SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



Two main considerations account for the decision. The members of 

 the new chapter were often married, and in any case they did not live in 

 common. Therefore each man required that a separate income should be 

 provided for him. The second point was that the Scottish borders must be 

 supplied with a sufficient defensive force, and the chapter tenants neither 

 could nor would defend the North unless fair terms were given to them. 

 The tenants were ordered to relinquish their claim to tenant-right, and in 

 return the dean and chapter were to grant leases to the said tenants. Upon 

 a tenant's death, his son or nearest heir within certain fixed degrees should 

 pay three years' rent at the most as fine ' and this order is to be observed 

 for ever.' 



A model lease was appended, and from this we learn that the lease was 

 to be for twenty-one years, 1 but nothing is said in the lease about right of 

 renewal. As a matter of fact the dean and chapter altered the system some- 

 what and renewed the lease upon payment of a proportionate fine every seven 

 years, and by degrees the tenants all accepted leases upon these terms. The 

 awkward question as to the tenant's right to a renewal was not raised until 

 1649, when the Long Parliament proposed to sell the lands of the deans and 

 chapters. Of course the leaseholders at once pleaded their right of renewal 

 under the Elizabethan settlement of 1 577, and quoted in favour of their claim 

 an act of the chapter in 1626 which ordered that the tenants should have 

 their leases renewed from time to time without difficulty or delay, paying a 

 year's fine every seventh year. In the end the chapter tenants were allowed to 

 buy the reversion of their lands at eight years' purchase,* but at the Restoration 

 the tenants lost this advantage. Church lands were expressly exempted from 

 the Indemnity Act by the influence of Clarendon, and legally the dean and 

 chapter regained their old rights. 



The tenants appealed to the law courts for at least their rights under the 

 Elizabethan settlement, but documents and witnesses enough could not be 

 produced, and they lost their case. Charles II, however, like Elizabeth, 

 softened the blow and gave the dean and chapter a strong hint to allow to 

 their tenants the ancient and customary rights without advancing the fines in 

 any great degree. 8 The tenants apparently did receive considerate treatment 

 till the mineral riches of the bishopric began to be exploited in the eigh- 

 teenth century, when the whole question was revived. 



The state of Durham between the opening of the sixteenth century and 

 the Restoration grew steadily worse. Pestilence raged more or less fiercely 

 all the time and was especially grievous about the end of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. The Domestic State Papers of Elizabeth's reign are full of references 

 to the poverty and misery of the Palatinate, and its consequent disaffection. 

 One can discount somewhat the ravings of fanatics like Bishop Pilkington or 

 Bishop Barnes, when they complain of the rudeness of their flock, but the 

 reports of Dr. James, whom Cecil sent north as dean and general spy, deserve 

 far more credence. He reported to Cecil in January, 1597, upon the state 

 of the land. Tillage was decayed and the villages dispeopled. In view of 

 the locality of the Palatinate, this was highly dangerous, for one might travel 



1 The statute 13 Eliz. cap. 10, restricted leases of church lands to twenty-one yean. 

 ' Hutchinson, Hist. ofDur. ii, 1 60 ; Surtees, Hist. o/Dur. i, 112. 

 ' See a curious account by Spearman in the Inquiry, \ \ 6. 



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