Alienation Office
Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1576 |
Dissolved | 1835[a] |
Jurisdiction | England and Wales |
Agency executives |
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Footnotes | |
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The Alienation Office was a British Government body charged with regulating the 'alienation' or transfer of certain feudal lands in England by use of a licence to alienate granted by the king, during the feudal era, and by the government thereafter.
Establishment
The first regulatory structure for controlling the alienation of feudal lands was created during the reign of Henry III (1216–1272), who issued an ordinance prohibiting his tenants-in-chief from alienating their lands held from him without his specific licence.
Rationale
During the feudal era the king was the only true "owner" of land under his
Penalties for non-compliance
Originally the penalty for not obtaining a royal licence was forfeiture of the lands concerned. The next major change occurred in 1327, when the penalty for non-compliance was changed from forfeiture to a fine, payable into the Hanaper of the Chancery. As with many English legal and regulatory systems a gradual evolution occurred to deliver a settled system. The penalty for alienating land without a royal licence became one year's revenue from that land, and the payment required to obtain a licence to alienate was one third of the value of the land to be alienated.
Alienation Office
In 1576 the Alienation Office was first established on a proper basis. Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester was granted a 10-year farm of the revenues due under the alienation of property licensing regime. The farm also covered monies payable from 'pre-fines' payable during the applicant's hearing in the Court of Final Pleas. The Office developed from the structures created by Dudley during this period. Ten years later an extension of the farm was granted to Thomas Dudley and Robert Wrotte, acting as agents for Robert Dudley. Dudley died in 1588, but the regime he created continued in place, and in 1595 was further extended to cover fines imposed for writs of entry in the process of common recovery.
The office was established in premises on today's site of King's Bench Walk, Temple, London, which now house legal chambers.
During the period of the
In 1758 a small extension of the jurisdiction of the Office took place when
The pace of reform in the United Kingdom gathered pace in the 1830s, and the structure of the Alienation Office did not survive that decade. In 1834 land conveyancing was reformed and the system of fines and recoveries was abolished, which left the Alienation Office with no substantial function. It was consequently abolished in 1835.
List of Receivers General
Receiver-General of Alienation Office | |
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At the Monarch's pleasure | |
Formation | 1603 |
First holder | Sir Arthur Atys |
Final holder | Charles Dodd |
Abolished | 1832 |
The following persons held the office of Receiver General of the Alienation Office between 1602 and 1832:[2]
- Sir Arthur Atys c. 1603–1604
- Sir John Suckling 1604–1620?
- Henry Tweedy 1620?–1623?
- Thomas Bond c. 1639–1640
- Thomas Fauconbridge c. 1643–44
- Edward Nicholas 1660–1691
- Edward Nicholas (the younger) 1691–1699
- Hon. Charles Boyle, later Earl of Orrery 1699–1717
- William Jessop 1717–1734
- Sir William Ashburnham 1735–1755
- Thomas Steele 1755–1755
- Elfred Staples 1755–1761
- Thomas Steele 1761–1763
- Stephen Digby 1763–1765
- Thomas Steele 1767–1775
- John St John 1775–1793
- Thomas Steele 1793–1797
- George Canning 1797–1827
- Charles Dodd 1827–1832
Sources
References
- ^ Bracton, who called them "barons" stated "sunt et alii potentes sub rege qui barones dicuntur, hoc est robur belli" ("there are other magnates under the king, who are called barons, that is the hardwood of war"), quoted in Sanders, I.J., Feudal Military Service in England, Oxford, 1956, p.3; "Bracton's definition of the baro" (plur barones) "proves that tenants of this class were considered to be the military backbone of the realm" (Sanders, p.3)
- ^ Records of the Alienation Office, reference A, National Archives, Kew