SECTION II. Agriculture and Enclosure

AGRICULTURE AND ENCLOSURE

1. Enclosure Proceedings in the Court of Chancery, 1671--2. Advice to the Stewards of Estates, 1731--3. Procedure for Enclosure by Private Act, 1766--4. Farming in Norfolk, 1771--5. A Petition against Enclosure, 1797--6. Extracts on Enclosure from the Surveys of the Board of Agriculture, 1798-1809--7. Arthur Young's Criticism of Enclosure, 1801--8. Enclosure Consolidating Act, 1801--9. General Enclosure Act, 1845.

Progress in methods of agriculture (No. 4) and the movement towards enclosure and consolidation (Nos. 1-3 and 5-9) are the subjects illustrated in this section. Great advances were made in the science and practice of farming between the end of the Commonwealth and the repeal of the Corn Laws. But the controversial subject of enclosure overshadows everything else. And, as is shown by the extract from Arthur Young's account of the famous Norfolk farming, agricultural progress was closely connected with enclosure and consolidation (No. 4). Specimens are given of two stages of enclosure proceedings (No. 1 and No. 3), which suggest that voluntary agreements ratified in Chancery gradually merged in enclosure by Act, compulsory upon a dissatisfied minority. The Awards, on which the justice or injustice of the settlement would in some degree depend, are generally too long for quotation. But the General Act of 1801 (No. 8) was an attempt to codify the best existing practice, and gives a general view of the practice of the best Commissioners.

A mass of controversial literature on both sides deals with the reasons and effects of the enclosures. The advantages, from the point of view of a large landowner, are set out in a text book for land stewards (No. 2). The reverse side, as it appeared to the small holder, is given in a petition, which was fruitless, against the enclosure of a Northamptonshire village (No. 5). Arthur Young's criticism of the way in which the process was carried out is of great importance, because he had been the most strenuous advocate of enclosing and because he had had unrivalled opportunities of judging the change, both as an independent traveller and as secretary of the Board of Agriculture (No. 7). The best printed material for an independent judgment is to be found in the surveys made by this, a semi-official Society of Agriculture, whose agents, with easily recognisable degrees of impartiality, describe the objects, methods and results of the enclosing movement in different counties. Extracts are given from their reports (No. 6), together with the first real reform of procedure, made when the nineteenth century was far advanced, so as to safeguard the interests of the peasantry (No. 9).

AUTHORITIES

The most important modern books on the subject are:--Hammond, The Village Labourer; Gonner, Common Land and Inclosure; Prothero, English Farming Past and Present; Hasbach, The English Agricultural Labourer; Levy, Large and Small Holdings; Johnson, The Disappearance of the Small Landowner; Slater, The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of the Common Fields; Ashby, One Hundred Years of Poor Law Administration in a Warwickshire village in Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, Vol. III; Leonard in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 3rd Series, Vol. XIX.

Bibliographies in Hasbach, Hammond, Levy, and Cunningham, English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times, Part II.

Contemporary (1).--Records of late seventeenth century enclosures may be found in Chancery Enrolled Decrees, and Enclosures Awards in Proceedings in Chancery (Public Record Office, and some copies in Durham Court of Chancery). Eighteenth century material includes petitions in Journals of the House of Commons; proceedings in Parliament, ditto; Awards, in custody of Clerks of the Peace and of County Councils--a Return of Commons (Inclosure Awards) to the House of Commons, 1904, shows where they are to be found. There are reports of Committees on Cultivation of Waste, etc., 1795 (IX), ditto, 1797 (IX), ditto, 1800 (IX); on Inclosure, 1844 (V), on Allotments, 1843 (VII).

Contemporary (2) Literary Authorities.--The best descriptions of agriculture are to be found in Arthur Young's various Tours (1768-71) in The Annals of Agriculture (1784-1815), and in the Reports made to the Board of Agriculture; Reports on individual counties (partial list in Hasbach's bibliography), a General Report (1808), and Reviews of Reports for different sections of the country (by William Marshall, 1808-17). Cobbett's Rural Rides are more literary and political and less official (1830). For agricultural progress, see J. Tull, The New Horse-hoeing Husbandry (1731), and Young passim; for the legal aspect, The Law of Commons (1698); for contemporary opinion, D. Davies, The Case of Labourers in Husbandry (1795), Young, An Enquiry into the Propriety of Applying Wastes, etc. (1802), and a long list of pamphlets (bibliography in Hasbach).

1. ENCLOSURE PROCEEDINGS IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY [Entry Book on the Division of Commons, etc., in the Durham Court of Chancery, Book M, No. 482, 1671-1676 (Original in Public Record Office)], 1671.

Division of the Town Fields of Bishop Auckland, October, 1671

Forasmuch as heretofore by order and decree of this Court bearing date the fifteenth day of September last past, made between the parties above named, for the reasons then appearing to this Court it was then ordered and decreed by the consent of all the said parties ... that all the lands and grounds lying and being in the three common fields called the Hitherfield, Midlefield and Fairfield lying at Bishop Auckland, therein mentioned should ... be forthwith measured and divided according to the agreements and consents of the said parties, ... and also that every of the said parties should have his and their particular shares, parts, and proportions therein particularly allotted and set forth in severalty unto him and them, to be by them respectively hedged, fenced, enclosed and enjoyed in severalty for ever thenafter for the better husbandry and improvement thereof.... And now upon the motion of Mr. William Brabart ... alleging that since the making of the said decree several of the parties thereunto, perceiving that some of the defendants, formerly being the chief opposers of the said intended division, have obtained their shares in the premisses to be in such part thereof as themselves desired, their said parts being small and inconsiderable, they have therefore of late descended from their shares and parts of the premisses formerly by them desired or consented unto and do now endeavour to have their proportionate parts to lie in other parts and places of the premisses, to the great decay, hindrance, and obstruction of the said division, notwithstanding their former consents thereunto. It was therefore humbly prayed by the said Counsel that a Commission might be awarded out of this Court to indifferent Commissioners ... as well for the hearing of all the said objections ... as also to view and divide all the said premisses and to appoint and set forth to every of the said parties their proportionable parts therein.

Forasmuch as ... every owner's share hath been duly set out ... and yet nevertheless one of the said defendants hath endeavoured to obstruct the said division ... it is therefore now thought fit and so ordered by the Right Honourable Sir Francis Goodriche Knight, Chancellor of the County of Durham and Sadberge, that the Award ... shall stand absolutely confirmed and decreed unless good cause be shown to the contrary at the next sitting at Durham.

2. ADVICE TO THE STEWARDS OF ESTATES [Edward Lawrence, The Duty and Office of a Land Steward, 3rd Ed., 1731, pp. 25, 26, and 39], 1731.

A Steward should not forget to make the best enquiry into the disposition of any of the freeholders within or near any of his Lord's manors to sell their lands, that he may use his best endeavours to purchase them at as reasonable a price, as may be for his Lord's advantage and convenience--especially in such manors, where improvements are to be made by inclosing commons and common-field; which (as every one, who is acquainted with the late improvement in agriculture, must know) is not a little advantageous to the nation in general, as well as highly profitable to the undertaker. If the freeholders cannot all be persuaded to sell, yet at least an agreement for inclosing should be pushed forward by the steward, and a scheme laid, wherein it may appear that an exact and proportional share will be allotted to every proprietor; persuading them first, if possible, to sign a form of agreement, and then to choose commissioners on both sides.

If the Steward be a man of good sense, he will find a necessity for making a use of it all, in rooting out superstition from amongst them, as what is so great a hindrance to all noble improvements? The substance of what is proper for the proprietors to sign before an inclosure is to be made, may be conceived in some such form as followeth.

"Whereas it is found, by long experience, that common or open fields, wherever they are suffered or continued, are great hindrances to a public good, and the honest improvement which every one might make of his own, by diligence and a seasonable charge: and, whereas the common objections hitherto raised against inclosures are founded on mistakes, as if inclosures contributed either to hurt or ruin the poor; whilst it is plain that (when an enclosure is once resolved on) the poor will be employed for many years, in planting and preserving the hedges, and afterwards will be set to work both in the tillage and pasture, wherein they may get an honest livelihood: And whereas all or most of the inconveniences and misfortunes which usually attend the open wastes and common fields have been fatally experienced at----, to the great discouragement of industry and good husbandry in the freeholders, viz., that the poor take their advantage to pilfer, and steal, and trespass; that the corn is subject to be spoiled by cattle, that stray out of the commons and highways adjacent; that the tenants or owners, if they would secure the fruits of their labours to themselves, are obliged either to keep exact time in sowing and reaping or else to be subject to the damage and inconvenience that must attend the lazy practices of those who sow unseasonably, suffering their corn to stand to the beginning of winter, thereby hindering the whole parish from eating the herbage of the common field till the frosts have spoiled the most of it," etc., etc.

* * * * *

To conclude this article upon commons, I would advise all noblemen and gentlemen, whose tenants hold their lands by Copy of Court Roll for three lives, not to let them renew, except they will agree to deliver up their Copy, in order to alter the tenure by converting it to leasehold on lives. This method will put a stop to that unreasonable custom of the widow holding a life by her free-bench, which is a fourth life, not covenanted for in the Copy, but only pretended to by custom; which deprives the lord of an undoubted right of making the best, and doing what he will with his own.

3. PROCEDURE FOR ENCLOSURE BY PRIVATE ACT, January &c., 1766 [Commons Journals, Vol. XXX, 1765-6, p. 459, etc.], 1766.

A Petition of Stephen Croft, the Younger, Esquire, Lord of the manor of Stillington, in the county of York, and owner of several estates, within the said manor and parish of Stillington, and also Improprietor of the Great Tithes there; of the Reverend James Worsley, Clerk, Prebandary of the Prebend of Stillington aforesaid, patron of the Vicarage of Stillington aforesaid, of the Reverend Lawrence Sterne, Clerk, Vicar of the said parish, and of William Stainforth, Esquire, and of several other persons, whose names are thereunto subscribed, being also owners of copyhold messuages, cottages, estates, and other properties, within the said parish; was presented to the House and read; setting forth, that, within the said manor and parish, is a common, or waste, called Stillington Common, and also open fields and ings, which, in their present situation, are incapable of improvement; and that it would be of great advantage to the several persons interested in the said common, fields and ings, if they were enclosed and divided into specific allotments, and all rights of common and average thereon, or upon any other commonable lands in the said parish, were extinguished, or if the said common was so inclosed, and a power given to the several proprietors and owners of estates in the said fields and ings, to flat and inclose the same, first making satisfaction to the improprietor upon the tithes thereof; and after the flatting and inclosing the same, all right of common, or average, was to cease; and therefore praying, that leave may be given to bring in a Bill for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, in such manner, and under such regulations, as the House shall deem meet.

Ordered, That leave be given to bring in a Bill pursuant to the prayer of the said petition: and that Mr. Cholmley, Sir George Savile, and Sir Joseph Mawbey, do prepare and bring in the same.

February 10, 1766. A Bill for inclosing and dividing the common waste grounds, open fields, open meadows, grounds, and ings, within the parish of Stillington, in the county of York, was read a second time.

Resolved, That the Bill be committed to Mr. Cholmley, Mr. Fonereau, Sir John Taines [etc., etc.]; and all the members who serve for the counties of York, Nottingham, Northumberland, and Durham: and they are to meet this afternoon, at five of the clock, in the Speaker's Chamber.

February 27. Mr. Cholmley reported from the Committee, to whom the Bill for inclosing and dividing the common waste grounds [etc.] within the parish of Stillington, in the county of York, was committed. That the Committee had examined the allegations of the Bill; and found the same to be true; and that the parties concerned had given their consent to the Bill, to the satisfaction of the Committee, except the proprietors of sixty acres of land in the said fields and ings, who refused their consent to the inclosure, and the proprietors of twenty seven acres of land, who were not at home when application was made for their consents; and that the whole of the said fields and ings contain six hundred acres or thereabouts; and also, except the proprietors of eight common rights, who refused to consent, and the proprietors of seven common rights, who were from home when application was made for their consents; and that the whole number of common rights are eighty-nine; and that no person appeared before the Committee to oppose the Bill; and that the Committee had gone through the Bill, and made several amendments thereunto; which they had directed him to report to the House; and he read the report in his place; and afterwards delivered the Bill, with the amendments, in at the Clerk's Table; where the amendments were once read throughout; and then a second time, one by one; and, upon the Question severally put thereon, were agreed to by the House; and several amendments were made, by the House, to the Bill. Ordered, that the Bill, with the amendments be ingrossed.

March 18. Reported that the Lords agreed to the Bill without amendment.

The King's Assent given to the Bill.]

4. FARMING IN NORFOLK [A. Young, The Farmer's Tour, 1771, _Vol. II,