of poor Maids or to carry Milstones some miles distant to their Milnes to doe suit of Court or be Butler Baker or Carver at some Festivals and can notwithstanding all the sometimes tedious Suits in Law of their Tenants who hold by Fines incertain and their complaints cram'd in a great purse made of many little ones attended with staves and ill-smelling shoes and feet travailing for relief to Westminster Hall and the superior Courts of Justice with store of out-cries of grievances and oppressions filling every Alehouse they come in with the lamentable tediously told stories of that which they doe many times but guess to be like them raise their Fines for admittances unto two years present value which amounts unto sixteen or twenty times as much as the antient value and demand and take ten or thirteen shillings an Acre to reduce the Fines incertain to a smaller certainty Can take the Optimum Animal or best horse or beast for a Herriot at the death of their Tenants when it exceeds the value of as much as 40 or 50 or 100 to one of what it was at the Conquest when it was reduced from a greater to that lesser rate and within a month or less after take as much as they can get for an Admittance of the Widdow or Heir of the deceased which in Copihold Estates differs very Little from a Relief and in some places as in Cumberland Westmerland and some adjacent Northern Counties compel them besides their formerly perilous enjoyned services annexed to their Lands to be ready night or day to repell the incursions of their plundering and unruly Scottish Neighbours to pay a thirtieth penny after the rate or assise of their old rents upon every Alienation and a twentieth upon the death or change of a Landlord which were formerly more easie and have been since only raised to those higher rates in regard of a greater value since put upon lands houshold provisions and commodities should not murmur at the small oblations which in no burdensome great or general contributions are to be made unto the King for the maintenance of himself and his Royal Family And the Copiholders who can when they please think themselves happy in their customes of Fines certain which patientia charitate in jus transiâ—runt crept by the charity and sufferance of their Landlords into that which they doe now call Tenant rights when as the lands which they do now hold is in the improved yearly value ten or sixteen or twenty times in many places more then the former yearly value and are by so much beyond the intention either of the Lords or Tenants the Grantors or Grantees when those Fines certain were at the first set or accepted and in those Tenant Rights as they call them and many of their Customes have in many places large Pastures and Meadows of many Acres yearly thrown out at Midsummer or the first day of August or some other time in the Summer or latter end thereof for a Township to inter Common for three quarters of every year or some months and in some places have Common belonging to their Copyholds for paying to the Lord of the Manor yearly as in Grayes Case in Hil. 37 Eliz. a hen five eggs much increased in price since that collateral recompence as it was in that case resolved to be was first taken continued and preserved unto them by the care of the King and his Laws by Inquiries formerly in the Eyres or Circuits de novis consuetudinibus levatis if any oppression or new customs were imposed by their Lords and no sooner complained
time or standing and not upstarts made it their honour as well as business to imitate their Progenitors the old not now drinking Germans who as Tacitus mentions in their Customes were to their Princes in pace decus in bello praesidium which may shew us the grand esteem antient and noble use of Tenures by Knight-service an honor in Peace a Guard in war and made it their glory si numero virtute comitatus emineant if they had a great number of Tenants and Retainers following them insomuch as ipsa plerumque fama Belli profligant the fame and fear of them did many times prevent warres and promote peace Et quum ventum in aciem turpe principi virtute vinci turpe comitatui virtutem principis non adaequare infame per omnem vitam at probrosum superstitem principi suo ex acie recessisse illum defendere tueri sua quoque fortia facta gloriae ejus assignare praecipuum sacramentum est Principes pro victoria pugnant Comites pro Principe and when they were in battel the Prince or King took it to be a shame and dishonor to be out-done in valour those who attended him thought it to be as much unworthy not to imitate him a great disgrace all their life after to leave him in the field and come home without any wounds their greatest care being to defend him and to ascâ—ibe and offer all their valiant Acts to his renown and glory their Prince fighting for victory their Attendants for their Prince Magnaque Comitum aemulatio quibus primum apud principum locus exigunt principis liberalitate illum bellatorem equum illam cruentam victricemque frameam nam epulae quanquam contempti largi tamen apparatus pro stipendio cedunt and vied who should be nearest their Princes in all their dangers and believed themselves to be well rewarded if by the bounty of the Prince they had such a charging Horse or such a bloody and conquering Spear bestowed upon them for as to wages they were very well contented with Feasts and a large provision of victuals though homely drest And by such or the like longa series or continuance of duties and obedience to Princes kindness and hospitality of the more great and powerful to the meaner came that strength and honor of our Nation not by screwing or racking their Tenants and the Lands which they let them but by easie and cheap bargains when the Tenant would be well content to make his Rents to his Landlord to be as much in love and retribution as in money and both were no loosers when provisions for house-keeping were so much and excessively reserved or presented for Prisci autem moris saith Sir Henry Spelman profusius hospitalitas annales reditus in eduliis collegisse in the times of great hospitality the manner or custome of Landlords was to reserve provisions for house-keeping for all or some of their Rents And those reservations of provisions grew to be so excessive as before the Conquest lege cautum fuit de quantitate eduliorum reddenda it was by a Law ordained by Ina King of the West Saxons betwixt the years 712. and 727. how much rent in provisions should be taken or reserved for every 10 Hides or Plough lands which Sir Henry Spelman understands to be a prohibition that no man should take or reserve more viz. Mellis dolia Hogsheads or vessels of Honey of which it seems there was then great plenty and much used 10 Panes loaves of bread 300 Amphorae Cervisiae Wallicae duodenae twelve Rundlets of Welch Beer or Ale Amphorae Cervisiae tenuioris Rundlets of small Ale or Beer 30 Oxen 2 Weather Sheep 10 Geese 10 Hens 20 Cheeses 10 Gallons of Butter 9 Salmons 5 Twenty pound weight of Hey or Provender 10 And Eels 100 Which was but a small Rent as Rents are now heightned for ten Yards or plough Lands and the Heirs of those which held such proportions of Lands upon those or the like easie Rents or afterwards paid and doe now pay only as Freeholders certain small Quit-rents in money proportionable to the then small rates of such provisions may thank God that the alteration of times and rates of provisions have made them in such a condition as to be very well enabled to perform their duties to their Prince in an easie contribution for the composition for the Royall Pourveyances And that most necessary duty of the Kings Royal Pourveyance if he had not power to regulate and bring down the excessive prises of provisions and at Markets as well for the ease and benefit of his Subjects as himself might be the more willingly and cheerfully submitted unto and performed when as it is for the good of the head and principall part of the body Politick and when as that which the members do contribute is communicated to all the members and parts of it in the preventing hindring or keeping off greater inconveniencies burdens and troubles which would otherwise fall upon them or serves to support and maintain many of themselves and their Sons and Daughters in the service of the King and his Court which hath raised many Families which now either forget or over-look their beginnings originals and founders or to relieve many poor and others who doe partake of those National Blessings of Peace and plenty which are maintained by the honor well-being and prosperity of the King which procures them And should not be disliked but rather rejoyced in when we shall recount unto our Children and posterity the magnificence and hospitality of our Kings when the great Hall at Westminster capable and large enough to entertain three of the largest Courts of Justice in the Nation besides many Shops of Trade built by the sides thereof and receives the feet of some hundreds of the Natives which four times or Terms in the year do come thither to demand it was heretofore but the Common Hall or dining Room of King William Rufus That Henry the 2. caused corn to be laid up in store in Granaries to be given to the poor in the time of dearth in the parts of Anjou and Main and fed every day out of his Granaries a thousand persons from the beginning of April untill new corn was gotten Henry the third in the 23 year of his Reign did by his Writ command William de Haverhull and Edward Fitz Odo that upon Friday next after the Feast of St. Matthias being the Anniversary of Elianor Queen of Scotland his Sister they should cause to be fed as many poor as might enter into or be entertained in the greater Hall of Westminster And in the same year did by his Writ likewise command the said William de Haverhull to feed fifteen thousand Poor at St. Peters in London on the Feast day of the Conversion of St. Peter And four thousand Poor upon Monday next after the Feast of St. Lucie the Virgin in the great Hall
people Subjects and men of Honor in England in those more honorable more performing less complementing times but since withering and growing fruitless and out of fashion when that great commander Luxury had with his Regiments and Brigades of vices new fangles and vanities subdued and put the people to a greater contribution towards such their wicked and vain expences and all that they can now make shift for is too little to support and bear out their extravagancies It is well known and experimented to the great comfort of such as lived within the virge of the Kings houses and residence that the Hospitality of the Kingdome like the heart in the body naturall the primum vivens beginner and conservator of life beginning in the Kings house and propagating and diffusing it self in and through as many of the Nobility and Gentry as being de meliori lutâ— of a more then ordinary extraction did strive as much as became them to imitate Royal Examples would be in the Kings house the ultimum mâ—riens the last which expired And that besides the necessary grandeur and magnificence of the Kings houshold plenty and variety of meat and drink to entertain at his Officers Tables the Nobility Gentry and Citizens which had any occasion to come thither and 240 gallons of Beer allowed the poor every day at the Buttery Barre three gallons every day at the Court gate for thirteen poor men six services or messe of meat and seven pieces of beef a day as wast and extraordinarie for the Kings Honor the chippings of bread sometimes more then should be and the fragments and knapstry of broken or quarter or half joynts of meat carcases of Fowl and Poultry pieces of Pie-crust or other provisions carefully and daily gathered and put into severall Almes-baskets left at every Table and Chamber in the Court and distributed unto the poor by two Grooms and two Yeomen of the Elemosinary or Almnery who enjoy an yearly Salary and maintenance from the King for that only imployment which hath fed and supported many poor Families in and about Westminster as well as Common Beggars the Lodgings and accomodations of Nobility and Gentry resorting to the Court have so greatly enriched all the Streets and parts about it as that end of London and parts adjacent have like trees planted by the water side so very much prospered as Westminster which originally had but some scattered houses adjoyning to the Abby and the Kings Palace came aftewards to be a Burrough Town Corporation endowed with great Liberties and Priviledges and sending Burgesses to the Parliament afterwards to be a City and the people of other parts as birds haunting the woods for shelter shade or succor observing the plenty happiness which they enjoyed have built made their nests habitations as near as they could unto that place and Royal seat of bounty charity and magnificence insomuch as the swelling and increase of London at this day every where to be seen not without some admiration in her Extent and buildings hath within this and the last Century of years very much outgrown that antient City it self and as Mr. John Graunt and some others have truly and ingeniously observed extended it self Westward and as near as it could unto the Royal bitation as if that were more to be desired for a neighbourhood then the River of Thames the Exchange or Custome-house of London and places of Trade and Traffick They therefore that shall remember how his Majesties Maundie or Charity kept as his Royal Ancestors ever did upon the Thursday before Easter or Eve of Good-Friday with a Joul of Salmon a Poll of Ling 30 red Herrings and as many white garnished with â—erbs in new clean wooden dishes four six penny loaves of Court bread cloth for a Gown and a Shirt a pair of New Shoes and Stockins and a single penny with a twenty shillings piece of gold overplus put in severall little purses given to as many poor old men as the King is years old and the state and decency observed in the distributing of it after their feet washed and dried and the King with a condiscention and unexampled humility beyond the reach and example of any of his Subjects kneeling upon his knees and devoutly kissing the feet of those his Almes-men cannot certainly tell how to murmur at such an hospitality or Provisions which afforded him the means wherewith to doe it Nor should the many cures which he yearly doth unto such as are Lame Blind Diseased or troubled with the Disease called the Kings Evil because he cureth it the patience and meekness which he employeth in it and the yearly charge of at least three thousand pounds per annum which his Angel Gold of the value of ten shillings and a silk Ribbon put about the neck of every one be they rich or poor young or old which doe come to that English Pool of Bethesda to be healed and cured be forgotten or thought unworthy a gratitude or some remuneration or acknowledgements Neither can any that ever understood or read of the round Tables of our King Arthur the great Roger Mortimer and the famous Hospitality of England continued through the British Saxon and Norman times all the turmoyls and troubles of the after Generations in their greatest extremities of the Barons warres and the direfull and bloody contentions of the two great discording Houses of York and Lancaster with the vast quantities of Land given besides to Monasteries and Religious Houses to the great increase of Charity and Alms-deeds which was then the only Trade driven or thought on in the way to Cabo di buona speranza the everlasting rest of the righteous the large proportions of Lands given for Chantries in a then supposed pious care of themselves and their Progenitors great gifts and remunerations to Servants and curtesies and kindness to Neighbours and Tenants when most of our Nobility and Gentry thought themselves not great unless they were good nor a Gentleman because he had only the insignia virtutum Armories and marks of the honor of his Ancestors descended unto him without the virtuous noble and heroick qualities which were the cause or original of them when pride and interest the Devils Deputies were not the Soveraign which they most obeyed vanity and all the folliâ—s of sin the neighbours which they loved as themselves when virtue was not reckoned as it is now amongst too many a base or simple companion nor honour turned into a Pageant or nâ—men inane or only made a pretence to deceive mens expectations when almost every English Gentleman was in his Parish and amongst his Tenants like Job that good accomptant of his talents a deliverer of the poor that cried the fatherless and him that had none to help him caused the Widows heart to sing for joy was eyes to the blinde feet to the lame brake the jawes of the wicked pluckt the spoils out of his teeth grieved for the poor
subdued and conquered as they were enforced to be shaved and wear their hair shorter their Lands being given away to his Normans the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry extirped many of the common people glad to be vassals and Tenants to those Lands which before were their own and had nothing to recompence their losses but the retaining of their good old Laws and their Masters and Conquerors having gathered all the money and riches of the Kingdom into their Chests and possessions there was after the harrassed English had gained some peace and that the long languishing Olive branches began again to recover their Sap and Verdure so small an improvement of the rent of Land amongst the Normans plenty of money as in the valuation of Lands in the sixteenth year of the raign of William the Conqueror there was such a wonderful small value put upon Lands fifty or sixty and more to one less then it is now the commodities and Cattel raised thereupoâ— being in all probability proportionable thereunto as in Drayton no unfruitful place in Cambridgeshire the Abbot of Croyland had fourteen or fifteen yard Lands twelve Villaines three Bordmen three Soccage Tenants and two Meadows which in the time of Edward the Confessor were of the value of five pounds per annum and at that time but four pounds and ten shillings In the Raign of King Henry the first which began his Raign in the year of our Lord one thousand one hundred when the Normans had something more improved their Lands and possessions their plenty of money made out of the English miseries did not banish their cheapness of victuals and provisions but left them at those small rates of one shilling for the Carcase of an Ox and four pence for a sheep and no more for the Provender of twenty horses the Denarius or English penny then being probably as the Roman which was but the fourth part of an ounce of Silver which in coyn or money made no more then twenty pence In the latter end of the Raign of King Richard the first who began his Raign in Anno Domini one thousand one hundred eighty nine and after his redemption from his imprisonment by the Emperor of Germany in his return from the Holy Land when money was so scarce in England as to make up the sum of one hundred thousand Marks for his ransome the Church Plate and Chalices were pawned an Oxe or Cow was but of the price of four shillings a Hogg ten pence a sheep of the finer Wooll ten pence and six pence of the courser In the Raign of King Edward the first whose raign commenced in the year of our Lord God one thousand two hundred fifty two when there was as much plenty of mony as peace and an increase of Trade under his â—appy and prudent Government Scotland conquered and subdued and such a plenty of money as some Esterlings or men of Germany from whom our Sterling money is well conjectured by Sir Henry Spelman to receive its denomination were here imployed to coyn our money the Market price of an Oxe was eight shillings and six pence twenty six seames or sums or horse-loads or quarters of Barley was at fourty three shillings a quarter of Oats for fourteen pence and the yearly value of an Acre of Meadow was in Buckinghamshire apud altum firmam at the Rack but eight pence per Acre and so small a power had the plenty of mony then upon the price of victuals as upon the payment of mony agreed to be paid upon a Bond or Deed which was not likely to be for any long time as the Case at Law tempore E. 1. Cited in 9. E. 4. informs us the price of a quarter of Barley which was at the time of the making of the Bond or Deed but three shillings a quarter was before the time of payment for it come to be thirty and two shillings a quarter which might happen from some other causes and not at all by reason of any extraordinary store of money which the Kingdom was then blessed withal In the eighth year of the Raign of King Edward the second which was in the year of our Lord God one thousand three hundred and fifteen a Parliament was assembled at London where all or most of the Prelates and great Lords of England were with the Commons assembled â—aith Thomas Walsingham ad tractandum de statu regni alleviatione rerum venalium a matter now moâ—e then ever necessary to consult of the State of the Kingdom and the taking down the price of victuals which saith Walsingham was then so high ut vix posset vivere plebs communis as the common people could scarce live and would have been in a worse condition if the Landlords had then let their Lands at the Rack or beyond the value as many of them do now and many of the houshold provisions had been sold as they are now more then twenty times and others ten or fifteen times more then they were then where it was ordained that an Ox not fed with grain should be sold for sixteen shillings and if with grain and fat for four and twenty shillings and no more a fat Cow of the best sort for twelve shillings a fat Hogg of two years old three shillings and four pence a Mutton fat and shorn for fourteen pence and for one that was unshorn one shilling eight pence a Goose for two pence half penny a Hen for a penny and four Pigeons for a penny And though immediately after in the same year there followed such a very great famine as Flesh and Corn were scarcely to be had Hens and Geese seldom found Pigs and Swine wanted Food and Sheep dyed of the Rot or Murrain yet a quarter of Malt was sold for a Mark and a quarter of Corn for twenty shillings and upon the great dearth which happened in the next year after making such a famine as Horse-flesh was good Diet for the poor and causing a repeal of the Act of Parliament which was made the year before touching the price of Victuals three quarts of strong Beer was then sold for three pence and of small for two pence which in that sad and horrid famine the Magistrates of London understood to be so unreasonable as they prohibited it to be sold at so high a rate in the City and ordained that no more then three half pence should be taken for three quarts of strong Beer and a penny for small and the King by his Proclamation likewise commanded that in all parts of the Kingdom three quarts of Beer should not be sold for more then a penny In the 21. year of the Raign of King Edward the third notwithstanding any enhaunce of prices made or occasioned by the great famine which was in the eight and ninth years of the Raign of King Edward the second his Father and the continuance of it for four or five years
her herse trimmed up as stately as the Armes-painters and Abusers can devise it with Tapers burning in great silver Candlesticks hired at the Goldsmiths and four or six women in mourning fitting to attend it to shew the beholders the unbecoming pride and vanity of it and a Shop keepers Wife whilst her husband complains of want of trade must not want a Velvet Gown every Servant must as much as their wages will reach unto imitate their Master and Mistresses in their clothes and the fashion of them which Queen Elizabeth did well prevent when she caused the Taylors to enter into Bonds or Recognizances not to make clothes finer then the degree of such as were to wear them every Cotager and Day-labourer will do what they can to eat of the best and live after the rate of a Farmer every Farmer live and have his diet like a Gentleman every Gentleman of the smallest estate whatsoever strives to live like a Knight and some Gentlewomen taking themselves to be higher born then any of their kindred or neerest relations can remember will not think their husbands do their duty unless they permit them like Baronesses to have Carpets foot paces on the ground when the Madam so called shall have a mind to sit in her garnish of sin and foolery to receive the visits of those which when the Marmalet is eaten do most commonly appear to have come onely to view and censure her pride every Knight will spend and live like a Lord or Baron and the sons and daughters of too many of our Gentry ready to tear them in peices to enforce them to make them an allowance proportionable to their pride and prodigâ—lities whilst the Gentlemen racking and raising their Rents beyond the yearly Income and value of the Tenants Lands are too often the cause that the Tenants do put as high rates and prices as they can upon their commodities to be sold or sent to the Markets and use as many Cheats as the Country Devil can invent for them to abuse and cozen the buyers the Citizens raise the price of their wares and commodities to maintain their delicacies workmen their wages because victuals are so dear servants by a sinful necessity of pride never think they have wages enough to the end that they may wear better Clothes then they should do King William Rufus Hose or Breeches of three shillings price or a Mark as he was afterwards perswaded to believe it then thought to be magnificent worthy enough for a mighty Kings wearing is not now a rate or price enough for a Ploughmans ordinary wearing And the improvements of our Lands and Estates do seem to have served for no other purpose then to improve and multiply our sins and vices whilst the hospitality and virtues of England like the brave Brittish Caractacus or Catacratus Prince of the Silures following in his chains the triumphs of the Romish Conquerers are made to be the attendants of the Triumphs of our vices and wickedness and Truth and Honesty like the distressed Naomi and her daughter Ruth going their mournful Pilgrimages to finde a better entertainment So as there must needs be a want of Trade when there is so great a Trade driven of pride and vanity and a dearness of all things when every one almost some poor and despised Moralists and men of Religion and care in their ways and walkings onely excepted makes what shift he can per fas aut nefas to save and get what he can for himself and there is scarce a courtesie done for one another without a bribe or fellow-feeling the sons are ready to betray their parents and the parents to prostitute and deliver up their children to the slavery of sin for the support of their pride and luxuries the most of our friendships and realities now turned into a lying most dissembling and accursed complement the rich making it their hoc age and onely business to oppress the poor who since the fall and dissolution of our Abbies and Religious Houses are so impoverished and increased as a Gentleman of the same and no more Land and Estate then he had fourty years ago paying but three shillings four pence per annum is now constrained to pay forty shillings per annum and the rates and prices of workmens wages victuals and every thing else so increased and beyond reason more then was formerly as may appear by the difference betwixt what was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred thirty and seven in the sixteenth year of the Raign of King Henry the sixth now but two hundred thirty and two yeers ago when â—hichely Archbishop of Canterbury built that famous Colledge of All-Souls in Oxford there was paid to a Stone-cutter but two shillings ten pence a week a Carpenter four pence a day a Sawyer fourteen pence a hundred for sawing of boaâ—ds a Joiner five pence half penny a day and but sixteen pence for himself and his servant for two days four pence a day to laborers five pence a day to such as digged stones four pence a day for a Cart for a weeks Commons for Mr. John Wraby who was comptroller of the works and an eminent man in those times fourteen pence for his servant ten pence for the meat of his horse for a week ten pence half penny and for the expences oâ— Mr. John Druel Surveyor of the works travailing with two servants and three horses from Maidstone to Lambeth and their charges at Lambeth for two nights and two days seven shillings And what is now paid to workmen when a Carpenter will have three shillings a day and eighteen pence or two shillings a day for his man and eighteen or twelve pence a day for a common laborer as there is never like to be any more easie or reasonable rates for houshold provisions or workmens Wages or any hospitality to be found in England nor any thing else of vertue or goodness unless the wisdom of the King and his great Councel shall prevent that Ultimam ruinam great and destroying ruine which citato cursu as to the peoples Estates in this life and sending their souls into the other world with a Lord have mercy upon us is galloping upon the Nation and will never be prevented either by preaching or Church Censures or the King and his Nobilities own examples without some severe and well observed Sumptuary Laws now very much wanted by an unhappy repeal of all in that kind which we had before and without which all that can be done to hinder and destroy an innundation of miseries which by our pride and luxury far surmounting any of our forefathers is suddainly like to over-run us will be to as little purpose as that which the King of Achen is said to do when he and all his nobilty do in the blindness of their Religion upon a certain day in every year ride in great pompe and procession to the Church to look if
Warwickshire belonging to some Religious house where they were to Mow three dayes at the charge of the house three dayes to Plow and at the charge of the house to reap one day and to have a Wether Sheep or eight pence or twenty five loaves or peices of bread one of the best Cheeses in the house and a measure of Salt and if any horse Colt were foled upon the lands he was not to be sold without licence nor were any of the Tenants to marry a daughter without licence and by the custome of the Township of Berstanestone in Warwickshire horse Colts foled upon the land were not to be sold without licence for which a penny was to be paid nor any of their daughters to be married without licence c. which in divers old Charters and confirmations of our Kings and Princes do frequently occur may evidence that such or the like were once undeniable duties to their Kings and Benefactors and onely released in favor of those which were the owners and proprietors of the lands and priviledges and being now enjoyed were formerly regalities and rights inherent and vested in the Crown of England should retain no liberties or priviledges for himself And that the Quit Rents as they are now called taken by the owners and proprietors of some of the Abby and Religious Lands for Eleemosinae's or Alms-money given by Founders or other charitable persons many a sum of money formerly paid for Mortuaries Pardons Indulgences Pitances or Pourveyances and Oblations which are at this time kept on foot and received under the name and notion of Quit Rents might put them in mind how necessary it is for them to perform the duty of Pourveyance to the King being the heir and successor of many of those which gave them And how unbeâ—oming the duty of subjects pertaking the benefits thereof it would be that the King whose Royal Ancestors Saint Edward the King gave for ever to the Abby of St. Edmonds Bury the Mannor of Mildenhall in Suffolk to buy wheaten bread for the Monks to prevent their necessities of eating Barly bread which he perceived them to do when he came once to visit them King John gave for ever to the Abby of St. Albans and King Edward the first as many other Kings of England have done to other Monasteries and Religious houses gave and confirmed for ever to the Abby of St. Edmunds Bury divers Mannors Lands Tyths and yeerly Revenues of a very great yeerly Revenue to maintain their Hospitalities Pitances and Liuâ—â—es of servants and for the relief of strangers and poor people coming thither should now have his own Hospitality and the means to support it taken from him And that if all the customes priviledges and Royalties as they are called which are now performed and willingly assented unto by Tenants and enjoyed by the Lords of other Mannors by the power and priviledges derived unto them from the King his Royal Progenitors were truely represented and brought to a publike view together with all the priviledges liberties exemptions and immunities granted unto the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England it might be wondered how they that enjoy so much so many liberties favours from the King his Royal Progenitors by grants or prescribed Indulgences should think there could be any reason to deny him those his most just necessary and ancient rights and liberties of Pourveyances or Compositions for them when at the same time they are so carefull to preserve and keep their own And it would be something more then unfitting that the King whose Royal Ancestors have allowed so many of his subjects those priviledges and liberties should be debarred from a greater right and legal liberty in his own case or when he should make his progress to Chester should be refused that priviledge more ancient then the Conquest of having of every Yard land two hundred Capons or Caponets a fat or stand of Beer and a certain quantity of Butter which as appears by the book of Domesday were by custome or Tenure to be provided for him and not enjoy as much liberty as Hugh Earl of Chester did when he could priviledge Nigell de haulton his Constable and his heirs Quod omnia quae ad praedicti Nigelli opus erant necessaria emant ministri sui ante omnes alios in Civitate Cestriae nisi praenominati Comitis ministri praevenerint sine cujuscunque contradictione that his servants should in the City of Chester without contradiction have a Prae-emption before any but the Earles servants and Officers or as the Abbot of Burgh who had a Pâ—aeâ—emption in all necessaries concerning the Abby a priviledge to pay an half penny cheaper then others in every hundred of Herring or the Abbot of St. Albans who was by the Charter of King John to have a prae-emption for any of his provisions to be bought in London as well as any of the Kings Officers the Abbot of St. Edmonds Bury having a like priviledge for his Fodder Corn. That the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Aethelstane was able to give to the Church of Beverlye quasdam avenas vulgariter dictas Hestcorn percipiendas de Dominiis Ecclesiis in illis partibus certain Oats commonly called Hestcorne to be taken out of his Demeasnes and the Churches in those parts which by the dissolution of the Religious houses are now probably claimed and enjoyed by Laymen and did in Anno Dom. 936. ex sua Regalitate by his Kingly authority saith the History of that Foundation give towards the Hospitality and relief of the poor coming to the Hospital of St. Peters or St. Leonards in York de qual bet Caruca Arante in Episcopatu Eboraci unam Travam bladi out of every yard land of errable in the Bishoprick of York one Thrave which is four and twenty sheaves of Corn Et ex consensu Incolarum Episcopatus Eboraci Rex habuit saith that Historian Travas praedictas sibi successoribus suis sic quod exterminaret lupos patriam devastantes and was ofterwards granted by the consent of the inhabitants upon condition that he would destroy the Wolves which wasted that Country Erat siquidem in Diocesi Eboracensi tanta adtunc multitudo luporum quod omnes fere villanorum bestias devorarunt for there were in that Diocess such a multitude of Wolves which King Aethelstane thereupon destroyed as they almost devoured all the Beastes and Cattel belonging to the Countrimen should now that the County and Bishoprick of York have in all the after ages and successions of our Kings not onely received of them many and greater benefits but have been by their many good Laws and Governments protected and defended from all manner of Wolves be denyed so small an observance or retribution as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which were charged upon that County or Bishoprick did amount unto and at the same time do either not