upon security of the land or obtains another mortgage without
prior notice to the initial mortgagee. The mortgagor has six
months to pay off the mortgage and all interest and charges or
vacate the land and lose his equity therein. But a widow's dower
will not be affected if she did not join with her husband in the
mortgage.
If rent is not paid in a reasonable time, the renter's goods and
grain may not only be distrained, but sold.
One coparcener of a joint tenancy or tenancy in common may have a
court partition the property without the presence of other
coparceners, because such coparceners are often difficult to find.
This is to avoid wasting of land lying uncultivated and unmanured.
After the intestate death of a father of any sons or daughters
without wives or children of their own in the life time of their
mothers, the mother and every brother and sister shall share
equally except the customs of London and York shall not be
affected. Administrators have to make an inventory. They have to
account on request by an interested person. They must be bonded by
two sureties.
Executors and administrators of estates of deceased persons must
pay the debts of the deceased person rather than waste or convert
the goods and chattels to their own use. Creditors may recover
their debts from heirs or devisees of the will of a debtor.
Men gone beyond the sea who could not be accounted for were deemed
dead after seven years, so their life estates could be terminated.
Whereas lawful games are not to be used as constant callings for a
livelihood, and young people are deceived and debauched and their
money taken, anyone "winning" money by deceitful or fraudulent
gambling shall forfeit three times his "winnings".
When a bill of exchange drawn to at least five pounds is not paid
on demand at the time it is made payable, the person who accepted
it may make a protest in writing before a notary public, which
shall be served on the maker of such bill, who must pay it and all
interest and charges from the date of the protest. But if a bill
of exchange is lost or miscarried, another shall be given in its
place.
No one may take more than 6 pounds in interest for a 100 pound
loan.
Persons seeking election to Parliament may not give or promise
money, meat, drink, entertainment, present or gift to any elector.
Because the gaols were full of people in debt due to the late
unhappy times such as the London fire, all prisoners for debt were
to be released upon taking an oath that they had no property over
ten pounds nor had disposed or conveyed property to defraud
creditors. Creditors not wanting them released had to contribute
to their maintenance in gaol.
The making or selling of fireworks is forbidden or forfeit 5
pounds. Firing or throwing such from one's house onto or across
the street is a common nuisance with a penalty of 20s. This is to
avoid the loss of life and of eyes.
Treason to the king is to compass, imagine, or intend death or any
bodily harm tending to death, or maiming or wounding, or
imprisonment, or restraint as well as trying to depose him or levy
war against him. Also included is printing, writing, preaching, or
malicious speaking. Traitors shall suffer death and forfeiture as
in high treason.
Any malicious and willful burning or destroying of stacks of hay,
grain, or barns, or killing any horses, sheep, or cattle at
nighttime shall be felony and punished by transportation to the
American colonies for seven years.
Any person apprehending a thief or robber on the highway will be
rewarded 40 pounds from the local sheriff, to discourage the many
robberies and murders which have made travel dangerous. Also,
executors or persons murdered while trying to apprehend a robber
shall have the reward.
No more than 20 people may petition the king nor more than 10
people may assemble to present a petition to the king, because
more has been tumultuous and disorderly.
Anyone may without fee set up a hemp business including breaking,
hatchelling [separating the coarse part and broken pieces of the
stalk from the fine, fibrous parts by drawing the material through
long iron teeth set in a board], and dressing it or flax; making
and whitening thread, spinning, weaving, making, whitening, or
bleaching hemp or flax cloth; making twine or nets for fishing or
stoveing of cordage; or tapestry or hanging because the daily
importation of such has in effect taken the work from the poor and
unemployed of England.
Retailers of wine may not add to imported wines cider, honey,
sugar, molasses, lime, raisin juice, or herbs.
Butter sold must be of one sort and not contain bad butter mixed
in with good butter. Butter pots must bear the name or mark of
their potter.
Salt may be sold only by weight, to avoid deceit by retailers and
wrong to buyers.
No sheep, wool, woolfels, shearlings, yarn, fuller's earth, or
fulling clay may be exported as has secretly been done, so that
the poor of the realm may have work.
Fishermen may sell their fish to others than Fishmongers at
Billingsgate fish market because the Fishmongers have forestalled
the market and set their own prices. The buyers of such fish may
resell them in any other London market by retail, except than only
Fishmongers may sell in shops or houses.
No tanned or untanned skin or hide of any ox, steer, bull, cow, or
calf may be exported because the price of leather has risen
excessively and leather workers can't get enough raw material to
carry on their trade and because poor people cannot afford leather
items they need.
The newly incorporated Company of Silk Throwers (drew the silk off
the cocoon) employs many of the poor, but others practice the
trade, so an apprenticeship of seven years is required to practice
the trade in the realm. Winders or doublers who purloin or
embezzle and sell silk from the thrower who employs him and the
buyer of such silk shall make such recompense as ordered by a
Justice of the Peace or be whipped or set in the stocks for the
first offence.
The regulation of the Silk Throwers company restricting the number
of spindles to be worked at one time is voided because it has
taken livelihoods away and caused foreign thrown silk to be
imported.
Buttons on garments must be made of silk, mohair, gimp, and thread
and by needle to keep employed the many throwers, twisters,
spinners, winders, and dyers preparing the materials for these
buttons. No button may be made of cloth or wood.
No tobacco maybe grown in England because the colonies would be
discouraged from growing it and the king would not receive customs
from it.
No goods are to be imported to or exported from America, Asia, or
Africa except in English ships, with masters and 3/4 of the
mariners Englishmen. No manufacture of Europe may be imported into
any colony or territory except shipped from England in English
ships manned by Englishmen. As of 1672, if bond is not given for
colonial exports of sugar, ginger, tobacco, cotton, indigo, cacao
nuts, or fustic [tree that yields a yellow dye] and other dye-
woods going to England, a duty must be paid. As of 1696, no
colonial goods are to be imported or exported or carried from from
one colony to another, except in ships owned and built in England,
Ireland, or the colonies with the masters and three fourths of the
mariners from such places. These navigation acts were strictly
enforced.
Only persons with lands and tenements or estate worth over 100
pounds per year or having a lease of at least 99 years worth 150
pounds per year and owners and keepers of forests or parks may
have any guns, bows, greyhounds, hunting dogs such as setting
dogs, snares, or other hunting equipment. These persons may kill
hare, pheasants, partridges, and other game. Gamekeepers
authorized by Justices of the Peace may search houses and
outhouses and seize unlawful hunting equipment. If hunting
equipment or game is found in a house without good account to the
Justices of the Peace, they shall impose a fine of 5s. to 20s.,
one-half going to the informer and one-half going to the poor of
the parish.
Anyone killing, hurting, or taking away deer from any forest or
park or other ground without consent of the owner or custodian
shall pay a 20 pound fine. This was later increased to 20 pounds
for hunting deer and 30 pounds for wounding or killing deer, with
the pillory for one hour on market day and gaol for a year without
bail for those who couldn't pay.
Any person privately and feloniously stealing any goods, including
horses, by day or night, in any shop, warehouse, coach stable, or
stable, whether there is a break-in or not, and whether or not the
owner is present, or anyone assisting or hiring such person may
not have benefit of clergy. Any person who apprehends and
prosecutes such person is discharged from parish and ward offices.
An offender being out of prison who informs against two other
offenders who are convicted is to be pardoned. Any person
convicted of theft or larceny and having benefit of clergy is to
be burnt in the cheek nearest the nose instead of on the hand.
Army officers or soldiers who desert or mutiny shall suffer death
or such other punishment as decided by a court martial of senior
officers rather than the usual form of law, which is too slow.
Seamen not showing up on board after notice shall serve six months
without pay, but shall not suffer as deserters. Seamen do not have
to perform service in the Army.
Pirates may be punished by death and loss of all lands and
chattels. Any person aiding, advising, or concealing pirates may
be likewise punished. Officers and seamen killed or wounded in the
defense of a ship or who seize or destroy pirates may be paid by
the owners an amount up to 2 pounds per 100 pounds of freight as
determined by a group of disinterested merchants and the judge.
The amount due to a man killed will be paid to his widow and
children. This is to be done when the ship arrives in port. Any
person who informs of any combinations or confederacies planning
to run away with or to destroy a ship shall be rewarded by the
commander or master of such 10 pounds for a ship 100 tons or
under, and 15 pounds for a ship over 100 tons. The trial may be in
England or the American colonies, whose authorities may issue
warrants for arrest of alleged pirates. Deserters from ships,
because they often become pirates, shall forfeit all wages.
Masters forcing any man fit to travel to stay or shore or
willfully leaves him behind shall suffer three months in prison
without bail.
Persons may mine for ores on their own land, but must turn it over
to the king who will give compensation for it, including gold,
silver, copper (16 pounds per tun), lead (9 pounds per tun), tin
(40s. per tun), and iron (40s. per tun).
The fine for having, buying, or selling clipped coins is 500
pounds, one-half going to the informer, and one-half going to the
king. The offender shall also be branded in the right cheek with
the letter "R". He shall be imprisoned until he pays the 500
pounds. No hammered coins are lawful. Anyone except a smith in the
king's mint making tools or presses or other machines that can
make counterfeit coins or having such which were stolen from the
mint shall be guilty of high treason.
By statutes of 1660 and 1662, when goods have been carried off
ships without customs being paid, the Chief Magistrate of the
place where the offense was committed or the adjoining place, or
the Lord Treasurer, or a Baron of the Exchequer may, upon oath,
issue out a warrant to any person to enter, with the assistance of
a sheriff, constable or other public official, any house, shop,
cellar, warehouse, or room in the day time where the contraband
goods are "suspected to be concealed", and in case of resistance,
to break open doors, chests, trunks, or other packages and to
seize such goods, provided that if the information whereupon any
house is searched proves to be false, the injured party shall
recover his full damages and costs against the informer by action
of trespass. This was extended to the colonies in 1696.
The penalty for cursing or swearing by a servant, day laborer,
soldier, or seaman is 1s. For others, it is 2s. The fine is
doubled for the second offense, and tripled for the third offense.
If an adult offender can't pay, he shall be put in the stocks for
one hour. If a child offender can't pay, he shall be whipped by
the constable or by a parent in the presence of the constable.
The equity courts are conceding limited proprietary rights to
married women by enforcing premarital settlements or trust
arrangements that designated certain property as a wife's separate
estate and exempted it from control by the husband. Such
protective devices generally reflected a father's desire to shield
his daughter from poverty and benefited only the landed
aristocracy in practice. Also, husbands are not allowed to punish
and beat their wives as before. But the lower rank of men were
slow to give this up. A wife could have the security of the peace
against her husband. He could restrain her liberty only for gross
misbehavior.
In 1685, the courts ruled that apprenticeships were necessary only
for servants hired by the year, thus exempting most wage laborers.
There were many variations in religious practices for statutes to
address. The Quakers and Baptists were opposed to any state
church. The Independents and Presbyterians accepted the idea of a
state church. The members of the established church and Roman
Catholics adhered to the state church as it had been for them in
the past. Atheism had a bad reputation. In 1662, the Jews
established the first synagogue in London. The Privy Council
recognized their religious status as long as they were peaceful
and obeyed the laws. They engaged in pawn-broking as well as
money-lending.
There were various statutes enacted over the course of time
regarding religion, as follows:
All ministers, school teachers, mayors and other town officials,
including magistrates, were required to take the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy [of the King over the church] or be
removed from office.
A great number of people refused to come to their parish church or
other public place where common prayer and sacraments were
administered and the word of God was preached according to the
established church. The morning and afternoon Sunday services with
sermons, sometimes by guest preachers, continued. So factions and
schisms developed. In response, the king changed the Book of
Common Prayer and its prayers were required by statute in 1662 to
be read by some priest or deacon in all the churches and places of
public worship wherever and whenever there was any preaching or
lecturing. Attendance at one's local parish church was never again
required.
As of 1665, no nonconformist minister, i.e. one who endeavored any
alteration of government either in church or state, was allowed to
live or visit within five miles of any corporate town or any place
where he had acted as minister or forfeit 40 pounds. Persons not
frequenting the established church were not allowed to teach in
any public or private school or forfeit 40 pounds.
By statute of 1670, anyone at least sixteen years old who is
present at any assembly, conventile [private meeting of religious
dissidents to pray and expound scripture], or meeting under
pretence of any exercise of religion in other manner than
according to the established Church of England at which there are
at least five persons present shall be fined 5s. for the first
offense and 10s. for the second offense. (This does not include
members of the same household meeting in their home.) Anyone who
preaches or teaches at such a meeting shall pay 20 pounds for the
first offense, and 40 pounds for further offenses. The householder
who permits such a meeting shall pay 20 pounds. A justice or
Justice of the Peace or chief magistrate may break open doors and
enter by force any house or other place where they have been
informed of any such meeting and take persons there into custody
for prosecution. This is to discourage the growing of dangerous
seditious persons under pretence of tender consciences.
Religious nonconformity continued especially among the humble
people. The penal statutes caused hundreds of these nonconformists
to be put in gaol. From time to time, the king would release them
and suspend these laws. Sometimes, Charles II allowed dissenters
to meet in private for worship if they got a license from him.
Religious gatherings grew in numbers, size, and geographical
extent. Dissenters were then allowed by statute to meet behind
locked or barred doors. But they had to pay tithes and could be
prosecuted in the ecclesiastical courts for not doing so. By
statute, all congregations and assemblies for religious worship
had to register with the local bishop or archbishop. Disturbers of
religious worship were required to find two sureties for the
amount of 50 pounds.
Attendance at the established Church of England was never again
required. Nor was preaching or lecturing constrained. Instead, a
statute was passed in 1677 that: Every person shall be pious and
exercise religion publicly and privately on Sunday. No work may be
done or goods sold or forfeit 5s. or the goods respectively. No
one may travel or forfeit 5-20s. In a further statute of 1688,
because some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of
religion may be an effectual means to unite Protestant subjects in
interest and affection, Protestant nonconformists who took the
oaths (or declaration in the case of Quakers) and a declaration
that they were not Catholic, did not adore the Virgin Mary or any
saint, and did not go to mass were declared not liable for
punishment in any ecclesiastical court by reason of their
nonconformity to the Church of England, except Protestant
dissenters meeting behind locked doors. But payment of tithes and
performance of parish duties were still obligatory. Non-conformist
preachers had to subscribe to the tenets of belief listed in the
first eighteen Articles of Religion, but were exempted from the
articles on expounding inconsistencies in scripture, the
traditions of the church, homilies, and consecration of bishops
and ministers of the Elizabethan statute and the statute on
uniformity of prayers and sacraments of Charles II.
Quakers were active in the countryside. They were about one tenth
of the population and did not believe in a state church. There
were some Quakers schools and some Quaker workhouses to give work
to the poor. For the reason that they met together in large
numbers to the great endangering of public peace and safety and to
the terror of the people, and because they had secret
communications and separated themselves from the rest of the
people and from the usual places of worship, a statute was passed
in 1662, that any Quakers who assembled to the number of five or
more under the pretense of unauthorized religious worship and any
person maintaining that taking an oath before a magistrate was
unlawful and contrary to the word of God or refusing to take a
required oath was to forfeit 5 pounds for the first offence or be
imprisoned for 3 months if he couldn't pay. For the second
offence, the penalty was 10 pounds or imprisonment for 6 months
with hard labor. The third offence required abjuring the realm or
being transported to a plantation of the king beyond the seas. The
policy of Charles II was to allow Quakers to meet undisturbed, to
keep their hats on before magistrates, and to not come to the
parish church. But this policy was only partially adopted in the
country. From 1689, by statute, the Quakers were allowed to affirm
or declare instead of making the customary oath.
Many Presbyterians became Unitarians, who rejected the trinity of
"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" and doubted the divinity of Jesus,
but accepted revelation. This statute was then passed in 1697: Any
person having been educated in or having at any time made
profession of the Christian religion who, by writing, printing,
teaching, or advised speaking, denies the Holy trinity, asserts
that there is more than one god, or that the Bible is not of
divine authority, shall be disabled for any ecclesiastical, civil,
or military office. The penalty for a second offense is being
disabled from suing or pleading any action in any court, being
guardian of any child, or executor or administrator of any estate,
or receiving any legacy or deed of gift and imprisonment for three
years without bail or mainprize.
Catholicism was always disfavored. Catholic priests were executed
with little evidence. At times, Charles commuted the death penalty
for them to banishment. Sometimes there were effigies of the pope
burned in the streets. Such burnings were later banned. At times
Charles allowed Catholics to attend mass.
By statute of 1672, all civil and military officers and king's
officials must take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance and take
the sacrament of the established Church of England or be incapable
of office. They also had to make a declaration that they believed
that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, when they
were consecrated. This is to prevent dangers from Papists. As of
1678, no one may be a member of Parliament if he has refused to
take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and the declaration
that they were not Catholic, did not adore the Virgin Mary or any
saint, and did not go to mass.
Papists were made to pay higher taxes. Every temporal and
spiritual person, corporation, and guild had to pay taxes to
subsidize the king in the amount of 2s.8d. for every pound's worth
of personal property and money. But Papists had to pay 5s.4d. for
such. Persons and corporations having land worth at least 20s.
yearly, had to pay 4s. for every pounds' worth. But Papists and
aliens had to pay 8s. for such.
But Charles' sucessor, King James II was Catholic and gave many
offices to Catholics. This prompted a reaction against Papism and
more statutes restricting them. After James II was chased out of
England, a statute of 1688 required suspected Papists in London to
make a declaration that they were not Catholic, did not adore the
Virgin Mary or any saint, and did not go to mass, or stay ten
miles outside of London, excluding tradesmen and manual workers,
sho must only register. All Papists had to forfeit their arms and
any horse worth more than 5 pounds. Also, no monarch or spouse of
such could be a Papist, but must make the declaration as members
of Parliament, and join in the communion of the established Church
of England. As of 1696, a person who is serjeant at law,
counsellor at law, barrister, advocate, attorney, solicitor,
proctor, clerk, or notary must take the oath of supremacy and
allegiance. As of 1698, Papists who kept a school or tried to
educate the young were threatened with perpetual imprisonment.
Also, Popish parents were prohibited from forcing their children
inclined towards Protestantism to become Catholic by refusing them
suitable maintenance. As of 1699, a reward of 100 pounds was
offered to any person who apprehended a Popish bishop, priest, or
Jesuit saying mass. Also, no Papist may buy land.
- Judicial Procedure -
As of 1679, no man could be held in prison but on a charge or
conviction of crime or for debt. Every prisoner on a criminal
charge could demand as a right from the Court of the King's Bench
the issue of a writ of "habeas corpus" which bound his gaoler to
produce the prisoner and the warrant on which he was imprisoned
for review as to legality. This forced trials to be speedy, which
they had not hitherto been. Now it was impossible for the Crown to
detain a person for political reasons in defiance of both
Parliament and the courts, as Charles I had done. The writ was
suspended in times of war and domestic unrest: 1689,1696, 1708.