Tithes

The tenth part of the annual product of the labor of the community, accorded to the clergy as their compensation. In early books, tithes seem to have been regarded as an ecclesiastical inheritance or property which the clergy had in the earth's produce, as collateral to their estate in the lands. A more modern view is that they are to be deemed a fixed part of the year's wealth, which the law of England assigns to the clergy. Tithes are a species of incorporeal hereditaments, defined to be the tenth part of the increase yearly arising and renewing from the profits of the lands, from the live-stock upon lands, and from the personal industry of the inhabitants. The first species of tithe is usually called predial, and consists of corn, grass, hops, wood, and the like; the second, mixed, as of wool, milk, pigs, &c., consisting, it will be observed, of natural products, but nurtured and preserved in part by the care of man; the third, personal, as of manual occupations, trades, fisheries, and the like. The distinction between predial and mixed tithes is, that predial tithes (so called from prcedium, a farm) are those which arise immediately out of the soil, either with or without the intervention of human industry; and mixed are those which arise immediately through the increase or produce of animals which receive their nutriment from the earth and its fruits. Personal tithes are so called because they arise entirely from the personal industry of man. In addition to this distinction, tithes have been divided into two classes; viz., great and small, — the former comprehending, in general, the tithes of com, peas, beans, hay, and wood; the latter, all other predial, together with all mixed and personal, tithes. Tithes are great or small, according to the nature of the things which yield the tithe, without reference to the quantity. Thus clover grass made into hay is of the nature of seed, its nature becomes altered, and, like other seed, it becomes a small tithe. Brown. Great tithes having generally belonged to the rector, and small tithes to the vicar, the former have been called parsonage tithes, the latter vicarage tithes. Almost all the tithes of England and Wales are now commuted into rentcharges, under the tithes commutation act, Stat. 6 & 7 Wm. IV. ch. 71, and the various statutes since passed for its amendment.

See Brown; Jacob; 2 Bl. Com. ch. 3.

Tithe rent-charge

A rent-charge established in lieu of tithes, under the tithes commutation act, 1836 (Stat. 6 &7 Wm.IV. ch. 71), as between landlord and tenant, the tenant paying the tithe rent-charge is entitled, in the absence of express agreement, to deduct It from his rent, under section 70 of the above act. And a tithe rent-charge unpaid is reco%'erable by distress as rent in arrear. Modey ^ W.