[BY 43 Ed. III. c. 10, entitled Children born beyond Sea if inheritable in England, upon the Petition in Parliament by the Commonalty, praying that the Children born beyond Sea in the Seigniories of Calais, Guyne, and Gascony, and elsewhere in the Lands and Seigniories of the Lord the King, shall be hereafter a heretofore inheritable of their Heritages in England as other Children born in England, it was enacted and asserted, that the Common Law and the Statute 5 Ed. III. st. 2,7 heretofore made upon this Point, shall be observed and kept. By Statutes 3 R. II. c. 3, 7 R. II. c. 12, 1 Hen. V. c. 7, Aliens were prohibited to take Benefices without the King's Licence. By 1 Ric. III. c 9, entitled In what sort Italian Merchants may sell Merchandises-Several Restraints of Aliens, Provisions are contained to the following Effect:-Italian Merchants shall sell their Merchandises, and gross and employ their Money in the Commodities of this Realm-Strangers shall sell their Wares within eight Months after their Arrival, and employ their Money as aboveStrangers may carry away so much as they cannot sell within eight Months-a Stranger shall not be a Host of a Stranger unless he be of his own Country-Aliens shall not buy and sell, Wool or Woollen Cloth within this Realm, nor make Woollen Cloth, nor deliver Wool to that End-an Alien shall not be an Handiraftsman-Aliens shall make no Cloth within this Realm-Aliens shall sell their Wares in gross, and not by retail-Aliens shall take no Servant but the King's Subject-the Act not to prevent Aliens from selling Books, written or printed, or inhabiting within the Realm for that Intent,-which Proviso is repealed by 25 Hen. VIII. c. 15. By 14 and 15 Hen. VIII. c. 2, entitled What Apprentices strange Artificers wall take, it is enacted, that no Stranger shall take an Apprentice, but one that no born within the King's Obeisance, upon Pain of forfeiting Ten Pounds-that Obeisance. A great many Provisions are inserted for regulating the Wares of 10 Alien shall take above two Journeymen, except they be born within the King's Aliens. There is a Proviso, that the Act shall not extend to Strangers in the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or within the Sanctuary of Saint Martin's the Grand; and also a Proviso, that it should be lawful for any Lord of Parliament, Pounds, to retain Strangers, Joiners and Glaziers, in their Service. The next Statute connected with the Subject is 21 Hen VIII. c. 16, "Touching Artificers, Strangers, what they may do as concerning retaining that no Stranger, Artificer, shall keep in his House above two Strangers bornApprentices, Journeymen, &c. by which it is provided, amongst other Things, which is repealed by Stat. 5 Eliz. c. 4,)-that no Alien, dwelling in Oxford, his House-and a Decree of the Star Chamber, containing a Preamble respecting or Saint Martin's le Grand, shall have above ten Persons, Aliens, in the Mischiefs arising from the continual Resort of Strangers, to the Detriment of our own natural Subjects, followed by several particular Regulations, amongst Cambridge, others, that no Strangers but Denizens shall keep House or Shop, is ratified and confirmed. The 22 Hen. VIII. c. 13, was passed for Bakers, Brewers, Surgeons, and Scriveners, not to be accounted Handicraftsmen. By the Stat. 32 H. VIII. c. 16, the Stat. of Richard, Concerning Strangers,-the King, calling into his blessed Remembrance the infinite Number of Strangers & Aliens, which do daily increase and multiply within his Grace's Realms and Dominions, in excessive Numbers, to the great Detriment, Hindrance, Loss, and Impoverishment of his Grace's natural and liege Subjects, and noticing the former Statutes upon the Subject, (1 R. III. 14 and 15 H. VIII. 21 H. VIII.) which have been frustrated chiefly by means of Letters Patent, obtained by the crafty Suits, Inven tions, and Practices of Strangers lately made Denizens, which contend that every such Denizen shall be as free as Englishmen naturally born within the King's Grace's Dominions, any Acts or Statutes to the contrary notwithstanding,it is enacted, that all Denizens shall be bound and obedient by and unto all the aforesaid Acts and Statutes, and to all the Contents of the same, and to all other Acts and Statutes of this Realm heretofore made, now being in their force and not repealed, any Letters Patent or Ordinances heretofore made, or hereafter to be made to the contrary thereof, in any wise notwithstanding; and that, also, in all and every Letter Patent for the Making of any Denizen, to be made to any Stranger not being born under the King's Grace's Obeisance, shall be contained a Proviso, that he or they, to whom such Letters Patent shall be granted, shall be bound and obedient by and unto all the Acts and Estatutes of this Realm as is aforesaid, and to all and every the Contents of the same, except it shall be the King's most gracious Pleasure to grant to any such Alien any special Liberties or Privileges more or otherwise than is contained in the said Estatutes; and in that Case, all such Liberties and Privileges so to be granted to any such Alien, contrary to the Form of any of the said Estatutes, shall be plainly, wholly, and particularly expressed, specified, and declared by special Words, as well in the Bill assigned with the King's Grace's Hand for obtaining any such Grant, as in the Letters Patent, to be made out of the Chancery, for and concerning the same same Act are contained Provisions, that no Alien dwelling in Oxford, &c. shall keep above two Servants, that are Strangers, at one Time-that every Alien shall be bound by and unto the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, and to all ́and singular the Contents of the same-that no Person may keep above two Strangers at one Time, except Lords of Parliament, who may keep six-and lastly, it is enacted, by Sec. 13, that all Leases of any Dwelling-house or Shop, within this Realm or any of the King's Doininions, made to any Stranger, Artificer, or Handicraftsman, from out of the King's Obeisance, not being Denizen, from and after the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel next ensuing, shall be void and of none Effect; and that no Stranger, Artificer, or Handicraftsman, born out of the King's Obeisanee, not being Denizen, shall, after the same Feast, take any Lease of any Dwelling-house, or Shop, within this Realm, or in any other the King's Dominions, upon pain to lose and forfeit, for every Time doing contrary to this Act, One Hundred Shillings; and that no Persons, after the same Feast, shall grant or let to farm any Dwelling-house or Shop, to any such Stranger, Artificer, or Handicraftsman, not being Denizen, to the intent to dwell or inhabit in the same, upon like Pain of One Hundred Shillings, the one Moiety of which Pains and Forfeitures to be to the King our Sovereign Lord, and the other Moiety to such as will sue for the same. In the As the above Provisions are not now of any practical Importance, it was thought preferable to refer to them by way of Note, rather than to insert them in the Body of the Collection. "There are several Regulations in the Statute Book respecting the Payment of additional Duties by Aliens, but I apprehend that these have become obsolete since the Passing the Statute 27 Geo. III. c. 13, for Consolidating the Duties on the Customs, by which all former Duties are repealed, and in this and the subsequent Acts upon the Subject, for regulating the Amount of Duties, no Distinction is made with respect to Aliens. |