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
and prices of Barley and what they made it with and confirmed by Inspeximus of the Ordinances of divers Kings of England the Kings Progenitors which set the assise of Bread and Ale and the making of measures and howsoever stiled a Statute appears not to have been an Act of Parliament but an Exemplification only made of those Ordinances and Orders by King Henry the third at the request of the Bakers of Coventry mentioning that by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of his Reign he had granted that all good Statutes and Ordinances made in the times of his Progenitors aforesaid and not revoked should be still holden in which the rates and assise of bread are said to have been approved by the Kings Bakers and contained in a Writing of the Marshalsey of the Kings House where the Chief Justice and other Ministers of Justice then resided and by an Ordinance or Statute made in the same year for the punishment of the offending Bakers by the Pillory and the Brewers by the Tumbrel or some other correction The Bayliffs were to enquire of the price of Wheat Barley and Oats at the Markets and after how the Bakers bread in the Court did agree that is to wit waistel which name a sort of bread of the Court or Kings House doth yet retain and other bread after Wheat of the best of the second or of the third price also upon how much increase or decrease in the price of wheat a Baker ought to change the assize and weight of his bread and how much the wastel of a farthing ought to weigh and all other manner of bread after the price of a quarter of Wheat which shewes that the Tryal Test Assay or Assize of the true weight of bread to be sold in all the Kingdome was to be by the Kings Baker of his House or Court and that there was the Rule or Standard and that the prices should increase or decrease after the rate of six pence And Fleta an Author planè incognitus as to his name saith Mr. Selden altogether unknown who writ about the later end of the Reign of King Ed. 1. tells us that amongst the Capitula coronae itineris the Articles in the Eyre concerning the Pleas of the Crown which were not then novel or of any late institution enquiries were made de vinorum contra rectam assisam venditoribus de mensuris item de Forstallariis victualibus â—â—nalibus mercatum obviâ—ntibus per quod carior sit inde venditio de non virtuosis cibariis of wine sold contrary to the assize of Measures and Forestallers of the Market to make victualls dearer and of such as sold corrupt food or victuals An. 31 Ed. 1. it was found by inquisition that Bakers and Brewers and others buying their corn at Queen-Hithe were to pay for measuring portage and carriage for every quarter of corn whatsoever from thence to Westcheap St. Anthonies Church Horshoo Bridge to Wolsey street in the Parish of Alhallowes the less and such like distances one ob q to Fleetstreet Newgate Cripplegate Birchoners Lane East-cheap and Billingsgate one penny 17 Ed. 2. By command of the King by his Letters Patents a Decree was made by Hamond Chicwel Maior That none should sel Fish or Flesh out of the Markets appointed to wit Bridge-streat East-cheap Old-Fishstreet St. Michaels Shambles and the Stocks upon pain to forfeit such Fish or Flesh as were sold for the first time and for the second offence to lose their Freedome And so inherent in Monarchy and the royall Praerogative was the power and ordering of the Markets and the rates of provision of victuals and communicable by grant or allowance to the inferior Magistrates as the King who alwayes reserves to himself the supreme power and authority in case of male administration of his delegated power or necessity for the good and benefit of the publick is not thereby denuded or disabled to resort unto that soveraign and just authority which was alwayes his own and Jure coronae doth by right of his Crown and Regal Government belong unto him as may appear by the forfeiture and seising of Liberties and Franchises and many other the like instances to be found every age And therefore 41 King E. 3. without an Act of Parliament certain Impositions were set upon Ships other Vessels coming thither with Corn Salt and other things towards the charge of cleansing Romeland And 3 Ed. 4. the Market of Queen Hithe being hindred by the slackness of drawing up London Bridge it was ordered that all manner of Vessels Ships or Boats great or small resorting to the City with victuals should be sold by retail and that if there came but one Vessel at a time were it Salt Wheat Rye or other Corn from beyond the Seas or other Grains Garlick Onions Herrings Sprats Eels Whitings Place Codds Mackarel c. it should come to Queen-Hithe and there make sale but if two Vessels came the one should come to Queen-Hithe the other to Billingsgate if three two of them should come to Queen-Hithe and if the Vessels coming with Salt from the Bay were so great as it could not come to these Keyes then the same to be conveyed to the Port by Lighters Queen Elizabeth by advice and order of her Privy Councell in a time of dearth and scarcity of corn commanded the Justices of Peace in every County to enforce men to bring their Corn to the Markets limited them what proportions to sell to particular persons and ordered them to cause reasonable prices and punish the Refusers And the like or more hath been legally done by the Kings authority in the Reign of King James and King Charles the Martyr in the beginning of whose Reign by the advice of all the Judges of England and the eminently learned Mr. Noy the then Attorny Generall rates and prices were set by the Kings Edict and Proclamation upon Flesh Fish Poultry and most sort of victuals Hay Oats c. commanded to be observed All which reasonable laws constitutions customes were made confirm'd continued by our Kings of England by the advice sometimes of their lesser and at other times of their greater Councels the later whereof were in those early dayes composed of Bishops Earles and Barons and great and wise men of the Kingdome not by the Commons or universall consent and representation of the people by their Knights of the Shires or Burgesses sent as their Procurators ad faciendum consentiendum to consent unto those Acts of Parliament which should be made and ordained by the King and the Barons and Peers of England for they were neither summoned for that purpose nor represented in Parliament untill Anno 49 H. 3. and in Anno 26 or 31 Ed. 1. were called thither only ad faciendum quod de communi consilio per Comites Barones ceteros Proceres to do those things which by the King and the Barons and
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
the University of Cambridge who may require the Maior of the Town to make the Assise in the presence of the Chancellor of that University and if it be not well observed may himself punish the offenders by the authorities and power only derived from the King Who may with better reason justice and equity claim and keep his Rights of Praeemption Pourveyance and compositions for it then the Stret gavel was in 4. Ed. 1. claimed by the Lord of the Manor of Cholmton in the County of Sussex that every Tenant of that Manor should yearly give two shillings then a good summe of money pro itu reditu for his going out of the Manor or returning into it or as the Town of Maldon in Essex did in the fifteenth year of the Reign of that King claim by antient custome Totteray which was a payment of four pence for every bushel and a half of corn sold there 4 pence for Stallage and a Mark penny viz. 1 d. per illos qui truncos extra domum in vicis ejusdem ville habuerunt for every one which had pipes or gutters laid or made out of their houses into the streets de omnibus pascentibus mariscum de pecoribus of all that had cattel going or feeding in the Marsh for every Horse two pence Oxe two pence Bullock a penny and for every five Sheep two pence quae praestatio vocatur which in the language of the Civil and Common Law was usually understood to be Pourveyance or furnishing of necessary provisions Or as the Town of Yarmouth which was made a Port or Haven by Letters Patents of King Edward the first did antiently and doe now take and receive of the Herring-Fishers a certain Prize of Pourveyance of Fish and Herring towards the maintenance and repair of their Haven Or as the Lord Roos of Hamlake from whom the Earls of Rutland are descended did claim and enjoy as belonging to Belvoir Castle custumam ibidem vocat Palfrey silver quae levari debet annuatim de villis a Custome called Palfrey silver which ought to be levied every year of the Towns of Botelesford Normanton Herdeby Claxton Muston Howes Barkeley Queenby aliis Hamlettis and of other Hamlets Or as King Edward the third had to send his Writ or Comâ—â—ssion to the Magistrates of the Town of Barwick 〈◊〉 Tweed to inquire Si pisces marini Salmones in aqua de Tweed capt usque villam praedictam duci in vico vocat Narrow Gate venditioni exponi de custumis inde Regi solvend if the Sea Fish and Salmons taken in the River of Twede were brought to the Town of Barwick upon Tweed and put to sale in the street called Narrow-gate and of the Customes to be paid for them to the King More especially when the Judges in 11 Hen. 4. did resolve it to be Law as well as reason that the Pourveyor or taker for the King might take victuals or provisions at a reasonable price to the use of the King against the will of the party â—elling them Which unless the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the Laws of the Land reasonable Customes Liberties Rights and Priviledges should be all and every thing in the peoples own cases and concernments and nothing at all in the Kings and that the duty of Subjects honor of the King and support and maintenance of him who supports and defends them and all that is theirs in their just and legal Interests should be but as the Astronomers lines and terms of art in the firmament as Zones Tropicks Meridian Zodiack and the Ursa major and minor c. meerly imaginary and undemonstrable may with as much or greater reason be understood to be no burden as the late design if it should take effect of the Petition of the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London lately presented vnto the House of Common in Parliament in order as they alleage to the honor happiness and prosperity of the Kingdom that the Governor Deputy and Assistants of their desired Company of thâ—â—nglish Merchants trading into Italy and the Dominiâ—â— of the French King and the King of Portugal and of all other Merchants thereafter to be taken into that Association may besides other emoluments to be taken of the Merchants have power for the maintenance of the Government to take and receive upon all goods to be exported and imported not exceeding one twentieth part of the Customes as they are on all goods except Wines and on wines not exceeding one fourtieth part of the Customes as they now are Which twentieth part after no greater a reckoning then four hundred thousand pounds per annum for the Customes which if not too much defrauded are more likely to be eight hundred thousand pounds per annum will be twenty thousand pounds per annum and if eight hundred thousand pounds per annum will come near unto as much as the pretended losses of the Counties in the Compositions for the Pourveyances And the people of England would find the Pourveyance and Compositions for them to be for their own good and profit as well as there is a great and every where to be acknowledged reason for it not denied to be reason in their own cases affairs dealings one with another by the want of greater benefits if the King should shut up all his Ports and forbid all Trade with forreign Merchants inward or outward as some Kings and Princes have commonly and ordinarily done and as Common-wealths and those that call themselves Estates do as well as Kings and Princes in case of hostilities and upon reason of State or some other extraordinary occasions Or put down as God forbid he should or seise as forfeited by misuser which many will be found to have deserved all the Fairs and Markets in the Kingdome or some great part of them or forbid for some time as hath been antiently done all the Markets in two or three Counties and command the people to bring their victuals and provisions to be sold where the Kings or the Publick necessities or occasions wanted them or allow but one or two in a County at the chiefest or greatest of Cities or Towns or as King Henry the third did strictly command the assise of bread wine beer and victuals to be kept in Oxford in debito statu secundum precium bladi sicut in aliis Burgis Villis as it ought according to the price of corn and as was used to be in other Towns and Burrows threatning them that if they neglected to doe it he would seise and take the Town into his own hands and at the same time setting a rate or price upon wines gave the Magistrates of that Town to understand that whoever did otherwise ad corpus suum graviter se caperet omnia vina sua a Vice-comite suo Oxon. in manum suam capi praeciperet should be arrested and
Capiti cordique suo oppitulari debeat precipue ad dignitatem Regiam Regnique auhoritatem publicam tuendam cum ut membrum particeps fit gloriae qua Caput fruitur every subject ought to assist his King as he would do his own head and heart and more especially to maintain and defend his Kingly dignity and authority for that every member in the body pertakes of the good and honor which the head enjoyes That it cannot be for the good or happiness of subjects to necessitate the power of their Prince or enforce him to try how far it can extend or prevail to free himself from wants or pressures incumbent upon him when as common observation can tell us that small Brooks or Rivolets being stopt or obstructed in their creeping Maeanders or way unto the greater Rivers who are to conduct and lead them into the great assembly or collection of waters will go out of their former gentleness and either inforce a passage by inundations or break their way through all the Barricadoes which can be made to restrain them and that the more they are endeavored to be restrained the more they do rage and easily overcame and bear down before them all that can come in the way of their combined fury stirred up and heightned by the necessities which were put upon them That a want of Revenue in a King to discharge common and ordinary necessaries makes necessitatem invincibilem violentam which saith Aristotle proposito electioni prohibet obstat such an irresistable and violent necessity as it enforceth that which was never intended nor would otherwise have been done which the Wisdom Spirit of God in the vision which he shewed unto the Prophet Ezekiel of the building order of the Holy City the Revenues of the Prince held fit to prevent by a competent Revenue That Armies do notwithstanding all the cares and commands of their Generals and the severest Laws and Discipline of war prohibiting spoil rapine or plundering break out for want of pay and necessaries into all manner of disorders and oppressions and that we need not enquire of the days of old or the Ages past of the numberless mischiefs and inconveniences which have inevitably followed the wants of Princes and the effects of power put on or let loose by necessities And may sadly remember that the people of England denying the late blessed King and Martyr his Customes of Tonnage and Poundage did not onely put him and the cause of his Protestant Allies and friends into many disadvantages for want of those aides which he would otherwise have been enabled to give them and enforced him to fall short of his desires and intentions therein but to give way to many of his craving Scots and wanting servants to take in the assistance of his Royal Prerogative and stretch it further then ever he intended That notwithstanding all the care which he could take that such grants and letters Patents should not transgress or go beyond the bounds of the Law and the right reason and use of it and did upon the granting of many of those Patents cause the Patentees to become bound in Recognizances of great penalties to surrender up their grants and letters Patents if at any time he or his Councel should equiâ—e it And had of his own accord in the year 1639. and 1640. by his Proclamation called in above thirty of such Patents and Commissions as either had been or were likely to be grievances unto the people and in the beginning of that long and unhappy Parliament had graciously condescended to th annulling or abolition of all that did but resemble grievances or were but likely to produce them And that those Letters Patents Commissions and Grants which were called Projects and Innovations were invented and promoted by many Citizens Tradesmen Gentlemen others who being none of the Kings servants did court and wo the Kings Prerogative unto it and busily employed some of the Kings servants to go shares with them in the gain or profit thereof none or very little whatsoever was pretended coming to the King or his Treasury began with the necessities which a causeless discontented part of the people did most unadvisedly and undutifully put upon their King whom they would not suffer to be at any rest untill he had ingaged himself and his Allies in a war with Spain and the then greatly prevailing house of Austria for the recovery of the Palatinate and to make a breach with France for the relief of Rochel and the Hugonots and left him afterwards in the midst of the troubles expence and danger thereof without any aid or assistance to go through as well as he could with it And may now understand how much better it had been to have acquiesced in the many precedents and authorities of the Kings just and legal power of sending his writs to the Cinque ports and many maritime Towns Counties many if not all of whom were by Tenure or Custom in lieu of many liberties priviledges granted unto them by the Kings Royal Progenitors which they do yet enjoy to send or furnish out a certain number of Ships as their own charges when the King should have any publick occasion or necessity to have continued the Kings most just ancient rights and regalities in his Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which by Land together with a fixed certain aid of Shipping contributed by the Cinque Ports and Maritime Towns and Counties would together with his Commissions of Array have enabled him upon a short warning never to have wanted most puissant and gallant Armies and Forces both by Land and by Sea consisting not of hirelings and strangers but such as would have fought pro Aris Focis for their own as well as their Princes interest and would not easily turn their backs betray or fly from their Wives and Children and their own Estates then to put the King for want of them to a yearly charge of no less than eight hundred thousand pounds per annum by Sea and by Land for the peace security honour of the Nation which did not before cost the late King fourscore thousand pounds per Annum Or to be charged with an everlasting Excise as to the moiety of the Excise of Ale Beer Sider Perry c. which did noâ— the last year amount unto more than one hundred five thousand pounds per annum in recompence of the yearly profits of the Kings Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service and what he looseth by his want of Pourveyance and Compositions for them both which did yearly amount unto a far greater benefit what an ill bargain both the King and the people have by the laying by of the one and granting the other how small an advantage the people got by their heretofore invisible Keepers of their Liberties who did all they could to keep them from them or by Oliver their
themselves and Blaspheme abuse and crucifie him in his members And that it will be better to subscribe to that which is amongst all civilized Nations and people taken to be an Aphorisme or Maxime irrefragrable that omâ—e imperium omnisque Reipublicâ— forma validissimo munimento tuetur Auctoritate eorum penes quos simmum Imperium existit that all Kingdoms and Governments are most strongly fortified and defended by the authority of those who do govern that praeclara de Imperio existimatio sue reputatio multa efficit plura non nunquam quam vis Arma that the esteem and reputation of a King or Governor doth many times bring greater advantages then power and Armies That it is patrimonium principis as much to a King or Prince as his Patrimony or inheritance and certissima Imperii salutis publciae tutela a most certain guard and defence of a King and his people which Saul well apprehended when upon the displeasure of Almighty God threatned by Samuel he entreated him to honor him before the Elders of his people And that if a long duration of a right or custome and quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus approbatum that which is and hath been always every where and of all people so much allowed and practiced should not be enough as it hath in many other things which have a lawful prescription the reason right use and necessity of it and the avoiding of those many inconveniences which will inevitable follow the disuse of it may perswade us to recall again and revive the duties of Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them and to petition the King by our Representatives in Parliament as our forefathers did in 14 R. 2. that the prerogative of him and his Crown may be kept and that all things done to the contrary may be redressed That so our King may as Solomon who feasted all the people for seven days and seven days even fourteen days have wherewithall to maintain his own honor and the love of his people anâ— give portions of meat as the Prophet Daniel and others had in the house of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon that the people may with gladness and rejoycings enter into the Kings Palaces and the King not doubt of their affections though the waters should roar and be troubled and the mountains shake with the swellings thereof that his love unto them may from his throne exhale and attract theirs and distill it down again upon them as the raine upon the grass or showers that water the earth and that our England which was heretofore the happiest Nation that ever the Sun beheld in his journeys may be once again the land of love and happiness and that the people may be as busie in their gratitudes to their Prince as the Rivers are in the tender and payment of their Tributes to the Ocean Moribus antiquis stent res Britanna viresque FINIS ERRATA OR FAVLTS escaped in the Printing PAge 12. line 11. intersere and took only p. 13. l. 27. insert enabled p. 15. l. 10. dele had and besides insert with and l. 11. had p. 26. l. 27. intersere middle p. 27. l. 19. dele and. p. 30. l. 23. dele for a present p. 30. l. 19. dele Sir p. 42. l. 9. dele and Shoes p. 50. l. 8. dele i. in deferiendum p. 51. l. 22. intersere not only p. 62. l. 30. dele and. p. 68. l. 30. dele and intersere and. p. 71. l. 9. intersere of p. 79. l. 28. dele thereupon p. 98. l. 8. intersere to p. 100. l. 30. dele and. p. 107. l. 26. dele about p. 81. l. 7. for eighteenth read fourth p. 113. l. 13. intersere de offendi quietos dele de quietis esse p. 131. l. 23.17 pro 20. p. 133. l. 18. intersere them p. 139. l. 3. intersere if p. 142. l. 1. intersere all p. 153. l. 3. dele which p. 154. l. 9. dele and them intersere as p. 170. l. 7. dele which intersere 15. l. 25. dele pounds intersere marks p. 195. l. 22. dele and. p. 196. l. 26. dele 3. p. 198. l. 16. dele Fisher and read Flesher p. 231. l. 4. dele and. p. 236. l. 8. read delirium p. 261. l. 12. dele Ministry intersere Country p. 264. l. penulâ— dele of p. 266. l 6. dele Nobility and. p. 280. l. ult dele and read to him who p. 281. l. 21. dele all or p. 302. l. 1. read where he took all and dele that notwithstanding p. 337. l. 1. intersere being and but. p. 339. l. 14. dele or p. 365. l. 18. intersere and and l. 19. dele eighteen pence for a hen p. 374. l. 2. read so ibidem l. 28. read keep p. 377. l. 10. dele for and read from p. 391. l. 19. read still p. 450. l. 30. dele noâ— p. 455. l. 14. read Almoxariffadgos p. 456. l. 11. dele quents p. 459. l. 7 put in the mâ—rgent France p. 467. l. 26. read panes p. 468. l. 18. read out of Brescia p. 480. l. 27. intersere which and 29. read Embassadors Prov. 24.21 (b) Deut. 6 8.9.11.18 (c) Plutarch in vita Licurgi (d) Plutarch in vita Solonis (e) Prov. 8.31 (f) Jeremy 6.16 (g) Genesis 43.24 26. (h) 1 Sam. 25. 2 Sam. 8. (i) 2 Sam. 1.17 (k) 1 Reg. 4 21 22 23. (l) 1 Reg. 10.24 25. (m) Josephus de 〈◊〉 Jud. lib. 8. (n) 2 Reg. 3. () Chron. 16. (p) Ezekiel 45. 48. (q) Nehemiah 5.18 (r) Hom. Iliad (s) Boemus de moribus Gentium (t) Sigonius dâ— Repub. Athen. 540. 541. Eudaeus in Pandect 192. (u) Appâ—an l. 1. (x) Rasinus de antiquitate Rom. 993. (y) Pancirollus Comment in notitiam imperii occidentis ca. 5. (z) Rosinus de Antiquâ—tat Rom ca. 14.24 lib. 10. c. 22. (a) Annotations upon Tacitus (b) L. Julia de Magistratibus (c) Cod. tit de cursu publico Ant. Thisius de celebero Repâ—b (d) Pancirol in noâ—itiaÌ„ utriusque Imperii ca. 6. (e) Maranta speculum aureum parte 6. de executione sententiae (f) Bart. in l. jubemus uâ— nullam navem 1â— in princip (g) Novel Majoran tit 1. de Curialibus Cujat tit 48. ad librum 10. Cod. Justinian 1429. Cujacius Commentar Expositio Novel tit 63. k) Pancirollus Comment in notitiâ—m Imperii occidentis c. 65. (l) Zenopbon lib. 8. Paidiae (m) Pancirollus in â—otitia Imperii orientis (n) Spartianus cap. 6. in Seveâ—o (o) Pancirollus Comment in notitiam Imperii orient 86. (p) LL. Wisigoth lib. 9. tit 6. (q) LL. Wisigoth lib. 2. tit 9. (r) Cassiodorus variarum l. 12. (s) Ibidem lib. 11. (t) Leg. Jul. de Annon Cujacius Paratitl in lib. Cod. Justiniani (u) C. de Annon Tribut vegâ—tius (x) Lib. 1. tit de Annon Tribut (y) Cujacius in lib. 1 Cod. Justâ—niani 52. z Ridleys view of the Civil and Ecclesiasticall Lawes (a)
understanding and right reason into the ruder sort of the heathen as in some parts of Africk the King thinks he is not beloved of his people unless he doth sometimes feast them and the heads of the Cowes which are killed for that provision are painted and hung up like pictures in his Chamber as for an honor to the King whereby such strangers which did come to his Court might perceive that he was a good King Being like the Agapes or Love Feasts allowed by St. Paul and those which the primitive Christians continued as an excellent Custome and usage when the rich as Tertullian witnesseth brought to those publick feastings meat and provisions and fed and feasted the poor which were so usefull and well-becoming all such as intended or desired the comfort and blessing of it as that thrifty as well as magnificent Commonwealth of Venice doe not only order and encourage yearly Feasts among the several ranks and Classes of their Citizens and people but doe make an allowance to their Duke or shadow of Monarchy for the feasting of the principal of the Senate and to send yearly in the winter to every Citizen a certain petty present of wild foul And if the virtue of charity which St. Paul makes to be the chief or summa totalis of all the virtues and excellencies which humane nature or frailties can be capable of and will not allow that of speaking with the tongues of Angels which certainly is more to be valued then our last twenty years English complement nor the gift of prophecy and understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge neither the having of such a faith as might remove mountains to be any more then nothing in him or a noise or emptiness if charity be not joyned with it be so superlative The people of England as well as their Kings and Princes were not mistaken when they did so heed and thought it necessary to be observed as a good part of the Tythes given by Aethelulph in the year after the birth of Christ 855. not only of his own Lands in demeasne but as most of the Writers which lived nearer that time have as the most learned and judicious Selden rightly observed it extended unto a grant made by the consent omnium Praelatorum ac Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis provinciis totius Angliae praeerant of all the Bishops and Prelates and the Princes and Earles which under him governed in the severall Provinces and whether the Tithes came first to be setled here by that great King Ethelulphus and his Bishops and great men or were assented unto or granted afterwards by the piety and devotion of particular men and the owners of lands and goods of which very many grants doe occurre before they were settled by a very just and binding authority of the Secular Ecclesiastical power and authority in this our Isle of great Britain some part of them may be certainly said to be in the use and application of them to the Church and Ministry and sacred uses dedicated and designed for hospitality Which the People of did so greatly regard and look after as the supposed want of it in the reverend Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury begot a project in the reign of King Henry the eighth as Doctor Peter Heylin that learned and great Champion of the Church of England and the truth even after he was blind hath recorded it Whereby a design was laid by a potent and over-busie Courtier to ruine the Revenues belonging to that Arch-Bishoprick by informing the King that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had fallen much Wood let long Leases for great Fines and made great havock of the Revenues of his Arch-Bishoprick whereby to raise a fortune to his wife and children and with so large a Revenue had kept no Hospitality that it was more meet for Bishops to have a sufficient yearly stipend out of the Exchequer then to be incumbred with Temporal Revenues and that the Lands being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annual stipends a great yearly Revenue But the King rightly apprehending the device sent the Informer on an errand about Dinner time to Lambeth-house where he found all the Tables in the great Hall to be very bountifully provided the Arch-Bishop himself accompained at Dinner with diverse persons of quality his Table exceeding plentifully furnished and all things answerable to the port of so great a Prelate wherewith the King being made acquainted at his coming back gave him such a rebuke for his false information and the design which was built upon it as neither he nor any of the other Courtiers duâ—st stir any further in that suite And the common people of England have always with so much reason loved and applauded Hospitality good House-keeping Alms Deeds and works of Charity and in that besides their own benefits and concernments did but delight in the ways of God which he hath commanded and is well pleased with whereby the heretofore famous and greatly beloved Nobility and Gentry of England have gained so much love honor power reverence and well deserved esteem as the greatest part of the respects which are now afforded and paid by them unto their Issues and remaining generations are as unto too many of them more in remembrance of the good and vertuous deeds of their Ancestors then any personal good or vertue is either to be found in them or according to the courses which they now hold is so much as expected from them who think a name or title like some gaudy Sign-post hung out of an empty ill governed and worse furnished house where vice and all manner of sins in their horrid and ugly deformities being treated and entertained do crawle up and down like Toads Frogs and Serpents in some dark and loathsome Dungeon or that a pedigree deriving their discents from some or many Heroes and Worthy Patriots is honor enough for them do scorn all but their own foolries and suppose a witty Drollery and the Friskes and Funambuloes of an ill governed wit or of brains soaked and steeped in drink more to be valued then the wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon hate vice and admonition shun vertue and morality as they would do the burst and fire of a Granado and believe dâ—inkâ—ng Dicing and Drabbing to be a more Gentile and cleanlier way of Hospitality and make the common people whilst they stand almost amazed at their Debaucheries and irregularities ready to swear they are illegitimate or some Changelings crept into the name and estate of their Hospitable and vertuous Progenitors and if any of them should be well affected and inclined to walk in the ways of their Ancestors and keep good houses can never be able to do it by reason of the no Reason of their Ranting and expensive Wives twenty of which sort of new fashioned women for there are some though not so many as should be which are or would be helpers to
Genes 41. v. 42 43. Genes 41. v. 42 43. 2 Sam. 7 18. 1 〈◊〉 â—6 1. 1 Reg. 7. 1 Reg. 10. Ester ca. 1. Pâ—alm 22. Psalm 25. Aristotle lib. 2. de Repub. Hieron Epist. Tacitus dâ— Moriâ—us Germanorum c 1.13 â—4 Spelman Gloss. in voce Firma LL. Ina 70. Claus. 23 H. 3. Ibidem m. 14. Ibidem m. 18. Claus. 28. H. 3. Claus. 32 H. 3. m. 15. Claus. 32 H. 3. m. 17. Ex Archiv Tâ—â—r London Weaver's funeral monuments 456. Stowes Survey of London Stowes Survey of London Stows Survey of London Graunts observation of the London Bills of Mortality Job 29. 2 Sam. 6. Dionis Halicarn lib. 2. Lois d' Orleans ovverâ—ures deâ— Parlements Moâ—â—â—releâ— lib. 1. ca. 2.62 Lois d' Orleans les ovvertures des Parlements ca. 8. Guagninus iu descript Mosco viae lib. 1. c. 46. Aelianus lib. 4. vaâ—â—ar Histor. Jo. Magnus lib. 4. cap. 2. John Leo Hist. of Africa 1 Corinth â—3 Selden Hist. of Tithes Ingulphs hist. John de Serres Hist. of France 1 Sam. ca. 25. In Recept Scacâ—ar 1 Chron. ca. 27· Boemus de moâ—iâ—us Gentium Sigonius de Repub Athenien lib. 1.481 de Antique Juâ—e Provâ—iciarum lâ—b 2. Aristotel politic lib. 7. ca. 9. Mat. Paris 803.913 Tully lib. de officiâ—â— Molina de â—â—st Jur. Tom 3. disputâ—t 674. Câ—â—arâ—u ad â—ep peccatum Philipp Honorius Thesaur Politic. Valdesius in proaemâ—o de praerogat Râ—gum Hispaniae â—odâ—n lib. 4. 5. de repub Aristot. Politic. Ezech. 46.8 Speed Hist. of Great Brittaine in Pâ—coemio Mat. Paris in Anno 1246. Vide in 〈◊〉 funeral monumentâ— an information given to Queen Elizabeth of under valuationâ— in the suâ—pression of the Abbieâ— c. Sâ—owes Anâ—a◠〈…〉 Albaâ— M. S. Maâ— Paris 〈…〉 Mat. Pariâ— 7â—6 717. Maâ— Paris 514 2 Sam. 23. Vide Act of Parliament 18. Eliz cap 6. touching the Colledges in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge reserving a third part of their rents in Corn or Malâ— c. Paâ— 1. Caâ— 1.3 Paâ—t Lex Mâ— câ—toria peâ— Gerard Malâ—nes Sir Ralph Maddâ—sons â—nglandâ— In and Ouâ— M. S. of Sir Thoms Chamberlaines Coke 11. Reports Statute of Herring 35 E. 3. Lewis Roberts Map of Commerce M. S. Sir Thâ—â—aâ— Chamberlaâ—ne Camdens Remaines Higâ—on in â—ibliâ—â—â—eca Cattoniâ—na Hist. Ingulph libeâ— Censualis or Domesday Iu ingro lib. Sceti in glossar Henrici Spelman in voce Fiâ—ma Camdens Remaines Hoâ—eden part posterior 424. Extent mâ—ne 〈◊〉 de â—iâ—burgh pâ—incipis 27. E. 1. In quâ—tâ—am baga entitulat Rageman apud Recept Scâ—iâ— Walsingham hist. Angâ—â—ae 106 In Recâ—pt Scaâ—caâ—ii Walsingham hist. Angliae 168. Walsingham hist. Anglâ—ae 169. Sir Richard Bakers â—hâ—onicle or hist. of England 166. In quaâ—am â—aga 〈◊〉 Râ—geman in Recept Scaccaâ—â—i 2 H. 5. cap. 2. Rot. Parâ— 33. H. 6. Inquis inter eâ—idencias Johannâ—â— Ferrers â—rnâ—geâ—i Terâ—ino Pâ—â—che 2â— â— â— 24 H. 8 cap 3. Sâ—r Richard Bakers history of England 18 Eliz cap. 6. Malines Lex Mercatoria Philippus Caesius a Zesen in Leone Belgico Gerard Malines Lex Mercatoria 47. 147. Philippus Caesius a Zesen in Leone Belgico § 16. Ex libro comput Johannis Druel Supervisoris remanent in Colligio Omnium Animarum in Academia Oxon. Hackluits Voiages lib. 3 Varenius de regno Japan L. de Commerâ— Merâ—â—t C. Pat. 18. E. 1. m. 15. Claus. 14. E. 3. m. 28. Speed Hist of England 〈◊〉 VVâ—lleâ—se Ex antiquo Codice M.S. de custumes de London in Bibliotheca Cl. viri Galfridi Palmer Milit. Baronetti Attorn General Regis Caroli Secundi Zecchius de principat administratione 2 Sam. 11.12 Pat. 3 E. 39. parte 1. m. 6. 18 E. 3. inter consuetudines de Haddenham in Com. Buck Ex antiquo Codice M.S. des Customes de Londres Carta Abbatiae Sancti salvatoris confirm per H. 3. Cart. 17. H. 3. m. 6. in 2. parte Dugdals Monastic Anglic. Dugdales 2 parte Monastic Anglic 528. 2 parte Monastic Anglic 264. Dugdales 2 parte Monastic anglic 187.206 297. Lib. Domesday tit Cestre Dugdales 2 parte Monastic Anglic. 2 parte Dugdales Monastic Anglic. 367. 368. Ex nigro lib. apud Recept Sâ—â—â—câ—arii After our hearty commendations whereas of long time many Gentlemen some eligible to be Sheriffs some that have been in Office in some of the Counties of this Realm have both in Parliament and other places complained of the great burden and charge sustained in the said office of Sheriffwick by reason as they have alleadged of the large Dyets and other charges of the Justices of Assize and Gaol delivery yearly increasing in such sort as many Gentlemen very meet for that office in respect of their wisdom and dexterity to execute the same though not so meet for wealth to bear the charge of expences have of late years made most earnest suits to be forborn onely for want of wealth to bear that burden the Queens Majesty calling this cause now of late into her remembrance hath thought it very necessary to cause the same to be considered by her Council and remedy to be provided therefore as the cause may bear it And in consideration thereof it is by her Maâ—esty and us of her Councel well perceived that by the petitions of divers of the Sheriffs in sundry Counties appearing in the Exchequer for the allowances for the Dyets and other charges of the said Justices the same are yearly grown more and more in charge to the said Sheriffs and consequently her Majesty thereby more charged then in reason ought to be allowed And therefore to remedy this matter it is determined by her Majesty with the advice of us of her Privy Councel That the Sheriffs shall not after this Lent Assizes defray the charges of the Justices of Assizes Diets but that the said Justices shall have of her Majesty several sums of money out of her Coffers for their daily Diets during the time that heretofore the Sheriffs have been chargeable withal within their Counties with which determinations the more part of the said Justices have been by diverse of us of her Majesties Councel made acquainted and thereof we have thought good to give you knowledge as we do the like to all other Sheriffs in the Realm to the intent you may after this Lent Assizes forbear to enter into such further charges and yet it is meant that you shall against the Summer-Assizes by the authority of your office aid and assist the servants of the said Justices that shall require your advice or help to make provisions for their Masters Diets and for lodgings and house-room at as reasonable charges as may and ought to be for the Queens Majesties service and as reason also requireth that the said Justices in respect of their painful and careful services for administration of Justice should be both honorably and favourably used in all things requisite for their own persons and train whereof we trust both you as Sheriffs now being and all other succeeding