where great inconveniences be and daily increase by dislocation, pulling
down, and destruction of houses and towns within this realm, and laying
to pasture lands which customably have been manured and occupied with
tillage and husbandry, whereby idleness doth increase, for where in some
one town 200 persons, men and women and children, and their ancestors
out of time of mind, were daily occupied and lived by sowing corn and
grains, breeding of cattle, and other increase necessary for man's
sustenance, and now the said persons and their progenies be minished and
decreased, whereby the husbandry which is the greatest commodity of this
realm for sustenance of man is greatly decayed, Churches destroyed, the
service of God withdrawn, Christian people there buried not prayed for,
the patrons and curates wronged, cities, market towns brought to great
ruin and decay, necessaries for man's sustenance made scarce and dear,
the people sore minished in the realm, whereby the power and defence
thereof is enfeebled and impaired, to the high displeasure of God and
against his laws and to the subversion of the common weal of this realm
and dislocation of the same, if substantial and speedy remedy be not
thereof provided; wherefore the King our Sovereign Lord, by the advice
and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same,
ordaineth, stablisheth and enacteth, that all such towns, villages,
boroughs and hamlets, tything houses and other habitations in any parish
or parishes within this realm, whereof the more part the first day of
this present parliament was or were used and occupied to tillage and
husbandry, [as] by the owner or owners thereof for their singular
profit, avail, and lucre wilfully since the said first day be or
hereafter shall be suffered or caused to fall down and decay, whereby
the husbandry of the said towns, villages, boroughs, hamlets, tithings
houses and other habitations and parishes within this realm been or
hereafter shall be decayed, and turned from the said use and occupation
of husbandry and tillage into pasture, shall be by the said owner or
owners, their heirs, successors or assigns or other for them, within one
year next after such wilful decay, re-edified and made again meet and
convenient for people to dwell and inhabit in the same, and to have use
and therein to exercise husbandry and tillage as at the said first day
of this present parliament or since was there used, occupied and had,
after the manner and usage of the country where the said land lieth, at
the cost and charges of the same owner or owners, their heirs,
successors or assigns. And if since the said first day of this present
parliament any lands which at the same first day or since were commonly
used in tillage, been enclosed or from henceforth shall be enclosed and
turned only to pasture, whereby any house of husbandry within this realm
is or shall be hereafter decayed, that then all such lands shall be by
the same owner or owners, their heirs, successors or assigns or other
for them, within one year next ensuing the same decay, put in tillage,
and exercised, used and occupied in husbandry and tillage, as they were
the first said day of this present parliament or any time since, after
the manner and usage of the country where such land lieth; and if any
person or persons do contrary to the premises or any of them, that then
it be lawful to the King, if any such lands or houses be holden of him
immediately, after office or inquisition found thereof comprehending the
same matter of record, or to the lords of the fees, if any such lands or
houses [have] been holden of immediately, without office or inquisition
thereof had, to receive yearly half the value of the issues and profits
of any such lands whereof the house or houses of husbandry be not so
maintained and sustained, and the same half deal of the issues and
profits to have, hold and keep to his or their own use without anything
thereof to be paid or given, to such time as the same house or houses be
sufficiently re-edified, built or repaired again, for the exercising and
occupying of husbandry; and immediately after that, as well the interest
and title given by this Act to our Sovereign Lord the King as to the
lords of the fee to cease and no longer to endure; and that it shall be
lawful to the owner and owners of such lands, house or houses holden
immediately of our said Sovereign Lord the King to have and enjoy the
same and to take the issues and profits thereof as if no such office or
inquisition had never been had nor made; and that no manner of freehold
be in the King nor in any such lord or lords by virtue of this act or
taking of any such profits of or in any such lands in no manner of form,
but only the King and the said lord or lords have power to take, receive
and have the said issues and profits as is abovesaid, and therefore the
King or the said lord or lords to have power to distrain for the same
issues and profits to be had and perceived by them in form abovesaid by
authority of this present act....
14. THE COMMISSION[262] OF INQUIRY TOUCHING ENCLOSURES [_Patent Roll 9
Hen. VIII, p. 2, m. 6d._], 1517.
The King to his beloved and faithful John Veysy, dean of our Chapel,
Andrew Wyndesore, knight, and Roger Wegeston, late of Leicester,
greeting. Whereas of late in times past divers our lieges, not having
before their eyes either God or the benefit and advantage of our realm
or the defence of the same, have enclosed with hedges and dykes and
other enclosures certain towns, hamlets and other places within this our
realm of England, where many of our subjects dwelt and there yearly and
assiduously occupied and exercised tillage and husbandry, and have
expelled and ejected the same our subjects dwelling therein from their
holdings and farms, and have reduced the country round the houses, towns
and hamlets aforesaid, and the fields and lands within the same, to
pasture and for flocks of sheep and other animals to graze there for the
sake of their private gain and profit, and have imparked certain great
fields and pasture and woods of the same in large and broad parks, and
certain others in augmentation of parks for deer only to graze there,
whereby the same towns, hamlets and places are not only brought to
desolation, but also the houses and buildings of the same are brought to
so great ruin, that no vestige of the same at the present is left, and
our subjects, who have dwelt in the said places and there occupied and
exercised tillage and husbandry, are now brought to idleness, which is
the step-mother of virtues, and daily live in idleness, and the crops
and breeding of cattle that were bred and nourished by the same tillers
and husbandmen dwelling in the same towns, hamlets and places for human
sustenance, are withdrawn and entirely voided from the same places, and
the churches and chapels there hallowed are destroyed and divine
services there taken away, and the memory of souls of Christians buried
there utterly and wholly perished, and many other inestimable damages
grow therefrom and daily hereafter will grow, to the greatest desolation
and undoing of our realm and diminution of our subjects, unless an
opportune remedy for the reformation of the same be swiftly and speedily
applied: We, as we are duly bound, desiring to reform the aforesaid and
wishing to be certified touching the same, what and how many towns and
hamlets and how many houses and buildings have been thrown down from the
feast of St. Michael the Archangel in the fourth year of the reign of
the most illustrious lord Henry, late King of England, the Seventh, our
father, and how many and how great lands which were then in tillage are
now enclosed and converted to pasture, and how many and how great parks
have been imparked for the feeding of deer since the same feast, and
what lands have been enclosed in any parks or any park, which then were
or was, for the amplifying and enlarging of such parks, have therefore
appointed you and two of you to enquire by oath of good and lawful men
of the counties of Oxford, Berks, Warwick, Leicester, Bedford,
Buckingham, and Northampton, as well within liberties as without, and by
other ways, manners and means whereby you shall or may the better learn
the truth, what and how many towns, how many houses and buildings have
been thrown down from the aforesaid feast, and how many and how great
lands which were then in tillage are now converted to pasture, and how
many and how great parks have been enclosed for the feeding of deer on
this side the same feast, and what lands have been enclosed in any parks
or any park, which then were or was, for the enlargement of such parks,
and by whom, where, when, how and in what manner, and touching other
articles and circumstances in any wise concerning the premises,
according to the tenour and effect of certain articles specified in a
bill to these presents annexed. And therefore we command you that you
attend diligently to the premises and do and execute the same with
effect. And by the tenour of these presents we command our sheriffs of
the counties aforesaid that at certain days and places, which you shall
cause them to know, they cause to come before you or two of you as many
and such good and lawful men of their bailiwick by whom the truth of the
matter may the better be known and enquired of; and that you certify us
in our Chancery of what you shall do in the premises in three weeks from
the day of St. Michael next coming, together with this commission. In
witness whereof, etc. Witness the King at Westminster, the 28th day of
May.
[Footnote 262: Similar letters are addressed to other Commissioners
directing them to make similar inquiries in other parts of the country.
The Commission was appointed by Wolsey. Its returns are important as a
source of information both on the said conditions of the period and on
the administrative methods of the Tudor statesmen (see Leadam, _Domesday
of Enclosures_) and subsequent Commissions were appointed in 1548, 1566,
1607, 1632, 1635, and 1636, the last three being prompted partly by the
desire to raise money by means of fines.]
15. AN ACT CONCERNING FARMS AND SHEEP [_25 Hen. VIII, c. 13. Statutes of
the Realm, Vol. III, p. 451_], 1533-4.
Forasmuch as divers and sundry [persons] of the king's subjects of this
realm, to whom God of his goodness hath disposed great plenty and
abundance of moveable substance, now of late within few years have daily
studied, practised and invented ways and means how they might accumulate
and gather together into few hands as well great multitude of farms as
great plenty of cattle and in especial sheep, putting such lands as they
can get to pasture and not to tillage, whereby they have not only pulled
down churches and towns and enhanced the old rates of their rents of the
possessions of this realm, or else brought it to such excessive fines
that no poor man is able to meddle with it, but also have raised and
enhanced the prices of all manner of corn, cattle, wool, pigs, geese,
hens, chickens, eggs and such other almost double above the prices which
hath been accustomed, by reason whereof a marvellous multitude and
number of people of this realm be not able to provide meat, drink and
clothes necessary for themselves, their wives and children, but be so
discouraged with misery and poverty that they fall daily to theft,
robbery and other inconvenience, or pitifully die for hunger and cold;
and as it is thought by the King's most humble and loving subjects that
one of the greatest occasions that moveth and provoketh those greedy and
covetous people so to accumulate and keep in their hands such great
portions and parties of the grounds and lands of this realm from the
occupying of the poor husbandmen, and so to use it in pasture and not in
tillage, is only the great profit that cometh of sheep, which now be
coming to a few persons' hands of this realm in respect of the whole
number of the King's subjects, that some have 24 thousand, some 20
thousand, and some more and some less, by which a good sheep for victual
that was accustomed to be sold for 2s. 4d. or 3s. at the most, is now
sold for 6s. 5s. or 4s. at the least; and a stone of clothing wool that
in some shires of this realm was accustomed to be sold for 18d. or 20d.
is now sold for 4s. or 3s. 4d. at the least, and in some countries where
it hath been sold for 2s. 4d. or 2s., or 3s. at the most, it is now sold
for 5s. or 4s. 8d. at the least, and so raised in every part of this
realm; which things thus used be principally to the high displeasure of
Almighty God, to the decay of the hospitality of this realm, to the
diminishing of the King's people, and to the hindrance of the
clothmaking, whereby many poor people hath been accustomed to be set on
work, and in conclusion if remedy be not found it may turn to the utter
destruction and dislocation of this realm, which God defend; it may
therefore please the King's Highness of his most gracious and godly
disposition, and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of their goodness and
charity, with the assent of the Commons in this present parliament
assembled, to ordain and enact by authority of the same, that no person
or persons from the feast of St. Michael the Archangel which shall be in
the year of Our Lord God 1535 shall keep occupy or have in his
possession in his own proper lands, nor in the possession, lands or
grounds of any other which he shall have or occupy in farm, nor
otherwise have of his own proper cattle in use, possession or property,
by any manner of means, fraud, craft or covyn, above the number of 2,000
sheep at one time within any part of this realm of all sorts and kinds,
upon pain to lose and forfeit for every sheep that any person or persons
shall have or keep above the number limited by this act, 3s. 4d., the
one half to the King our Sovereign Lord, and the other half to such
person as will sue for the same.... It is also further enacted by
authority aforesaid that no manner person after the said feast of the
nativity of Our Lord shall receive or take for term of life, years or at
will, by indenture, copy of court roll or otherwise, any more houses,
tenements of husbandry, whereunto any lands are belonging in town,
village, hamlet or tithing within this realm above the number of two
such holds or tenements; and that no manner person shall have or occupy
any such holds so newly taken to the number of two as is before
expressed, except he or they be dwelling within the same parishes where
such holds be, upon the pain of forfeiture for every week that he or
they shall have, occupy, or take any profits of such holds contrary to
this act 3s. 4d., the moiety of which forfeiture to be to the King our
Sovereign Lord and the other moiety to the party that will sue for the
same.....
16. INTERVENTION OF PRIVY COUNCIL UNDER SOMERSET TO PROTECT TENANTS[263]
[_Acts of Privy Council, p. 540_], 1549.
28 June, 1549.
An Order taken upon complaint made to the Lord Protector and other of
the King's Majesty's Privy Council for the town of Godmanchester.
First, all and every person within the said town having any more houses
of habitation than one in his possession, or any site of a house
whereupon a house of habitation hath been with [in] [_blank_] years
standing, shall at and before the Feast of St. Michael in the year of
our Lord God 1549 let or demise every the said house with the land
thereto accustomed, besides one, to a convenient person, if any that
shall require, upon the usual rent, and upon every site now having no
house of habitation shall before the said Feast of St. Michael in the
same year build a house for habitation and thereto allot so much as
thereto was heretofore belonging, and the same shall let and demise, if
any that will hire, upon the accustomed rent.
Item, every person having converted any house or habitation unto any
other use shall before Michaelmas next coming revert to the use of
habitation as it was before, and the same shall let to any which that
require upon the accustomed rent, and every person forthwith shall for
every house of habitation, decayed site of habitation, and for every
house of habitation converted to other use during the time of his
possession, maintain and keep the King's watch and other common charges
of the town in like manner as hath been heretofore of them used.
Item, whereas there is a great number of acres, lately belonging to
certain gilds there, it is ordered that the same shall be divided to the
inhabitants thereof in this manner; that is to say, to every ploughland
5 acres, and to every cottage or artificer there dwelling, or which
hereafter upon the houses to be new builded shall dwell, one acre; and
if the number do not extend, then every ploughland 4, and so for lack of
that rate every ploughland 3; and the residue of the said acres falling
after that rate to be divided amongst the cottages, paying for every of
the said acres 3s. 4d. and above.
Item, also whereas there be certain groves of wood destroyed and turned
to pasture in the same town, every such grove being so altered shall be
by the owner thereof again (having been so altered within this 20 years
before Michaelmas next coming) enclosed and preserved for wood, saving
so much of the same to be reserved for a high way for the owner as in
those cases the like is there used, the same high way to be severed by
hedge from the rest of the grove; and where the groves be so destroyed
that there remaineth no hope of growth, the owner thereof shall before
the next season following meet for the same set it with wood or sow it
with acorns or otherwise as the same may best be for growth of wood.
Provided nevertheless if any manner person have converted any house of
habitation or any site of habitation to his necessary use about his own
house, so that the same should be great inconvenience to be reverted to
the first and old use, then in that case the owner shall be discharged
if he for every such habitation so altered do build a like house in some
other convenient like place, and the same to use to all purposes as
before is said of the like.
The bailiffs be commanded to bring their grant by charter to the Lord
Protector at All Hallow tide next coming.
For the observation of which orders the bailiffs and others of that town
be bound in recognisance before the said Protector and Council.
Henry Frear } Have acknowledged and each of them has
Thomas Trecy } acknowledged that they owe to the Lord
John Clark } the King by themselves 100l. sterling.
Upon condition to perform the articles above mentioned.
[Footnote 263: For Somersets popular agrarian policy, see Pollard, _The
Protector Somerset_, and, especially, the introduction to the
_Commonwealth of this Realm of England_ (edited by Lamond).]
17. AN ACT FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF HUSBANDRY AND TILLAGE [_39 Eliz. c. 2,
Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV., Part II. pp. 893-96_], 1597-8.
Whereas the strength and flourishing estate of this kingdom hath been
always and is greatly upheld and advanced by the maintenance of the
plough and tillage, being the occasion of the increase and multiplying
of people both for service in the wars and in times of peace, being also
a principal means that people are set on work, and thereby withdrawn
from idleness, drunkenness, unlawful games and all other lewd practices
and conditions of life; and whereas by the same means of tillage and
husbandry the greater part of the subjects are preserved from extreme
poverty in a competent estate of maintenance and means to live, and the
wealth of the realm is kept dispersed and distributed in many hands,
where it is more ready to answer all necessary charges for the service
of the realm; and whereas also the said husbandry and tillage is a cause
that the realm doth more stand upon itself, without depending upon
foreign countries either for bringing in of corn in time of scarcity, or
for vent and utterance of our own commodities being in over great
abundance; and whereas from the 27th year of King Henry VIII of famous
memory, until the five and thirtieth year of Her Majesty's most happy
reign, there was always in force some law which did ordain a conversion
and continuance of a certain quantity and apportion of land in tillage
not to be altered; and that in the last parliament held in the said five
and thirtieth year of her Majesty's reign, partly by reason of the great
plenty and cheapness of grain at that time within this realm, and partly
by reason of the imperfection and obscurity of the law made in that
case, the same was discontinued; since which time there have grown many
more depopulations, by turning tillage into pasture, than at any time
for the like number of years heretofore: Be it enacted ... that whereas
any lands or grounds at any time since the seventeenth of November in
the first year of Her Majesty's reign have been converted to sheep
pastures or to the fattening or grazing of cattle, the same lands having
been tillable lands, fields or grounds such as have been used in tillage
by the space of twelve years together at the least next before such
conversion, according to the nature of the soil and course of husbandry
used in that part of the country, all such lands and grounds as
aforesaid shall, before the first day of May which shall be in the year
of Our Lord God 1599, be restored to tillage, or laid for tillage in
such sort as the whole ground, according to the nature of that soil and
course of husbandry used in that part of the country, be within three
years at the least turned to tillage by the occupiers and possessors
thereof, and so shall be continued for ever.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all lands and
grounds which now are used in tillage or for tillage, having been
tillable lands, fields or grounds, such as next before the first day of
this present parliament have been by the space of twelve years together
at the least used in tillage or for tillage, according to the nature of
the soil and course of husbandry used in that part of the country, shall
not be converted to any sheep pasture or to the grazing or fattening of
cattle by the occupiers or possessors thereof, but shall, according to
the nature of that soil and course of husbandry used in that part of the
country, continue to be used in tillage or for tillage for corn or
grain, and not for waste.... And be it enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that if any person or body politic or corporate shall offend
against the premises, every such person or body politic or corporate so
offending shall lose and forfeit for every acre not restored or not
continued as aforesaid, the sum of twenty shillings for every year that
he or they so offend; and that the said penalties or forfeitures shall
be divided in three equal parts, whereof one third part to be to the
Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors to her and their own use (and)
one other third part to the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors
for relief of the poor in the parish where the offence shall be
committed ... and the other third part to such person as will sue for
the same in any court of record at Westminster.... Provided also, that
this act shall not extend to any counties within this realm of England,
but such only as shall be hereafter specified; that is to say, the
counties of Northampton, Leicester, Warwick, Buckingham, Bedford,
Oxford, Berkshire, the Isle of Wight, Gloucester, Worcester, Nottingham,
Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Derby, Rutland, Lincoln,
Hereford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, York, Pembroke in South Wales, and the
Bishopric of Durham and Northumberland, and the counties of all the
cities and corporations lying situate and being within the counties
aforesaid, or confining to the same, and the Ainsty of the county of the
city of York.
18. SPEECH IN HOUSE OF COMMONS ON ENCLOSURES [_Hist. MSS. Com. MSS. of
Marquis of Salisbury, Part VII, pp. 541-3_], 1597[264].
But now, as if all these wrongs should be redressed, and all the cries
and curses of the poor should be removed, it hath pleased you, Mr.
Speaker, to exhibit this bill to our view as a complete remedy. I will
not say 'it is worse than the disease.' But this I may truly say, 'It is
too weak for the disease!' Three things I find exactly and providently
respected. First, that the law is general, without exception, drawing in
the purchaser as well as the first offender, whereat, howsoever some may
shake their heads, as pressed with their own grief, yet is there no new
imposition charged upon them, but such as is grounded upon the common
law. For being without contradiction that this turning of the earth to
sloth and idleness, whereby it cannot fructify to the common good, is
the greatest and most dangerous nuisance and damage to the common
people, the law hath provided that the treasure of wickedness shall
profit nothing, but that the nuisance shall be reformed in the hands of
the people that come in upon the best consideration.... And 26 Eliz. in
the Exchequer, in Claypole's case, an exhibition was exhibited upon the
Statute of 4 Hen. VII[265] against a purchaser for converting of tillage
into pasture, and adjudged good, though the purchaser were not the
converter, but only a contriver of the first conversion. So as this new
law tends but for an explanation of the old, that every one by the eye
may be informed what ought by the hand to be amended. Nay, though it be
not fit, Mr. Speaker, to be published among the ruder sort, who, if they
were privy to their own strength and liberty allowed them by the law,
would be as unbridled and untamed beasts, yet is it not unfit to be
delivered in this place of council, that is, that where the wrong and
mischief spreads to an universality, there the people may be their own
justices, as in 6 Ed. II and 8 Ed. III Ass. 154 and 447 it is adjudged
that if a wall be raised atraverse the way that leadeth to the Church
all the parishioners may beat it down, and 9 Ed. IV 445, if the course
of a water that runs to a town be stopped or diverted all the
inhabitants may break it down. Are the people thus interested in the
Church wherein their souls are fed, and shall we not think them to be as
deeply interested in the corn and increase of the earth that feeds and
maintains their bodies? Therefore most wisely hath the gentleman that
penned the law pressed the case upon the purchaser that he plough, lest
the people plot to circumvent him.
The second thing so well provided is ... that it turns one eye backward
to cure the ancient complaints and old festered disease of dearth and
scarcity that hath been so long among us, and turns the other eye
forward to cut out, as it were, the core that might draw on hereafter
mischiefs of the same nature; where the gentleman that framed this bill
hath dealt like a most skilful chirurgien, not clapping on a plaster to
cover the sore that it spread no further, but searching into the very
depths of the wound, that the life and strength which hath so long been
in decay by the wasting of towns and countries may at length again be
quickened and repaired.
The third thing most politicly respected is the intercourse and change
of ground to be converted into tillage, keeping a just proportion. For
it fareth with the earth as with other creatures that through continual
labour grow faint and feeble-hearted, and therefore, if it be so far
driven as to be out of breath, we may now by this law resort to a more
lusty and proud piece of ground while the first gathers strength, which
will be a means that the earth yearly shall be surcharged with burden of
her own excess. And this did the former lawmakers overslip, tyeing the
land once tilled to a perpetual bondage and servitude of being ever
tilled.
But this threefold benefit I find crossed and encountered with a
fourfold mildness and moderation fit to have a keen edge and sharpness
set upon it, wherein I acknowledge my master that drew this project to
have shewed himself like a tender-hearted physician, who coming to a
patient possessed and full of corrupt and evil humours, will not hastily
stir the body, but apply gentle and easy recipes. But surely, Mr.
Speaker, a desperate disease must have a desperate medicine, and some
wounds will not be healed but by incision.
The first moderation I mislike in this new law is that the most cunning
and skilful offender shall altogether slip the collar; for if a man have
decayed a whole town by enclosures, and hath rid his hand of it by
exchange with Her Majesty, taking from her ancient enclosed pastures
naturally yielding after the rate that his forced enclosed ground can
yield upon such corrupt improvement, and to justify the true value shall
take a lease back again of the Queen, the man is an occupier within the
words of this law. But by your favour, Mr. Speaker, not within the
intent of this law to plough this new enclosure, because Her Majesty is
in reversion, and this law doth not extend neither to her nor to her
farmers. And that none might escape it were good that all of this kind
might be enforced either to a contribution toward the poor,[266] who are
chiefly wronged, or to the breaking up of the grounds he received from
Her Majesty because they come in lieu of the former.
The second moderation that would be amended is in the imposition of the
pain ... which is but 10s. yearly for every acre not converted. By your
favour, Mr. Speaker, it is too easy: and I will tell you, Sir, the ears
of our great sheep-masters do hang at the door of this house, and myself
have heard since this matter grew in question to be reformed, that some,
enquiring and understanding the truths of the penalty, have prepared
themselves to adventure 10s. upon the certainty of the gain of 30s. at
the least. The third moderation is in the exception that exempts grounds
mown for hay to be converted into tillage. And, if it please you, Sir,
the first resolutions our enclosed gentlemen have is to sort and
proportion their grounds into two divisions, the one for walks whereon
their sheep may feed in the fresh summer, the other for hay whereon
their sheep may feed in the hard winter; so that these grounds that
carry hay have been as oil to keep the fire flaming and therefore no
reason why they should be shielded and protected from the ploughshare.
The fourth moderation is that after this reconversion there is no
restraint, but that every one may keep all the land ploughed in his own
hands; whereupon will follow that as now there is scarcity of corn and
plenty of such as would be owners, so then there will be plenty of corn,
but scarcity of such as can be owners. For until our gentlemen that now
enclose much, and then must plough much, shall meet with more compassion
toward the poor than they have done, their small will be as small as it
hath been, and then every one will be either an engrosser under false
pretence of large housekeeping, or else a transporter by virtue of some
license he will hope to purchase. And therefore it were good that every
one should be rated how much he should keep in his own hands, and that
not after the proportions of his present estimation; as, if a man hath
lifted up his countenance by reason of this unnatural and cruel
improvement after the rate of a gentleman of a thousand pounds by year,
where the same quantity of land before would yield but a hundred pounds
by year, I would have this man ruled after his old reckoning....
We sit now in judgment over ourselves: therefore as this bill entered at
first with a short prayer 'God speed the plough.' so I wish it may end
with such success as the plough may speed the poor.
(Endorsed: 1597. To Mr. Speaker against enclosures.)
[Footnote 264: Two Acts against depopulation were passed in this year,
39 Eliz., c. 1, and 39 Eliz., c. 2 (see No. 17 of this section). The
name of the member making the following speech is not known.]
[Footnote 265: 4 Hen. VII, c. 19, by which all occupiers of 20 acres and
upwards which have been tilled for the last three years are to maintain
them in tillage.]
[Footnote 266: For the exaction of such a contribution see Section IV,
No. 20 of this Part.]
19. SPEECHES IN HOUSE OF COMMONS ON ENCLOSURES [_D'Ewes Journal, p.
674_], 1601[267].
The points to be considered of in the continuance of Statutes were read,
and offered still to dispute whether the Statute of Tillage should be
continued.
Mr. Johnson said, In the time of Dearth, when we made this statute, it
was not considered that the hand of God was upon us; and now corn is
cheap; if too cheap, the Husbandman is undone, whom we must provide for,
for he is the staple man of the kingdom. And so after many arguments he
concluded the Statute to be repealed.
Mr. Bacon said the old commendation of Italy by the Poet was _potens
viris atque ubere glebae_, and it stands not with the policy of the
State that the wealth of the kingdom should be engrossed into a few
graziers' hands. And if you will put in so many provisoes as be desired,
you will make it useless. The Husbandman is a strong and hardy man, the
good footman. Which is a chief observation of good warriors, etc. So he
concluded the statutes not to be repealed.
Sir Walter Raleigh said, I think the law fit to be repealed; for many
poor men are not able to find seed to sow so much as they are bound to
plough, which they must do, or incur the penalty of the law. Besides,
all nations abound with corn. France offered the Queen to serve Ireland
with corn for 16s. a quarter, which is but 2s. the bushel; if we should
sell it so here, the ploughman would be beggared. The low countryman and
the Hollander, which never soweth corn, hath by his industry such plenty
that they will serve other nations. The Spaniard, who often wanteth
corn, had we never so much plenty, will not be beholding to the
Englishman for it....
And therefore I think the best course is to set it at liberty, and leave
every man free, which is the desire of a true Englishman.
Mr. Secretary Cecil said, I do not dwell in the country. I am not
acquainted with the plough. But I think that whosoever doth not maintain
the plough destroys this kingdom.... My motion therefore shall be that
this law may not be repealed, except former laws may be in force and
revived. Say that a glut of corn should be, have we not sufficient
remedy by transportation, which is allowable by the policy of all
nations?... I am sure when warrants go from the Council for levying of
men in the countries, and the certificates be returned unto us again, we
find the greatest part of them to be ploughmen. And excepting Sir Thomas
More's Utopia, or some such feigned commonwealth, you shall never find
but the ploughman is chiefly provided for, the neglect whereof will not
only bring a general, but a particular damage to every man.... If we
debar tillage, we give scope to the depopulator; and then if the poor
being thrust out of their houses go to dwell with others, straight we
catch them with the Statute of Inmates; if they wander abroad they are
within danger of the Statute of the Poor to be whipped.
[Footnote 267: No action was taken to amend or repeal existing laws. For
Bacon's views see his _History of King Henry_ VII.]
20. RETURN TO PRIVY COUNCIL OF ENCLOSERS FURNISHED BY JUSTICES OF
LINCOLNSHIRE [_S.P.D. Charles I, Vol. 206, No. 7_], _c._ 1637.
_Lincoln._--An abstract of such depopulators as have been hitherto dealt
withal in Lincolnshire, and received their pardon.
The persons in number 9
The sum of their fines 300l.
The number of houses by bond to be erected 33
The time for the erection, within one year
The number of farms to be continued that
are now standing 22
The fines are already paid.
Sir Charles Hussey, knt. Fine 80l.
Bond of 200 marks, with condition to set up in Honington 8 farmhouses
with barns, etc., and to lay to every house 30 acres of land, and to
keep 10 acres thereof yearly in tillage.
Sir Henry Ayscough, knt. Fine 20l.
Bond 200 marks. To set up 8 farmhouses in Blibroughe with 30 acres to
every farm, and 12 thereof to be kept yearly in tilth.
Sir Hamond Whichcoote, knt. Fine 40l.
Bond 200 marks. To set up 8 farmhouses, etc., in Harpswell, with 40
acres to every house; and 16 thereof in tillage.
Sir Edward Carre, knt. Fine 30l.
Bond 100l. To set up 2 farmhouses in Branswell, and 1 in Aswarby with 40
acres to every house, 16 in tillage.
Sir William Wraye, knt. Fine 30l.
Bond 100l. To set up in Gaynesby 2 farmhouses with 2 acres at least to
either, 10 in tillage, and to continue 2 farms more in Grainsby and 3 in
Newbell and Longworth, with the same quantity, as is now used there, a
third part in tilth.
Sir Edmund Bussye, knt. Fine 10l.
Bond 100l. To set up one farmhouse in Thorpe with 40 acres, 14 thereof
in tillage, and to continue 14 farms in Hedor, Oseby, Aseby, and Thorpe,
as they now are, with a third part in tillage.
Richard Rosetor, esqr. Fine 10l.
Bond 50l. To set up one farm in Limber with 40 acres, 16 in tillage, and
to continue 1 farm in Limber, and 2 in Sereby, _ut sup._
Robert Tirwhitt, esqr. Fine 10l.
Bond 50l. To set up one farm in Cameringham with 40 acres, 16 in
tillage.
John Tredway, gent. Fine 10l.
Bond 40l. To set up one farm in Gelson with 30 acres, 10 thereof in
tillage.
[Endorsed.] Lincoln Depopulators fined and pardoned and the reformations
to be made.
21. COMPLAINT OF LAUD'S ACTION ON THE COMMISSION FOR DEPOPULATION
[_S.P.D. Charles I, Vol. 497, No. 10_], 1641.
That upon the Commission of enquiry after depopulation, the Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury and other the Commissioners, at the
solicitation of Tho. Hussey, gent, did direct a letter in nature of a
Commission to certain persons within the County of Wilts, to certify
what number of acres in South Marston in the parish of Highworth were
converted from arable to pasture, and what number of ploughs were laid
down, etc.
Whereupon the Archdeacon with two others did return certificate, to the
Lord Archbishop, etc.
Upon this certificate, Mr. Anth. Hungerford, Mr. Southby, with 15
others, were convented before his Grace and the other Commissioners at
the Council Board, where, being charged with conversion;
Mr. Anth. Hungerford and Mr. Southby with some others did aver that they
had made no conversion, other than they had when they came to be owners
thereof.
His Grace said that they were to look no further than to the owners. And
certificate was returned that so many acres were converted and so many
ploughs let down.
They alleged that this certificate was false and made without their
privity, and therefore Mr. Hungerford in the behalf of the rest did
desire that they might not be judged upon that certificate; but that
they might have the like favour as Mr. Hussey had, to have certificates
of the same nature directed to other Commissioners, or a Commission, if
it might be granted, to examine upon oath whereby the truth might better
appear.
His Grace replied to Mr. Hungerford, "Since you desire it and are so
earnest for it you shall not have it."[268]
They did offer to make proof that since the conversion there were more
habitations of men of ability and fewer poor, and that whereas the King
had before 4 or 5 soldiers of the trained band he had now 9 there; that
the impropriation was much better to be let.
His Grace said to the rest of the Lords, "We must deal with these
gentlemen as with those of Tedbury, to take 150l. fine, and to lay open
the enclosures."
Which they refusing to do they were there threatened with an information
to be brought against them in the Star Chamber. And accordingly were
within a short time after by the said Mr. Hussey served with
_subpoenas_ at Mr. Attorney his suit in the Star Chamber: And this, as
Mr. Hussey told Mr. Hungerford, was done by my Lord Archbishop his
command.
[Endorsed.] Depopulation. Mr. Hungerford and Mr. Southby. (1641.)
[Footnote 268: See Clarendon, _History of the Rebellion I_, 204.
"And the revenue of too many of the Court consisted principally in
enclosures, and improvements of that nature, which he [_i. e_., Laud],
still opposed passionately except they were founded upon law; and then,
if it would bring profit to the King, how old and obsolete soever the
law was, he thought he might justly advise the prosecution. And so he
did a little too much countenance the Commission for Depopulation, which
brought much charge and trouble upon the people, which was likewise cast
upon his account."]
SECTION II
TOWNS AND GILDS
1. A Protest at Coventry against a Gild's Exclusiveness, 1495--2. A
Complaint from Coventry as to Inter-municipal Tariffs, 1498--3. The
Municipal Regulation of Wages at Norwich, 1518--4. The Municipal
Regulation of Markets at Coventry, 1520--5. The Municipal Regulation
of Wages at Coventry, 1524--6. An Act for Avoiding of Exactions taken
upon Apprentices in Cities, Boroughs, and Towns Corporate, 1536--7.
An Act whereby certain Chantries, Colleges, Free Chapels, and the
Possessions of the same be given to the King's Majesty, 1547--8.
Regrant to Coventry and Lynn of Gild Lands Confiscated under 1 Ed.
VI, c. 14 (the preceding Act), 1548--9. A Petition of the Bakers of
Rye to the Mayor, Jurats, and Council to Prevent the Brewers taking
their trade, 1575--10. Letter to Lord Cobham from the Mayor and
Jurats of Rye concerning the Preceding Petition, 1575--11. The
Municipal Regulation of the Entry into Trade at Nottingham,
1578-9--12. The Municipal Regulation of Markets at Southampton,
1587--13. The Municipal Regulation of Wages at Chester, 1591--14. The
Company of Journeymen Weavers of Gloucester, 1602--15. Petition of
Weavers who are not Burgesses, 1604-5--16. Extracts from the London
Clothworkers' Court Book, 1537-1627--17. The Feltmakers' Joint-Stock
Project, 1611--18. The Case of the Tailors of Ipswich, 1615--19. The
Grievances of the Journeymen Weavers of London, _c._ 1649.
The documents in this section illustrate certain aspects of the life of
towns and gilds from 1485-1660. In the first half of the sixteenth
century two important changes in the legal position of gilds were made
by Act of Parliament, (i) Owing to the growing complaints of their
exclusiveness (Nos. 1 and 6). Parliament had already by 15 Hen. VI, c.
6, and 19 Hen. VII, c. 7, compelled gilds to submit their ordinances to
the approval of extra-municipal authorities before they became valid
(Nos. 6 and 17). By 22 Hen. VIII it fixed 2s. 6d. as the maximum fee to
be charged persons entering and 3s. 4d. as the maximum fee for persons
leaving their apprenticeship. By 28 Hen. VIII c. 5 it forbad restrictive
agreements designed to prevent apprentices or journeymen starting in
trade on their own account (No. 6). (ii.) By 37 Hen. VIII c. 4 and 1 Ed.
VI. c. 14 (No. 7) Parliament confiscated for the benefit of the Crown
that part of gild property which was applied to religious purposes. The
latter Act was, however, strongly opposed in the House of Commons, and
the confiscated estates were restored to two towns, Coventry and King's
Lynn (No. 8).
Apart from these changes towns and gilds pursued in the sixteenth
century much the same economic policy as in earlier ages. They imposed
inter-municipal tariffs (No. 2), and regulated markets (Nos. 4 and 12),
wages (Nos. 3, 5, and 13), apprenticeship and the entry into trades
(Nos. 1, 9, 10, 11, 15) on high moral grounds (No. 10), but sometimes
with consequences unpleasant to those who were excluded (Nos. 1 and 15).
Indeed their anxiety to preserve their monopoly occasionally brought
them into conflict with the law, which "abhors all monopolies" (No. 18).
Inside the gilds, however, a momentous change was going on. The
fifteenth century had seen the rise within gilds of "yeomanry"
organizations consisting of journeymen, of which an example is given
below (No. 14, and Part I, Section V, No. 16). In the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries the gilds, at least in the larger towns,
represented a wide range of interests, from the mercantile capitalist to
the industrial small master, and it was often of such small masters,
whose numbers appear to have increased in the sixteenth century, that
the "yeomanry" then consisted (No. 16). They tended, however, to be at
the mercy of the large capitalists, and occasionally under the first two
Stuarts, who favoured them, they endeavoured to protect themselves by
joint-stock enterprise (No. 17). In the middle of the seventeenth
century a reverse movement was taking place. Small masters were becoming
journeymen, and in London journeymen were engaged under the Commonwealth
in active agitation. Their organization was that of an embryo trade
union; their doctrine the application to industrial affairs of the
theory of the social contract (No. 19).
AUTHORITIES
The more accessible of the modern writers dealing with the subject of
this section are Cunningham, _English Industry and Commerce, Modern
Times_, Vol. I; Ashley, _Economic History_, Vol. I, Part II, Chap. I
and II; Gross, _The Gild Merchant_; Abram, _Social England in the
Fifteenth Century_; Mrs. Green, _English Town Life in the Fifteenth
Century_; Dunlop and Denman, _English Apprenticeship and Child
Labour_; Unwin, _Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries_, and _The Gilds and Companies of London_;
Webb, _English Local Government, The Manor and Borough_; Brentano,
_Gilds and Trade Unions_; Toulmin Smith, _English Gilds_; Rogers,
_Six Centuries of Work and Wages_.
Bibliographies are given in Gross, _op. cit._ (the most complete);
Cunningham _op. cit._, Vol. II, pp. 943-998; Ashley, _op. cit._, pp.
3-5 and 66-68; Abram, _op. cit._, pp. 229-238; Dunlop and Denman,
_op. cit._, pp. 355-363; Unwin, _Industrial Organization in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_, pp. 263-270.
* * * * *
The student may also consult the following:--
(1) _Documentary Authorities_:--The records of numerous towns and
gilds have been published, and only a few can be mentioned
here:--Stevenson, Records of Nottingham; Tingey, Records of Norwich;
Bateson, Records of Leicester; Morris, Chester in the Plantagenet and
Tudor Reigns; Turner, Select Records of Oxford; Harris, The Coventry
Leet Book (E.E.T.S.); Bickley, The Little Red Book of Bristol;
Guilding, Records of the Borough of Reading; Publications of the
Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report 14, App. viii (Bury St.
Edmunds); 15, App. x (Coventry), 12, App. ix (Gloucester), 13, App.
iv (Hereford); 9, App. i (Ipswich); 14, App. viii (Lincoln); 15, App.
x (Shrewsbury).
(2) _Literary Authorities_:--The number of contemporary writers
dealing with gild and town life is not large. The most important are:
Drei Volkswirthschaftliche Denkscriften aus der Zeit Heinrich VIII,
von England, edited by Pauli; Starkey, A Dialogue Between Cardinal
Pole and Thomas Lupset (E.E.T.S.); England in the Reign of King Henry
VIII; The Commonwealth of this Realm of England (edited by Lamond);
Crowley, Select Works (E.E.T.S.); Lever's Sermons (in Arber Reprints:
where criticisms will be found on the confiscation of gild property);
Harrison, A Description of Britain; Roxburghe Club, A Dialogue or
Confabulation Between two Travellers.
1. A PROTEST AT COVENTRY AGAINST A GILD'S EXCLUSIVENESS [_Coventry Leet
Book, Vol. II, pp. 566-7_], 1495.
1495. Mem.: that within vii days after Lammas there was a bill set upon
the north church door in St. Michael's Church by some evil disposed
person unknown, the tenor whereof hereafter ensueth:--
Be it known and understand
This city should be free and now is bond.
Dame Good Eve made it free,
And now there be customs for wool and drapery.
Also it is made that no prentice shall be
But xiii pennies pay shall he.
That act did Robert Green,[269]
Wherefore he had many a curse, I ween.
[Footnote 269: Robert Green was chosen Mayor of Coventry in 1494.]
2. A COMPLAINT FROM COVENTRY AS TO INTER-MUNICIPAL TARIFFS [_Coventry
Leet Book, Part I, p. 592_], 1498.
Oct. 18th, 1498 ... And on the morrow the Mayor presented a bill to the
said Prince desiring by the same that he would please to desire the
prior of Coventry to pay at his desire the murage money which he had
withdrawn the space of 20 years, and also showed his Grace by the same
bill how the citizens of Coventry were troubled by their merchandizes in
Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester, and compelled to pay toll and other
customs contrary to their liberties. Upon which bill letters went out to
Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester, desiring by the same that the said
citizens of Coventry might pass free without any custom paying after
their liberty, or else they appear in London _crastino St. Martini_ then
next following.
3. THE MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF WAGES AT NORWICH [_Tingey. Selected
Records of Norwich, II, p. 110_], 1518.
Sept. 21st, 1518. It is agreed that from henceforth no artificer shall
employ apprentice working by the day, viz., carpenters, masons, tilers,
reeders, by taking for the wage of such an apprentice more than one
penny a day until he has been appointed to better wages or salary by the
headman of that craft in the presence of the Mayor for the time being.
And if any one shall do contrary, he shall forfeit 12d., to be levied
from the goods of the master of that apprentice.
4. THE MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF MARKETS AT COVENTRY [_Coventry Leet Book,
Part III, pp. 674-5_], 1520.
October 10, 1520. Memorandum that the Xth day of October and in the
[eleventh] year of the reign of King Henry VIII, then Master John Bond
being Mayor of the City of Coventry, the price of all manner of corn and
grain began to rise. Whereupon a view was taken by the said Mayor and
his brethren what stores of all manner of corn, and what number of
people was then within the said city, men, women and children, etc.
* * * * *
[Here follow particulars of the number of persons and amount of grain in
each ward.]
Summa Totalis of } { In Malt, 2405 qrs.
the people then } { In Rye and Mastlin, 100
being within the } Summa Totalis { qrs. 1 strike.
city, of men } 6601 persons. { In wheat, 47 qrs.
women and children. } { In Oats, 39 qrs. 2 strike.
} { In Pease, 18 qrs. 2 strike.
Also a view by him taken what substance of malt was then brewed within
the city weekly by the common brewers that brewed to sell.... The number
of all the common brewers in the city ... 68. Item, they brewed weekly
in malt 146 qrs. 1 bus.
Mem., that there was brought into this said city the Friday before
Christmas Day in the year of the said John Bond then being Mayor, by his
labour and his friends, to help sustain the city with corn, of all
manner of grain Summa 97 qrs. 6 strike.
Mem., that there was at that time 43 bakers within the city, which did
bake weekly amongst all 120 qrs. of wheat and 12, besides pease and
rye.
5. THE MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF WAGES AT COVENTRY [_Coventry Leet Book,
Part III, pp. 688-9_], 1524.
[Enacted] that the weavers of this city shall have for the weaving of
every cloth, to the making whereof goeth and is put 80 and 8 lb. of wool
or more to the number of 80 lb. and 16, 5s. for the weaving of every
such cloth; and if the said cloth contain above the said number then the
weaving to be paid for as the parties can agree, and if the cloth
contain under the said number, then the owner to pay for weaving but 4s.
6d. And if the cloth be made of rests or green wool, then to pay as the
parties can agree; and the payment to be made in ready money and not in
wares as it is wont to be, and who refuses thus to do, and so proved
before Master Mayor, to forfeit for every said default 3s. 4d., to be
levied by the searchers of the said craft of weavers, with an officer to
them appointed by the said Mayor, to the use of the common box.
[Enacted] that every clothier within this city shall pay for walking of
every cloth of green wool or middle work, 3s. 4d., and for every cloth
of fine wool as the clothier and walker can agree, and that the clothier
do pay therefore in ready money and not in wares.
6. AN ACT FOR AVOIDING OF EXACTIONS TAKEN UPON APPRENTICES IN CITIES,
BOROUGHS AND TOWNS CORPORATE [_28 Hen. VIII, c. 5. Statutes of the
Realm, Vol. IV, Part I, pp. 286-8_], 1536.
Where in the parliament begun at London the third of November in the
21st year of the reign of our most dread Lord King Henry the eight, and
from thence adjourned and prorogued to Westminster the 16 day of January
in the 22 year of the reign of our said Sovereign Lord and there then
also holden, it was and it is recited, that where before that time it
was established and enacted in the 19 year of our late Sovereign Lord
King Henry the VIIth, that no masters, warden and fellowship of crafts,
or any of them, nor any rulers of guilds or fraternities, should take
upon them any acts or ordinances nor to execute any acts or ordinances
by them before that time made or then hereafter to be made, in
disheritance or diminution of the prerogative of the King nor of other
nor against the common profit of the people, but if the same acts or
ordinances were examined or approved by the chancellor, treasurer of
England or chief justice of either bench or 3 of them, or before the
justices of assize in their circuit or progress in the shire where such
acts or ordinances be made, upon pain of forfeiture of £40 for every
time that they do the contrary, as more plainly in the said act doth
appear; since which time divers wardens and fellowships have made acts
and ordinances, that every apprentice should pay at his first entry in
their common hall to the wardens of the same fellowship some of them
40s., some 30s., some 20s., some 13s. 4d., some 6s. 8d., some 3s. 4d.
after their own sinister minds and pleasure, contrary to the meaning of
the said act made in the said 19 year of the reign of the said late King
Henry the VIIth and to the great hurt of the King's true subjects
putting their children to be apprentices: It was therefore in the said
parliament holden at Westminster in the said 22 year of the reign of
King Henry the eight, established and enacted by the King our Sovereign
Lord by the advice of his Lords, Spiritual and Temporal, and of the
Commons in the same parliament assembled and by the authority of the
same, that no master, wardens or fellowships of crafts or masters or any
of them, nor any rulers of fraternities should take from thenceforth of
any apprentice or of any other person or persons for the entry of any
apprentice into their said fellowship above the sum of 2s. 6d., nor for
his entry when his years and term is expired and ended, above 3s. 4d.
upon pain of forfeiture of £40 for every time that they do to the
contrary.... Since which said several acts established and made (as is
aforesaid), divers masters, wardens and fellowships of crafts have by
cautell and subtil means compassed and practised to defraud and delude
the said good and wholesome statutes, causing divers apprentices or
young men immediately after their years be expired, or that they may be
made free of their occupation or fellowship, to be sworn upon the Holy
Evangelist at their first entry that they nor any of them after their
years or term expired shall not set up or open any shop, house nor
[cellar] nor occupy as free men, without the assent and licence of the
master, wardens or fellowships of their occupations, upon pain of
forfeiting their freedom or other like penalty; by reason whereof the
said apprentices and journeymen be put to as much or more charges
thereby than they beforetime were put unto for the obtaining and
entering of their freedom, to the great hurt and impoverishment of the
said apprentices and journeymen and other their friends; For remedy
whereof be it now by the authority of this present parliament
established, ordained and enacted, that no master, wardens or
fellowships of crafts nor any of them, nor any rulers of guilds
fraternities or brotherhoods, from henceforth compel or cause any
apprentice or journeyman, by oath or bond heretofore made or hereafter
to be made or otherwise, that he after his apprenticeship or term
expired, shall not set up nor keep any shop house nor cellar, nor occupy
as a freeman without licence of the masters, wardens or fellowships of
his or their occupation for and concerning the same; nor by any means
exact or take of any such apprentices or journeyman nor any other
occupying for themselves, nor of any other persons for them, after his
or their said years expired, any sum of money or other things for or
concerning his or their freedom or occupation, otherwise or in any other
manner than before is recited limited and appointed in the said former
act made in the said 22 year of the reign of King Henry the eight; upon
the pain to forfeit for every time that they or any of them shall offend
contrary to this act £40....
7. AN ACT WHEREBY CERTAIN CHANTRIES, COLLEGES, FREE CHAPELS, AND THE
POSSESSIONS OF THE SAME BE GIVEN TO THE KING'S MAJESTY [_1 Ed. VI, c.
14. Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV, Part I, p. 24_], 1547.
The King's most loving subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
the Commons, in this present parliament assembled, considering that a
great part of superstition and errors in Christian religion hath been
brought into the minds and estimation of men, by reason of the ignorance
of their very true and perfect salvation through the death of Jesus
Christ, and by devising and phantasing vain opinions of purgatory and
masses satisfactory to be done for them which be departed, the which
doctrine and vain opinion by nothing more is maintained and upholden
than by the abuse of trentalls, chantries and other provisions made for
the continuance of the said blindness and ignorance; and further
considering and understanding that the alteration, change and amendment
of the same, and converting to good and godly uses, as in erecting of
grammar schools to the education of youth in virtue and godliness, the
further augmenting of the universities and better provision for the poor
and needy, cannot in this present parliament be provided and
conveniently done, nor cannot nor ought to any other manner person be
committed than to the King's Highness, whose Majesty with and by the
advice of his Highness most prudent council can and will most wisely and
beneficially both for the honour of God and the weal of this his
Majesty's realm, order, alter, convert and dispose the same....
[Clause reciting 37 Hen. VIII, c. 4.][270]
... It is now ordained and enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, with
the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present parliament
assembled, and by the authority of the same, that all manner of
colleges, free chapels and chantries, having been or _in esse_ within
five years next before the first day of this present parliament, which
were not in actual and real possession of the said late king, nor in the
actual and real possession of the king our sovereign lord that now is,
nor excepted in the said former act in form abovesaid, other than such
as by the king's commissions in form hereafter mentioned shall be
altered, transposed or changed, and all manors, lands, tenements, rents,
tythes, pensions, portions and other hereditaments and things
above-mentioned belonging to them or any of them, and also all manors,
lands, tenements, rents and other hereditaments and things
above-mentioned, by any manner of assurance, conveyance, will, devise or
otherwise had, made, suffered, acknowledged or declared, given,
assigned, limited or appointed to the finding of any priest to have
continuance for ever, and wherewith or whereby any priest was sustained,
maintained or found, within five years next before the first day of this
present parliament, which were not in the actual and real possession of
the said late King, nor in the actual and real possession of our
Sovereign Lord the King that now is, and also all annual rents, profits,
and emoluments, at any time within five years next before the beginning
of this present parliament employed, paid or bestowed toward or for the
maintenance, supportation or finding of any stipendiary priest intended
by any act or writing to have continuance for ever, shall by the
authority of this present parliament, immediately after the feast of
Easter next coming, be adjudged and deemed and also be in very actual
and real possession and seisin of the King our Sovereign Lord and his
heirs and successors for ever; without any office or other inquisition
thereof to be had or found, and in as large and ample manner and form as
the priests, wardens, masters, ministers, governors, rulers or other
incumbents of them or any of them at any time within five years next
before the beginning of this present parliament had occupied or enjoyed,
or now hath, occupieth or enjoyeth the same; and as though all and
singular the said colleges, free chapels, chantries, stipends, salaries
of priests and the said manors, lands, tenements and other the premises
whatsoever they be, and every of them, were in this present act
specially, particularly, and certainly rehearsed, named and expressed,
by express words, names and surnames, corporations, titles and
faculties, and in their natures, kinds and qualities....
And over that be it ordained and enacted by the authority of this
present parliament, that where any manors, lands, tenements, tythes,
pensions, portions, rents, profits, or other hereditaments, by any
manner of assurance, conveyance, will, devise or otherwise at any time
heretofore had, made, suffered, acknowledged or declared, were given
assigned or appointed to or for the maintenance, sustentation or finding
of any priest or divers priests for term of certain years yet
continuing, and that any priest hath been maintained, sustained or found
with the same or with the revenues or profits thereof within five years
last past, that the king from the said feast of Easter next coming shall
have and enjoy in every behalf for and during all such time to come
every such and like things, tenements, hereditaments, profits and
emoluments as the priest or priests ought or should have had for or
toward his or their maintenance, sustenance or finding, and for no
longer or further time, nor for any other profit, advantage or commodity
thereof to be taken....
... And be it ordained and enacted by the authority of this present
parliament, that the King our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and successors,
from the said feast of Easter next coming, shall have hold, perceive and
enjoy for ever, all lands, tenements, rents and other hereditaments
which, by any manner of assurance, conveyance, wills, will, devise or
otherwise at any time heretofore had made suffered, acknowledged, or
declared, were given, assigned or appointed to go or be employed wholly
to the finding or maintenance of any anniversary or obit or other like
thing, intent, or purpose, or of any light or lamp in any church or
chapel to have continuance for ever, which hath been kept or maintained
within five years next before the said first day of this present
parliament.
... And furthermore be it ordained and enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that the King our Sovereign Lord shall from the said feast of
Easter next coming have and enjoy to him, his heirs and successors for
ever, all fraternities, brotherhoods and guilds being within the realm
of England and Wales and other the king's dominions, and all manors,
lands, tenements and other hereditaments belonging to them or any of
them, other than such corporations, guilds, fraternities, companies and
fellowships of mysteries or crafts, and the manors, lands, tenements,
and other hereditaments pertaining to the said corporations, guilds,
fraternities, companies and fellowships of mysteries or crafts above
mentioned, and shall by virtue of this act be judged and deemed in
actual and real possession of our said Sovereign Lord the King, his
heirs and successors from the said feast of Easter next coming for ever,
without any inquisitions or office thereof to be had or found....
And also be it ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that our
said Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs and successors, at his and their
will and pleasure, may direct his and their commission and commissions
under the great seal of England to such persons as it shall please him,
and that the same commissioners, or two of them at the least, shall have
full power and authority by virtue of this Act and of the said
commission, as well to survey all and singular lay corporations, guilds,
fraternities, companies and fellowships of mysteries or crafts
incorporate, and every of them, as all other the said fraternities,
brotherhoods and guilds within the limit of their commission to them
directed, and all the evidences, compositions, books of accounts and
other writings of every of them, to the intent thereby to know what
money and other things was paid or bestowed to the finding or
maintenance of any priest or priests, anniversary, or obit or other like
thing, light or lamp, by them or any of them; as also to enquire, search
and try, by all such ways and means as to them shall be thought meet and
convenient, what manors, lands, tenements, rents and other
hereditaments, profits, commodities, emoluments and other things be
given, limited, or appointed to our said Lord the King by this act,
within the limits of their commission: and also that the same
commissioners or two of them at the least, by virtue of this act and of
the commission to them directed, shall have full power and authority to
assign and shall appoint, in every such place where guild, fraternity,
the priest or incumbent of any chantry _in esse_ the first day of this
present parliament, by the foundation, ordinance, [the] first
institution thereof should or ought to have kept a grammar school or a
preacher, and so hath done since the feast of St. Michael the Archangel
last past, lands, tenements and other hereditaments of every such
chantry, guild and fraternity to remain and continue in succession to a
schoolmaster or preacher for ever, for and toward the keeping of a
grammar school or preaching, and for such godly intents and purposes and
in such manner and form as the same commissioners or two of them at the
least shall assign or appoint: and also to make and ordain a vicar to
have perpetuity for ever in every parish church, the first day of this
present parliament being a college, free chapel, or chantry, or
appropriated and annexed or united to any college, free chapel, or
chantry that shall come to the king's hands by virtue of this act, and
to endow every such vicar sufficiently, having respect to his cure and
charge; the same endowment to be to every vicar and to his successors
for ever, without any other license or grant of the King, the bishop, or
other officers of the diocese: ...
... And also be it ordained and enacted by the authority of this present
parliament that our Sovereign Lord the King shall have and enjoy all
such goods, chattels, jewels, plate, ornaments and other moveables, as
were or be the common goods of every such college, chantry, free chapel,
or stipendiary priest belonging or annexed to the furniture or service
of their several foundations, or abused of any of the said corporations
in the abuses aforesaid, the property whereof was not altered nor
changed before the 8 day of December in the year of our Lord God
1547....
[Footnote 270: This and the following document deal with the
confiscation of that part of the property of gilds which was devoted to
religious purposes. The Act printed above was a re-enactment with some
important variations of an Act of 1545 (37 Hen. VIII, c. 4). For its
object and effect see Ashley, _Economic History_, Vol. I, part II, pp.
142-145, and pp. 184-187, who gives reasons for disagreeing with the
statement of Thorold Rogers (_Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, pp.
347-350, and _The Economic Interpretation of English History_, p. 15)
that the Act "suppressed" the craft gilds; Pollard, _The Political
History of England_ 1547-1603, pp. 17-20 ("the greatest educational
opportunity in English history was lost, and the interests of the nation
were sacrificed to those of its aristocracy"); Leach, _English Schools
at the Reformation_, p. 68; Toulmin Smith's _English Gilds_. Lever
(_Sermons_ 1550, Arber's Reprints, pp. 32, 73, and 81) complains
bitterly of the use to which the confiscated property was put. "For in
suppressing of abbeys, cloisters, colleges, and chantries, the intent of
the King's Majesty that dead is, was, and of this our King now is, very
godly.... Howbeit covetous officers have so used this matter that even
those goods which did serve to the relief of the poor, the maintenance
of learning, and to comfortable necessary hospitality in the
Commonwealth, be now turned to maintain worldly, wicked, covetous
ambition." ... "Your Majesty hath had given and received by Act of
Parliament, colleges, chantries, and gilds for many good considerations,
and especially, as appeareth in the same Act, for erecting of grammar
schools to the education of youth in virtue and godliness, to the
further augmenting of the Universities, and better provision for the
poor and needy. But now many grammar schools, and much charitable
provision for the poor be taken, sold, and made away, to the great
slander of you and your laws, to the utter discomfort of the poor, to
the grievous offence of the people, to the most miserable drowning of
youth in ignorance, and for decay of the Universities."]
8. REGRANT TO COVENTRY AND LYNN OF GILD LANDS CONFISCATED UNDER I ED.
VI, c. 14. [_Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, pp 193-5_], 1548.
At Westminster, Sunday, the vith of May, 1548
Whereas in the last parliament, holden at Westminster in November, the
first year of the King's Majesty's reign, among other articles contained
in the act for colleges and chantry lands, etc., to be given unto his
Highness, it was also inserted that the lands pertaining to all guilds
and brotherhoods within this realm should pass unto his Majesty by way
of like gift, at which time divers then being of the lower house did not
only reason and argue against that article made for the guildable lands,
but also incensed many others to hold with them, among the which none
were stiffer nor more busily went about to impugn the said articles than
the burgesses for the town of Lynn, in the county of Norfolk, and the
burgesses of the city of Coventry, in the county of Warwick; the
burgesses of Lynn alleging that the guild lands belonging to their said
town were given for so good a purpose (that is to say, for the
maintenance and keeping up of the pier and seabanks there, which being
untended to would be the loss of a great deal of low ground of the
country adjoining), as it were great pity the same should be alienated
from them as long as they employed it to so necessary an use; and
semblably they of Coventry declaring that where that city was of much
fame and antiquity, some times very wealthy though now of late years
brought into decay and poverty, and had not to the furniture of the
whole multitude of the Commons there, being to the number of xi or xii
thousand housling people, but two churches wherein God's service is
done, whereof the one, that is to say, the church of Corpus Christi, was
specially maintained of the revenues of such guild lands lying only in
houses and tenements within the town as had been given heretofore by
diverse persons to that use and others no less beneficial to the
supporting of that city; if therefore now by the act the same lands
should pass from them it should be a manifest cause of the utter
desolation of the city, as long as the people, when the churches were no
longer supported, nor God's service done therein, and the other uses and
employments of those lands omitted, should be of force constrained to
abandon the city and seek new dwelling places, which should be more loss
unto the King's Majesty by losing so [much] of the yearly fee farm
there, and subversion of so notable a town, than the accruing of a sort
of old houses and cottages pertaining to the guilds and chantries of the
said cities, should be of value or profit to his Majesty, as long as his
Highness should be at more cost with the reparations of the same than
the yearly rents would amount unto.
In respect of which their allegations and great labour made herein unto
the House, such of his Highness Council as were of the same House there
present thought it very likely and apparent that not only that article
for the guildable lands should be dashed, but also that the whole body
of the act might either sustain peril or hindrance being already
engrossed, and the time of the Parliament Prorogation hard at hand,
unless by some good policy the principal speakers against the passing of
that article might be stayed; whereupon they did anticipate this matter
with the Lord Protector's Grace and others of the Lords of his Highness
Council, who, pondering on the one part how the guildable lands
throughout this realm amounted to no small yearly value, which by the
article aforesaid were to be accrued to his Majesty's possessions of the
Crown; and on the other part weighing in a multitude of free voices what
moment the labour of a few setters on had been of heretofore in like
cases, thought it better to stay and content them of Lynn and Coventry
by granting to them to have and enjoy their guild lands, etc., as they
did before, than through their means, on whose importune labour and
suggestion the great part of the Lower House rested, to have the article
defaced, and so his Majesty to forego the whole guild lands throughout
the realm; and for these respects and also for avoiding of the proviso
which the said burgesses would have had added for the guilds to this
article, which might have ministered occasion to others to have laboured
for the like, they resolved that certain of his Highness' Councillors
being of the Lower House should persuade with the said burgesses of Lynn
and Coventry to desist from further speaking or labouring against the
said article, upon promise to them that if they meddled no further
against it, his Majesty, once having the guildable lands granted unto
him by the act as it was penned unto him, should make them over a new
grant of the lands pertaining then unto their guilds, etc., to be had
and used to them as afore. Which thing the said Councillors did execute
as was devised, and thereby stayed the speakers against it, so as the
act passed with the clause for guildable lands accordingly.
And now seeing that the Mayors and others of the said city of Coventry
and town of Lynn by reason of that promise so made unto them have humbly
made suit unto the Lord Protector's Grace and Council aforesaid that the
same may be performed unto them, which promise his Grace and the said
Council do think that his Highness is bound in honour to observe,
although it were not so that indeed those lands which belonged to the
guild at Lynn cannot well be taken from them, being so allotted and
employed to the maintenance of the pier and seabanks there, which of
necessity as was alleged, require daily reparations, no more than the
guild and chantry lands at Coventry upon the foresaid considerations
could conveniently (as was thought) be taken from them without putting
the said city to apparent danger of desolation; it was therefore this
day ordained, and by the accord and assent of the Lord Protector's Grace
and others of his Highness Council decreed, that letters patents should
be made in due form under the King's Majesty's Great Seal of England
whereby the said guild lands belonging to the two churches at Coventry
should be newly granted unto them of the city for ever, and the lands
lately pertaining to the guild of Lynn also granted unto that town for
ever, to be used to such like purpose and intent as aforetimes by force
of their grants they were limited to do accordingly.
9. A PETITION OF THE BAKERS OF RYE TO THE MAYOR, JURATS AND COUNCIL TO
PREVENT THE BREWERS TAKING THEIR TRADE [_Hist. MSS. Com, Thirteenth
Report, App. Part IV, p. 45_], 1575.
Whereas, as well in ancient time as now of late days, good and wholesome
laws have been by the State of this realm devised, ordained, and enacted
for the better maintenance of the subjects of the same; amongst which
laws it is ordained how each sort of people, being handicraftsmen or of
occupation, should use the trade and living wherein they have been
lawfully trained up and served for the same as the said laws do appoint;
nevertheless, it may please your worships, divers persons do seek unto
themselves by sinister ways and contrary to those good laws certain
trades to live by, and not only to live by but inordinately to gain, to
the utter overthrow of their neighbours which have lawfully used those
occupations, and served for the same according to the said laws. Amongst
which sort of people certain of the brewers of this town use the trade
and occupation of bakers, not having been apprentices to the same, nor
so lawfully served in the same trade as they thereby may justly
challenge to use the said occupation of baking, to the utter
impoverishment of the bakers of the said town, their wives, children,
and families, and contrary to the law, equity, and good conscience;
whereby we whose names are underwritten shall be constrained to give
over, and for themselves to seek some other means to live, and to leave
our wives and children, if in time remedy be not provided by your
worships for the same.
James Welles.
John Mylles.
Edward Turner.
Philip Caudy.
William Gold.
10. LETTER TO LORD COBHAM FROM THE MAYOR AND JURATS OF RYE CONCERNING
THE PRECEDING PETITION [_ibid., pp. 47-8_], 1575.
Upon the lamentable complaint of our poor neighbours the bakers, we did
with good and long deliberation consider of their cause, and finding
that their decay is such as without speedy reformation they shall not
have wherewith to maintain their wives, children, and family, which are
not few in number, a thing in conscience to be lamented, and we for
remission in duty to be greatly blamed; and since the overthrow of these
poor men is happened by reason of the brewers (who ought by the laws of
this realm not to be bakers also) have by our sufferance (but the rather
for that Robert Jackson is towards your Lordship) used both to bake and
brew of long time, whereby Robert Jackson (God be thanked) is grown to
good wealth, and the whole company of the bakers thereby utterly
impoverished, and finding that by no reasonable persuasion from us,
neither with the lamentable complaint of the bakers, those brewers would
leave baking, we were driven by justice and conscience to provide for
their relief the speedier. Whereupon we did, with consent of Mayor,
Jurats, and Common Council, make a certain decree, lawful, as we think,
for the better maintenance of them, their wives, children and family, a
matter in civil government worth looking into when the state of a common
weal is preferred before the private gain of a few, which decree we
required Mr. Gaymer to acquaint your Honour with, at his last being with
you, who upon his return advertised us that your Lordship had the view
thereof, and also of your Honour's well liking of the same, humbly
beseeching your good Lordship's aid and continuance therein, whereof we
have no doubt, being a matter that doth concern (and that according to
the laws of the realm) the relief of those who are brought to the brink
of decay.
11. THE MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF THE ENTRY INTO TRADES AT NOTTINGHAM
[_Stevenson, Nottingham Records, Vol. IV, p. 186_], 1578-9.
1578-9, March 9. Memorandum also, that all manner of prentices already
bound and to be bound to bring their indentures to be enrolled before
May day next, or else every master to forfeit 12d. And the Mayor to
admit no burgess but by consent of the Wardens of the occupation in
default of the Wardens; and to have a special regard that such have been
and served as apprentices and been enabled, according to the statute of
anno 5 of Queen Elizabeth.
12. MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF MARKETS AT SOUTHAMPTON [_Hearnshaw,
Southampton Court Leet Records, Vol. I, Part II, p. 256_], 1587.
_Item_ we present that Mr. Brawycke, who, it is said ... was bound unto
your worships for the serving of the inhabitants of this town with
candles at 2d. the lb., having all the tallow of the victuallers to this
town at a price reasonable to his good liking and great commodity many
years, restraining all others from having any part thereof by virtue of
his grant from your worships as aforesaid, a scarcity of tallow now
happening for one year, doth presently refuse to serve the inhabitants
at any reasonable price, and the best cheap that is to be had is 3d.,
and many times 4d. the lb.; a happy man that can make his bargain so
well to take it when there is profit and refuse to serve when the profit
faileth, and to raise it at his own will for his best advantage, and to
tie all men and himself to be at liberty; the artificers and the poorer
sort of people are most of all pinched, wherewith they, with the rest,
find themselves aggrieved, so desire your worships thoroughly to
consider thereof.
13. THE MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF WAGES AT CHESTER [_Morris, Chester in
the Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns, p. 436_], 1591.
30 July, 33 Eliz. And at the same assembly Mr. Mayor delivered the
corporation of the wrights and slaters, letting to understand of their
great exactions of the citizens and servants, whereby they deserved to
be disfranchised and their corporations dissolved. Whereupon it was
thought most meet that Mr. Mayor do call before him the aldermen and
stewards thereof, and take them in bond for redress and remedy of all
such wrongs ... and in the meantime their corporation to be retained and
also receive and give from time to time such wages as shall be appointed
by the Mayor for the time being.
14. THE COMPANY OF JOURNEYMEN WEAVERS OF GLOUCESTER [_Hist. MSS. Com.,
Twelfth Report, App. Part IX, pp.416-418_], 1602.
Thos. Machyn, Mayor of the City of Gloucester, to all to whom, etc. Know
ye that there came this day into the Court of the aldermen there divers
of the journeymen weavers of the said city in the name of their whole
fellowship of journeymen, and signified by their petition that whereas
before this time sundry good ordinances have been made and granted by,
and agreed upon by and between the master weavers of the said city,
known by the name of the Warden and Fraternity of St. Anne of the
weavers in the town of Gloucester, and the said journeymen, for the good
order and government of man and for their better relief; and some disuse
of the same has been of late years through the negligence of some of the
said journeymen, and upon this untrue intendment that some of the said
ordinances were not warrantable by the laws of this realm, nor
convenient for the public good of the said city; it has therefore seemed
fit to us, the Mayor and Aldermen, not only thoroughly to consider the
said articles, but also to consider such books of compositions as have
been heretofore given to the said company or fraternity of weavers,
either by our predecessors or by the justices of assize of the county of
the city; we have therefore called before us the Wardens and Stewards of
the said fraternity or company to hear what they could or would say
thereupon for our better information, requiring them further to shew us
their books of compositions; who very willingly and orderly brought
before us the several books hereafter mentioned; one book approved by
the Justices of Assize, dated 10 Nov., 24 Henry VII, another book
granted by our predecessors, also allowed by the Justices of Assize,
dated 13 March, 4 Edward VI. We, having fully considered the said books,
are pleased, with the consent of the present Warden and Stewards of the
said Company of Weavers and of others the masters of the said Company
occupying the trade of weaving within the said city, to allow that the
journeymen of the said trade in the said city may in quiet and orderly
sort at any time hereafter congregate and meet together at any fit place
within the said city and such time of the day, between the hours of
seven of the clock in the forenoon and four of the clock in the
afternoon, as to them shall be thought fit and convenient, ever giving
notice to the Warden of the said Company of weavers or, in his absence,
to one of the stewards of the said fraternity one day before, at the
least, of their meaning and purpose to meet, to the intent that if the
said Warden or any of the said Company of the master weavers shall think
or know anything meet to be considered of and conferred of between them,
that the same might be proposed and so concluded of as might stand with
equity and good order, and to the end that a quiet and peaceable
demeanour with orderly and civil usage may be by and among the said
whole company of journeymen at all times hereafter observed, and that
the one to the other of them may give that brotherly aid and Christian
relief as best may be for their helps, some of them being young men and
bachelors having neither houses of their own or family, and some others
of great years burdened with the charge of wife and many children; it is
therefore thought good by us, with the assent of the said
master-weavers, that they the said journeymen shall and lawfully may
yearly, on the day of Saint Peter the Apostle, meet together and choose
two honest and discreet journeymen of the elder and discreetest sort of
them to be their Stewards for the year ensuing, which Stewards shall
have power and authority to assemble and call together all the
journeymen of the said art or others whatsoever professing and using the
trade of weaving in the said city or suburbs of the same not being
masters, and they so being assembled to confer among themselves of all
such good means and orders as best may be for the good of their society
and to the only ends and purposes before mentioned; which said
journeymen being so chosen shall take upon them the said office of
Stewardship and shall execute all and singular the following ordinances,
either of them refusing the said office to forfeit 40s.; and the said
Stewards shall be yearly presented on St. Ann's day by six of the elder
and better sort of their Company of journeymen unto the Warden and
Stewards of the said Company of Weavers at such time and place as shall
be by them appointed, there to understand what to them doth pertain as
servants of the said trade of weaving, or by virtue of their composition
or grants made heretofore, or hereafter to be made, etc., all of which
they shall faithfully promise by giving of their hands to perform and
cause to be performed, on pain of 20s.
[Detailed ordinances follow. They require journeymen who are strangers
to produce a certificate of apprenticeship and testimony of good
behaviour, and to pay on admission 8d. to the fellowship of journeymen.
Other journeymen are to pay 4d. on admission, and all are to pay 1d. per
quarter "to the relief of the poorer sort of the said fellowship."
Journeymen embezzling yarn are to be expelled, and those absent from the
election of new stewards are to be fined 3s. 4d. The company of
journeymen shall do nothing prejudicial "towards the Warden and his
Company ... of the said art ... of weavers, either by raising ... their
wages or otherwise."]
15. A PETITION OF WEAVERS WHO ARE NOT BURGESSES [_Nottingham Records,
Vol. IV, pp. 274-5_], 1604-5.
To the worshipful master mayor and his brethren.
Be it known, Right Worshipful, that we be a certain number of poor
weavers who do use our trade within this town of Nottingham, thereby to
maintain ourselves our wives and children, according to the laws of God
and the King's Majesty's laws. It is not unknown unto your worship how
the burgess weavers have sought, and at this present do seek, to put us
down from working, thereby to work the utter undoing of us and of our
poor families. We humbly do entreat your Worships' favours with equity
to consider of our poor estates, who do not offend them nor work within
their freedom or composition, if they have any. Your Worships may
understand they do trouble us more of malice than for any hindrance they
receive by us, for that we see men of other trades, both in this
corporation and others, not being burgesses, yet work in manner as we
do, unmolested or troubled. Therefore we beseech your Worships that we
may have liberty to use our trades for the maintenance of ourselves, our
wives, and children, and if there be anything due either to Master Mayor
or any of his Worships' officers we are ready to discharge it; but as
for the weavers, we know no reason or authority they have to claim
anything of us, neither do we find ourselves able to bear so heavy a
burden as they would lay upon us.
16. EXTRACTS FROM THE LONDON CLOTHWORKERS' COURT BOOK [_Unwin,
Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, pp.
229-234_], 1537-1627.
July 13, 1 Mary. All the company had warning to keep their servants from
unlawful assemblies and that they have no talk of the council's matters
as they will answer at their uttermost perils.
January 16, 1-2 Mary. The wardens of the yeomanry brought into the hall
a new chest with iii locks and iii keys to serve to put their money in,
wherein was by them put in ready money xiiijl. vis. xid., the Mr. of the
Company having one key, the upper warden of the yeomanry another key,
and one of the assistants of the yeomanry to have the third key.
Also it was agreed that the said Wardens of the Yeomanry shall have such
orders as hath been here taken, concerning such articles as they ought
amongst themselves to observe, to be entered in their book to the intent
they may better keep them.
July 13, 2 Mary. It is agreed that from henceforth all such apprentices
as shall come out of their years, being of the handicraft, shall before
they be sworn be tried and seen by the Wardens of the Yeomanry, whether
they be workmen able to serve in the common weal or not.
* * * * *
November 29, 1567. This day the whole company of the handicraftsmen were
warned to be here according to the order taken by the last court day,
and these articles following were read unto them, and they all with one
voice consented to every of the said articles, and made humble request
with willing hearts as they professed that these said orders may be
forthwith put in execution with diligence, affirming the same orders to
be profitable to them all.
Item that there shall be eight or ten persons elected and chosen by the
wardens and assistants to have the view of all the merchants' cloths
hereafter to be wrought within the company, and that no person of this
company to fold, take, or press or to deliver to the owner any
merchant's cloth before the same cloth be viewed and seen by two of the
said persons so appointed. And the said cloths so by them seen and found
truly wrought, that is to say rowed, barbed, first-coursed and shorn
from the one end to the other according to the statute last made, they
to set the common seal of the house to every such cloth in token of
true workmanship done upon the same. And every such cloth as shall be by
the said searchers or any of them found faulty in workmanship, or that
shall be folded, tacked, pressed, or delivered to the owner before it be
viewed and sealed in form aforesaid, every workman of such cloth or
cloths to pay for a fine of every such cloth xxs. ...
* * * * *
December 6, 1591. This day also at the earnest suit and request and upon
the full agreement of those of the assistants and livery of the Company
being of the handicraft, the Wardens of the Yeomanry, their assistants
and xxiiij more of the said yeomanry, it was by this Court fully ordered
and agreed that there shall be four of the said yeomanry appointed to be
sealers to seal all such woollen cloth as the merchants or any of them
shall appoint and deliver to any of this company to be dressed to the
intent to be transported over sea, etc. ... and that every clothworker
shall send for the sealers when his cloth is ready.
January 16, 1610-11. The humble suit of your worships servants of the
yeomanry.
First, we entreat your worship that the upper Warden of the Yeomanry's
account may be yearly audited according to an old custom carefully
provided for by your worships predecessors, (that is to say) by two from
your worships Court of Assistants and two of our Ancients of the
yeomanry.
Secondly, we humbly entreat your worship that the remainder of the
quarterage, your worships' officers being paid, may remain in the
yeomanry's chest according to an old custom, our worshipful Master of
this Company for the time being to keep one key, the upper Wardens of
the Yeomanry to keep another key, and one of the Ancients of the
Assistants of the Yeomanry to keep the third key.
Thirdly, we desire of your worship that the upper warden of the yeomanry
may have one of his Ancients last being in his place to sit by him and
assist him in his accompts and to show him wherein the Company is
wronged.
Fourthly, we desire that when we shall find our officer of the yeomanry
to be slack and remiss in doing of his duty in his service which he
ought to do for the good of the Company, and the same duly proved
against him, that we of the yeomanry may have full authority to dismiss
him at our own discretion, but not without the consent of the Master
and Wardens and Assistants of this Company for the time being first had
and obtained in that behalf.
These Petitions and requests of the yeomanry were granted and agreed
upon by the Master, Wardens and Assistants present at the said court
holden the said sixteenth day of January 1610 aforesaid.
* * * * *
June 13, 1627. Whereas ... Suit was commenced in Court of King's Bench
at Westminster by the Wardens of Yeomanry in the name of Master and
Wardens against divers Merchant Adventurers upon viii Elizabeth, which
yet dependeth in the said court undetermined, and the said Wardens of
Yeomanry considering that the proceedings in like suits formerly
commenced have been stopped by some special command of the King and
State upon the solicitation of the said Merchant Adventurers being
strong in purse and friends, have bethought themselves of a way or mean
to prevent the said Merchant Adventurers from the like, and to that
purpose have dealt with a Gentleman named Mr. George Kirke of the King's
Majesty's Bedchamber, very gracious with his Majesty, who for a fourth
part of this moiety of all penalties, forfeitures which shall be
obtained or gotten upon any recovery to be had against any of the said
Merchant Adventurers upon any action or suit brought or to be brought,
sued, commenced, etc., hath undertaken to do his best and to use all the
credit and means he can to his Majesty that there be no stop or stay in
course of law for the solicitation or procurement of the said Merchant
Adventurers in suits already brought or to be brought.
[The Wardens of Yeomanry ask that the Court may record the
agreement.]
17. THE FELTMAKERS' JOINT-STOCK PROJECT[271] [_Cotton MSS. Titus B.V.
117_], _c._ 1611.
The state of the Feltmakers' Case, with some propositions on their part
to remedy the mischiefs they now are constrained to endure.
The feltmakers were by decrees in Star Chamber united to the Company of
the Haberdashers, London, and did sit with them in their hall for
government of the trade, till they, finding themselves rather oppressed
by them than any way cherished or abuses reformed, thereupon by suit
obtained a charter from his Majesty by which they were incorporated a
body of themselves by the name of Master, Wardens and Commonalty of the
Art and Mystery of Feltmakers of London and 4 miles compass.
Hereupon by allowance of the Lord Mayor they published their charter,
took them a hall, and accordingly did and do govern their company.
Afterwards considering that they were a trade and company of themselves
by whom many thousands do live besides their company, namely, the hat
trimmers, band makers, hat dyers and hat sellers, which are the
haberdashers, and yet nevertheless they were extremely kept under by the
haberdashers engrossing the commodity of wools brought in merely for
their trade of hatmaking and for no other use, and by that means having
both the means of the feltmakers' trade (for wool) and the means of
their maintenance (for buying their wares being made) all in their
power, by which the feltmakers in general (except some few in
particular) do find themselves much wronged, and by means of it and
their daily threats did fear the overthrow of their trade: whereupon the
generality petitioning to the company of the hard case they lived in,
notwithstanding their extreme sore labour, besought them to provide some
means for their relief and prevention of what might ensue. The company
then by means made them a stock to buy the wools imported for the
company at the best hand; but being opposed by the haberdashers, the
prices by that means were enhanced, and yet the sale of their wares made
kept in bondage as before, whereby many of their trade have been
impoverished, many forced to leave their trade, and many to forsake the
city, by which means all that now live of feltmaking as pickers,
carders, trimmers, bandmakers, dyers and hatsellers are much hindered,
the trade being drawn into the country.
Hereupon the company became (as often before) humble suitors for their
freedom, which by opposition of the Company of Haberdashers and their
false suggestions to the court, they could not obtain--howbeit a
Committee of Aldermen have certified it to be fit--neither are suffered
to have liberty to search for the abuses of their trade under warrant
from the Lord Mayor, which formerly they have often done; besides,
their shops threatened to be shut up, notwithstanding their inhabiting
of the city many years.
Now the company seeing the extreme malice of the haberdashers, and that
the sale of their wares lieth solely in them, whereby many are forced to
hawk their hats made contrary to the statutes, and sell at far less
rates than they can truly afford them, only to buy victual, whereby if
some redress be not had many will be undone or forced to go into the
country, to the great damage of the trade in general and overthrow of
the corporation which they much desire to support: they have considered
to raise them a stock to take in all men's wares when they be made, to
avoid hawking, and to encourage men to follow their trade and continue
within the corporation, for the benefit of all parties, the city, the
trade and company, and all that trim and sell hats and live by that
trade, without desire of enhancing the price of anything or damage to
any man.
The stock they purpose to be 25,000l., to be resident in some convenient
place of the suburbs, where men may take notice to have money for their
wares if they will bring them, being made good and at such rates as they
may well be afforded, by judgment of sworn men of the trade, who shall
rate them both inward and outward, so as the poor shall sell much better
than they have done the other sort, howbeit they sell cheaper by 2s. in
the pound than for the most part they have done; yet having a certain
market and ready money to buy wool again; and, in that then they shall
be in no hazard of loss by trusting, as now they do, their gain will be
much more.
1. The corporation will flourish.
2. Felts will be better made in that every man shall have price for his
ware as his workmanship is.
3. The trade, being much used in the country, will revert into the city,
to the benefit of the city and all that live by the trade.
4. The haberdasher shall buy good wares more generally than now and at
as cheap rates as he now usually buyeth (the times of the year and
prices of wool considered), and be sorted with much more ease and
content than now he is.
5. The haberdasher of mean estate shall be in much better case than
now, for that every man shall have good wares without culling according
to their sorts.
6. The commonwealth shall be better served in that now they shall have
good wares for their money.
7. The stock cannot but be gainful to the stockers, in that the hats,
according to their goodness, shall come in at 2s. in the pound profit
upon the sale, merely out of the feltmaker's labour, who is equally
benefited by the certain stock. Besides, the often return of the stock
at 2s. in the pound cannot but give content to the stockers.
8. The stock shall be sufficiently secured were it never so much, in
that they shall deliver no money without a sufficient value of wares.
Their sale will be certain in that without buying the haberdashers
cannot uphold their trade. Besides, no man shall have benefit of the
stock except he will bring all the ware he makes to it (except it be a
hat or two specially made, and that with the privilege of the stockers).
Besides, if at any time the stock shall be full of ware and want money,
the company by a general consent can forbear bringing in or slack their
making for a time. But so it is that once in a year all felts will off,
of what nature soever.
9. The wares being of necessity to be bought, the stockers will need not
trust except they will but upon good security, which will make men more
wary in buying.
[Footnote 271: Unwin, _Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries_, pp. 240-42,]
18. THE CASE OF THE TAILORS OF IPSWICH[272] [_Coke's Reports, Part XI,
pp. 53-55_], 1615.
Trin. II, Jac. Reg. King's Bench.
[The Master, Wardens, and Community of the Tailors and Workers of cloth
of the town of Ipswich in the County of Suffolk brought an action for
13l. 13s. 4d. against William Sheninge. They allege
(i) that by the letters patent incorporating them they had power to make
reasonable rules and ordinances and to impose fines for breach of them;
(ii) that they had made a rule that no person occupying any of the said
trades in Ipswich should keep any shop or chamber, or exercise the said
faculties, or any of them, or take an apprentice or journeyman, till he
should present himself to the Master and Wardens of the said society,
should prove that he had served an apprenticeship, and should be
admitted as a sufficient workman, on pain of 5 marks fine;
(iii) that in accordance with 19 Hen. vii., cap. 7, they had submitted
these rules to the justices of assize, who had allowed them;
(iv) that William Sheninge had worked 20 days as a tailor without
complying.
The defendant pleaded he was an apprentice by the space of 7 years, that
he had been retained as domestic servant for a year and that as such he
made garments for him, his wife, and children, which is the same use and
exercise wherein the plaintiffs demur.]
And in this case upon argument at the Bar and Bench, divers points were
resolved--
1. That at the Common Law no man could be prohibited from working in any
lawful trade, for the law abhors idleness ... and especially in young
men, who ought in their youth ... to learn lawful trades and sciences
which are profitable to the common weal.... And therefore the law abhors
all monopolies, which prohibit any from working in any lawful trade. And
that appears in 2 H. 5, 56. A dyer was bound that he should not use the
dyers' craft for 2 years, and there Hull holds that the bond was against
the common law, and by God if the plaintiff was here he should go to
prison till he paid a fine to the king; so for the same reason, if an
husbandman is bound that he shall not sow his land, the bond is against
the common law.... And if he who undertakes upon him to work is
unskilful, his ignorance is a sufficient punishment to him ... and if
any one takes him to work and spoils it, an action on the case lies
against him. And the Statute of 5 Eliz. 4, which prohibits every person
from using or exercising any craft, mystery, or occupation unless he has
been an apprentice by the space of 7 years was not enacted only to the
intent that workmen should be skilful, but also that youth should not be
nourished in idleness, but brought up and educated in lawful sciences
and trades: and therefore it appears that without an Act of Parliament
none can be prohibited from working in any lawful trade. Also the common
law doth not prohibit any person from using several Arts or mysteries at
his pleasure....
2. That the said Restraint of the defendant for more than the said Act
of 5 Eliz. has made was against law, and therefore for as much as the
Statute has not restrained him who has served as an apprentice for
seven years from exercising the trade of a tailor, the said ordinance
can't prohibit him from exercising his trade till he has presented
himself before them, or till they allow him to be a workman; for these
are against the liberty and freedom of the subject, and are a means of
extortion in drawing money from them, either by delay or some other
subtil device or by oppression of young Tradesmen by the old and rich of
the same Trade, not permitting them to work in their trade freely; and
all this is against the Common Law and the commonwealth. But ordinances
for the good order and government of men of Trades and Mysteries are
good, but not to restrain any one in his lawful mystery.
3. It was resolved that the said branch of the Act of 5 Eliz. is
intended of a public use and exercise of a trade to all who will come,
and not of him who is a private cook, tailor, brewer, baker, etc., in
the house of any for the use of a family, and therefore the said
ordinance had been good and consonant to law. Such a private exercise
and use had not been within it, for every one may work in such a private
manner, although he has never been an apprentice in the trade.
4. It was resolved that the Statute of 19 H. 7, cap. 7, doth not
corroborate any of the ordinances made by any corporation, which are so
allowed and approved as the Statute speaks, but leaves them to be
affirmed as good, or disaffirmed as unlawful, by the law; the sole
benefit which the corporation obtains by such allowance is that they
shall not incur the penalty of 40l. mentioned in the Act, if they put in
use any ordinances which are against the king's prerogative, or the
common profit of the people.
Judgment for defendant.
[Footnote 272: This case is important as an illustration of the attitude
of the Common Law Courts towards rules made in restraint of trade. See
below, section III of this Part, Nos. 17 and 24.]
19. THE GRIEVANCES OF THE JOURNEYMEN WEAVERS OF LONDON [_Gildhall
Library. The case of the Commonalty of the Corporation of Weavers of
London truly stated_],[273] _c._ 1649.
Humbly presented to the consideration of the honourable House of
Commons.
All legal jurisdictions over a number of people or society of men must
either be primitive or derivative. Now primitive jurisdiction is
undoubtedly in the whole body, and not in one or more members, all men
being by nature equal to other; and all jurisdictive power over them,
being founded by a compact and agreement with them, is invested in one
or more persons, who represent the whole, and by the consent of the
whole are empowered to govern by such rules of equality towards all, so
that both governor and governed may know certainly what the one may
command and what the other must obey; without the performance of which
mutual contract all obligations are cancelled, and that jurisdictive
power returns unto its first spring (the people) from whence it was
conveyed.
And doubtless whatever power our Governors of the Corporation of Weavers
may pretend and plead for, if they had any rationally, they had it at
first from the whole body, as it stands incorporated into a civil
society of men walking by such rules, established for the preservation
of the trade, advancement and encouragement of the profession thereof.
And if it be objected that they had a charter granted them by the King,
wherein they are invested that power they challenge, we answer that
there is not any one liberty that is granted to them but that is also
granted to the meanest member of the said company. The words of the
charter are these:--
[Here follows a copy of the charter granted by King Henry II to the
Weavers of London.]
So that it is clear that this grant was not to so many particular men,
but to the whole society; and what power soever any person or persons
were afterwards invested withall must of necessity be by the consent,
election, and approbation of the whole body; and if our Egyptian
taskmasters have any further commission for their usurped power over us,
why do they not produce it? Certainly, if they could, they would. But
having none they plead custom and precedents, both which they will find
but broken reeds to lean upon, but rotten props to support their
worm-eaten sovereignty.
1. For first, there must be these two things to make a custom valid: (i)
Usage; (ii) Time. Yet that time must be such whereof there is no memory
of man, and the usage must be peaceable, without interruption. But both
these are wanting to strengthen their claim to their pretended power
over us.
2. Suppose there were a custom, and that it had been time out of mind
also, yet if long usurpations of power could make the exercise thereof
legal, the very foundation of just government were subverted.
3. No custom against an Act of Parliament is valid in law. But the
custom claimed by our governors is against the very fundamental
constitutions both of all civil societies and of several Acts of
Parliament, which ordain that all elections shall be free, chiefly 3 of
Ed. I, chap. 5, by virtue of which the people choose all their officers
and magistrates in the several parishes and precincts in this kingdom.
And if it be according to law in the major, the commonwealth, it must
consequently hold in the minor, a particular corporation or civil
society of men, as we are, etc.
4. But customs are only valid when reasonable.... Now nothing in the
world can be more unreasonable than that such a number of men as 16
should have liberty to exercise a power over as many thousands, without,
nay against, their wills, consent, or election ..., the challenge and
exercise of such a power over a people being the perfectest badge of
slavery that men can be subjected to.
But we shall proceed in a discovery of those oppressions and abuses
which we complain so much against in our governors.
1st Charge. They have admitted aliens to be members for sums of money,
contrary to the statutes of the realm, orders of the Lord Mayor and
Court of Aldermen, customs of the city, and ordinances of the
company.... They have brought in by their own confession three hundred
and twelve strangers to be masters of the said company, and have taken
for their admittance 5l. a man, which amounted to 1,560l., or
thereabouts.... They object that the strangers admitted are broad
weavers and deal not in the commodities that we trade in, viz., ribbon,
lace, etc.
The objection is false; for most of us can, and many of us have wrought,
as good broad stuffs as are nowadays made, and would do still, were it
not for the vast number of strangers (which have engrossed the
trade).... And if it be demanded how or by what means they got the trade
into their hands, we answer that at the beginning of the war many of us
and our servants engaged for the Parliament, and, in our absence, they,
being generally malignant, staying at home, and keeping servants all of
their own country, never employing any English, as they by law ought, by
degrees got all the trading, so that now the war is ended, and we
returned to follow our callings, we can get no employment. By which
means many hundreds have been forced to leave the trade, as to be
porters, labourers, water-bearers, etc., and many forced to take relief
from the several parishes wherein they dwell....
2nd Charge. They have admitted natives to weave and set up weaving in
their gild, without serving seven years, contrary to the statutes,
orders and customs aforesaid, as hath been proved by several witnesses
before the Committee of the honourable House.
3rd Charge. They exact extraordinary fees of those persons that they
make free or admit, taking a silver spoon of an ounce and a half weight,
and five shillings and eightpence in money, contrary to the Statute of
22 of Hen. VIII, chap. 4, and 28 of Hen. VIII, chap. 5....
4th Charge. They have deprived the commonalty of their rights in their
first ordinance, which saith the bailiffs are to be chosen by the
bailiffs, wardens, assistants, and commonalty, which ordinance is
grounded upon the Statute of 3rd of Ed. I, chap. 5, which saith
elections ought to be free, etc.
As touching the right of election, sufficient hath been spoken in the
preamble before these charges; only give us leave to insert a few
particulars in answer to their objection.
1. Whereas they object, that the commonalty are represented in the
livery of the said company, we answer:--Legal representatives must be
legally chosen by the persons represented, or else they cannot, or at
least ought not, to be bound by their determinations. But the livery-men
of our company are chosen by the bailiffs and governors, and not by the
commonalty, so may properly be called the governors' representatives and
not ours, we being never called upon to give our voice in their
elections. Neither are they, indeed, elected, but brought in for 5l. a
man. In lieu whereof they are invested with a peculiar privilege above
others, by being empowered to keep more servants than ordinary, by which
means the commonalty is destroyed also....
5th Charge. They have dismissed the yeomanry contrary to six several
orders made with their consent by the Lord Mayor and Court of
Assistants.
But they object that they have not dismissed them, etc. If they had not
dismissed them, what needed so many several orders to be made to the
contrary? But we desire you to take notice that the yeomanry did consist
of sixteen persons which were authorized by the aforesaid six several
orders to search and find out the abuses in trade, viz., intruders that
had not served seven years, and that none but serviceable goods might be
made for the commonwealth. Now, because these governors gain by
intruders, making them pay for their permission, and driving the
greatest trade, making much light and deceitful work, therefore they
have dismissed the said yeomanry, by reason whereof both the said evils
are continued. Besides, the yeomanry by the said orders were to have the
journeymen's quarteridges for their pains, but now being by them
dismissed they gather the quarteridges and share it among themselves.
6th Charge. That they have wasted the treasure and stock of the company
in byways, and have not made that provision for the poor members of the
company as by their trust they ought to have done.
So that what with their feastings, defending vexatious suits contrary to
law, purchasing a monopoly, large fees for councillors, bills,
demurrers, suits against weavers of other companies, etc., they have in
one year out of the company's stock and income (which amounted but to
791l. 5s. 5d.) spent 566l. 19s. 8d., which year's account agrees with
their disbursements other years also; and for 200l. given by one Mr.
Ralph Hamon to purchase land for the poor, they have purchased none to
this day, but have shared the money among themselves....
The premises considered, and all other circumstances duly weighed, our
desires for the freedom of elections being both legal and rational, our
sufferings and abuses under usurping pretended governors so abusive and
offensive, our wants so great, company so numerous, trading so little,
and that too devoured by strangers, ... we therefore hope that all these
things put together will be of such weight with all conscientious, godly
men in this honourable House of Commons, as that we shall not need to
fear your willing assistance for the redressing of these great evils and
granting our just desires. The speedy performance whereof will not only
gain unto you the prayers of many thousand persons who are ready to
perish for want of trading, but also engage them, as heretofore, so for
the future, to stand by you in your greatest necessities, for the
strengthening your hands in the execution of justice and judgment, and
redress of the oppressions of the nation.
[Footnote 273: Part of this document is quoted by Unwin, _Industrial
Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_, pp. 205-6.]
SECTION III
THE REGULATION OF INDUSTRY BY THE STATE
1. Proposals for the Regulation of the Cloth Manufacture (_temp_
Henry VIII)--2. Administrative Difficulties in the Regulation of the
Manufacture of Cloth, 1537--3. An Act Touching Weavers, 1555--4.
Enactment of Common Council of London as to Age of Ending
Apprenticeship, 1556--5. William Cecil's Industrial Programme,
1559--6. The Statute of Artificers, 1563--7. Proposals for the Better
Administration of the Statute of Artificers, 1572--8. Draft of a Bill
Fixing Minimum Rates for Spinners and Weavers, 1593--9. Draft
Piece-list Submitted for Ratification to the Wiltshire Justices by
Clothiers and Weavers, 1602--10. An Act Empowering Justices to fix
Minimum Rates of Payment, 1603-04--11. Administration of Acts
Regulating the Manufacture of Cloth, 1603--12. Assessment made by the
Justices of Wiltshire, dealing mainly with other than Textile
Workers, 1604--13. Assessment made by the Justices of Wiltshire
dealing mainly with Textile Workers, 1605--14. Administration of Wage
Clauses of Statute of Artificers, 1605-08--15. Administration of
Apprenticeship Clause of the Statute of Artificers, 1607-08--16. The
Organisation of the Woollen Industry, 1615--17. Proceedings on the
Apprenticeship Clauses of the Statute of Artificers, 1615--18. A
Petition to Fix Wages Addressed to the Justices by the Textile
Workers of Wiltshire, 1623--19. Appointment by Privy Council of
Commissioners to Investigate Grievances of Textile Workers in East
Anglia, 1630--20. Report to Privy Council of Commissioners appointed
above, 1630--21. High Wages in the New World, 1645--22. Young Men and
Maids Ordered to Enter Service, 1655--23. Request to Justices of
Grand Jury of Worcestershire to Assess Wages, 1661--24. Proceedings
on the Apprenticeship Clauses of the Statute of Artificers, 1669.
The documents in this section illustrate the regulation of industrial
relationships by the government of the Tudors and of the first two
Stuarts. The principal aims of their policy were to check the movement
of the textile industries from the town to country districts (Nos. 3 and
6), to prevent the concentration of industry in the hands of capitalists
(Nos. 3 and 11), or the creation of a necessitous proletariat (No. 4),
to exercise a police supervision over the movement of labour (Nos. 6, 7
and 14), to maintain the quality of English goods (No. 2), to prevent
class encroaching on class (Nos. 5 and 6) either through the wage earner
demanding excessive wages (No. 5) or through the employer beating them
down unduly (Nos. 8, 10, 19, 20), in short to crystallize existing
relationships with such changes only as the economic developments of
recent years, particularly the fall in the value of money (No. 6), and
the spread of the textile industries into rural districts (No. 3) made
inevitable.
The system was developed in numerous Acts, of which the most important
are given below (Nos. 3, 6 and 10). The most comprehensive measure was
the Statute of Artificers of 1563 (No. 6). There was little original in
this Act. Just as the Statutes forbidding depopulation (Part II, section
I) really only developed manorial customaries into a national system,
and the Poor Law Statutes (Part II, section IV) were based on the
experiments of municipal authorities, so the Statute of Artificers was
based partly on the practices of gilds (Part II, section II), partly on
the mediæval Statutes of Labourers (see Part I, section VI, Nos.
12--19). Indeed, Cecil's original proposal (No. 5) seems to have been to
re-enact 12 Richard II, cap. 3, which the rise in prices had made out of
date. If seriously entertained, this idea must have been discarded. The
most important innovation introduced by the statute in its final form
was the substitution of a system of industrial regulation applying to
almost the whole country for regulations applying to particular
localities and particular trades.
The most important parts of the Statute of Artificers were those
relating to apprenticeship and to the assessment of wages. The former,
if we may judge by the proceedings of the County Justices (Nos. 11 & 15)
and of municipal authorities (Part II, section II, Nos. 9, 10, 11, 15),
seem to have been administered with considerable strictness, which was
only to be expected in view of the interest which gilds, boroughs,
traders and craftsmen generally had in seeing that they were carried
out. Judicial interpretations seem, however, to have begun at an early
date to whittle them away to some extent (No. 17), for the Judges
disliked rules "in restraint of trade" (No. 24 and section II, No. 18).
The wage clauses of the Statute present a more difficult problem. There
is no doubt that their object was to fix a maximum (not a minimum) wage
for agricultural labour (Nos. 6 and 14), which, however, should move
with movements in prices. This policy was not so oppressive as it
appears to us, because of the wide distribution of landed property, the
consequent fact that comparatively few rural workers depended entirely
upon wages for their living, and the relatively small difference between
the social position of the small farmer or master craftsman and the
hired persons whom they employed. In a colony like Massachusetts, where
the policy of fixing maximum wages was adopted, its motive was seen in
the simplest form (No. 21). Even in England, however, the same motives
were at work to a less degree (Nos. 5, 22 and 23). The policy of fixing
a maximum wage was, in fact, on a par with that of fixing prices, and
probably popular with the small masters and small landholders, who
formed a large proportion of the urban and rural population. It did not
come to an end with the destruction of the absolute monarchy, but
continued, with fair regularity, down to 1688, and, after that, with
much less regularity, at any rate to 1762.
The regulation of wages did not, however, only aim at fixing a maximum.
It also aimed on some, perhaps rare, occasions at fixing a minimum, at
any rate for workers in the textile industries. These latter were
treated in a special way, because the development of capitalism in the
textile industries (Nos. 2, 3, 8, 16 and 19) had created a wage problem
of a modern kind, at any rate in the south and east of England, such as
did not yet exist in agriculture. Municipal authorities had in the past
fixed minimum rates for textile workers (section II, No. 5). In 1593
four Bills were drafted which proposed to do the same by legislation, of
which one is printed below (No. 8), and in 1603-04 an Act (No. 10) was
passed to this effect. Two examples of the establishment of minimum
rates are given from the proceedings of the Wiltshire Quarter Sessions,
in 1602 and 1623. In the former case (No. 9) a piece list was drafted by
a committee of clothiers and weavers, which was subsequently issued
without alteration by the Justices (No. 13). In the latter case (No. 18)
the textile workers of Wiltshire asked the Justices to enforce the
assessment of wages on their employers, and the Justices complied by
ordering the rates to be published at Devizes. This shows that the
regulation of wages did in some cases protect the workers. Naturally,
however, the Justices required stimulating in this part of their duties,
and during the period of Charles I's personal government the Privy
Council intervened to compel them to fix rates, as it did to compel them
to administer the Poor Laws. In 1630 it received a petition from the
textile workers of Suffolk and Essex complaining that their wages had
been reduced, and appointed commissioners to investigate the matter (No.
19), who compelled the employers to raise wages (No. 20). The policy of
fixing _minimum_ rates seems to have come to an end with the fall of the
absolute monarchy in 1640, though it was occasionally revived by
Parliament in the sixteenth century. (Part III, section III, Nos. 3, 4
and 15).
AUTHORITIES
The more accessible of the modern writers dealing with the subject of
this section are:--Cunningham, _English Industry and Commerce, Modern
Times_, Part I; Ashley, _Economic History_, Vol. I, Part II, Chap,
iii; Unwin, _Industrial Organisation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries_; Abram, _Social England in the Fifteenth Century_; Dunlop
and Denman, _English Apprenticeship and Child Labour_; Rogers, _Six
Centuries of Work and Wages_; Hewins, _English Trade and Finance in
the Seventeenth Century_; Schanz, _Englische Handelspolitik Gegen
Ende des Mittelalters_; Tawney in _Die Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial
und Wirtschaftsgeschichte_, Band XI and XII, Heft 8 and 9;
Macarthur, in E.H.R., Vols. IX, XIII and XV; Hewins in _Economic
Journal_, Vol. VIII; Hutchins, _ibid._, Vol. X.
Bibliographies are given by Cunningham, _op. cit._, pp. 943-998;
Unwin, _op. cit._, pp. 263-270; Ashley, _op. cit._, pp. 190-1, 243-8;
Abram, _op. cit._, pp. 229-238; Dunlop & Denman, _op. cit._, pp.
355-63; the student may also consult the following:--
(1) _Documentary authorities_, 1485-1660:--The most important printed
sources of information for the administration of the industrial
legislation of the 16th century are Town Records (see bibliographies,
especially those of Unwin and of Dunlop & Denman), and the
Proceedings of the County Justices contained in the following
works:--Hamilton, Devonshire Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to
Queen Anne; Atkinson, Quarter Session Records of the North Riding of
Yorkshire; Willis Bund, Worcester County Records, division I; Cox,
Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals; Hardy, Hertford Quarter Session
Records; Hardy & Page, Bedfordshire County Quarter Sessions; volumes
published by the Historical MSS. Commission, especially Vol. I;
Victoria County History, _passim_.
(2) _Literary authorities._--The law is explained by numerous writers
of legal text books, _e.g._, Fitzherbert, The Book Belonging to a
Justice of the Peace; Lambard, Eirenarcha; Sheppard, Whole Office of
the County Justice of the Peace. Cases before the courts concerning
apprenticeship are quoted in the Reports of Coke and Croke.
Sidelights on contemporary opinion may be obtained from Rotuli
Parliamentorum III, 269, 330, 352; IV, 330-331, 352; V, 110; More,
Utopia; Starkey, A Dialogue between Cardinal Pole and Thomas Lupset
(Early English Text Society, England in the Reign of King Henry
VIII); Forest, The Pleasant Poesy of Princely Practice (_ibid._); The
Commonweal of this Realm of England (edited by E.R. Lamond); King
Edward's Remains, a Discourse about the Reformation of many abuses
(printed in Burnet's History of the Reformation); Winthrop's Journal;
Petty, A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions, Chapter I, Section 4.
1. PROPOSALS FOR THE REGULATION OF THE CLOTH MANUFACTURE[274] [_Brit.
Mus. Cotton MSS., Titus B. I, fol. 189_], _temp._ Hen. VIII.
Articles to be certified to my lord privy seal according to his letter
for the complaint of the weavers in the seven hundreds in the country of
Kent.