Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
ancient demesne claimed to be quit, and so did gavelkind.
English answer:
those holding ancient demesne land or property under gavelkind tenure claimed exemption
Added to glossary by
Charles Davis
Nov 3, 2011 16:11
12 yrs ago
English term
ancient demesne claimed to be quit, and so did gavelkind.
English
Social Sciences
History
English law, parliamentary records, 14th century, tax evasion
The payment of parliamentary expenses was a heavy burden, and even
London was sometimes hard put to it to find the money. Other towns
found it difficult, too, and sometimes paid in kind or by granting privileges.
The counties found it harder still, for they had no common
Fund and so the money had to be raised by direct taxation of individuals.
There naturally resulted a scramble to escape liability, and so inevitably
there arose a mass of divergent local customs and great obscurity
in the law. The tenants of anyone who had personally appeared
at the parliament were sufficiently represented by him,
and therefore could not be called upon to meet the cost of additional representation;
ancient demesne claimed to be quit, and so did gavelkind.
What particular method of tax evasion is meant by this last statement?
Many thanks in advance.
London was sometimes hard put to it to find the money. Other towns
found it difficult, too, and sometimes paid in kind or by granting privileges.
The counties found it harder still, for they had no common
Fund and so the money had to be raised by direct taxation of individuals.
There naturally resulted a scramble to escape liability, and so inevitably
there arose a mass of divergent local customs and great obscurity
in the law. The tenants of anyone who had personally appeared
at the parliament were sufficiently represented by him,
and therefore could not be called upon to meet the cost of additional representation;
ancient demesne claimed to be quit, and so did gavelkind.
What particular method of tax evasion is meant by this last statement?
Many thanks in advance.
Change log
Nov 17, 2011 06:52: Charles Davis Created KOG entry
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Charles Davis
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those holding ancient demesne land or property under gavelkind tenure claimed exemption
"Ancient demesne" means land held by the Crown at the time of the Domesday Book in the eleventh century; subsquently much of it was granted under feudal tenure, and much of the remainder, the royal demesne, was let to the sheriff of the county:
"In English common law the term ancient demesne referred to those lands that were held by the Crown at the time of the Domesday Book. Immediately following the Norman Conquest all land in England was claimed by the king as his absolute title by allodial right, being the commencement of the royal demesne. The king made immediate grants of very large parcels of land under feudal tenure from this demesne, generally in the form of feudal baronies. The land not so enfeoffed thus remained within the royal demesne, for example royal manors administered by royal stewards and royal hunting forests. It was from the income produced by these manors retained in the royal demesne that the king financed his administration, until the advent of taxation. Manors in the royal demesne were let out at "farm" to the sheriff of each shire in which they were located. Thus in return for an annual fixed payment made into the Exchequer, the sheriff was free to extract and retain whatever additional revenue he was able from the land "farmed", which amount was by design considerably greater than the "farm".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demesne
Gavelkind is an ancient system of land tenure (now obsolete) found only in Kent, Wales and Ireland. The essential point of it is that it was not subject to primogeniture, but to "a system of inheritance in which a deceased person’s land is divided equally among all male heirs" (Oxford).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavelkind
Gavelkind signified a form of pre-feudal freeholding of the land, and this was presumably the argument on which the "gavelmen" claimed exemption:
"Gavelkind = the principle freehold land tenure in Kent existing into the early 20th century. The custom of inheritance insisting on equal division of property amongst male , and in the absence of male heirs, female heirs. Led to the fragmentation of land holdings.
Gavel land = land held by payment of gavel rent, usually 1d per acre, usually little by way of service.
Gavelmen = free holders of land under Gavelkind."
http://nonington.org.uk/feudal-customs-a-duties.html
"Quit" means exempt or absolved:
"QUIT, a. Free; clear; discharged from; absolved."
http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/quit
"In English common law the term ancient demesne referred to those lands that were held by the Crown at the time of the Domesday Book. Immediately following the Norman Conquest all land in England was claimed by the king as his absolute title by allodial right, being the commencement of the royal demesne. The king made immediate grants of very large parcels of land under feudal tenure from this demesne, generally in the form of feudal baronies. The land not so enfeoffed thus remained within the royal demesne, for example royal manors administered by royal stewards and royal hunting forests. It was from the income produced by these manors retained in the royal demesne that the king financed his administration, until the advent of taxation. Manors in the royal demesne were let out at "farm" to the sheriff of each shire in which they were located. Thus in return for an annual fixed payment made into the Exchequer, the sheriff was free to extract and retain whatever additional revenue he was able from the land "farmed", which amount was by design considerably greater than the "farm".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demesne
Gavelkind is an ancient system of land tenure (now obsolete) found only in Kent, Wales and Ireland. The essential point of it is that it was not subject to primogeniture, but to "a system of inheritance in which a deceased person’s land is divided equally among all male heirs" (Oxford).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavelkind
Gavelkind signified a form of pre-feudal freeholding of the land, and this was presumably the argument on which the "gavelmen" claimed exemption:
"Gavelkind = the principle freehold land tenure in Kent existing into the early 20th century. The custom of inheritance insisting on equal division of property amongst male , and in the absence of male heirs, female heirs. Led to the fragmentation of land holdings.
Gavel land = land held by payment of gavel rent, usually 1d per acre, usually little by way of service.
Gavelmen = free holders of land under Gavelkind."
http://nonington.org.uk/feudal-customs-a-duties.html
"Quit" means exempt or absolved:
"QUIT, a. Free; clear; discharged from; absolved."
http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/quit
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
Reference comments
5 mins
Reference:
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/the_west_cl...
Demesne Lands
The second form of land tenure recorded in the inquisition document are lands described as ‘the lawful and proper inheritance of the said John mcNemarrae’. These comprised of around 321/4 quarters (6,446 statute acres or 4,029 Irish acres)[75] and constitute the demesne lands. The division between demesne lands and mensal lands is difficult to discern, but the high proportion of McNamara kinsmen holding these lands identified in 1641 may indicate that the lands were the demesne lands of the McNamara Fionn clan and populated by McNamara sept branches. That the inquisition does not list the rent payable out of these quarters suggests that non-fixed food-rents and services were collected from these lands. Essentially, the demesne lands were occupied by tenants of equivalent status as the rent-paying freeholder septs, except for differing
tenurial conditions.[76]
The demesne lands were scattered throughout the lordship and do not conform to any geographical locus. It can be speculated that these lands formed the ballybetagh[77] estate of the McNamara Fionn and was where McNamara collateral branches resided.[78] However, they are notably absent in Kilraghtis, Templemaley and Doora parishes. This cluster of parishes in the historical division of Upper Clann Chuiléin (Cloinne Chuiléin Uachtaraighe) was the original túath where the McNamara Lord’s of Uí Caisín had their chief seat prior to the fourteenth century.[79] The absence of demesne lands amongst these parishes suggests that those demesne lands that owed John McNamara unspecified food-rents, service and ‘hospitality rights’ were the residence of collateral McNamara septs. These septs consolidated their estates further from the historic ‘core’ of the lordship in Upper Clann Chuiléin on the former territories of the Anglo-Normans and their Uí Bloid allies in Tradraighe and Uí Cearnaigh after 1318. Over time these collateral McNamara branches gained a measure of autonomy from the chiefly McNamara lineage, ensuring separate tenurial arrangements.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 mins (2011-11-03 16:22:07 GMT)
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http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/library3.nsf/pagecurrent/3CBA...
In the cases of Gavelkind (1605) Dav. 49 and Tanistry (1607) Dav. 28, the courts in Ireland rejected the Brehon rules of succession in favour of the English law of succession. In the latter case, the court, applying the rule of recognition, held that the native laws of a country survived if they were reasonable, certain, of immemorial usage and compatible with crown sovereignty. The court held that the native law failed to meet these requirements. The end of the Brehon Law's authority was signalled by the Proclamation of King James I in 1603, which received the Irish people into the King's protection. The country was subsequently divided into counties and English law was administered throughout the country.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 mins (2011-11-03 16:22:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
gavelkind: Definition from Answers.com
www.answers.com › Library › History, Politics & Society
gavelkind ( ) n. An English system of land tenure from Anglo-Saxon times to 1926 that provided for the equal division of land among all qualified.
Demesne Lands
The second form of land tenure recorded in the inquisition document are lands described as ‘the lawful and proper inheritance of the said John mcNemarrae’. These comprised of around 321/4 quarters (6,446 statute acres or 4,029 Irish acres)[75] and constitute the demesne lands. The division between demesne lands and mensal lands is difficult to discern, but the high proportion of McNamara kinsmen holding these lands identified in 1641 may indicate that the lands were the demesne lands of the McNamara Fionn clan and populated by McNamara sept branches. That the inquisition does not list the rent payable out of these quarters suggests that non-fixed food-rents and services were collected from these lands. Essentially, the demesne lands were occupied by tenants of equivalent status as the rent-paying freeholder septs, except for differing
tenurial conditions.[76]
The demesne lands were scattered throughout the lordship and do not conform to any geographical locus. It can be speculated that these lands formed the ballybetagh[77] estate of the McNamara Fionn and was where McNamara collateral branches resided.[78] However, they are notably absent in Kilraghtis, Templemaley and Doora parishes. This cluster of parishes in the historical division of Upper Clann Chuiléin (Cloinne Chuiléin Uachtaraighe) was the original túath where the McNamara Lord’s of Uí Caisín had their chief seat prior to the fourteenth century.[79] The absence of demesne lands amongst these parishes suggests that those demesne lands that owed John McNamara unspecified food-rents, service and ‘hospitality rights’ were the residence of collateral McNamara septs. These septs consolidated their estates further from the historic ‘core’ of the lordship in Upper Clann Chuiléin on the former territories of the Anglo-Normans and their Uí Bloid allies in Tradraighe and Uí Cearnaigh after 1318. Over time these collateral McNamara branches gained a measure of autonomy from the chiefly McNamara lineage, ensuring separate tenurial arrangements.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 mins (2011-11-03 16:22:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/library3.nsf/pagecurrent/3CBA...
In the cases of Gavelkind (1605) Dav. 49 and Tanistry (1607) Dav. 28, the courts in Ireland rejected the Brehon rules of succession in favour of the English law of succession. In the latter case, the court, applying the rule of recognition, held that the native laws of a country survived if they were reasonable, certain, of immemorial usage and compatible with crown sovereignty. The court held that the native law failed to meet these requirements. The end of the Brehon Law's authority was signalled by the Proclamation of King James I in 1603, which received the Irish people into the King's protection. The country was subsequently divided into counties and English law was administered throughout the country.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 mins (2011-11-03 16:22:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
gavelkind: Definition from Answers.com
www.answers.com › Library › History, Politics & Society
gavelkind ( ) n. An English system of land tenure from Anglo-Saxon times to 1926 that provided for the equal division of land among all qualified.
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