Types of Cause: Tithes – pasture
The cause at EDC 5/10/1 indicates that pasture was tithable on the basis of the annual rental receivable.
Pasture, gorse, oats, peas, hay
EDC 5/10/1 – William Aldersey contra Thomas Wright and Richard Broster
Types of Cause: Tithes – pasture
The cause at EDC 5/10/1 suggests that tithe of pasture was calculated on the basis of the expected annual rental of the area grazed.
Pasture, gorse, oats, peas, hay
EDC 5/10/1 – William Aldersey contra Thomas Wright and Richard Broster
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Tithes – gorse
Gorse had a number of uses, including the construction of temporary winter shelters for young cattle (Robert Holland (ed), A Glossary of Words used in the County of Chester (1885)). It was also known as ‘furze’ and was bound into faggots.
They were generally regarded as great tithes and so were payable to the rector or his farmer.
Pasture, gorse, oats, peas, hay
EDC 5/10/1 – William Aldersey contra Thomas Wright and Richard Broster
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Tithes – other
Personal tithes differed from predial tithes in that, if personal, the recipient was entitled to deduct expenses before paying tithe on the balance. If predial, profits should be tithed in full.
Andrew Lewis, ‘Tithe Personal and Praedial’, The Journal of Legal History, 42.2 (2021), pp. 123-146.
Agistment
Agistment refers to the profit made from letting out land to pasture another person’s cattle. The tithe is chargeable on the person who received the rent.
EDC 5/5/1 – John Fellowe, rector of Coddington, contra Jane Brereton
Easter and other offerings
Easter offerings were not strictly tithes as they were not derived from an increase in produce or income, but were intended to pay for the communion bread and wine. However, they were often grouped with small modus payments, such as the ‘house penny’ and together described as ‘tithes’. (Anne Tarver, Church Court Records: an Introduction for Family and Local Historians (Chichester, 1995), pp. 111-112.)
EDC 5/8/1 – Richard Smyth, rector of Bury, contra Arthur Cay
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Tithes – grain
Tithes of grain were great or predial tithes as they arose from crop husbandry and so were payable to the rector or his farmer (see ‘Tithes – modus’ under ‘Subjects’). Grain might include corn, wheat, barley, oats, rye and peas.
Grain
EDC 5/2/1 – Sir Richard Brereton contra William Hilton, Thomas Lee, Hugh Forstar and Peter Bradshaw.
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Matrimonial – annulment (bigamy)
Although a bigamous marriage was not legal, this type of annulment was often referred to as ‘divorce’ rather than ‘annulment’ at this time.
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Tithes – sheep
Tithes of sheep were mixed or small/minute tithes as they arose from livestock and so were normally payable to the vicar or his farmer (see ‘Tithes – modus’ under ‘Subjects’).
Calves, cows, gardens, lambs, sheep, wool
EDC 5/1566/12 – Hugh Dodd, rector of Coddington, contra Richard Allen
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Tithes – garden produce
Tithes of garden produce were predial tithes, but usually classified as small tithes because the crop was of lower value than other crops such as grain. Such small tithes were normally payable to the vicar or his farmer (see ‘Tithes – modus’ under ‘Subjects’).
Calves, cows, gardens, lambs, sheep, wool
EDC 5/1566/12 – Hugh Dodd, rector of Coddington, contra Richard Allen
Milk, calves, lambs, wool, piglets, geese, eggs, hemp, flax, apples, pears, onions, leeks, garlic
EDC 5/11/1 – Sir Thomas Langton, farmer of the tithes of the chapelry of Low, contra Lawrence Banastre
Although orchard fruits were usually classed as great tithes, it was sometimes claimed that windfalls were small tithes and as all the other tithes in this cause were small tithes it may be that this reference was to windfalls, or possibly fruit grown in a garden, rather than an orchard.
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Immorality – acknowledgement of illegitimate child
The hearing of this type of cause by the Chester church court was unusual by this time, and as the sixteenth century progressed matters of this type were increasingly dealt with by lay authorities.
EDC 5/9/1 Francis Buckley contra Elizabeth Traves
All Types of Cause
Types of Cause: Office matters
Not all matters which came before the consistory court were disputes.
Ratification of marriage of minors
EDC 5/1566/7 – Robert Downes and Elizabeth Stanley