Landholding in England

by F.R.H.S. Joseph Fisher

The 18th Elizabeth, cap. 3, provides for the employment of the poor. Stores of wool, hemp, flax, iron, etc., to be provided in cities and towns, and the poor set to work. It empowered persons possessed of land in free socage to give or devise same for the maintenance of the poor.

The 39th Elizabeth, cap. 3, and the 43d Elizabeth, cap. 2, extended these acts, and made the assessment compulsory.

I shall ask you to compare the date of these several laws for the relief of the destitute poor with the dates of the enactments against evictions. You will find they run side by side.

[Footnote: The following tables of the acts passed against
eviction, and enacting the support of the poor, show that
they were contemporaneous:
Against Evictions.
4 Henry VII., Cap. 19.
7 Henry VIII, Cap. 1.
21 Henry VIII,
24 Henry VIII, Cap. 14.
25 Henry VIII, Cap. 13.
27 Henry VIII, Cap. 22.
5 Edward VI., Cap. 2.
2 and 3 Philip and Mary, Cap. 2.
2 and 3 Philip and Mary, Cap. 3.
2 Elizabeth, Cap. 2.
31 Elizabeth, Cap. 7.
39 Elizabeth, Cap. 2.

Enacting Poor Laws.
22 Henry VIII., Cap. 12.
37 Henry VIII., Cap. 23.
1 Edward VI., Cap. 3.
5 and 6 Edward VI., Cap. 2.
2 and 4 Philip and Mary, Cap. 5.
5 Elizabeth, Cap. 3.
14 Elizabeth, Cap. 5.
18 Elizabeth, Cap. 3.
39 Elizabeth, Cap. 3.
43 Elizabeth, Cap. 2.]

I have perhaps gone at too great length into detail; but I think I could not give a proper picture of the alteration in the system of landholding or its effects without tracing from the statute-book the black records of these important changes. The suppression of monasteries tended greatly to increase the sufferings of the poor, but I doubt if even these institutions could have met the enormous pressure which arose from the wholesale evictions of the people. The laws of Henry VII and Henry VIII., enforcing the tillage of the land, preceded the suppression of religious houses, and the act of the latter monarch allowing the poor to beg was passed before any steps were taken to close the convents. That measure was no doubt injurious to the poor, but the main evil arose from other causes. The lands of these houses, when no longer applicable to the purpose for which they were given, should have reverted to the heirs of the donors, or have been applied to other religious or educational purposes. The bestowal of them upon favorites, to the detriment alike of the State, the Church, the Poor, and the Ignorant, was an abuse of great magnitude, the effect of which is still felt. The reigns of the Tudors are marked with three events affecting the land—viz.:

1st. Relieving it of the support of the army;

2d. Burdening of it with the support of the poor;

3d. Applying the monastic lands to private uses.

The abolition of retainers, while it relieved the land of the nobles from the principal charge thereon, did not entirely abolish knight's service. The monarch was entitled to the care of all minors, to aids on the marriage or knighthood of the eldest son, to primerseizin or a year's rent upon the death of each tenant of the Crown. These fees were considerable, and were under the care of the Court of Ward and Liveries.