Eric J. Evans - The Contentious Tithe: The Tithe Problem and English Agriculture 1750-1850

First published in 1976, this book studies the impact of a uniquely unpopular tax on English rural communities. It examines the tithe system during a period when it was subject to mounting attack from political economists, agricultural improvers and radicals alike. Professor Evans has made extensive use of ecclesiastical and estate records to explain why the tithe issue became so unpopular at this time. He also studies in detail the work of the tithe commission, offering new evidence on the important question of how much the tithe system hindered agricultural improvement. This was in a period of considerable strain for the old village community, when tithe disputes significantly added to existing tensions and, particularly in the south of England, helped bring relations to crisis point.

First published in 1976

by Routledge and Kegan Paul

This edition first published in 2018 by Routledge

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1976 Eric J. Evans

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A Library of Congress record exists under ISBN: 76371490

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-55478-8 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-1-315-14924-0 (ebk)

The tithe problem and English agriculture, 1750-1850

ERIC J. EVANS

Department of History

University of Lancaster

First published in 1976

by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

39 Store Street,

London WC1E 2DD,

Broadway House,

Newtown Road,

Henley-on-Thames,

Oxon RG9 1EN and

9 Park Street,

Boston, Mass. 02108, USA

Manuscript typed by Brenda Hutt

Eric J. Evans 1976

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism

ISBN 0 7100 8324 6

The tithe problem was very much a live issue in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Discussions of it filled the pages of the agricultural and political magazines. In itself an inefficient and anachronistic impost, tithe symbolized far more. The agricultural improvers saw it as the major obstacle to increased cultivation and higher profits, arguing that it operated as a tax on yield and penalized the more adventurous farmer to the unfair advantage of the more cautious. Many concerned for the welfare of the Church of England pointed to the huge number of disputes the system produced and argued that, while it lucratively lined the pockets of the lawyers, it set parson against parishioner and poisoned relations in a village community already subjected to great strain because of population pressures and growing poverty. The political economists attacked the irrationality of tithe, and some were prepared to suggest that it contributed to the massive problem of rural poverty by hindering projects for labour-intensive improvements. The radicals and political reformers saw in tithe the weakest link in the armour of the state church, through which an overall assault, aimed at disestablishment, could be mounted. The churchs supporters were forced back on trusty eighteenth-century notions of property right and were given, by the early abolition of tithes by the French revolutionaries, an appropriate example to set before the legislature of what happened to both church and state when an essential plank supporting the former was removed.

Tithe, therefore, was an important part of the broader issues of the day. It is perhaps surprising that, although most textbooks acknowledge its importance, so little direct attention has been given to it. Twenty years ago, Christopher Hill provided a useful and succinct account of the problem in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in his masterly Economic Problems of the Church. The issues, however, were broader and still more contentious between 1750 and 1850 and here, apart from a few articles on specific aspects of the subject, there has been silence. This book is the first attempt to throw light on the subject as a whole. It draws on pamphlet and periodical literature, of course, but tests the arguments and presuppositions by a scrutiny of estate records, solicitors papers, account books and diaries now collected in large numbers in county record offices throughout the country. A study has also been made of relevant enclosure records, since tithe was frequently exchanged for land at enclosure, and of the tithe commutation records which survive in the Public Record Office, but which are still under-used by historians.

The preparation of this work has been greatly facilitated at every stage by many kindnesses which I am happy to acknowledge. It seems appropriate, given my odyssey around the various repositories, to acknowledge a heavy indebtedness to the many archivists who have answered so many questions, corrected so many misapprehensions and saved me so much time by displaying an amazing facility to extend the information contained in their catalogues from the voluminous mental card-index which seems to be a prerequisite of their profession. I cannot name them all, but would like to give particular thanks to Mr F.B. Stitt and his staff at Stafford, Dr D.B. Robinson, now Surrey county archivist, who guided me expertly through the ecclesiastical records at Lichfield during his time as assistant-archivist there, Mr Sharpe-France and his staff at Preston, Mr Bruce Jones at Carlisle, Miss Sheila MacPherson at Kendal and Mr Edward Milligan, Librarian of Friends House. I have pestered these more than most, but everywhere I have met with unfailing courtesy, prompt production of documents, and great help, some of it beyond the strict call of duty.

I have benefited likewise from discussions with friends and colleagues at the Universities of Warwick, Stirling and Lancaster. I have also learned much from criticism and ideas generated by the presentation of my often half-baked notions at seminars and in talks given in each of these places and in Birmingham, Carlisle and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I owe especial gratitude to Professor Eric Richards, now of Flinders University, South Australia, Dr John Rule of the University of Southampton and Mr M.J. Thomas, now working at Friends House, each of whom made the fruits of their own researchers freely available to me.

Every author will know that the production of a book entails the kind of domestic dislocation which no spouse should be expected to bear, but which a surprisingly large proportion do. Christine has permitted far more of our house to become a study than either she or I anticipated, as books, notes and drafts proliferated. I owe much to her forbearance and never-failing cheerfulness in the face of still higher mounds of paper, as also to her ability to keep two small children away from essential material.