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 in England. The long title of the act was ''An Act away the
Court of Wards and Liveries, and Tenures in
Capite, and by
Knights-service, and
Purveyance, 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, and compensated the monarch with an annual fixed payment of £100,000 to be raised by means of a new tax on alcohol. (
Frankalmoin,
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 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, 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. 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
Court of Wards and Liveries, 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, as well as on
coffee,
sherbet and
chocolate; 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. 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