8. 12. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12. 6 & 7 Will. clude a female as well as a male; and the word "lands IV. c. 71, shall mean and include all messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments; and the word "tithes" shall mean and include all uncommuted tithes, portions and parcels of tithes, and all moduses, compositions real, and prescriptive and customary payments; and the word "parish" and "parochial" shall mean and include and extend to every parish and every extra-parochial place, and every township or village, within which overseers of the poor are separately appointed under the provisions of an Act passed in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the reign of his late Majesty King Charles the Second, intituled "An Act for the better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom," and every district of which the tithes are payable under a separate impropriation or appropriation, or in a separate portion or parcel, or which the commissioners shall by any order direct to be considered as a separate district for the commutation of tithes; and the words "landowner" or "titheowner," or "owner of lands" or owner of tithes," shall mean and include every person who shall be in the actual possession or receipt of the rents or profits of any lands or tithes (except any tenant for life or lives, or for years), holding under a lease or agreement for a lease on which a rent of not less than two thirds of the clear yearly value of the premises comprised therein shall have been reserved, and except any tenant for years whatsoever holding under a lease or agreement for a lease for a term which shall not have exceeded fourteen years from the commencement thereof (a), and that without regard to the real amount of interest of such person; and in every case in which any tithes or lands shall have been leased or agreed to be leased to any person for life or lives, or for years, by any lease or agreement for a lease on which a rent less than two thirds of the clear yearly value of the premises comprised therein shall have been reserved, and of which the term shall have exceeded fourteen years from the commencement thereof, IV. c. 71, 8. 12. Where the person who shall for the time being be in the actual 6 & 7 Will. receipt of the rent reserved upon such lease or agreement for a lease shall, jointly with the person who shall be liable to the payment of such rent of such tithes or lands, be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the owner of such tithes or lands (b); and in every case in which any parties to person shall be in possession or receipt of the rents or be deemed profits of any tithes or lands under any sequestration,1 joint extent,2 elegit,3 or other writ of execution, or as a receiver under any order of a Court of Equity, the person against whom such writ shall have issued, or who but for such order would have been in possession, shall, jointly with the person in possession by virtue of such writ or order, be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the owner of such tithes or lands.] 3. Expressions to which meanings are assigned by the Tithe Acts have in this Act the same meanings respectively, provided always that The expression "the passing of this Act" shall be construed to mean the passing of the present Act (c); The word "tithes" shall, in addition to the meaning assigned to it by section twelve of the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836, mean and include any annual fixed tithes, and any payment instead of tithes arising or growing due within the City of London (d); The expression "customary payment" shall include any regular payment instead of tithes made and accepted unconditionally during a period of twenty-one consecutive years immediately preceding the first day of October, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, and amounting in each of such years to the same annual sum (e); 1 12 & 13 Vict. c. 67; 34 & 35 Vict. c. 45; 38 & 39 Vict. c. 77; Sch. I., Orders XLIII., XLVII. 2 See 3 Steph. Com. 7th ed., 642. 3 See 3 Steph. Com. 7th ed., 586; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110; 23 & 24 Vict. c. 38, s. 1; 38 & 39 Vict. c. 77, Sch. I., Orders XLII., XLIII. owners. 42 & 43 Vict. The expression "landowner" or owner of lands shall c. 176, s. 3. not include the owner of any lands exempt from tithes; The expression "uncommuted tithes" in this Act shall mean all tithes arising or growing due within the City of London elsewhere than in commutation parishes, and not being annual certain tithes or sums of money in lieu of tithes fixed and payable in respect of the certain annual maintenance of parsons, vicars, and curates under the herein before recited Acts of Charles the Second and George the Third, or sums payable by way of rates or assessments or otherwise under the said Acts for the raising and paying of such annual maintenance. (a) A tenant for life or lives, or for years, at rack rent, and a lessee for a term not exceeding fourteen years, are not owners within the definition. (b) A tenant for life or lives, at less than rack rent, and a lessee for years at less than rack rent, and for a term exceeding fourteen years, are owners jointly with the persons in receipt of such rent: by section 3 of the Principal Act any owner of lands exempt from tithes is not an owner under the Act. (c) The Principal Act came into operation on the 21st July, 1879, and from that date any voluntary commutation of tithes could be made, and any redemption effected 1 in accordance with its provisions. In respect of compulsory commutation, the operation of the Principal Act is postponed until the 2nd October, 1881.2 The provisions for the redemption of the commutation payments in the parish of Christ Church, Newgate Street, come into operation on 1st October, 1880.3 (d) The 2s. 9d. rate under 37 Hen. VIII. c. 12, is included in the term "uncommuted tithes" in the definition contained in section 12 of the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836, and the Principal Act extends this definition to any payment in lieu of such rate in any parish under the provisions of any local Acts, as well as the annual maintenance payments under the Fire Acts.5 (e) The customary payment defined in the Principal Act does not in any way affect the exception under the 37 Hen. VIII. c. 12.6 1 Sec. 12. 2 Sec. 7. 3 Sec. 13. 4 Ante, pp. 15-18. 5 Ante, p. 14. 6 Ante, p. 7. [The Tithe Commutation Act, 1836, contains provisions as to who shall be deemed the owner or patron of a benefice where the lands or tithes or patronage shall be vested in the Crown. 1] By the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836 42 & 43 Vict. c. 176, s. 3. 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 71, s. 14. same person is lands and [S. XIV. And be it enacted, That whenever any person shall be at the same time owner of any lands and owner of When the any tithes comprised within any agreement to be executed pursuant to the provisions of this Act, or besides being owner of owner of any lands or of any tithes shall also be patron of the benefice to which the tithes in question may belong, such person, in relation to such agreement, may act and dealt with be dealt with in each of the several characters so borne by characters. him as aforesaid.] owner of tithes, he may be in both IV. c. 71, s. 15. owner is who to act. [S. XV. And be it enacted, That whenever the patron of 6 & 7 Will. any benefice or the owner of any lands or tithes to which the provisions of this Act are intended to apply, or any In case the person interested in any question as to any tithes, shall be a patron or minor, idiot, lunatic, feme covert, beyond the seas, or under under legal any other legal disability, the guardian, trustee, committee disability, of the estate, husband, or attorney respectively, or in default thereof such person as may be nominated for that purpose by the Commissioners after due inquiry shall have been made by them as to the fitness of such person, and whom they are hereby empowered to nominate under their hands and seal, shall for the purposes of this Act be substituted in the place of such patron, owner, or person so interested (ƒ).] (f) By section 48 of the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836, the Commissioners have further power in certain cases to protect the interests of persons under legal disability. [By section 16 of the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836, a landowner or tithe-owner may appoint any agent to act for him in carrying the commutation into execution, and the power of attorney, 1 Sec. 13. 6 & 7 Will. or a copy thereof, under which the agent shall have acted, must be IV. c. 17, sent to the office of the Commissioners together with the agree s. 15. Vict. Extension cation of ment.'] 42 & 43 4. From and after the passing of this Act, the provisions c. 176, s. 4. of the Tithe Acts,2 except such of the same as are specified in the schedule to this Act annexed, shall extend and and appli- apply to all uncommuted tithes and to the commutation of Tithe Acts the same, and the redemption of rent-charges charged on land in lieu thereof, and otherwise generally thereto, except only so far as such provisions or any of them are altered or varied by or are inconsistent with or inapplicable to any of the provisions of this Act (g). to uncommuted tithes in City of London. (g) By the provisions of the Principal Act, 1879, all tithes, or sums of money in lieu of tithes, in the City of London, are to be commuted by the joint provisions of the Tithe Acts and that Act. There are two ways of doing this; viz., either by a voluntary parochial agreement made between the tithe-owner and the tithepayers, and confirmed by the Commissioners, or by a compulsory award of the Commissioners. First, as to voluntary commutation, section 17 of the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836, provides that any one or more of the landowners, or tithe-owners, whose interest is one-fourth of the value of the lands and tithes respectively, may call a parochial meeting, and the landowners and tithe-owners present, who represent a specified proportion of the value of the lands and tithes respectively, may make a parochial agreement for the payment of an annual sum by way of rent-charge instead of tithes, and this agreement when confirmed by the Commissioners is binding on all persons interested in the tithes and lands subject to tithes in the parish.3 The Principal Act gives a discretionary power to the Tithe Commissioners to prescribe the form and particulars of this agreement.1 Next, as to commutation by compulsory award. The Principal Act and the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836, taken together, provide that when no agreement as aforesaid has been made and confirmed, the Commissioners shall give notice of their intention to ascertain and award the sum to be paid in lieu of tithes, and twenty-one days |