Subjects: Farm
Historically, the right to receive rents or taxes which had been alienated by lease was known as a farm. In the consistory court of the sixteenth century this was most likely to relate to the right to receive tithes, or, indeed, the rights to a rectory in its entirety, including the appointment of clergy.
If the rightful ownership of the farm of certain tithes was a matter of dispute, the hapless occupier of the land might find that his tithes were demanded by both parties, in which case one option to avoid double payment was for the occupier to bring a cause in the consistory court and probably suffer the associated court costs.
Disputed ownership of a farm of tithes
EDC 5/1566/11 – Edward Ogells [Ogle] contra Richard Carter.
EDC 5/1575/3 – John Vawdrey and Richard Vawdrey contra Ralph Calveley.
Farm of a rectory including the tithes
EDC 5/1566/3 – William Farington, esquire, contra Thomas Ireland, senior.
EDC 5/1566/4 – William Farington, esquire, contra Robert Ratcliffe.
EDC 5/1566/5 – William Farington, esquire, contra John Harwood.
Farm of townships
EDC 5/1566/6 – John Leigh, esquire, farmer of the hamlets of Sutton and Wincle contra William Sutton and Ralph Gardner.
Farm of a perpetual vicarage including tithes
EDC 5/1580/6 – John Vawdrey and Richard Vawdrey farmers of the tithes of Saint Oswald contra Richard Webb, William Janeon the elder and William Janeon the younger.