It was also enacted that “such lands or so much in quantity in any place as hath been put in Tillage and eared in any one year and so kept four years sithence the feast of St. George the Martyr, anno 20 Henry VIII. shall be eared and kept in Tillage, according to the Nature of the Soil and Custom of the Country by the Occupier thereof.”
The penalty was raised to 10s. per acre per annum, and it could be recovered by the next heir in reversion if he sued for it within a year, if not, by the Remainderman, or in default by the lord of the manor, and if not so recovered, by the Crown.
This Act remained in force for thirty years, but was discontinued by 35 Elizabeth (1593), c. 5.
ACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF COTTAGERS’ HOLDINGS AND RIGHTS OF COMMON.
31 Elizabeth (1589), c. 7.
This Act prohibited the letting of cottages to agricultural labourers with less than four acres of land under a penalty of 40s. per cottage per month, or the occupation of one cottage by more than one family, under a penalty of 10s. per cottage per month. The amount of land attached to cottages let to countrymen following other occupations was also regulated. These holdings were evidently intended to be acres in the arable fields, carrying with them the proportional common rights of pasturage, &c. This Act was repealed in 1775.
DEPOPULATION ACTS.
39 Elizabeth (1597), c. 1.
In the preamble of this Act it is stated that in late years more than in times past, sundry towns, parishes and houses of husbandry have been destroyed and become desolate. All previous Acts for the re-edification of houses are repealed, and it is enacted that when houses of husbandry have been decayed for more than seven years, half the number must be rebuilt, and 40 acres of land allotted to them; unless the property had been sold meanwhile; in that case the purchaser need only rebuild one quarter of the decayed houses.