Words of the union.

37 Hen. 8. c. 21. Bill for the union of churches.

num, ut ibi deinseps percipiant spiritualia et sint parochiani ejusdem Hospitalis.

Hence, such like commands, occasions, and conveniences, doubtless altered and made the limits of divers parishes every where both in country and cities (1)

The words of the union are, We unite, annex, incorporate, and consolidate, and cause to be made, the said church of A. and the church of B. one ecclesiastical benefice; and such union may be made to take place in futuro as well as in præsenti by proper and apt words for that purpose. Therefore, if the churches are full and one is duly united to the other in futuro, when either shall become void, the surviving incumb. ent may enter upon the vacant living without any other title than that which he received from the act of union.

The first statute made concerning the union of churches was the 37 Hen. VIII. ch. 21. reciting that:

Where, in divers and sundry places within this realm of England, there be many and sundry parsonages, glebes, tithes, and yearly revenues and profits whereof be not sufficient to find a

(1) Seld. ch. 9. s. 4. 267.

priest or curate to serve, or minister to the parishioners thereof within a mile or less of the church, of which poor parsonages there is in many places another church pertaining to another parish standing as necessary and commodiously for the access of the parishioners of the other poor parish as their own doth :

And, forasmuch as the charges for the maintenance of such two churches and chapels, with all manner of reparations, ornaments, and other accustomed duties pertaining to a church, be much greater than may be well raised or borne amongst such poor parishioners, and might and should be eased and remedied by the uniting and knitting of such two churches in one :

It may therefore please the king's royal majesty, with the assent of his lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that it may be enacted and established, that an union or consolidation of two churches in one, or of a church and chapel in one, the one of them not being above the yearly value of six pounds, as it is rated and valued at to the king's highness in his court of the first-fruits and tenths, and not distant from the other above one mile, in any place or places within this realm of England, may be from henceforth had or made by the assent of the ordinary and ordi

naries of the diocese where such churches and chapels stand, and by the assent of the incumbents of them, and of all such as have a just right, title, and interest to the patronages of the same churches and chapels, being then of full age; and that all such unions and consolidations had or made of two churches in one, or of a church and chapel in one, as is aforesaid, shall be good, sufficient, lawful, firm, stable, and available in the law, to remain, endure, and continue for ever united and knit in one in such manner and form as by writing or writings under the seals of such ordinaries, incumbents, and patrons, it shall be declared and set forth.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all unions and consolidations of all churches and chapels which have heretofore been united or knit together in one by the assent of the ordinaries, incumbents, and true and lawful patrons in fee simple of them as is aforesaid, shall also remain and be from henceforth adjudged and deemed in the law to endure and continue for ever united and knit in one, without any dissolution, undoing, unknitting, or repeal of them, or any of them, by any manner of means or ways.

Saving unto the king's majesty, his heirs and successors, all the tenths and first-fruits of all such churches and chapels as be heretofore

united or consolidated in one, or that shall hereafter be united and consolidated in one, according to the same, or such like rates and valuations as the same churches and chapels, or any of them now are rated or valued at to the king's said majesty in his said highness' court of the first-fruits and tenths.

Provided always, that all unions and consolidations, and every of them hereafter to be had or made, of any church or chapel within any city or town corporate within this realm of England without the assent of the mayor, sheriffs, and commonalty of the city where such churches, church, or chapel, be or shall be, or without the assent of such bodies corporate of other towns corporate where such churches, church, or chapel be or shall be, by the names of their corporations in writing under their common seal, shall be clearly void, and of no force nor effect, any thing before expressed, or any ordinance, law, custom, or statute to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

Provided also, that where the inhabitants of any such poor parish, or the more part of them, within one year next after the union or consolidation of the same parish, by their writing sufficient in the law, shall assure the incumbent of the said parish for the yearly payment of so

17 Car.2.c.3.

much money, as with the sum that the said parish is rated and valued at in the king's highness' said court of the first-fruits and tenths shall amount to the full sum of eight pounds sterling, to be levied and paid yearly by the said inhabitants to the said incumbent and his successors, that then all such unions and consolidations hereafter to be had or made of any such poor parish as is aforesaid, shall be void and of none effect, any thing statuted or ordained to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding.

Provided always, that this said proviso shall not extend to any union or consolidations of any church or chapel had or made before the making of this statute, any thing in the said proviso mentioned to the contrary thereof notwithstanding.

So by the statute 17 Charles II. ch. 3. It was enacted, that in every city or town corporate, and their liberties, within the kingdom of England, and dominion of Wales, which have a mayor and aldermen, and particular justices of the peace by charter or commission, or bailiff or bailiffs, or other chief officer or officers, and other assistants by like charter; and where two or more churches or chapels, or a church and a chapel, and the parishes thereunto belonging, do