The Law

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.

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.

No attainder shall result in the forfeiture of dower by the offender's wife nor disinheritance of his heirs.

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, so that agriculture will be advanced and idleness diminished. 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. (This was designed to inhibit migration to the towns. It excluded three fourths of the rural population.)

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.

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. Eating fish instead of meat in Lent in the springtime remained a tradition.)

For repairing of highways, the supervisors may take the rubbish or smallest stones of any quarry along the road in their precinct.

Embezzlement or theft by a servant of his master's goods of 40s. or more is a felony.

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.

Cut-purses and pick-purses shall not have benefit of clergy.

A debtor may not engage in a fraudulent collusion to sell his land and goods in order to avoid his creditors.

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.

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 price of barrels shall be set by mayors of the towns where they are sold.

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.

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.

Rugs shall weigh 44 pounds at least and be 35 yards at least in length and at most 3/4 yard wide.

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.

Trials of noblemen for treason shall be by their peers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

A vagabond or mighty strong beggar [able to work] shall be whipped.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If a person marries a second time while the first spouse is still living, it shall be a felony and thus punishable by death.

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.

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.

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.

Pawn brokers accepting stolen goods shall forfeit twice their value to the owner from whom stolen.

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.

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.

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.

Tonnage [tax per ton] and poundage [tax per pound] 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:

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.

Any person leading others to the Romish [Catholic] religion is guilty of high treason. The penalty for saying mass is [2,667s.] 200 marks and one year's imprisonment. The penalty for hearing mass is [1,333s.] 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.

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.

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.

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 [1,333s.] 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].

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.