should be And that it was and will be for the good of the people unless the oppressing and cheating one another shall be understood to be for their good that the King and his subordinate Magistrates should correct and regulate the deceits and excess of rates and prices in Markets as those of the Fishmongers of London were by King Edward the first when they were fined five hundred Marks pro illicitis negotiis Forstallamentis aliis transgressionibus in officio suo Piscatorum for Forstallings and other unlawful practises in their Trades or as King E. 3. did when upon a Complaint made by the Commonalty of the City of London that the Butchers such a watchful eye was then kept more then now upon the deceits of Trade did stick and fasten the fat of great or fat Oxen upon the flesh of the lean whereby to promote the sale and price in deceptionem populi to the damage and deceipt of the people he commanded the Maior to provide a remedy or as an Assise of Bread and good and needful Ordinances for Bakers Brewers Inholders Vintners and Butchers was set and made there being an old Assise book made and Ordained in Anno 12 H. 7. by the Lords of the Privy Councel to Queen Elizabeth viz. John Archbishop of Canterbury Sir Christopher Hatton William Lord Burghley Henry Earl of Derby Charles Lord Howard Henry Lord Hunsdon Thomas Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Knowles Sir Thomas Heneage Sir John Fortcâ—cue and Sir John Wolley or the Decree if had been observed which was made in the Star Chamber the thirteenth day of November Anno 11. of the Raign of King Charles the Martyr after consultation had with diverse Justices of the Peace and the Certificate of all the Judges of England viz. Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Sir Robert Heath Knight Sir Humfrey Davenport Knight Sir John Denham Kt Sir Richard Hutton Knight Sir William Jones Knight Sir George Croke Knight Sir Thomas Trevor Knight Sir Geâ—rge Vernon Knight Sir Robert Barkley Knight and Sir Francis Crawley Knight and confirmed by the Kings Letters Patents under the great Seal of England the 14. day of December then next following that No Inkeeper or Ostler within the Cities of London and Westminster or ten miles distant who have since made such excessive rates as have affrighted many of their Customers away who finde it less chargeable to come to London in passage Coaches or send their horses back into the Country to finde out more honest Inkeepers should take above six pence for Hay for a horse standing night or day nor more then six pence for a peck of Oats of the measure called Winchester measure No Tavernor or Victualler selling Wine by Retail should sell or make ready for sale any sort of Flesh Fish or other victual save bread nor procure to be set up the Trade of a Cook within the same house or in any Shop or Room thereunto belonging or in any house near adjacent nor permit or suffer any Flesh Fish or other Victual except bread to be brought into the house to be there eaten by any of his Guests And did likewise upon hearing of divers Inkeepers who could not deny but that the rates before specified were competent further ordain that where Grain and Hey should at a further distance from London be sold at lesser prices there the rates prices should be accordingly And that that Ordinance should continue in the County of Middlesex untill it should be made to appear to the Justices of the Kings Bench and in other Counties and places to the Justices of peace that because of the increase of prices in the parts adjoyning greater rates should be necessary to be permitted and that thereupon other rates should from time to time be set and being set were commanded and enâ—oynâ—d to be strictly and duely observed untill by the like authority they should be altered And cannot deny but that if the King and his Royal Progenitors if they could ex praevisione by some foresight of things to come of which supernatural eminencies there is a non datur or denyall even to Kings and Princes have understood that their ancient and lawful rights of Pourveyance and Prae-emption would in return of all their benefits daily and yearly heaped upon their subjects have been ever thought to have been a grievance or oppression or endeavored to be withheld from them they might have saved as much and more as that would have come unto by reserving upon all their bounties and grants or Leases of their Mannâ—rs or Lands their Pourveyance or houshold provisions or when they gave Lands of inheritance rendring small or disproportionate Rents or Fee Farms to the greater yearly value which they now appear to be might have added so much of Pourveyance or provisions as might have taken away that causeless murmur against the Pourveyance which our old Saxon King Aethelstane who raigned here in Anno Dom. 938. understood to be so necessary for his housekeeping as when he had subdued the Welâ—h Princes made them his Tributaries he caused them to Covenant with him at Hereford not onely to pay him yeerly twenty pounds weight of Gold and three hundred of Silver but five hundred head of Cattlâ— with Hawks and Hounds to a certain number towards which payment by the Statutes of Howel Dâ—a saith our Industrious Speed the King of Aberfraw was charged at sixty six pounds an Early Composition rate for Pourveyance the Prince Dinemore and the Prince of Powys being to pay the like sums of money And that now to deny it unto the Crown is a greater injustice and injury then to have denyed it to Queen Elizabeth King James or his son King Charles the Martyr or in some hundred years before for that then our Kings and Princes might have preserved themselves and their successors from the rapines and unconscionable rates and prices of houshold provisions which some of his subjects might have forborn to impose upon their King though they do it upon others That if in the Raign of King Henry the seventh a Law or Act of Parliament had been made that for one hundred and fifty years after to the end to make a Treasury or provision of money which Common-wealths and many Kingdoms are not without for the protection and defence of the people against invasions or emergent evils the prices taken in the Markets more then formerly over and above the genuine and real worth of the Commodities should be collected and laid up for the good of the Publike or that all that took Lands to Farm should pay ten times the former yearly value and all things bought in the Market should like the King of France his Salt be for some things at three or four times or for others at ten fifteen or 20. times beyond the true value it would not be imaginable how near the peoples murmuring would have arrived to that of the Children of Israel in the Desart when they
for a greater observance is certainly to be tendered unto the King even in that particulâ—r of Praeemption which may well be believed by all that are not Quakers whose Tenants all the people of England are mediately or immediately by some or other Tenure Then that which is usually done to Lords of Manors Justices of Peace or Country Gentlemen by their Tenants or poorer sort of Neighbours who if they chance to catch any Woodcocks or Partridges in any of those Gentlemens Lands will bring them to their â—ouses to sell at such cheap and easie rates as they shall please to give for them and if which seldome happens they should carry them to the Markets and not thither are sure enough to be chid for it and crossed and denied in any greater matter which they shall have to doe with them And is but that or a little more curtesie which Butchers Fishmongers and other Tradesmen selling victualls or provisions in great quantities and all the year or often unto their constant Customers will not for their own ends fail to doe or neglect or to sell unto them at easier rates then unto others and find themselves to be many times no loosers by it insomuch as some have lately well afforded to sell to a constant Customer for great quantities at the same rate it was 40 or 60 years before And the Compositions of the Counties for Pourveyance to serve in Beefe Mutton Poultry Corn Malt and other provisions for the Kings Houshold and the maintenance and support of it at a more cheaper rate then the Markets yeild which when they were first set was but the Market rate or a little under long agoe made and agreed upon by the greater Officers of the Kings Houshold and some Justices of Peace in every County and easily and equally taxed and laid upon the whole and not upon any particular man which was poor or of a small Estate not fit to bear it May be with as much and more reason allowed and chearfully submitted unto as those many now called quit rents or Rent services which the most of our Nobility Gentry and others not for some few of them doe yet hold some of their Tenants to their antient and reasonable Customes doe receive and their Tenants easily and willingly pay for their several sorts of â—apola Gavels or Tributes charged upon their Lands before and since the Conquest in Kent a County recounting with much comfort of their many Priviledges and beneficiall Customes and most parts of England as Gavel Erth to Till some part of their Landlords Ground Gavel Rip to come upon summons to help to reap their Corn Gavel Râ—d to make so many perches of hedge Gavel Swine for pawnage or feeding their Swine in the Lords Woods Gavel werk which was either Manuopera by the person of the Tenant or Carropera by his Carts or Cariages Harth-silver Chimney-money or Peter-pence which some Mesne Lords do yet receive Were Gavel in respect of Wears and Kiddels to catch Fish pitched and placed by the Sea coasts Gavel noht or Fother or Rent Foder which did signifie pabulum or alimentum ut Saxones antiqui dixerunt and comprehended all sorts of victuals or provisions as the old Saxons interpreted it for the Lord probably in his progress or passing by them and was in usage and custome in the time of Charlemaigne the Emperor about the year of our Lord 800. when the people of Italy Regi venienti in Italiam solvere tenebantur pro quo saepe etiam aestimata pecunia pendebatur were to provide Foder or provisions for the King when he came into Italy in liew of which money to the value thereof was sometimes paid and was long after taken to be so reasonable as it was by the Princes and Nobility of Italy acknowledged in an Assembly to be inter Regalia as a Prerogative due to the King And after the Conquest for Aver Land or Ouver Land carriage of the Lords Corn to Markets and Fairs or of his domestick utensils saith the learned and Judicious Mr. Somner or houshold provisions of the Lord or his Steward when they removed from one place to another sometimes by horse Average sometimes by foot Average one while within the Precinct of the Manor thence called In average and at other times without and then called Out Average whereupon such Tenants were known by the name of Avermanni or Bermanni Smiths Land holden by the service of doing the Smiths work the not performing of which several services so annexed to the said several sorts of Lands and their Tenures made them to be forfeited which though not exchanged and turned into Rents Regis ad exemplum in imitation of the indulgence and favour of King Henry the first to the Tenants of his demeasne Lands either then or shortly after but many of them as appeareth by Mr. Somner continuing in Kent to the Reign of Henry the third others to Edward the first and Edward the third and some in other places to the Reign of King Henry the sixth and in all or many of the Abbies and Religious Houses untill their dissolution in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth notwithstanding that the Lords of Manors and Leets receiving those free or quit Rents as they were called of their Freeholders and Tenants belonging unto their several Manors in lieu and recompence of those services did or ought in their Court Leets twice a year holden cause to be presented and punished any unreasonable prises for provisions or victuals sold in Markets Fairs oâ— otherwise or if they have not Leets are when they are Justices of Peace authorised to doe it and by that untill their Interests perswaded them to let their Tenants use all manner of deceipts in their Marketings and get what unreasonable prises they pleased so as they themselves might rack their Rents farre beyond former ages might have had their provisions untill this time at as low and easie rates as the Kings prouisions and Compositions were at when they were rated and set by the Justices of Peace in the severall Counties and all others of their Neighbourhood might also have enjoyed the benefit of the like rates which the Law intended them And the King may as well or better deserve and expect as many Boons or other services as the Nobility and other great men of the Kingdome doe notwithstanding many Priviledges and Indulgences granted by their more liberall Auncestors and better bestowing their bounties to their Tenants And to be furnished with Carts and Carriages at easie rates as well as the Earl of Rutland is at this day for nothing upon any removall from Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire to Haddon in Darbyshire and elsewhere from one place to another with very many Carts of his Tenants which are there called Boon Carts when as all Lords or Gentlemen of any rank place or quality in the Kingdome doe take it to be no burden or grievance to their
Henry the third his Sonne by their Magna Charta Agreement or Accord made with their then powerfull Barons and Church men and a discontented and seditious Commonalty since reduced into Lawes and confirmed by thirty Acts of Parliament wherein the people having many liberties granted them by those Kings the great Lords Prelates and superior part of the Clergy of whom they held which they could not then claim as rights but were to be received as favours and as much to be valued as their pardon and indemnity which was granted unto them by the same Charter King John therein promising them that all those Customes and Liberties quantum ad se pertinet erga suos omnes homines de regno suo tam Laici quam Clerici observent quantum ad se pertinet erga suos as much as belonged to him he would observe towards all men and that all as well Laick as spiritual should as much as belonged to them observe them towards such as held of them And by the late King Charles the Martyr who took but one hundred pounds for the Relief of an Earldome which was antiently accompted to be but of the yearly value of four hundred pounds per annum the least of which are now three or four thousand pounds per annum very many double as much and some sixteen or twenty thousand pounds per annum when as the hundred pounds was then according to the now value of silver above three hundred pounds And to disburse in houshold provisions according to the difference betwixt the rates and prises of victuals as they were in the Reign of King Edward the second which was above 80 years after the granting and confirming of Magna Charta by King Henry the third when a Capon was sold for two pence and what they are now will not be the fourth part as to some sort of provisions and victuals and as to others not the sixteenth of that hundred pounds for the Relief of an Earldome and so proportionably in other reliefs and the summe of five pounds for the relief of a Knights Fee which is but the fourteenth part according to the difference betwixt the antient and then value of the lands belonging unto a Knights Fee now estimated but at three hundred pounds per annum many of which are four or five hundred pounds per annum and others of a greater yearly value as the lands are lesser or more improved nearer or farther distant from London the grand Emporium of the Trade and Commerce of the Nation and the residence of the King and his superior Courts of Justice And are but the Antiqua Relevia antient Reliefs which King Henry the first in his Charter of Liberties granted to the people did not reduce unto any certain sums but ordered to be justa legitima And but two hundred Marks for the Relief of a Marques and two hundred pounds of a Duke although there were at the time of the making of those great Charters neither Dukes nor Marquesses in England or any such Titles in being and one hundred pounds for the relief of a Baron And if the warres had not hindred him from those and other his dues but 20 s. for every Knights fee according to the Statute in anno 3 E. 1. towards the marriage of his eldest Daughter and making his eldest Son a Knight and no more of every twenty pounds per annum in Socage Did not according to the Equity and Preamble of the Act of Parliament de anno quinto Eliz. cap. 4. which in regard that the wages and allowances limited and rated in former Statutes were in divers places too small and not answerable to that time respecting the advancement of prices of all things belonging unto Servants and Labourers and that the Law could not conveniently without the great grief and burden of the poor Laborers and hired men be put in execution and to the end that there might be a convenient proportion of wages in the times of scarcity and plenty did repeal so much of the said former Statutes as concerning the working and wages of Servants and Labourers and enacted that the wages of Artificers Labourers and Servants should be yearly assessed by the Justices of the Peace and Magistrates in every County City and Town Corporate with respect to the plenty and scarcity of the time and other circumstances necessary to be considered endeavour to raise them to any higher sums or make them proportionable to the present values of lands and money rates and prices of victuals And by the favour of his now Royal Majesty who delighting in the vestigiis and pathes of his many indulgent and Royall Progenitors though his own very great wants and necessities and their daily importunities might have advised him not to have kept the road of his Ancestors liberality and bounty but to reserve some kindness for himself and his more urgent occasions did not as King Henry the third and several other Kings of England his Successors cause his Taxes Assessements by Parliament to be assessed upon oath according to the full and true value of the peoples Estates or as was done by King Edward the sixth since the Statute of 6 Ed. 3. for restraining the Parliament aids to the old Taxation upon the assistance or relief then so called given unto him by Parliament and make enquiries upon oath of the best values of the substance of such as were to pay that Relief Dismes and Subsidies and by the oaths also of those who were to pay them and caused some to be sworn to value clothes to the end that the King might receive payment of Relief for every cloth or as Queen Mary did cause an enquiry to be made upon oath of the value of the goods and lands of such as were lyable to the payment of Fifteens Dismes and Subsidies in the 2 3 4 and 5 years of her Reign But in his Assessments Aids or Subsidies granted by Parliament did imitate his Royal Father King Charles the first who took and received all his Subsidies at two shillings eight pence in the pound for goods and moveables and four shillings for lands and immoveables with defalcation of debts and consideration of a greater then ordinary charge of children assessed by an express exception without oath and the Commissioners left at liberty to assesse themselves and the Assessors according to the old and easie Taxations Takes and receives his First-fruits or the first years value of Bishopricks Spiritual Promotions and of Benefices not under ten marks per annum and Vicarages not under ten pounds per annum since treble those values as they are said to be in the Kings books and for the Tenths of their Spirituall Promotions after no greater a rate or yearly value which no Act of Parliament ever obliged him to doe then they were long agoe valued with some very small encrease or raising long since in a very few of the Bishopricks but
great Talbots or as the Prior of Canterbury did of his Tenants who in every Manor were bound ex antiqua consuetudine providere Priori ibidem de quodam Palifrido competenti tempore novae creations suoe by ancient custome to present the Prior at his election or first admittance a Palfrey fitting for him Or which the Prior of Rochester did of his Tenants of the Mannor of Haddenham in the County of Buckingham who by ancient custome in the eighteenth yeer of the raign of King Edward the third were to Mow and make the Lords Hey Weed his grain in his demesnes pay certain Rent Corn called Booting Corn and five hundred threescore and three Eggs at Easter which in Anno 18 H. 6. were by an agreement made with the Prior of Rochester released for the sum of three pounds and an increase of Rent from thence forward viz. for every Yard land twelve pence every half yard land six pence every Cotland eight pence and every worthy some Tenants so called four pence which is to this day paid and continued And being besides obliged by their customes to the works and services following viz. That every Tenant holding a yard land and the Tenants of two half yard lands ought to plough the Demeasne lands of the Lord two days in the year viz. in Winter and in Lent for which they were to have their dinner allowed by the Lord every Tenant holding a yard land ought in harvest upon a flesh day as also upon a Fish day to be assigned by the Reeve or Bailiff to find two able persons every holder of a half yard every Cotland or Cottogea and every worthy ought to finde the same day one able and lawful person with Hooks or Sickles to reap the Lords Grain in his Demeasnes for which they were to have their dinner allowed them at the charge of the Lord or his Farmer every yard land ought to carry half a quarter of the Lords grain to Oxford being about twelve miles distant to Wallingford neer as much or to Wickham being about ten miles distant being Market Towns near adjoyning to Haddenham and all the Carriers were to have one penny in common to drink the morrow they ought not to work every yard land ought to carry to Marlow eleven quarter of Grain of antient measure at three tearms of the year to be quit from all things by six weeks after and to carry the Lords grain from his demeasnes into his Barn from the furthest field four loads from Dillicot field six loads and if they carry nearer then all the day if it please the Lord also if the Lord shall buy Wood every Yard land ought to carry two loads of Wood from the place into the Lords Yard so it be ready to carry before the Feast of St. Michael otherwise each Yard land should onely carry a horse load so as they may in one day go and return and all that week they should remain quiet likewise if the Lord should build houses he ought to buy Tymber and the men viz. his Coppyholders ought to bring it home viz. each hide every day one Load untill the whole be carryed so as they may in one day go and return also if it please the Lord to send for fish four hides ought to be summoned and two shall go for fish to Gloucester which is about six and thirty miles from thence and other two shall carry it to Rochester upon their own cost and they should remain quiet until they return all the Cotterels and worthy Tenants ought to wash the Sheep of the Lord and to sheer them and fully to perform all thereunto belonging and have nothing therefore and if a theif should be taken in the liberty of the Lord the Cotterel Tenants should keep him And were so due and of so long a continuance as though the Tenants some few onely excepted which would not pertake of the Composition and are still contented to do their work and carriage services did upon a reference made by King James to Henry Earl of Manchester Lord President of his Councel in Anno 1624. to hear and determine the differences betwixt Sir Henry Spiller then Lord of the said Mannor and the Tenants concerning that and other matters within a short time after viz. in the first year of the raign of King Charles the Martyr agree for a Release of the said services not acquitted in Anno 18 H. 6. to pay yeerly unto the Lord of the Mannor and his heirs after the rate of three pence for every Acre and a penny for every Messuage or Cotage which had no land belonging unto it Or as many the like beneficial customes and priviledges at this day enjoyed by the Lords of some thousands or more of Mannors in England which beloned unto the Abbies and Religious houses for which they have quit Rents or other payments not unlike the Compositions for the Royal Pourveyance Or that the Steward of the Kings house should not if the Kings Pourveyance and Prae-emption had not been remitted by Act of Parliament have authority to do as much as the Steward of the Kings house did about the eighteenth year of the Raign of King Edward the second notwithstanding so great priviledges immunities and exemptions granted and confirmed to the City of London command that no Fishmonger upon pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of his goods and chattels should go out of the City to forestall any Sea or fresh fish or send them to any great Lord or Religious house or any person whatsoever nor keep from coming to Town untill the hour appointed for selling be past untill the Kings Achators or Pourveyers should have made their Pourveyance to the use of the King Or that the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Richard the first did not onely give to many Religious houses as to the Priory of Royston in Cambridgeshire divers exemptions and priviledges to be free from Carriages c. but de Regalium domorum aedificatione ac omnimoda operatione of works towards the repair or building of the Kings houses Ac ut silvae eorum ad praedicta opera aut ad aliqua alia nullo modo capiantur that their Woods or Timber should not be cut or taken for that or any other purpose and whose other Royal Progenitors have abundantly furnished diverse Abbies Religious houses with priviledges to be free of Carriage by Carts Summage upon horses de Thesauro ducendo Convoy of the Kings Treasure de operationibus Castellorum Pontium Parcorum Murorum work to be done in the building or repairs of Castles Bridges or Walls de vaccarum solutione quae dari solebant pro Capitibus utlagatorum and the payment of certain Cows or Cattel to redeem the forfeitures of Outlaws and exemptions from payment of Fumage or Chimny money Lestage or licence to carry away from Markets what they had bought or in release or discharge of customes such as at Beleshale in
The Antiquity Legality Reason Duty and Necessity OF PRAE-EMPTION AND POURVEYANCE FOR THE KING OR Compositions for his Pourveyance As they were used and taken for the Provisions of the KINGS Houshold the small charge and burthen thereof to the PEOPLE and the many great Mischiefs and Inconveniences which will inevitably follow the taking of them away By FABIAN PHILIPPS Manilius 3 Perquè tot Aetates hominum tot tempora Annos Tot Bella varios etiam sub pace labores Virgil Aeneid lib. 8. Sic placida populos in pace regebat Deterior donec paulatìm Decolor Aetas Et Belli Rabies Amor successit habendi London Printed by Richard Hodgkinson for the Author and are to be sold by Henry Marsh at the sign of the Princes Arms in Chancery-Lane 1663. To the Right Learned and truely Noble Lord Christopher Lord Hatton Baron of Kirkby Knight of the Bath Governor of the Isle of Guarnesey and one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council My Lord THE Holy Evangelist St. Luke in his Gospel and History of the Acts of the blessed Apostles when he inscribed or Dedicated it to his friend Theophilus hath given us to understand that the Dedication of Books unto such as would read and peruse them is no late or Novel usage for it was in those times or shortly after not thought to be unfitting or unnecessary to take the approbation and opinion of Grave and Learned men of such things as were to be made publicke as Plinius Junior in his Epistles informs us so that it may with reason and evidence be concluded that the Dedication of Books was not originally to procure the favor of some great or good Man neither were the Epistles Dedicatory heretofore acquainted with those gross Flatteries untruths or immense and accumulated praises of the Patrons or their Ancestors which some Foraign Printers for their own private gain do use in publishing Books out of some Copies and Manuscripts left by the deceased Authors or as too many German and other Authors have of late stuffed their Dedications withall which Heroick and great Souls do so little relish as the Books themselves would meet with a better entertainment if they came without them but one of the best and most approved usages of Dedications hath certainly and most commonly been derived from no other Source or Fountain then the great desire which the Author had there being before printing most probably but a few Copies sent abroad to receive the friendly censure and approbation of some Learned man who would in those days carefully read and peruse it and not as now too many men do oscitanter and cursorily take a view onely of the Frontispice or Title and lay it in the Parlor or Hall Windows to be idly turned over by such as tarry to speak with them or else crowd it in their better furnished then read or understood Libraries to make a Muster or great shew of such Forces as they have to bring into the Feild of Learning when there shall be any occasion to use them but neither then or before are able to finde or say what is in them But your Lordship being Master of the Learning in Books as well as of an excellent well furnished Library with many choice Manuscripts never yet published and very many Classick Authors and Volums printed and carefully pick't and gathered together out of the Gardens of good letters which an unlearned and reforming Rebellion and the Treachery of a wicked servant hired to discover them did very much diminish And your Eye and Judgement being able before hand to Calculate the Fate of the Author in the good or bad opinion of all that go by any Rules or measure of right Reason Learning or Judgement I have adventured to present unto your Lordship these my Labours in the Vindication of the Legality Antiquity right use and necessity of the Praeemption and Pourveyance of the Kings of England or Compositions for the Provisions of their Royall houshold for that your Lordship is so well able to judge of them and having been Comptroller of the houshold to his Majesties Royal Father the Martyr King CHARLES the First and to the very great dangers of your person and damage of your Estate like one of Davids good servants gone along with him in all his Wars and troubles when as he being first assaulted was inforced to take Arms against a Rebellious and Hypocritical part of his people in the defence of himself and his people their Religion Laws and Liberties and the Priviledges of Parliament and not only remained Faithfull to him during his life but after his death unto his banished and strangely misused Royal Issue when Loyalty and Truth were accompted crimes of the greatest magnitude and like some houses infected with the plague had more then one ✚ set upon them with a Lord have mercy upon us And did whilst that blessed King continued in his Throne and Regalities so instruct your self in those Excellent Orders and Government of his house as you have been able to enlighten and teach others amongst whom I must acknowledge my self to have been one and out of a Manuscript carefully collected by your Lordship concerning the Rules and Orders of the Royal houshold which your Lordship was pleased to communicate unto me to have been very much informed which together with the many favors with which you have been pleased to oblige me the incouragements which you have given me to undertake this work and the great respect and veneration which I bear unto your Lordships grand accomplishments in the Encyclopaidia large extent and traverses of all kinde of learning and your knowledge of Foraign Courts and Customes which being very extraordinary if you were of the ranke of private men must needs be very much more when it shall be added to the eminency of your Birth and qualitie and the Trust and Emploiments which his Majesty hath been pleased deservedly to confer upon you have emboldened me to lay these my endeavors before your Lordship submitting them to an utter oblivion and extinguishment and to be stifled in the Birth or Crâ—dle if they shall not appear unto your Lordship to be worthy the publike view and consideration Wherein although some may feast and highly content their Fancies with censuring me that I have been to prodigal of my labors in proving either at all or so largly the antiquity or legality of the Kings just Rights unto Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them when as the Act of Parliament in Anno 12 of his now Majesties raign for taking them away doth give him a Recompence for them yet I may I hope escape the censure or blame of setting up a Giant of Straw and fighting with it when I have done or of being allied to such as fight with their own shadows or trouble themselves when there is neither any cause or necessity for it when as the Act of Parliament for taking away Pourveyance
and the Court of Wards and Liveries and Tenures by Knight Service either of the King or others in Capite or Socage in Capite did not expressely alleage or allow those Tenures and the incidents thereof to be their just rights but onely that the consequences upon the same have been much more burthensom grievous and prejudicial to the Kingdom then they have been beneficial to the King and alleadging also that by like experience it hath been found that notwithstanding divers good strickt and wholsom Laws some extending as far as to life for redress of the grievances and oppressions committed by the persons imployed in making provisions for the Kings houshold and of the Carriages and other provisions for his occasions yet they have been still continued and several Counties have submitted themselves to sundry rates Taxes and Compositions to redeem themselves from such vexations and oppressions and that no other remedy will be so effectual as to take away the occasion thereof especially if satisfaction and recompence shall be therefore made to his Majesty his heirs and Successors so as very many or most of the seduced and factious part of the people of this Nation having in the times of our late confusions been mislead or driven into an ill opinion of it may with the residue of the people be easily carryed along with the croud to a more then imagination that the Pourveyance and Prae-emption was no less then a very great grievance and that his Majesty was thereby induced to accept of a recompence or satisfaction for it and permit the people to purchase the abolition of that which they supposed to have been a grievance which do appear neither to be a grievance nor recompence but a great loss to the King and as much or more in the conclusion consideratis considerandis to the people And that the vulgar and men of prejudice and ignorance are not so easily or with a little to be satisfied as the learned and that in justification of a business from those Obloquies so unjustly and undeservedly cast upon it and so highly concerning the King and his people and in a way nullius ante trita pede altogether untroden wherein I cannot honor and obey the King as I ought if I should not take a care of the rights of his people which is his daily care nor love them or my self if I should not do all that I can to preserve his regalities I can be conscious to my self of many omissions and imperfections in regard of sundry importunities of Clients affairs some troublsome business of mine own which either could not or would not give me any competency of time or leasure but did almost daily and many times hourely take me off as soon as I was on and so interrupt and divert me as I had sometimes much ado when I got to it again to recollect my scattered thoughts and materials and Writing as the Printer called for it with so great a disturbance and a midst so many obstructions may possibly be guilty of some deformities in the method or stile some defects or redundancies impertinent Sallies or digressions or want of coherencies which might have been prevented or amended if I could have enjoyed an Otium or privacy requisite for such an undertaking or have had time to have searched the Archives and too much unknown or uninquired after Records of the Kings just legal Regalias or those multitudes of liberties customs and priviledges which the Lords of Mannors and their Tenants do at this day enjoy by the favour of the King and his royal Progenitors or to have raked amongst the rubbidge of time long ago tripped over and the not every where to be found Abdita rerum or recesses of venerable Antiquity or to have viewed all at once what I had done in its parts and delineations and perused it before it was printed in a compleat Copy with a deliberation necessary to a work of that nature and concernment But howsoever I speed therein I shall like those that brought the Pigeons or Turtle Doves instead of a more noble sacrifice content my self libâsse veritati to have offered upon the Altar of truth what my small abilities and greater affections could procure whereby to have incited such as shall be more happy in their larger Talents to assert those truths which I was so willing to have vindicated and to have rectified that grand and popular groundless mistake and prejudice which multitudes of the common people have by the late Vsurping Powers been cunningly taught to have against it And whether they intended evil or good thereby might be easily misled or mislead themselves to scandalize such an Ancient Legal and reasonable custome and Right of the King when as the great Civilian Paulus saith Rerum imperiti censuram sibi de rebus quibusdam arrogant volentes esse Legis Doctores nesciunt de quibus loquuntur nec de quibus affirmant ambitiosè pervicaciter insolenter ineptè de magnis rebus statuere And it was but a trick of the godless Tyrant and his company of State Gipsies to make the people the more able or willing to covenant and ingage for the maintenance and perpetuity of their Sin and Slaverie and to bear and suffer greater burdens taxes and oppressions then ever Englishmen did before And whatsoever the Fate of these my labors shall appear to be can conclude in magnis voluisse sat est and subscribe my self Your Lordships affectionate servant Fabian Philipps THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. I. THe Antiquity of the Royall Pourveyance and Praeemption for the maintenance of the Kings Houses Navy Castles and Garrisons attended by a Jus Gentium and reasonable Customes of the most or better part of other Nations page 9. CHAP. II. Of the Vse and Allowance of Pourveyance in England and our British Isles p. 44. CHAP. III. The reason of Praeemption and Regall Pourveyance or Compositions for the Provision of the Kings Houshold p. 97. CHAP. IV. The right use of the Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them p. 234 CHAP. V. Necessity that the King should have and enjoy his ancient rights of Prae-emption Pourveyance or Compositions for them p. 268 CHAP. VI. The small charge of the Pourveyance or Compositions for it to or upon such of the people as were chargeable with it p. 329 CHAP. VII That the supposed plenty of money and Gold and Silver in England since the Conquest of the West-Indies by the Spaniards hath not been a cause of raising the prices of food and victuals in England p. 341 CHAP. VIII That it is the interest of the people of England to revive again the Ancient and legal usage of his Majesties just rights of Praeemption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them p. 400 The Antiquity Legality Reason Duty and Necessity of Prae-emption and Pourveyance for the King Or Compositions for his Pourveyance as they were used and taken for the Provisions of the Kings Houshold the small
Mogende great and high and mighty Lords like a Corporation of Kings govern the people by a false perswasion of liberties under more burdens and Taxes then they ever endured under their Earles of Holland and Friesland and their German and Spanish Monarchs can in their Low-country and levelling humour and the ill measure which they take of reverence to their betters afford the Prince of Orange and his Court and Houshold which is not small a freedom from Excise upon the buying of all provisions for his house which after the rate of its griping would goe a great part of the way to as much as what the King of England saves by his Pourveyances and the like to the Queen of Bohemia her Retinue and Court when she was resident amongst them Embassadours of forraign Princes the English Company of merchants of the Staple their Armies common Souldiers when they are â—n the field or a Leaguer for all their victuals and such like provisions their ships and men of warre at sea and to the University of Leyden for their Wine and Beer The States Generall having great and fitting stipends from their several Provincâ—s whom they represent in an Assembly or standing Counsel at the Hague and the Deputies of every Province sent to the Hague when their Comitia or as it were Parliaments are there assembled have each of them four Florens or our eight shillings a day allowed them the Princes of Orange besides their great places of Captain General by Sea and by Land which yielded them great profits as well as power had 1000 pounds sterling a moneth stipend eâ— cum in castris agebant et in ipsa erat expeditione when they were in the Leagure or any service of warre had for a present given them forty thousand Florens being almost four thousand pounds sterling for a Present or Honorary magnaque pecuniae vis quâ— centum millia persaepe excedebaâ— in eundem conferebatur and a great sum of money over and above which many times was more then one hundred thousand Florens or ten thousand pounds sterling for Spies Intelligence and other necessaries without any accompt to be given for it which stipends of the Prince of Orange and the States of Holland or the Duke of Venice including their charges of Diet Servants and Retinue and all other necessaries belonging to the honor of their imployments being paid in money or raised by Taxes or Excise out of the people have no other difference with the Pourveyance or Royall provision for Kings or Princes but that the stipends are in money and a gross summe large enough to take in all occasions and necessaries and most commonly more then needs And as to that particular being a great deal more then the Pourveyance or compositions for it would amount unto many times falls more heavy upon the people in the lump then it doth or could in a Pourveyance by distribution of it into small parts for that Commonwealths and those Free States or Combinations of governing and taxing are never no loosers by making finding or taking advantage of necessities or catching opportunities of burdening the people and getting such overplus as may either help to enrich their Treasuries and furnish out their magnificence in publick or too often their private and particulars wherein our cunning Church-wardens and Epitomes of Free States in their Parishes and the Grandees of some of our Cities and Corporations are very well instructed In the German Empire now much lessened in its antient rights and preâ—ogative by granting them away to several Princes Hanse Towns and Imperial Cities by indulgences necessity of State affairs or want of money the Angariae and Parangariae duties of furnishing horses and carts upon any publick necessity are not denied to the Emperor and upon occasions of warre extraordinariae collationes prastantur que Fodron appellantur et ea appellatione non solum pabulum equorum quod Futter vocatur set et frumentum hordeum aliaeque res ad Imperatoris exercitum victui extraordinary provisions called Foder are furnished which in the German or high Dutch signifieth not only horse meat but corn barley other food for the Emperors Army Et aliorum sententia verior esse videtur qui dicunt extraordinariam collationem quae pro Imperatoris Utilitate et necessitate indicitur supra ordinarias et statas indictiones census et tributa And the better opinion is that Pourveyance or Provisions may be taken for the necessary occasions of the Emperor over and above his Tributes or what is paid unto him And as that excellently learned D. Weymondus now deceased Chancellor to the Prince Elector of Brandenburgh was pleased to inform me at his late being here together with Prince Maurice of Nassau Embassadors from that Prince Elector prae-emption and a power of ordering moderate rates and prices in the Markets is passim in tota Germania now in use in all Germany as well by the Emperor as the Electors and many other lesser Princes And if the French who have yet their Terms des droits de Bordage of provisions which Tenants were obliged to furnish for the Kings Houshold and their grand Provost de l' hostel Lord Steward of the Kings house met priz et taxe a pain vin viandes foin et avoine had in the year 1654 power to rate the prices of wine victuals hay provender and all things appertaining to the provision of the Kings House And were wont to be very wary in parting with Regalities have by any ill advice turned away the honour of hospitality and that magnificence and good which ariseth thereby to their Kings and Princes and put their Court to board-wages which falling short or coming to be ill paid or long forborn will but starve the Houseshold and so keen the appetite and projects of the Court when they shall be every day pursued by their own necessities and put in mind to make what shift they can for themselves as that Nation which is already over-spread with Taxes as with a Garment may in due time if they doe it not already easily acknowledge the difference betwixt this Kingdome and its just Laws and Liberties and the present mode or fashion of that which by departing from their antient and better Laws and Constitutions is now for the most part cut into Tallages and Commands in warre Titles and Outsides of honor and Offices granted not to the deserver but the best Chapman and betwixt making Pourveyance for the Kings Houshold and necessaries to support his Regalities and paying as many kinds of Gabels and Impositions instead of it as there be weeks in the year and the rich and plentifull living of our English Yeomen Francklins and Farmers and their Paysants whose hardship and beggerly way of living makes them to be but as Slaves to their Gentry and Nobility And the dependencie of the Noblesse or the Nobility and Gentry upon the King for charges and places making them so little able to
pay one per cent for provision of Fortresses In the Kingdom of Barnagasso the King hath besides Silks and Cloth of Gold and other precious things for Tribute Horses and payeth himself 150. Horses to Pretious or Prete John Emperor of Ethiopia of whom he holdeth The Kingdom of Oghy besides a Tribute of Gold and Silver sendeth him yearly a thousand Beeves In Ethiopia the Prete or Emperor upon the coming or returning of Embassadors gives order to his Subjects or Vassals to furnish them with provisions for their Journey and not long agoe commanded one to whom he had but a little before given a little Lordship containing not above 80. Houses and two Churches to furnish an Embassador with five hundred Loads of Corn a hundred Oxen and a hundred Sheep The Gozagues do yearly pay to their King besides great quantities of Gold and Silver a thousand Beeves alive The Maldives do yearly pay unto their King the fifth part of the grains which they sowe and give him a Portion of their Coco's and Limmons and besides their Taxes compound also for fruits and honey The Princes and great men in Japan do contend who shall give most to the Caesar and almost impoverish themselves by their Presents All the houses in the City of the Kings Residence are by the King taxed towards the making of Fortresses In Firando in Japan when any forraign Merchants are by the King invited to see Playes and publick Shows they send Presents to him and every forraign Merchant that comes thither may not sell his goods untill he hath carried a Present to the Emperor And when any of the Kings white Elephants are brought unto him the Merchants in the City are commanded to come and see him and bring every one a Present of half a Ducat which altogether amounteth to a great sum of money In Industan when the Mogol goeth abroad or in progress euery one saith Sir Thomas Roe by whose house he passeth is to make him a Present Sir Thomas Roe himself doing it when the King or Mogol rode to the River of Darbadath All the Persian Merchants doe bring their goods first to the Mogol who buyes what he pleaseth and after his Officers have set the rate they may sell to whom they will All men strive to present him with all things rich and rare and no man petitioneth him for any thing empty-handed and thereby come to preferment some giving him one hundred thousand pounds in Jewels at a time The King of Achen commands those of Tecoo to bring thither their Pepper which none may buy but he and puts off his Surat commodities in truck to them at what rates he pleaseth and oftimes sends his commodities to Priaman and Tecoo enforcing them to buy them at his own rates none being suffered to buy or sell before he hath vented his own At Bantam the Governor or Protector so called useth to send in the Kings name to the people to serve him with sacks of Pepper some a hundred some fifty some ten some five at the Kings price which was a Riall less in a Sack then the Merchants paid Divers bring Presents of Rice and Cashes and some bring imbroidered cloth for the Kings wearing Nor were the more civilized part of the Heathen only accustomed to the way of Pourveyance or bringing provisions or presents to their Kings and Princes but the wild and savage part of them were by the Lawes of nature and glimmerings of the light of reason taught to doe it In Mexico in the West-Indies and its large Dominions under the Emperor Montezeuma containing 100 Cities and their Provinces the people did pay a certain yearly Tribute to the King for water brought by pipes into the City Those that hold lands did yearly pay unto him one third part of their fruit and commodities which they had or did reap as gold silver stones dogs hens fouls conies salt wax honey mantels feathers cotton and a certain fruit called Câ—cao which they there used for money also all kinds of grain Garden-herbs and fruits Some Towns paid 400 burdens of white Mantles others great Tropes of wood full of Maiz Friâ—oles c. some four hundred burdens of wood others four hundred planks of Timber some every six moneths brought four hundred burdens of Cotton-wool and others two thousand loads of Salt two hundred pots of Honey twenty Xacaras of Gold in powder and some a Truss of Turkie stones and paid besides the King of Alzopuzalco a Tribute of Firre and Willow-trees towards the building of a City Divers Provinces are bound to provide fire-wood for the Kings house amounting unto two hundred and thirty weight a day which was five hundred mens burdens for the Kings particular Chimnies they brought the Bark of the Oak The Incas or Indian Kings before the coming of their unlucky loving friends the Spaniards had their Tributes yearly brought unto the Court and when any work was to be done or any thing to be furnished for the Incas the Officers knew presently how much every Province Town and Family ought to provide and by their Registers strings and knots knew what every one was to pay even to a hen or burden of wood And as Inea Garzilasco de la Vega a Native of Cozco relates in his book of the antient customes of those Countries did amongst other Tributes make and furnish clothes and Arms to be used in warr In Virginia the Weroances under-under-Lords or petty Kings did hold their lands habitations and limits to Fish Foul or Hunt of their soveraign King Powhatan to whom they pay Tributes of Skins Beads Copper Pearl Dear Turkies wild Beasts and Corn. And in all Savage Countries the English Merchants and Navigators as Mr. Edward Winslow a man afterwards too well known amongst the plundering and mistaken godly at Haberdashers Hall hath related at his return from thence doe make presents to the Savage Kings In New-England the Sachims or Lords are subject to one Sachim to whom they resort for protection and pay homage neither may any make warre without their privity every Sachim knoweth the bounds and limits of his Country and that is as his proper Inheritance and out of that if any of his men desire Land to set their corn he giveth them as much as they can use and puts them in their bounds Whosoever hunteth or killeth any venison which is there much of their food he bringeth him his Fee which is the fourth part of the same if it be killed on the Land but if in the water then the skin thereof Once a year the people are provoked by the Pinieses Knights or Councellors of the Sachims to bestow much corn on the Sachim who bring him thereupon many Baskets of corn and make a great Stack thereof In Florida where they all goe naked and doe but litle exceed the beasts of the field in understanding and want the wit of most part of the Nations of the world to cover their nakedness they can notwithstanding
the Tenants charges to the Lords Granary Gabulum mellis or Rent-honey 〈◊〉 gavel Rent-oates Wood-lede to carry home his wood Gavel or Rent-timber to repair his house and Gavel dung to carry out his dung often used in Kent where they think that in liberties and priviledges they doe surpass most of the other parts and Provinces of England And could at the same time also lay a greater burden upon the people then his pretended ease amounted unto in that his Law touching his own Demeasnes and enjoyn the Romescot or Peter-pence for every house or chimney which he had given the Pope larga maâ—u penhenniter as Bromton saith and a charge upon the people to a perpetuity as he thought of that which the former Kings had made but some temporary grants of to the See of Rome with great penalties for the non payment thereof And under severe mulcts commâ—nded the yearly payments of the Cirickseaâ— or Oblations for First fruits to the Church which was then as Mr. Somner saith à census sâ—â—e in gallinis sive in aliis rellus pro aedium decima solvendis a Rent or Duty to be paid in Henns or other things for the Tithes of their Houses or as a Symbolum or munus gift or offering And though William the Conqueror had a great affection to establish Leges Noricas Danish or Norway Lawes then used in many Provinces yet was England so happy in its unhappiness as he did not but precibus Anglorum atque Normannorum deprecâ—tus tired with the petitions and importunities as well of his Normans as the English ut per animam Regis Edwardi qui sibi post diem suum concesserat câ—ronam regnum cujus erant Leges nec aliorum extraneorum exaudiendo concederet eis sub legibus perseverare paternis as he respected the soul of King Edward who gave him the Crown and Kingdome and whose Lawes they were and not any strangers that he would not hearken unto them but give them leave to enjoy the Lawes of their Ancestors whereupon consilio habito precatu Baronum by the advice and counsel of the Barons when his conquering Normans as well as the subdued English thought it to be most for their good and safety to be governed by Edward the Confessors Lawes and the good old Customes of England he did after an enquiry of duodeâ—im sapientiorum de quo libet comitatu quibus jurejurando injunctum fuit twelve of the wisest men of every County upon their oaths restore to them patriae leges their own Laws especially the Laws of Edward the Confessor which were first instituted by King Edgar and had long lain asleep but at the same time took a care by a Law made on purpose ne quis domino suo debitas praestationes which did then and antiently signifie services and duties to be done subtrahat propter nullam remissionem quam ei antea feâ—erit that no man upon any release or discharge made thereof should withhold or deny his service or accustomed dues to the Lord which repealing as it were Canutus his Law did not certainly exclude the King or his Successors in their own particulars when as he procured by another Law ut jura regia illaesa servare pro viribus conentur subditi that all his Subjects should endeavour all they could to preserve his Regalities Et ex illo die the Laws of Canutus vanishing probably as those of Cromwell did Leges Sancti Edwardi multa autoritate veneratas per universum regnum corroboratas et observatas and from that time the Lawes of Edward the Confessor were greatly reverenced and through all England observed For we find not that Law of Canutus either repeated or mentioned as the Laws of some of the Saxon Kings were or any thing of that nature enacted or confirmed in or by the Laws of Edward the Confessor William the Conqueror or King Henry the the First but on the contrary the Laws of Edward the Confessor confirmed by William the Conqueror doe expresly ordain that debent enim et leges eâ— libertates jura et justas consuetudines regni et antiquas a bonis predecessoribus which could not well be meant or intended of any of Canutus or any the Denelage or Danish Lawes approbatas inviolabiliter modis omnibus pro posse suo servare every man ought to his utmost to keep and conserve the Lawes Liberties and Rights and the just and antient Customes of the Kingdome The Abbot of Ramsey was by a Charter of William the Conqueror exempt from carriages and Pourveyance And the Book of Doomesday which was made in the sixteenth year of his Reign and remains ever since an unquestionable record of the Kingdome is not without some vestigia or footsteps of Pourveyance in the Reign of that good and to this day ever honored King Edward the Confessor where it is said that tempore regis Edwardi reddebat civitas de Gloucester xxxvi l. numeratas xii sextaria mellis ad mensuram ejusdem Burgi xxxvi Dacras ferri C. virgas ferras ductiles ad claves navium Regis quasdam alias minutas consuetudines in Aula in Camera Regis in the time of King Edward the Confessor the City of Gloucester did pay yearly six and thirty pounds in money twelve measures of honey containing six Gallons a piece according to the measure of the Town six and thirty Dacres a proportion then known by that term of Iron and one hundred Rods of Iron to make nails for the Kings Ships and certain other small Customes for the Hall and Chamber of the King Et in Sciptone Rex tenet de annona xv l. the King had fifteen pounds per annum provision of corn and other victuals The Bordarii often mentioned in Doomesday Book were such as held Lands mensae domini designatas esculenta indicta videlicet ova gallinas aucas porcellos et hujusmodi ezhiberent appropriate to a Pourveyance for the Kings Table furnishing Eggs Hens Geese Pork and the like and for the Huscarles or houshold servants so called concerning whom it is there said Et gilda pro decem hidis scilicet ad opus huscarlum unam marcam argenti and he paid taxes for ten hides that is to say a mark of silver for the use or maintenance of them Tit Northantesceire reddit firmam trium noctium vel edulia ad caenam unam 30. lib. ad pondus made provision for one night of the value of thirty pound tit Oxenefordsc Comitatus Oxeneford reddit firmam trium noctium hoc est 100 lib. furnisheth provision for three nights of the value of 100 pound Et Doomsd. tit Wilts Wilton quando Rex ibat in expeditione vel terra vel mari habebat de hoc manerio xx sol ad pascendos suos Buzcarlos aut unum hominem ducebat secum pro honore quinque hidarâ—m when the King went
Anno 1487. in an Act of Parliament made by King James the third anent strangeâ—s bringing in victuals and utheris merchandice it is provided that quhair any victuals of merchandise cummis gaining for the King that his Comptroller after that the price be maide with the strangers sall have sa meikle of the first and best as is needful to the Kings proper use for the quihilk full payment but delay and their learned Craig in the Reign of our King James doubts not to reckon the Angariâ— Parangariae plaustrorum navium praestationes furnishing of Carriages and Ships for publick uses inter ea quae Regalia dicuntur quae in annexo patrimonio numerantur amongst those Regalities which are annexed to the Crown of Scotland eo quod ad conservandam Regni dignitatem ex consensu ordinum constituta sunt in regard that by the consent of the Estates is thereby conserved the dignity of the Kingdom And their Ceâ—sus Cani Rent or Provision quhâ—â—t beir aytes or uther kind of victuals reckoned by Bolls of Wheat and Chalders of victuals not yet forsaken or laid by may induce any man to believe that they were well acquainted with those just and ancient observances And in that Charter of our King Johns at Running Mede near Stanes being the same word for word which was after so long and bloody warres confirmed by King Henry the third which was made when his weaker forces were ready to be encountred by a farre stronger of his boysterous Barons there is no denying of Prae-emption and the reasonable part of Pourveyance the former of which as long as the fifth Commandement in the Decalogue and the acknowledgements and respects of inferiors to superiors the honor due to Kings Patribus Patriae and the common civilities of mankind shall continue in force and be practised and unrepealed is certainly to be continued and should not be disturbed by any the Sons of men who would preserve the honour and dignity of their Prince and Common Parent for it was there only agreed that nullus constabularius vel Ballivus noster capiat blada vel alia Catalla alicujus nisi statim inde reddat denarios No Constable or Bayliff of the King shall without present payment take any Corn or Cattle of any mans aut respectum inde habeat de voluntate venditoris unless the Seller should be contented to give day for it Et nullus Ballivus noster vel Vice-comes vel alius capiat equos vel caretas alicujus pro cariagio faciendo nisi reddat liberationem antiquitus statutum scilicet pro careta ad duos equos decem denarios per diem pro careta ad tres equos quatuordecim denarios per diem And that none of the Kings Bailiffs Under Sheriffs or other take any mans carts or horses for the Kings carriages without paying the antient rate or Livree appointed that is to say for a Cart and two Horses ten pence a day and for a Cart and three Horses fourteen pence Nor did the Conservatores libertatum Angliae enforced upon King Henry the third in his troublesome Reign make any quarrels or restrictions concerning it In Charta Foreste made at the same time no Foster or Bedil was to make Scotaâ—â— or gather Garb Oats Corn Lamb or Pig nor any gathering but by the view and oath of twelve Rangers the Exception allowing the things in casibus non exceptis and proving that such things might in such manner be then reasonably and lawfully taken And in that Kings Regin Writs were frequently sent to the Sheriffs as appeareth in the close Rolls to make provisions of Mutton Puletry Geese Eggs c. against Christmas and other principal Feasts and sometimes to the Chamberlains of London to make provision of wine Spices and Furres to be paid de denariis Regis and at other times to some others to make provision of Corn Bacon c. for fortifying a Castle promising that the Sheriff should make payment and be allowed upon his accompt out of the profits of the County so as although the provisions for the Kings own Houshold or for publick uses were not taken without monies to be paid for them yet they were as it may well be supposed at reasonable prices and by a priviledge or prerogative of Praeemption and not alwayes at such prices as the avaritious humour of the Sellers should exact when the Sheriffs in their Turns or Leets might compel them to reasonable rates And Sir Edward Coke will hardly be brought off from a mistake in alledging in his Comment upon the Statute of Articâ—li super Chartas that when the Kings of Englands provisions began to fail and could not be had as formerly out of their own Demeasnes there were Markets kept at the Court gates which being not in the Reign of King Henry the first who changed his Provision Rent into money doe not appear to have been afterwards in his time or of the next succeeding Kings Stephen Henry the 2. Richard the 1 or King John and King Hen. 3. who needed not to have made use of his Sheriffs to have furnished his Christmas or other houshold provisions if Markets with that decency and regard which belonged to a Kings Court where those great Kings and a daily confluence of their then no small Nobility with their usual Trains and Attendants and many times forreign Princes or their Ambassadors were to pass had been or were then kept at the Court gates for Britton who wrote in the Reign of King Edward the first only saith that the Clerk of the Market or he which was to look to the measures was to goe with his Standard from Market to Market when he found the Market to be within the Virgâ— otherwise to make the Bayliffs to appear before him Tertio Ed. 1. ca. 7. it was enacted that of Prises taken by the Constables or Castellanes upon such folk as be not of the Towns where the Castles are no Constable or Castellane from thenceforth should exact any price or like thing of any other then of such as be of the Town or Castle and that it be paid or else agreement made within forty daies if it be not an antient price due to the King or to the Castle or the Lord of the Castle Tempore Ed. 1. ca. 2. It was ordained that no Officers of the King or of his Heirs should take Corn Leather Cattel ot any other goods of any manner of person without the good will and assent of the party to whom the goods belonged And ca. 3. the King granted for him and his Heirs that all Clerks Lay-men of the Land should have their Laws Liberties and free Customes as largely and wholly as they have used to have the same at any time when they had them best And if any Statutes have been made by him or his Ancestors or any Customes brought in contrary to them
or any manner of Article contained in that Charter willed and granted that such manner of Statutes and Customes should be void and frustrate for ever Anno 28 Ed. 1. Artic. super Chartaâ— ca. 2. upon complaint that the Kings Ministers of his house did to the great grievance and damage of the people take the goods as well of the Clergy as the Laity without paying any thing or els much less then the value It was ordained that no Pourveyors should take any thing but for the Kings House and touching such things as they should take in the Country of meat and drink and such other mean things necessary for the house they should pay or make agreement with them of whom the things should be taken nor take more then should be needfull to be used for the King his Houshold and Children with a Proviso therein that nevertheless the King and his Counsel did not intend by that Estatute to diminish the Kings Right for the antient prices due and accustomed as of wines and other goods but that his Right should be saved unto him in all points Anno 16 Ed. 2. the King sent his Writ to the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench then not so fixed as now or of later times to command them to take care to punish the Infringers of those Lawes And howsoever the Articles and inquiries in the Eyres in the Reign of King Edward the first were to enquire and punish those Sheriffs Constables or Bayliffs which took any victuals or provisions for the King or his Houshould which shews that then also no Markets were kept at the Court gates nor that all the Kings provisions were there bought or taken contra voluntatem eorum quorum Catalla fuerint without the will of the owners which in all probability was to be regulated and perswaded by that duty and loyalty which every good Subject coming to a Country or City Market did bear to his Soveraign and the Preserver by his authority and power of not only what they brought to Market that day but what was left at home or to be brought at other times to Market and the words sine consensu voluntate c. without the consent of the Seller are to be interpreted and understood saith Sir Edward Coke to have been inserted in that and other Statutes for that Pourveyers would take the goods of such men as had no will to sell them but to spend them for their own necessary use But afterwards some abuses like weeds getting in amongst the best corn or greatest care of the watchfull Husbandman happening in the manner of Pourveyances by taking them without warrant or threatning the Sellers or Assessors to make easie prices or not paying ready money or the Market rate for them or taking more then they needed or by greater measures making the Pourveyances for divers Noble-men belonging to the Court as of the Duke of Gloucester in the Reign of King Henry the sixth and in his time also some Hostlers Brewers and other Victuallers keeping Hosteries and Houses of retailing victuals in divers places of the Realm having purchased the Kings Letters Patents to take Horses and Carts for the service of the King and Queen did by colour of them take horses where no need was and bring them to their Hosteries and other places and there keep them secretly untill they had spent xx d or xl.d. of their stuff and sometimes more and then make the owners pay it before their horses could be delivered and sometimes made them pay a Fine at their will and at other times took Fines to shew favour and not to take their horses and many times would not pay for the hire of the said horses and carts divers Acts of Parliament upon complaints at several times in Parliament of the said abuses committed by Pourveyers were made to prohibit and provide against them but none at all to take away the Pourveyance it self or Prae-emption or the Kings just Rights and Prerogatives therein but a saving of the Kings Rights especially provided for in many of them as Anno 10 Ed. 3. ca. 4. The Sheriff shall make Pourveyance for the Kings horses Anno 18 Ed. 3. ca. 4. In the Commissions to be made for Pourveyance the Fees of the Church shall be exempted in every place where they be found Anno 25 Ed. 3. ca. 1. after that in Anno 20 Ed. 3. divers Pourveyers had been attainted and hanged for fending against those Lawes and that in the 23. year of that Kings Reign divers of the Kings Pourveyers were indited for breach of those Lawes It was enacted that If any Pourveyer of victuals for the King Queen or their Children should take Corn Litter or Victuals without ready mony at the price it commonly runneth in the Market prized by Oath by the Constable and other good people of the Town he shall be arrested and if attainted suffer pains as a Thief if the quantity of the goods the same require Cap. 6. No Pourveyer shall take cut or â—ell wood or Timber for the Kings use for work growing near any mans dwelling house Et cap. 7 Keepers of Forrests or Chaces shall gather nothing nor victuals nor sustenance without the owners good will but that which is due of old right Cap. 15. If any Pourveyer take more sheep then shall be needfull and be thereof attainted it shall be done to him as a Thief or a Robber Anno 36 Ed. 3. ca. 6. No Lord of England nor none other of the Realm of what estate or condition that he be except the King and the Queen his wife shall make any taking by him or any of his Servants of any manner of victuals but shall buy the same that they need of such as will sell the same of their good will and for the same shall make ready payment in hand according as they may agree with the seller And if the people of Lords or of other doe in other manner and thereof be attainted such punishment of life and of member shall be done of them as is ordered of the buyers the occasion of the making of which Statute and the preceding Act of Parliament of 25 Ed. 6. before mentioned Sir Edward Cook informes us was a book written in Latin by Simon Islip Archbishop of Canterbury and before that a Secretary of State and Privy Councellor to King Ed. 3. called Speculum Regis sharpely inveying against the intollerable abuses of Pourveyers and Pourveyance in many particulars and earnestly advising and pressing him to provide remedies for those insufferable oppressons and wrongs offered to his Subjects which the King often perusing it wrought such effect as at divers of his Parliaments but especially in his Parliament holden in the 36 year of his Reign he did of his own will without the motion of the great men or Commons as the Record of Parliament speaketh cause to be made many excellent Laws against the oppressions and falshood of Pourveyâ—rs
2 R. 2. ca. 1. Upon complaint made in Parliament that Pourveyors and Buyers did take Provisions of the Clergy and enforce them to make carriages against their Liberties It was enacted that the holy Church should have and enjoy her Franchises and Liberties in all points in as ample manner as she had in the time of the Kings noble Progenitors Kings of England and that the great Charter and the Charter of the Forest and the good Laws of the Land be firmly holden and kept and put in due execution saving to the King his Regality which is in the Record but omitted in the Print by which Statute saith Sir Edward Coke there was nothing enacted but what was included in Magna Charta And in the same Parliament it was ordained that the Statutes heretofore made should be kept and that all Clerks should have their Actions against such Pourveyors by Actions of Trespass and thereby recover treble damages And in 7 R. 2. cap. 8. it was ordained that no Subjects Chator shall take any victuals or carriages to the use of their Lords or Ladies without the owners good will and the party endamaged if he will shall have his Suit at the Common Law 2 H. 4. cap. 15. Pourveyance of the value of forty shillings or under for the Kings house shal l be paid for presently upon pain of forfeiture of the Pourveyors Office 23 H. 6. ca. 14. If any Buyer or other Officer of the Duke of Gloucester or of any other Lord or person take any Victuals Corn Hey Carriages or any other thing of the Kings Liege people against their will or without lawfull bargain but only for the King and the Queen and their houses they shall be arrested and if any of the said buyers other then of the King and Queen shall be convicted of such unlawfull taking he shall pay treble damages 28 H. 6. ca. 2. None shall take any persons Horses or Carts without the delivery of the Owner or some Officer nor any money to spare them saving alwayes to the King his Prerogative and his Preheminence of and in the premisses And in the care of our Kings to redress the peoples grievances and satisfie their complaints against the Pourveyors rather then the Royal Pourveyances it may be understood also that they did not altogether lay aside the preservation and care of those antient and most necessary rights and parts of the Kingly Prerogative by their Answers given in divers Parliaments to the Petitions of the People concerning it as 13 Ed. 3. The Commons pray in Parliament that all Pourveyors as well with Commission as without shall be arrested if they make not present pay whereupon it was agreed that the Commissioners of Sir William Heallingford and all other Commissioners for Pourveyance for the King be utterly void 14 Ed 3. Ordered that the Chancellor by Writs doe pay the Merchants of Barton and Lynne for their Pourveyance of corne 17 Ed. 3. The Commons pray that remedies may be had against the outragious taking of Pourveyors The Statutes made shall be kept and better if it may be devised 20 Ed. 3. That payment be made for the last taking of victuals Order shall be taken therein They pray that Pourveyors not taking the Constables with them according to the Statute of Westminster shall be taken as Theeves and the Judges or Justices of Assize or the Peace may inquire of the same The Statutes made shall be observed 21 Ed. 3. Upon a complaint of the Commons That whereas in the Parliament in anno 17. and the next Parliament before it was accorded that Commissions should not issue out of the Chancery for Hoblers and taking of Victuals c. the said Ordinances are not kept If any such Imposition was made the same was made upon great necessity and with consent of the Prelates Counts Barons Autres grandees and some of the Commons then present notwithstanding the King will not that such undue Imposition be drawn into consequence but willeth that the Ordinances in this Petition mentioned be well kept And as touching the taking of victuals alwayes saving the Kings Prerogative his will is that agreement be made with such of whom the same are and shall be taken The Commons alleaging That whereas it was lately ordained and assented by the King and hîs Council that men and horses of the Kings Houshold should not be harbinged in any part of the Country but by Bill of the Marshall of the House delivered to the Constable who should cause them to have good sustenance for themselves and their horses as should be meet and cause their victuals to be prised by the men of the same Towns and before their departures should pay the parties of whom the victuals were taken and if they did not their horses should be arrested and that contrary hereunto they depart without payment pray that in every Bill mention be made of the number of horses and that no more but one Garson be allowed and that payment according to the Statute may be made from day to day The King is pleased that this Article be kept in all points according to the form of the Statute They complain that the Pourveyors of the King Queen and Prince severally doe come yearly assess and Towns severally at ten Quarters of Oates more or less at their pleasure and the same doe cause to be carried away without paying for the same and pray that such Tallages and Pourveyance may be taken away The King will forbid it and that no man take contrary to such prohibition saving to him the Queen his companion and their Children their rightfull takings Eodem Parliamento whereas the horses of the King Queen Prince do wander into divers parts doing much hurt and damage to the people and that hay oats c. are taken contrary to the Ordinances already made the Commons pray That the King will ordain that those horses may abide in some certain place of the Country where they are and that Pourveyance may be had for them in convenient time of the year by the Deputies as may be agreed between them and the owners of those goods The King is well pleased that the Ordinances already made shall be kept and that Pourveyances may be made for his best profit and ease of his People 45 Ed. 3. That no Pourveyance be made for the King but for ready money and that the King be served by common measure The Statutes made before shall be observed They complain of the decay of the Navy by reason tha◠sundry mens ships were stayed for the King long before they served the Masters of the Kings Ships doe take up Masters of the Ships as good as themselves The King will provide Remedy 46 Ed. 3. They complain that Ships arrested have been kept a quarter of a year before they pass out of the Port and in that time the Masters or Marriners have no wages Y
pleist al Roy que le Navie soit maintain garde a greindre ease et profit que fair se poet Eodem Parliamento The Commons desire the King and his Councill that whereas it is granted that no Pourveyance be but where payment is made at the taking that it will please him that his Ordinance be holden as it was granted It pleaseth the King that he that findeth himself grieved shall pursue it and right shall be done him 47 Ed. 3. That the Statute made whereby buyers of the Kings Houshold should pay readily may stand and that no man be impeached for resisting them therein The Statute therefore provided shall be kept and who will complain shall be heard Eodem Parliamento That Masters of Ships and their Mariners may be paid their wages from the day of their being appointed to serve the King Taking of Ships shall not be but for necessity and payment shall be reasonable as heretofore They pray That Masters of Ships may have allowance for their Tackling worn in the Kings service Such allowance hath not been heretofore made 50 Ed. 3. That the Kings Carriages for himself and his Houshold may be of Carts and Horses of his own and not to charge the Commons therewith The King knoweth not how these things may be brought to pass but if they be he will charge the Steward and Officers to make redress The Commons of Norfolk require that payments may be made to them and to all their Countries for sheep taken by the Pourveyors farre under the price against the Statute This Bill is otherwise answered within the Bill of Buyers The Commons of Devon pray that they may be paid for victuals taken of them by the Duke of Britain whilst he lay there of long time for passage and that from thenceforth no protection be granted to any passenger to take any victuals ooher then for present pay Let the offendors for time past pay and answere and for to come the King will provide 50 Ed. 3. That the Kings Pourveyor take of the Provision the Clergy and cause them also to make carriage for the King against the Ordinances and Statutes thereof made 2. That the owners of the Ships taken up for the Kings service may be considered for their losses in the same and that Marriners may have the like wages as Archers have It shall be as it hath been used 2 R. 2. The Commons of the Dutchy of Cornwall shew how by taking up their Mariners the Spaniards lately burned all their Ships and otherwise much eâ—damaged them and the like complaint was made by all the Sea-coasts and therefore pray remedy may be had The King by advice of his Councill will provide remedy therefore 3. R. 2. The Commons by their Speaker pray that it would please the King to appoint by Commission such as should enquire by all means of the Kings charges as well of his Houshold as otherwise The King granteth it his Estate and Royalty alwayes saved and it was enacted untill the next Parliament That every Master of a Ship shall have for his reward for every Tonne weight for such his vessel as shall be taken up to serve the the King for every quarter of a year that they shall remain in his service three shillings four penâ— begining the first day of their entring into the haven or place appointed 5 R. 2. The Commons made Recapitulation of their requests and namely of the Ordinance concerning Pourveyors Whereto it was replied for the King That his charges were great as well concerning sundry particulars there uttered as like to be greater for the solemnity of his marriage with the Lady Anne Daughter to the mighty Prince Charles Emperor of Rome the which Lady was newly come into the Realm the tenth part of which charges the King had not in treasure or otherwise and that therefore it was as necessary to provide for the safety of the Kings Estate as for the Commonwealth 6 R. 2. The Commons pray That the Statute of Pourveyors may be observed and that ready payment may be made The Statute therefore made shall be observed 2 R. 2. The Commons pray that every Ship taken up for the Kings service may towards her apparrelling take for every quarter two shillings of every Tonne That the Statutes of Pourveyors and Buyers be executed and that the Justices of the Peace have power to hear and determine the same That the Estate of the Kings Houshold be yearly viewed once or oftner by the Chancellor Treasurer and Keeper of the privy Seal and that the Statutes therefore appointed may be observed The King granteth to the first at his pleasure and to the second he granteth 10 R. 2. That every owner of a ship serving the King may have for every quarters service of the same his Ship three shillings four pence of every Tonne Leighter or little Ship The King hath committed the same to his Counsel to be considered 14 R. 2. They require remedy against Masters of Ships and Mariners The Admirall shall appoint them to take reasonable wages or punish them 17 R. 2. Pray that Remedy may be had against the Officers in London who exact of Drovers bringing Cattle into Smithfield the third Beast The Maior and Sheriffs of London shall answere the same before the Council 20 R. 3. A Bill was exhibited in Parliament amongst other things for the avoiding of the outragious expences of the Kings House upon which particular the King seemmed much offended saying he would be free therein and that the Commons thereby committed offence against him and his dignity which he willed the Lords to declare to the Commons and their Speaker was charged to declare the name of him who exhibited the said Bill which having done and the Bill delivered to the Clerk of the Crown the Commons came before the King shewing themselves of heavy cheer and declared they meant no harme submitted and craved pardon and Sir Thomas Hexey a Clergie-man who exhibited the Bill was by Parliament adjudged to die as a Traitor but at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Bishops pardoned for life and ordered to be by Sir Thomas Percy Steward of the House delivered to the custody of the Archbishop Anno 1 Hen. 4. The Commons pray that the King may have only two Tons of wine of every ship of wine coming to any port in the name of prize It shall be as heretofore 6 H. 4. That the owners of every Ship or other Vessel serving the King may have allowance of every Tonne waight of the same Vessel three shillings four pence for every quarter towards the apparrelling of the said ship The Statute therefore appointed shall be observed 7 8 H. 4. That all the Statutes touching buyers and Pourveyors may be executed and that payment may be made for victuals taken by the Kings Pourveyors from the time of his
Coronation The King is willing to doe the same and that all Statutes of Pourveyors be observed 11 H. 4. The King promiseth convenient payment for victuals taken by his Pourveyors Thomas Chancer chief â—â—tler to the King sheweth what prices of wine the King ought to have of every Ship and how much the King was deceived thereof that the Citizens of London being exempt from the same did use notwithstanding to make strangers free thereof The King sent for the Citizens heretofore and further willeth that none shall enjoy any such liberty unless he be there a Citizen resâ—aâ—t and dwelling 3 H. 5. The Commons pray that no Ship be taken to serve the King by any Letters Patents but that the same Letters Patents may be seen before the Maior and other Officers of the Town that hire of the fraight may be by them made and ready payment had The Statutes heretofore made shall be observed 18 H. 6. Order was taken for the payment of the Kings debts and provision of his Houshold and authority committed to the Kings Council to take order concerning Pourveyors and the fourth part of the Tenth and Fifteenth to be imployed to the payment of the Pourveyance for his Houshold 20 H. 6. The Commons pray that certain Lords such as the King shall please may have authority to settle good order in his Houshold and that ready money be paid for victuals carriages and other dispenses of the same House Be it as is desired provided that this extend not to impeach any Assignments Grants Payments Benefit or Interest to any man lawfully granted or had before this Parliament 27 H. 8. cap. 24. The Kings Pourveyors may for the provision of the King Queen and their Children take all victuals corn and other kinds of things whatsoever according to their Commissions as well within the Liberties and Franchises as without any Grants Allowance or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding 1 2 Phil. Maâ— It was ordained by Act of Parliament That no Commission of Pourveyors should continue above six moneths the County to be named where Beeves Weathers Lambs Calves Swine Salt-fish Corn Butter Cheese Bacon Conies Pigs Geese Capons and Hens and any other provision of victuals were taken the proportions and numbers of them and a Docquet to be made all things taken And cap. 6. No victuals shall be taken by the Kings Pourveyors within five miles of the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford nor in Oxford or Cambridge upon pain of forfeiture of four times the value provided that the Act be not put in execution at any time or times whensoever the Queen and her heirs and successors shall please to come to both or any of the said Universities or within seven miles of either of them but be suspended during that time and no longer 5 Eliz. cap. 5. Composition Fish heretofore granted to the Queens Majesty by the Subjects of this Realm travailing into Iseland may be taken by her Majesties Officers and Pourveyors in such sort as the same hath been lawfully used to be taken before the making of this Act saving to the Queens Majesty her Heirs and Successors and to all other persons such Fishes as be known and used to be called Regall Fishes whereunto her Majesty or the said other persons have or shall have right or interest for such recompence as heretofore hath been accustomed 13 Eliz. cap. 21. Reciting the said Act of the 2 and 3 of King Phillip and Queen Mary and that since divers of the Townships Inhabitants and Resâ—ants within the Limits and Precincts aforesaid having converted the benefit of the said Act to their private use and commoditie without any profit or commodities to the poor Schollars of either of the said Universities whereby the Queens Majesty was not only not served of provision of Corn Grain and other victuall to be taken for her Majesties-provision but also the said Universities were defrauded of the benefits and commodities to them intended It was ordained that no person whatsoever nor the Pourveyors of the Queen her Heirs and Successors nor no Badger or Poulter should take or bargain grain or victuals within the compass of five miles of the said Universities or within the Towns of Oxford and Cambridge without the consent of the Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors in writing under the Seal of either of the said Universities first had in writing And if any person or persons within the said Precincts should refuse reasonably to serve the necessary provision of the said Universities that then it should be lawfull to any of the Queens Majesties Takers or Pourveyors to provide any corn or victuall of any such person or persons within any part of the precinct aforesaid for the use of the Queen as should be declared and notifâ—ed to the said Pourveyors or Takers to be persons not worthy of the said priviledge for not reasonably serving the necessities of the said Universities by the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor for the time being of either of the said Universities with the assent of the two Justices of Peace resâ—ant within the said Universities Town or County under the hands and Seals of the said Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor and the said two Justices of the Peace as the said Pourveyors or Takers lawfully may in any other place within the said Precinct and not otherwise Provided that the Act shall not be put in execution at any time or times whensoever the Queens Majesty her Heirs and Successors shall come to any of both the Universities or within seven miles of either of of them but shall be in suspence during that time only and no longer And King Henry the seventh who in the rage and scuffle of a fortunately fought Battel at Bosworth field having found his Crown thrown into a Hathorn or bush of Thorns as a presage of the cares which usually attend the wearers and by marriage once accounted the best of unions happily established himself in the Kingdom and stopt the issue of blood betwixt those two great contending Families of York and Lancaster and having afterwards as no giddy but a probable tradition hath left it in the successive memories of the servants of the Royal houshold for the better government and order of his Expences of his House and their provision of Diet put a rate or Reiglement as well in the quantity as quality and price thereof which in those cheaper times was little less then the Market rate or but that which might reasonably be afforded It continued uncomplained of in the Reign of King Hen. 8. when Cardinal Wolsey Lord Chancellor of England and the Kings Privy Council made certain Reiglements Constitutions touching the well ordering government of the Kings Houshold the motives thereof were therein expressed to be al honneâ—r de Diu a honneur profit de Saint Eglise al honneur du Roy a son profit du profit de son peuple for the honor of God and the honour
that purpose seene themselves attended in the plenty State and greatest of Royalty of the King or Prince from which they were sent and in the mean time nothing wanting or missing in that of the Kings attendance or magnificence in his Court oâ— Family From whence at all times Carelesnes Profusenes and all manner of wast were so banished as the Porters at the Gates were charged to watch and hinder the carrying out of meat and provision by such as should not the Pastrie rated in their allowances for Spice Sugar Corance c. the servants took an oath of duty and obedience and the Treasurer and Comptroller to make due allowance and payments with favourable demeanings and cherish love betwixt the King and his people In Anno 7 Jac. Rates and orders were made and set touching the Kings Breakfast and his particular fare as to qualities and proportions for Dynner and Supper and Fish dayes for the dyet of the great Officers and all other Officers and Servants having diet and the like on the Queens side Rates for Bouche of Court for Mornings and Evenings Lights and Candles and the Yeomen of the Guards diet and Beefe ordered to be on Flesh dayes for the King Queen and Houshold In anno 16 Jac. by advice of the Earl of Middlesex Sir Richard Weston Knight Sir John Wolstenholme Sir William Pyt Knight and other discreet men very much experienced in the Affairs of the world appointed to lessen as much as might be the charges of his house many good orders were made for the regulation of the Kings Houshold some abatements made in the allowance for his Breakfast by his own order a Limitation and stint of Joynts of Meat to make Jellies and all other compositions the number and names of all Noblemen and Ladies attending the Court to be quarterly presented And that the Prince should pay for his diet at his coming to Court which the most narrow-hearted and frugall of fathers in private Families and Societies have not done and his Countrymen of Scotland and many English could not say he was according to the rates he paid at his own House and that when he should repair to any of the Kings Houses in remote places he should pay for such of the Kings provisions as he should expend there according as they should be worth at the next Market And yet in all that frugality and care to prevent wast and the daily meeting of some of the Officers of the Green-cloth in the Compting house there were 240 gallons allowed at the Buttery Bar per diem three gallons per diem at the Court gate for thirteen poor men six Services or Mess of meat and seven pieces of Beefe per diem as wast and extraordinary for the Kings honour And there was no Sunday or other day of the week but the Tables of the great Officers and Lords entertained many Lords Knights and Gentlemen which were not of the Houshold but came to see the King or make and attend their petitions and suits and few Gentlemen of quality Citizens or other persons of those multitudes whose busines or desires to see the Court brought them thither but were taken in as Guests to dinner with some of those many other Officers of the Court that had diet allowed them it having been an antient custome after the King was set to dinner to search through all the Lodgings and Rooms of the House to find out Gentlemen and Strangers fit for and becoming the invitation of the Kings Servants to the Kings meats and provision for his servants and in all those treatments and largess of house-keeping there wanted not a sober plenty of wine and beer out of the Kings Sellers and an open house-keeping with so much sobriety as if it had not been an open housekeeping wherein no drunkenness or debauchery was to be seen as is too commonly in the now almost out of fashion open or free house-keeping at Christmas or other Festivals 18 Jac. Regis Divers Ordinances were made for the diminution of the charge of the Kings house-keeping the allowances of wast to be given dayly for the Kings honour reduced to a certainty viz. 200 loaves of bread 240 gallons of beer remains of Wax and Torch-lights to be returned the number of Artificers Victualleâ—s and Landresses ascertained number of Carts for Carriages stinted and proportioned to all degrees and Offices the charge of the Stable being almost doubled to what it was in Queen Elizabeths time to be lessened as much as may be none to be sworn Servants before the number of Officers should be reduced to what was formerly no Offices or Places in the Kings House to be sold all other good Orders to be put in Execution yet could at the same time by his especiall grace and favour remit to certain places some of his compositions Nor did those contrivances and endeavors to lessen the Kings charge of house-keeping die with King James but were found to survive to his Son and Successor his late Majesty King Charles the first in the third year of whose Reign half the allowance for houshold diets was abated on fasting nights and the carriages in every office reduced to a certain number and when the composition or Country provision of Oxen or Sheep did by the Courts frugality sometimes exceed or make an overplus they were sold and exactly brought unto an accompt for the defraying of other houshold charges where as his Royal Progenitors used to doe he could in his greatest wants and care of all fitting Espargne in his own diet and houshold cause the Lord High Stewards Table in time of Parliament to be constantly abundantly and extraordinarily kept and furnished to treat and dine the then numerous nobility and persons of honour coming to the Court and Parliament But all that was of Innocency antient legall and just Rights in it backt and seconded by right Reason the Lawes and reasonable Customes of the Land the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy taken by all Magistrates Justices of Peace Officers and many of the better sort of the people and of every Freeman of every Trade and Company in London and ordered to be taken by all men in the Kingdome to defend and maintain the Rights and Jurisdictions of the King and his Crown and the interests concernments good honor safety welfare and happiness of every man in particular being involved in that of their King or Prince were not enough to perswade those who had found the sweetness of ruining him and all which were loyal and well affected to him from pursuing the sinfull and abominable ends and designes of themselves and their great Master of Delusion the Devil to murder him but whilst they hunted him like a Partridge upon the mountains and through more persecutions of mind and body and a longer time then ever the righteous and holy David endured in his greatest afflictions could take all that he had from him his Lands Revenues and Estate and so much as
Nobiltiy by their Common Council should be ordained and the Procuratores Cleri Proctors or Representers of the Clergy not Bishops who sate in Parliament and were summoned unto it as a third Estate and Barons inter Proceres Regni amongst the Nobility of the Kingdome ad consentiendum to consent only to such things as should be ordained in Parliament as hath been learnedly and accurately proved by examination of antient Records and Parliament Writs by Mr. William Prynne in his second part of a Register and Survey of severall kinds and forms of Parliament Writs And may well be deemed to be no less then Law and right Reason when as divers Acts of Parliament made by the advice of the Lords Spiritual Temporall and the assent of the Commons summoned called unto Parliament by the Kings Writ to consent only unto such Laws as should be made therein with the Royal assent and breath of life given by the King unto such Acts without which those Petitions and Bills which were intended and desired by the people to be Acts of Parliament are but as the matter to the form presented unto the King in his great Councill and Parliament and amount unto no more in the best of value and constructions which can be put upon them then Petitions and Requests or as bodies without souls or pieces of Silver or Gold uncoyned having not the power or effect of money without Caesars Image and Superscription and the Royal Stamp and Authority given them have enacted and ordained the same or the like cares and provisions as that without date made in the Reign of King H. 3. or Ed. 1. or Ed. 2. and to be found amongst the Statutes of 17 Ed. 2. if all or some of them were not made by the Kings Royal Authority and power only that the Toll of a Milne shall be taken according to the custome of the Land strength of the water-course either to the twentieth or four and twentieth corn and the measure whereby the Toll must be taken was to be agreeable to the Kings measure and taken by the rate and not by the heap or cantell The Assise of Ale to be according to the price of Corn. Butchers to be punished which sell unwholsome flesh â—ushels Gallons and Ells shall be kept by Mayors Bayliffs c. signed with the Kings Seal and he that buyeth or selleth with any other shall be amerced No grain shall be sold by the Heap or Cantell but Oats Malt and Meal Wines by the Act of Parliament of 4 Ed. 3. shall be assaied twice a year and be sold at reasonable prices and a Cry or Proclamation made that none should be so hardy as to sell wines but at a reasonable price regarding the price that is at the Ports from whence the Wines came and the expences as in carriage of the same from the Ports to the places where they be sold. No man may sell Ware at a Fair after iâ— is ended Victuals shalâ— be sold at reasonable prices and Butchers Fishmongers Regrators Hostelers Brewers Bakers Poulters and all other sellers of all manner of victuals shall be bound to sell the same victuall for a reasonable price having respect to the price that such victuals be sold at in the places adjoyning so that the said Sellers have moderate gains and not excessive reasonably to be required according to the distance of the place from whence the said victuals be carried None shall Forestall Wines and Victuals Wares and Merchandizes coming to the good Towns of England by land or by water to be sold. Auncel weight shall be put out weighing shall be by equall ballances every measure shall be according to the Kings Standard and be striked without heap It shall be Felony to forestall or ingross Gascoine wine Red and white wine shall be gauged Ballances and Weights shall be sent to all the Sheriffs of England and all persons are to make their Weights and Ballances by them And in anno 31 Ed. 3. because saith the Statute the Fishers Butchers Poulters and other sellers of Victualls in the City of London by colour of some Charters and by evil intepretation of Statutes made in advantage of the people that every man may freely sell victuals without disturbance and that no Maior Bailiffe or other Minister ought to meddle with the sale It was accorded assented That every man that bringeth victuals whatsoever they be to the City by land or by water may freely sell the same to whom shall please him without being interrupted or impeached by Fisher Butcher Poulter or any other and that the Maior and Aldermen of the said City may rule and redress the defaults of Fishers Butchers and Poulters as they doe of those which sell Bread Ale or Wine In the same year upon the complaint of the Commons that the people of great Yarmouth did encounter the Fishers bringing Herrings to the said Town in the time of the Fair and buy and forestall the Herrings before they come to the Town And also the Hostlers of the same Town which lodge the Fishers coming thither with Herrings would not suffer the said Fishers to sell their Herrings nor meddle with the sale thereof but sell them at their own will as dear as they will and give to the Fishers what pleaseth them whereby the Fishers did withdraw themselves from coming thither It was enacted that Herrings should not be bought or sold upon the sea That Fishers be free to sell their Herrings without disturbance of the Hostelers that when the Fishers will sel their Merchandises in the Port they shall have their Hostelers with them if there they will be and in their presence openly sell their Merchandises and that every man claim his part for the taking after the rate for the same Merchandises so sold. That no Hosteler or other buy any for to hang in their houses by Covin nor in other manner at a higher price the last then forty shillings but less in as much as he may That no Hosteler nor any of their Servants nor any other shall by land or Sea forestall the said Herrings No vessel called Piker of London nor of no other place shall enter into the said Haven to abate the Fair in damage of the people That all the Hostelers be sworn before the Wardens of the Fair and enjoyned upon a great forfeiture to the King to receive their Guests well and conveniently and to aid and ease them reasonably taking of every Last that shall be sold to other Merchants then the said Hostelers 40 d. That of Herrings sold to the same Hostelers to take in their houses the same Hostelers shall take nothing and that because of the profits which they shall have of victuals sold to their said Guests and of the advantage which they have more then other of carriage of Herrings so by them bought and hanging in their houses and for the advantage of 40 d. the
Last take upon them for the payment of all the Herrings that shall be sold by their assent to any persons and the hundred of Herring shall be accompted by sixscore and the Last by ten thousand That the people of London at such Fair shall bring the Last from Yarmouth to London for one Mark of gain and not above That the Fishers be compelled to bring the remnant of their Herrings not sold in the Road of Kirkley to the Fair to sell them so that none sell Herring in any place about the haven of Yarmouth by seven miles except in three Towns of Yarmouth that is to say Easton Weston and Southton unless it be Herrings of their own Fishing The Chancellor or Treasurer taking to them Justices and other the Kings Council shall have power to ordain remedy touching the buying and selling of Stock-fish of Saint Botolph and Salmon of Barwick and of Wines and Fish of Bristâ—ute and else-where to the intent the King and his People may better be served and have better Markets then they have had before this time and that the Ordinances by them made in this party be firmly holden Doggers and Landships of Blackney Haven shall discharge their Fish there the price of Dogger-fish and Loichfish that is to say Lob Ling and Cod shall be assessed by the Advice of the Merchants and Rulers comming to the Fair of Blackney and of the owners of the ships before any sale be made which shall be holden during the Fair Every man shall buy Herrings openly and not privily at such price as may be agreed betwixt him and the seller And no man shall enter into bargain upon the buying of the same till he that first cometh to bargain shall have an end of his bargain greable to the seller and that none increase upon other during the first bargain Londoners and other shall sell victualls by retail Sweet wines may be sold by retail at the price of Gascoyne wines Victuallers shall have but reasonable gains according to the discretion of the Justices of Peace there shall be but eight Bushels striked to the Quarter the severall measures of vessels of wine Eels Herrings and Salmons and vessels of Oil and Honey to be gauged 12 E. 4. ca. 8. Divers Patents being granted under the great Seal of England to divers persons to be Surveyors and Correctors of beer ale wine and victuals within divers Cities Boroughs and Towns it was ordained That they should be void and that the Mayors Bayliffs and chief Governours of Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate shall be the only Searchers and Surveyors of victualls for that every City Borough and Town of substance in England for the most part have Court Leeâ—s and views of Frank-pledge holden yearly within the same Cities Boroughs and Towns surveying of all victualls therein and correction and punishment of the offenders and breakers of the Assise of the same which ought not to be câ—ntraried Ordinances made by Guilds Fraternities and Companies of Trade shall be examined and approved by the Chancellor Treasurer of England or Chief Justices of either Benches or three of them or by Justices of Assise in their Circuits to prevent and hinder unlawfull Ordinances as well in prises of wares as in other things to the Common hurt and damage of the people When any victualler is chosen Officer in any City except London York and Coventry Borough or Town Corporate which by virtue of his Office should have the Assising and Correction for selling of victualls that then two discreet and honest persons neither of them being Victuallers shall during that time be sworn truely to sess and set the price of victuals such as sell false and mixt Oils to be searched and punished and such as destroy wild â—oul whereby formerly the Kings most honourable Houshold and the houses of Noblemâ—n Prelates were furnished at convenient prices to be punished Upon complaint made for enhauncing of prices of victuals the prices thereof shall be assessed by the Kings Councellors and Officers and they which have victuals to sell shall sell them at the same prises The Prises of the But Tun Pipe Hogshead c. of all kinds of wines when it shall be sold in gross shall be set by certain of the Kings great Officers Whosoever shall buy or sell any Fâ—sant or Partridge saving the Officers of the Kings Queens or Princes houses shall forfeit for every Fesant six shillings eight pence and for every Partridge three shillings four pence to the King Conspiracies made by Victuallers touching selling of victuals shall be grievously punished Taverns may be appointed in every City Borough or Town Corporate to sell wine by Retail None shall retail wines but in Cities Market Towns c. Vintners which sell by Retâ—il in Towns Corporate shall be assigned by the head Officers thereof and in other Towns by the Justices of Peace And 2 3 Ed. 6. by a temporary Act expired with the time therein limitted which may shew the minds and intents of the makers and what was then thought convenient for that small part of time and being probably only done upon some grounds or reasons of State for the present or in ease of the people or some popular designe of the then ruling Lord Protector was not then nor at any time after thought fit to continue any longer it was ordained That no Pourveyor or other person by authority of any Commission or other Warrant shall during three years then next ensuing pourvey or take for the provision of the Kings Houshold his Sisters or any others any Corn Beeves Muttons c. Wood Coal Straw Hay or any kind of Victuals without the full consent of the owner and at such price for ready money as the owner or Pourveyor can agree nor shall take for any of the Kings Affairs or the Warres or otherwise any Goods Chattels or other things whatsoever saving Barges Ships Carts and things necessary without the consent of the owners and at such prises for ready money as the owner Pourveyâ—rs can agree except Post-horses for which shall be paid a penny a mile and the King will allow to the owner of every Cart taken for his houshold four pence a mile and for the Warres and other Carriages three pence a mile The Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Privy Seal and the two Chief Justices or any five four or three of them are authorised to set prises of wine and none to sell either in gross or by retail above those prises No Cattel shall be bought but in open Fair or Market but by a Butcher provisions of houshold Butter or Cheese shall not be bought to be sold again except it be by retail in open Shop Fair or Market Forestallers and Regrators shall be punished Badgers and Drovers licensed by three Justices of the Peace
should be assessed by the said Clerk of the Market in avoiding her Highness displeasure and further punishment at her Graces pleasure Which as to the enforcing of reasonable rates and pâ—ises for victuals and houshold provisions was no more then that which all Maiors and Bailiffs of Cities Boroughs Merchant Towns and others and of the Ports of the Sea and other places are by the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. cap. 6. authorised to doe and is to be given in charge and inquired of by the Justices of Peace of every County at their Quarter Sessions For if by the rules of Reason Policie and Prudence it was alwayes adjudged to be necessary and profitable for the people in general that the King or Prince should restrain them from deceiving or oppressing one another or not permit the cunning false or richer part of the people to deceive and put what rates or prises they please or can heighten and invent upon the plain dealing honest simple hearted poor and necessitous part of them but should rather resist the Nimrods Tormentors of them and by putting them into some method of righteousness imitate the care and designs of the Almighty to succour relieve and help the poor and needy And that it can never be for the good of the Nation so to encourage the evils and deceitfulnes of mens hearts one towards another as to suffer every one to hatch or spawn as many cheating and cozening tricks perjuries deceipts and false or aequivocal oathes as they can possibly or under a counterfeit shew of godliness make contrive and invent to blind deceive delude or oppress one another or to be like Cut-purses Jews Bandities Wild Arabs or crafty deceitfull Bannyans to the well-doing as well as well-meaning little part of the people or like Rooks cawing wrangling and making a noyse in the trees make it their perpetual business when they are not asleep to steal and filch away one anothers Nests and provisions and being guilty of as bad themselves to be in a perpetuall watch of keeping as well as they can their own whilest they are busie in stealing from others or to make old England to be a Country of Rooks and Jackdaws It cannot be certainly adaequate to any rule of Justice that the King who is to make it his daily care to provide peace plenty and benefits for all his Subjects regulates by his Magistrates and Officers rates and prices of victuals at Markets and Fairs moderates and abates such as are excessive and unreasonable and by Law may seize as forfeit the Court Leets of Lords of Manors for not providing Pillories to punish offending Bakers and ordaineth by his Laws that every Lord or other having the priviledge of a Market shall forfeit it if he have not a Clerk of the Market to look unto it should provide blessings for every one but himself and partake of none or very little of them and that his Subjects should not be at liberty to cozen and oppress one another and yet every man should be at liberty and make it his designe and business to cozen and lay burdens upon him which would be as little for the good of the body politick as it would be in the body natural to wear the head downward and make it to be subservient to the business and humor of the ignoble and less to be taken care of parts of the body Or to give liberty not only in a Siege or publick necessity like that of Samaria but at all other times unto as many as will like the gain or content of it to be as Bears and Wolves one to another and by hardening of their hearts and oppressing one another make a Wilderness and Desert in our Land of Canaan which if well ordered flows with more then milk and honey and by reason of an universall pride ingrossing enhauncing and cheating to maintain it cause a dearth when there may be a plenty And reducing him thereby into the condition of the King of Israel in that Siege when an Asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver and the fourth part of a kab of Doves dung for five pieces of silver enforce him to answer as he did the woman which cryed unto him Help my Lord O King if the Lord doe not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the Barn floor or out of the Wine-presse Or that the King when he shall as the King of Israel did in an unseasonable and dry year search the Land for grass to save the peoples horses mules and beasts alive should let his own not pertake of his cares but perish whilst he mittigates unjust and unconscionable rates and prices in the Markets beÌ„ himself exposed to all manner of unconscionable and deceitfull dealings Which his just and alwaies until now allowed right of Praeemption which heretofore made the Kings provision for his houshold when it was bought in the Markets or Fairs to be much cheaper then what were bought upon the vie or endeavours who should give most to purchase it at such unreasonable prices as the Sellers could strain or scrue them unto And the Commissions not seldome made by his Royal Progenitors to the Sheriffs and other Officers and Magistrates which had the delegated power of Assise and Correction of Markets and unreasonable prices and the rating of them to make his houshold provisions and where the Pourveyors and the owners could not otherwise agree were to be rated and ascertained as some Acts of Parliament and Statutes have appointed by Constables and some honest men of their Neighbourhood upon their oaths which cannot be supposed to make or admit them to be high or immoderate together with a due regulation of the Markets by the Clerks of the Markets and that care with the Law enjoyneth the Lords of Manors in their Court Leets the Sheriffs in their Tornes the Justices of Peace of every Countie and the Magistrates of every City and Towns Corporate to take in the supressing of unreasonable prices Forestallers Ingrossers and Regrators which are no small part of the causes of them would have prevented or greatly lessened And the Markets would not have risen to that excess of price which is now heavily complained of and every where to be met with by the sleepiness or sluggishness of Magistrates and Justices of the Peace neglect of their oathes and duties which are too often and easily obliterated or put out of memory by sprinkling or dipping them in the waters of some Lethe or Oblivion or by some unrighteous or unbecoming partialties connivance and kindness to their Neighbours and friends or such as they would make to be their friends a timerousness or unwillingness to displease or irritate such as are or may be their enemies or the allurements and temptation of their own Interests in letting their Lands at the rack or very much dearer then it was when the Kings price or compositions were agreed upon and by tentering the Tenants Rents
enforce them in requital thereof and care of themselues to stretch as much or more the prices of their Cattel and Commodities because their Landlords were insatiable and did never think their Rents high enough raised as long as they could find any pretences to raise them higher or any one to give them the utmost penny when they should not be able to pay their Rents maintain their wives and children and have some little comfort or incouragement by their honest labours unless they should as much as they could make every thing as dear as they could and imitate or exceed them All which combining and strongly confederating together his mersere malis have brought many an evil upon the Kingdome made our Atlas burthen much the heavier the poorer sort of the people to be greatly impoverished and devoured like sheep and the landed and richer part like the Israelites with Quails in their mouths murmurring in the midst of their peace and plenty and thinking that to be thanks enough for them and all their Mannah And like those which distempering their bodies and breeding and causing their own diseases are unwilling to acknowledge themselves to be the Authors of what they complain of but would willingly make the aire and heavenly influences to be in the fault and when they make the high wayes the fowler by their own travailing and riding in them and the worse for the next that shall come after them will lament the deepness or foulness of them Or as Landlords which can grievously complain and wonder at the high rates of Flesh Fish Corn Butter Cheese and other houshold provisions at the Markets when the enhauncing of their own pride extravagancies and profit to maintain them and sequestring themselves from the virtues and hospitalitie of their more beloved and honored Ancestors when they have any thing to buy themselves will not as they should lay the blame upon their own letting their Lands by exact and strict measures of the Acres Rods and Perches to the utmost rack and farthing and in many places by as much indiscretion as unconscionableness apportion and limit the wood which the Tenants are to burn or use by the loads as if it were something more pretious or to be brought by degrees to be weighed by the pound or ownces and will have more rent many times to be paid for it then can possibly be made of it with as many nomine paenes and impossible to be kept Covenants and restrictions as hard-hearted curiosity and diffidence can contrive and invent to the sometimes ruine or great losses of the Tenants in their endeavours to improve and make their Farms yeild as much as their Rents doe amount unto which necessitates them to sell every thing which they have to sell at the highest rates And by so letting their Lands at the highest rent and ten times higher then their Grandfathers some only few good and worshipfull imitators of their Progenitors virtues excepted or as much as can be gotten are not only the greatest cause of the enhaunching of all prices of provisions but by making another as great an advantage to themselves Do when as they do not pay Rents as their Tenants doe for the Lands out of which they raise their commodities add to the prejudice of the Buyers by holding of them up to the rates and humour of the Markets and getting as much as they can possible for what they themselves do sell and send to the Markets And by such or the like profitable and beneficiall customes which are sweet in the mouth or unto the taste but may be bitter in the stomach or digestion of making their benefits by the losses or oppression of the Buyers which at the Markets with those reckoned and included which are at home and to be fed with what is bought or brought from thence are forty for one that are sellers and those that have either Lands of their own or at a Rent are not one in every twenty for those which have not have very much enlarged their own Estates and impoverished the Commonalty Wherefore all those of our Nation which like the wanton at last unhappy Sybarites now troubled with a great deal more under a slavish government and dominion of the Turks then the crowing of the Cocks in the night time to disturb their sweet sleeps or repose which once they were so foolish as to account an inconvenience would but summon in their consciences and a right understanding of causes and effects to the Tribunal of reason and observe the dictates of that and common right The Praeemption which was never used to be denied to praeheminence but alwayes attended it as an insepeperable Concomitant and Consequence and so esteemed to be rational as the rude and unmannerly Dutch with their heads in a piece of a Rug and their good manners running out of their knees can afford it to the lowest rank of their Heeren self-created Lords or States or to a Schepen or Sindic Sheriffe or Recorder of a Town would not be found to be a grievance and where any Priviledges as there ought to be many are associate and incorporate with Soveraign Majesty the King of England under whose grants and allowance only every Seller as well as Buyer at Fairs and Markets claims and enjoyes the liberty of buying and selling should not himself be unkindly used or his Pourveyors debarred the liberty of a first Buyer which was in Anno 720. or thereabouts understood to be so necessary and inherent to Kingly authority and Supereminence the reverence respect and duty belonging unto it and a priviledge so just and reasonable and becoming Subjects to be well contented with and the Regality of Kings not to part with as King Ina one of our Saxon Kings did by a Law prohibit Fore Fang or Captio Obsâ—niâ—rum quae in Foris aut Nundinis ab aliquo fit priusquam Minister Regis ea caeperit quae Regi fuerint necessaria the taking or buying of houshold prouisions by others in Fairs or Markets before the Kings Minister or Pourueyor took those things which were necessary for the King the words of that Law as the learned Sir Henry Spelman hath in the Version rendred them de Fore fang 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Saxon signifying ante or before and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prendere or to take i. e. de preventione decrevimus per totam Angliam quod idem judicium teneri debet We ordain that this Law of Prevention or Praeemption be firmly holden throughout all England And is more fit to be allowed unto the King whose just Rights and Jurisdictions every man is sworn or ought to swear to maintain and defend If there were no fifth commandement in being or any other Praecept in Scripture to honour and obey the King then unto Lords of Manors having Markets and Fairs belonging unto them or the Lord Maior or Sheriffs of London or the Magistrates of any other City or Town Corporate in England
benefits received which highly pleasing the Almighty and being lovely in the eyes of all men which are not only enjoyed but held fast and enforced by all the Nobility Gentry and richer sort of men in England when it happens to be denied as the services and customes of all their Tenants to grind their corn at their Lords Mill or baking their bread at his common Oven in some Borough or Market Town The Reliefs in Tenures by Knight Service or Chivalry fixed and appropriate unto those Fewds and Tenures and paid at the death of every Tenant dying seised being at the first never condescended unto by the Tenants by any paction or stipulation betwixt them and their Lords But although there was antiently and originally betwixt the Lord and the Tenant mutua fides tuendae salutis dignitatis utriusque saith Bodin a mutual obligation betwixt the Tenant and the Lord to defend one anothers Estate and Dignity or as Craig saith pactionibus interpositis de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements to defend one another were lately notwithstanding received and taken by the Nobility and Gentry as a gratitude and in that and no other respect were by the Tenants willingly paid unto them The Reliefs paid by the Heirs of Freeholders in Socage after the death of their Ancestors which being not paid by Tenants for years by a rack Rent do appear to have no other commencement but in signum subjectionis gratitudinis a thankfull acknowledgement for benefits received Or those duties payments which many Lords and Gentry doe enjoy in Cumberland Westmerland and many of the other Northern Counties which were not at the first by any original contract or agreement as to their Tenants particular services for so it could not be a custome but the Tenants at the first upon the only reason of gratitude untill it had by length of time and usage uninterrupted gained the force of a custome and that the succeeding Heirs and Tenants were admitted according to those customes did as willingly observe and acknowledge them The Fines incertain at the will of severall Lords which the Nobility and Gentry of other parts of England do receive and take of their Copihold Tenants under the penalty of a forfeiture if not paid in a reasonable time after they were assessed and the priviledges which they retain of seising their Tenants Copihold Lands as forfeit whether the Fines were certain or incertain if they sued Replevins against them distraining for their Rents or Services and had no other parents or originall untill custome had settled it then the Tenants gratefull acknowledgements of the Lords or his Ancestors former kindess and benefits bestowed upon them or their Progenitors And the Socage Lands and Freeholders might be Tallied or have a Tax laid upon them by their Lords at their will and pleasure as their necessities or occasions required as well before as after the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo made betwixt the years 25 34 Ed. 1. and if it had been an Act of Parliament and not a Charter could bind only the King as to his extraordinary but not to his legall Tallages untill custome by the kindness or favour of time and the curtesie and good will of their Lords did permit them by a desuetude of imposing and a well rellished custome of the Tenants not paying to enjoy their easie and cheap bargains and freedome of their Lands for which they should doe well to remember better then they doe their Benefactors and be more mannerly and gratefull then of late they have been and were before those indulgencies held to be so accustomed and usual as it was not seldome found by Inquisitions and Juries upon oath that such or such land was holden Et Talliari potest c. And might have Taxes or a greater Rent laid upon them by the Lord of the Manor in so much as the Kings demeasne Lands were not free from Tallage which will be evident enough by a presentment of a Jury of Nottinghamshire before the Justices in Eyre in anno 8 E. 1. or King Edward the first when the Kings Letters Patents of a Grant of the Town of Retford to the Burgesses thereof and their Heirs in Fee Farm was found and mentioned in these words viz. Edwardus Dei gratia c. Sciatis nos concessisse c. Burgensibus nostris de Retford quod ipsi eorum haeredes de cetero habeant teneant ad feodi firmam de nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum villam nostram de Retford cum pertnen reddendo inde nobis haeredibus nostris per manus suas proprias decem libras per annum ad Scaccarium nostrum ad festum Sancti Michaelis pro omnibus serviciis c. Salvo inde nobis haeredibus nostris Tallagio nostro cum nos haeredes nostris Dominica nostra per Angliam fecimus Talliari c. reserving to himself and his Heirs a Fee Farme Rent of ten pounds per annum and the power of Tax or Tallage or improving what he had granted unto them when he should have occasion to make a Taxe or Tallage upon all his Demesne Lands in England And untill Rents were racked of which the Kings of England and the Officers of their Revenue in land were seldom or never yet much guilty that Rents were improved as high as the profits of Lands all the Lands of England except the Copihold Customary lands by Fines certain the curtesie of time and their Landlords suffering their good will and charity to be reduced into thankless customs escaped it were liable to be made contributaries to many of the necessities or occasions of the Lords of Manors who formerly did not make Leases and take Fines to lessen the rents as they doe now by a high rate or rule of interest and disadvantages procuring their rents to be advanced as it were in the name of a Fine before hand nor if the Lands were holden in Capite by Knight service untill time and their Princes favours had disused it could make a Lease unto any Tenant of such Lands but by licence and then also for no longer a term then 3. or 7. years And their Lands and Rents except Capite and Knight-service and Copihold land and lands in Frank Almoigne being capable of no higher Rents or improvement cannot now be any more by them Tallied which in effect is but a calling for more rent or raising it which every Landlord may do where his Tenants are at Will or when their Leases are expired when they are now all but those Lands before excepted as to the King and the mesne Lords and the Lands of the Freeholders and Cop holders at the utmost or a very high rent And such Tallage is at this day not laid aside by our Neighbours of France in very many places were les Tailles se paient par ceuz du Tiers estat c'est a dire par les habitans
Roturiers des Villes non Franches Bourgs Villages a proportion des biens du Taillable sans qu ' il ait estè besoin d' asembler les Estats pour ce suiet those kind of Taxes are paid by the third Estate or Commonalty that is to say by the Inhabitants or common people of the Towns and Boroughts not infranchised or freed from it by the King according to the proportion of their goods or moveables without any assembly of the Estates to that purpose except in Languedoc Provence Burgogne Daulphine and Brittaine where when the King and his Councel have resolved what the Tailles shall be les terres immeubles seulement sont Taillables the lands and immoveables only are tailleable and their near friends the Scots did long agoe so well like of gratitude as they enacted and held it to be a good Law that Lands holden in few Ferme pay and ane certain zierly dewty nomine Feudi Firme may be recognosced be the Superior for none payment of the few dewtie and that twa maner of waies the first ex provisione naturae contractus by operation of law and the nature of the contract for the few Fermorer not pay and his few Ferme for his ingratitude and unthankfulnes Tinis and forfaltis his few Ferme be the disposition of the Law quhilk as zit was not in practique and use in Scotland And the English Landlords were so unwilling to part with any priviledges which brought them in any power gain or profit as where they held any of the Kings antient Demesnes in Fee Farme and the King did cause his antient Demesnes to be Tallied the Lord or Fee Farmer under him would sue forth the Kings writ commanding the Sheriff that in case the lands were auntient Demeasne hucusque consueverit Talliari and was untill then accustomed to be Tallied that rationabile Tallagium ei habere faceret de libere Tenentibus suis in manerio praedicto sicut prius fieri consuevit he should cause the Freeholders of the said Manor to pay unto their Lord such reasonable Tallage as was accustomed And with as much or more reason were the Pourveyances or Compositions for them allowed and established as the hitherto never complained of in Parliament or accompted to be grievances Herezelda Herriot services or Herriots which Skene an Author of great authority amonst the Scots defineth to be gratuitae donationes quae ab husbando seu agricola datur domino suo ratione dominij reverentiae the free gifts or remunerations of the Tenants to their Lords in the reverence and respect which they bear unto them Which the Hollanders those grand contesters for Liberties doe call Laudemia and notably increase their small Revenues in lands with them And in England saith the learned Spelman Non nisi post mortem husbandi solvitur is only paid after the death of the Tenant and differs from a Reliefe for that a Reliefe is in case of Inheritance but an Herriot in a lesser Estate as for life c. and being formerly and in the Saxon times of a greater value by the giving or paying to their Lords Shields Swords Spears Helmets Horses furnished and money according to the several qualities and estates of the Tenants have been since by the example and indulgence of our Princes imitated by the Nobility and Gentry reduced to the best horse or beast and if none to the best houshold stuffe but so greedily attached or seldome remitted by the Landlords as the poor mans single Ewe Lamb in the parable of the Prophet Nathan to David or a Cow which should give the lamenting Wife and Children some nourishment and sustenance are seldome able to escape their Bailiffes or such as are sent to fetch them And if it be reason for the people to make such payments and contributions and observe such respects to their Landlords and subordinate Governors or Superiors as much and greater surely ought they to pay unto their Pater Patriae the protector and defender as well of those that receive those duties as of those that pay them and are and should be enough to awaken and rouze up their gratitudes and imprint in their memories the never enough to be requited benefits and blessings received by our Kings and Princes as much as if with a forfeiture upon the not doing or observing those Agreements they had been as strongly annexed and incorporated into our Lands and Estates as that of the Service or Conditions of Lands given to hold by the Tenures of Knight service which as some Civilians hold ipsi sanguini cohaerent are inherent in the very blood of the Tenants which being the most noble gentile rich and better sort of the people were when the Pourveyance was in being the most fit and likeliest to be charged with the Payments or Contributions towards it and were therefore in several Kings Reigns sometimes singly and often charged with publick Ayds or Taxes and very much more then other of the people as twenty shillings for every Knights Fee granted by Parliament to King Richard the first six and twenty shillings eight pence for every Knights Fee to King John and as much at another time to him towards his Warres in Wales twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee towards his Voyage into Normandy and forty shillings at another time and as much twice assessed in the Reigns of King Henry the third towards his Warres in Gascony twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee by Henry the fourth the Warres in Scotland by King Edward the first and Edward the second and of France by King Edward the third and the personal and chargeable services of most of the Nobility and Gentry therein probably procuring them some relaxation of not having their Fees or Lands so charged as formerly And besides other incidents belonging thereunto are by the Fewdists said to be so more then ordinarily tied up unto gratitudes and the more especiall duties and obligations thereof as such a Tenant forfeits his Lands in Fee Si percipiat magnum periculum domino imminere ultrò sine requisitione servicium non offert if he perceived any danger imminent or likely to happen to his Lord and did not of his own accord offer his service to prevent it or if his Lord were a Captive or in prison ought to contribute towards his redemption or if he should happen to fall into distress was to relieve him as farre say some of the Fewdall Laws which by stipulation or paction being not at the first agreed upon or included in the General words of defending the Lord and his Dignity was with many other their gratefull observances afterwards particularized and deduced from such customes as gratitude only had in process of time introduced and as much as amounted unto the Moiety of one years Rent or si dominum in acie periclitantem deseruerit if he left his Lord in the field and was ingratefull And by our Laws of England if
he or his heirs did not unto the Lord or any of his Heirs of whom the Lands were holden his services within two years was upon a Cessavit per Biennium brought by the Lord and no sufficient distress to be found to forfeit the Lands so holden And from no other source or original was derived Escuage for the Tenants by Knight service not attending the King or their Lords in the wars which as Littleton saith was because the Law intendeth and understood it that the lands were at the first for that end freely given them whence also came the Aide to make the eldest Sonne of the King a Knight and to marry the eldest Daughter and the like assistances or duties unto the mesne Lords as gratefull acknowledgements for the Lands holden of them which the Freeholders in Socage are likewise not to deny and were not at the first by any Agreement betwixt the King and his particular Tenants nor likely to be betwixt the mesne Lords and their Tenants when the Lands were given them for that some of the mesne Lords might probably be without Sonne or Daughter or both or any hopes to have any when they gave their Lands and their Grants doe frequently mention pro homagio servicio in consideration only of homage and service to be done And being called auxilia sive adjutoria Aids or Assistances to their Lords who could not be then in any great want of such helps when the portions of Daughters were very much in vertue and little in mony and the charges of making the eldest Son a Knight the King in those dayes bestowing upon all or many of them some costly Furres Robes and the other charges consisting in the no great expences of the furnishing out the young Gentleman to receive the then more martial better used and better esteemed honour of Knighthood were reckoned by Bracton in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the third inter consuetudines quae serviciae non dicuntur nec concomitantia serviciorum sicut sunt rationabilia auxilia amongst those customes which are not understood to be services nor incidents thereof if they be reasonable But were de gratia ut Domini necessitas secundum quod major esset vel minor relevium acciperet and proceeded from the good will of the Tenants to help their Lords as their occasions or necessities should require Et apud exteros saith Sir Henry Spelman non solum ad collocandas sorores in matrimonium sed ad fratres etiam Juniores milites faciendos And with some forreign Nations as the Germans old Sicilians and Neapolitans not only towards the marriage of the Sisters of their Lords but to make also their younger Sons Knights For the good will and gratefull retorns of the Subjects to their Kings and Princes and of the Tenants to their Lords were not only since the Norman Conquest but long before practised and approved by the Britains the elder and most antient Inhabitants of this our Island and other world as is manifest by the Ebidiu or Tributum paid per Nobilium haeredes Capitali provinciae domino the Heirs of the Nobility or great men after the death of their Ancestors to the Lords or chief of the Province like unto as Sir Henry Spelman saith our relief which Hottoman termeth Honorarium a free gift or offering And that learned Knight found upon diligent enquiry amongst the Welch who by the sins of their forefathers and injury of the Saxons are now contented to be called by that name as Strangers in that which was their own Country that that Ebidiu was paid at a great rate non solum è praediis Laicis sed etiam Ecclesiasticis not only by the Laity but the Church-men And being not discontinued amongst the Saxons was besides the payment of Reliefs attended with other gifts and acknowledgements of superiority as well as thanks for Gervasius Tilburiensis in the Reign of King Henry the second when the people of England had not been so blessed and obliged as they were afterwards with the numberless Gifts Grants and Liberties which in the successive Reigns of seventeen Kings and Queens after preceding our now King and Soveraign were heaped upon them found oblata presents gifts or offerings to the King to be a well approved Custome and therefore distinguished them into quaedam in rem quaedam in spem some before hand for hopes of future favours and others for liberties or other things given and granted by the King and the Fine Rolles of King John and Henry the third his Son will shew us very many Oblata's or Free-will Offerings of several kinds which were so greatly valued and heeded as King Henry the third and his Barons in or about the 23 year of his Reign which was thirteen or fourteen years after his confirming of Magna Charta did in the bitter prosecution and charge of Hubert de Burgo Earl of Kent and chief Justice of England demand an Accompt de donis xeniis of gifts and presents amongst which Carucagii or carriages were numbred spectantibus ad Coronam appertaining to the Crown And upon that and no other ground were those reasonable Lawes or Customes founded that the King might by the Laws of England grant a Corody which Sir Henry Spelman ex constitut Sicul. lib. 3. Tit. 18. defineth to be quicquid obsonii superiori in subsidium penditur provisions of victuals made for superiors Et ad fundatores Monasteriorum and to the Founders of every Monastry though by the Constitutions of Othobon the Popes Legat in the Reign of King Henry the third the Religious of those houses were forbidden to grant or suffer any to be granted or allowed è communi jure spectabat corrodium in quovis suae fundationis monasterio nisi in libera Eleemosina fundaretur it belonged of common right to grant a Corrody in any Religious houses of their foundation if not founded in Franke Almoigne disposuit item Rex in beneficium famulurom suorum corrodium c. likewise the King might grant to any of his houshold servants a Corrody in any houses of the foundation of the Kings of England and as many were in all by them granted as one hundred and eleaven which that learned Knight conceived to be an argument that so many of the Monasteries were of their foundation Et issint de common droit saith the learned Judge Fitzherbert in his Natura Brevium and also of Common Right the King ought to have a reasonable Pension out of every Bishoprick in England and Wales for his Chaplain untill the Bishop should promote him to a fitting Benefice Which if the compositions for Pourveyances being reduced into contracts and a lawfull custome were or should be no other then gratitudes may be as commendable and necessary as those well approved Examples of thankfulness recorded in holy writ of Abrahams giving King Abimelech Sheep and Oxen
the comfort of the Lands belonging to a Deanery Prebenda or Prebendship of Lands and other Revenues annexed to the Cathedrals many if not most of which with the Deanerles and Prebendships thereunto belonging as the Deanerie and twelve Prebends of Westminster by Queen Elizabeth were of the foundation and gift of the Kings Royal Progenitors Which comfortable and necessary supports of our Bishops administred by their Clergie are ex antiquo and long agoe resembled by some or the like usages in Ireland where the Coloni or Aldiones such as hold in Socage of the Irish Bishops did besides their Rents and Tributes erga reparationes Matricis Ecclesiae quidpiam conferre give something yearly towards the reparation of the Cathedral or Mother Churches and the Herenaci another sort of Tenants so called did besides their annual rent cibarià quaedam Episcopo exhibere bring to the Bishop certain provisions for his Houshold which was very frequent with the Tenants of Lands holden of our English Abbies and Religious Houses by an inquisition in the County of Tirone in anno 1608. it was by a Jury presented upon oath that there were quidam Clerici sive homines literati qui vocentur Herinaci certain learned men of the Clergy who were called Herinaci ab antiquo seisiti fuerunt c. And anciently were seised of certain lands which did pay to the Arch-bishop or Bishop of the Diocess quoddam charitativum subsidium refectiones pensiones annuales secundum quantitatem terrae consuetudinem patriae a dutifull and loving aid and some provisions and pensions according to the quantity of their lands and custome of their Country and the grants of such lands as appeareth by a Deed of the Dean and Chapter of Armach in Anno Domini 1365. to Arthur and William Mac Brin for their lives and the longer liver of them at the yearly rent of a mark and eight pence sterling una cum aliis oneribus servitiis inde debitis consuetis with all other charges and services due and accustomed had in them sometimes a condition of quam diu grati fuerint obedientes so long as they should be gratefull and obedient unto them Wherefore the Barons Nobility and Gentry of England who did lately enjoy those beneficiall Tenures by Knight-service now unhappily as the consequence and greater charges and burdens upon the people will evidence converted as much as an Act of Parliament in the twelfth year of the Reign of his Majesty that now is can doe it into Socage which were at the first only given for service and assistance of their King and Country and their mesne Lords in relation thereunto and have besides the before recited conditions many a beneficiall custome and usage annexed and fixed unto them and at the dissolution of the Abbies and Religious Houses had much of the Lands given and granted unto them and their Heirs in tail or otherwise with a reservation of a Tenth now a great deal below the value can doe no less in the contemplation of their honours dignities and priviledges received from them and many great favours continued unto their Heirs and Successors from Generation to Generation then doe that in the matter of Praeemption Pourveyance or Contribution towards the Composition or serving in of victuals or Provision for his Majesties Royal Houshold and the honor of his House and Kingdome which their Ancestors did never deny The Lord Maiors of London who doe take and re-receive yearly a payment or Tribute called Ale-silver and the Citizens of London who doe claim and enjoy by the Kings Grants Charters or Confirmations a freedom from all â—olls Lastage throughout England besides many other large priviledges and immunities and the Merchants of England and such as trade and trauell through his Ports and over his Seas into forrain parts and are not denied their Bills of Store to free their Trunks and wearing Clothes and other necessaries imported or exported from paying any Custome and other duties which with many other things disguised and made Custome-free under those pretences for which the Farmers of the Customes have usually had yearly allowances and defalcations would amount unto a great part of the peoples pretended damage by the compositions for Royall Pourveyance should not trouble themselves with any complaints or calculations of it when as both Citizens and Merchants can derive their more then formerly great increase of trade and riches from no other cause or fountain then the almost constant â—esidence of the King and Courts of Justice in or near London and the many great priviledges granted unto them and obtained for them by the Kings and Queens of England The Tenants in ancient Demeasne claiming to be free from the payment of Tolls for their own houshold provisions and from contribution unto all wages assessed towards the expences of the Knights of the Shires or Burgesses sent unto the Parliament which Sir Edward Coke believes was in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings Houshold provisions though since granted to other persons and their services turned into small rents now much below what they would amount unto and many Towns and Corporations of the Kingdome the Resiants in the Cinque Ports and Romney Marsh Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colledges and Halls therein and the Colledges of Winton and Eaton claiming to be acquitted from the payment of Subsidies by antient Exemptions may be willing to pay or bear as much as comes to their share in that one of the smallest parts of duty which is not to be refused by such as will fear God and honour the King And all the Subjects of England who enjoy their Common of Estovers in many of the Kings Woods or Forrests Pannage or feeding of Swine with Acorns or fetching of Ferne from thence Priviledges of Deafforrestations Assart lands Pourlieus and Browse wood and have Common of Vicinage and Common appendant not only therein but in most of his Manors by a continuance or custome of the charity or pitty of his Royal Progenitors and where they have no grant to produce for those and many other favours will for refuge and to be sure not to part with it fly to praescription and time beyond the memory of man and suppose that there was a grant thereof because that possibly there might have been one should not think much to let him pertake of some of their thanks and retributions which will not amount to one in every twenty for all the benefits which they have received of his Royal Ancestors or doe yearly receive of him Nor should forget that God Almighty the maker of heaven and earth giver of all good things and bestower of blessings who fed his people of Israel with Quails in the Wilderness where none were bred Manna where none was either before or since and made the Rocks to yeild water did in his Theocraty or Government of them by his Laws and Edicts written
and the greatest of Customes because it was not gained as most of the peoples Customs or Prescriptions were the best of which had no other originall then the continuance of favours of those that bestowed and permitted them to be enjoyed or a neglect of taking or calling for duties untill time had over-run and covered them with that which is now called a Custome or Prescription but were established by a threefold obligation composed of a Right or Duty a very antient Custome backt by the Lawes of God Nature and Nations and a Contract made and continued by the people to their King built upon the best and greatest of considerations which the Prophet David in the 15 Psalm if it had not been beneficiall but to some loss or damage adviseth not to be broken And merited the bettter observance in that Queen Elizabeth did but the year before call into her Mint and reduce unto pure silver the monies which her Father King Henry the eighth had so much debased with a mixture of brass as it was scarcely half the value in silver which made the price of commodities so much or a great deal the dearer and by her Edicts did all she could to bring down the prices in the Markets which then began to swell more then there was any cause for and in her composition and agreement with many or most of the Counties of England and Wales the next year after did but accept of what then they understood might as the learned and judicious Mr. Camden hath informed us justo pretio at a reasonable or Market rate be well afforded And the Lords of Manors who according to the several customes thereof think it not unreasonable to enjoy their Chevagia or Chiefage which Cowel takes to be pecunia Annuâ— data potentiori tutelae patrociniique gratia a small yearly payment paid by Tenants as acknowledgments for favours and help received or to be received and take their reliefs of their Tenants in Socage in some places by custome a years value and in some but half as much and in others more according as their customes vary the least of which in value of money doth twice exceed what it amounted unto formerly enjoy their Free Warrens and Fishings with many other Priviledges and immunities by Grant or Prescription and with the Yeomanry and lower ranks of people can be content to claim the benefit of their Customes de non decimando of paying no Tythes at all for Lands formerly belonging to the Cistercians Knights Templers Hospitlers or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem or of a modus decimandi of paying but a penny or some little yearly summe of money in lieu of all Tithes and make an inheritance of the greatest part of 3845 Impropriations with the Smoke-pennies or Peter or Chimney pence which being formerly paid unto some Abbies and Religious Houses and coming afterwards to the Crown in the Reign of King Henry the eight and granted out again by him are in many places as Appendants unto some Manors paid unto this day And think it no grievance to enjoy them and many other priviledges which wereby Grants or Exemptions by Papal Constitutions designed to Religious and not any Lay uses And the customary services of their Tenants to repair wayes and Bridges contribute to the maintenance of a Priest or Preacher or to the marriage of poor Maids or to carry Milstones some miles distant to their Milnes to doe suit of Court or be Butler Baker or Carver at some Festivals and can notwithstanding all the sometimes tedious Suits in Law of their Tenants who hold by Fines incertain and their complaints cram'd in a great purse made of many little ones attended with staves and ill-smelling shoes and feet travailing for relief to Westminster Hall and the superior Courts of Justice with store of out-cries of grievances and oppressions filling every Alehouse they come in with the lamentable tediously told stories of that which they doe many times but guess to be like them raise their Fines for admittances unto two years present value which amounts unto sixteen or twenty times as much as the antient value and demand and take ten or thirteen shillings an Acre to reduce the Fines incertain to a smaller certainty Can take the Optimum Animal or best horse or beast for a Herriot at the death of their Tenants when it exceeds the value of as much as 40 or 50 or 100 to one of what it was at the Conquest when it was reduced from a greater to that lesser rate and within a month or less after take as much as they can get for an Admittance of the Widdow or Heir of the deceased which in Copihold Estates differs very Little from a Relief and in some places as in Cumberland Westmerland and some adjacent Northern Counties compel them besides their formerly perilous enjoyned services annexed to their Lands to be ready night or day to repell the incursions of their plundering and unruly Scottish Neighbours to pay a thirtieth penny after the rate or assise of their old rents upon every Alienation and a twentieth upon the death or change of a Landlord which were formerly more easie and have been since only raised to those higher rates in regard of a greater value since put upon lands houshold provisions and commodities should not murmur at the small oblations which in no burdensome great or general contributions are to be made unto the King for the maintenance of himself and his Royal Family And the Copiholders who can when they please think themselves happy in their customes of Fines certain which patientia charitate in jus transiâ—runt crept by the charity and sufferance of their Landlords into that which they doe now call Tenant rights when as the lands which they do now hold is in the improved yearly value ten or sixteen or twenty times in many places more then the former yearly value and are by so much beyond the intention either of the Lords or Tenants the Grantors or Grantees when those Fines certain were at the first set or accepted and in those Tenant Rights as they call them and many of their Customes have in many places large Pastures and Meadows of many Acres yearly thrown out at Midsummer or the first day of August or some other time in the Summer or latter end thereof for a Township to inter Common for three quarters of every year or some months and in some places have Common belonging to their Copyholds for paying to the Lord of the Manor yearly as in Grayes Case in Hil. 37 Eliz. a hen five eggs much increased in price since that collateral recompence as it was in that case resolved to be was first taken continued and preserved unto them by the care of the King and his Laws by Inquiries formerly in the Eyres or Circuits de novis consuetudinibus levatis if any oppression or new customs were imposed by their Lords and no sooner complained
for murage or repair of the walls of Towns as Ipswich Harwich Newcastle upon Tine Ludlow c. or Cities as London Norwich York Bristol c. which must of necessity raise the rates of commodities brought thither to be sold and by the same power or authority remit or release them and being granted to many Cities or Towns but for three of seven years or as to London for five years or some other short term since expired is as may be feared under a colour of custome or praescription as yet continued Or being Soveraign of the British seas to take weekly for all Herring taken therein six pence for every Ton and the like for other fish every three weeks either of his own Subjects or forraign Nations or for his Admiral under him to take the tenth of all the Prizes or Ships of his Enemies taken at the Sea and money for Anchorage paid by every Ship for their quiet riding in the river of Thames or any of the Kings Harbours And with as good reason as the Burrow Mealis in Scotland where quilibet Burgensis debet domino Regi pro Burgagio quinque denarios annuatim dicuntur incorporari annexique Fisco patrimonio Regis every Burgess was to pay five pence per annum for his mealis which Sir Henry Spelman interprets to be a Farme appropriated to buy provisions in regiae mensae apparatum for the Kings Table or Houshold and are said to be incorporate and annexed to the Patrimony of the King and his Exchequer Or as the Provost of Edenburgh or other borough Towns in Scotland may take and receive four pence upon every quarter of Malt of ilk Brewster quhe brewes aill all the zeir four pennies and for â—ne halfe zeir twâ— pennies As the Apprisers of flesh are appointed to apprise it at the Kings price ilk dayes of the Markets and to admit the eath of the â—â—sâ—er in that matter And as by the Statutes of King David the second it was ordained that for relief of the inward parts of the Realm quhair woll hes course and quhilks ar burdened with customes and that the remanent parts of the Realm may be made equall with them in all services and burdings It is Statute that certain sommes and quantities of victuall quhareof there is abundance in these utward parts sick as Marts beir and sicklike sall be taken up zeirly at the Chamberlains command to the expenses of the Kings house according to the prices quihilk in auld times used to be taken up in these places Queen Mary the Lord Governour and Lords of secret Counsell havand respect to the great and exorbitant dearth risen upon the will and tâ—me Fowles ordained the prices thereof as 5 s. Scottish the Swan the black Cock and gray hen six pennies twenty of their pennies being but two pence the Woodcock four pennies and the dousâ—n of Laverocks and uthers small birds four pennies c. And by as good reason as King James the sixth his Majesties Grandfather confirmed the Acts of Parliament made by his noble Progenitors for the stanching of dearth of Victuals and setting order and price on all Stuffe and ordained all Earls Lords Barons as well within regality as royalty and their Bailles to landwart and the Provestes and Bailles of all Bâ—rrows and Cities to cause the said Acts to be put to due execution every ane within their boundes and Jurisdiction respective makand and constitutand them Justices to that effect with power to make and appoint Statutes and Ordinances for the special observation of the saidis Acts at every head Court zierly Assigned money and victuals of several Shires and places in Scotland to the keeping of the Castles of Edinburgh Dunbartane Strivilinge and Blacknes Declared the tenths of all Herrings taken in the Scottish Seas to be due unto him as King of Scotland and all infestments and Alienations in few ferme or utherwaies and all dispositions quhatsumever in all time bygane and to cum of the Assise Herring to be nil and of no avail because the said Assise Herring pertanis to the King as ane part of his Customes and annexed property And by as much or a greater warrant or assent of reason as King Henry the 5. of England did in a Patent or Grant of the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland to James de Boteler Earl of Ormond authorise him ad victualia sufficientia necessaria pro expensis hospiâ—ii sui ac Soldariorum suorum in quocunque loco infra terram predictam per Provisores hospitii sui alios ministrossuos unacum Cariagio suâ—ficienti pro eisdem tam inâ—ra libertates quam extra feodo Ecclesie duntaxat excepto pro denariis suis rationabiliter solvend capere providere juxta formam diversorum Statutorum de hujusmodi provisionibus ante haec tempora factorum to take victuals sufficient and necessary for the expences of his Houshold and his Souldiers by his Pourveyors and other Ministers in any place whatsoever in Ireland with carriages sufficient for the same as well within liberties as without the Fees of the Church only excepted at reasonable prises according to divers Statutes made concerning provisions And was so well grounded upon Law and reason as all the succeeding Lord Lieutenants or Deputies of Ireland have ever since not wanted those necessary priviledges to attend their high honourable trusts imployments could so little be parted with in the 19. year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when Sir Henry Sidney was Deputy of Ireland as the Earl of Desmond the Viscount Baltinglas other unquiet spirits refusing to pay the provision or Ceasse as they there called it for the Lord Deputies house the Souldiers in Garrison which the learned Camden saith was exactio rei Annonariae certo pretio provisions to be furnished at a certain rate or price ad alendum proregis familiam militesque praesidiarios for the Lord Lieutenants or Deputies Families the Souldiers in Garrison quasi non exigenda nisi ex authoritate Parliamentaria as not due unless it were ordained by authority of Parliament sending over their complaints into England the Lords of the Privy Council upon the hearing bate thereof committed them and those which remained in Ireland and had sent them were in like manner imprisoned untill they should submit to the payment and furnishing thereof for that it appeared by the Records of that Kingdome to be antiquitus institutum an antient constitution jus quoddam Majestatis a part of the right appertaining to the soveraign Power Praeeminence or Kingly Praerogative quae legibus non subjicitur nec tamen legibus adversatur ut Jurisprudentes judicarunt which being not against the Laws was not to be subjected to them saith that worthy Historian the Queen then only ordering the Lord Deputy to use as much moderation as he could in taking those Provisions or Pourveyances And as
Elizabeth if they stood upon equall terms with him and owed him neither gratitude allegiance or subjection That he who is so great a looser by the change alteration of times and his own his Royal Progenitors bounties and indulgences might howsoever be allowed to be a little gainer in that one particular of the Compositions for his Pourveyances for in every thing else he is abundantly a very great looser and ought as well to take an advantage by it as the Clergie and Impropriators of England doe by the rise and encrease of their Tithes and impâ—ovement of their Glebes and are sure to be gainers by the difference in the value and price of commodities when as they sell their corn at the highest rates and make the improvement of their Glebes to follow the rise of money and the Markets And may take it to be no Paradox or stranger to any mans understanding or belief that the King who by his Lawes hath ordered that reasonable prises and rates should be taken for victuals and houshold provisions for himself and all his people and if his Sheriffs Justices of Peace Clerks of the Markets and the Lords and Stewards of Court-leets had but imitated the care of their Predecessors in the execution of the trusts committed unto them by their Soveraign and his Laws or of the Sheriffs in the reign of King Henry the third when as the King by his Writ being petitioned to give the Sheriffe of Bedford a power to dispence with the Vintners in the Town of Bedford for selling wine above the rates assize doth it in these words Rex c. Vic. Bed salutem Quia Villa de Bedeford distat a quolibet portu maris duas dietas tibi praecipimus quod permittas Vinitar Bed Sextarium vini Franc. vendere pro 8. denar sextarium vini Andeg. Wascon de Blanc pro 10 d. non obstante c. Teste R. c. allowing them to take for a pint and a half if the Sextarie was then accompted to be no greater a measure of wine 7 d. and for the like measure of white wine of Anjou and Gascoine 10 d. And had not as they doe daily too much neglected the execution of the Laws and laid by their duties to God their King and Country and by being over wakefull and diligent to improve their estates and private interests taken a Nap or fit of sleeping in point of time farre beyond that of the seven notorious Sleepers might at this day have been out of the reach of the causeless murmur of those who as they were seduced and fooled by Oliver and his Associates in the greatest of iniquities can make a Non causa to be a cause of their Complaints and of a grievance to themselves when as they and many of their fellow Subjects are and have been the only and immediate causes of it and if rightly considered is a reall grievance to the King and to all that buy more then they sell. And that if the King and his Laws had been as they ought to have been better obeyed and observed in such a Land or Kingdome as England is which is justly accompted to be blest with so much peace and plenty and such an over-plus of all things good and pleasant as well as necessary for the sustenance of the People or Inhabitants thereof as a deer year is not heard of above once at the most in ten or twenty years but many very cheap ones The rates or prices agreed upon by the Counties in the fourth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth would have been enough and sufficient or more then enough if the Acts of Parliament of 25 H. 8. ca. 2. to suppress the enhaunce of the then Market rates which may well be supposed to have been much cheaper then what it was in Anno 4 of Elizabeth and the Statutes of incerti temporis or King Henry the third 3 4 Ed. 6. ca. 19. 5 Ed. 6. ca. 14. against Forestallers had been duly put in execution And that the 12. Counties bordering upon London and adjacent as Middlesex Essex Kent Surrey Sussex Hertford Buckingham Berkshire Bedford Oxford Cambridge and Hâ—ntington Shires making no small gains by the vent and rise of their provisions and commodities and an high improvement of their Lands beyond all other Counties and Parts of England would if the Markets had been regulated and kept down to such just and reasonable prices as might have been well enough afforded have for want of their now great rates for victuals and commodities night and day sent unto London that greatest belly and mouth of the Kingdome and their racking or improving of their Lands been constrained to let fall and diminish their rates and prices and follow the regulating of the Markets and make their prices and rates to be conformable to the Laws and plenty of the Kingdome which would have brought unto them and their Estates a greater or more then supposed damage many times and very far exceeding the pretended losses of serving in their proportions of the Kings provisions as they were agreed upon And if this shall not be believed without experiments or demonstrations they may be quickly brought to assent unto that which will certainly pâ—ove to be a truth that if the King should as King Henry the second keep his Court and Parliament for a time at â—larendon in Wiltshire or as King Edward the first did keep his Court and Parliament in Denbigh-shire at Ruthland too often mistaken and called Rutland or at Carnarvon in Wales or at York where whilest he was busie and imployed in his Warres against the Scots he kept his Terms and Court for seven years together or as many of the former Kings did keep their Christmas and other great yearly Festivals sometimes at Nottingham other times at Worcester Lincoln and other places far remote from London And as the Sun yearly diffuseth his liâ—ht and heat in his journey through the Tropicks some at one time and some at another unto all parts of the world or as the blood in the body naturall daily circulates visits and comforts all the parts of it should enrich comfort most of the parts of his Kingdom with the presence and influence of his Courts and residence Those rates and prises in the Composition for Pourveyances would rather prove to be too high a rate and allowance then too little As it happened to be in Anno 1640. when the late King and Martyr was enforced to be with his Court and Army about Newcastle upon Tine on the borders and confines of Scotland where the cheapness of victualls and other provisions at the Market rates in those parts fell to be very much under the Kings rates or allowance according to the Compositions for his Pourveyance made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth which the Inhabitants and People thereabouts understood so well as a great store and farre more pâ—ovisions being daily brought in at those rates then
of the King Arch-Bishops Earls Barons and the most eminent men of the Kingdome with candles or torches burning in their hands in Westminster Hall denouncing excommunication direfull curses and Anathema's against the Infringers thereof by the candles or torches flung upon the ground and wishing that so their souls might burn in hell And the same Magna Charta being by thirty Parliaments since confirmed and accompted to be part of the peoples Birthright It can be no less then the greatest of reason that those his Liberties and Priviledges mentioned and agreed therein should be as well preserved unto him as those of the people unto them and with the greater reason in that his were alwaies his own and many of theirs but newly granted them And that he was not in the confirming of Magna Charta without some care of preserving his own rights and priviledges as appeareth by his Writ or Proclation better in former times then now obeyed sent unto the Sheriff of York in these words Cum probis hominibus nostris libertates concesserimus per Cartas nostras in quibus continetur that which we have of that excellent Law and Charter being by many learned men believed to be but a Transcript quòd nihilomninus salve sint omnibus libertates liberae consuetudines quas prius habuerunt libertates nostras de quibus maxime specialis mentio in Cartis praedictis facta non est nobis volumus inviolabiliter observari unde tibi districtè praecipimus quatenus omnes libertates nostras usitatas tempore domini Johannis Regis patris nostri quas quidem nobis non subtrahimus ex speciali mentione facta in praedictis Cartis nobis facias firmiter observari nullius obstante reclamatione sicut usitatae fuerunt temporibus antecessorum nostrorum maxime tempore predicti patris nostri wherein he having granted that their Liberties which they had before should not be prejudiced commanded him that all his Liberties and Priviledges which were not specially mentioned and granted away in those Charters should be specially observed notwithstanding any allegation to the contrary as they were used and accustomed in the times of his Ancestors and especially in the Reign of his Father King John For the reason which gives Aaron and his Sons the Clergie their Tythes and Pourveyance should perswade the people to think the Composition for Pourveyance to be no burden when as it is as short of the Tithes as one unto a hundred And it should be reason if any thing can be reason and it be not fled after Astraea into the upper Regions and left some counterfeit and false resemblance instead of it that all or many or most of the males and men of England and such as in the Court Leets and elswhere have taken the Oath of Allegiance which all the men of England and their generations are so born under as by the Laws and Customes of England it is and ought to be as Connaturall and Congaeniall unto them and the Oath of Supremacy to maintain and defend the Kings Rights and Jurisdictions and all the Citizens and Freemen of London and other Cities and Corporations of England taking an Oath to the like purpose all the Freeholders of the Kingdome holding of him immediately swearing in their homage and fealty to doe him service and be faithfull unto him all the Copiholders holding of him swearing unto him their Fealty and all the Freeholders and such as hold of their mesne Lords by Knights service or Socage in their homage and fealty unto them excepting their allegiance and duty to the King should have as great a care not to deny him those parts of his Jurisdictions Praeeminences and just rights as they would not to perjure and forswear themselves or bring the curses and woes attending such grievous sins or the breach of that part of Magna Charta upon the heads of them and their posterities which a Kings assent to any Acts of Parliament for the taking away or extinguishing such individua annexa Coronae jure diadematis potestatis atque authoritatis inseparable parts of Majesty and the Rights of his Crown Regal power and Prerogative If any Law or Sanction could enable him to that which all Laws both Civil and Common doe deny will not be sufficient to acquit or discharge for although the dispensation of Oathes by those to whom and for whose benefit they were made be in some cases allowed by the Canon Law and some Roman Casuists doe believe that violation of oathes have been well dispensed withall by those for whose interest and benefit they were made it will not be hard to determine in the greatest veneration of Parliaments which are to be obeyed actively or passively and of whose acts no man is so much as to think evil that Laws of that kind when they shall be by importunities and necessities made or enacted against the Lawes of God and right reason cannot give an absolution for oathes violated nor if they could be excused for the not payment of those most necessary duties to their King and common Parent in foro humano in this world will ever be excused in foro animae in the next And if the Parliament in Anno 18 Eliz. took it to be for the good of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge that the Colleges Halls and Houses for Students therein should receive the third part of their Rents in Corn and Mal◠and ordered them so to doe and that their Tenants who had then have since such comfortable Bargains and Leases under them as every man is glad to purchase or get them and inroll themselves for their Tenants wherein if a deer year comes once in 7 or 10 years and their Bargains happen to be so much the worser as the prises which are to be ruled according as the like was sold the Market day next before the Rent day exceeds the former or cheaper prices the yearly profit notwithstanding of their Lands being alwaies more then the Rent and six or nine cheap years to one may pacifie their complaints or grudgings the King certainly may expect as much or more care to be had of him and his house-keeping as there was of the Universities Colledges and Halls and not to be denied in his particular of Pourveyance or compositions for it that which every man thinks reasonable in his own Nor to be made so great a sufferer under those heaps of mischiefs and inconveniencies which by the great and excessive rates and prises put upon victuals and household provisions daily more and more encreasing doe assault and lessen his too smal a Revenue Neither should be rendred more helpless and in a worser condition then the Lords of Leets Sheriffs in their Turns Justices of Peace in their Counties Magistrates in Cities and Towns Corporate Judges in their Circuits the University of Oxford who hath liberty to punish the breakers of the Assise of Bread Beer and Ale and
promises of gratitude and thankfulness after they are had and received to have given him in perpetuity as much or a great deal more than ever the Pâ—aeemption Pourveyance or Composition for it would have amounted unto and imprecated curses and woes as many or more then the plagues of Egypt to have fallen upon them and their after generations neglecting it for it is ever to be understood that the Subsidies Assessements and other Ayds given to the Kings and Princes of England by their Subjects and People in Parliament or at any time taken or otherwise received by them have been more with respect unto their own particular Estates included in the safety of his greater and his granting them free and general pardons not only for offences criminal committed one against another but for offences committed against the King and incroachments and intrusions upon the royal Revenves and for his Royal protection and defending of them and preserving them in their peace and plenty then as for any retributions or acknowledgements of their favours shewed to any or many in particular There being as much reason for the King to expect and receive the presents or acknowledgements of his people as it was for King Solomon to take his presents sine quibus saith the great and excellently learned Grotius Reges Orientis adire non solebant without which the people were accustomed not to come unto their Kings and continued long after to be a custome as may be understood by the Kings or Wise men coming out of the East to worship and adore our blessed Saviour at his birth and is at this day not disused in the Africk and Asiatick Countries And did not nor ought to dull or lessen the alacrity and payment of other necessary duties and tributes when as Solomon besides the provisions of his Houshold brought and served in every year by a rate and what he had of the Governors of the Countrey which if they were not provisions or conducing thereunto might be some other Tributes and did receive Gold and Tributes or Customs of the Merchant men of the Trafâ—ick of the Spice Merchants For if it hath been reason every where and amongst all Nations where either subjection and duty to superiors or humane prudence had any entertainment or abode to take as much care as may be of general and publick safeties when the safeties of particulars are included and comprehended in them and to be willing in the common or publick calamities of a Warre already fastned upon them or hope to prevent them readily to contribute to their Princes or permit them to take provisions sometimes without any price at all and at other times but at reasonable prises in order to their preservation or repelling of evils or inconveniences which would a great deal more molest or trouble them or to give him or his Army free quarter as the men of Israel Juda did unto David their King or bring or send victuals and provisions to his Camp or marching Army and can think it no ill husbandry though they have but the day before paid contribution to the Enemy had much of their Cattel and Provisions taken away by the Enemy a Husband Brother or Sonne killed women and children slain and butchered and the bloody and dreadfull Scenes or Pageants of Warre every where to be seen heard of or lamented or to do as the Danes did lately to the unjustly invading Swedes give money to keep their houses from spoiling or burning It can be no less then reason to contribute something yearly to a King who not only keeps us from those and many other woes and miseries by land and by Sea but daily heapes and multiplies his blessings upon us in protecting and defending us and not only gave many of us our Vineyards but procureth us all to sit quietly under the shadow pleasure content and fruitfulness of our owâ— vines and by his care at home and abroad preserves us and our Estates in an envied peace and plenty And be the more willing to allow him his Praeemption and Compositions for Pourveyance which amounts not unto the two hundreth or five hundreth part and sometimes not the one thousand part or more of the expence and losses which warre and the many times not to be avoided unruliness and spoil thereof may bring upon them Unless like Ulisses Companions transformed into Swine by the accursed charms of a Cirâ—e or inticements of selfish or foolish interests for the maintenance of our vices and luxuries we should think it to be either Religion Duty Conscience Reason or Prudence to take all we can from a King who is the Guardian of all his people and a nursing Father to the Church which his Royal Progenitors Kings of England were so long agoe accustomed to rank amongst their principall cares as in the 23. year of the Reign of King Edward the first it was alledged in a pleading and allowed for law right reason that Ecclesia est infra aetatem in custodia Regis qui tenetur jura haereditates ejusdem manu tenere defendere the Church is as an Infant under age and in the custody of the King who is bound to defend and maintain its rights estates and hereditaments who governs by no Arbitrary will or power but by our known Lawes which are so excellent beyond all the Laws of other Nations so rational so binding and transcendent so carefully watching over the peoples liberties and proprieties such a Buckler Guard and strong Tower of defence unto them and poenal to all that shall but execute any unjust or illegall commands tending to the violation of them not to be denied by the most seditious and undutifull Subjects when they shall but be pleased to be friends and at peace with their reason and understanding as if by any divine punishment proceeding from an iratum Numen an angry and just God after ages should find England to be governed by a King or Prince as cruel as Nero or Commodus and as arbitrary and unruly as some of the Roman or Eastern Emperors have been there cannot untill the sword shall have cut the strings of our Magna Charta and silenced or banished the Laws be any oppression or evil happen to the people without the Balm of Gilead and remedies as quickly brought and found out by our Lawes as there can be any necessities or occasions of them Wherefore we should not like people altogether transported and carried out of humanity into a Lycanthropia or woolfish nature think it to be rationall honest or becoming us instead of every mans saying Domine quid retribuam Lord what shall I render thee for all thy benefits to make it the greatest of our care imployment and business not only to take from the King but keep all we can from him And if they would or could tell how to doe it without the just reproach of disloyalty dishonesty and villany should not do it in his
Praeemption Pourveyance or Compositions for it when it concerns him so much and so nearly in his honour and the daily bread and sustenance of himself and his Royal Family when he expendeth for want of his Pourveyances or compositions for them yearly more then he did when he enjoyed them as may appear by a just accompt and calculation lately made by his Majesties special command no less then seventy three thousand six hundred seaven pounds fourteen shillings and seaven pence in his Houshold and Stable provisions besides the extraordinaries of Carriages for his Navy Provisions and Ammunition and what would have been added unto it if he had as other Kings or Princes gone his Sommer Progress when the want of it is so unbecomming a King and the aspect of it when he had it was in CHAP. IV. The right use of the Praeemption and Pourveyance and Compositions for them SO lovely and very well imployed and canont by rules of truth reason and understanding be gainsaid by the most disffaected and worst of Subjects when they shall but please to take into their consideration That the magnificence and bounty of a King in his house and the method and manner used therein is no small part of the increase continuance and support of his power reverence honor and awe which are so necessary and essentiall to the good and well-being of a King and his People as they cannot be wanted but are and should be the adjuncts and concomitants of the Royall or Princely dignity and like Hypocrates Twins subsist in one another which the wisdome of the Antients as well as modern and all Nations and People under the Sun and even the naked wild and savage part of them have by a Jure Gentium and eternall Law of Nature derived from divine instinct allowance and patern in the infancy of the world and through all the times and ages of it so well approved as they could never think fit to lay aside or disuse the practise of it for it cannot be by any rule of reason supposed that the fifth Commandement being at the Creation of mankind after Gods own Image written in the heart of him and all his after Generations and justly accompted to be comprehended in those Precepts of the Law of Nature and the righteous Noah with which the world was blessed as well before the flood as afterwards and before the Children of Israel had received the Decalogue or ten Commandements in the dread and astonishment of Gods appearance to Moses in Mount Sinai there was not a distinction at the first and all along holden and kept betwixt Parents and Children and Kings or common Parents and their Subjects in the fear and reverence of Children to Parents and of Subjects to their Kings and Soveraigns when as Noah though preaching to the old world in vain and to no purpose as they made it was so mighty a man and so well beloved and observed as he could by Gods direction cause to be brought into the Ark two of every sort of the species of all irrationall living creatures in order to their preservation for the Generations which were to survive the threatned deluge which without some more then ordinary extent of power could not be compassed by him if he had been but an ordinary man or but one of the common people who hearkened not unto his preaching and had no better an opinion of his Ark or Floating-house then as a Dilirium or his too much adoring the Images of his own phantasie Pharaoh King of Egypt having those requisites and decorums which the Kings and Princes of those early dayes had appertaining to their Royall super-eminence and dignities could upon Josephs extraordinary deserts array him in fine linnen and silks put a gold chain about his neck make him to ride in his second Charriot and cause a Cry or Proclamation to be made before him that every man should bow the knee David that was but the Sonne of Jesse the Bethlemite and once a Keeper of his Fathers few sheep as his envying brother told him in the Wilderness or Common and was taken as God himself said from the Sheep-coat would not when he came to be King omit the dues and regalities which belonged unto Kings though he could in a gratefull acknowledgment say unto God Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hither but could think it comely and fitting for him as a King to dwell in a house of Cedars And King Solomon his Son who expending 7 years in the building of the Temple and House of God was thirteen years in building of his own house and another magnificent and stately house of the Forrest of Lebanon and another for the Queen his Wife which was the Daughter of Pharaoh had 300 shields of beaten gold three pound to every shield put into his house of the Forrest his sumptuous Throne of Ivory over-laid with the best gold the like whereof was not in any Kingdome drinking vessels and all the vessels of Gold in that house and kept that state and order in his Tables in the sitting of his servants at meat the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparrel and his Cup-bearers as the Queen of Sheba coming unto him with a very great Train was so much astonished thereat and the house that he had built as there was no more spirit in her and confessed that what she had seen with her own eyes was more by half then what was told her in her own Land All which being allowed by God as necessary honors for Kings conservations of respects and allurements to the obedience and esteem which were to be paid and performed by the people were not put in the Catalogue of that Prince and great Master of wisdomes failings or not walking in the wayes of God or doing that which was right in his eyes and keeping his Statutes and Judgements as his Father David did Neither were those Royal and great Feasts made long after by Ahasuerus which reigned from India unto Ethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty Provinces to his Princes and Servants the Nobles and Princes of his Provinces for one hundre◠〈◊〉 eighty daies Or the state of that mighty King whe◠〈◊〉 shewed the honour of his Excellent Majesty when as white green and blue Hangings were fastned with cords of fine linnen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble with Beds of gold and silver upon a pavement of red blue white and black marble and gave them drink in vessels of gold according to the state of the King put under any note or character of blame But those and other due respects have so alwaies attended the world and the good order and government of it under Monarchy and Kings and Princes through all the changes and chances thereof as it may be taken to be as universall a Law of Nature and Custome or Nations as the duty and honor of
many of them who having racked their Tenants to the utmost can leave their Ancestors great and stately houses in the Country as if they had been lately infected with the plague or were haunted with some Devils or Hobgoblins and employ their expences which would have been more honourably laid out in hospitality in treatments of two or three hundred pounds at a time some of our prodigal Gentry expending fifty threescore or an hundred pounds in a Suit of Apparrel can give it away after twice or thrice wearing to a Pimp Sicophant or flattering Servant and lose two hundred or five hundred pounds in a night at Dice or Cards give a hundred pounds for a needle work Band and expend two hundred pounds per annum for Periwigs and all the racked Revenue either laid out by themselves or their wives who vie who shall spend most in the wicked and vain pursuits of a detestable luxury and as if they held their Lands not as formerly by Knight service but by Lady service and their Ancestors had taken pains to leave them estates to play the mad-men withall do make sin the only Errand and employments of their lives and conversations and by their prodigal expences and confining themselves to some few dishes of meat dressed at the Common Cooks in London do leave their Foot-boys and Servants so little of it as they are many times constrained to be glad with the bones and scraps which would have been better bestowed upon Beggars and have reason enough to believe that their Masters can doe no miracles nor multiply loaves of bread or fishes But our Nobility and Gentry demeaned themselves in a more honorable noble and Christian way as may be understood by that of Thomas Earl of Lancasters expences in house-keeping in the Reign of King Ed. 2. when money was scarcer than now it is and yet the account from Michaelmas in the 7. year of the Reign of that King unto Michaelmas in the 8. year of his Reign being but for one year was in the Buttery Pantry and Kitchin three thousand four hundred and five pounds And there was paid for 6800 Stock-fishes so called and for dried Fishes as Lings Haberdines c. 41 l. 6 s. 7 d. for one hundred eighty four Tonnes and one Pipe of Clarret wine and one Tonne of white wine 104 l. 17 s. 6 d. gave costly Liveries of Furres and Purple to Barons Knights and Esquires and paid in that year 623 l. 15 s. 5 d. to divers Earles Barons Knights and Esquires for Fees The house-keeping of the Nobility being not then mean or ignoble when in the fourteenth year of that Kings Reign Hugh Spencer the elder was by Inquisition found to have been possessed of at his several Houses or Manors 28000 Sheep 1000 Oxen and Steers 1200 Kine with their Calves 2000 Hogs 300 Bullocks 40 Tons of Wine 600 Bacons 80 Carcases of Martilmas Beef 600 Muttons in the Larder and 10 Tons of Sider Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick in the Reign of King Henry the fifth had in his house oftentimes six Oxen eaten at a Breakfast and every Tavern was full of his meat and he that had any acquaintance in his house might have there so much sodden and roste as he could prick and carry upon a long Dagger Cardinal Woolsey Arch-Bishop of York in the Reign of King Henry the eighth kept no small house when as his Master Cook in the Privy Kitchin went daily in Velvet and Satten with a chain of Gold about his neck had two Clerks of the Kitchin a Surveyor of the Dresser a Clerk of the Spicery four Yeomen of the ordinary Scullery four Yeomen of the silver Scullery two Yeomen of the Pastery and two Pastery men under them in the Scalding house a Yeoman and two Grooms In the Buttery two Yeomen Grooms and two Pages In the Pantery two Yeomen and in the Waferie two Yeomen Nicholas West Bishop of Ely in the year 1532. in the 23 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth kept continually in his house one hundred Servants giving to the one halfe of them 53 s. 4 d. a piece then an allowance for a Gentleman Servant but now by an unreasonable and illegall rise and exaction of servants wages not the halfe of a Carter or Ploughmans wages and to the other 40 s. a piece and to every one of his Servants four yards of broad Cloth for his Winter Gown and for his Summer Coat three yards and a half and daily gave at his gate besides bread and drink warm meat for two hundred poor people Edward Earl of Derby in the Reigns of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth had 220 men in Checque Roll fed sixty eight aged persons twice every day besides all comers appointed thrice a week for his dealing dayes and every good Friday gave unto two thousand seven hundred poor men meat drink and money The Lord Cromwell in the declyning times of charity as Mr. John Stow well observed served twice every day at his gaâ—â— two hundred poor people with bread meat and drink sufficient all the Gentry making it to be their honor in their lesser orbes to measure their Actions by those as good and honorable patterns And proportionable to their hospitality and the state and dignity of our then Nobility were the numbers of their Servants in their houses at home or in their journies or riding abroad many of the Knights Gentlemens Sons of England making it to be the best of their breeding education and way to preferment to serve or retain unto them insomuch as notwithstanding the Statute made against giving of Liveries or Badges 1 R. 2. cap. 7. and the suspicion which some of our Kings and Princes and King Henry the seventh had of their greatness and popularities the great so called Earl of Warwick in the Reign of King Henry the sixt rode with six hundred men in red Jackets embroidered with ragged staves before and behind Thomas Audley Lord Chancellor of England usually rode with many Gentlemen before him with coats guarded with velvet and chains of gold and his Yeomen following after him in Liveries not guarded William Paulet Marquess of Winchester did ride with a great attendance in Liveries and gave great reliefe at his gate and Edward Duke of Somerset did the like John de vere Earl of Oxford in the Reign of Queen Mary notwithstanding the rigour of the Law against Liveries and Reteiners which King Henry the seventh did so turn against one of his highly deserving Ancecestors as it cost him a fine of ten or fifteen thousand marks was accustomed to ride from his Castle of Hedingham in Essex to his City House at London Stone with eighty Gentlemen in tawny velvet Liveries or Coats and Chains of Gold about their necks before him and one hundred tall Yeomen in the like Livery of Cloth following him with the cognisance of the Blew Bore embroidered on their left shoulder Which being the custome of the good
preserve and increase their Husbands estates not to waste or destroy them would if they might injoy their spending humors in the wasteful course of their lives be able to consume the value of all or the greatest part of the Lands and Estates in a County But however such kind of people shall so misuse their estates and Talents our Kings Princes being to guide their Actions by higher more transcendent rules then any of their Subjects did in the better times of vertue and Hospitality are not certainly to be restrained in the magnificence and state of their House-keeping nor to have the means whereby they should do it diverted or diminished when as Alexander the Great answered some that â—ound fault with the greatness of his gift or bounty to a mean man The gifts of Kings are not altogether to be proportioned according to the men who receive it but of the King that giveth it and as the Duke of Savoy said unto King Henry the fourth of France when he found him unwilling to grant or remit unto him the Marquisate of Saluces Kings do wrong the greatness of their courage if they shall not give great things For if there were no necessity of a largeness of heart and expences in Hospitality in the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation they would not be good Subjects to blame it in their King nor honorers of him unless they should as they ought and are enjoyned by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy maintain and defend his Honor and Jurisdictions who by the preeminency of his Imperial Dignity is not to want that which should help to support and adorn it when as to that and the preservation of his people who are to subâ—ist and be protected by his welfare honor and happiness there will be a real and very great CHAP. V. Necessity that the King should have and enjoy his Ancient Right of Pourveyance or Compositions for them FOr that there is and should be always a necessity to observe the Laws of God Nature and Nations right reason and the Laws and reasonable Customes of England and of honoring and obeying the King and keeping him from mischiefs and inconveniencies and that the members of the body Politick should as every part of the body natural doth be willing to assist and contribute unto the good and well being of the head and better part of it And although that sin the fruitful parent of all our evils and miseries be not in numero eligibilium or to be put within the pleas of necessity yet goodness vertue and the duties of holy life are propter se expetibilia for their real benefits and excellencies to be desired and thirsted after as the Hart panteth and thirsteth after the water brooks And it would be neither wisdom nor goodness in the people to subject the King to an yeerly loss of seventy three thousand six hundred seven pounds fourteen shillings and seven pence which he did the last year loose in his house-keeping by the want of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and by the excessive Rates and Prices of Provisions for his houshold which were put upon him by the avarice and ill custome of such as sold or furnished them besides his greater then formerly charge of Carts and other parts of the Royal Pourveyance and drive him thereby into wants of money which may either cause him to be more sparing then he would be otherwise in his Royal favors bounty indulgences and Charity to his people or to seek after and take those many legal and just advantages to support himself in his Kingly Office which the Law affords and cannot be denyed him or give a greater liberty or attention then otherwise he would to his necessities or the designs or invention of those who by finding out ways of supply to an over-burdened and insufficient Royal Revenue may shew the people their errors in the denyal of just rights and duties and by putting him to inconveniencies exceedingly increase and multiply their own and that it would be much better to imitate the prudence of Abigail who to make some recompence to Davids keeping safe all that appertained to her husband Nâ—bal so that nothing was missing whilst he was a wall unto him and his people by night and by day made haste and took two hundred Loaves two Bottles of Wine five Sheep ready dressed five measures of parched Corn an hundred Clusters or Lumpes of Raisins and two hundred Cakes of Figgs and intreated him to accept of the blessing or present which she had brought unto him then the indiscretion ingratitude and folly of her Husband Nabal and consider that even the Beasts of the Forrest would think themselves more happy and safe when the Lyon shall have his Food and Dyet provided for him and his family then that he and the young Lyons should roar for hunger and that it would be better for the Shephard to bring him a Lambe or two of the Flock then to enforce him in the extremity of hunger to come and take away three times as many more and carry to his Den. That the Turks may as they have for many ages past rejoyce in the foolish covetousness of the Citizens of Constantinople whose generations may curse and abominate their selfishness and then supposed wisdom in denying their Emperor money and means to defend them bewail the loss of Greece and weep unpittied for their children when they are by the command of that grand Tyrant of the Mahometan Empire taken from them and driven like heards of Cattle and Flocks of Sheep never more to know or remember their parents or be of the Christian Religion to his Serraglio where the Males are bred up in the service of his wars or civil affairs and many of their daughters made to be his Concubines And the French may lament their ill usage of their King Charles the seventh in his great extremities in refusing necessary Aids to resist the successes of our English Conquering forefathers which brought the Pesantry and lower ranks of that â—ince Gabelled and over Salted people not only to their present miseries and that fertility of Taxes which is since most fatally rivetted and entailed upon them but the loss of all their liberties Experience having told our Progenitors how much the necessities and wants of some of our Kings and Princes have heretofore given way to the excursions of some of their servants and Ministers upon the rights and liberties of the people which made the Lords and Commons in Parliament frequently in sundry Ages and Parliaments past to take a great care for the support and honor of their House-keeping the preserving of the Kings Rights and Revenues and the punishment of such as were any cause of the waste or diminishing of it And that a supply of the Kings wants or for the payment of his debts could never yet nor can be so Arithmetically made or proportioned either as to what was past or to come as
cujus effectus est necessarius nisi aliunde impediatur could not be so the sole or proper cause of it as if not otherwise hindered it could not want its necessary effect CHAP. VII That the supposed plenty of money and Gold and Silver in England since the Conquest of the West Indies by the Spaniards hath not been a cause of raising the prices of food and victuals in England BUt will upon a due examination be too light in the Ballanee of Truth and Reason and deserve a place in the Catalogue of vulgar Errors For that the rise of Silver in its value or denomination by certain gradations or parts in several Ages from twenty pence the ounce by King Henry the sixth by his prerogative to thirty pence and between his Raign and that of Queen Elizabeth to forty pence and after to forty five pence and after to sixty pence ours being of a finer standard mixture or Allay then that of France the united Belgicque Provinces or the haâ—se or Imperial Cities of Germany and is now as high as five shillings and a penny the ounce comes far short of the now or then enhaunce of victuals and commodities and makes so large a disproportion as the abundance of that could not be probably the cause of the dearth of victuals and all manner of Commodities for that the plenty of those bewitching and domineering mettals of Gold and Silver supposed to be betwixt the Times of the discovery and subduing of the Indian Mines in the Raign of our King Henry the seventh which was about the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and five and the middle of the Raign of King Edward the sixth when as those Irritamenta malorum American riches and the alurements of them did not in the time of Charles the fifth Emperor who out-lived our King Henry the eight amount unto for his account any more then five hunddred thousand Crowns of Gold and with that and what came into Europe to the Spanish Merchants Accompts our English havâ—ng not then learnt the way to the West Indies or to search the unknown passages of the unmerciful Ocean could not have so great an influence upon England which was no neer neighbor to the Indies as to cause that dearth of Victuals all commodities which was heavily complained of in the raign of King Edward the sixth and if it had there would not have been any necessity of King Henry the 8. embasing or mixing with Copper so much as he did the Gold and Silver Coin of the Nation or that the price of the ounce of Silver should be raised betwixt the Raign of King Henry the 7. and the middle of the raign of Queen Elizabeth to sixty pence or five shillings the ounce and though it must be granted that the raising of the ounce of Silver by King Henry the 8. or King Edward the 6. to five and forty pence and afterwards by some of his successors to sixty pence and the making of more pence out of an Ounce then was formerly might be some cause of the enhaunce of the price of victuals and commodities And that some of our Gallants or Gentlemen of these times forgetting the laudable fâ—ugality of their ancestors who had otherwise not have been able to have leâ—t them those Lands estates which do now so elevate their Poles â—ay by coiting their mony from them as if they were weary of it many times ignorantly give out of their misused abundance more mony or as much again as a thing is worth or not having money to play the fools withall in the excess of gluttony or apparel or the pursuite of their other vices may sometimes by taking them upon day or trust give three or four timâ—s more then the commoditys would be sold to another for ready money the seller being many times never paid at all and if he should reckon his often attendance and waiting upon such a customer to no other purpose but to tire himself and never get a peny of his money would have been a greater gainer if he had given him his wares or commodityes for nothing and if after many yeers he should by a chance meet with his money looseth more by his interest then the principal amounted unto Yet if Parliaments which have been composed of the collected wisdom of the Nation and their Acts and Statutes which have been as they are understood to be made with the wisdom and universal consent of the people of England tanta solemnitate and with so great solemnity as Fortescue in the Raign of King H. 6. and the Judges in Doctor Fosters Case in 12. Jac. Regis do say they are may be credited the plenty of Gold and Silver was never alleaged or believed to be a cause of the dearness of Victuals and provisions When as the Statute of Herring made in the thirty fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the third when the Trade of Clothing was in a most flourishing condition such a Trade necessarily inducing conferring some plenty of money declares the cause of the dearness of Herring to be because that the Hostes of the Town of great Yarmouth who lodged the Fishers coming there in the time of the Fair would not suffer the Fishers to sell their Herrings nor to meddle with the sale of the same but sell them at their own will as dear as they will and give the Fishers that pleaseth them so that the Fishers did withdraw themselves to come there and the Herring was set at a greater dearth then there was before and that men outvied and overbid each other For if the many accidents concurring to the enhauncing of the price of any thing or commodity beyond its ordinary and intrinsicque worth value shall be rightly considered as famine the unseasonableness of the year or harvest blasts or Mildews of Corn transportation fear of an approaching famine keeping Corn and provisions from Markets and hoarding them up eâ—ther for the people 's own use or to catch an opportunity of the highest rates the scarcity or surpassing excellency of it obstructions which wars policy or controversies of Princes or neighbor Nations one with or against another may put upon it a general Murrain or Mortality of Cattel Inundations of waters great store of provision or foder for Cattle or a gentle Winter the charge and burden of a new Tolle or Taxe a present necessity to have the thing desired to be bought or had which the crafty and covetous seller hath taken notice of the importunity of an affection to have it although it cost a great deal more then the worth of it or the conveniency for one more then another which may recompence the damage in giving too much for it or more then was otherwise needful making it to be a good bargain for that particular person time or place which would not be so for others and the Market people imitating one anothers high demands
or avarice by taking advantage of some particular persons folly or over-bidding and keeping up the excessive rates of the Market to the same or a more unreasonable price and not being willing to let them fall again to a lower price though there be plenty and reason enough to do it unlawful combinations and confederacies of Trades men to raise their prices or cause their wares to be made Slight or insufficient unconscionable adulterating of Commodities and making them seem what they are not to raise the greater prices evil Artifices of Forestallers of the Markets Ingrossers and Regrators who for their own ungodly gains can make a dearth and scarcity in the midst of plenty and like Caterpillars spoil and devour the Hopes of the years fertility the Landlords racking of rents and the price of all manner of houshold provisions and other things raised by the Tenants to enable them to pay them an universal pride and vanity of the Nation and enhaunce of prices to support them plunder miseries and desolations of War numberless tricks and deceipts of Tradesmen and fraud of the common and Rustick part of the people in the Counties neer London in keeping many of their Cattel half a mile or some little distance from the Fairs untill the Evening or much of the day be spent to make them to sell at greater rates frequent deceits of stocking or Tying up the Udders of Kine a day before hand to make them swell and seem to give great store of Milke And as many other tricks of Trade and deceit as the Devil and deluded consciences can invent And truely looked upon as causes or concurrent parts of the cause of the now grand and most intollerable inhaunce of the rates and pâ—ices of Victuals houshold provisions and other Commodities there will be little or no room for the supposed plenty of Gold and Silver to be either a cause or so much as any part of a cause of it Nor can be well imagined when as notwithstanding that betwixt the middle of the Raign of King Henry the eight and the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the Gold and Silver Mines of the West Indies had by the Spanish cruelty to the Indians and their almost extirpation afforded such quantities of these baites of Satan and temptations as two hundred and sixty millions of Gold did appear by the Records of the Custom house of Sivill to have been brought from the West Indies into Spain all the plenty of that riches either by our Merchants bringing in of Bullion from Spain and its other Kingdomes and Provinces by Commerce or return of Merchandize did not so in England raise enhaunce the rates and prices of Victuals and houshold provisions but that we finde the Parliament of 24. H. 8. ordaining that Beef Pork Mutton and Veal should be sold by the weight called haber dupois no person should take for a pound of Beef or Pork above one half penny nor for a pound of Mutton or Veal above half penny farthing did believe they might be reasonably so afforded And the rates of Victuals and houshold provisions notwithstanding so increasing as in the yeer following It was ordained That Governors of Cities and Market Towns upon complaint to them made of any Butcher refusing to sell victuals by the weight according to the Statute of 24 H. 8. ca. 3. might commit the offenders toward untill he should pay all penalties limitted by the said Statute and were enabled to sell or cause to be sold by weight all such victuals for ready money to be delivered to the owner and if any Grasier Farmer Breeder Drover c. should refuse to sell his fat Cattel to a Butcher upon such reasonable prices as he may retail it at the price assessed by the said Statute The Justices of Peace Maiors or Governors should cause indifferent persons to set the prices of the same which if the owner refused to accept then the Justices c. should binde him to appear the next Term in the Star Chamber to be punished as the Kings Councel should think good And the same Parliament Enacting That upon every complaint made of any enhauncing of prices of Cheese Butter Capons Hens Chickens and other Victuals necessary for mens sustenance without ground or cause reasonable in any part of this Realm or in any other the Kings Dominions the Lord Chancellor of England the Lord President of the Kings most honorable Councel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlaine and all other Lords of the Kings most honorable house the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains under Treasurer and the Barons of the Kings Exchequer or seven of them at the least whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy seal to be one should have power and authority from time to time as the cause should require to set and tax reasonable prices of all such kinde of Victuals how they should be sold in gross or by retail and that after such prices set and taxed Proclamation should be made in the Kings name under the great Seal of the said prices in such parts of this Realm as should be convenient for the same Was not of opâ—nion that the plenty of Gold and Silver were any cause of the enhaunce of the prices or rates of Victuals but did in the preamble of that Act declare That forasmuch as dearth scarcity good cheap and plenty of such kinde of Victuals happeneth riseth and chances of so many and diverse occasions that it is very hard and difficult to put any certain prices to any such things yet nevertheless the prices of such Victuals be many times enhaunced and raised by the greedy covetousness and appetites of the owners of such Victuals by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same more then upon any reasonable or just ground or cause to the great damage and impovershing of the Kings subjects Siâ— Thomas Chamberlaine qui mores hominum multorum vidit urbes who by his several Embassages fâ—om England into Foraign Countries in the Raigns of Kiâ—g Henry the eighth and King Edward the sixth was not a little acquainted with the customes of other Nations aswell as his own did in the Raign of King Edward the sixth in a Treatise entituled Policies to reduce the Realm of England unto a prosperous wealth and estate dedicated unto the Duke of Somerset then Lord Protector assign the causes of the high prices and dearness of Victuals far less then what is now to be abasing of Coyn and givâ—ng more then Forty pence for the ounce of Silver ingrossing of Commodities the high price of Wooll which caused the Lords and Gentlemen being by the suppressing of the Abbies and liberality of King Henry the eight waxen rich to convert all their grounds into Sheep Pastures which diminished Victuals ten Lordships to the great decay of Husbandry
afterwards by reason of the Murrain of Cattel and a more then ordinary unseasonableness of those years twenty quarters of Corn were furnished for the Kings use and taken by the Sheriff of Kent at eleven shillings the quarter as appeareth by a Tally struck foâ— the payment thereof yet extant in his Majesties Receipt of the Exchequer and although that in the year next following by reason of a peace with France and the great victories before obtained against it by the English when the King was rich and the people rich which makes a Kingdom compleatly rich with the riches and spoiles gained thereby and that great store of Gold and Silver Plate Jewels and rich vestiments sparsim per Angliam in singulorum domibus were almost in every house in England to be found and that in the 23. year of the Raign of the said King so great a mortality of men and Cattle happned ut vix media aut decima pars hominum remaneret as scarce a third parâ— and as some were of opinion not above a tenth part of the people remained alive which must needs have made a plenty of money tunc redditus perierunt saith the Historian hinc terra ob defectum Colonorum qui nusquam erant remansit inculta tantaque miseria ex bis malis est secuta quod mundus ad pristinum statum redeundi nunquam postea habuit facultatem insomuch as Rents or Tenants for Lands were not to be had the Lands for want of husbandmen remained untilled which would necessarily produce a dearth and scarcity of Victuals And so great was the misery as the Kingdom was never like to recover its former condition And that in the 25. year of the Raign of King Edward the third by reason of the Kings coyning of groats and half groats less in value then the Esterling money Victuals were through all England more dear then formerly and the Workmen Artificers and servants raised their Wages yet in Anno 12 R. 2. though there was a great dearth yet Wooll was sold for two shillings a Stone a Bushel of Wheat for thirteen pence which was then thought to be a great rate a Bushel of Wheat being sold the year before for six pence And in Anno 14. of King R. 2. in an account made in the Receipt of the Exchequer by Roger Durston the Kings Bayliff he reckons for three Capons paid for Rent four pence half penny for thirteen Hens one shilling and seven pence for a Pâ—owâ—share paid for Rent eight pence and for four hundred Couple of Conies at three pence a couple one hundred shillings In Anno 2 H. 5. the Parliament understood four pounds thirteen shillings four pence to be a good yearly aâ—lowance or salary for a Chaplain being men of more then ordinary quality so gâ—eat a cheapness was there then of Victuals and other provisions for the livelihood of men and for Parish Priests six pounds per annum for their Board Apparrel and other necessaries and being to provide that Jurors which were to be impanelled touching the life of man Plea Real or Forty Marks damage should be as the Statute of 42 E. 3. c. 5. required men of substance good estate and credit did ordain that none should be Jurors in such cases but such as had fourty shillings per annum in Lands above all charges which was so believed to be a good estate in 5 H. 8. c. 5. which was almost one hundred years after as the Parliament of that year did think it to be an estate competent enough for such kind of men In the Raign of King Henry the sixth after that France a great and rich neighboring kingdom was wholy conquered and possessed by the English who had not then learned their wasteâ—ul Luxuries or Mimick fashions and could not with such an increase of Dominion and so great spoils and riches transported from thence hither but be abundantly and more then formerly full of money the price and rates of Victuals was so cheap as the King could right worshipfully as the Record saith keep his Royal Court which then could be no mean one with no greater a charge then four and twenty thousand pounds per annum and in the 33. year of his raign which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred fifty and five by assent of Parliament granted to his son the Prince of Wales but one thousand pound per annum whilst he had Dirt and Lodging for himself and his servants in his house until he should come to the age of eight years and afterwards no more then 2000. Marks per annum for the charge of his Wardrobe Wages of servants and other necessaâ—y expences whilst he remained in the house of the King his â—ather which was then thought sufficient to support the honor and dignity of the Prince and heir apparent of England though now such a sum of money can by some one that mâ—ndeth his pleasure more then his estate and the present more then the future be thrown away in one night or day at Cards or Dice In Anno 37 H. 6. Meadow in Derbyshire was valued but at ten pence per Acre and errable Land at three pence In the 22. year of the Raign of King Edward the fourth which was â—n the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred eighty and two the price and value of six Oxen was at the highest valuation but ten pounds In the seventh year of the Raign of King H 7. which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred ninety and two Wheat was sold at London for twenty pence the Bushel which was then accounted a great dearth and three years after for six pence the Bushel Bay Salt for three pence half penny Nampâ—wich Salt for six pence the Bushel white Herrings nine shillings the Barrel red Herrings three shillings the Cade in the fifteenth year of his Raign Gascoign Wine was sold at London for fourty shillings the Tun and a quarter of Wheat for four shillings In the 24. year of the Raign of King Henry the 8. a fat Ox was sold at London for 26 s. an half peny a pound for Beef and Pork and a half penny farthing a pound for Veal and Mutton was by Act of Parliament thought to be a reasonable price and with gain enough afforded In the fourth year of the Raign of Queen Mary which was in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred fifty and seven when very many families and multitudes of the people of England had been but a little before greatly monyed enriched by the lands spoil or the Monasteries and other Religious houses and their large possessions Wheat was sold before Harvest for four Marks the quarter Malt at four and fourty shillings the quarter and Pease at six and fourty shillings and eight pence but after Harvest Wheat was sold at London for five shillings the quarter Malt at six
her herse trimmed up as stately as the Armes-painters and Abusers can devise it with Tapers burning in great silver Candlesticks hired at the Goldsmiths and four or six women in mourning fitting to attend it to shew the beholders the unbecoming pride and vanity of it and a Shop keepers Wife whilst her husband complains of want of trade must not want a Velvet Gown every Servant must as much as their wages will reach unto imitate their Master and Mistresses in their clothes and the fashion of them which Queen Elizabeth did well prevent when she caused the Taylors to enter into Bonds or Recognizances not to make clothes finer then the degree of such as were to wear them every Cotager and Day-labourer will do what they can to eat of the best and live after the rate of a Farmer every Farmer live and have his diet like a Gentleman every Gentleman of the smallest estate whatsoever strives to live like a Knight and some Gentlewomen taking themselves to be higher born then any of their kindred or neerest relations can remember will not think their husbands do their duty unless they permit them like Baronesses to have Carpets foot paces on the ground when the Madam so called shall have a mind to sit in her garnish of sin and foolery to receive the visits of those which when the Marmalet is eaten do most commonly appear to have come onely to view and censure her pride every Knight will spend and live like a Lord or Baron and the sons and daughters of too many of our Gentry ready to tear them in peices to enforce them to make them an allowance proportionable to their pride and prodigâ—lities whilst the Gentlemen racking and raising their Rents beyond the yearly Income and value of the Tenants Lands are too often the cause that the Tenants do put as high rates and prices as they can upon their commodities to be sold or sent to the Markets and use as many Cheats as the Country Devil can invent for them to abuse and cozen the buyers the Citizens raise the price of their wares and commodities to maintain their delicacies workmen their wages because victuals are so dear servants by a sinful necessity of pride never think they have wages enough to the end that they may wear better Clothes then they should do King William Rufus Hose or Breeches of three shillings price or a Mark as he was afterwards perswaded to believe it then thought to be magnificent worthy enough for a mighty Kings wearing is not now a rate or price enough for a Ploughmans ordinary wearing And the improvements of our Lands and Estates do seem to have served for no other purpose then to improve and multiply our sins and vices whilst the hospitality and virtues of England like the brave Brittish Caractacus or Catacratus Prince of the Silures following in his chains the triumphs of the Romish Conquerers are made to be the attendants of the Triumphs of our vices and wickedness and Truth and Honesty like the distressed Naomi and her daughter Ruth going their mournful Pilgrimages to finde a better entertainment So as there must needs be a want of Trade when there is so great a Trade driven of pride and vanity and a dearness of all things when every one almost some poor and despised Moralists and men of Religion and care in their ways and walkings onely excepted makes what shift he can per fas aut nefas to save and get what he can for himself and there is scarce a courtesie done for one another without a bribe or fellow-feeling the sons are ready to betray their parents and the parents to prostitute and deliver up their children to the slavery of sin for the support of their pride and luxuries the most of our friendships and realities now turned into a lying most dissembling and accursed complement the rich making it their hoc age and onely business to oppress the poor who since the fall and dissolution of our Abbies and Religious Houses are so impoverished and increased as a Gentleman of the same and no more Land and Estate then he had fourty years ago paying but three shillings four pence per annum is now constrained to pay forty shillings per annum and the rates and prices of workmens wages victuals and every thing else so increased and beyond reason more then was formerly as may appear by the difference betwixt what was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred thirty and seven in the sixteenth year of the Raign of King Henry the sixth now but two hundred thirty and two yeers ago when â—hichely Archbishop of Canterbury built that famous Colledge of All-Souls in Oxford there was paid to a Stone-cutter but two shillings ten pence a week a Carpenter four pence a day a Sawyer fourteen pence a hundred for sawing of boaâ—ds a Joiner five pence half penny a day and but sixteen pence for himself and his servant for two days four pence a day to laborers five pence a day to such as digged stones four pence a day for a Cart for a weeks Commons for Mr. John Wraby who was comptroller of the works and an eminent man in those times fourteen pence for his servant ten pence for the meat of his horse for a week ten pence half penny and for the expences oâ— Mr. John Druel Surveyor of the works travailing with two servants and three horses from Maidstone to Lambeth and their charges at Lambeth for two nights and two days seven shillings And what is now paid to workmen when a Carpenter will have three shillings a day and eighteen pence or two shillings a day for his man and eighteen or twelve pence a day for a common laborer as there is never like to be any more easie or reasonable rates for houshold provisions or workmens Wages or any hospitality to be found in England nor any thing else of vertue or goodness unless the wisdom of the King and his great Councel shall prevent that Ultimam ruinam great and destroying ruine which citato cursu as to the peoples Estates in this life and sending their souls into the other world with a Lord have mercy upon us is galloping upon the Nation and will never be prevented either by preaching or Church Censures or the King and his Nobilities own examples without some severe and well observed Sumptuary Laws now very much wanted by an unhappy repeal of all in that kind which we had before and without which all that can be done to hinder and destroy an innundation of miseries which by our pride and luxury far surmounting any of our forefathers is suddainly like to over-run us will be to as little purpose as that which the King of Achen is said to do when he and all his nobilty do in the blindness of their Religion upon a certain day in every year ride in great pompe and procession to the Church to look if
of himself and his own posterity to further and advance the peoples cheating and oppressing of one another or to cause the King to pay the dearer or incur so great a damage as now it plainly appears he doth in his house-keeping for want of his Pourveyance when as all the Landed and rich men in England all the Farmers and all the Citizens and Tradesmen of the Nation the later of whom like aqua fortis can eat and make their way to be sauers thorough the dearest or highest rates or prices of houshold provisions by adulterating or raising their Commodities or as a London Brewer lately said concerning the Excise upon Ale and Beer that it should never hurt him whilst there was water enough in the Thames those of that profession being not contented to be repaid by the house-keeper the six pence rated for the Excise upon every Barrel of six shillings Beer unless they may leave out of such a Barrel of Beer six penny worth of Malt and make it by an half Boyling of it to save the expence of fire little better then so much half sodden water and are not satisfied also with such an unchristian cozening of the people and making their drink by such their doings and puting in Broom and other noxious ingredients in stead of Hopps to be as unwholsome as it is weak and naughty unless they may likewise cozen the King of his Dues upon the Excise and put as many tricks as they can upon him and his Laws and Officers and when by these and many other devices they make themselves very great gainers by the Excise in abusing both the King and his people are as busie as any in raising the cry against the Excise as a very great grievance and when all the Mechanick and Rustick part of the Nation workmen day-laborers maid-servants and men-servants shall not onely be savers but gainers by the enhance of rates and prices and the King onely and the poor of the Kingdom be the very great loosers and sufferers by it Or for the interest of the body Politick that the pinch and hardship should lye all on the Princes part and he onely be the greatest looser by his want of Praeemption Pourveyance or Compositions of the Counties as he had formerly be as an Amorite or stranger in our Israel and pay usury for his victuals by being constrained to give two parts in three or more sometimes then fourty per cent for the houshold provisions which his officers and servants do buy or provide for him four parts in five in many things six parts in seven in some other more then the Market rates and prices were in the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth when the Compositions were made by the Counties and willingly assented unto or that now there is a greater plenty of Food and houshold provisions Trade and Manufâ—cture then were in the former ages and all things may be afforded to be sold as cheap as they were retroactis seculis or some hundred years ago or as they were in the four and twentieth year of the Raign of King Henry the eight and cheaper then they were in the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth every thing should be dearer to him then to others or that so great an increase of Rates and Prices as have been within this last hundred years and all the mischiefs and inconveniencâ—s of them which have been brought upon the King and his people by private and particular interests the non execution of good Laws and the neglect and carelesseness of the subordinate Magistrates Justices of Peace and Clerks of the Markets should with an addition be continued and fixt upon the King who if he should resume but his Tolles in Fairs and Markets which the Civilians do rightly enough derive a tollendo from taking many of which are now accompted to be as the proprieties inheâ—itance of private men or Lords of Mannors are in some cases more by the indulgence of the Kings Royal Progenitors and a prescription claimed by long enjoyments or continuance of favors then de jure or were by grants or confirmations allowed where they were before but usurped and with-held from him and a Royalty and prerogative so antiently allowed in the Roman Empire as Valens and Valentinian the Emperors a mercatoribus seu negotiatoribus quae ad domum imperialem pertinent exegerunt necessitatem debitam pensionum ex emolumentis negotiationum did raise a good part of their Pourveyance or provisions for their houshold out of the Tolles or profits made by Fairs and Markets those of the people of England who do claim an exemption from the payment of them and those very many proprietors of Lands or Mannors who by many Royal grants and favors do claim and enjoy the profit of the Tolles would finde to be a greater damage and prejudice unto them then that which the Olivariaâ— party and the troublers of our Israel pretended to be by the Royal Pourveyance or Compositions for them or should as he never doth let his Lands to the uttermost penny measure his gifts or bounties by that of private men and proportion his favors according to his wants or occasions of keeping or saving what he can for himself or the ingratitude or forgetfulness of those which receive them and be as unwilling to answer acknowledge benefits as too many are unto him or take his Reliefs Herriots First fruits Fee Farms Quit Rents Customes Fines for alienation Fines certain or incertain of his Copyhold estates at the full and present value and the Fees for his Seals in Chancery and the other Courts and all his Subsidies according to the alteration of monys the disproportion betwixt the present and the former rates there would be cause enough for them to acknowledge his favouâ—s already received and believe that those small retributions in his Pourveyance or Compositions for them will bear so small a part in the Ballance as they should rather lay their hands upon their mouths and rest assured that they which are daily craving and gaining by the King and blest with a peace and plenty under his government cares and protection should be ashamed to make him to be so great a looser and themselves such gainers by his loss and damages And that it can no way become them to suffer him that granted or confirmed their Fairs and Markets to be oppressed by them pay a shilling and many times more for every groat he disburses for his necessary occasions and at the same time in the distribution of his bounties and rewards give a shilling more for every groat which he intended to give shall be kind to every body and receive in acknowledgement thereof no more then to get keep all they can from him which in their own particular estates would bring no less then ruine to all the people of England and those that so very much enrich themselves by putting him to more expences then
the Cinque Ports which cometh within the Orlokes two pence five Eggs in every hundred brought to London for Poultery brought thither on horseback three Farthings and on foot an half penny for every load of Cheese two pence for every dozen of Sheep brought to Smithfield to be sold an half penny for every Cow or Beast bought out of the Franchise a penny and of every foraigner bringing Cows Beeves Sheep Swine or Porks to Smithfield to be sold betwixt the Feast of St. Martin and Christmas the third best Beast Sheep Swine or Pork after the two first best or some Composition for them and if the Beast be of the value of a Mark the Bailiff was to restore fourty pence for his skin and might take for lean Hogs or Porks brought thither to be sold betwixt Hock tyde and Michaelmas the third best next afâ—ter the first best or twelve or six pence in lieu thereof which with their other Tolles and Perquisites and the yearly Scavage or Shewage the profit of Tronage and Pesage at the Balance together with their yearly income by the Cole Meters places would if the King for the better supply of his Pourveyance should take into his own hands as they are now Collected and taken either in money or in specie the above mentioned Tolles and Customes which are but the Irradiations and participations of the power and authority of the King imparted unto them for the better order and management of the peace and affairs of the people in those lesser Orbes and as was covenanted in a confirmation of the Fee Farm of three hundred pounds per annum for the Shirivalties of London and Middlesex by King John in case of taking away or granting any of the profits thereof release and discharge the said Fee Farm Rent of fifty pounds per annum bring a good assistance to his charge of Pourveyance and houshold provisions and make him some amends and recompence for his daily great damages sustained in his more then formerly expences for his houshold provisions by making his so constant aboad in that his Imperial Chamber Being priviledges better to be liked and approved then many of those which are not discommended in Military affairs where a Colonel of horse hath liberty besides his pay of a Colonel to reckon a pay for a Captain though he hath none and to be allowed for a certain number of spare Horses and to Muster and take pay for â—ix of his own servants and the like for one in every of the six Troops of his Regiment And may be allowed a soveraign as well as those daily and frequently practised given received and taken acknowledgments of Favors Reciprocations and discharges of obligations which are in and thorough the Kingdom performed as well as expected by all the people of the Nation one unto another and by all mankind in their several actions and affairs one with another and their dependencies and relations one unto another And as little to be omitted as the duty and priviledge of the Prae-emption of the Tyn at a reasonable rate with many other allowances and liberties in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon not to be denyed to the King or his Royal Predecessors Kings of England who before they had granted them away had all or the greatest part of the Lands or soyle where the Tynne Mines are For it cannot be any injustice or have so much as any aspect of wrong or oppression that he whose Royal Ancestors have granted confirmed to all his people their liberties and priviledges should seek to preserve his own which helpes to preserve theirs and be unwilling to part with them and his praestationes Angariarum Parangariarum Plaustrorum navium c. his Pourveyance Cart taking and impressing of Ships which as Bossius cited by Zecchius saith Regi competunt ratione Excellentiae ejus dignitatis quae Regalia dicuntur for that as Zecchius alleadgeth multa adjumenta sunt ti necessaria ut dominium intus externe Tueri valeat many things are necessary for a Prince to defend his Dominions at home as well as abroad Or if any should be willing to have it to be no duty would be such strangers to the Scriptures the right interpretation and meaning thereof as to think that the fifth Commandement extendeth onely to parents natural when any shall have a minde to respect them or to let their Fancies run as wild as the zealous reformer did at Crâ—ydon in the beginning of the grand Rebellion when he would have prohibited the reading of that and the other Commandments in the Decalogue by alleaging that they were made by the Bishops they cannot if they will not throw away their Reason and understandings but acknowledge that if Uriah could rationally conclude it to be unfit for him to go to his own house and take the comfort of it when his Lord Joab and the servants of his Lord the King were incamped in the field and hath been ever since applauded for it It cannot be thought to be correspondent to the greatness and Majesty of a King or the duty of his subjects that he should want those ordinary and no very chargeable respects and conveniencies of Pourveyance or Compositions for them and the priviledge to have his goods in progress or upon removals carryed for him at easie rates by his subjects and such as hold of him or have been raised and brought to what they have by the bounties and Royal influences of him and his Princely Progenitors and protected and defended by them when as many of the Nobility and Gentry of England do enjoy those or the like services from their Tenants for letting them heretofore have good penniworths of them or in hope that they may hereafter be good unto them and should not at all grumble or grudge to perform those duties and remunerations to their King whose honor and jurisdictions they are sworn to defend and maintain when they can do it willingly to others upon lâ—sser hopes or gratifications and that he hath already and may as well deserve it as that great and honorable family of the Cliffords late Earles of Cumberland whose heir the Lady Anne Clifford Countess of Pembroke Dorset and Mountgomery doth at this day of her obliged Tenants in the North whose Carts are not to be denyed at any removal from her Castle of Skipton in Craven in Yorkshire by certain proportioned journeys to her Castle of Appleby in Westmerland where her Tenants in that County are to furnish yearly six hundred Hens or a groat for eveâ—y Hâ—n and six hundred Bushels of Oats distinguished or called by the name of Sergeant Oats and those in Craven as many Hens or six pence for every Hen or as others who take benefit by such or the like retributions Customs and usages in other parts of England or the North thereof as Boon Hens c. at Sheffeild in the County of York once the inheritance of the
Warwickshire belonging to some Religious house where they were to Mow three dayes at the charge of the house three dayes to Plow and at the charge of the house to reap one day and to have a Wether Sheep or eight pence or twenty five loaves or peices of bread one of the best Cheeses in the house and a measure of Salt and if any horse Colt were foled upon the lands he was not to be sold without licence nor were any of the Tenants to marry a daughter without licence and by the custome of the Township of Berstanestone in Warwickshire horse Colts foled upon the land were not to be sold without licence for which a penny was to be paid nor any of their daughters to be married without licence c. which in divers old Charters and confirmations of our Kings and Princes do frequently occur may evidence that such or the like were once undeniable duties to their Kings and Benefactors and onely released in favor of those which were the owners and proprietors of the lands and priviledges and being now enjoyed were formerly regalities and rights inherent and vested in the Crown of England should retain no liberties or priviledges for himself And that the Quit Rents as they are now called taken by the owners and proprietors of some of the Abby and Religious Lands for Eleemosinae's or Alms-money given by Founders or other charitable persons many a sum of money formerly paid for Mortuaries Pardons Indulgences Pitances or Pourveyances and Oblations which are at this time kept on foot and received under the name and notion of Quit Rents might put them in mind how necessary it is for them to perform the duty of Pourveyance to the King being the heir and successor of many of those which gave them And how unbeâ—oming the duty of subjects pertaking the benefits thereof it would be that the King whose Royal Ancestors Saint Edward the King gave for ever to the Abby of St. Edmonds Bury the Mannor of Mildenhall in Suffolk to buy wheaten bread for the Monks to prevent their necessities of eating Barly bread which he perceived them to do when he came once to visit them King John gave for ever to the Abby of St. Albans and King Edward the first as many other Kings of England have done to other Monasteries and Religious houses gave and confirmed for ever to the Abby of St. Edmunds Bury divers Mannors Lands Tyths and yeerly Revenues of a very great yeerly Revenue to maintain their Hospitalities Pitances and Liuâ—â—es of servants and for the relief of strangers and poor people coming thither should now have his own Hospitality and the means to support it taken from him And that if all the customes priviledges and Royalties as they are called which are now performed and willingly assented unto by Tenants and enjoyed by the Lords of other Mannors by the power and priviledges derived unto them from the King his Royal Progenitors were truely represented and brought to a publike view together with all the priviledges liberties exemptions and immunities granted unto the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England it might be wondered how they that enjoy so much so many liberties favours from the King his Royal Progenitors by grants or prescribed Indulgences should think there could be any reason to deny him those his most just necessary and ancient rights and liberties of Pourveyances or Compositions for them when at the same time they are so carefull to preserve and keep their own And it would be something more then unfitting that the King whose Royal Ancestors have allowed so many of his subjects those priviledges and liberties should be debarred from a greater right and legal liberty in his own case or when he should make his progress to Chester should be refused that priviledge more ancient then the Conquest of having of every Yard land two hundred Capons or Caponets a fat or stand of Beer and a certain quantity of Butter which as appears by the book of Domesday were by custome or Tenure to be provided for him and not enjoy as much liberty as Hugh Earl of Chester did when he could priviledge Nigell de haulton his Constable and his heirs Quod omnia quae ad praedicti Nigelli opus erant necessaria emant ministri sui ante omnes alios in Civitate Cestriae nisi praenominati Comitis ministri praevenerint sine cujuscunque contradictione that his servants should in the City of Chester without contradiction have a Prae-emption before any but the Earles servants and Officers or as the Abbot of Burgh who had a Pâ—aeâ—emption in all necessaries concerning the Abby a priviledge to pay an half penny cheaper then others in every hundred of Herring or the Abbot of St. Albans who was by the Charter of King John to have a prae-emption for any of his provisions to be bought in London as well as any of the Kings Officers the Abbot of St. Edmonds Bury having a like priviledge for his Fodder Corn. That the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Aethelstane was able to give to the Church of Beverlye quasdam avenas vulgariter dictas Hestcorn percipiendas de Dominiis Ecclesiis in illis partibus certain Oats commonly called Hestcorne to be taken out of his Demeasnes and the Churches in those parts which by the dissolution of the Religious houses are now probably claimed and enjoyed by Laymen and did in Anno Dom. 936. ex sua Regalitate by his Kingly authority saith the History of that Foundation give towards the Hospitality and relief of the poor coming to the Hospital of St. Peters or St. Leonards in York de qual bet Caruca Arante in Episcopatu Eboraci unam Travam bladi out of every yard land of errable in the Bishoprick of York one Thrave which is four and twenty sheaves of Corn Et ex consensu Incolarum Episcopatus Eboraci Rex habuit saith that Historian Travas praedictas sibi successoribus suis sic quod exterminaret lupos patriam devastantes and was ofterwards granted by the consent of the inhabitants upon condition that he would destroy the Wolves which wasted that Country Erat siquidem in Diocesi Eboracensi tanta adtunc multitudo luporum quod omnes fere villanorum bestias devorarunt for there were in that Diocess such a multitude of Wolves which King Aethelstane thereupon destroyed as they almost devoured all the Beastes and Cattel belonging to the Countrimen should now that the County and Bishoprick of York have in all the after ages and successions of our Kings not onely received of them many and greater benefits but have been by their many good Laws and Governments protected and defended from all manner of Wolves be denyed so small an observance or retribution as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which were charged upon that County or Bishoprick did amount unto and at the same time do either not
pay those Thraves of Corn which would far exceed the Pourveyance charged upon that County or have compounded for them or do pay them to such as have obtained Grants of the Lands and Revenues belonging to that Hospital Or that he whose Royal Ancestor King Henry the second took a care as appears by the black book in the Exchequer that the Barons of the Exchequer who were then taken to be a part of the Kings houshold should have their provisions at easier rates then others Et de victualibus suae domus in urbibus Castellis maritimis nomine consuetudinis nihil solvunt Quod si minister vectigalium de hiis quicquam solvere compulerit dummodo presens sit serviens ejus qui suis usibus empta fuisse oblata fide probare voluerit Baroni quidem exacta pecunia restituetur inde in integro improbus exactor pro qualitate personae pecuniarum penam luet and pay nothing for custom for the victuals or provisions for their houses in Cities Castles and Maritime places and if any Officer should compell them to pay any thing for them whilstâ—their servants were ready to testifie and prove that they were bought to their use the money was to be again restored and the party so wickedly exacting it amerced or fined according to the quality of his person And that our succeeding Kings and Princes causing a Pourveyance and provision of Diet to be made for the Justices of Assize Justices of the Peace at the Assizes Sessions by the Sheriffs in every County making an allowance for the same out of the Exchequer Q. Elizabeth in Anno 1573. finding that to be troublesome inconvenient for the Sheriffs ordained that charge to be defrayed out of her Coffers as may appear by a Copy of a letter from the Lords of her Privy Councel communicated unto me by my worthy and learned friend Mr. William Dugdale and here inserted and that expence being since ordered to be defrayed out of the Fines and profits of the Counties after the rate of four shillings per diem at the Assizes Sessions to every Justice of the peace and two shillings per diem to the Clerk of the Peace and the King being at more then 10000 l. per annum charges to the Judges of the superior Courts at Westminster who by their Circuits do to save his people a great deal more charges cause a cheap and impartial Justice to be twice in every year brought into every County and is at many other yeerly expences to others in the administration of Justice for which Cromwell and his fancied Parliaments thought a large yeerly allowance to be little enough makes an yearly allowance of one thousand one hundred and six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence per annum to the Lord President of Wales and the Justices attending that Court for the provisions of their Diet with an allowance of Dyet to the Justices of Wales in their great Sessions twenty four shillings per diem to the Domestick Clerks or servants of the Lord Chancellor an allowance of Forty Marks per annum to the Kings Remembrancer in the Exchequer which may shew what cheapness was formerly for the diet of himself and of his eight Clarks who ought to table with him the like for the Treasurers Remembrancer and his twelve Clarks and to the Clark of the Pipe five pence per diem for his diet every day when he sitteth in Court and the like to the Comptroller of the Pipe should be now put to seek his own Provisions or Pourveyance at the dearest most disrespectful rates or that the Kings servants and Officers of his houshold in whose honor or dishonor the Majesty whom they serve as that of David was in the reproach of his servants or Embassadors sent to the King of Ammon is not a little concerned should now for want of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them complain that the beauty is departed from the Kings house his servants are become like Harts that finde no Pasture and they that did feed plentifully are desolate in the streets And that the servants of the Abbot of St. Edmunds Bury were in a better condition when as he could allow John de Hastings the Steward of the Courts of his Mannors who claimed the said Office by inheritance a Provision when he came at night unto him for eight horses and thirteen men with an horse load of Provender and Hey sufficient Wine and Beer twenty four Wax Candles in the Winter time and twelve in the Summer eight loaves of Bread for his Greyhounds two Hens for his Hawks pro se hominibus suis honorabilem sustentationem in Cibo potu and an honorable provision for himself and his servants in meat and drink And as those of the children of Israel which returned from the Captivity lamented the difference betwixt the glory of the first and second Temple bewail the desolation of the house wherein the Kings honor dwelled and the alteration reducing of it to what it is now from that which it was in the raigns of Queen Elizabeth King James or King Charles the Martyr And that Foraigners and Strangers who were wont so to magnifie and extoll the Hospitality state and magnificence of the King of Englands Court and house-keeping as that Philip Honorius after an exact survey of many other Kingdoms and their Policies hath publikely declared that no Nation in the world goeth beyond our Brittain in the honor of the Kings Court and houshold in maggior numero di servitori con maggior distinctioni d' officii e gradi multitude of servants Officers and distinction of degrees and cannot be ignorant of the respects and honor done by all Nations to Foraign Princes though no Monarchs or their superiors in their passages and journeys through any Towns or Cities beyond the Seas by making them presents of Wine Fish Oats and the best of houshold provisions which those places afforded and that even those mechanick souls of Hamborough and Amsterdam can think it worthy their imitation shall finde the King of England whose Ancestor Offa King of the Mercians in Anno Dom. 760. would be so little wanting to himself and his posterity in the preserving the honor and rights of Majesty as he ordained that even in times of peace himself and his successors in the Crown should as they passed thorough any City have Trumpets sounding before them to shew that the person of the King saith the Leiger book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honor in all which either see him or hear of him to be so scanted de ea sublimitate amplitudine augustaque illa Majestate in that honor and reverence which his predecessors would never abate any thing of as his Officers and servants like some Beggars who are not used to be trusted with a Mess of Pottage to be put into their hands when they buy it at the
of Supernumeraries cannot be lessened where the high State and Honor of a King is to be maintained which some great or publike occasions as at Coronations Funerals Triumphs c. onely excepted is principally to reside in his house or fixed Station and therefore it cannot be for the good of the people or be correspondent to the Majesty of a great King that a lesser number of Maces should be born before him or that there should not be so many servants of one the same imployment but if the grandeur and magnificence of the King could be served with a lesser number of servants the pretended surplusage would be necessary enough in order to the preferring and pleasing of his people and to give them encouragement to love and honor him which is their head and to make it their business to preserve and keep up the honor and gâ—eatness of the King and his Court which David in the order and placing of Officers and servants in the house and Temple of the God of Israel as well as in his own did not think impertinent as the several distributions and pluralities of Officers to places of one and the same nature will sufficiently evidence and to do otherwise would as little conduce to that Decorum which ought to be in a Kings Family as some indigested advice would do in the propounding that there might be a sparing of a great yearly charge of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners who were anciently those that served in War and ad latus principis in a pitched field or Battel and were by Covenant and Indenture which are frequently mentioned and to be found in the Records and ancient memorials of the Kingdom his Pensioners onely for that purpose because that the King is at a charge of a Life Guard which cannot comprehend and take in the uses for the Gentlemen Pensioners in their guarding the King within doors where there is a greater decency and honor in them and their service then can be in the Esau's or men of the Field and such as are onely useful in the direful Sacrifices to Bellona where the Majesty of a King is laid aside and by a present necessity exchanged for a sword and the bloody and unmajestick business of it and would be as little for the profit of a King within the Virge of that honor which shâ—uld encompass and attend him and his affairs as to suppose that the Master of the houshold which certainly hath been as ancient as the houshold it self and never but once for ought appears to the contrary intermitted and then by the cunning insinuation and self ends of one that was too instrumental in the introducing of our Trojan Horse is useless and supernumerary for that the Treasurer Comptroller Cofferer Clerks of the Greencloth and Clerks Comptrollers may amongst them and altogether discharge and supply the care and business of it which will appear to be no more then suppositions and pretences when as the Office of Master of the houshold which if well executed and as it ought to be is of most necessary use and of a greater Fatigue and trouble then any other of the houshold is not at all comprehended in the Lord Steward or great Master of the housholds place nor within the Offices of Treasurer Comptroller Cofferer Clerks of the Greencloth or Clerks Comptrollers but hath as all the rest of the Officers of the Greencloth have his peculiar and particular charge which is to inspect all the under Offices of the houshold and to be as a Corrigidor or Surveyor of those numerous Officers and servants which are therein unto which the other great imployments and high honor of the Lord Steward and the Treasurer and Comptroller who are of his Majesties Privy Councel will not permit them always to attend to call in question and prosecute the punishment of such under Officers and Servants and their irregularities as deserve it and keep a constant watch eye upon their actions and cause the daily orders and commands of the great Officers to be obeyed and executed by the inferior as well as the set and known Rules of the house which is now more then ever necessary and not to be wanted when there are so very great and many disorders which aâ—e heightned and more and more increased by the want of the Royal Pourveyances or Compositions for them and by the enhaunce of rates and prices of houshold provisions which do more infest the Purse and profit of the King then any supernumerary Officers and servants have as yet done and hinder him from regulating these unallowable improvements and as they are called Fees and perquisites of some Offices and Places in his Court by an Augmentation of the ancient Wages and Salaries of his servants now far too little and unable to support them in his service which the monys wasted in the damages and loss sustained for want of his Prae-emption and Pourveyances and by those otherwise remediless irregularities would have easily accomplished And all the people of England and their after generations may take it to be no less then their duty as well as their interest and if the irrational creatures were but to be Judges of it a common gratitude to endeavour all they can and to be willing that those ancient Rights should be continued and preserved to the King and his successors And having no small concernment in the honor of their Kings which by its Rays and Râ—flexions communicated unto them was and ever is and will be as necessary for the good and welfare of the King and his people as either Credit Cloths Jewels or any thing else they can have or adorn themselves withall when as their own interest or well or ill being is involved in the Kings May understand it to be no less their interest to uphold the honor of the King and his house then it was the interest of their forefathers who if they had not found it to be a more then ordinary concernment of themselves and every good subject to be assistant thereunto would not so often have been petitioners in several Parliaments and several Kings Raigns for the well ordering of the Kings house And being not ignorant how much all people are won and kept by hospitalities and benefits or lost for want of them should not be instrumental to mudd or stop the fountain but cherish rather keep the hospitality of the Kings house as carefully as the Romans did their Vestal fire and the Anciâ—ia or sacred Sheilds as some special part of the salus populi and believe that it was for the interest of the Nation that some Lords of the Kings Privy Council in the 21. year of the Raign of Henry the eighth even in the decay and expiring of Hospitality and almost all other the English vertues did amongst other Articles of Impeachment exhibited to the King against Cardinal Woolsey who kept a very large and ample Hospitality in his own house charge him that
exemption by an Assessement to be made for that purpose Or by the West Indians in Guaxara who by order of the high Justice do deliver unto Fryers travailing that way if they have no money Horses to ride on or to carry their carriages or provision without money so that at their departure they write it down in the Town book what they had spent and not abide above four and twenty hours in the Town where by a contribution their expences are defrayed Or by the old Irish one of which being a Tenant of Termonland or Land belonging to the Church and unwilling to change his old customes for new said to the Bishop of Dermot of whom he held his Lands non debet dominus mutare censum antiquum sed si careat rebus necessariis vaccis pinguibus c. debet ad nos miâ—tere Et nos debemus subministrare nam quaecunque nos habemus Domini sunt nos etiam ipsi illius sumus My Lord ought not to change his ancient Customes Rents or services due out of the Land but if he wanteth necessary provisions for his house and family as fat Cows c. we ought to furnish them for whatsoever we have are his and we our selves are the Lords Or by the modern Irish or inhabitants of Ireland who notwithstanding the Pourveyance or Compositions for Pourveyance and Prae-emption allowed to the Kings Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom could since the abolition of that most useful necessary custome in England offer if Fame did not mistake her self an yeerly supply of 3000. Irish Oxen or Cattel towards the support of the King and his Family and have besides in their Act of Parliament lately made for the execution of his Majesties Declaration for the setlement of that kingdom consented That the Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Kings Bench the Lord Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer and the Master of the Rolles or any other his Majesties Officers of that Kingdom for the time being shall and may have and receive such Port Corn of the Rectories Impropriations or Appropriate Tythes forfeited unto or vested in his Majesty his heirs â—nd successors which have been formerly paid or reserved Or by the Scots a people never as yet exceeding or so much as keeping even pace with their neighbors of England in civilities kindness and gratitudes who when their King Malcolme who raigned in Scotland in Anno Dom. 1004. had given and distributed all the Lands of the Realm of Scotland amongst his men and reserved na thing as the Act of Parliament of 22 Jac. 3. beareth in property to himself but the Royal dignity and the Mute hill in the Town of Scone could give and grant to him the ward and relief of the heir of ilke Baron quhan he sold happen to deceis for the Kings sustentation And did notwithstanding so well esteem and allow of those ancient rights of Pourveyance or Compositions for them as in the Raign of their King James the 4. in the year of our Lord 1489. The Lords spiritual and temporal and uthers his Leiges did declare in Parliament that it was the Kings property for the honorable sustentation of his house according to his Estait and honor quhilk may not be failized without great derogation of his noble Estaite and that his true lieges suld above all singular and particular profit desire to prefer the noble Estaite of his Excellence like as it was done in the time of his maist noble progenitors of gud minde And did therefore think it neidful expedient and reasonable And did statute and ordain that full derogation cassation and annullation be maid of all Gifts Donations Infeftments Fewes life Rents given by his Hieness to quhat sumever person or persons sen the day of his Coronation swa that all Lands Rents Customes Burrow Mailles Fermeâ— Martes Mutton Poultery avarage carriage and uther Dewties that were in the hands of his Progenitors and Father the day of his decease notwithstanding quhat sumeuer assignation or gift be maid thereupon under the Great Seal Privy Seal or uthers be all utterly cassed and annulled so that the haill profits and Rents thereof may cum to the King to the honorable sustentation of his house and noble Estaite Or so much degenerate from the Brittaines our Ancestors and predecessors who were heretofore so glad of any occasions to express their love and honor of their Princes as when they made their progress or had any occasion to visit any of their houses they flung the doors off the Hinges and gave them open hearted and free entertainment Nor deny those respects and duties to our Kings which no other Nations do refuse to their Kings or Princes which may make us to be an hissing and reproach to other Nations and by using our head so ill to be esteemed as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 people without an head or the Sciopedes who are reported to have such large feet as they can when they please cover their head with it and never let it be said that when a factious and rebellious part of our people could in the year 1656. suppose it to be their Interest to exchange with Cromwell their Antichrist or Mahomet their Religion Laws and liberties for his Tyrannical and Arbitrary will and pleasure and petition him in their Conventicle or pretended Assembly of Parliament that he would besides the remainder of the Kings Queens and Princes Revenues not disposed of except Forrests and Chaces and the Mannors thereunto belonging and of all the Lands of Delinquents in the Counties of Dublin Kildare Clare and Katerlaugh the forfeited Lands in Scotland which were great and considerable two parts of the Recusants Lands in England not compounded for and all Debts Fines Penalties Issues and casual profits belonging to the Keepers of the liberties of England so miscalled which was by them and their fellow Usurpers setled upon him and was of it self a Revenue too great for all the Brewers of England to accept of ten hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum to be leavyed upon the people with such other supplies as should be needful to be raised from time to time by consent of that which they Nick named a Parliament and three hundred thousand pounds per annum to be raised for the charge of the Administration of Justice and support of Government which he thinking not enough to serve his wicked occasions designes or desires to â—lay or keep in exile the heir of the Kingdoms tells his dutiful Parliament at a conference in April 1657. that the charge of the Government would yearly amount unto ninteen hundred thousand pounds sterling and therefore though the war with Spain should cease desired that the thirteen hundred thousand pounds per annum might have six hundred thousand pounds per annum more added thereunto and that that could be willingly assented unto and all the Loyal party enforced and driven to submit
necessary as that most prudently governing Queen who as King James her Successor saith prudentia faelicitate imperandi omnes ab Augusto principes superavit in the wisdome and happiness of her government out went and exceeded all the Princes of the world since Augustus Caesar understood it to be when by a warrant under the hand of the Earl of Leicester Master of her horse bearing date the 3. of July 1574. she commanded the furnishing of four able Cart Horses or Geldings with all manner of furniture for draughts to serve her during the Progress Or as he by a just authority derived from her by his letter bearing date the 29. day of June before authoâ—ized the Knight Marshall to apprehend and punish all such as George Middleton one of the Surveyors of the Stable should inform not to have done their duties in furnishing provisions for the Stable and by his warrant bearing date the 20. of October 1574. which was in the seventeenth year of her reign directed to the high Constable of Elthorne in the County of Middlesex commanded the Inhabitants to furnish the arrears of composition Oats for the years 13 14 15 and 16. then last past as also the composition Oats for that present year And the like to the Constables of the hundred of Isleworth in the said County and by a warrant under his hand in the year 1576. in the 19. year of her reign ordered the taking up of 16 Ambling Mares for the service of her Majesty at reasonable prises in such places as they should think meet And by as much right and reason as the Maior and Magistrates of London did in the seventh year of the reign of King Edward the second set prises on victuals ordered no more to be taken for a fat Oxe then 24 s. a fat Goose two pence half penny a fat Mutton twenty pence a fat Capon two pence a fat Hen a penny two Chickens a penny three Pigions a penny and 42 Eggs a penny and as the present Lord Maior doth or should daily and weekly by his Officers rate and set prices upon all Fish Cheese Salt Onions Garlick Oats Pease Victualls and Fewell brought unto London by water and upon all manner of Grain and Victuals brought by land and to commit to prison such as disobey which doth or might make his own provisions to be much the cheaper Or as the Maior of London did in the 8. year of the reign of King Ed. 2. take for the strengthening of Newgate and the Gaol therein and the repair of certain Chambers there by the Kings grant or Licence â—ertam consuetudinem de rebus vaenalibus a certain Toll or Custome of things to be sold or the like shortly after in auxilium or ayd to build a new Bulwark upon the wall of the City near the house of the Friers predicants Or as there was a Fee Farm rent of 80 l. per annum to the King and his Successors auntiently and long agoe reserved payable by the Town of Droitwich in Worcester-shire for their Salt-pits wherein their Burgers doe claim by proportions an estate of inheritance Or as in the Colleries of Newcastle upon Tine wherein the Owners of the Soil have an inheritance and propriety the King and his Progenitors have a legall allowance or imposition of twelve pence upon every Chaldron of Coles And with better reason may set a rate or price year by year upon his houshold provisions then Solomon did who though he in the Trade managed for himself in sending his ships to Ophir to fetch gold and silver made it to be in the large expression or manner of speech as plentifull as stones in the streets yet he did not give to all or any of the Tribes of Israel their Lands or Possessions who had them at their first coming into the Land of Canaan by Joshua and divine appointment allotted unto them and not given unto them by any of their Kings Or if he gave them any which doth not appear did not do it so largely as our William the Conqueror did in the rewarding of those that assisted him if what he so gave amounted but unto as much as would in those dayes make a competent living or maintenance for 10000 Knights and their Heirs which some that lived in or near his time believe to have been more then for 60000 l. and valued but at 20 l. per annum as they were reckoned in 1 Ed. 2. would amount unto 200000. pounds per annum and if but at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least improvement would amount unto as much as three millions per annum sterling besides large quantities of Socage lands with twice or thrice as much more in the several reigns of our succeeding Kings given to the people in lands and yearly revenues of inheritance Or then Nehemiah who having the provisions allotted to the Governor and in compassion of the poverty of the people for that part of time remitting it could tell them that he might exact it of them but did not give them any Lands or Possessions and being but as a Conductor or Governour of them had not if he would wherewithall to doe it So as all degrees ranks and orders of the people of England may if the difference or value betwixt the former and present market rates and prices should be the Jonas that troubles their ship and affairs permit it to take its rest and be as well contented with that in the Kings case as they are in many of their own when as many of them can retain and keep without any murmur or grudging above 30 thousand pounds per annum lands of inheritance or as some have computed it above eighty thousand pounds per annum being almost all the certain and reall revenues which are remaining to the Crown holden of his Majesty and his royall Progenitors in Fee Farme at the small rents which were at the first and long agoe reserved thereupon when as at the times when they were first reserved they were in the intention of the Donors or the allegations likewise or intentions of the Donees proportioned according to the then yearly value of the Lands which are now improved in many or much of them to a twentieth thirtieth fortieth fiftieth or sixtieth part more then they were and if they were not as they are at all or so very much improved are no more then one in three to the price or value which silver now bears by the Ounce more then formerly and five pound of that rent when it was first reserved would according to the rate of 2 d. a Capon in King Edward the seconds time many of the Fee Farm rents having been more antiently reserved have bought 60 Capons at the then Market price now at two shillings six pence a Capon which is less by six pence or twelve pence in a Capon then the King now paieth for them will buy but