can certainly have no pretence of Grievance in them for they are only pretences and causeless clamours that have of late cast them into an odium or ill will of the common sort of people or such as do not rightly understand them but may be made to be more pleasing unto them by this or the like Expedient IF the Marriage of the Wards and Rents of their lands during all the time of their minorities computed together shall be reduced to be never above one years improved value which will be but the half of that which is now accounted to be a reasonable Fine and frequently paid by many Copy-hold Tenants whose Fines are certain and would be most joyously paid by those which are by Law to pay Fines incertain at the will of their Lords That the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and those other few mesne Lords who by antient exemption and priviledge are to have the Wardships of Tenants holding of them by Knight-Service in their minorities though they hold other Lands in Capite and by Knight-Service of the King may be ordained to do the like favors That all that hold in Capite and by Knight-Service be freed from all Assesments touching Warr of their demesne Lands holden in Capite and by Knight-Service as in all reason they ought being a Libertie or Priviledge amongst others granted to them by the Charter of King Henry the First the Original of a great part of our Magna Charta in these words Militibus qui per Loricas terras suas defendunt terras dominicarum carucarum suarum quietas ab omnibus geldis ab omni opere proprio dono meo concedo ut sicut tam magno gravamine alleviati sunt in Equis Armis se bene instruant ut apti parati sint ad servitium meum ad defensionem Regni mei that the Knights which hold by knight-Knight-Service and defend their own Lands by that Tenure shall be acquitted of all geldes and taxes of their Demesn Lands and from all other works upon condition that as they being freed from so great a burden they be at all times ready with Horses and Arms for the service of the King and defence of the Kingdom Which being long after found out produced and read by Stephen Langton to the Earls and Barons of England and Abbots and others of the Clergy assembled in St Pauls Church in London in the great Contest which was betwixt King JOHN and His Barons about their Liberties Gavisi sunt gaudio magno valde saith Matthew Paris juraverunt omnes in presentia dicti Archi-Episcopi quod viso tempore congruo pro hiis libertatibus si necesse fuerit decertabunt usque ad mortem They greatly rejoyced and did in the presence of the said Arch-Bishop swear that if need were they would contend even to death for those Liberties And is at this day so little misliked in France as an ancient Counsellor of Estate of that Kingdom in the Reigns of the Great Henry the Fourth of France and his son Lewis the Thirteenth in his discourse of the means of establishing preserving and aggrandising a Kingdom is of opinion that those Fieffs Nobles and Tenures by Knight Service ought to have an exemption as they there have of all manner of Taxes and Impositions for that they are to hazard their lives pour la defence de l'Estat for the defence of the Kingdom If where Lands are holden in Socage of the King or any other Person and there be a Wardship by reason of the said lands holden of the King in Capite or pour cause de garde of some other that holds in Capite and is in minority the lands which are found to be holden of the King or any other mesne Lord in Socage being taken into consideration only as to the Fine for the marriage may not be put under any Rent or Lease to be made by that Court but be freed as they were frequently and anciently by Writs sent to the Escheators now extant and appearing upon Record That Primer seisins be taken away and no more paid That the King shall in recompence thereof have and receive of every Duke or Earl that dieth seised of any Lands or Hereditaments in Capite and by Knight-Service the sum of two hundred pounds of every Baron two hundred marks of every one else that holdeth by a Knights Fee proportionably according to the quantity of the Fee which he holdeth twenty pound for a Reliefe That incroachments upon wast grounds and high ways which are holden in Capite shall be no cause of Wardship or paying any other duties incident to that Tenure if it shall upon the first proof and notice be relinquished That in case of neglecting to petition within a moneth after the death of the Tenant in Capite or otherwise concealing any Wardships or not suing out of Livery if upon information brought issue joyned and witnesses examined or at any time before Hearing or Tryal of the Cause the Party offending or concerned shall pay the prosecutor his double costs and satisfie the King the Mesne rates he shall be admitted to compound That only Escuage and service of Warr except in the aforesaid cases of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and some few others and all other incidents except Wardships due by their Tenants which hold of them by knight-Knight-Service be reserved to Mesne Lords that the Reliefs of five pounds for a whole Knights Fee or proportionably according to the quantity of Lands of that kinde of Fee holden shall be after the death of every such Tenant Twenty pounds and proportionably as aforesaid That to lessen the charges of Escheators and Juries for every single Office or Inquisition to be found or taken after the death of every Tenant in Capite by knight-Knight-Service the time of petitioning within a moneth after the death of the Ancestor may be enlarged to three moneths and the Shire Town City or principal place of every County be appointed with certain days or times for the finding of Offices to the end that one and the same Meeting and one and the same Jury with one and the same charge or by a contribution of all parties concerned may give a dispatch thereunto That the unnecessary Bonds formerly taken in the Court of Wards at 2 s. 6 d. or 3 s. charge upon suing out of every Diem clausis extremum or Writ to finde an Office obliging the prosecution thereof may be no more taken when as the time limited for petitioning to compound for Wardships and the danger of not doing of it will be ingagement sufficient That Grants Leases and Decrees of the Court may not to the great charge of the people be unnecessarily as they have been at length Inrolled with the Auditors of that Court when as the same was done before by other Officers in other Records of that Court to which the Auditors may have a free access and at any time take extracts out of
Justice or Chancery are never mitigated or brought lower then two years present and improved value and where the Fines are certain do in many places pay as much or more in some places where they pay less pay after the rate of five pence per Acre and in other eight pence per Acre or higher as the custome varies and pay Herriots not only upon the death of the last Tenant but upon Surrenders and in some places the Widdows having no Free Bench as they call it or Estate in the Lands after their Husbands and where they have that or Dower which is seldom in other places do forfeit if they marry again or in some places if they commit fornication or adultery in their Widdow-hood and if the Lords of Mannors put the Tenants out of their Copyhold Estates upon a forfeiture they have by Law no remedy but to petition to them can have no Writ of Right-close to command their Lords to do them right without delay according to the custome of the Mannor no Writ of False Judgment at the Common Law given in the Lords Court but must sue to the Lord by Petition nor can sue any Writ of Monstraverunt to command their Lords not to require of them other Customs or Services then they ought must grinde at the Lords Mill and bake at his common Oven and not speak irreverently of them Or those kinde of Tenures of Lands in Cumberland Northumberland Westmerland and the North parts of England which pay a thirty peny Fine at every alienation and a twenty peny Fine upon the death of an Ancestor or of their Lord according to the rate of the small yearly rents of their Lands which were at the first freely given for service in Warr and to repell the Scottish Incursions now much insisted upon and called Tenant-Right Or Lease-holders which are racked or pay Fines and a Rent as much as any will give for them under harsh and strict Covenants conditions forfeitures Nomine Poenae's without a standing Army Assessments and a Troop of Horse as was done in Olivers time to scout in every County to awe terrifie abuse and sometimes rob the Inhabitants Or the now so much desired Tenure of free and common Socage many of which are under the payment of a Tenth every year of the value as they were first granted by Fealty only for all services with a standing Army or Assessments though farr lesser as it is hoped instead of Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service will be more desirable and prove a greater freedom then either the old Socage Tenure which in Kent they did sometimes willingly exchange to hold the same Lands by knight-Knight-Service or the Copy-holders or Northern Tenant-rightmen or the free and common Socage by Fealtie only and no other Services None of which have or can justly claim as the Tenants in Capite and by knight-Knight-Service do those antient and honourable Rights Immunities and Priviledges which justly belong unto them nor their Court Barons and Court Leetes with the priviledges of basse Justice doing Justice to their Tenants for small Debts under Forty shillings correcting and overseeing the Assize of Bread and Beer Weights and Measures corrupt Victuals punishment of breach of the Peace swearing Constables making By-lawes power of administring the Oath of Allegiance Inquiries concerning Victuallers Artificers Workmen Laborers and excess of prizes of Wines c. Inquiries after Seditions Treasons c. and presenting and certifying them or any other thing that might disturb the Peace and Welfare of their King and Country and by keeping the lesser Wheels in order did contribute much to that of the greater and every one as litle and subordinate Reguli and petty Princes enjoying under their Kings and Soveraignes that which to this day as well as antiently have been called Royalties which being but pencil'd and drawn out of Regal favours and permission are in Fide Homagio deduced from those Tenures For all which free Gifts Emoluments Immunities and Priviledges they had no other Burdens or Duties incumbent upon Tenures in Capite and Knight-Service THen to go to Warr well arrayed and furnished with the King or his Lieutenant General which every Subject if he had not Lands freely given him is in duty bound to do or his mesne Lord when Warrs should happen which in a common course of Accidents may be but once or not at all in his life time and then not to tarry with him above forty dayes or less according to their proportion of Fee or Lands holden at their own charge which is a greater favor then to go along with him all the time of his Warrs and for all the time that they remain afterwards in the Camp to be at the Kings charge and to have Escuage assessed by Parliament of their own Tenants if they shall refuse to go also in person Their respit of Homage was without personall attendance discharged once in four Terms or a years space for smaller Fees proportionable to the yearly value of their Lands then three shillings four pence per Ann. which they that held a Knights Fee yearly paid to their mesne Lords for respite of suit of Court Their releif when they dyed leaving their Heirs at full age was for a whole Knights Fee but Cs. lesse most commonly then a Herriot or the price of their best Horse or beast if they had holden in Socage and when they were in Ward paid nothing for it for a Barony 100 marks and an Earldom 100l. of a Marquis 200 Marks and a Duke 200 l. The Primer seisin which though due by Law was never paid untill 4º or 5º Car. primi was like the Clergies first-Fruits according to a small moderate value a years profit if in possession and a Moyety in Reversion and so small a casualtie or revenue as in the 16th year of the Raign of his late Majestie they did but amount unto 3086 l. 9 s. 8 d. ob half farthing And the charge to the Officers of a general Livery being like to an admittance of a Tenant in a Copy-hold estate but a great deal cheaper where the Lands were under value and found but at 5l. per Ann. which most commonly was the highest rate of finding or valuation of it when it was 100l. per Annum or something more with all the Fees and requisites thereunto did not exceed 10l. and the Fine for a Livery where there was a Wardship half a years profit after a small value and so little as in 16 Car. the accompt for Liveriess was but 1316 l. 12 s. 4 d. ob farthing And where a Special Livery under the Great Seal of England was sued out with a Pardon for Alienations Intrusions c. did not with the Lord Chancellors Master of the Rolls and Master of the Wards and all other Fees included make the charge amount to more then 15 l. or 20 l. Where a Livery was not sued out as
Principal Flower of the Crown which being not used to be made-up or grow out of Grievances Cannot be disparaged by those clamours and crys which have more then needed been made concerning the Earl of Downes concealed Wardship and the inconveniences arising thereby which did not the tenth part of that prejudice to his Revenue and Estate which his prodigality and other Extravagancies afterwards brought upon it and might how soever have been prevented if his mother in law or any other of his friends upon the several Requests of the Master of the Court of Wards and the Officers of that Court would have petitioned and compounded for his Wardship and not have made those many Traverses and Denyals in those many Suits of Law and pursuits which were afterwards made to compell them to it Nor will that or any other which are pretended grievances be ever equal or come up to those farr exceeding real and certain grievances which too many of the Fathers in law of England into whose hands and custody most of the Wardships or Guardianships are endeavored to be more then formerly put will if those Tenures shall be taken away bring upon fatherless children and will in a short time do more harm to the childrens Estates of the first husband then ever yet happened by Wardships to the King and mesne Lords Which the case of one that twelve years ago had the Revenue of an Infant amounting unto above 700l. per Annum charged with no more then 1000 l. debt and a great personal Estate committed to his Trust hath to this day paid none or a very small part of it but keeps the Rents and profits allowing a small exhibition to the Infant to his own advantage Of another that hath sold and wasted Woods and Timber of a Minors to the value of Ten Thousand pounds sterling And many more sad deplorable Experiments which abundantly induce to believe as well as lament them are not to be found in those well-ordered easie way of the Grants and Dispositions of Wardships which happened by Tenures in Capite by Knight-Service Which may appear to be the better established upon greater grounds of Law right Reason Justice and Equity when as many of the Lords of Manors and Copy-hold Estates who do now enjoy by those Tenures many Rights Seignories and commands with view of Frank-pledge Deodands Felons Goods Wrecks Goods of Out-lawed persons and retorna Brevium granted and imparted to their Ancestors by the bounty and favor of his Majesties Royal Progenitors who did not think it to be a grievance to have Abby or religious Lands which were freely given or cheaply granted to them held in Capite and by Knight-Service though there were at the same time a Tenth of the then true yearly value reserved would not upon the pretence and clamours of some Copy-holders concerning Fines incertain and the rigours and high demands put upon them by some Lords of Manors who have 5 or 600 Copy-holders in some Manors belonging unto them and can ask 13 s. 4 d. per Acre for some Lands and 10 s. per Acre for others to permit them to take their Estates hereafter at a reasonable Fine certain and whether poor or rich indebted or not indebted and charged with children or not will seise their Herriots and take as much as they can get upon the admissions of the Heir or the out cries against the many costly and vexatious Suits which have tired Westminster-Hall and some Parliaments concerning Fines incertain be well contented That their power of rating and taking Fines should be restrained or that they should be ordered upon the admittances of their Copy-hold Tenants by Act of Parliament to permit their Tenants without such Fines as they usually take to surrender and alien two parts in three for the advancement of their Wives payment of debts or preferment of Children as the Kings of England and mesne Lords have limited themselves or should be tyed upon the death of every Tenant and admission of his Heir as King James was pleased to limit him and his Heirs and Successors That upon consideration of Circumstances which may happen in assessing Fines either by reason of the broken Estate of the deceased want of provision for his wife his great charge of children unprovided for infirmity or tenderness of the Heir incertainty of the Title or greatness of Incumberances upon the Lands there shall be as those or any other the bike Considerations shall offer themselvs used that good discretion and conscience which shall be fit in mitigating or abating Fines or Rents to the relief of such necessities Or to release and quit all their Royalties in their Manors nor would think it a good bargain to have no Compensation or Recompence at all for them or no more then after the rate of what might Communibus Annis one year with another be made of them or that they could with justice and equity lay the burdens and payments of the Copy-holders upon the Free-holders and Cotagers Which if they do not now take to be reasonable in their own cases may certainly give every man to understand how little reason there will be to take away the dependencies and benefits by Tenures in Capite and knight-Knight-Service holden of the King and mesne Lords Or to abridge the King of that harmeless power never before denyed to any of his Ancestors to create Tenures in Capite and by Knight service or in grand Serjeanty for the defence and honour of the Kingdom upon new Grants of Lands or Favours especially when â—s His Majesty that now is did by His Declaration of the thirtieth of November last concerning the establishing and quieting the Government in the Kingdom of Ireland which hath been since very much liked and approved by the Parliament of that Nation insert a Saving of the Tenures of the Mesne Lords and ordained Tenures in Capite and by knight-Knight-Service upon the Lands which shall be set out to the Souldiery for their Arrears Or that Tenures in Capite not by Knight-Service with all petit Serjeanties which as Sir Edward Coke saith is a Tenure as of the Crown that is as he is King and the Profits and Reservations upon them which if well gathered would make some addition to the Royal Revenue should by the pattern of Olivers so called Act of Parliament be taken away when there are no Wardships incident thereunto and that aid to make the Kings eldest Son a Knight or marry his eldest Daughter should be taken away in the Capite and Knight-Service Tenures and left to remain in the former Socage Tenures or how little it will be for the good of the people if the intended Act of Parliament shall order the Tenures in Capite by Socage to pay double their former quit Rents or other Rents or Incidents belonging thereunto or to pay for a Relief double their petit Serjeanties or other Duties reserved When as Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service
them That a severe Act of Parliament be made against such as shall mis-use or waste any Wards Estate Lands Woods and Timber committed or granted to them or any personal Estate which belongeth unto them or shall not give them fit education or shall disparage them in their Marriages or marry them without any competent portion or shall not within a moneth after the death of such Ward or coming to his age of One and twenty years make a true accompt and payment unto the said Ward or his Heirs or Executors of all that shall be by them due and payable to him or them by reason of the said Wardship upon pain of forfeiture to the use of the said Ward his Heirs or Executors besides the said moneys due and payable to the use of the said Wards double costs and damages expended or sustained therein And that if any thing of grievance shall appear to have been in the compositions for Royal Pourveyances or in Cart taking which that which was called a Parliament did shortly after the death murder of the King very much mistake when in their Declaration sent into all the parts of the world of the causes and reasons of their erecting a Commonwealth they were pleased to averr that which the people of England know how to wonder at but not to make affidavit of that they exceeded all their Taxes and Assessments laid upon the people And that if the manage of those antient customes should require some better order to be taken there may be such a reiglement as may consist with his Majesties Honor and Profit and the ease and good of his people Or if a Tryal and experiment be to be given the people or those who like children will trouble a kinde and tender hearted Parent with Requests and Importunities to give them stones instead of bread and Scorpions for Fishes of the Inconveniences of taking away of antient Land-marks and good old Lawes and Customs tryed and approved in this Nation for more then One Thousand years and a great deal more in others and the greater and more to be feared Inconveniences of Excises losses and damage to the Royal Revenue and committing the Tutelage protection and ordering of the best Families of the Kingdom and their Estates during their minorities to the prey and ill management of those that can get them and will never so well execute those Trusts as the King who hath not nor can as they have any private passions Interests or Concernments to carry him out of the waies of Justice And that if such or the like Regulations to be added by His Majestie or His Counsell will not be enough to perswade the people from being Pelo's de se or longing for their own ruines The Act of Parliament intended to take away Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service may be with a reservation of Escuage service in Warr and Homage without the incidents of Wardships and be but as a Probationer to continue untill three years and the next ensuing Parliament after that time expended which may either continue the Act or suffer it to expire Which with other Regulations which may be made in separating from the right use any abuses which may be found to have crept into those Seminaries of Honor that standing more noble and more obliged Militia that legal and antient Constitution or the management thereof and giving if need be some better Rules and Orders may preserve unto the King and his Successors that great part of his Regal Jurisdiction and power to defend himself and his people and to the People that most antient and fundamental Law which is attended by many other Fundamentals Customes Rights Usages in relation affinity to it not to be parted withall keep us from serò sapiunt Phryges the fate of those that would rather repent bitterly and too late then yield to those counsels or admonitions which might have prevented it and from a worse complaint by as much as the whole differs from a part made by Monsieur la Noüe that great Captain and Soldier of France in the Raigns of their Francis the First and our Henry the Eight and Edward the Sixth of the alienation and decay of the Feiffes Nobles and Arrierebans by granting them in Mortmaine and to Roturiers or men ignoble wherein he informs us that Francis the First and Henry the Second Kings of France did do all they could to reduce them to their former Order and was of opinion that Barbarians have better observed that policie in Government then Christians and that the Obligation of those Military Tenures sont bien estroites are very binding Et avec lesquelles les Roys de France par l'espace de sept cent Ans ont faites choses memorables and wherewith the Kings of France have for seven hundred years atchieved great things That the wings of our Eagle may not be clipped nor the paws of our Lyon which is to defend his Kingdoms and people lamed lessened or cut shorter that the common and poorer sort of people may not as they do begin already complain that the Nobility and Gentry have to ease themselves bound heavy burdens upon them that we may not as Bodin relates of Henry the Second King of France fall into his mistake who raising a great Taxe upon the people whereby to free them from the ravage and insolencies of the hired Soldiers found it afterwards to be an increase of their grievances That the people may not do by their fundamental Lawes which they were but lately much in love with and called their Birth-Rights as some young Prodigals do by their Fathers dearly gained Lands sell them for a mess of Potage with Coloquintida in it which would be a greater folly then the hungry Esau committed or as some young Gentlemen do when to get or save a little money they pull down their Ancestors antient great and hospitable Houses and sell the Timber Lead and materials thereof to put themselves in a more speedy way of ruine That our King who in extent of his Dominions and the Antiquity of his Royal Blood and Descent is superior to the most of Kings and inferior to none may not be lesse then they in his Tenures or the dependency of his people but be girt with as much power and majestie as his glorious Progenitors That the Mighty men and the men of Warr may continue that the Ensigne of the People nor the Watchmen upon Mount Ephraim may not be taken away that the Vintage may not fail and the gatherings not come that his Servants may not ask Where is the Corn and the Wine and not be known in the streets but may as King Solomons every man in his course lack nothing that their Children as it was of that wisest of Kings Servants when Nehemiah long after returned with the Children of Israel from Captivity may be found in the Registers that the Splendor Magnificence of the Kings of Englands Courts farr surpassing those of France Spain the Emperors of Germany and all other Christian Princes may not be impaired or diminished and that our Pathes and the glory of our Lebanon and Excellency of Sharon and the foundations of many Generations may be restored Casus Cassandra canebat FINIS Spelmans Glossar 261. 1 Reg. 10. 24 25. 2 Reg 4. 21 22 23. Nchem. 5. 18. Sigonius de Repub. Athen. lib. 4. 540. 541. Martin Cromerus lib. 2. de Regno Poloniae Bignonius in notis ad lib. 1. Marculfi 465. Rosinus de Antiquitat Rom. lib. 7. 14. 24. lib. 10. cap. 22. LL Wisigoth lib. 9. tit 6. LL Ripuar tit 65. Cujacius tit 48. ad 10. cod Iustinian 14 29 Tacitus in vita Ridley's View of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Law 9 H. 3. cap. 21. 2 Reg. 24. v. 20. 22. 1 Sam. 25. 10. Claus. 31 H. 3. Socage Copy-hold Northern Tenant-Right Lease-holders Free Socage Beraultus in Commentar Spelmans Glossar 261. in verb. leta 431. Trin. 18. E. 1. in placit inter Abbatem de Leicester Abbatem de Selby Escuage Homage Relief Primer Seisin Livery Mesne Races Marriage Rents Licences to Widdows holding in Capite by Knight Service to marry To compound with Copy-holders Fines taken by the Court of Wards upon the Grants of Lands in minority Bodin de Repub Coke in praefat 9. Relat. Instructions or Directions of King James to be observed in the Court of Wards Coke 1. part institut 126. Fitz Herberts N B. 82. 25. E. 3. cap. 11. Rot. Parl. 20. R. 2. n. 27. Mat. Paris 240 241. La Noüe Discours Politicques Bodin lib. 6 de Repub.
and applying no better a remedy then a plaister of Excise drawn from the rebelling necessitous example of a Neighbor Republique or Democratie put the power and ability of serving the King in his Warrs of helping him to preserve the Salus Populi or good of the people and performing the Oaths and Duty of Allegiance a great part whereof was before in the Nobility and Gentry who were the best educated more knowing and virtuous part of the people and better understanding the order and affairs of Government and the Loyaltie which at all times and upon all occasions did belong unto it into the hands and humor of the ignorant mis-understanding rude and giddy Plebeians or Common people Deprive the King and people of those Strengths ready Ayds and Assistance of the Tenants in Capite and by Knight Service who were as so many little and inoffensive Garrisons Forts in every County to defend it to make head against the sudden invasion of an Enemy put him to a stand and prevent which was evidenced by the late use and terrors of Olivers County troops the over-running or gaining of whole Territories or taking of places of Strength untill greater neighbor forces or an Army be imbodyed or to be as so many Brigades or Auxiliaries well horsed and furnished with their Tenants to attend their King in a diversive Warr as they were in Anno 1640. in that unfortunately suspended Expedition or Inrode into Scotland against those Rebellious COVENANTERS against the Laws of God as well as those of their Soveraign Decay and impoverish the Kings Revenue and bring him into a want of money which made his late Majesty the Martyr's great and extraordinary Virtues Piety and Prudence too weak to defend himself or resist the torrent of Sedition and Rebellion which like an inundation of many waters rushed in upon him Exchange the antient and noble Guards of England and its never failing defence as the earthen Walls and Bulwarks thereof by an Obligation of Tenure and Homage annexed to the Lands of those which hold in Capite and by Knight-Service for a standing Guard or Army of Hirelings or men whose Fortunes are worn on their Backs as their Clothes or by their sides as their Swords which upon any necessity or mischance happening to the King may for want of pay as the German Ruyters or Lancekneghts or by insolence or presumption of their numbers or strength as the Praetorian Bands amongst the later Romans or the Turkish mutinous Janisaries or by being inconstant and faithless as the Cosacks and Tartars usually are to the Poles ruine and forsake him or by an humor of making Remonstrances and intermedling in State matters Innovating of Laws changes of Government and sacrificing to the Ignorance of their own mechanick Brains and new found destructive Politicks destroy the people their liberties as our late Colonels and Captains of the new edition and the Agitators and Self-canonized Saints did attempt to do when they would make themselves to be so much concerned in the good of the people as to set up a Law of the Sword and a Committee of Safety to make no man to have any safety or property but themselves and called every thing Providence which proceeded from their own unparallel'd Villainies Renverse and overturn many of the fundamental Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom and throw it with the heels upwards into very many evils and confusions which our selves as well as posterity may repent but not know how to remedie Perpetuate a Moyety of the Excise upon Ale Beer Perry and Sider and make the groans and burden thereof to be as an Inheritance for the people by the example and custom thereof be by degrees a means to introduce the whole Excise which in the Oliverian usurpation was laid upon them and though it may not happen in the life time of a gracious Prince Father of his Country and Preserver of his peoples Rights and Liberties may afterwards like Nessus's poisoned shirt upon the back of our Hercules and former Government canker eat up and destroy all their labours and industry Will cut off our Sampsons Locks and bereave him of his strength break in pieces the Shield and Spear of his mighty men of Warr and when all things Antimonarchical should be rooted out will be a fruitfull plantation and product of the greatest of Antimonarchicks and be that which our English Monarchie never yet saw or allowed and if Gods mercy prevent not may be as good a guest as a Canker or Snake in the Bosom of it All which and more evils and inconveniences then can at present be either fore-seen or enumerated and will as to very many of them as certainly follow the taking away of Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service as effects do usually their causes Cromwell the Protector of his own Villainies as well as our Miseries very well understood when in order to the destruction of the King and his Family the ruine of all the Nobility and Gentry and the rooting up of Monarchy and every thing which did but resemble or help to support it he did all he could to take away Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service And having a constant and standing Army of Thirty thousand Horse and Foot allowed to him and his Successors by his Instrument of Government or Rod of Scorpions and a Revenue of Nineteen hundred thousand pounds to maintain himself in his intended unlimited Monarchy and to keep the people in slavery cozening cheating and ruining all Loyal and honest men under the Hypocrisie and pretence of intentional Godliness and Two hundred thousand pounds per Annum for the provision of his House and Servants found himself no way indammaged by destroying Tenures in Capite or by Knight-Service or concerned to retain or keep them Which being the most noble sort of Tenures most antient free and priviledged will if they shall be truly and judiciously put in parallel and balance with those of the original and proper Tenures in Socage who as Coloni adscriptitii tied to their husbandry and plowes did as Sr Edward Cook saith Arare Herciare Plow and Harrow their Lords Lands and do many other servile works or with such a Socage as those many Tenants hold their Lands by which hold by a certain small rent of Sir Anthony Weldens Heir for Castle-guard to the ruined Rochester Castle in Kent to pay 3 s. 4 d. nomine poenae for every Tide which after the time limited for payment shall run under Rochester Bridg. Or with Copy-hold Tenures which at the first being frankly given for years or life and after by a continued charity turned to a Customary Inheritance were bound up to many inconveniences as not to lease their Lands or fell Timber without their Lords licence and many forfeitures payments and customes some at Fines incertain at the will of the Lord after the death of their Ancestor and which upon a suit or appeal in the Courts of
it ought to be the mesne rates and forfeitures which may be avoided were either pardoned or gently compounded and of so small a consideration in the Kings Revenue by Wardships as in Anno 1640. and a time of peace the Account thereof amounted to no more then Nine hundred ninety two pounds fifteen shillings two pence half-peny half-farthing And where a minority happened which in Times of less luxury was but seldome many were either Knighted or Married before they attained to their full age and Heirs females were not infrequently married long before their age of 21. there being not one with another one in every seven that died leaving an Heir in Minority Which may the better be credited for that if Report mistake not a Family of Poynings or Pointz having from the Reign of King H. 1. now almost six hundred years ago not had an Heir in minority And it is certain enough that in twenty Discents of the Family of Veeres now Earls of Oxford in the space of six hundred years and some thing more and the Warrs and Troubles which happened in many of them there have not been but six in minority when their Fathers or Ancestors died and the like or less may be found or instanced in many others And for one that is left very young at his Fathers death there are commonly nineteen that are of greater age and for one betwixt five years old and ten there are ten that are above the age of ten and for one that is betwixt that and fifteen there are seven that are above it for that most commonly in such early marriages as these times affoard which in great Estates are not seldome the sons are at age or a great part of it before their Fathers death and do keep a better account of their Fathers age then they do of their own And then the marriages which now generally bring ten times bigger Portions then one hundred years ago were most commonly granted to the mothers or to the next and best friends if they petitioned within a moneth after the death of the Fathers or Ancestors and where there were considerable debts or many younger children were not rated at above one years improved value if the Estates were not indebted or incumbred with younger childrens portions and a great deal less if it were as may easily occur to any that shall compare the Fines for marriages appearing in Sr Miles Fleetwood the Receiver Generals Accounts of the Court of Wards with the value of the Lands in Wardship where very small sums as 40 50 80 or 100 l. Fines for Marriages may be found to be set upon an Estate of 2 or 300 l. per Annum And most commonly compounded for to the use of the Ward himself and from Heir male to Heir Male although they were six or seven of the Sons of the same father for the same fine or compositi on if the Ward should dye which or the like favour as to Lands is not used by Lords of Mannors upon admission of Tenants to Copy-hold Estates The Lands where there were no Dowers or Joyntures which ordinarily did take away a third part or more were leased for a small Rent not exceeding most commonly the tenth part and very often according to the troubles incumbrances and debts upon the Estate at the fifteenth or twentieth part out of which the Ward had an exhibition yearly allowed towards his Education if of small age after the rate of 10l. per Cent. of the revenue of the Lands certified by the Feodary or if at University or in Travel beyond the Seas had a better allowance The Licences for Marriage which is totally denyed in Copy-hold Estates and would be therein gladly purchased were of so small profit to the King seldom happening or cheaply granted and in that of great Ladies not called for as it came to no more in the 16th year of the Raign of King Charles the First then 37l. 3 s. 4 d. And the Licence to compound with Copy-holders for their Admittances in the times of the Lords of the Mannors Wardships so easily and for a little granted as in that they came but unto 50l. The fines upon the making of the Leases or Grants of the Lands were small and more pro forma then otherwise at 10 s. 15 s. 12d. 6d c. and very small summs of money when they exceeded And whatsoever charges or payments may happen by Wardships which all things duely considered are less then what is paid upon Copy-hold Estates may by Law and the favour of former Kings be for a great part escaped by conveying away in their life times or devising by will two parts in three of all their Lands leaving a third part to descend to the heirs for payment of Debts and preferment of Wives and Children the heires of Tenants in Capite and men of any considerable Estate very often marrying before the age of One and twenty years and having all or the most part of the Fathers Estate reserving some Estate for life and the Mothers Joynture or Dower excepted setled upon them Which they may well be contented with when as all the charges and burdens as some do cal them which do happen upon those Tenures are lesser then the payment of the first-fruits of Benefices and Bishopricks to the Clergy with Procurations Synodalls other necessary charges in the Bishops Visitations lesser then that of Tenths according to the then true yearly value reserved by King H. 8. and E. 6. upon their Gifts Grants Sales and Exchanges of Abby Lands lesser then the payment of Tythes and lesser and more seldom then the easie payments and burdens upon Copy-hold Estates when as those that purchased any of those kinde of Lands either charged with Tythes or Tenths or the Duties or incidents belonging to Lands in Capite and by Knight-Service did buy them with those Concomitants which neither buyer nor seller were able to purchase or discharge and cannot pretend it to be a grievance because they cannot enjoy them freer then they purchased or expected no more then he that buyes a Calf can complain it was not an Oxe then hee that bought a Copy-hold Estate after the rate of an Estate of that nature and did suite and service belonging unto it can afterwards think himself to be ill used or under any oppression because it was not free-hold or hee that bought a Lease can justly conceive himself to be injured by him that sold it because he hath not the Reversion or Fee simple of it And should if rightly examined and duly considered be no more a cause of complaint or grievance then the weakness in Estate of a Tenant overwhelmed with debts and his disability to pay a cheap and easie Rent of Twenty pounds per Annum though it makes that Rent to be a burden which formerly and being not indebted he found to be none can make it either to be a grievance or unreasonable
or illegal or the old age or sickness of a formerly lusty and healthfull man which renders a small weight to be very heavy which was at other times not at all troublesome to him can make it in it self to be so much as he now takes it Nor are the supposed Grievances and Burdens of Tenures in Capite and Knight-Service naturally originally or intrinsecally to be found either in them or by them but are often occasioned by the parties groundless complaints and the troubles and burdens which they bring upon themselves who like men very sick by distempers and diseases of their owne making and complaining heavily of their paines and anguish can many times only tell that they are sick and not as they would or should be but not whence it came or if they could are unwilling to remember the causes of it For The Reason why they seem to be Burdens and Grievances and heavier then formerly CAnnot be hid from those which shall but enquire and rightly and judiciously search into the Causes of that which now lyes more upon some mens spirits or imaginations then need to be if they would doe by themselves in the Oeconomie and manage of their Estates and Affairs as their more prudent and virtuous Ancestors did who when Meadow ground was in H. 6. dayes now not much above 200 yeares agoe in the most fertile Counties of England at no greater a yearely value then 8 d per Acre by the yeare and other lands of 4 d. or 5 d. an Acre per Annum could keep greater houses or hospitalities by five or ten to one then they doe now a greater retinue of servants and dependants gave great quantities of lands in Common and Estovers of wood to the poore or whole Townshipps live honorably if they were Barons and worshipfully if they were Knights and Esquires and serve their Prince faithfully did great acts of Piety and Charity by building and endowing of Churches and stood as greater and lesser Pillars in their severall Counties did not rack and skrew their Tenants to the utmost that any would give for lands with harsh and hard Covenants and Conditions did grant Mannors Annuities and Farms to Gentlemen in Fee or for lives to serve and go along with them and their Prince upon occasion of wars were not troubled at their Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service did not thinke those benefits to be any burdens though great summs of money were somtimes paid as 6000 l. by a mother of an Earle of Oxford and 20000 marks by a mother of in Earle of Clare in the raigne of King H. 3. for their wardshipps when marriage Portions or Dowries in money were but small and their large and great revenues considered were but as accumulations of many lesser wardshippe were not so much indebted as now nor so much enforced to mortgage or sell Lands get Friends Servants or Tradesmen to be bound for them to have their Lands extended or the persons of such of them as were under the degree of Baronage outlawed or arrested were not up to the ears in Shop-keepers or Trades-mens Books or Items but lived within the pale of Virtue and fence of Sobriety and far better then they do now when they do let errable land at 13 or 16 s. per Acre by the year Pasture at 20 or 30 s. and Meadow at 40 s. or sometime 3 l. the Acre per An. were not driven out of their ancient and former love and reputation in their Countries or Neighbourhood by letting the Kitchin chimneys of their Country houses fall down for want of making but ordinary fires in them but did in their several orbs and ranks live more honourably and worshipfully then now they do or can when they are guilty of few of those great and good actions did not as too many do spend in the pursuit of Vanities ten times more then their Forefathers who had long kept and enjoyed the same or greater Estates nor sit up all night to come home drowsie and discredited in the morning with the loss of 4 or 500 l. and sometimes 3 or 4000 l. by gaming bestow 2 or 300 l. on a Coach and 100 or 200 l. upon a Band Spend more in gaming drinking and whoring which their forefathers though sometimes addicted thereunto could get at cheaper rates then by maintaining a costly Corinthian Lais or a sumptuous Cleopatra then would pay for the charge of a Wardship and lose more in a careless or not at all taking of their Accounts or looking to their Estates Affairs then would twice over discharge it nor did tamely permit their flatterers sycophants and promoters or concealers of their vices to go a share in their Estates and Fortunes Too many of their eldest sons were not so mounted to the height of Fashions as to spend more in Powder Plays Coaches and Ribbons the lesser circumstantials of their vain expences then their forefathers when they were Heirs apparent had allowed them for all necessaries and a better kind of education and expend more in Peruks or Periwigs at 3 or 5 l. price for every one then would pay for the charges of suing out their Fathers Liveries too many of their wives and daughters did not racket with a troop of young Gallants or Gentlemen of Amours or Dalliance nor discourse more of Romances then the Word of God Virtue and good Examples send their Linnen for the attire of their heads and necks when they are above one hundred miles from London by the weekly Posts to be washed or starched by the Exchange-women hunt after the newest and most costly fashions sacrifice to all the parts of pride gluttony prodigalities and luxuries drive a trade of black Patches and Painting give 10 20 or 40 l. for a yard of Lace did not make it their designs to vie with every one they can perceive to wear Jewels Diamond Lockets Necklaces of Pearl or more costly Apparel then themselves did not give insana pretia extravagant and cheating prices because such a mad great woman or a neighbours purse-emptying wife had given the same 't would be a disparagement to come as they say behind them or wear any thing at a lesser rate nor adventure and many times lose 5 10 or 20l. in an afteroonn or evening at Cards which is now become most of their huswifery their daughters did not in their hopes of getting Princes to their Husbands or impossible great Marriages help to cast their fathers estates and purses into a consumption and spend more money betwixt their age of 13 and 20 then would have made treble the marriage portions of their Grandams when 100 l. or 2 or 300 l. was a good portion for a good Knights well-bred Daughter when 1100 marks was in 2 H 6. a good portion for a marriage betwixt Thomas Lord Clifford and a Daughter of the Lord Dacre when Henry Lord Clifford having great and large Revenues in the North parts of England and else where did in 33 H.