Protestant beliefs in thirty-nine Articles of Religion, which
specifically excluded certain Catholic beliefs. They were incorporated
into statute in 1571 establishing them as the tenets of the official
religion of England. The first eighteen endorsed the ideas of one God,
Christ as the son of God who was sacrificed for all the sins of men,
the resurrection of Christ from the dead and ascension into heaven, the
Holy Ghost proceeding from the father and the son, the books of the
Bible, the original sin of Adam and his offspring, justification of man
by faith in Christ rather than by good works, goods works as the
inspired fruit and proof of faith in Christ, Christ in the flesh as
like man except for the absence of sin, the chance for sinners who have
been Baptised to be forgiven if they truly repent and amend their
lives, the predestination of some to be brought by Christ to eternal
salvation and their minds to be drawn up to high and heavenly things,
and salvation only by the name of Christ and not by a sect. Other
tenets described the proper functions of the church, distinguishing
them from Roman Catholic practice. Specifically, the church was not to
expound one place of scripture so that it was inconsistent with another
place of scripture. Because man can err, the church was not to ordain
or enforce anything to be believed for necessity of salvation.
Explicitly renounced were the Romish doctrine concerning purgatory,
pardons, worshipping, adoration of images or relics, invocation of
saints, and the use in church of any language, such as Latin, not
understood by the people. Only the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's
Supper were recognized. The Lord's Supper was to be a sign of the love
that Christians ought to have among themselves and a sacrament of
redemption by Christ's death. The wine in the cup of blessing as well
as the bread of the Lord's Supper was to be taken by lay- people and to
be a partaking of Christ; there was no Romish mass. Excommunication was
limited to those who openly denounced the church. Anyone openly
breaking the traditions or ceremonies of the church which were approved
by common authority were to be rebuked. Elizabeth told the bishops that
she wished certain homilies to be read in church, which encouraged good
works such as fasting, prayer, alms-giving, Christian behavior,
repentance, and which discouraged idolatry, gluttony, drunkenness,
excess of apparel, idleness, rebellion, and wife-beating, however
provoked. She considered homilies more instructive and learned than
ministers' sermons, which were often influenced by various gentlemen
and were inconsistent with each other. Consecration of bishops and
ministers was regulated. They were allowed to marry. The standard
prayer was designated thus: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be
Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our offenses
as we forgive those who have offended against us. And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the
power, and the glory forever and ever, amen."
There was difficulty persuading educated and moral men to be
church ministers, even though Elizabeth expressed to the bishops her
preference for ministers who were honest and wise instead of learned in
religious matters. The Bible was read at home and familiar to everyone.
This led to the growth of the Puritan movement. The Puritans believed
in the right of the individual Christian to interpret the Scriptures
for himself by spiritual illumination. They opposed the mystical
interpretation of the Communion service. The Puritans complained that
the church exerted insufficient control over the morals of the
congregation. Their ideas of morality were very strict and even plays
were thought to be immoral. The Independent Puritans were those
Protestants who had fled from Mary's Catholic reign to the continent,
where they were persuaded to the ideas of John Calvin of Geneva. He
stressed the old idea of predestination in the salvation of souls,
which had in the past been accepted by nearly all English Christian
leaders, thinkers, and teachers, but not stressed. The act of
conversion was a common experience among the early Puritans. The
concomitant hatred of past sins and love of God which was felt in
thankfulness for mercy were proof of selection for salvation. The good
works that followed were merely an obligation showing that one's faith
was real, but not a way to salvation.
The puritans also accepted Calvin's idea of independent church
government. They therefore thought that ministers and lay elders of
each parish should regulate religious affairs and that the bishops, who
were "petty popes", should be reduced to an equality with the rest of
the clergy, since they did not rule by divine right. The office of
archbishop should be eliminated and the head of state should not
necessarily be governor of the church. These ideas were widely
disseminated in books and pamphlets. The puritans disrupted the
established church's Sunday services, tearing the surplice off the
minister's back and the wafers and wine from the altar rail. The
puritans arranged "lectures" on Sunday afternoons and on weekdays.
These were given gratuitously or funded by boroughs. They were strict
about not working on the Sabbath, which day they gave to spiritual
exercises, meditations, and works of mercy. The only work allowed was
preparing meals for themselves, caring for their animals, and milking
the cows. They enforced a strict moral discipline on themselves. The
puritans formed a party in the House of Commons.
The puritan movement included William Brewster, an assistant to
a court official who was disciplined for delivering, upon pressure from
the council, the Queen's signed execution order for Mary of Scotland
after the Queen had told him to hold it until she directed otherwise.
After exhausting every other alternative, the Queen had reluctantly
agreed with her Privy Council on the execution in 1572 of Mary, Queen
of Scots, who had been involved in a plot to assassinate her and claim
the throne of England. Elizabeth's Council had persuaded her that it
was impossible for her to live in safety otherwise.
The debased coinage was replaced by a recoinage of newly minted
coins with a true silver weight.
Goldsmiths, who also worked silver, often acted as guardians of
clients' wealth. They began to borrow at interest at one rate in order
to lend out to traders at a higher rate. This began banking.
Patents were begun to encourage the new merchant lords to
develop local manufactures or to expand import and export trade.
Patents were for a new manufacture or an improved older one and
determined the wages of its trades. There was chartering of merchant
companies and granting of exclusive rights to new industries as
monopolies. Some monopolies or licenses were patents or copyrights of
inventors. Others established trading companies for trade to certain
foreign lands and supporting consular services. People holding
monopolies were accountable to the government. There were monopolies on
certain smoked fish, fish oil, seal oil, oil of blubber, vinegar, salt,
currants, aniseed, juniper berry liquor, bottles, glasses, brushes,
pots, bags, cloth, starch, steel, tin, iron, cards, horn, ox shinbones,
ashes, leather pieces, earth coal, calamite stone, powder, saltpeter,
and lead manufacturing by-products.
For far-flung enterprises and those where special arrangements
with foreign countries was required, there was sharing of stock of
companies, usually by merchants of the same type of goods. In
joint-stock companies each member took a certain number of shares and
all the selling of the goods of each merchant was carried on by the
officials of the company. The device of joint stock might take the form
of a fully incorporated body or of a less formal and unincorporated
syndicate. The greatest joint-stock company was East India Company,
chartered in 1600 to trade there in competition with the Dutch East
India Company. It was given a fifteen year monopoly on trade east of
the southern tip of Africa. Unlike the Muscovy Company, and Merchants
of the Staple, individual members could not trade on their own account,
but only through the corporate body on its voyages. Each particular
voyage was regulated and assisted by the Crown and Privy Council, for
instance when further subscriptions were needed, or when carpenters
were needed to be pressed into service for fitting out ships, or to
deal with an unsuccessful captain. Its charter retained many of the
aspects of the medieval trade guild: power to purchase lands, to sue
and be sued, to make by-laws, and to punish offenders by fine or
imprisonment. Admission was by purchase of a share in a voyage,
redemption, presentation, patrimony (adult sons of members), and
apprenticeship. Purchase of a share in a voyage was the most common
method. A share for the first ship cost one hundred pounds. Cash
payments for less than the price of a share could be invested for
ultimate redemption. Occasionally presentation or a faculty "for the
making of a freeman" was granted to some nobleman or powerful member.
Members' liability was limited to their individual subscriptions. Each
voyage had 1) a Royal Commission authorizing the Company to undertake
the expedition and vesting in its commanders powers for punishing
offenses during the voyage, and quenching any mutiny, quarrels, or
dissension that might arise; 2) a code of instructions from the Company
to the Admiral and to commanders of ships setting forth in great detail
the scope and objects of the voyage together with minute regulations
for its conduct and trade; 3) authorization for coinage of money or
export of specie (gold or silver); and 4) letters missive from the
sovereign to foreign rulers at whose ports the ships were to trade. The
first voyage brought back spices that were sold at auction in London
for ten times their price in the Indies and brought to shareholders a
profit equivalent to 9 1/2% yearly for the ten years when the going
interest rate was 8% a year.
Town government was often controlled by a few merchant
wholesalers. The entire trade of a town might be controlled by its
drapers or by a company of the Merchant Adventurers of London. The
charter of the latter as of 1564 allowed a common seal, perpetual
existence, liberty to purchase lands, and liberty to exercise their
government in any part of the nation. It was controlled by a group of
rich Londoners, no more than 50, who owned the bulk of the cloth
exported. There were policies of insurance given by groups of people
for losses of ships and their goods. Marine insurance was regulated.
New companies were incorporated for many trades. They were
associations of employers rather than the old guilds which were
associations of actual workers. The ostensible reason was the
supervision of the quality of the wares produced in that trade, though
shoemakers, haberdashers, saddlers, and curriers exercised close
supervision over these wares.Companies paid heavily for their patents
or charters.
There was no sharp line between craftsman and shopkeeper or
between shopkeeper and wholesale merchant. In London, an enterprising
citizen could pass freely from one occupation to another. Borrowing
money for a new enterprise was common. Industrial suburbs grew up
around London and some towns became known as specialists in certain
industries. The building crafts in the towns often joined together into
one company, e.g. wrights, carpenters, slaters, and sawyers, or
joiners, turners, carvers, bricklayers, tilers, wallers, plasterers,
and paviors. These companies included small contractors, independent
masters, and journeymen. The master craftsman often was a tradesman as
well, who supplied timber, bricks, or lime for the building being
constructed. The company of painters was chartered with a provision
prohibiting painting by persons not apprenticed for seven years.
The prosperous merchants began to form a capitalistic class as
capitalism grew. Competition for renting farm land, previously unknown,
caused these rents to rise. The price of wheat rose to an average of
14s. per quarter, thereby encouraging tillage once more. There was
steady inflation.
With enclosure of agricultural land there could be more
innovation and more efficiency, e.g. the time for sowing could be
chosen. It was easier to prevent over-grazing and half-starved animals
as a result. The complications of the open system with its endless
quarrels and lawsuits were avoided. Now noblemen talked about manure
and drainage, rotation of crops, clover, and turnips instead of
hunting, horses, and dogs. The breed of horses and cattle was improved.
There were specializations such as the hunting horse and the coach
horse. By royal proclamation of 1562, there were requirements for the
keeping of certain horses. For instance, everyone with lands of at
least 1,000 pounds had to keep six horses or geldings able for
demi-lances [rider bearing a light lance] and ten horses or geldings
for light horsemen [rode to battle, but fought on foot]. One with under
100 pounds but over 100 marks yearly had to keep one gelding for a
light horseman. Dogs had been bred into various types of hounds for
hunting, water and land spaniels for falconry, and other dogs as house
dogs or toy dogs. There were no longer any wild boar or wild cattle.
The turkey joined the cocks, hens, geese, ducks, pigeons, and peacocks
in the farmyard. Manure and dressings were used to fertilize the soil.
Hay became a major crop because it could be grown on grazing lands and
required little care.
There are new and bigger industries such as glassware, iron,
brasswares, alum and coppers, gunpowder, paper, coal, and sugar. The
coal trade was given a monopoly. Coal was used for fuel as well as
wood, which was becoming scarce. Iron smelters increasingly used coal
instead of charcoal, which was limited. Iron was used for firebacks,
pots, and boilers. Good quality steel was first produced in 1565 with
the help of German craftsmen, and a slitting mill was opened in 1588.
Small metal goods, especially cutlery, were made, as well as nails,
bolts, hinges, locks, ploughing and harrowing equipment, rakes, pitch
forks, shovels, spades, and sickles. Lead was used for windows and
roofs. Copper and brass were used to make pots and pans. Pewter was
used for plates, drinking vessels, and candlesticks. Competition was
the mainspring of trade and therefore of town life.
The mode of travel of the gentry was riding horses, but most
people traveled by walking. People carried passes for travel that
certified they were of good conduct and not a vagrant or sturdy rogue.
Bands of roving vagabonds terrorized the countryside. After a land
survey completed in 1579 there arose travel books with maps,
itineraries, and mileage between towns in England and Wales. Also, the
Queen sent her official mail by four royal postal routes along high
roads from London to various corners of the nation. Horses are posted
along the way for the mail-deliverer's use. However, private mail still
goes by packman or common carrier. The nation's inland trade developed
a lot. There were many more wayfaring traders operating from town inns.
In 1564, the first canal was built with locks at Exeter. More locks and
canals facilitated river travel. At London Bridge, waterwheels and
pumps were installed.
New sea navigation techniques improved voyages. Seamen learned
to fix their positions, using an astrolabe or quadrant to take the
altitude of the sun and stars and to reckon by the north star. They
used a nocturnal, which was read by touch, to help keep time at night
by taking the altitude of the stars. They calculated tides. To measure
distances, they invented the traverse board, which was bored with holes
upon lines, showing the points of the compass; by means of pegs, the
steersman kept an account of the course steered. A log tied to a rope
with knots at equal intervals was used to measure speed. There were
compasses with a bearing dial on a circular plate with degrees up to
360 noted thereon. Seamen had access to compilations of Arab
mathematicians and astronomers and to navigational manuals and
technical works on the science of navigation and the instruments
necessary for precision sailing. For merchants there were maps, books
about maps, cosmographical surveys, and books on the newly discovered
lands. In 1569 John Mercator produced a map taking into account the
converging of the meridians towards the pole. On this chart, a straight
line course would correspond to a mariner's actual course through the
water on the earth's sphere, instead of having the inaccuracies of a
straight line on a map which suggested that the world was flat. It was
in use by 1600.
In 1600 William Gilbert, son of a gentleman, and physician to
Queen Elizabeth, wrote a book on the magnetic properties of the earth.
He cultivated the method of experiment and of inductive reasoning from
observation and insisted on the need for a search for knowledge not in
books but in things themselves. He showed that the earth was a great
magnet with a north pole and a south pole, by comparing it to
lodestones made into spheres in which a north and south pole could be
found by intersecting lines of magnetism indicated by a needle on the
stone. The vertical dip of the needle was explained by the magnetic
attraction of the north pole. He showed how a lodestone's declination
could be used to determine latitude at sea. He showed how the charge of
a body could be retained for a period of time by covering the body with
some non-conducting substance, such as silk. He distinguished magnetism
from electricity, giving the latter its name. He discovered that
atmospheric conditions affected the production of electricity, dryness
decreasing it, and moisture increasing it. He expounded the idea of
Copernicus that the earth revolves around the sun in a solar system.
However, the prevailing belief was still that the earth was at the
center of the universe.
Christmas was an especially festive time of good fellowship.
People greeted each other with "Good cheer", "God be with you", or
"Against the new year". Carols were often sung and musicians played
many tunes. There was dancing and gambling. There were big dinners with
many kinds of meat and drink. A hearty fire heated all the house. Many
alms were given to beggars.
Parliament enacted laws and voted taxes. The Queen, House of
Lords, and House of Commons cooperated together. There was relatively
little dissension or debating. Bills in the House of Lords were read,
voted on, discussed, and passed with the lords, peers, bishops, and
justices sitting in their places according to their degree. The
justices sat on the wool sacks. A bar separated this area from the rest
of the room, where the members of the commons stood. There were many
bills concerning personal, local, or sectional interests, but priority
consideration was given to public measures. The House of Lords still
had 55 members. The Queen appointed and paid the Speaker, Clerk, and
Sergeant at Arms of the Commons. The knights in the Commons were almost
invariably from the county's leading families and chosen by consensus
of knights with free land of at least 40s. in the county court. In the
towns, the electors might be the town corporation, holders of certain
properties, all the freemen, all the rate-payers, or all the male
inhabitants. Disputed elections were not usually concerned with
political issues, but were rivalries for power. The Commons gradually
won for its members freedom from arrest without its permission and the
right of punishing and expelling members for crimes committed. Tax on
land remained at 10% of its estimated yearly income. The Queen deferred
to the church convocation to define Christian faith and religion, thus
separating church and state functions.
The Treasury sought to keep a balanced budget by selling royal
land and keeping Crown expenditures down. The Crown carried a slight
debt incurred before the Queen's accession.
Violence was still a part of the texture of everyday life.
Private armories and armed gangs were not uncommon. Agricultural
laborers kept sword and bow in a corner of their fields. Non-political
brutal crime and homicides were commonplace. There were frequent local
riots and disturbances, in the country and in the towns. Occasionally
there were large-scale rebellions. But the rebellion of the Earl of
Essex in 1601 had no aftermath in violence. In 1590, the Queen issued a
proclamation enforcing curfew for London apprentices, who had been
misruly. The Queen issued proclamations to certain counties to place
vagrant soldiers or vagrants under martial law because of numerous
robberies. She ordered the deportation of vagrant Irishmen in 1594.
Theft and robbery were so usual that there were names for
various techniques used. A Ruffler went with a weapon to seek service,
saying that he was a servitor in the wars, but his chief "trade" was to
rob poor wayfaring men and market women. A Prigman went with a stick in
his hand like an idle person, but stole clothes off hedges. A Whipjack
begged like a mariner, but with a counterfeit license (called a
"gibe"); he mostly robbed booths in fairs or pilfered ware from stalls,
which was called "heaving of the booth". A Frater had a counterfeit
license to beg for some hospital, but preyed upon poor women coming and
going to market. A Quire Bird was a person recently let out of prison,
and was commonly a horse stealer. An Upright Man carried a truncheon of
a staff and called others to account to him and give him a share or
"snap" of all that they had gained in one month, and he often beat
them. He took the chief place at any market walk and other assemblies.
Workers at inns often teamed up with robbers, telling them of wares or
money travelers were carrying so the robber could profitably rob them
after they left the inn.
Francis Drake sailed around the world from 1577 to 1580. Walter
Ralegh made an expedition to North America in 1584 with the Queen's
authority to "discover barbarous countries, not actually possessed of
any Christian prince and inhabited by Christian people, to occupy and
enjoy". He found and named the land of Virginia in honor of the Queen,
who was a virgin, and started a colony on Roanoke Island there. Drake
and Ralegh plundered Spanish ships for cargo such as American gold and
silver, much of which was used to pay for the war with Spain and much
going to investors. Seamen on navy and pirate ships raided captured
vessels to seize personal possessions of the Spanish on board. The
experience fighting Spanish ships led to improvements in ship design;
building ships was no longer merely by copying another ship or a small
model. When the seas were unsafe because of the war with Spain, the
export of English wool was disturbed and later replaced by trading from
world ports. Many London merchants grew rich from using their ships for
pirating.
In 1588, a Spanish Armada came to invade England, return it to
Catholicism, and stop the pirating of Spanish ships. In that battle off
England's shores, Drake and other experienced sea fighters led two
hundred English ships, of which about 20 were built to sink other ships
rather than to board and capture them. These new English ships were
longer and narrower and did away with the towering superstructures at
bow and stern. This made them more maneuverable and easier to sail.
Also, the English guns were lighter, more numerous, and outranged the
Spanish guns. So the smaller English ships were able to get close
enough to fire broadside after broadside against the big Spanish
troop-transport galleons, without being fired upon. The English sent
fire ships into the Spanish fleet when it was anchored, causing it's
ships to disperse in a panic. Then the direction of the wind forced the
Spanish galleons northward, where most of them were destroyed by
storms. The English seamen had been arbitrarily pressed into this
service.
A royal proclamation of 1601 offered a reward of 100 pounds for
information on libels against the Queen. There had been mounting
demonstrations against her monopolies, which mostly affected household
items. There had been abuses of monopolies, such as the steel monopoly
had been sold for 12 pounds 10s., but steel was then sold at 5d. per
pound instead of the former 2 1/2 d. per pound. Further the steel was
mixed and of a lesser quality. This so damaged the knife and sword
industry that about 2000 workers lost their jobs from it and became
beggars. Monopoly was a severe burden to the middle and poorer classes.
Also, the power of patent holders to arrest and imprison persons
charged with infringing upon their rights was extended to any disliked
person.
When the House of Commons protested against monopolies in 1601,
Elizabeth reduced them. She addressed her Council and the Commons
saying that "Mr. Speaker, you give me thanks, but I doubt me that I
have more cause to thank you all than you me; and I charge you to thank
them of the Lower House from me. For had I not received a knowledge
from you, I might have fallen into the lapse of an error only for lack
of true information. Since I was queen yet did I never put my pen to
any grant but that upon pretext and semblance made unto me, it was both
good and beneficial to the subject in general, though a private profit
to some of my ancient servants who had deserved well. But the contrary
being found by experience, I am exceedingly beholding to such subjects
as would move the same at the first. And I am not so simple to suppose
but that there be some of the Lower House whom these grievances never
touched; and for them I think they speak out of zeal to their countries
and not out of spleen or malevolent affection, as being parties
grieved. And I take it exceedingly gratefully from them, because it
gives us to know that no respects or interests had moved them other
than the minds they bear to suffer no diminution of our honor and our
subjects' love unto us, the zeal of which affection tending to ease my
people and knit their hearts unto me, I embrace with a princely care.
For above all earthly treasures I esteem my people's love, more than
which I desire not to merit. That my grants should be grievous unto my
people and oppressions to be privileged under color of our patents, our
kingly dignity shall not suffer it. Yea, when I heard it I could give
no rest unto my thoughts until I had reformed it. Shall they (think
you) escape unpunished that have thus oppressed you, and I have been
respectless of their duty and regardless of our honor? No, no, Mr.
Speaker, I assure you, were it not more for conscience' sake than for
any glory or increase of love that I desire, these errors, troubles,
vexations, and oppressions done by these varlets and low persons (not
worthy the name of subjects) should not escape without condign
punishment. But I perceive they dealt with me like physicians who,
ministering a drug, make it more acceptable by giving it a good
aromatical savor; or when they give pills, do gild them all over. I
have ever used to set the Last Judgment day before my eyes and so to
rule as I shall be judged, to answer before a higher judge. To whose
judgment seat I do appeal that never thought was cherished in my heart
that tended not unto my people's good. And now if my kingly bounties
have been abused and my grants turned to the hurts of my people,
contrary to my will and meaning, or if any in authority under me have
neglected or perverted what I have committed to them, I hope Good will
not lay their culps [sins] and offenses to my charge. Who, though there
were danger in repealing our grants, yet what danger would I not rather
incur for your good than I would suffer them still to continue? I know
the title of a king is a glorious title, but assure yourself that the
shining glory of princely authority hath not so dazzled the eyes of our
understanding but that we well know and remember that we also are to
yield an account of our actions before the great Judge. To be a king
and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it
is pleasant to them that bear it. For myself, I was never so much
enticed with the glorious name of a king or royal authority of a queen
as delighted that God hath made me His instrument to maintain His truth
and glory, and to defend this kingdom from peril, dishonor, tyranny,
and oppression. There will never queen sit in my seat with more zeal to
my country, care to my subjects, and that will sooner with willingness
venture her life for your good and safety, than myself. For it is not
my desire to live or reign longer than my life and reign shall be for
your good. And though you have had and may have many princes more
mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had or shall have
any that will be more careful and loving."
About 1584, Richard Hakluyt, a Bristol clergyman, wrote "A
Particular Discourse concerning Western Discoveries". This was to
become the classic statement of the case for English colonization. It
held out hope that the English would find needed timber for masts,
pitch, tar, and ashes for soap.
In Rome in 1600, Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk and priest,
was burned alive at the stake by a court of the inquisition for not
recanting, although tortured, his heretical and blasphemous philosophy.
He had opined that Christianity was irrational and had no scientific
basis. He declared that Christ was only a skillful magician, that the
Bible could not be taken literally, that God and nature were not
separate as taught by Genesis, that the Catholic Church encouraged
ignorance from the instinct of self-preservation, and that the earth
and planets revolved around the sun, as did other planets around the
"fixed" stars and other suns.
The Jesuits, a new Catholic order brimming with zeal, sent
missionaries to England to secretly convert people to Catholicism. The
practice of Catholicism had gone underground in England, and some
Catholic householders maintained Catholic priests in hidden places in
their homes.
Although estate tails (estates descendible only to the heirs of the
body of the original feofee) by law could not be sold or given away,
this was circumvented by the fraudulent use of a "straw man". In
collaboration with the possessor of the property, this straw man sued
the possessor asserting that the property had been wrongfully taken
from the straw man. The possessor pleaded that the crier of the court
who had warranted the title should be called to defend the action. He
failed to appear until after judgment had been given to the straw man.
Then the straw man conveyed it to the possessor or his nominee in fee
simple.
The Law
The following statute of artificers regulated labor for the
next two centuries: No master or mistress may employ a servant for a
term less than one year in the crafts of clothiers, woolen cloth
weavers, tuckers, fullers, clothworkers, shearmen, dyers, hosiers,
tailors, shoemakers, glovemakers, tanners, pewterers, bakers, brewers,
cutlers, smith, farriers, curriers, saddlers, spurriers, turners,
cappers, hatmakers, feltmakers, bow-makers, arrow-makers,
arrowhead-makers, butchers, cooks, or millers. Also, every craftsman
unmarried or under age 30 who is not working must accept employment by
any person needing the craft work. Also, any common person between 12
and 60 who is not working must accept employment in agriculture. And,
unmarried women between 12 and 40 may be required by town officials to
work by the year, the week, or day for wages they determine.
All artificers and laborers hired by the day or week shall work from 5
am to 7 PM. All artificers must labor at agriculture at haytime and
harvest to avoid the loss of grain or hay. Every householder who raises
crops may receive as an apprentice a child between 10 and 18 to serve
in agriculture until he is age 21. A householder in a town may receive
a child as an apprentice for 7 years, but merchants may only take as
apprentices children of parents with 40s. freehold.
No one may be a craftsman until he has served seven years as an
apprentice. These artificers may have children as apprentices: smith,
wheelmaker, ploughmaker, millmaker, miller, carpenter, rough mason,
plasterer, a timber sawer, an ore burner, a lime burner, brickmaker,
bricklayer, tilemaker, tiler, layer of slate roofs, layer of wood
shingle roofs, layer of straw roofs, cooper, earthen potter, linen
weaver, housewife who weaves wool for sale or for household use.
Purposes of the statute of artificiers were to advance agriculture,
diminish idleness, and inhibit migration to the towns. It excluded
three fourths of the rural population.)
Troops of vagabonds with weapons in the highways who pretend to
be soldiers or mariners have committed robberies and murders. So all
vagabonds shall settle down in some service or labor or trade.
A vagabond or mighty strong beggar [able to work] shall be
whipped.
Incorrigible and dangerous rogues shall be branded with an "R"
mark on the left shoulder and be put to labor, because banishment did
not work as they came back undetected. If one is caught again begging,
he shall be deemed a felon.
If a person marries a second time while the first spouse is
still living, it shall be a felony and thus punishable by death.
No attainder shall result in the forfeiture of dower by the
offender's wife nor disinheritance of his heirs.
No one shall forge a deed of land, charter, sealed writing,
court roll or will.
No one shall libel or slander so as to cause a rebellion.
Embezzlement or theft by a servant of his master's goods of
40s. or more is a felony.
Cut-purses and pick-purses shall not have benefit of clergy.
A person robbing a house of 5s. by day when no one is there
shall not have benefit of clergy, because too many poor persons who
cannot hire a servant to look after their house when they go to work
have been robbed.
Benefit of clergy may not be had for stabbing a person who has
no weapon drawn, if he dies within six months.
Fraudulent and secret conveyances made to retain the use of
one's land when one sells the land to a bona fide purchaser for value
in fee simple, fee tail, for life, for lives, or for years are void.
Crown officials such as treasurers, receivers, accountants, and
revenue collectors shall not embezzle Crown funds and shall be
personally liable for arrears.
Persons forcibly taking others across county lines to hold them
for ransom and those taking or giving blackmail money and those who
burn barns or stacks of grain shall be declared felons and shall suffer
death, without any benefit of clergy or sanctuary.
Any person killing any pheasant, partridge, dove, pigeon, duck
or the like with any gun, crossbow, stonebow, or longbow, or with dogs
and nets or snares, or taking the eggs of such from their nests, or
tracing or taking hares in the snow shall be imprisoned for three
months unless he pays 20s. per head or, after one month's imprisonment,
have two sureties bound for 400s. This is because the past penalty of
payment hasn't deterred offenders, who frequently cannot pay.
Persons affected by the plague may not leave their houses or be
deemed felons and suffer death. This is to avoid further infection. The
towns may tax their inhabitants for the relief of infected persons.
Devising or speaking seditious rumors are penalized by the
pillory and loss of both ears for the first offense; and 200 pounds and
six months imprisonment for the second offense. Slandering the Queen is
penalized by the pillory and loss of one ear, or by 100 marks and three
months imprisonment, at the choice of the offender. The second offense
is a felony. Printing, writing, or publishing seditious books is a
felony without benefit of clergy. Wishing the Queen dead, prophesying
when she would die, or who would succeed her to the Crown is a felony
without benefit of clergy. Attainders for these felonies shall not work
corruption of the blood [heirs may inherit the property of the felon].
A debtor may not engage in a fraudulent collusion to sell his
land and goods in order to avoid his creditors. This was designed to
remedy the following problem:
A native or denizen merchant in wholesale or retail goods who
leaves the nation to defraud his creditors shall be declared a
bankrupt. The Chancellor may conduct an investigation to ascertain his
land, house, and goods, no matter who may hold them. They shall be
appraised and sold to satisfy his debts.
Lands, tenements, goods and chattels of accountants teller, or
receiver who are in debt may be obtained by court order to satisfy the
debt by garnishing the heir of the debtor after the heir has reached 21
and for the 8 years next ensuing.
Loan contracts for money lent may not be for more than 200s.
for each 2000s. yearly (i.e. 10% interest). All loans of money or
forbearing of money in sales of goods not meeting this requirement
shall be punishable by forfeit of the interest only.
Pawn brokers accepting stolen goods shall forfeit twice their
value to the owner from whom stolen.
When the hue and cry is raised for a robbery in a hundred, and
other hundreds have been negligent, faulty, or defective in pursuit of
the robber, then they must pay half the damages to the person robbed,
while the hundred in which the robbery occurred pays the other half.
Robbers shall be pursued by horse and by foot.
The mother and reputed father of any bastard who has been left
to be kept at the parish where born must pay weekly for the upkeep and
relief of such child, so that the true aged and disabled of the parish
get their relief and to punish the lewd life.
Any innkeeper, victualer, or alehouse keeper who allows
drinking by persons other than those invited by a traveler who
accompanies him during his necessary abode there or other than laborers
and handicraftsmen in towns upon the usual working days for one hour at
dinner time to take their diet in an alehouse or other than laborers
and workmen following their work to any given town to sojourn, lodge,
or victual in any inn, alehouse or victualing house shall forfeit 10s.
for each offense. This is because the use of inns, alehouses, and
victualing houses was intended for relief and lodgings of traveling
people and people not able to provide their own victuals, but not for
entertainment and harboring of lewd and idle people who become drunk.
No butcher may cut any hide or any ox, bull, steer, or cow so
that it is impaired or may kill any calf under five weeks old. No
butcher may be a tanner. No one may be a tanner unless that person has
apprenticed as such for seven years, or is the son or wife of a tanner
who has tanned for four years, or is a son or daughter of a tanner who
inherits his tanhouse. Tanners may not be shoemakers, curriers,
butchers, or leatherworkers. Only tanners may buy raw hides. Only
leatherworkers may buy leather. Only sufficiently strong and
substantial leather may be used for sole-leather. Curriers may not be
tanners. Curriers may not refuse to curry leather. London searchers
shall inspect leather, seal and mark that which is sufficient, and
seize any that is insufficiently tanned, curried, wrought, or used.
The incorporated company of ship masters may erect beacons and
marks on the seashores and hills above, because certain steeples and
other marks used for navigation have fallen down and ships therefore
have been lost in the sea.
There shall be one sheriff per county, because now there are
enough able men to supply one per county.
No one shall bribe an elector to vote for a certain person for
fellow, scholar, or officer of a college, school, or hall or hospital
so that the fittest persons will be elected, though lacking in money or
friends, and learning will therefore be advanced.
No master at a university may lease any land unless 1/3 of it
is retained for raising crops to supply the colleges and halls for food
for their scholars.
Fish, but no meat, may be eaten on Wednesdays so that there
will be more fishermen and mariners and repair of ports. (This was done
because fishing had declined since the dissolution of the monasteries,
where fissh was eaten eveery Friday. Eating fish instead of meat in
Lent in the springtime remained a tradition.)
Every person over 6 years of age shall wear on Sundays a wool
knitted cap made by the cappers, except for maidens, ladies,
gentlewomen, noble persons, and every lord, knight, and gentlemen with
2,667s. of land, since the practice of not wearing caps has damaged the
capping industry. This employed cappers and poor people they had
employed and the decrepit and lame as carders, spinners, knitters,
parters, forsers, thickers, dressers, dyers, battelers, shearers,
pressers, edgers, liners, and bandmakers.
No man under the degree of knight may wear a hat or cap of
velvet. Caps may not be made of felt, but only knit wool. Only hats may
be made of felt. This is to assist the craft of making wool caps.
No one may make any hat unless he has served as apprentice for
at least seven years. This is to prevent false and deceitful hat-
making by unskillful persons.
No one shall make false linen by stretching it and adding
little pieces of wood, which is so weak that it comes apart after five
washings.
Timber shall not be felled to make logs for fires for the
making of iron.
No one may take small fish to feed to dogs and pigs. Only nets
with mesh leaving three inches spaces may be used to catch fish.
Cottage and dwelling houses for workmen or laborers in mineral
works, coal mines, or quarries of stone or slate for the making of
brick, tile, lime, or coals shall be built only within a mile from such
works. Dwelling houses beyond this must be supported by four acres of
land to be continually occupied and manured as long as the dwelling
house is inhabited or else forfeit 40s. per month to the Queen.
Cottages and dwelling houses for sailors or laborers working on ships
for the sea shall be built only within a mile of the sea. A cottage may
be built in a forest or park for a game keeper of the deer. A cottage
may be built for a herdman or shepherd for the keeping of cattle or
sheep of the town. A cottage may be built for a poor, lame, sick, aged,
or disabled person on waste or common land. More families than one may
not be placed in one cottage or dwelling house. (This is a zoning law.)
Any person with land in fee-simple may establish a hospital,
abiding place, or house of correction to have continuance forever as a
corporation for the sustenance and relief of the maimed, poor, or
disabled people as to set the poor to work. The net income shall not
exceed 40,000s. yearly.
No new iron mills or furnaces for making or working of any iron
or iron metal shall be established in the country around London and the
owners of carriages of coals, mines and iron which have impaired or
destroyed the highways shall also carry coal ashes, gravel, or stone to
repair these highways or else make a payment of 2s.6d. for each cart
load not carried.
For repairing of highways, the supervisors may take the rubbish
or smallest stones of any quarry along the road in their precinct.
Persons with 100s. in goods or 40s. in lands shall find two
able men in their parish community to repair the highways yearly.
Landowners of Oxford shall be taxed for the repair of the
highway and bridge there.
The price of barrels shall be set by mayors of the towns where
they are sold.
Rugs shall weigh 44 pounds at least and be 35 yards at least in
length and at most 3/4 yard wide.
No cattle may be put in any enclosed woods that have been
growing less than five years. At the end of five years growth, calves
may be put in. At the end of six years growth, cattle may be put in.
Woods around London shall not be felled to be converted to
coals for iron-works because London needs the wood to make buildings
and for fireplaces.
Every melter and maker of wax from honeycombs shall put his
mark on every piece of his wax to be sold. Wrought wax such as in
lights, staff-torches, red wax or sealing wax, book candles, or searing
candles shall bear its maker's mark. All barrels of honey shall bear
the mark of the honeymaker.
Wool cloth, cotton cloth, flannel cloth, hose-yarn, hats, and
caps shall be dyed black only with dye from the woad plant and not with
any false black dye.
No one shall take or kill any pheasants with nets or devices at
nighttime because such have become scarce.
Pontage [toll for upkeep and repair of bridges] shall be taken
at certain bridges: carts 2d., horse and pack 1d., a flock of sheep 2d.
No bishop may lease land for more than twenty-one years or
longer than the lives of three designated persons.
No bishop may alienate any possession of their sees to the
crown. Such are void.
Watermen transporting people on the Thames River shall have
served as apprentice to a waterman for five years or have been the son
of a waterman. This is to prevent the loss of lives and goods by
inexperienced watermen.
Spices and potions, including pepper, cloves, mace, nutmeg,
cinnamon, ginger, almonds, and dates, which have usually been garbled
[cleaned or sorted by sifting] shall be garbled, cleaned, sorted, and
sealed by the Garbler before sale. This is to prevent mingled, corrupt,
and unclean spices and potions from being sold.
Plasterers shall cease painting because it has intruded upon
the livelihoods of painters who have been apprenticed as such.
Fishermen and their guides may continue to use the coastland
for their fishing activities despite the trespass to landowners.
Since sails for ships in recent years have been made in the
realm instead of imported, none shall make such cloth unless he has
been apprenticed in such or brought up in the trade for seven years.
This is to stop the badness of such cloth.
Tonnage and poundage on goods exported and imported shall be
taken to provide safeguard of the seas for such goods.
All persons must go to the established church on Sundays and
holy days. The penalty was at first forfeiture 12d. along with church
punishment, and later, 20 pounds per month and being bound by two
sureties for 200 pounds for good behavior, and if the 20 pounds is not
paid, then forfeiture of all goods to be applied to the amount due and
two-thirds of one's land.
These laws were directed against Catholicism, but were laxly
enforced as long as worship was not open and no one wore priestly
clothes:
1) The writing, preaching, or maintaining of any foreign spiritual
jurisdiction shall be punished by forfeiture of goods or, if the goods
are not worth 20 pounds, one year imprisonment, for the first offense;
forfeiture of goods and lands and the King's protection, for the second
offense; and the penalty for high treason for the third offense.
2) Any person leading others to the Romish [Catholic] religion is
guilty of high treason. The penalty for saying mass is 200 marks and
one year's imprisonment. The penalty for hearing mass is 100 marks and
one year's imprisonment. If one is suspected of being a Jesuit or
priest giving mass, one must answer questions on examination or be
imprisoned.
3) Papists [those who in conscience refused to take the oath of
supremacy of the Crown over the church] must stay in their place of
abode and not go five miles from it, unless licensed to do so for
business, or else forfeit one's goods and profits of land for life. If
a copyholder, land is forfeited to one's lord. But if the goods are not
worth 800s. or the land is not worth at least 267s., the realm must be
abjured. Otherwise, the papist is declared a felon without benefit of
clergy.
4) If a child is sent to a foreign land for Catholic education, he
cannot inherit lands or goods or money, unless he conforms to the
established church on his return. There is also a 100 pound penalty for
the persons who sent him.
Judicial Procedure
The Star Chamber became the central criminal court after 1560,
and punished perjury, corruption, malfeasance throughout the legal
system such as jury corruption and judicial bribery, rioting, slander,
and libel. Its procedure was inquisitory rather than accusative. It
heard witnesses in camera [not in the presence of the suspected]. Trial
was by systematic interrogation of the suspected on oath, with torture
if necessary in treason cases. Silence could be taken for a confession
of guilt. There was no jury. Queen Elizabeth chose not to sit on this
court. Punishments were imprisonment, fines, the pillory, ear cropping
or tacking, whipping, stigmata on the face, but not death or any
dismemberment except for the ears. (The gentry was exempt from
whipping.)
Because the publication of many books and pamphlets against the
government, especially the church, had led to discontents with the
established church and to the spreading of sects and schisms, the Star
Chamber in 1585 held that the printing trade was to be confined to
London, except for one press at Oxford and one at Cambridge. No book or
pamphlet could be printed unless the text was first seen, examined, and
allowed by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London. Book
publishers in violation were to be imprisoned for six months and banned
from printing; their equipment was to be destroyed. Wardens were
authorized to search wherever "they shall have reasonable cause of
suspicion", and to seize all such books and pamphlets printed. But
printers continued to print unlicensed material.
The Ecclesiastical High Commission [later called the Court of
High Commission or High Court of Ecclesiastical Causes] took over
criminal cases formerly heard by the church courts. It also heard
matters of domestic morals. It was led by bishops and Privy Council
members who in 1559 were authorized by a statute of Parliament to keep
order within the church, discipline the clergy, and punish such lay
offenses as were included in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Obstinate
heresy is still a crime punished by death, but practically, the bishops
have little power of forcing heretics to stand trial. If anyone
maintains papal authority, he forfeits his goods; on a third
conviction, he is a traitor. The clergyman who adopts a prayer book
other that the prescribed one commits a crime. Excommunication has
imprisonment behind it. Elizabeth gave this court the power to fine and
imprison, which the former church courts had not had. At first, the
chief work was depriving papists of their benefices.
Suits on titles to land were restricted to the common law
courts and no longer to be heard in the Star Chamber, Chancery Court,
or in the Court of Requests (equity for poor people).
The Queen's Privy Council investigated sedition and treason,
security of the regime, major economic offenses, international
problems, civil commotion, officials abusing their positions, and
persons perverting the course of justice. It frequently issued orders
to Justices of the Peace, for instance to investigate riots and crimes,
to enforce the statutes against vagrancy and illegal games, to regulate
alehouses, to ensure that butchers, innkeepers, and victualers did not
sell meat on fish days, and to gather information needed from the
counties. The Justices of the Peace decided misdemeanors such as
abduction of heiresses, illegal entry, petty thievery, damage to crops,
fence-breaking, brawling, personal feuds, drunken pranks, swearing,
profanation of the Sabbath, alehouse nuisances, drunkenness, perjury,
and malfeasance by officials. They held petty and quarter sessions. The
Justices of the Peace had administrative duties in control of vagrancy,
upkeep of roads and bridges, and arbitration of lawsuits referred to
them by courts. They listed the poor in each parish community, assessed
rates for their maintenance, and appointed overseers to administer the
welfare system, deploying surplus funds to provide houses of correction
for vagrants. Raw materials such as wool, flax, hemp, and iron were
bought upon which the able-bodied unemployed could be set to work at
the parochial level. They determined wages in their districts, with no
statutory ceiling on them, for all laborers, weavers, spinsters,
workmen and workwomen working by the day, week, month, or year, or
taking any work at any person's hand. There were about 50 Justices of
the Peace per county. All were unpaid. They performed these duties for
the next 200 years.
The Court of Queen's Bench and Exchequer indirectly expanded
their jurisdiction to include suits between citizens, formerly heard
only the Court of Common Pleas or Chancery. Chancery interrogated
defendants. Chancery often issued injunctions against suits in the
common law courts. Trial by combat was very rare.
The Justices of Assize rode on circuit twice a year to enforce
the criminal law and reported their assessment of the work of the
Justices of the Peace back to the Privy Council. The duty to hear and
determine felonies was taken from Justices of the Peace by 1590. The
Justices of Assize did this work. Accused people could wait for years
in gaol before their case was heard. Felonies included breach of
prison, hunting by night with painted faces, taking horses to Scotland,
stealing of hawks' eggs, stealing cattle, highway robbery, robbing on
the sea, robbing houses, letting out of ponds, cutting of purses,
deer-stealing at night, conjuring and witchcraft, diminution of coin,
counterfeiting of coins, and impenitent roguery and idleness. The
penalty was death. Many people were hanged for the felony of theft over
12d. Some bold men accused of felony refused to plead so that they
could not be tried and found guilty. They died of heavy weights being
placed on their bodies. But then their property could go to their heirs.
Trials of noblemen for treason shall be by their peers.
Stewards of leet and baron courts may no longer receive, in
their own names, profits of the court over 12d. since they have vexed
subjects with grievous fines and amercements so that profits of justice
have grown much.
Jurors shall be selected from those people who have at least
80s. annual income instead of 40s. because sheriffs have been taking
bribes by the most able and sufficient freeholders to be spared at home
and the poorer and simpler people, who are least able to discern the
causes in question, and most unable to bear the charges of appearance
and attendance in such cases have been the jurors. Also there had been
inflation.
Defendants sued or informed against upon penal statutes may
appear by attorney so that they may avoid the inconvenience of
traveling a long distance to attend and put to bail.
Not only sheriffs, but their employees who impanel juries or
execute process in the courts shall take an oath of office.
A hundred shall answer for any robbery therein only if there
has been negligence or fault in pursuit of the robber after a hue and
cry is made because the past law has been too harsh and required
payment for offenses from people unable to pay who have done everything
reasonable to catch the robber.
Pleadings had to be in writing and oral testimony was given by
sworn witnesses. Case decisions are in books compiled by various
reporters who sit in on court hearings rather than in year books.
In the common law, trespass has given rise to the offshoot
branch of "ejectment", which becomes the common means of recovering
possession of land, no matter what kind of title the claimant asserts.
Trespass on the case has given rise to the offshoot branch of "trover"
[finding another's goods and converting them to one's own use]. The use
of the action of trover gradually supplants the action of detinue,
which involves compurgation.
In the common law courts, the action of assumpsit for enforcing
certain promises is used more than the action of debt in those cases
where there is a debt based on an agreement. The essential nature of
"consideration" in contract is evolving from the procedural
requirements for the action of assumpsit. Consideration may consist in
mutual promises, a precedent debt, or a detriment incurred by one who
has simultaneously received a promise related to the detrimental
action. Consideration must be something, an act, or forbearance of an
act that is of value. For instance, forbearance to sue a worthless
claim is not consideration.
The abstract concept of contract as an agreement between two
parties which is supported by consideration is developing as the number
of various agreements that are court enforceable expands. For instance
the word "consideration" is used in Hayward's Case in 1595 in the Court
of Wards on the construction of a deed. Sir Rowland Hayward was seised
in fee of the Doddington manor and other lands and tenements, whereof
part was in demesne, part in lease for years with rents reserved, and
part in copyhold, by indenture, "in consideration of a certain sum of
money" paid to him by Richard Warren and others, to whom he demised,
granted, bargained and sold the said manor, lands and tenements, and
the reversions and remainders of them, with all the rents reserved upon
any demise, to have and to hold to them and their assigns, presently
after the decease of Sir Rowland, for the term of 17 years. It was held
that the grantees could elect to take by bargain and sale or by demise,
each of which had different consequences.
In another case, A delivered 400s. to B to the use of C, a woman, to be
delivered to her on the day of her marriage. Before this day, A
countermanded it, and called home the money. It was held in the
Chancery Court that C could not recover because "there is no
consideration why she should have it".
In a case concerning a deed, A sold land to B for 400s., with
confidence, that it would be to the use of A. This bargain "hath a
consideration in itself ... and such a consideration is an indenture of
bargain and sale". It was held that the transaction was not examinable
except for fraud and that A was therefore estopped.
A court reporter at the King's Bench formulated two principles on
consideration of the case of Wilkes against Leuson as: "The heir is
estopped from falsifying the consideration acknowledged in the deed of
feoffment of his ancestor. Where a tenant in capite made a feoffment
without consideration, but falsely alleged one in the deed on an office
finding his dying seised, the master of the wards cannot remove the
feoffees on examining into the consideration, and retain the land until
&c. and though the heir tended, still if he do not prosecute his
livery, the Queen must admit the feoffees to their traverse, and to
have the farm, &c." The court reporter summarized this case as follows:
Wilkes, who was merchant of the staple, who died in February last past,
made a feoffment in the August before his death to one Leuson, a
knight, and his brother, and another, of the manor of Hodnel in the
county of Warwick; and the deed, (seen) for seven thousand pounds
[140,000s.] to him paid by the feoffees, of which sum he made
acquittance in the same deed (although in fact and in truth not a
half-penny was paid), gave, granted, and confirmed &c "habendum eir et
hoeredibus suis in perpetuum, ad proprium opus et usum ipsorum A. B. et
C. in perpetuum," and not "hoeredum suorum," together with a clause of
warranty to them, their heirs and assigns, in forma proedicta: and
notwithstanding this feoffment he occupied the land with sheep, and
took other profits during his life; and afterwards his death was found
on a diem clausit extremum by office, that he died seised of the said
manor in fee, and one I. Wilkes his brother of full age found his next
heir, and a tenure in capite found, and now within the three months the
said feoffees sued in the court of wards to be admitted to their
traverse, and also to have the manor in farm until &c. And although the
said I. Wilkes the brother had tendered a livery, yet he had not
hitherto prosecuted it, but for cause had discontinued. And whether now
the master of the wards at his discretion could remove the feoffees by
injunction out of possession upon examination of the said consideration
of the said feoffment which was false, and none such in truth, and
retain it in the hands of the Queen donec et quousque &c. was a great
question. And by the opinion of the learned counsel of that court he
cannot do it, but the Queen is bound in justice to give livery to him
who is found heir by the office, or if he will not proceed with that,
to grant to the tenderers the traverse, and to have the farm, &c. the
request above mentioned. And this by the statutes ... And note, that no
averment can be allowed to the heir, that the said consideration was
false against the deed and acknowledgment of his ancestor, for that
would be to admit an inconvenience. And note the limitation of the use
above, for divers doubted whether the feoffees shall have a fee-simple
in the sue, because the use is not expressed, except only "to
themselves (by their names) for ever;" but if those words had been
wanting, it would have been clear enough that the consideration of
seven thousand pounds had been sufficient, &c. for the law intends a
sufficient consideration by reason of the said sum; but when the use is
expressed otherwise by the party himself, it is otherwise. And also the
warranty in the deed was "to them, their heirs, and assigns, in form
aforesaid," which is a declaration of the intent of Wilkes, that the
feoffees shall not have the use in fee simple; and it may be that the
use, during their three lives, is worth seven thousand pounds, and more
&c. And suppose that the feoffment had been "to have to them and their
heirs to the proper use and behoof of them the feoffees for the term of
their lives for ever for seven thousand pounds," would they have any
other estate than for the term of their lives in the use? I believe
not; and so in the other case.
A last example of a case concerning consideration is that of Assaby and
Others against Lady Anne Manners and Others. The court reporter
characterized the principle of the case as: "A. in consideration of his
daughter's marriage covenants to stand seised to his own use for life,
and that at his death she and her husband shall have the land in [fee]
tail, and that all persons should stand seised to those uses, and also
for further assurance. After the marriage he bargains and sell with
fine and recovery to one with full notice of the covenants and use;
this is of no avail, but on the death of A. the daughter and her
husband may enter." The court reporter summarized this case as follows:
A. was seised of land in fee, and in consideration of a marriage to be
had between his daughter and heir apparent, and B. son and heir
apparent of C. he covenanted and agreed by indenture with C. that he
himself would have, hold, and retain the land to himself, and the
profits of during his life, and that after his decease the said son and
daughter should have the land to them and to the heirs of their two
bodies lawfully begotten, and that all persons then or afterwards
seised of the land should stand and be seised immediately after the
marriage solemnized to the use of the said A. for the term of his life,
and after his death to the use of the said son and daughter in tail as
above, and covenanted further to make an assurance of the land before a
certain day accordingly &c. and then the marriage took effect; and
afterwards A. bargained and sold the land for two hundred marks (of
which not a penny is paid) to a stranger, who had notice of the first
agreements, covenants, and use, and enfeoffed divers persons to this
last use, against whom a common recovery was had to his last use; and
also A. levied a fine to the recoverers before any execution had, and
notwithstanding all these things A. continued possession in taking the
profits during his life; and afterwards died; and the son and daughter
entered, and made a feoffment to their first use. And all this matter
was found in assize by Assaby and others against Lady Anne Manners and
others. And judgment was given that the entry and feoffment were good
and lawful, and the use changed by the first indenture and agreement.
Yet error was alleged. The judgment in the assize is affirmed.
The famous Shelley's Case stands for the principle that where
in any instrument an estate for life is given to the ancestor, and
afterwards by the same instrument, the inheritance is limited whether
mediately, or immediately, to his heirs, or heirs of his body, as a
class to take in succession as heirs to him, the word "heirs" is a word
of limitation, and the ancestor takes the whole estate. For example,
where property goes to A for life and the remainder goes to A's heirs,
A's life estate and the remainder merge into a fee in A. A can sell or
devise this interest.
Edward Shelley was a tenant in fee tail general. He had two sons. The
older son predeceased his father, leaving a daughter and his wife
pregnant with a son. Edward had a common recovery (the premises being
in lease for years) to the use of himself for term of his life, after
his decease to the use of the male heirs of his body, and of the male
heirs of the body of such heirs, remainder over. After judgment and the
awarding of the writ of seisin, but before its execution, Edward died.
After his death, and before the birth of his older son's son, the writ
of seisin was executed. The younger son entered the land and leased it
to a third party. Afterwards, the son of the older son was born. He
entered the land and ejected the third party. It was held that the
younger son had taken quasi by descent until the birth of the older
son's son. The entry by the older son's son was lawful. The third party
was lawfully ejected. (Shelley's Case, King's Bench, 1581, English
Reports - Full Reprint, Vol. 76, Page 206.)
About 1567, London authorities punished Nicholas Jennings alias
Blunt for using elaborate disguises to present himself as an epileptic
to beg for handouts from the public. He was pilloried, whipped, and
pulled behind a cart through the streets. He was kept at the Bridewell
and was set to work at a mill.