his Crown Lands turned from small and easie old-fashion'd Reserved Rents upon Leases for Lives or years into Estates of Inheritance and very many Liberties as Fishings Free-Warrens Court-Leets Court-Barons Eschetes Felons Fugitives and Outlaws Goods Deodands Forfeitures Waiss Estraies Fines Amerciaments retorn and execution of Writs and in some Manors a liberty of receiving to their own use Fines for licenses of concord or agreement upon the making of Conveyances and Post-Fines upon Fines leavied in the Kings Courts Profits of the year day and wast and all Fines Issues Amerciaments returned set or imposed upon any of their Tenants in any of the Kings Courts or by any Justices of Assize or of the Peace With many other Franchises Liberties and Participations of his Regality which they do now enjoy tanquam Reguli as little Kings in their several Estates and Dominions in many of them more by claim and prescription allowed by the favour and indulgence of the King and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors Kings and Queens of of this Nation unto them and their Posterities then by any any Grants they can shew for it very much exceeding in yearly profit and conâ—ent the small charges which they have used to have been at for the Pourveyance or Provisions for the Kings Houshold Take his Fee-farme Rents which do amount unto above threescore thousand pounds per annum but according to their first and primitive small reservation though the Lands thereof be now improved and raised in some a ten and in others a twelve to one moâ—e then they were then accompted to be either in the intentions of the Donors or Donees and many other his Fee-Farmes of some casuall Profits and Revenues granted to Cities and Corporations which do now ten to one exceed what they were when they were first granted Grant and confirme to the Vulgus or Common people many great immunities and Priviledges as Assart Lands and permit them to enjoy in his own Lands and Revenue large Common of Pasture and Common of Estovers and Turbary in his Forrests and Chaces and protect from oppression in that which are holden of their Mesne Lords their Copihold Lands Customes and Estates which being at first but temporarily permitted and allowed patientia charitate in quoddam jus transierunt are now by an accustomed and continued charity taken to be a kind of Tenant Right and Inheritance Grants and permits many Charters of Liberties Privileges and Freedoms to the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England and Wales and to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of London all Issues Fines and Amerciaments retâ—rned and imposed upon them in any of the Kings Cours freedome from payment of Tolls and Lastage in their way of an universall and diffused Trade in all places of England and for a small Fee Farme Rent of Fifty pounds per annum for the Kings Tolls at Queen-Hithe Billingsgate and other places in the City of London accepted in the Reign of King Henry the Third suffers them to have and receive in specie or mony towards their own Pourveyance as much as would goe a good way in his Allows the Tenants in antient Demesn their Exemptions from the payment of Toll for their Houshold Provisions which in the opinion of Sir Edward Coke was at the first in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings houshold Provisions and suffers the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colleges and Halls therein Colleges of Winchester and Eaton and the Reâ—ients in the Cinque Ports and Rumney Marsh to enjoy a Freedom from Subsidies Who together with all the people of England may by the Accompt of benefits received by and from him and his Royall Progenitors and Predecessors know better how to value them if they had not received them and if he should but retire himself into himself and withdraw his bounties from us Or take his Customes and Imposts inward and outward Reliefs Ayds Subsidies Fifteens Tenths and First-fruits Profits of his Seals Pâ—ae-fines Post-fines Licences and Pardons for alienation of Lands Fines upon Foâ—medons and reall Actions at the full value and rate which the Law will allow and the rise of money might perswade him unto or take all occasions to invade or clip the peoples Liberties and Privileges as they do his Or seise and take advantage of the forfeitures of our sufficiently misused Fairs and Markets which without the many inconveniences of Barrage Billets peages or Tolls taken at many places as they pass thither as the people of France and our Fashion makers are tormented with do yield and save the people yearly in that which otherwise would be lost some hundred of thousands pounds per annum or should withdraw his favours and countenance from the Trade which our Merchants have into forreign Parts since the Reign of Queen Mary by the benefits and blessings of the Leagues and Alliances of him his Royall Progenitors made with forreign Princes continued with a great yearly charge of Embassadours Ordinary and Extraordinary sent and received and render it to be no no more then it was in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the difference of the gain of forreign Trade and Merchandize betwixt the little which was then and that which is now by reason of the East-Indie Turkie Muscovie Ligorne and East-land Trades and our many flourishing American Plantations would appear to be some millions sterling money in a year And were notwithstanding never so gratefull to our King for it as the English Merchants of Calais were whilst King Edward the Third caused the Staple of Wool to be kept there who so ordered the matter as the King spent nothing upon Souldiers in defence of the Town which was wont to cost him eight thousand pounds per annum and the Mayor of that Town could in Anno 51 of the Reign of that King furnish the Captain of the Town upon any Rode to be made with one hundred Bill-men and two hundred Archers of Merchants and their Servants without any wages Or if the Peoples Liberties acquired by the munificence and Indulgence of our Kings since the making and confirming of our Magna Charta in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Third now 437 years ago when they took it to be for their good as well as the Kings to give him a Fifteenth part of all their Moveables not by a conniving and unequall but a more real and impartiall Taxation in recompence and as a thankfull Retribution for their Liberties then granted and confirmed which are now as many again or do farre exâ—ed them were buâ— justly valueâ— or if the benefits accrewed unto forreign Merchants or those of our own Nation by the Charâ—a Mercatoria granted by King Edward the First in the 31 year of his Reign to the Meâ—chants Strangers and confirmed by Act of Paâ—liament in Anno 27 Ed. 3. for the releasing of an antient Custome and Duty to the Kings
Servants and the Children Friends and Kinred of many of those which do contribute towards the Pourveyance or Compositions for them and that which is so misimployed serves instead of some other largesses allowances or connivencies which are usually in Kings Houses and whether well spent or mispent being Oblations and Offerings of duty made by the People to their Sovereign are not to be denyed or retrenched no more then the misbehaviour of the Sons of Ely with which the Almighty was so much offended would have been any just cause of the Children of Israels forbearing to bring their Offerings It being no Paradox but certain enough that those seeming but not reall grievances to the People by the Kings Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them have no other source or originall then the rise and enhance of the Markets and all Victualls and Provisions by which all the selling and richer part of the People are ten to one more gainers by the Kings Pourveyance or Compositions for them then they can be loosers and are better able to bear it and the poorer sort of the people were less grieved when it was not taken away then they are now by the Excise of Ale Beer c. which comes in the place or pretended recompence of it that the Gentry and Landlords of the Lands in the Nation who by heating of those Lands that were cold drayning and drying of those that were wet and moist watering of such as were dry and sandy and planting of Wood and Fruit have brought their lands to a greater increase and fertility not yet come to its Acme or just height then the former ages and a thousand years knowledge or practise of our Forefathers the Inhabitants of this Nation could before this last Age or Century wherein we are now ever reach or attain unto and the Landlords of Houses Innes Taverns Shops or Stalls in London who have now by the increase of Tradesmen rather then Trade raised their rents ten or twenty to one more then what they were One hundred years agoe might in some measure or moderation have taken their advantages of the improvements of their Lands Rents Houses and Shops without such an overstretching their Rents as the Tenants where they have no Leases but at will or from year to year in some Counties of England should be enforced as many have lately been to throw up and forsake their Bargains And that all or any of that over-high racking the Rents of Lands and Houses or a supposed plenty of money which in the time of the greatest enhance and rack of rents rates and prices which ever England did see or endure is now so scarcely to be found as the universality of the people do heavily complain of the want of it and the product or consequence of that evil in a like enhance of rates and prices by the Freeholders and Copyholders who pay no rents as Farmers do and by the Tenants of the King Queen Prince or Bishops some of the hospitable and well minded Nobility and Gentry the Tenants of the Church and Colledge Lands and of Lands belonging to Cities Corporations Companies and Hospitals who have cheap and comfortable Estates and Bargains and yet do all they can to imitate them although they have no cause to do it which would be much higher If all the Copihold Estates in England and Wales were at as great a rack of rent as the Lands of the most of Farmers If all the Privileges and Rights of Common Estovers and Turbary Modus decimandi and Exemption from the payment of Tythes and Tolls were abrogated And if the King should keep the same rule and measure of high rating and racking of his Revenues certain or casuall as many Landlords do Or make our East-India Merchants pay for their licence or priviledge of trading to the East-Indies all others being excluded for one and twenty years a share or proportion amounting in the whole very near a Million sterling money as the Dutch have made their East-India Company to do could not be the only proper or efficient causes of that long-strided and swift progresse and increase of the rates and prices not only of victuals and all houshold provisions but of all manner of commodities apparel and necessaries either for use or ornament So as we shall not conclude without premisses or be thought to want a ground or foundation of an irrefragable truth that Lucifer the great Merchant and furnisher of our sins and excess and of the great and intollerable pride of all the degrees and ranks of men women children and servants in the Nation as far beyond the former ages as a Giant is to a Pigmee or Pauls Steeple in London when it was highest to the Pissing Conduit as they call it in Cheapside and the avarice of the people to maintain it together with the necessities attending their pride and vanities have been no small part of the cause of it for otherwise it would have been some difficulty to find or give a reason why we should not in England a Kingdome untill our late times of confusion of the greatest peace and plenty in Christendome be able to afford victuals and all manner of provisions for the belly and back as cheap as in France where notwithstanding the heavy oppressions and burdens of the Paysants who do fare hard and are ill clad and by reason of the frugality of most of the Gentry a Partridge may be bought for â—our pence and a Gentleman and his horse at night be very well entertaind for four shillings or as in Spain where a Bando is yearly made by the Corrigidores of every City and Place which the Civil Law doth allow and direct and our Laws of England do as to victuals also intend setting yearly the rates and prices not only of all victuals and houshold provisions for the belly and of fruit and Apples but of all Commodities as Linnen and Woollen Cloth Silk Knives Haâ—s c. where notwithstanding their continuall Warres and multitudes of heavy Taxes to mainteyn them there is a cheapness of victuals and such an absence of deceit as a child or the most ignorant way as to measure weight and prices buy and not be deceived Or as is in the same manner done at Rome Naples Florence Milan and most of the Principalities of Italy not so freed from publick Burdens as our more happy England is at this present which neither would nor could be there ever submitted unto and obeyed as it is if the pride and necessities or avarice of the Landlords and the pride of the Tenants which the Pragmatico's forbidding the pride and excess of apparel do in Spain very much eradicate were not less then ours and their frugalities more and such restrictions and reglements thereby made to be the more tolerable and contenting And those that do like it more then they should and shall be content to imploy their times in the pursuit of vanities and means to
mainteyn it and forsaking the old and good wayes and seeking gain do sacrifice unto their nets and burn incense unto their drags may have that said unto them which the Apostle St. Paul did â—n another case to the Romans what fruit have the intollerable pride and excess of the Nation and the high racking of Rents to mainteyn it brought unto those that have taken pleasure in it And they that have so much delighted in it may now if they please or at one time or another understand whether they will or no that the overmuch raising and stretching of the rents of the Lands and houses in England since an excessive pride and folly of the people is come to be so much in fashion amongst us have been no gain to the Nobility and Gentry but will be a great loss and damage unto them by that time that the wastfull and prodigall part of them have bought and furnished their Houshold provisions at the dear rates of their Tenants and others of whom they do buy them and their apparel and other the Merchandises of their follyes of the Citizens and Trades-men and not only therein bear the burthen of their own but of the intollerable pride and gallantry of the Citizens Tradesmen Mechanicks Artificers and their Wives and Children and in all that they do buy of them do contribute to the costly Pearl Neck-laces Diamond Lockets and other Jewels satten and cloth of silver Peticoats plush Gowns Embroderies Gold-lace Gorgets of threescore pounds a piece and Lace of twenty or forty pounds a yard worn by the Merchants Drapers and Mercers Wives and the Silk-Gowns Hoods Laces and over-costly Apparel of the Mechanick and Artificers Wives in their desires and ambition to live like the Nobility and Gentry when no man can tell they are any or ought to be That the enhance of all provisions of victuals brought to London out of the Countries hath made the Country people proâ—der then they should be and the City Wares and Commodities dearer then otherwise they would be and made the Citizens in the pursuit of pride and luxury run out of their wits and estates to purchase it That it was better in former times for the Artificers and Day-labourers whose more moderate expences in their â—â—veral conditions and qualities made them heretofâ—re with a fourth or fifth part of what they do now earn greater gainers by their labours then now they are and better for servants whose far lesser wages then now they will be contented with did amount unto more or as much as they do now gain by reason of their former smaller expences in clothes and apparel The Tenants and farmers lived better when they plowed their Landlords lands mowed reaped and helped in with their Harvests carried home their wood and paid small rents then they have or can do now that they are strained to the highest those labours and services coming far short if they were at the now rates to be hired or paid for of the addition which time and change of manners and customes have since made to their antient and unimproved rents That the people of England if there had been no other ground or reason for it might well have afforded to have given the King so much as they were yearly charged with the Pourveyance or Compositions for them for an acquital of more then twenty years arrears of it by the Act of Oblivion That if an estimate could be made of those Millions or summes of money sterling which the enâ—hanced prices and rates of victuals and houshold provisions did amount unto yearly since the 24th year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth and what the rise of victuals and houshold provisions have come unto yearly since the Pourveyance and Compositions for them were laid down and what it may more be stretched unto if pride and price not like Castor and Pollux to bring our Ship into the Port but to ruine it should go on in that carreer it is now in and private and particular interests more mighty and prevalent then all those imaginary monsters which Hercules is saâ—â— to have subdued and of a greater force then that Devil and his heard called Legion which our blessed Saviour did dislodge out of the man possessed with them shall be ayders and abetters of it There is no man that hath not bid defiance to his reason and understanding but will acknowledge that the people of England had better give ten times or more the yearly rate or value of the Pourveyancees or Compositions for them then endure the Impositions which they have or shall put one upon another whilest every man will seek to save himself and make his labour or commodity afford him as much as he can to recompence him for it That the unreasonable rates and prices put upon all the Kings occasions or services by Land and Sea are and will be the cause of Taxations and Assessements in times of peace three to one more then formerly And the Levies of monies to hire Souldiers and raise and maintain mercinary Armies will amount unto and charge the Publick ten or twenty to one or more than when by the help and ready ayds of Tenures in Capite and by Knight service our gallant and well-armed Nobility and Gentry could upon any occasions of warre or distress either at home or abroad be sodainly summoned and made to appear from Ireland as well as from all parts of England and Wales And so readily as King William Rufus sitting at dinner in Westminster Hall and hearing that Mayne a Town in Normandy was much distressed by a sodain Siege laid unto it by the French King and resolving in the greatness of his mind not to turn his back towards it untill he had relieved it could cause the wall to be broken down on the South side and passing towards the sea coast command his Nobility and Knights speedily to follow him That the unparrallel'd pride of almost all rancks and degrees of the people not permitted in France Spain and other Neighbour Nations brings our Forreign Trade almost to nothing by the adulterating of our Commodities and making them false and slight and causing the charges to be much more then formerly in the work and making of them pay of our Mariners and greater rates of victualling so as we being not able to make our manufactures so cheap as other Nations and making them slight and false our Trade must of necessity more and more decay and will never increase or be advanced if the Dutch were banished out of the world or ordered to trade only in the Bottom of the sea and leave all the Surface or Top unto us the cheap diet and clothing of their Common people the neat and frugall diet and the apparel of the Burgers and those that they call the Gentry giving them the advantage of under-selling us For we may be sure that there will never be cheapness of victualls or houshold provisions or good trading
his horses paying of certain Cows or a rate for them quae dari solebant pro capitibus Utlagatorum to redeem the forfeituâ—e of Outlaws Gavel or Rent-timber for the Repair of the Lords house Gavel Dung to carry his Dung Horse or Foot Average carrying of the Lords Corn to Markets and Fairs or of his domestique utensils Smith-land for doing the Smiths work Gavel-erth for tâ—lling some part of the Ground Gavel Rip to help to reap their Corn by one or more dayes Gavel Rod to help to make so many Pearches of Hedge Gavel Swine for feeding of Swine in the Lords Woods Carropera to work with their Carts or Carriages Ale-silver in the City of London Were Gavel in respect of Wears and Kiddles to catch Fish besides which some have not long ago valued in the sale of their Manors many Boons Presents and New-years-gifts and other Retributions yearly given to Landlords or Lords of Manors in lieu of their Pourveyance who paying for it one to another do receive and take Fines incertain at farre greater rates then antiently they were and many times so unreasonably as the King in his Superiour Courts of Justice is many times enforced to regulate and reduce them to a moderation and can also receive many other small yearly payments paid by Tenants in acknowledgement of favours or help received or to be received and demand and receive Quit-rents for Common Fines of some Hundreds and for Fines pro non pulchre placitando or pleading in their Courts so fair as they ought prohibited to be taken by several Statutes made in the reigns of King Henry the 3 d. and Edward the Third receive in some places as in the Counties of Cumberland Westmerland and some other Northern Counties a 20 penny Fine and in Wales a Payment or Oblation called Mises upon the death or change of every Landlord and be at the same time unwilling that the King should have any retributions or acknowledgements for one hundred to one favours and helps not seldome but very often nor to some or a few particular men but to very many and the universality of all his Subjects Be well contented that he should have no betteâ— a Bargain to release their Duties of Tenures in Capite Knight-service and Pourveyance which would have yielded and saved him at least Two hundred thousand pounds per annum besides the vast yearly charge of a great part of his Guards much whereof might be spared if he had as his Royal Progenitors had the benefit support and accommodation of Tenures in Capite and by Knights-service which were so greatly very necessary in the honour and incidents thereof to the exercise of a just and well regulated Monarchy and Royall Governments and more advantagious then the decaying and every day diminishing Revenue of that Moyety of the Excise which half or moiety from the time of the granting thereof untill the last year did yearly yield unto him but One hundred thousand and ten pounds or thereabouts and for this last year but One hundred thirty and three thousand pounds Sterling or thereabouts out of which the Salaries allowanâ—â— unto the Commissioners Auditors and Surveyors c. and many other defalcations are to be deducted attended with the daily discontents of the Common people and as a Fine and Income for that so greatly prejudiciall and inconvenient Bargain release and abate unto the people more then a Million and a half Sterling mony due unto him for the Arrears of the profits of his Wardships and Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service and for the Arrears of his Pourveyance after the rate of Thirty five thousand pounds per annum charges to the people six hundred and fifty thousand pounds Sterling and if the charge thereof shall be deemed to amount unto Fifty thousand pounds per annum may without any stretching of the accompt be very justly reckoned to be no less then Nine hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling And take notwithstanding as his blessed Father did the profits of his Wards after a tenth part of the true yearly value of the Lands and his Ayds to make his eldest Son a Knight and to marry his eldest Daughter which the Socage Tenures are likewise obliged unto at a very low and easie proportion very many of his Reliefs after the rate which the value and Rent of Lands were at four hundred years agoe now that they exceed it Fifteen or Twenty times more in value then they were then his Subsidies and Fifteens secundum antiquam taxationem after the old and long ago accustomed old rates with considerations and abatements to be made in respect of Debts Children and weakness of Estates when as the rates in every Parish for the maintenance of the Poor mending of High-wayes repairing the Church payment of Tythes for Pasâ—ure-grounâ—s oâ— upon any other their Parochiall Duties or occasions are made and layd by the people themselves and Justices of Peace by the Pound rate as they call it and to the utmost yearly value and improvement or very near it Receive his First-fruits and Tenths at great undervalues Prae-fines Post-fines Lycenses and Pardons of Alienation at less then a Tenth Take no more for the Fees of his Seals in Chancery and the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas then as they were in the Reign of King Edward the Third now that every peny which was then is more in value then three and for the originall and Judiciall Writs in Wales no more then they were in he 34 th year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth his Fines upon Formedons and Reall Actions his Customes inward and outward at gentle and undervalued rates allowing the Merchants notwithstanding a Twelfth part of their Wines a Fifth of all other Commodities imported and a Tenth of all that is exported most of which particulars in his so daily accustomed and continued favours seperately and singly considered would either out-goe or come very near up unto the charges which the Kingdom did yearly expend and disburse for or towards the Royall Pourveyance Allowâ— three or four pounds in every Pipe of Wine for Lekage takes for his prisage of Wines brought into London for his two Pipes of Wine one before and another behind the Mast in every Ship of every Freeman being an Housekeeper of that large and largely privileged City but seven pounds ten shillings for every Pipe of Wine which is seldome less worth if it be Sack then thirty pound a Pipe or four and twenty pounds a Pipe if it be Claret And giveâ— Bâ—lls of Store to multitudes which have occasion to pass or repass which is not seldome into or out of the parts beyond the Seas for their Trunks and other necessaries to be Custome-free Allows and permits the Dukes Marquesses and 〈◊〉 to enjoy their Creation money towards the supportation of their honour and they as well as the rest of the Nobility and all or many of the Gentry to enjoy great quantities of
fallen upon the Orphans or fatherless Children of that part of the People and their Estates when the Wolves shall be made the Keepers of the Lambs and every indigent or wastfull father in Law shall be a Guardian to those whose Estates he makes it his business to spend and ruine or to transferre upon his own Children and the charge and trouble of Petitions at the Councell Board or more tedious Suits in Chancery to be relieved against them the pay of more Life-guards or a small standing Army to keep the People within the bounds of their duty and secure good Subjects from the mischief intended by the bad frequent Musters of the Trained Bands more then formerly and of an Army to be hired upon an occasion of an Invasion or the transferring the sedem belli or miseries of warre into an Enemies Country much whereof would not have needed to be if the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service those stronger Towers and Forts of our David those Horsemen and Charriots of our Israel and alwayes ready Garrisons composed of the best and worthiest men of our Nation not hirelings taken out of the Vulgus nor unlettered unskilfull and uncivilized nor rude or debauched part of the people but of those who would fight tanquam pro aris focis as they and their worthy Ancestors ever used to do for the good and honour of their King and Country and the preservation of their own Families as being obliged unto it by the strongest tyes and obligations of law and gratitude which ever were or could be laid upon the fortunes Estates Souls and Bodies of men that would have a care but of either of them Or to put in the Ballance against the benefits which they had in the preservation of their Woods recording their discents and titles to their Lands and many a Deed and Evidence which would otherwise have been lost or not easie to be found and the help and ayd which their heirs in their infancies have never failed of in all their Suits and Concernments And the seldome abuses of some naughty Pourveyors and the complaints thereby do not any thing neer amount unto the immense gains of the people of some millions sterling per annum in their vast improvements of their Lands and Estates by the rack and rise of rents enhaunce of Servants and Labourers wages and all commodities in all parts of the Kingdome before and since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Compositions for the Pourveyance were made and agreed upon may seem but a very small yearly Retribution to the King or his Royall Progenitors for permitting so much as shall be reasonable of it And the People of England might better allow him those small and legall advantages which are and will be as much for publique good as his own then they do themselves in many of their own affairs one with another in many of their particular private ends advantages wherein the will and bequests oâ— the dead their Hospitalls Legacies or Gifts to charitable uses are not nor have been so well managed as they ought to be As may be instanced in those multitudes of charitable Legacies or Gifts in lands originally cut out and proportioned to the maintenance of certain numbers of poor or for some particular uses which by the increase and improvement of Rents before and since the dissolution of the Abbies Religious Houses and Hospitals did very much surmount the proportions which were at the first allowed or intended for them And with more Reason and Justice then the City of London and many of their Guilds and Fraternities do now enjoy divers Lands which were given for Lamps and other superstitious uses for which they compounded by order of the Councell Board with King Edward the Sixth for twenty thousand pounds and more then that which that and many other Cities and Towns do take and receive for Tolls which being many times only granted for years or upon some temporary occasions are since kept and retained as rights besides many Gifts and Charitable Uses since the dissolution of the Abbies and Religious Houses amounting to a very great yearly value which by the improvement and rise of Rents beyond the proportion of the Gifts or the intention of the Givers have been either conveyed by Jâ—yntures or leases to wives or children or much of the overplus which came by the improvement or concealed Charitable Uses converted by the Governours of many a City and Town Corporate to the maintenance of themselves the Worship of the Corporation and many a comfortable Feast and Meeting for the pretended good of the 〈◊〉 people thereof who are but seldome if at all the better for it Some of which not to mention any of greater bulk or value may appear in a few instances instead of a multitude of that kind dispeâ—sed in the Kingdom as two Closes of Land or Meadow Ground lying in the Parish of Shoreditch in the County of Middlesex given by Simon Burton Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London in the year 1579. unto St. Thomas Hospital upon condition that the Governors of the said Hospitall should yearly give unto 30 poor Persons of the said Parish on the 21 22 or 23 dayes of December for ever the summe of eight pence a piece Mr. William Hanbury Citizen and White-baker of London did by a Surrender in the year 1595. give unto Elizabeth Spearing certain Copihold Lands in Stebuâ—heath and Ratcliffe in the said County to pay the Parson and Church-wardens of the said Parish for ever to the use of the poor People there two and fifty shillings yearly which by consent of the Parish is by twelve pence every Wednesday weekly bestowed upon the Poor abroad And Mrs. Alice Hanbury Widow by her will did in the same year give unto Mr. George Spearing a Tenement in the said Parish wherein William Bridges a Taylor then dwelled upon condition that the said George Spearing his Heirs and Assignes should yearly pay to the Churchwardens of the said Parish and their Successors to the use of the poor and impotent People thirteen shillings and four pence And that whether the King be enough recompenced or not at all recompenced for his Pourveyance it would be none of the best bargains for the Subjects of England or their Posterity to exchange or take away so great and nâ—â—â—ssary a part of his Prerogative or support of Majesty as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were which in the Parliament in the 4 th year of the Reign of King James were held to be such an inseperable Adjunct of the Crown and Imperiall dignity as not to be aliened and some few years after believed by that incomparable Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Chancellor of England to be a necessary support of the Kings Table a good help and justly due unto him And the Learned both in Law and Politiquâ—s in other Nations as well as our own have told us that such Sacra