The Tenures Abolition Act 1660 ( 12 Cha. 2. c. 24), sometimes known as the Statute of Tenures, was an act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spi ...

which changed the nature of several types of

feudal land tenure Under the English feudal system several different forms of land tenure existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. Such tenures could be either free-hold if they were hereditable or perpetual or non-fr ...

in England. The long title of the act was ''An Act away the

Court of Wards and Liveries The Court of Wards and Liveries was a court established during the reign of Henry VIII in England. Its purpose was to administer a system of feudalism, feudal dues; but as well as the revenue collection, the court was also responsible for wa ...

, and Tenures in Capite, and by Knights-service, and

Purveyance Purveyance, a greatly expanded form of the ancient customary right of prise, was a mediaeval prerogative right of the English Crown to purchase provisions and other necessaries, at an appraised price, and to requisition horses and vehicles for ...

, and for settling a Revenue upon his Majesty in Lieu thereof''. Passed by the Convention Parliament in 1660, shortly after the

English Restoration The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 164 ...

, the act replaced various types of military and religious service that tenants owed to the Crown with

socage Socage () was one of the feudal duties and land tenure forms in the English feudal system. It eventually evolved into the freehold tenure called "free and common socage", which did not involve feudal duties. Farmers held land in exchange for ...

, and compensated the monarch with an annual fixed payment of £100,000 to be raised by means of a new tax on alcohol. (

Frankalmoin Frank almoin, frankalmoign or frankalmoigne () was one of the feudal land tenures in feudal England whereby an ecclesiastical body held land free of military service such as knight service or other secular or religious service (but sometimes in ...

copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the ...

, and certain aspects of grand serjeanty were excluded.) It completed a process that had begun in 1610 during the reign of James I with the proposal of the

Great Contract The Great Contract was a plan submitted to James I and Parliament in 1610 by Robert Cecil. It was an attempt to increase Crown income and ultimately rid it of debt. Cecil suggested that, in return for an annual grant of £200,000, the Crown sho ...

. The act made constitutional gestures to reduce

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

and removed the monarch's right to demand participation of certain subjects in the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

. By abolishing feudal obligations of those holding those feudal tenures other than by socage, such as by a

knight's fee In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. It would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish himself and h ...

, it standardized most feudal tenancies of the aristocracy and gentry. The act converted more of their tenures into ones which demanded nil or negligible impositions to the Crown. While socage usually implied rent to be payable to the monarch, no rent was paid in the form of free and common socage as interpreted by the courts. Instead the act introduced and appointed collection offices and courts to administer a new form of taxation, called

excise file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...

. Excise duty imposed taxation on the general public to provide an income for the monarch, its ministers and civil servants, to replace these relatively common feudal tenures among the landed classes.

Provisions

Section 3 of the act repealed the Court of Wards Act 1540 ( 32 Hen. 8. c. 46) the Wards and Liveries Act 1541 ( 33 Hen. 8. c. 22), thereby abolishing the

, established in 1540, which had been responsible for revenue collection under the feudal tenure system. It was also the first act (under its section 14) to impose an excise duty on

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

, as well as on

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

, sherbet and

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

; the duty was placed on the manufactured beverage, and not the raw tea or coffee, treating it in much the same way as beer or spirits. The act also let any father, by last will and testament, designate a guardian for his children. The rights of this guardian superseded those of the children's mother. Sarah Abramowicz notes the ironic erosion of the father's parental rights after the 1660 act.

Legacy

Section 22 of the act was repealed from 10 May 1750 by section 12 of the Continuance of Laws, etc. Act 1749 ( 23 Geo. 2. c. 26). The act was partly in force in the United Kingdom at the end of 2010,The Chronological Table of the Statutes, 1235 - 2010.

The Stationery Office The Stationery Office (TSO) is a British publishing company created in 1996 when the publishing arm of Her Majesty's Stationery Office was privatised. It is the official publisher and the distributor for legislation, command and house papers, s ...

. 2011. . Part I. Page 63, read with pages viii and x. though only section 4:

Legacy

Section seven of the act from "tenures in franke almoigne " to " nor to take away." was repealed by section 56 of, and part I of the second schedule to, the Administration of Estates Act 1925 ( 15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 23).

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

{{UK-LEG, path=aep/Cha2/12/24 Acts of the Parliament of England 1660 Acts of the Parliament of England still in force Feudalism in England