the memory of man upon a meer supposition that there might possibly have been a loyal or good grant or commencement for them every little Manor of those multitudes of Manors and Franchises which the Commons in a Parliament of King Edward the third complained off and proportions of Lands in England many of which are called Manors by supposed Titles or reputation only as so many little Seigniories Jurisdictions or Royalities as they are improperly called have Courts Leet and Baron and free warren some of whom enjoy the honor and profit of the King in trying and executing Felons and many using all manner of inferiour justice upon the Tenants correction of the Affize of Bread and Beer have Tolles Fairs Markets Fishings Waives Estraies Felons goods and of persons outlawed and waived Issues Fines and Amerciaments Wrecks of Sea Deodands Mortuaries Treasure Trove and punishment of breach of the peace c. granted or claimed as belonged to them The not having a Clerk for the King besides the Clerks of the Assizes to keep a Roll of all Fines Amerciaments and Profits due to the King in the Iters or Circuits to estreat and certifie them into the Exchequer as was usual in the Reigns of Henry the third Edward the first and the elder Kings and many of the Justices of peace not duly certifying their Recognizances The letting the Greenwax to Farm with defalcations of such as the King shall grant away which breeds no smal neglect in the payment or gathering of it the not duly making or sending the originall Roll of the Chancery into the Exchequer the posting off many of the Kings Farms and debts de anno in annum by some of the former Clerks of the Pipe not holding the Sheriff to a strict opposal nor inforcing them to pay the monies levied of the Kings before their discharge or departure out of the Court not drawing of debts down into the Cedule Pipae being a more forcible process the heretofore Stewards and Bayliffs of Manors belonging to the Crown not justly accompting in the Exchequer as they ought the not awarding as there shall be occasion Commissions to worthy Gentlemen of every County to enquire of the Kings debts not levied and of the Sheriffs and other his Officers false Accomps ordained by the Statutes of 3 E. 1. c. 19. and 6 H. 4. cap. 3. neglect of the former Clerks of the Estreats and many other abuses crept into evil customes by some Officers or Clerks of that Court and in anno 1641. discovered and published by Mr. Vernon the superfluous number and charge of many Stewards Bayliffs and other Officers imployed which besides the many deceits used by some of them to the King and exaction upon the people did as was informed in their annuall Fees paid and allowed by the King yearly exceed three thousand pounds more then what they accompted for the selling or granting away and dismembring many Hundreds Wapentakes and liberties from the Crown and bodies of the Counties which the Statutes of 2 and 14 Ed. 3. doe prohibit to be aliened The falshood of such as did formerly make kind and easie particulars to such as were to buy or have any of the Kings Lands given them knavery and abuse of Under Sheriffs carelesnes and covetousness of the High Sheriffs in appointing them and not looking better to the performance of their own oathes as well as theirs The not duly accompting for prizes taken at sea and other maritime profits the heretofore sleepiness or slugishness of Justices of Peace in all or most Counties and Cities who being intrusted by the Law to take care of the observation of some scores of Statutes and Acts of Parliament would though their eyes and ears might almost every day perswade them to a greater care of their oathes and the good of their Country too often suffer grosse and numberless offences to increase and multiply and neither punish molest or trouble them or so much as give any information of them and too many of the Clerks of the peace Clerks of the Market and others not duly recording or certifying their Estreates The customes which in all civilized Nations and even amongst the Heathen are de jure Gentium to be paid to Kings and Princes and by the Laws of England and Parliament assent are due to the King who is the Soveraign of the Sea keeps the keyes of his Ports gives safe conduct to forrein Merchants to come hither and by his power friendship and treaties with his Allies neighbour and other Princes obtains the like with many priviledges for his own Merchants to goe and trade thither prevents with no small charges by his Ambassadours kept in their Dominions all injuries procures them right and justice and in case of deniall forceth it are now so daily cosened and put up into other Pockets as notwithstanding all the care taken in the farming or collecting of them though the people upon the retaile are sure to pay them to the full the King as it is believed doth not receive above a third part thereof by reason of the treachery and connivance of the former Searchers or Waiters and the Merchants defraying as they can sometimes confess the pompous charge of their City and Country Houses Wives and Coaches with their purloined Customes and that the cosenning of the King in his Excise yeilds them many times more then their Merchandise and their Apprentices now not taken under three or four hundred pounds a peice can live more like Gentlemen then Servants and purchase all kind of vanities vice and pride with what they likewise filch and take from him and when the Customes are let to farm though the Farmers take them as they are capable of such kind of losses can abuse their consciences and perswade themselves that they do no wrong to the King who is to have onely his Farm or Rent And that howsoever the more they cozen him the better they may be enabled to trade and the more they trade the more may be his Customes The not improving of their Lands other Revenues by raising of their Rents and rates according to the rise of money and provisions which the Subjects have exceedingly and to their great advantage done in their own Estates and Revenues and ten to one more then what was formerly The heretofore demising and letting to farm very many of the Kings Manors and Lands at the old and small Rents for three lives 21. 31. or 40. years in Reversion bespeaking a continuall wasting and weakening of his Revenues before hand Discoveries of information of deceipts or wrong done to his Revenues seldome made and then not without an allowance or gratification craved of three parts in four or a great share to begiven to the discoverers or prosecutors Many mens pretending service to the King but doing all they can to enrich themselves and deceive and lessen him and having by indulgence or cunning escapes from punishment made vice
charge of the Wards or others concerned therein be unnecessarily as they have been inrolled at length or otherwise with the Auditors of that Court when as the same was recorded before by other Officers of that Court to which the Auditors may have a free access and at any time take extracts out of them 13. That a severe Act of Parliament be made against such as shall misuse or wast any Wards Estate Lands Woods and Timber committed or granted to them or any personal Estate which belongeth unto them or shall not give the Wards fit education or shall disparage them in their Marriages or marry them without any competent Portion or shall not within a moneth after the death of such Ward or coming to his or her age of one and twenty years make a true accompt and payment unto the said Ward or his or her Heirs or Executors of all that shall be by them due and payable to him or them by reason of the said Wardship upon pain to pay to the use of the said Ward his or her Heirs Executors or Administrators besides the said moneys due and payable to the use of the said Ward double costs and damages expended or sustained therein That all Lands hereafter escheated and forfeited to his Majesty in cases where there shall be no restoration to the next in discent or remainder be inseparable and as a Sacrum patrimonium annexed to the Crown never to be aliened leased or charged with any Rent-charge or Annuity further then for life or one and twenty years That all Corporations of Trade may besides Fines and Amerciaments to be imposed and taken to their own use have also power to impose Fines and Amerciaments to the use of his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors and have no power to release or discharge any Penalties and Issues forfeited to the King And that the Town Clerks of Cities and Towns Corporate and Clerks of every Corporation or Company of Trade shall be bound by Oath and Recognizance to the King to certifie and estreat into the Exchequer all Fines Issues and Amerciaments forfeited and lost at two usuall Terms in every year that is to say Easter and Michaelmas That the By-lawes of every Corporation and Company of Trade and every City and Town Corporate which ought to be perused and approved by the Lord Chancellor of England and Lord Chief Justices of either Benches or Justices of Assize or any three of them and are not to be contrary to the Lawes may be according to the Statute of 19 Hen. 7. cap. 7. perused and allowed by them That upon every bloodshed or breach of the peace as by the Civil Law in forreign parts and heretofore was anciently used in England by the Common Law thereof a reasonable mulct or penalty be imposed to be gathered by the Magistrates as the Drossaerts do in many places in Holland and be answered to the King though the parties do agree or release and discharge one another That all Misericordia's which are now the only Vestigia's left of that antient Custome and Prerogative in Cases of Nonsuits and Pleas of Non est factums not verified may be put into certain reasonable penal sums duly collected and answered to the King his Heirs and Successors which besides an annual and casual profit to his Majesty will quiet and lessen contentions and bring a great ease to the people That in cases of Manslaughter there be before any pardon granted a reasonable satisfaction made according as it was heretofore practised in our Lawes of England both before and since the Conquest made to the wives and children of the Deceased or if none to the next of kindred unless the parties concerned shall otherwise agree their recompence or satisfaction and an Estimatio capitis or value of the party offending also paid to the King That upon convictions of Adulteries Fornication as was antiently used there be paid to the King a penalty proportionable to the offence and that in all Tryals for Manslaughter Murder or other crimes that hard and unreasonable custom now and heretofore used in England that witnesses may not be brought heard or examined against the King be abolished and that all good and lawfull testimonies which may tend to the discovery of the fact may be as in other Cases and Tryals heard and received That there be in every Circuit as antiently a Clerk besides the Clerk of the Assize appointed to enter in a Roll the Fines imposed by the Justices and to make Estreats thereof duly into the Exchequer That in all Actions of Trespass or any other Action to be brought in the Court of the Kings Bench at Westminster or by Quo minus in the Office of Pleas in the Court of the Kings Exchequer at Westminster or in the Court of the Marshalsea or Court of the Virge of the Kings Palace at Westminster whereupon any declaration shall be in debt there be upon the first Process or Writ such Fines paid to the King and in such manner as have been antiently and are now paid to the King upon actions of debt retornable in the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster And that upon every such first Writ the Plaintiffs Attorney doe in order thereunto indorse the just sum in debt which he intendeth to declare upon That every Merchant or Trader that shippeth any goods to be exported or unlades any imported shall under his hand attested or if need be upon his oath deliver unto his Majesties Farmers or Customers a true note or Cocquet of all such goods exported and imported and the true contents and value thereof And that whosoever shall wittingly or knowingly deceive his Majesty his Heirs or Successors therein shall for the first offence forfeit five times the value and for the second ten times the value and for the third to be disfranchised and never more permitted to trade And that every conviction of any such offence shall if pleaded be a bar to them in any Action to be brought commenced and prosecuted by them That once in every three years Commissions be issued to carefull and worthy men in every County and City uninterressed to enquire of all charitable uses and the imployments and abuses thereof and if need be to put a better order therein for the future and that the Arrears be also collected and paid the one moity to his Majesty and the other to be imployed to the charitable uses That Commissions be likewise issued now more then formerly necessary by the dissolution of Monasteries and Religious Houses and the great disuse of Hospitalities and Almes deeds to enquire and certifie the number of Poor requiring almes in every Parish in every County and City that all vagabond and wandring Beggars be returned to the several Parishes where they were born and where it cannot may be reduced to some Parishes in every County or City less troubled then others with poor and more able to maintain
them that the Church-wardens or Governours of every Parish as is usually done in Holland where by their excellent orders and care of their Poor very few are to be seen either wandring or miserable may upon poverty happening to any Family or the death of a Father or Mother of children goe or send to their houses as the Commissioners de aflictis at Amsterdam usually do lift up the broken hearted and enquire what are their necessities or what there is to maintain them and accordingly make provision for them by relieving the aged sick or impotent providing work for such as are able and putting out of children at fitting ages to be Apprentices or to service or some other imployments wherein we may well hope for those good effects which the like courses in France by the erecting of the Hospitals de dieu or other Hospitals in or about Paris have lately assured that the encrease and decrease of the poor in every Parish and the Collections and Assessments for them and Legacies and charitable uses given to the poor be yearly certified to the Clerk of the Peace of every City County at the Quarter Sessions to be holden after Michaelmas to be by him entred into fair Books with Calenders and Tables fitted thereunto publickly read before the Justices at the next Quarter Sessions after to the end that the Justices there assembled may duly consider thereof and make such further orders and Provisions as shall be fitting and requisite And that when the English Captives at Algier shall be released and no more likely to be in that condition the one pound per cent granted by Act of Parliament for that purpose or the like allowance and proportion for seven years to be allowed out of the Custome-house may be imployed to relieve and make a stock for the Poor of England And in regard that such as sue at Law in forma pauperis notwithstanding all the cares which have been hitherto taken by the Courts of Justice in assigning them Counsel and Attornies and ordering that no Fees should be taken they doe for want of money and those cares and diligences which are only purchased and procured by mony many times but tire themselves to no purpose and after many years expence of time and labour in trudging to and fro with their foul and tatered Bundles and Papers wither away die in the hopes of that which for want of a due assistance and vigorous prosecution they could never bring to pass That an Utter-Barrister or Councellor at Law be once in every three years appointed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being and to continue for that time and no longer in the high Courts of Chancery and the Courts of Kings Bench Exchequer and Dutchy of Lancaster and a Sergeant at Law in the Court of Common-pleas to be for the like time nominated and appointed by the Lord chief Justice of the Court of Common-pleas for the time being to be of councell assistant for all rights and duties of men and women suing in forma pauperis and as Counsel to assist and help the poor of the respective places in the prosecution and recovery of all Legacies and charitable uses given to them or penalties given or ordained by any Statute to be had or levied for their use or any Parish collections and assessements withheld from them for which they shall take no Fees but in a reasonable manner upon the recovery thereof or end of the said Suits And for their better encouragement may in all the Courts of Justice of this kingdom according to their said several nominations and appointments as well Superior as Inferior have a prae audience in those other causes next to the Councel learned of the Kings and Queens of England and the Prince or Heir apparent That in every County and City there be a publick Work-house to imploy the Poor in the manufacture of Woollen or Linnen cloth making fishing Nets or other Manufacture and that for their better encouragement they may as they doe in Holland after a competent number of hours in every day imployed in the work of the Publick be allowed two hours in a day to work for their own advantage notwithstanding that their lodgings diet and fitting apparrel be defrayed out of the Publick and that the Governours thereof may for their encouragement have the benefit and liberty of Exportation and Importation of any the said commodities without any Custome to be paid for the same upon the Certificate of the next Justice of Peace of such County or City upon the oath of every such Governour that the said quantities to be exported were made or wrought at the said publick Workhouse and upon the oath of such Governour that the commodities imported are to be imployed and used only in the said publick Workhouse And that the kindred of Poor living in any part of England and Wales not taking almes or overburdned with poverty may be sought out and enforced to a reasonable contribution according to their abilities towards the maintenance or providing for such Poor and decayed as within the eighth degree are of their own blood and lynage and where it may be put them into such a way of living as may exempt them from the fate of common servants or people taking almes or from being placed in common Workhouses that by such means and provisions to be made for the Poor which our Acts of Parliament and the careless and many times purloyning Collectors and Overseers of the Poor in severall Parishes have not yet performed And that all Nobility Gentlemen and others excepting such whose constant and necessary attendance upon the persons of the King Queen or Prince shall not permit the same having an Estate of Lands of Inheritance of the yearly value of one hundred pounds per annum or more above reprises and their houses of residence in any Parish of England or Wales not keeping their Christmas in the said house or Parish shall at every of the said Feasts pay unto the Poor of the said parish the sum of forty shillings or proportionably according to that rate of his or their Lands lying or being in the said Parish besides their other payments to the Poor collected and assessed in the said Parish That so the multitude of Beggars in England may no more be a Byword amongst other Nations that there may be no complaining in our streets nor such dismall and sad spectacles as the leprous blind lame and aged people and young children crying out for bread and ready to starve for want of food or clothing nor so many counterfeits or tricks to make an ill use of charities to uphold their lazy and ugly condition of life That the Clerks of the Peace and Assizes and every Justice of Peace shall take their oathes not to release or discharge or respite any Fines Issues Recognizances and Amerciaments forfeited due to the King
but carefully and duly estreat and certifie them every half year into the Exchequer in the Terms of Easter and St. Michael which the example of Hengham a Judge in the Reign of King Edward the first who for reducing an Amerciament or Fine of thirteen shillings four pence to six shillings eight pence in favour and pitty of a poor man was grievously fined and ordered to provide at his own charge the great Clock at Westminster may perswade them not to violate That the Ballance and In and Out of forraign Trade may be observed and reduced into Books to be yearly brought into the Exchequer but not with Blanks fair Seals Covers and Labels as they have used to be to little purpose That the more to encourage Merchants to an honest accompt and payment of their Customes to the King and to deal better with him it may be enacted that where any Ships of any Merchants and their goods and lading shall be taken in times of hostility with any other Prince so as it be not by the carelesness and neglect of the Merchants in carrying prohibited goods or the Captain or owner of the Ships in not making so good a defence or not arming or providing themselves so well as they ought the losses of such Merchants and shipowners duely estimated and proved before the Judges of the Admiralty shall be refunded out of the next Prizes which shall be taken from that Nation Prince or Enemy that took it the accustomed allowances to the Lord high Admiral and others first deducted That the wages of Servants now trebled more then what it was twenty years agone and of Labourers and Workmen very much increased by reason of the intollerable and unbecomming pride of clothes now in fashion amongst them by licence and imitation of times of pride disobedience disorder and rebellion and the folly of some of their Masters and Mistresses enjoyning them to wear clothes too high for them may be limited and ordered to be as they were before these last twenty years that every Master or Mistress that giveth more shall forfeit double the value to the King and that no Servant who hath formerly served in any other place be received or taken into service without a certificate or testimony of their good behaviour from their Maister or Mistress where they last served if they shall not appear to be unreasonable or for malice or any sinister ends to deny the same That the Tenths of all the Fishing in the British or English Seas by Barks or Busses now beginning to be instituted and taken into consideration which in part was intended to be had by King Edward the sixth upon the coasts of Wales Ireland and Baltimore by building a Fort or Castle upon the streight to command as Captain John Smith relates in his discourse of the benefits of Fishing in our English Seas a tribute for Fishing and if industry fail not is like if we but imitate the Hollanders who have hitherto enjoyed that which was none of their own and enriched themselves by our carelesnes to grow up to a great and not to be estimated National profit be paid and accompted for to the King and his Heirs and Successors who may well deserve it when as besides his Soveraignty of the Sea and the guard and protection of them by his Navie and Shipping he hath of late in the midst of his own wants and necessities for the better encouragement of his people to seek their own good and that which our British Seas will plentifully afford them given all his Customs inward and outward for any the returns to be made by the sale of Fish in the Baltick Seas Denmark and France for seven years for the first entrance into the Trade of Fishing That the rivers in England and Wales not yet navigable and fit to be made navigable may by a publick purchase of the Mills or Wears standing upon them and pulling down the Wears Kiddels hindring it attempted in the Reigns of King Henry the third and Edward the third by several Statutes made for the taking of them away be made navigable and a reasonable Toll or Custome upon every Vessell and Fraight paid to the King his Heirs and Successors That for the better support of our Nobility and the honours which they enjoy and that as starres in our firmament they may be able to attend the Sun their Soveraign and not suffer such Eclypses in their Estates and Revenues as too many have lately done that the Lions which should guard the Thrones of our Kings may not pine away or languish and the stately columns and pillars thereof moulder into ruins and decay and have small or unbecoming Estates to maintain them in the splendor of their Ancestors and the Royal Revenue not to be troubled or lessened by suits or requests to supplie them they may according to the intent and custome of the Fewdall Laws and the locality which ought to be in Earldoms and Baronies not be without some honorary possessions which was so usual and frequent in England as through the three first Centuries after the Conquest the Lands belonging to Earldomes and Baronies were accompted to be parcels and members thereof and the word Honor so comprehensive as it conteined and comprised all the Lands belonging thereunto as well as the Earldomes Baronies and Title which did in sundry of of our former Kings reigns grants pass and comprehend the Land as well as the Titles And that according to that laudable and ever to be imitated example of Thomas late Earl of Arundel and Surrey in obtaining an Act of Parliament in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr for the annexing of divers Baronies and Lands to the Castle and Earldome of Arundel inseparable and unalienable in contemplation of the poverty and small Estates of the then Lord Stafford and some other of the antient English Nobility wetherbeaten and wasted by the injuries of time or the luxuries and carelesness of their Ancestors The Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons and Baronets of England leaving some other Lands to their own disposing for the preferring of younger children payment of debts and supply of necessities which accidents may cast upon them may be ordered to settle annex by like Acts of Parliament the Capita Baroniarum and chief Castles Manors and Lands belonging to their Earldomes Baronies or Estates competent and sufficient to keep up and sustain the honour and dignity thereof from the gripes or defilements of poverty and Adversities not to be aliened or separated from their Earldomes Baronies or Dignities as long as it shall please God to continue them That the antient use of the Exchequer be restored and the Kings revenues carefully collected and answered and that the Justices in Eyre of the Kings Forrests and Chases on this side and beyond Trent Clerkes of the Market and Commissioners and Clerks of the Commissioners of Sewers do duely certifie into the
had forfeited unto him can by an unheard and not easily to be believed ingratitude after his Act of Oblivion and Free-pardon neither deserved nor purchased and preferments bestowed upon them fall into such an oblivion as nature abhorres and humanity must needs blush at and not offer any thing in a benevolence ordered by Act of Parliament instead of a Tax or Subsidie And very many of those which did give any thing some loyal and right-hearted excepted having obtained of the King to give away the principallest Flower of his Crown by releasing of his Tenures in Capite and by Knights service and promised him Tenures in Corde in part of satisfaction would not be pleased to find the way afterwards to give him so much as the twentith part of their yearly vain and unnecessary expences towards the relieving of the publick and his private necessities For the better information therefore of all such who are unwilling to part with a Fancy that the Revenues of our Kings of England are immense or largely sufficient for their occasions and to dispose them to the duty which the Laws of God and Men have commandded and directed and evidence the reason and necessity which the King now hath to demand a supplement of his Revenue and for his good people of England not to deny it him and that the decayes and ruins thereof have not been occasioned only by an heretofore ill-management of the Finances but by time and an age of many ages multiplicity of expences indulgences to the people and necessity of affirs and government which exhausting the radicall heat and moysture have so spent the spirits of the body politick as they have brought it to that feinting languishing and weak condition it is now in It will not be inconvenient from the mountains and hills of time to look down into the valleys of the ages past and take a short view for a longer would better become the designe of a Volume then what is here briefly to be represented of the Revenues of our Kings of England before and since the Conquest CHAP. I. Revenues of the Kings of England IN the Prospect whereof it will be more then a conjecture that those of the Saxon race before the Norman Invasion had in their Heptarchy except Wales and the barren and mountainous part of our Britain to which the distressed Reliques of that Nation had for shelter and safety retired the most part of the Lands and Revenues of the British Kings that Egbert King of the West Saxons and Alured and after them Edgar sole Monarch of Albion and the Saxon Dominions and his Successors having possessed themselves of all the other Kings Estates could not probably be without very large Demeasnes and Revenues and that not only they but all the succeeding Saxon Kings have made the support of themselves Regality Government and Affaires in and by the constant and certain Revenues and profits of their Lands in Demeasne and Service which as a Sacrum Patrimonium and concomitant of the Crown may by the ancient Charters of many of our Kings before the Conquest the grant of the Manor of Malling in the County of Sussex by Egbert King of the West Saxons in An. Dom. 838. distinction of Crown Lands and Terra Regis a great part of which were no other then what was since and is now called Antient Demeasne mentioned and recorded in Doomesday book that Liber censualis and grand Register or Survey of the Lands of the Kingdome precedented by the Book or Roll of Winchester made by King Alfred or Alured a resumption of some of the Crown Lands in the reigns of King Stephen Henry the Second and Henry the Third and several of their Successors the Articles enquired of in the succeeding Eyres a Judgment in 6 Edw. 1. against the Abbot of Feversham for some of the Crown lands which were aliened by King Stephen And the opinion of Bracton a Judg in the later end of the reign of King Henry the Third lib. 2. de legibus consuetudinibus regni Angliae that Est res quasisacra res fiscalis quae dari non potest nec vendi nec ad alium transferri a principe vel a rege regnante quae faciunt ipsam coronam communem utilitatem respiciunt may be understood to be unalienable And by the casuall and uncertain profits revenues of the Crown Jure superioritatis which to such as shall acquaint themselves with the Saxon Lawes Customes and Antiquities will appear to be Escheats and Forfeitures Mines Royall Herriots Reliefs upon the deaths of Tenants in Capite and by Knights Service which in those more gratefull times amounted to very much the benefit of Tolls and Customes Manbote Bloodâ—ite with many other Wita's and Wera's Capitis estimationes mulcts penalties and fruits of the Kingly Prerogative which then and with Wardships Liveries Profits of Annum diem vastum Fines Assart lands and Fines for Incroachments Purprestures and divers other things in many Kings reigns after the Conquest were used to be exactly and carefully collected by the Comites or Earles and Governours of the Shires or Provinces who had the third penny then accounted so much as to become an honourable allowance for their collecting it and the Praepositi Shire Reeves and other Officers of the Crown and in the Courts of Justice as well great as small and the Iters and Circuits of the Justices and that when the sinnes and miseries of our Saxon Ancestors had enriched William the Conqueror and entitled him to the Directum Dominium of all and the utile Dominium of the greatest part of the lands and possessions of England and he had given away much of it to his great Commanders Friends Allies Souldiers many of whom were not without their own patrimonies and great possessions in Normandie and other transmarine parts and glutted them with the spoils and inheritance of the English and had to those large Territories and Demeasnes which he reserved to himself and the Terra Regis and antient Demeasnes of King Edward the Confessor which he united to the Crown a further increase by the no small Estates and Inheritances of some of his after unquiet great Nobility as Edwin Earl of York Ralph Earl of Suffolk William Fitz-Osberne Earl of Hereford Edric surnamed the Forrester Howard le Exul Waltheof Earl of Northumberland and divers other of the English and Normans That which most concerned him and his successors in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry the First the former of whom had his Estate augmented by the temporalties and vacancies of Bishopricks Abbies and Priories and the later by the Attainders and great Estates and Inheritance of Robert Mowbray Earle of Northumberland Robert de Belesme Earle of Arundell and Shrowsbury William Earle of Mortaigne and Cornwall both of them having much in demeasnes and a great deal more in service for Aydes in warre holden of them their Coloni or Glebae adscriptitii socage Tenants which did
to the damage done by such attempts and Rebellions and the charge of suppressing them and defending themselves and their people to reconcile the Heirs Posteritie and Allies of such as had been attainted and induce them to a better obedience and love of their Country The no small charges susteined heretofore by granting yearly Pensions or Annuities to severall of the Nobility to serve extraordinary besides the ordinary duty of their Tenures with certain numbers of gens d' armes and Bowmen in times of warre or upon necessity the building and endowing of many Colleges and Halls in the Universities Eaton and Winchester Schools and endowing with great yearly Revenues the Famous Hospitalls of Bridewell and Christ-Church in London and St. Thomas in Southwark building and endowing a great part of the Cathedrals in England the Castle and Chappel of Windsor and Palaces of Sheene Woodstock Richmond repair of the Tower of London Castle of Dover c. Charges for the honour of the King and Kingdome in making and installment of Knights of the Garter and the costly ceremonies thereof and not seldome sending Ambassadours with it to forraign Princes expences in making of Knights of the Bath and in the reign of our more antient Kings for Furres and rich Vestments in making Knights Bachelors Charge of the Courts of Justice and Circuits to preserve the peoples Rights Properties and Liberties protect them from injuries and punish the transgressors now taking away yearly from the regal Revenue fifteen or sixteen thousand pounds per ann which in honester and cheaper times was in the Reign of Henry the sixth as much as worshipfully defrayed as the Record saith the expences of his then no small retinue and houshold with the greater charges now more then formerly in all other the necessaries and affairs belonging to the Kingly Office A daily and almost hourly distribution and giving of Royall favours and munificence and necessity of much of it when as that which amongst private men is accounted providence thrift and good husbandry would be an unbecoming sparing in Princes and an avarice and temptation to oppress the people and that which in others would be prodigality or a wast and consumptions of their Estates and reckoned as a folly is in Kings and Princes most necessary in their bounties and favours wherewith to satisfie and keep in quiet as well as they can multitudes of people whose numberless passions iniquities ill humors designs necessities and interests are by the Sword of Justice in one hand and the Royal Scepter of grace and Benevolence in the other to be kept in order by love honor obedience and loyalty the best increasers maintainers and preservers of publick peace and tranquility which those who have suffered in the want of it but some daies or moneths or a year or few years or our last twenty years folly and miseries may know how to esteem and value A dayly or very often craving and petitioning of some or many of his Subjects and the largeness of a royal heart and hand like an over indulgent Parent taking a pleasure and content to divest himself to enrich and give them content The vast difference betwixt the charges of Navies and Armies now more then formerly when a Hobler or Dragoon Horseman which was wont to be heretofore hired at three pence per diem now hath no less then two shillings six pence a Footman eight pence the pay of a Troop of horse cannot be under four thousand pounds per annum and of one hundred and eighty men in a Garrison three thousand six hundred pounds per annum The course of warre iâ— the later ages growing more and more tedious and chargeable and so immense as the Dutch notwithstanding their sout gelt or Tax upon salt their vectigal frumenti for corn grinded at their Mills the eighth part of the price of Pears and Apples a seventh of all Cattel sold to the Butchers an eighth for wood a Tax upon Candles and an Ezcise upon all things eaten drunk or worn upon Law Suits Servants Wages Ships Coaches and Carts a sixth penny upon all lease Lands Assessments upon demeasne Lands Gardens and planted Grounds an eighth upon Houses demised or let hooft gelt being a Dutch Floren for every poll or head scoorsâ—engelt a like payment for Chimney money with many other great Taxes besides their many profitable and succesfull depredations in the East and West Indies c. great aides from France and England of men and money for many years during their warres great riches got by the greatest commerce of Christendom and ransacking Sea and Land for it have been in sixty years warres with Spain left very much in debt at the end of the warres And are yet notwithstanding since the warres ended some millions of money in debt and so much as they were for many years after and are yet enforced to continue their Excise and most of their Assessments and Taxes upon the people When the King of Spain notwithstanding his vast Dominions twenty millions of Duckets which is above six millions of our sterling money yearly Revenues great exactions and impoverishing of his people by yearly Taxes and Assessments the golden Mines of Peru Mexico and Potozi and other inestimable treasures of the West Indies which Pâ—â—hero a Spanish Ambassadour in a brag or vie with the treasurie of Venice could say had no bottom and having the Sun for its Lord Treasurer daily to generate and increase its gold hath yearly for many years yeilded the Crown of Spain by and out of the Fifths sometimes ten and sometimes fifteen millions of gold and so much as in the year 1638. two hundred and sixty millions of gold did by the Records of the Custome-house of Sivill appear to have been in seventy four years then last past brought from the West Indies into Spain and from Potozi in nine years inclusivè from 1574. to 1585. one hundred and eleven millions of silver hath notwithstanding with his wars with the Dutch and a warr of late years with France chargeable bribes and intelligences and a thirst after an universal Monarchy consumed that and all that he could borrow besides from the Bankers of Genoa And France with all her Taxes and Gabells beggering and very much enslaving of her common people hath in a warre of thirty years last past with the Spaniards fought it self almost off its legs and into a consumption Which a long and late experience may forbid our wondring at when as the late long pretending but no performing Parliament could with the spoils of the Kings and Churches Revenues the Estates of the Nobility Gentry and good people in England Scotland and Ireland and more Taxes and burdens imposed by them and Oliver their man of sin in twenty years then our Kings of England in five hundred years last past all put together had before laid upon them could not leave their Oliver when their sins and his tricks had made him to be
Exchequer all Fines Issues Amerciaments imposed and forfeited That upon all manufactures made beyond the Seas and all things to be imported tending to excess and luxury as Tobacco Silks c. there be an Imposition more then ordinary which the wisdom of Neighbor Nations have ever thought expedient and was in the Reign of King James the prudent advice in Parliament of the Lord Treasurer Salisbury That in the deplorable Cases of wreck at Sea the Masters or Owners of such Ships not being Pirates or Robbers whether there be any living thing remaining or not in the Ship all and every part of the lading Tackle and Ship which shall be saved from the fury of the Sea or found on shore notwithstanding any detestable custome to the contrary may according to the Ancient Equitable Laws of Oleron be saved and preserved for the right Owners coming within a year and a day to claim the same and tendring such just charges and recompence as by two of the next Justices of Peace not interessed shall be found to be reasonable for those that were Instrumental in the preservation thereof that so the inhumane and unchristian customes of too many who live upon the Sea Coasts being in a Shipwrack as pittiless and cruel as the Winds and Seas taking away that which they left and rejoycing in the disasters and miseries of those that are afflicted may be abolished That Champerty and maintenance being now crept through the care and severity of all our former good Laws and Statutes made to prevent it into such a general practice and profit as in the confidence of dark contrivances and the impossibility or difficulty of discovery of them Some of our Gentlemen of the Gyges ring or invisible Estates in a way which they have found out to live aswell without a Revenue or other lawful means and professions as with them can like Nimrods or mighty Hunters by shares gained in the driving of Causes support an idle Gallantry by the spoil and oppression of others some women more wily then good can be Agitators or Retrivers of causes not concerning them for a part of the hoped for Booty and many Citizens and Tradesmen do buy pretended Titles and Interests and ingage and furnish money for no small parts to be had upon the success of Suites in Law and too many Attornyes Sollicitors and others can make it the best of their employments to deal in gross and by whole sale and will not as the Law enjoyns them make Bills or Tickets to their Clyents of their just and allowed Fees and disbursments Some good Laws and powerful restrictions may be made to prevent or punish those grand abuses and that if either the Plaintiff or Defendant in any Action shall require it an Oath or Oaths may be given at the Tryal or Hearing of such Suites or Causes to any who may discover such Champerties or Maintenance and if any shall be found offending therein either by disbursing of money to have any share or part of the thing inquestion on or by any pre-contract or other ingagement the Verdict may not be taken nor Judgement entered or if it shall be discovered and proved after the Verdict taken and Judgement entred before the end of the Term wherein such Judgement shall be entred the said Judgement be by the Judges of that Court arrested or made void and whether it be discovered and proved before Judgement entred or after the parties offending as well those that committed the Champerty and Maintenance as all their Abettors may every one of them forfeit and pay to the King and his Heirs and Successors the sum of one hundred pounds and be imprisoned without Bail or Maineprise untill they shall have paid the same and also forfeit and pay to the party greived his double Costs and Damage together with the moyety or half of the matter in question That there be no pardon or reversal of any Outlary in Civil aswell as Criminal Causes or Actions without five Marks first paid to the King in discharge of his Contempt and a Charter of Pardon as was anciently used first sued out under the Great Seal of England That all Sheriffs under-Sheriffs and their Deputies do at the entrance or admission into their Offices take an Oath not to imbrace any Juror or Juries or for any Fee or Reward or otherwise to nominate any at the request either of the Plaintiffs or Defendants or of any on their behalf and that they shall not make out or deliver or willingly or wittingly permit to be made in their names any Blanck Warrant or Precept to Arrest any person without a Writ under the Seal of the Court wherein such Action is laid or to be tryed first had and delivered unto them and that no Sheriff or under-Sheriff do crave allowance or respit for any debts of the Kings but upon just cause That every Juror if the Plaintiff or Defendant or their Attorneys shall before they besworn require it do also take an Oath that he hath not received any Instructions or Evidence before hand from the Plantiff or Defendant or their Attornyes or any on their behalf That all English Merchants trading into Foreign parts may be ordained to bring into England at or in their return a certain and reasonable quantity of Bullion or coin of Gold or Silver to be yearly certified and Registred in the Exchequer and that such as shall be brought in may not as it is now be bought and Registred in the name and for the use of the East Indian Company and that the East Indian Company to prevent any disguise which may be made use of betwixt them and the Merchants may also be ordered yearly to Register and Certifie into the Exchequer all such Gold and Silver Bullion or coin thereof as shall be imported by the said East Indian Company That all Foreign Merchants Trading into England or any the Dominions thereof be ordained to export at their returns English Manufactures and Commodities to the value of what they imported and not to make their returns in money or by Bills of Exchange as the Jews in great numbers trading hither are known now to do And that all Merchants Alien if they be not such as have houses and habitations here or if they have do at their first beginning to Trade enter into Recognizances of great penalties in Chancery not to Transport or cause to be Transported out of England as was in part provided for by the Statute of 2 H. 6. chap. 6. Or returned by Bills of Exchange any more then the sum of five pounds for their necessary charges upon pain of forseiting treble the value thereof That the many more then formerly used deceipts in the Shearing Tentering hot Pressing and false Dying of our English Clothes which do much or more endamage our Trade of Cloathing then the Transportation of Fullers Earth Sheeps Pelts with the Wool upon them or the Clothes in the Whites may