Abstracts of Wiltshire Tithe Apportionments
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Eiltsbire iikecurh éurietp (formerly the Records Brunch of lhe Wiltshire Archaeological and NLllLll'£li History Society) VOLUME XXX FOR THl-:1 YEAR I974 Impression of 425 copies ABSTRACTS OF WILTSHIRE TITHE APPORTIONMENTS El)l'l'lil) HY R. E. SAN DELL DEVIZES 197% © Wiltshire Record Society 1975 ISBN: 0 901333 07 7 Set in Times New Roman 10/ll pt PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY GLEVUM PRESS LTD. GLOUCESTER CONTENTS PAGE PR1-It-'/\('l-L v11 /\1ll3l{l;\-'lA'1'l()NS . viii IN'l'R()l.)lJ("l'l()N .. 1 Tithe commutation in Wiltshire before 1836... 2 The Tithe Commutation Act, 1836 4 The progress of tithe commutation under the Act 5 Arrangement of the abstracts 9 /\|lS'l R/\("'lS o1-" TITHE /\l’P()l('l'|()N.\1l-INTS ll /\l'l’l.-.Nl)|X [: Valuers lll APP1-.'N|JlX II: Mapmakers... II3 APP1-1Nl)1x Hi: Commissioners . 114 |!\£l)l-IX 115 L1s"r or MIEMBERS 157 Pun1.|(1M1or~is or THE S()('|l-l'l'Y .. 163 V PREFACE When the Society published Mr. Sandell's edition ot' ./t/>.rrrat'r.r Q/' Wiltshire Int‘/osm'(' /tum‘:/.s' and /1gr('c'nit*ii!.s' in I971 it seemed desirable that the information contained therein should be supplemented from similar digests of Wiltshire Tithe Apportioninents. The Society was again fortunate in persuading Mr. Sandell to undertake the work of abstracting and editing. The abstracts have been made from the certified diocesan copies of the instruments of apportionment, all but six of which are in the custody of the Wiltshire County Council and are housed in the County Record ()t1ice at Trowbridge. The Society is grateful for permission to publish the documents to the Wiltshire County Council and, in the cases of Kilmington and ol" Marston Meysey and Sopworth, to the Somerset County Council and the Gloucester Diocesan Registrar respectively. Mr. Sandell wishes t.o thank the Wiltshire County Archivist (Mr. M. G. Rathbone) and his stall‘ For their friendly co-operation while the work of abstracting was proceeding and lior their help in solving a number oli editorial problems. He is similarly grateful to the stalls of the Somerset Record OFfice and the former Gloucester City Library. D()U(il.AS (‘Rowu-JY 0('!r)/Jvr I974 vii ABBREVIATIONS D.N.B. Dictionary of National Biography V. C.H. Victoria County History W.R.O. Wiltshire Record Office viii INTRODUCTION The practice of paying tithes was based on the notion that tenths should be paid universally to support the local churches and clergy of the early Christian church.‘ The theoretical elassilication of the tithes into predial tithes. arising from the produce of the land, mixed tithes, from the benefits ofthe stock, and personal tithes, from the fruits of men's labour. emphasized that no economic activity was exempt from tithe-payment. In theory. and perhaps for a time in practice, churches were held by incumbent rectors who served, and received all the tithes from, a locality which became an ecclesiastical parish. Such parishes were established early in England and the pattern of them was little changed until the l9th century. The paying and receiving of tithes may well have caused disscnsion at the time when new churches were being founded but subsequent events added new catises for confusion and dis- satisfaction. The cure of souls in a parish sometimes passed from the hands ol \ the rector, usually when a monastery appropriated to itself the revenues ol 0 the church. When a vicar was nominated to serve the church in the rector's place, the vicarage ordained for him was often endowed with some of the parish tithes. The distinction thus created between rectorial and viearial tithes usually followed, and so consolidated, the distinction between great tithes. arising from corn, hay, and wool. and small tithes. The great tithes usually remained part of the rectorial estate and the small tithes were usually part of the endowment of the vicarage. After the Dissolution the great tithes often passed through the Crown to laymen and, when not attached to a beneliee or an ecclesiastical office, an estate consisting of tithes could be broken up and disposed ofin the same way as one consisting of land. To avoid payment in kind tithes were sometimes leased to the owner or tenant of the land from which they arose or, especially in the ease of small tithes, were replaced by annual payments which frequently became fixed by ctistom.3 The possible existence within a parish of several tithe-owners. perhaps btit not necessarily landowners, and of owners with rights to dilferent kinds of tithes, and the availability of several methods of payment could both be sources of confusion and disptite. The introduction of new crops. new techniques of husbandry, and changes in land use might all make it more I l-or the history of tithe payment see .l. Selden, Hist. of Hr/i<'.r t I618); ll. W. Clztrke, .i.if.8!. of 'Ht/iris‘ ( l 891 ). I Payment in kind in the 17111 and l8th centuries is discussed in J. .~‘\. Venn, Foiu.'dun'im.s- of .‘l_£,'t'ft'i(ft'til'£lf [§'t'ummi.ic.v, l()t)-‘). 2 WILTSHIRE TITHE APPORTIONMENTS difficult to agree over what tithes were due to whom and how they were to be valued and paid.1 TITHE COMMUTATION IN WILTSHIRE BEFORE 1836 In the early 19th century the ownership of tithes and the encumbrance of land with them in Wiltshire was perhaps typical of such things elsewhere! In some 80 of the ancient ecclesiastical parishes in the county all or virtually all the great and small tithes from the whole parish were due to the incumbent. Those parishes, as might be expected, tended to be the smaller ones with incumbent rectors. The pattern of ownership and encumbrance in them was, in view of the potential complications, notably simple and close to the earliest notions of tithe payment. In parishes in which all great tithes were due to one owner and all small tithes to another, usually a vicar, and in parishes where the incumbent received the great majority of the tithes the pattern was not much more complex. In many other parishes, however, the pattern was confused because over the years tithes had been extinguished, when the right to receive them was permanently surrendered, commuted, when payment in kind was permanently replaced by payment in another way, usually in cash, and merged, when the owner of the tithes also owned the land from which they arose. On much land tithes had been and were being extinguished and commuted at inclosure. For only some sixteen ancient ecclesiastical parishes had Inclosure Agreements and Awards removed the need for rent-charges to be allotted under the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836.3 The tithes were usually extinguished by allotments of land but at Chilton Foliat, in addition to an allotment of land and a cash payment to extinguish some tithes, a rent-charge of over £900 was allotted, and at Stratton St. Margaret a corn-rent, an annual cash rent variable according to the prices of grains, was allotted. Corn-rents also replaced tithes under Inclosure Awards on the entire parishes of Colerne and Netheravon but those corn-rents, like that on part of Keevil, were commuted to rent-charges under the Tithe Commutation Act (79, 156, 196). Tithes were dealt with at inclosure more often than those figures suggest, however, since they were extinguished or commuted by awards in some 35 more ancient ecclesiastical parishes. In some 30 lands were exonerated under awards dealing with less than a whole parish, usually with a chapelry or 1 Some typical difliculties arising over tithes are mentioned in W. E. Tate, Parish Chest (1969 edn.), 136-8. For some effects on farming practice see R. E. Prothero (Lord Ernle), Engiish Farming Past and Present (1961 edn.), 332-48. 1 For some brief general comment see H. C. Prince, ‘Tithe Surveys of the Mid-Nineteenth Century’, Agric. Hist. R. vii. 16-17. 3 They were Berwick St. Leonard, Bishopstone in Ramsbury hundred, Great Cheverell, Little Cheverell, Chilton Foliat, Kingston Deverill, Knook, Latton, Odstock, Patney, Great Somerford, Stanton St. Quintin, Stockton, Stratton St. Margaret, Sutton Veny, and Winterbourne Monkton, for all of which see Wiits. Inciosure Awards and Agreements (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xxv). INTRODUCTION 3 tithing (e.g. Melksham, 190, Durnford, 107), but with everything but the windmill in Tilshead (252) and with only 23 a. in Upton Scudamore (260). In about five parishes only some of the tithes were extinguished.1 The tithes were usually replaced by allotments of land but sometimes by annual cash payments or corn-rents (68-9). Apart from the 51 parishes with lands exonerated from all or some tithes at inclosure there were some 80 others with areas of land acknowledged to be tithe-free, although in some seven cases (e.g. 57, 59) only the glebe was deemed tithe-free.1 Sometimes freedom arose because the ownership of land and tithes had been merged early. The appropriation of the church by a religious house holding land in the parish, which often led to the early exemption of the demesne from tithes, was sometimes said (e.g. 34, 183) or may be inferred (e.g. 268) to be the reason why the land was tithe-free. In some cases the tithe-free areas may have been commonable woodland once within the bounds of no parish, perhaps tithe- free because no tithe had ever been paid (e.g. 267). Elsewhere the reasons for the freedom are uncertain.