shall have the least share of the profits of tithes if their Petitions should be granted For 1 First a great and considerable part of all the Manors and best Farmes in England and also of petit Farmes and parcells of land have been bought and sold within this thirty years last past The severall purchasers wherof have not paid one penny for the tithes therof For the tithes being an inheritance separate and distinct from the land was not in the power of the Vendors to sell nor intended by the Purchasers to be bought Now it is contrary to all justice and equity that a purchaser should have the profit of that he neither bought nor paid for 2 The purchasers of Manors and Farmes for the most part have been rich Merchants wealthy Citizens great Practicers in the Law Officers in the Courts of justice and other monied men all these or the most of these do let out their purchased lands to Farmers at improoved rents which Farmers when all lands are made tith-free shall pay to their landlords the Purchasers Rents as well for the value of the tithes as they shall for the arable land they hire of them either by setting the land at a higher rate in regard it is tith-free or els a Fine or Income shall be paid in respect had therto However the rich Purchasers when their lands shall be tith-free will in one way or other make their profit of them And thus the tithes shall be taken away from the Impropriators the rightfull owners of them and given to the rich purchasers who have no need of them nor right unto them Thus upon the whole matter whereas there was but one Impropriator in a Parish now there will be if the Petitioners may obtain their desires in effect as many Impropriators as Purchasers 3 The like may be said of Noblemen of principall Gentlemen and of all others who having many Manors and good Farmes in severall Counties have their place of residence but in one County and do let out to Farm the Sites of their Manors and the Demeanes therof which commonly in country Villages do amount to the third or fourth part of the Revenue of the whole Parish and in many parishes well neer all the Farmes are theirs these great men their lands being made tith-free shall have their Estates improoved to their hands with the ruin of many poor Gentlemen and Freeholders who have litle els but tithes to maintain them and their familyes 4 And in like maner also such Tenants as have Estates for lives in their Farmes and do upon every change of a life renew their Leases as generally they do in the West part England and in divers Counties elswhere all which tenants for lives shall make Fines to their Lords as well for the profits of the tithes of the Farmes they hold as for the Farmes themselves So that however the Farmers may have some petty benefit or rather conveniencie by the hiring of their Farmes in outward appearance tith-free yet the main profits will redound to the Landlords unles the Farmers can procure that no Landlord whatsoever shall let his arable lands together with the tithes therof at above a certain rent per annum for every acre which was in effect one of the Articles which Wa. Tiler his rabble demanded of King Richard the second 5 It hath been propounded by some that Orphans and such as have no other estate but tithes shall have some moderate satisfaction in mony and by others that the Impropriators shall have 8. or 10. years purchase for their tithes Let such consider that this is in effect to take from the Subjects their inheritance against their wills for half the value thereof Such forget that golden Rule of doing as they would be done unto In case the Impropriators titles were defective it were a work of Charity to favour the widdows and the fatherles but if their titles be good and legall which none yet have questioned and that the rich mans right and title is the same with the Orphans then the one ought to have the benefit of the law which is the subjects birth-right as well as the other 6 And as to a generall sale to be made of tithes at a set rate of so many years purchase many difficulties and matters considerable will arise thereabout For as some Manors or Farmes in some Counties are as well worth 20 years purchase as some others elswhere are worth 15. So in like maner of tithes whether the inhabitants be industrious to till the Earth whether good or bad husbands whether Sea-sand Lyme Marle or other Compost may be easily procured to manure the land whether the Inhabitants be able owners or poor Farmers whether the soil be fertile or barren whether lying in the inclosed Counties or in the Champaines c. these and the like will raise or abate the sale of tithes 7 Now concerning those that are to be the sellers First by an Act of Parliament made Anno 13. Eliza. If the Masters and the Fellows of Colleges do alien their Lands or tithes such Grants are void nor can they consent to do it without ah horrible breach of trust and if they shall be sold for half the value then must the Colleges as before was observed be in part and some of the greatest of them be well-neer dissolved Some of the Improprietors have their Estates so fettered by their fathers or by themselves upon their marriages with Entailes called perpetuities that they have no power to dock them but by composition with them in remainder they being in little better condition than tenants for lives Others are simply tenants for lives others for years How shal the monys upon such sales be divided between the particular tenants and them in remainder or reversion others have mortgaged their tithes others and not a few have their estates in the hands of Trustees which trusts cannot be discharged but by the chargeable Decrees in Chancery Shall Orphans have their portions and Creditors their debts abated Shall the annuities of younger brothers be in part extinct Or shall all the loss fall upon those poor Gent and Freeholders who have the inheritance of the tithes in reversion and none or little present profit 8 Difficulties will also arise about the persons that are to Purchase for where there is one parishioner that hath spare mony to buy his tithes there are four that are in debt few of those well advised will purchase because he that buyes land at ten years purchase runns about the Country to borrow mony payes brokage and interest and the charges of assurance by mortgage to secure either the lender or his sureties and the payment of taxes besides the loss of time and anguish of mind may put his Gains in his eyes and see never the worse Particular tenants and they in reversion will hardly joyn in the purchase and who shall undertake for them that are in their minorities As the most part of men
AN ANSWER To the severall PETITIONS Of late exhibited to the high Court of PARLIAMENT And to his Excellency the Lord Generall CROMWELL By the poor Husband-men Farmers and Tenants in severall Counties of England for the taking away of Tithes paid to Priests and Impropriators London Printed for I. M. 1652. An Answer to the severall Petitions of late exhibited to the High Court of Parliament And to his Excellency the Lord Generall Cromwell by the poor Husbandmen Farmers and Tenants in severall Counties of England for the taking away of Tithes paid to Priests and Impropriators IT is manifest to all that have searched Records either in the Ecclesiasticall or Temporall Courts or have read the Chronicles of this Nation that tithes of Corn and Grain were paid to the Clergy in the times of the Saxons As also that the tithes of more than the third part of all the Parishes in England were before the Conquest and within a few ages after given and appropriated to Monasteries and other Religious houses who quietly enjoyed them till their dissolution by K. Henry the eighth who aswell by the severall Grants made unto him by the Heads of the said religious houses as also by an Act of Parliament holden in 31. year of his reign to which all the Commons in England consented had all the Manors Lands Tithes and Hereditaments belonging to the said Religious houses being for the most part the fairest and richest in England granted and vested in the said King and his heires for ever Which King being thereof so lawfully seized He by his severall letters Patents under the great Seale of England in consideration of monies paid him tenths tenures by Knights service reserved and for rewards for service and other valuable considerations did disperse the Sites of the said Monasteries c. their Manors Lands and tithes c. amongst the Nobility the Gentry and others his Subjects well-neer of all degrees and professions All which Patentees their heires and assignes have from that time to this present quietly enjoyed the same without dispute the infortunate Impropriators of tithes excepted who notwithstanding their more than 100 yeares quiet possession severall Descents cast Fines levied Recoveries suffered and those upon valuable considerations And besides the former act of Parliament and one other excellent Law made in the 21th year of K. James called the Statute of Limitations made for the quieting and setling of mens Estates yet by the clamorous importunities of the Petitioners their titles to their inheritances have bin blasted their tithes ill payd and which is worse by many denied to be payd though the High Court of Parliament have made severall Acts and Ordinances for the due payment thereof And this the Petitioners and others of their party have attempted to do without proposing any recompence or due satisfaction to be given to the Impropriators in lieu therof Now how unjust and unconscionable their endeavours and attempts have bin herein shall evedently appear to the understanding of the poor tenants and farmers themselves who are Petitioners by the reasons and Arguments plainly expressed in the Articles following viz. 1 FIrst many Impropriations are in the hands of such persons as have faithfully served this Common-wealth with their persons and estates in the late troubles And now if the Petitioners might obtain their desires the Common-wealth whom they have served shall deprive them of their estates and livelihoods 2. The Parliament have had by way of sequestration the Revenues of many Impropriations the owners whereof have lately compounded for their Delinquencies And now that the Delinquents have paid the Fines imposed upon them for their delinquencies and sued forth their pardons or by the Act of Oblivion have their offences remitted they shall those excepted who gave to the State their Impropriations in lieu of their Fines be now punished in a farr higher degree than by a review even to the losse of the inheritance itself 3 Many Widdows have tithes for their Joyntures which their parents did purchase for them with mariage portions and Orphans tithes asigned for the raising of their portions and younger Sons have Annuities issuing out of tithes granted unto them during their lives and little or nothing els to maintain them 4 Others have tithes extended for just debts due unto them others have tithes mortgaged unto them for mony lent and the mortgagers stand bound by Statutes or Recognizances or in penall Bonds to pay the monies borrowed at the dayes limited In such cases the Mortgagers shall not only lose the tithes mortgaged but the bonds for collaterall security being layd upon them they shall unles they have other estates become stark beggars and perhaps starve in prison 5 Others have built fair houses out-houses and barnes upon their Rectories and have held their tithes instead of demeans for their provisions which tithes being taken from them their losses over and above their tithes in their buildings will be of considerable value 6 K. Henry the 8th to engage all degrees of men and societies in the sharing of the lands belonging to the Religious houses and of the Rectories to them lately appropriated did amongst other things by way of exchange give to divers of the Colleges in both the Universities a great number of Impropriations and the Colleges in the lieu of them gave to the King fair Manors Farmes and Lands of the like yearly value which had bin given unto them by the Founders and Benefactors to the said Colleges Now if the tithes be taken away from those Colleges then in all justice and equity the Colleges ought to have all their Manors and Lands restored back again unto them which in every exchange is tacitly imply'd and though the mutuall assurances between the King and the Colleges were not in form of law made by way of exchange yet the considerations appear to be so both in the Kings letters Patents and also in the Grants made by the Colleges to the King Therfore in all equity restitution or satisfaction ought to be given unto them otherwise those Colleges must in part be dissolved 7. As the Colleges shall lose their Impropriations so their Farmers therof shall lose their leases which they have purchased for Fines in hand paid for one and twenty yeares or for three lives and also all hopes of renewing their Leases hereafter which they and their predecessors have injoyed from time to time at such constant Rates set to be payed for Fines at the renewing of their Leases as such College leases have bin usually sold for one third part more than Leases held of private persons The Petitioners by that which hath been already declared may easily discern that there will be many sufferers and sad losers if tithes impropriate shall be taken away In the next place it shall be discovered who they are that shall be the Gayners when all Lands are tithe-free THe Petitions exhibited are in the behalf of the poor Husband-men and Tenants Alas poor men they
will want monies to buy so others will have no will to buy shall an Impropriator be compelled to fell the fairest and best portions of his Tithes and at under-rates to those that will buy and to keep the remain in his hands That were to adde another prejudice to the Impropriator who besides other inconvenience shall be well-neer at as great a charge to inne such parcels of scattered Tithes as formerly he was to inne the whole But if strangers shal be admitted to buy the tithes of those lands which the owners are not able or not willing to buy then it will follow that there must be Landlords and Tenants and in effect as many or more Impropriators than are at this present Lastly who shall determine the yearly value of the tithes to be sold if the anti-tithemongers set the value the purchace no doubt will be under ten years 9. Some of the Petitioners and namely those in the East-Riding in York-shire pray to have the payment of tithes abolished because they were at the first given for the advancement of Popery and for the maintenance of superstitious and idle persons For the like reason the Petitioners may in case they have good success in this Petition pray that all the Sites of the Monasteries and of all other the Religious houses in England dissolved by K. Hen. 8. may together with all their Manors Granges Farms and Lands which amounted to the value of 161100. l. per annum of old Rents and are worth at this day at improved Rents two millions of pounds per annum be taken from the present owners because they were at the first given for the maintenance of idle Monks and Chanting Cannons who depended upon the Popes and were but the Kings half Subjects And bestowed upon the Petitioners because they are poor men and take great pains for their livings The Petitioners are alike grieved with the Ministers of the Gospell for their maintenance by tithes As they are with Impropriators all must be taken away from them It being an easy matter say they to order a more honourable maintenance for them But in what way they declare not We shall not say any thing concerning the Ministers divine right to tithes Nor of the conveniencie thereof for their maintenance We shall proceed in the same way as before and shew to the Petitioners their mistakes in the Clergies Revenue And in their own expectations 1. ALL that which before hath bin declared concerning the taking away of tithes from the Impropriators and giving them to great Landed-men rich men and to purchasors wil be the same to the Ministers of the Gospell who shall have the Rents and profits of their tithes taken from them and put into the purses of rich Land-lords But with more disadvantage to the Minister than to the Impropriator because of the Ministers constant pains in Preaching His care of the souls under his charge with the other duties incident to his calling For which our Ancestors in former times held their Ministers so worthy of tithes and were so consciencious in the dew payment of them That they usually gave their Ministers a Legacie for tithes forgotten to be paid And Mortuaries were paid to the parochiall Ministers for the same cause 2. It was in the times of Popery one of the just grievances which the Cannons had against the Monasteries c. That they received the Rents of the tithes and yet lived 100. miles off and for that many Rectories were appropriated to Religious houses beyond the Seas who gave no relief nor assistance to the Parishes whence they received the profits nor scarce took notice of them whereas the Ministers of the Gospell are resident upon their Cures and doe spend the Revenues thereof amongst their Parishioners They set the able poor on work and relieve the impotent according to their abilities 3. If the Minister doe let his tithes to the Parishioners as many of them doe and more would upon even tearms then the Petitioners the Farmers have as much privilege from their Ministers as they can expect from their rich Landlords after such time as all Lands are made tithe-free But if the Minister doe keep his tithes in his own hands then are they a magazin or store-house for all the poor people in the Parish For there the poor man hath straw for his bed for his Cow and to heat his Oven and grist-corn upon trust till he have earned money to pay for it Thither also the pettie husband-man the badger the waggonier and the Carter that lives by doing works and carriages for other men resort for Chaff for their horses which is a commoditie hard to be gotten in those Counties where use is made of it And there they have for their money horse-corn ready at hand But where the Farmers doe inne their own tithes together with their Crops they will not part with any of those commodities unless in a small proportion to the labourers that depend upon them 4. Whereas the Petitioners pretend that the Impropriators and the Ministers doe hot pay Assessements answerable to the profits they receive herein the Petitioners are much mistaken For it is a known truth that all the Judges in the Courts at Westminster about Anno 1635. did resolve it That tithes were not to be assessed at the tenth part of the Assessement laid upon the Parish because that way was incertain and unequall therefore they resolved that 100. l. per annum in tithes ought to be equally taxed with 100. l. Lands per annum And the high Court of Parliament anno 1649. did enact That all Assessements from thenceforth should be by the pound rate But as for the stock upon the Land that was ordered to be taxed by it self which lawfull favour hath not in many places bin allowed neither to the Impropriator Nor to the Minister because that Farmes and the stocks upon them are in most places taxed undividedly together 5. The Minister is equally taxed in most places for one hundred pound tithes per annum with a forrain Land-lord who receives one hundred pounds Rent per annum of his Farmer in the same Parish which is not just For the Land-lord is at liberty to live where he pleaseth and to follow any calling he best liketh without any deduction of his Rents save for taxes Whereas the Minister is tyed upon great penaltie to Residence and in case of sickness or of just cause of absence must at his charges see the Cure served whereof respect ought to be had in all Assessements laid upon the Clergy Thus it is plain tithes are not undertaxed but rather over-taxed 6. The Petitioners doe farther pretend That they doe pay to the Tithe-mongers the third or fourth part of their whole estates Herein though the Petitioners tell the truth in part yet they conceal the whole truth For howsoever it is generally true that if threescore acres of arable Land be let to Farm for threescore nobles per annum during That
then the tithe thereof is worth twenty nobles per annum the time the threescore acres are wholy employed in tillage not otherwise But as the whole Revenue of a Parish doth not consist in arable Lands so the same arable is not alwaies plowed and it may with confidence be affirmed That the Clergy who receive the tithes of Corn and Grain together with the small tithes Have hardly throughout England the tenth part of all the Rents and profits of the Lands in their severall Parishes if some of them receive more than the tenth others doe receive much loss For in all those Parishes where the richest pastures doe lye in severall and are employed in the seeding of fat Oxen as also in less fertile pastures where the profits are raised by the brooding up of horses and store-cattle nothing considerable is paid thereout unto the minister And where the pastures are stocked with fat sheep or with Cows for Dayries the tenth of the rent of such pastures is the most that can be expected from a Forainer but less from a Parishioner who also paies no tithes for all the pastures his plow-horses and Oxen for draught do eat up nor for the Leyes and pastures which the flocks of sheep do graze upon which are folded to manure the arable lands Besides the parishioners do commonly blow away all the tithes due for firewood with a smoak penny And the owners of usuall or coppice Woods in many places do not pay the tenth and not a few do let their Underwoods and Springs of woods grow till they be above twenty years growth purposely to defraud the Minister of his tithe And generally in all places the spires or young timber trees which are fallen together with the under-wood which are a considerable part of the owners profit yield nothing to the Minister Adde hereto that of late years much barren ground formerly employed in tillage is converted to Warren for Conies and indeed can no waies be better improved for the benefit of the Common-wealth and the owners profit And as for Forrests Chases Parkes for Deer vast moores great wasts and Commons and under correction the commonable Fens also till of late drained and in hand to be drained conteining 400000. acres As they yield not much to the common good so least of all to the Rector-ministers Furthermore many Manors and Granges in England antiently were and so continue to this day totally exempted from the payment of tithes by Grants Privileges and prescriptions and not Farmes only but whole Parishes doe prescribe de modo decimandi by which the minister doth hardly receive the fortieth part in lieu of his tithe in many places much less Farther 7. To instance that the Minister hath but the tenth There have upon complaints made in Chancery where Towns have been depopulated and converted to pasture Decrees made in that Court That the minister should have in lieu of his tithes the tenth acre in the Parish to hold in severalite and to be laid neer adjoyning to the Parsonage house or in some other convenient places to the Ministers content In which way of exchange the Minister was no loser though the Common-wealth bee by such conditions accompanied with depopulations And the cause why the Ministers lost nothing by such conditions was because before that time about one fourth or fifth part of all the lands in the Parishes were pasture grounds held in severalty or else were meadow and pasture grounds lying in the Common-fields in the bottoms or low places thereof and in heidons and in large drifts for cattle and in the commons and wastes of the manor which were commonable all the year In all which the minister-rector before the commission had little or no considerable profit which by the severaltie for all the year were improoved 8. And whereas the Petitioners pretend much slavery by the Statute made anno 2 Edw. 6. for the setting forth of tithes and also by the Ordinances made this Parliament for the dew payments therof It is well known that there were constitutions made in the Reign of King Edw. the Confessor As also in the Reign of King Edw. first injoyning the payment both of prediall and personall tithes And it is a known truth that for one action which hath for these seven years last past been commenced against any person for Foul tithing there have bin ten actions brought against those who have refused to set forth their tithes openly denying to pay the same aswell to the Minister as to the Impropriator therefore they have just cause humbly to Petition the high Court of Parliament that they would be pleased to adde costs of Suit to the dammages given by that Statute because affected Juries will give as little in Dammage as may be As also that all sales made by the owners of Corn and Grain upon the ground to unknown persons to the intent to defraud the Impropriators and Ministers of their tithes and all such like covenous and feigned devices may be made void and the Contrivers of them punished according to their deserts And because that Statute doth concerne prediall tithes only therefore that some good Law might be made in the behalf of poor Vicars for the recovery of small tithes which if the Vicar insist upon to have according to the value he is clamoured to be contentious if he accept what is given his tithes are converted to Almes And wofull is the condition of those Ministers whose maintenance depends upon the benevolence of the people as also of those parishes who want fit maintenance for their ministers 9 There are in England and in Wales nine thousand seven hundred and twenry five parishes and although the one half of those Rectories were not appropriated as to the number of them yet certainly as to the yearly values the Ministers at this day have not the one halfe of the profits of the tithes of corn and grain because except the Church of Cleve in the vale of Evesham and some others the tithes of all the richest and largest parishes were appropriated And if it be farther considered that not only many of the greatest of them but also the middle sort have by sales by partitions and by other means been devided and come into severall hands Then it may be easily demonstrated that besides the Patrons losses of their right of inheritance in the presentations of fit Ministers to their Churches above the yearly Revennue of one million of pounds at improoved Rates and the Estates of more than ten thousand Families are deeply concerned in this great mutation by the Petitioners intended Therfore 10 For the causes and reasons above recited the Petitioners have with too much boldness importuned the High Court of Parliament and His Excellencie the Lord Generall after the expence of so much blood and treasure for the liberty of the Subjects Persons and Proprietie in their Estates to petition for the taking away of the inheritance and the Freehold Estates for every Incombent hath a free-hold Estate in his tithes from so many thousands of good Subjects without propounding due and full recompence or satisfaction to be given unto them for the same FINIS