A history of the tithe system in England, 1690-1850 with special reference to Staffordshire

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Abstract

This thesis attempts to provide a general history of the tithe
system during the last century and a half of its existence in its
old form. It attempts this partly through a detailed study of one
county, thus enabling a wider variety of legal, administrative,
ecclesiastical and parochial documents to be used than has been
attempted in previous studies of the tithe system. Staffordshire
was selected partly because of its excellent source materials in
the Stafford County Record Office, the William Salt Library and the
Lichfield Joint Record Office, and partly because the county provides
a most useful admixture of different agricultural and industrial
settlements. As Caird wrote in 1850:
'The state of agriculture in Staffordshire is influenced by
such a variety of circumstances that examples of every system
pursued in England may be found in this county.'(1)
It was therefore possible to assess whether the tithe system had a
differential impact on different types of farming, and how much it
penetrated industrial areas. The thesis attempts to show how tithe
was collected in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and
how far tithing in kind remained. The importance of lay as well as
clerical tithe owners is studied and the thesis attempts to indicate
the amount of social tension occasioned by the system.
As litigation over tithe was frequent in much of the period, the complexities of the legal situation are studied and an analysis made
of the Staffordshire cases, indicating the major reasons for litigation,
what evidence was considered valuable, how cases were settled,
and the importance of legal costs in the progress and determination
of disputes. One particularly lengthy tithe battle - from Cheadle -
is treated as a separate case study.
A case study of the Quaker attitude to tithe, as the leading
dissenting sect objecting ID its payment, is also made, indicating
the degree of non-payment by Quakers, their legal tussles, persecution
and campaigns to change tithe law. The national campaign
against tithe is studied with consideration and evaluation of the
arguments of both sides in the light of the actual situation. The
reasons for the increasing momentum and bitterness of the campaign
from the late eighteenth century onwards are assessed. As the
eighteenth century enclosure movement provided the first major
opportunity since the Reformation for a change and redistribution
of tithe property, attention is paid to the impact of the movement,
indicating how far tithe was exchanged for land at enclosure. The
relative benefits to land and tithe owner are assessed.
The thesis concentrates finally on the parliamentary attempts to
reform the system, and the difficulties encountered there. The
origins of the 1836 Commutation Act are studied together with an
analysis of the Act and its intentions. The last chapter is devoted
to a study of the Act in operation, showing how easily commutation
was effected, how tithe values were altered, and how the parties
concerned reacted to the changes which commutation would bring. The thesis ends at 1850 with most commutations, and their attendant
redistribution, complete.
Above all, however, this study attempts to explain how men
attempted to make an anachronistic system work in an increasingly
complex society, how far compromises were necessary and acceptable,
and how far tithe was responsible for tension in the village
community. It attempts to provide a general history of tithe, but
it does so in the belief that, because tithe was a local and
parochial burden, its proper impact and effects cannot be properly
understood without detailed reference to local situations.

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