consideration of the case of Wilkes against Leuson as: "The heir
is estopped from falsifying the consideration acknowledged in the
deed of feoffment of his ancestor. Where a tenant in capite made a
feoffment without consideration, but falsely alleged one in the
deed on an office finding his dying seised, the master of the
wards cannot remove the feoffees on examining into the
consideration, and retain the land until &c. and though the heir
tended, still if he do not prosecute his livery, the Queen must
admit the feoffees to their traverse, and to have the farm, &c."
The court reporter summarized this case as follows: Wilkes, who
was merchant of the staple, who died in February last past, made a
feoffment in the August before his death to one Leuson, a knight,
and his brother, and another, of the manor of Hodnel in the county
of Warwick; and the deed, (seen) for seven thousand pounds
[140,000s.] to him paid by the feoffees, of which sum he made
acquittance in the same deed (although in fact and in truth not a
half-penny was paid), gave, granted, and confirmed &c "habendum
eir et hoeredibus suis in perpetuum, ad proprium opus et usum
ipsorum A. B. et C. in perpetuum," and not "hoeredum suorum,"
together with a clause of warranty to them, their heirs and
assigns, in forma proedicta: and notwithstanding this feoffment he
occupied the land with sheep, and took other profits during his
life; and afterwards his death was found on a diem clausit
extremum by office, that he died seised of the said manor in fee,
and one I. Wilkes his brother of full age found his next heir, and
a tenure in capite found, and now within the three months the said
feoffees sued in the court of wards to be admitted to their
traverse, and also to have the manor in farm until &c. And
although the said I. Wilkes the brother had tendered a livery, yet
he had not hitherto prosecuted it, but for cause had discontinued.
And whether now the master of the wards at his discretion could
remove the feoffees by injunction out of possession upon
examination of the said consideration of the said feoffment which
was false, and none such in truth, and retain it in the hands of
the Queen donec et quousque &c. was a great question. And by the
opinion of the learned counsel of that court he cannot do it, but
the Queen is bound in justice to give livery to him who is found
heir by the office, or if he will not proceed with that, to grant
to the tenderers the traverse, and to have the farm, &c. the
request above mentioned. And this by the statutes ... And note,
that no averment can be allowed to the heir, that the said
consideration was false against the deed and acknowledgment of his
ancestor, for that would be to admit an inconvenience. And note
the limitation of the use above, for divers doubted whether the
feoffees shall have a fee-simple in the sue, because the use is
not expressed, except only "to themselves (by their names) for
ever;" but if those words had been wanting, it would have been
clear enough that the consideration of seven thousand pounds had
been sufficient, &c. for the law intends a sufficient
consideration by reason of the said sum; but when the use is
expressed otherwise by the party himself, it is otherwise. And
also the warranty in the deed was "to them, their heirs, and
assigns, in form aforesaid," which is a declaration of the intent
of Wilkes, that the feoffees shall not have the use in fee simple;
and it may be that the use, during their three lives, is worth
seven thousand pounds, and more &c. And suppose that the feoffment
had been "to have to them and their heirs to the proper use and
behoof of them the feoffees for the term of their lives for ever
for seven thousand pounds," would they have any other estate than
for the term of their lives in the use? I believe not; and so in
the other case.
A last example of a case concerning consideration is that of
Assaby and Others against Lady Anne Manners and Others. The court
reporter characterized the principle of the case as: "A. in
consideration of his daughter's marriage covenants to stand seised
to his own use for life, and that at his death she and her husband
shall have the land in tail, and that all persons should stand
seised to those uses, and also for further assurance. After the
marriage he bargains and sell with fine and recovery to one with
full notice of the covenants and use; this is of no avail, but on
the death of A. the daughter and her husband may enter." The court
reporter summarized this case as follows: A. was seised of land in
fee, and in consideration of a marriage to be had between his
daughter and heir apparent, and B. son and heir apparent of C. he
covenanted and agreed by indenture with C. that he himself would
have, hold, and retain the land to himself, and the profits of
during his life, and that after his decease the said son and
daughter should have the land to them and to the heirs of their
two bodies lawfully begotten, and that all persons then or
afterwards seised of the land should stand and be seised
immediately after the marriage solemnized to the use of the said
A. for the term of his life, and after his death to the use of the
said son and daughter in tail as above, and covenanted further to
make an assurance of the land before a certain day accordingly &c.
and then the marriage took effect; and afterwards A. bargained and
sold the land for two hundred marks [2,667s.](of which not a penny
is paid) to a stranger, who had notice of the first agreements,
covenants, and use, and enfeoffed divers persons to this last use,
against whom a common recovery was had to his last use; and also
A. levied a fine to the recoverers before any execution had, and
notwithstanding all these things A. continued possession in taking
the profits during his life; and afterwards died; and the son and
daughter entered, and made a feoffment to their first use. And all
this matter was found in assize by Assaby and others against Lady
Anne Manners and others. And judgment was given that the entry and
feoffment were good and lawful, and the use changed by the first
indenture and agreement. Yet error was alleged. The judgment in
the assize is affirmed.
The famous Shelley's Case stands for the principle that where in
any instrument an estate for life is given to the ancestor, and
afterwards by the same instrument, the inheritance is limited
whether mediately, or immediately, to his heirs, or heirs of his
body, as a class to take in succession as heirs to him, the word
"heirs" is a word of limitation, and the ancestor takes the whole
estate. For example, where property goes to A for life and the
remainder goes to A's heirs, A's life estate and the remainder
merge into a fee in A. A can sell or devise this interest.
Edward Shelley was a tenant in tail general. He had two sons. The
older son predeceased his father, leaving a daughter and his wife
pregnant with a son. Edward had a common recovery (the premises
being in lease for years) to the use of himself for term of his
life, after his decease to the use of the male heirs of his body,
and of the male heirs of the body of such heirs, remainder over.
After judgment and the awarding of the writ of seisin, but before
its execution, Edward died. After his death, and before the birth
of his older son's son, the writ of seisin was executed. The
younger son entered the land and leased it to a third party.
Afterwards, the son of the older son was born. He entered the land
and ejected the third party. It was held that the younger son had
taken quasi by descent until the birth of the older son's son. The
entry by the older son's son was lawful. The third party was
lawfully ejected. (Shelley's Case, King's Bench, 1581, English
Reports - Full Reprint, Vol. 76, Page 206.)
About 1567, London authorities punished Nicholas Jennings alias
Blunt for using elaborate disguises to present himself as an
epileptic to beg for handouts from the public. He was pilloried,
whipped, and pulled behind a cart through the streets. He was kept
at the Bridewell and was set to work at a mill.
- - - Chapter 14 - - -
- The Times: 1601-1625 -
Due in part to increasing population, the prices of foodstuffs had
risen sixfold from the later 1400s, during which it had been
stable. This inflation gradually impoverished those living on
fixed wages. Landlords could insist on even shorter leases and
higher rents. London quadrupled in population. Many lands that
were in scattered strips, pasture lands, waste lands, and lands
gained from drainage and disafforestation were enclosed for the
introduction of convertible agriculture (e.g. market-oriented
specialization) and only sometimes for sheep. The accompanying
extinguishment of common rights was devastating to small tenants
and cottagers. Gentry and yeomen benefited greatly. There was a
gradual consolidation of the land into fewer hands and demise of
the small family farm. In towns, the mass of poor, unskilled
workers with irregular work grew. Prices finally flattened out in
the 1620s.
Society became polarized with a wealthy few growing wealthier and
a mass of poor growing poorer. This social stratification became a
permanent fixture of English society. Poverty was no longer due to
death of a spouse or parent, sickness or injury, or a phase in the
life cycle such as youth or old age. Many full-time wage earners
were in constant danger of destitution. More subdivided land
holdings in the country made holdings of cottagers minuscule. But
these were eligible for parish relief under the poor laws. Beside
them were substantial numbers of rogues and vagabonds wandering
the roads. These vagrants were usually young unmarried men. There
were no more licensed liveries of lords.
During the time 1580 to 1680, there were distinct social classes
in England which determined dress, convention in comportment which
determined face-to-face contacts between superiors and inferiors,
order of seating in church, place arrangement at tables, and rank
order in public processions. It was influenced by power, wealth,
life-style, educational level, and birth. These classes lived in
separate worlds; their paths did not cross each other. People
moved only within their own class. Each class had a separate
existence as well as a different life style from the other
classes. So each class developed a wariness of other classes.
However, there was much social mobility between adjacent classes.
At the top were the gentry, about 2% of the population. Their's
was a landed wealth with large estate mansions. They employed many
servants and could live a life of leisure. Their lady wives often
managed the household with many servants and freely visited
friends and went out shopping, riding, or walking. They conversed
with neighbors and made merry with them at childbirths,
christenings, churchings, and funerals. Gentlemen usually had
positions of responsibility such as lords of manors and leaders in
their parishes. These families often sent the oldest son to
university to become a Justice of the Peace and then a member of
Parliament. They also served as justices and as county officers
such as High Constable of their hundred and grand jury member.
Their social, economic, and family ties were at least countywide.
They composed about 700 gentle families, including the peers, who
had even more landed wealth, which was geographically dispersed.
After the peers were: baronets (created in 1611), knights,
esquires, and then ordinary gentlemen. These titles were acquired
by being the son of such or purchase. Most gentry had a house in
London, where they spent most of their time, as well as country
mansions. About 4/5 of the land was in the hands of 7,000 of the
nobility and landed gentry due in part to entails constructed by
attorneys to favor hereditary interests. The gentry had also
profited by commerce and possessions in the colonies. The country
life of a country squire or gentleman dealt with all the daily
affairs of a farm. He had men plough, sow, and reap. He takes part
in the haying and getting cut grass under cover when a rain came.
His sow farrows, his horse is gelded, a first lamb is born. He
drags his pond and takes out great carps. His horses stray and he
finds them in the pound. Boys are bound to him for service. He hires
servants, and some work out their time and some run away. Knaves
steal his sheep. His hog is stabbed. He and a neighbor argue about
the setting up of a cottage. He borrows money for a daughter's
dowry. He holds a leet court. He attends church on Sunday and
reads the lesson when called upon. He visits the local tavern to
hear from his neighbors. Country folk brawl. Wenches get pregnant.
Men commit suicide, usually by hanging. Many gentlemen spent their
fortunes and died poor. New gentlemen from the lower classes took
their place.
The second class included the wealthier merchants and professional
men of the towns. These men were prominent in town government.
They usually had close family ties with the gentry, especially as
sons. When wealthy enough, they often bought a country estate. The
professional men included military officers, civil service
officials, attorneys, some physicians, and a few clergymen. The
instabilities of trade, high mortality rates in the towns, and
high turnover rate among the leading urban families prevented any
separate urban interest group arising that would be opposed to the
landed gentry. Also included in this second group were the most
prosperous yeomanry of the countryside.
The third class was the yeomanry at large, which included many
more than the initial group who possessed land in freehold of at
least 40s., partly due to inflation. Freehold was the superior
form of holding land because one was free to sell, exchange, or
devise the land and had a political right to vote in Parliamentary
elections. Other yeomen were those who possessed enough land, as
copyholder or leaseholder, to be protected from fluctuations in
the amount of the annual harvest, that is, at least 50 acres. A
copyholder rented land from a lord for a period of years or lives,
usually three lives including that of the widow, and paid a
substantial amount whenever the copyhold came up for renewal. The
copyholder and leaseholder were distinguished from the mere
tenant-at-will, whose only right was to gather his growing crop
when his landlord decided to terminate his tenancy. The average
yeoman had a one and a half story house, with a milkhouse, a
malthouse, and other small buildings attached to the dwelling. The
house would contain a main living room, a parlor, where there
would be one or more beds, and several other rooms with beds. No
longer was there a central great hall. Cooking was done in a
kitchen or over the open fire in the fireplace of the main room.
Furniture included large oak tables, stools, settes or forms,
chests, cupboards, and a few hard-backed simple chairs. Dishware
was wood or pewter. The yeomen were among those who governed the
nation. They often became sureties for recognizances, witnesses to
wills, parish managers, churchwardens, vestrymen, the chief civil
officers of parishes and towns, overseers of the poor, surveyors
of bridges and highways, jurymen and constables for the Justices
of the Peace, and sheriffs' bailiffs. The families and servants of
these yeomen ate meat, fish, wheaten bread, beer, cheese, milk,
butter, and fruit. Their wives were responsible for the dairy,
poultry, orchard, garden, and perhaps pigs. They smoked and cured
hams and bacon, salted fish, dried herbs for the kitchen or of
lavender and pot-pourri for sweetening the linen, and arranged
apples and roots in lofts or long garrets under the roof to last
the winter. They preserved fruits candied or in syrup. They
preserved wines; made perfumes, washes for preserving the hair and
complexion, rosemary to cleanse the hair, and elder-flower water
for sunburn; distilled beverages; ordered wool hemp, and flax to
spin for cloth (the weaving was usually done in the village);
fashioned and sewed clothes and house linens; embroidered; dyed;
malted oats; brewed; baked; and extracted oils. Many prepared herb
medicines and treated injuries, such as dressing wounds, binding
arteries, and setting broken bones. Wives also ploughed and sowed,
weeded the crops, and sheared sheep. They sometimes cared for the
poor and sold produce at the market. Some yeomen were also
tanners, painters, carpenters, or blacksmiths; and as such they
were frequently brought before the Justices of the Peace for
exercising a craft without having served an apprenticeship. The
third class also included the freemen of the towns, who could
engage independently in trade and had political rights. These were
about one-third of the male population of the town.
The fourth class included the ordinary farmer leasing by copyhold,
for usually 21 years, five to fifty acres. From this class were
drawn sidesmen [assistants to churchwardens] and constables. They
had neither voice nor authority in government. Their daily diet
was bacon, beer, bread, and cheese. Also in this class were the
independent urban craftsmen who were not town freemen. Their only
voice in government was at the parish level.
The fifth and lowest class included the laborers and cottagers,
who were usually tenants at will. They were dependent on day
labor. They started work at dawn, had breakfast for half an hour
at six, worked until dinner, and then until supper at about six;
in the summer they would then do chores around the barns until
eight or nine. Some were hedgers, ditchers, ploughmen, reapers,
shepherds, and herdsmen. The cottagers' typical earnings of about
1s. a day amounted to about 200 shillings a year, which was almost
subsistence level. Accordingly they also farmed a little on their
four acres of land with garden. Some also had a few animals. They
lived in a one or two room cottage of clay and branches of trees
or wood, sometimes with a brick fireplace and chimney, and few
windows. They ate bread, cheese, lard, soup, and greens. If a
laborer was unmarried, he lived with the farmer. Theirs was a
constant battle for survival. They often moved because of
deprivation to seek opportunity elsewhere. The town wage-earning
laborers ranged from journeymen craftsmen to poor casual laborers.
The mass of workers in London were not members of guilds, and the
crime rate was high.
The last three classes also contained rural craftsmen and
tradesmen, who also farmed. The variety of trades became very
large, e.g. tinsmiths, chain smiths, pewterers, violin makers, and
glass painters. The curriers, who prepared hides for shoemakers,
coachmakers, saddlers, and bookbinders, were incorporated.
The fourth and fifth classes comprised about three fourths of the
population.
Then there were the maritime groups: traders, ship owners, master
and seamen, and the fishers.
Over one fourth of all households had servants. They were the
social equals of day laborers, but materially better off with food
and clothing plus an allowance of money of two pounds [40s.] a
year. Those who sewed got additional pay for this work. There was
no great chasm between the family and the servants. They did not
segregate into a parlor class and a kitchen class. The top
servants were as educated as their masters and ate at the same
table. Great households had a chaplain and a steward to oversee
the other servants. There was usually a cook. Lower servants ate
together. Servants were disciplined by cuffs and slaps and by the
rod by master or mistress. Maids wore short gowns, a large apron,
and a gypsy hat tied down over a cap. Chamber maids helped to
dress their mistresses. Servants might sleep on trundle beds
stored under their master's or mistress's bed, in a separate room,
or on the straw loft over the stables. A footman wore a blue tunic
or skirted coat with corded loop fasteners, knee-britches, and
white stockings. He walked or ran on foot by the side of his
master or mistress when they rode out on horseback or in a
carriage and ran errands for him, such as leading a lame horse
home or running messages. A good footman is described in this
letter: "Sir, - You wrote me lately for a footman, and I think
this bearer will fit you: I know he can run well, for he has run
away twice from me, but he knew the way back again: yet, though he
has a running head as well as running heels (and who will expect a
footman to be a stayed man) I would not part with him were I not
to go post to the North. There be some things in him that answer
for his waggeries: he will come when you call him, go when you bid
him, and shut the door after him; he is faithful and stout, and a
lover of his master. He is a great enemy to all dogs, if they bark
at him in his running; for I have seen him confront a huge
mastiff, and knock him down. When you go a country journey, or
have him run with you a-hunting, you must spirit him with liquor;
you must allow him also something extraordinary for socks, else
you must not have him wait at your table; when his grease melts in
running hard, it is subject to fall into his toes. I send him to
you but for trial, if he be not for your turn, turn him over to me
again when I come back..."
Dress was not as elaborate as in Elizabethan times. For instance,
fewer jewels were worn. Ladies typically wore a brooch, earrings,
and pearl necklaces. Men also wore earrings. Watches with
elaborate cases were common. Women's dresses were of satin,
taffeta, and velvet, and were made by dressmakers. Pockets were
carried in the hand, fastened to the waist by a ribbon, or sewn in
petticoats and accessible by a placket opening. The corset was
greatly reduced. Women's hair was in little natural-looking curls,
a few small tendrils on the forehead with soft ringlets behind the
ears, and the back coiled into a simple knot. Men also wore their
hair in ringlets. They had pockets in their trousers, first as a
cloth pouch inserted into an opening in the side seam, and later
sewn into the side seam. The bereaved wore black, and widows wore
a black veil over their head until they remarried or died. Rouge
was worn by lower class women. The law dictating what classes could
wear what clothes was difficult to enforce and the last one was in
1597.
Merchants who had become rich by pirating could now afford to extend
their trading ventures well beyond the Atlantic sea. Cotton chintzes,
calicoes, taffetas, muslins, and ginghams from India now became
fashionable as dress fabrics. Simple cotton replaced linen as the
norm for napkins, tablecloths, bed sheets, and underwear. Then it
became the fashion to use calicoes for curtains, cushions, chairs,
and beds. Its inexpensiveness made these items affordable for many.
There was a cotton-weaving industry in England from about 1621,
established by cotton workmen who fled to England in 1585 from
Antwerp, which had been captured. By 1616, there were automatic
weaving looms in London which could be operated by a novice.
Toothbrushes, made with horsehair, were a new and costly luxury.
Even large houses now tended to do without a courtyard and became
compacted into one soaring and stately whole. A typical country
house had deep-set windows of glass looking into a walled green
court with a sundial in it and fringed around with small trees.
The gables roofs are steep and full of crooks and angles, and
covered with rough slate if there was a source for such nearby.
There was an extensive use of red tile, either rectangular or
other shapes and with design such as fishscales. The rooms are
broad and spacious and include hall, great parlor, little parlor,
matted chamber, and study. In the hall was still the great, heavy
table. Dining tables were covered with cloth, carpet, or printed
leather. Meals were increasingly eaten in a parlor. Noble men now
preferred to be waited upon by pages and grooms instead of by
their social equals as before. After dinner, they deserted the
parlor to retire into drawing rooms for conversation and desserts
of sweet wine and spiced delicacies supplemented by fruit.
Afterward, there might be dancing and then supper. In smaller
parlors, there was increasing use of oval oak tables with folding
leaves. Chests of drawers richly carved or inlaid and with brass
handles were coming into increased use. Walls were wainscotted
and had pictures or were hung with tapestry. Carpets, rugs, and
curtains kept people warm. There were many stools to sit on, and
some arm chairs. Wide and handsome open staircases separated the
floors, instead of the former circular stone closed stairwells.
Upstairs, the sitting and bedrooms open into each other with broad,
heavy doors. Bedrooms had four-post beds and wardrobes with shelves
and pegs. Under the roof are garrets, apple-lofts, and root-chambers.
Underneath is a cellar. Outside is a farmyard with outbuildings such
as bake house, dairy, cheese-press house, brewery, stilling house,
malt house, fowl house, dove cot, pig stye, slaughter-house, wood
house, barns, stable, and sometimes a mill. There were stew-ponds
for fish and a park with a decoy for wild fowl. There was also a
laundry, carpenter's bench, blacksmith's forge, and pots and
equipment of a house painter.
In the 1600s, towns were fortified by walled ditch instead of
relying on castles, which couldn't contain enough men to protect
the townspeople. Also in towns, water was supplied by local pumps
and wells. In 1613, a thirty-eight-mile aqueduct brought spring
water into London. In the country, floors were of polished wood or
stone and strewn with rushes. A ladies' attendant might sleep the
same bedroom on a bed which slid under the ladies' bed.
Apprentices and shop boys had to sleep under the counter. Country
laborers slept in a loft on straw. Bread was made in each
household. There were bedroom chairs with enclosed chamber pots.
Wood fires were the usual type. Coal was coming in to use in the
towns and near coal mines. Charcoal was also used. Food was
roasted on a spit over a fire, baked, or broiled. People still
licked their fingers at meals. The well-to-do had wax candles.
Tallow dips were used by the poor and for the kitchen. People
drank cordials and homemade wines made with grapes, currants,
oranges, or ginger. Some mead was also drunk.
Tobacco, potatoes, tea, asparagus, kidney beans, scarlet runners,
cardoons (similar to artichokes), horseradish, sugarcane, and
turkeys for Christmas, were introduced from the New World, China,
and India. Tea was a rare and expensive luxury. Coffee was a new
drink. With the cane sugar was made sweetened puddings, pies, and
drinks. The potato caused the advent of distillation of
concentrated alcohol from fermented potato mashes. There was a
distiller's company by 1638. Distilleries' drinks had higher
alcoholic content than wine or beer.
The Merchant Adventurers sold in town stores silks, satins,
diamonds, pearls, silver, and gold. There were women peddlers
selling hats and hosiery from door to door and women shopkeepers,
booksellers, alehouse keepers, linen drapers, brewers, and ale-
wives. London had polluted air and water, industrial noise, and
traffic congestion.