The reforming registry, or, A representation of the very many mischiefs and inconveniences which will unavoidably happen by the needless, chargeable, and destructive way of registries proposed to be erected in every county of England and Wales, for the recording of all deeds, evidences, bonds, bills, and other incumbrances : written in the year 1656 when Oliver and the Levelling-party made it their design to ruine monarchy ... / by Fabian Philipps.

CHAP. II. The inconveniencies of an inforced Re∣gistry of such Deeds in the proper Counties. (Book 2)

THey will be illiterately, carelesly, and* 1.1 ill-favoredly Registred, and kept in the proper Counties, if either the pay or number of them, shall not come up to the care and time, are to be bestowed upon

them, or receive no other or greater Fees then are allowed by that Statute for In∣rollments.

As it hath demonstrably already hap∣ned in the taking and inrolling of Statutes Merchant, by the Majors of the Staple in all Cities, Burroughs, and good Towns, and their Officers thereunto appointed, by vertue of the Statutes or Acts of Parlia∣ment of Acton Burnel in 11 E. 1. and the Statute de Mercatoribus in 13 E. 1. which have since the erecting of the Statute Of∣fice at London, by the Statute of 23 H. 8. 6. to attend the Lord Cheif Justices of the Court of Upper Bench, or Common Pleas; and in their absence, the Major of the Staple at Westminster, and Recorder of London: For acknowledging of Statutes for Debts have been so much disused, and the course of Statutes Merchant which are yet in force for Merchandise so neglected, as there are above a hundred such Statutes entred, to or for every one Statute Mer∣chant: And whereas the Clerk of the Sta∣tutes, who was by that Act of Parliament ordered to reside at London, doth fairly

and orderly enter and keep his Books and Records, and after certain years, lodg and lay them up for safety in the Tower of London, It will upon search and inquiry appear, that notwithstanding every Sta∣tute, whether for Merchandise or other∣wise, is to be duly Inrolled by the Clerks or Officers, upon pain of forfeiting of Twenty pounds for every Statute not en∣tred or Inrolled, there can be found very few of the Rolls or Books of the Statutes Merchant since 23 H. 8. and none at all of those that were taken and Inrolled in Two hundred years before.

The difference betwixt the now Statute Office, which is inperpetual succession to such a capital City, and superior Courts, as the City of London, and the Courts of Up∣per Bench and Common Pleas, and annexed as it were unto them, and the Town▪Clerks or Majors, or Constables of the Staple in the other Cities and Corporations, which do so often change, and are by election, as they become little more then as private persons, giving us the reason why those Writings or Records in their custody, coming after∣wards

through so many changes, to so ma∣ny several hands as they do, can no way, as it seems, escape imbezelling. We may well enough believe, that the same fate may attend these Country Registers, if they shall not be made to be as a Court of Re∣cord, and in perpetual Succession; and if they shall be made to be as so many Judi∣catures and Courts of Record, will be the cause of more inconveniences to the peo∣ple, then the loss and imbezeling of their Records or Inrollments, can come unto.

The City of London which did* 1.2 use to Inroll such Deeds in the Hustings, and divers other Cities, Boroughs, and Towns Corporate, who did use to do the like, and had therefore their Rights ex∣presly saved by the Proviso of that Act of Anno 27 Henry the Eight for Inrollments, and that it should not extend to any Man∣ors, Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments, within the said Cities, Boroughs, or Towns Corporate; for that they did an∣ciently, and before the making of that Act, use to Inroll such Deeds, will by these new Registries, without any forfeiture, or

cause given to loose them, be deprived of those their very ancient Rights and Li∣berties.

Such a constrained way of Registring* 1.3 of Deeds of Bargain and Sale, which concern onely Estates of Freehold and In∣heritance, will be very inconvenient to Purchasors (who most commonly do re∣side at or near London, or Trade or come thither, where the richest and most money∣ed men and Purchasors amongst the peo∣ple are to be found; and whose Inhabitants or near dwellers, do amount to almost the one half of the Commonwealth, and added to such as upon Merchandise, or other oc∣casions do come thither, and pass to and fro from Ireland, Scotland, and other Fo∣reign parts, will make up in number as many as the whole people of the Nation,) and be not a little prejudicial to such also as live in the Countreys more remote; who for any thing of value, do usually, either come themselves on purpose to London, or employ their Attorneys or Lawyers to pro∣cure their Conveyances to be there made, where the best of Lawyers, and most

variety are most easily to be found and advised withal in the Term times) to travel or send to those several Counties where the Lands do lie, to have their Deeds Inrolled, or for such as dwell and pur∣chase in remote Counties, either to con∣tent themselves at home with such Counsel o•• Lawyers which the Country affords, and adventure their Estates and Security up∣on it, or go on purpose or send to London to have their Conveyances made; and when they are brought home, send to the Shire-Town to finde the Register, or some before whom to acknowledge the Deed, which may happen to be many miles di∣stant from him; and for them that buy in London, to be at the charge to carry those that do sell and live as far as Yorkshire, or other remote places, or make their bargain in London, for Lands lying in Wales, or the West part of England, into that Country where the Lands do lie.

And send or travel to Inroll a Deed* 1.4 for every parcel of Land in its several County, the Lands therein sometimes ex∣tending into three or four Counties, and

many times into more then one, when as now one uninconvenient charge to Inroll it at London, will serve for Lands in all the Counties mentioned in the same Deed.

Or upon any Suit or occasion at* 1.5 London or Westminster Hall, where all the Suits and Actions of concernment are, amongst many other businesses most com∣monly and commodiously dispatched at one and the same time by the Nobility, Gentry, Merchants, Tradesmen, and Sea∣men of the whole Nation, and the generali∣ty of all the people (except Cottagers and day Laborers, and the more rustick part of the Yeomandry or Husbandmen) and do as so many several lines drawn from the cir∣cumference, meet in the Term times or up∣on other occasions at London in one and the same center, to travel or send back∣ward and forward; and perhaps to several places at great charges and distances to take Copies of Deeds or Records, where now they can have them all in one place, or within little more then a mile of it:

The Records or Registries which* 1.6

are to be as mens publick evidences when the private are lost, will not in times of War or trouble (which most Nations at one time or other, do meet with) be at all or so safely kept as the Records are at London, being the chief City of the Na∣tion; and as the heart thereof, the residence of the Supream Authority, and such a strength, as is not easie to be forced or taken, and most likely to be the last place that shall suffer by any Foreign or Intestine Troubles, and which hath hitherto in most of our unhappy Civil Wars, for several ages preserved the Publick Records and Evidences of the people, in the Tower of London, Chappel of the Rolls and Trea∣suries at Westminster; places not onely strongly built with stone, but so carefully looked unto, as no Candles or Fire are permitted to be used in the same.

There being always likely to be a vast difference between the safe keeping of Re∣cords and Evidences in a City, that hath a∣bove Two hundred thousand men, with a Magazin, and strong hold, and more Ships and furniture for shipping to guard them,

then all the Shire-Towns, Ports, and Ha∣vens of the rest of the Nation can make, and furnish out, if all were put together, and a Shire-Town which hath neither Walls, nor strength, or any considerable number of people to defend them, there being of Fifty and two Shire-Towns, but Twenty two Cities and Walled Towns, and those so weak and unfortified, as Hull onely and Bristol, and some few excepted, every Rebel-rout or Insurrection may plun∣der or destroy them.

The consideration whereof did hereto∣fore put the Kings and Supream Magi∣strates of England, in minde to get from time to time, as much as they could into their care and custody, the Records of the Iters, Judges, Circuits, the Hundred and Petty Court Rolls, perambulations of For∣ests, being the out-lying and scattered Records of the Nation, and all that could be saved and got together, from the rage and troubles of former times, and the care∣less keeping of such as had the charge of them, and put them into safe custody in the Tower of London, or Treasuries for

Records at Westminster; and to that end, from time to time did send their Writs to command the bringing in of the Records of several Courts into the Treasury, which was usually done by Indemures, under the hands of the Judges that brought them in, and the Officers who received them, and made allowances out of the Exchequer, for the Kalendring and wel-ordering of them.

The having of which Publick Records, Memorials, and Evidences, as so many Jewels of inestimable value (wherein our Laws and Liberties, and all that we have concerning our Estates, Lives, Progenitors, and Predecessors do reside, and are Record∣ed) so safely preserved for the help and in∣struction of our selves and posterities, be∣ing justly accounted to be a Blessing.

May teach or give us to understand, what an evil condition the people of Eng∣land would have been in, if they had lost those Cabinets and Jewels of their Estates and Memories, or were but inforced, if they could be found again, to send from as far as the people of Scotland do now with

great trouble and expences, from all parts of their Nation into England, to the Tower of London, to search and take Copies of the Evidences of their Estates or Recon∣cilers of their Controversies, or how easi∣ly they might have been lost, if in Wat Tylers, Jack Cades or Ketts popular Fren∣zies, they had been kept either in Kent or Southwark, or such like open and unforti∣fied places▪

Or what had become of them, if they had lain dispersedly in the Shire-Towns, in our late harassing and destroying Civil Wars.

And that by such, or some other dis∣asters, we might have had as bad an ac∣compt of them, as are now to be had of all the Records and Court Rolls of the Sheriffs Turns, County and Hundred Courts, Courts Leet, or Courts Baron, and Justices in Eyre, since the time of William the Conqueror, and K. Henry the Second: When as none of the Sheriffs Turns, County and Hundred Courts, can shew us any Records of above Twenty years stand∣ing, if so much, the proceedings therein,

being either not entred at all, as they should be, or not well kept or ordered: And the other Inferior Courts not far above One hundred years, where any care hath been taken to keep them, and many times not so much: And for one that exceeds One hundred years, there are ten which do not reach to half a hundred.

And that those Records of the petty and inferior Courts of Antient times, which are now to be found in the Treasuries, and amongst the Records at London and West∣minster, do not amount to any more then to about the Ten thousandth part of those Country and inferior Courts Records, which are lost and not to be found; and that those that are to be seen, are but as some pitiful scraps and torn pieces of what have been rescued and taken out of the Jaws of Time and Antiquity.

Such an inforcement to Register all such* 1.7 Deeds in the proper Counties, will without any necessity of War or Publick Safety, take away the Common Right and Liberty, which God and Nature, and the Laws of the Land, have given to every man; and so far exceed

Monopolies, which never yet reached to mens private Evidences, as that it will too much resemble the King of Spain's Paper, which every man in Spain is bound to buy at a rate, to write his Contracts and Assuran∣ces upon,

Will be as a selling of Justice contrary* 1.8 to Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Liberties of the People, who have of late as well as formerly fought for them, with the hazard and loss of so many of their lives and estates; and which the Army have so often by publick and private Remonstran∣ces, called God and Men to witness, they would be car••ful to preserve for them; and if all Deeds of Bargain and Sale Registred, shall be enacted to have the force and effect of Fines with Proclamations and Recove∣ries, and Bar as they do.

Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 1.
• * 1.2

  §. 2.
• * 1.3

  § 3.
• * 1.4

  §. 4.
• * 1.5

  §. 5.
• * 1.6

  §. 6.
• * 1.7

  §. 7.
• * 1.8

  § 8.