Tithes

In English law. A right to the tenth part of the produce of lands, the stocks upon lands, and the personal industry of the inhabitants. These tithes are raised for the support of the clergy.

In English Law. A right to the tenth part of the produce of lands, the stock upon lands, and the personal industry of the inhabitants. These tithes are raised for the support of the clergy. Almost all the tithes of England and Wales are now commuted into rent charges, under 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 71, and the various statutes since passed; 3 Steph. Com. 731. In the United States there are no tithes. A form of taxation, secular and ecclesiastical, usually, as the name implies, consisting of one-tenth of a man's property or produce. The custom was almost universal in antiquity. They were generally regarded, up to the 17th century, as existing jure divino and as coeval with Christianity. Various acts have been passed on the subject. The act of 1891 places the burden on the landowner, who cannot contract otherwise with the tenant. If a tenant is in possession, a receiver is appointed for the rents and profits. Neither the owner nor the tenant is personally liable. Encycl. Br. See Phillimore, Eccl. Law; Selborne, Ancient Facts and Fictions Concerning Churches and Tithes; Lansdell, The Sacred Tenth.

In English law. The tenth part of the increase, yearly arising and renewing from the profits of lands, the stock upon lands, and the personal industry of the inhabitants. 2 Bl. Comm. 24. A species of incorporeal hereditament, being an ecclesiastical inheritance collateral to the estate of the land, and due only to an ecclesiastical person by ecclesiastical law. 1 Crabb, Real Prop. § 133.

— Great tithes. In English ecclesiastical law. Tithes of com, pease and beans, hay and wood. 2 Chit. Bl. Comm. 24, note; 3 Steph. Comm. 127.

— Mixed tithes. Those which arise not immediately from the ground, but from those things which are nourished by the ground, e. g., colts, chickens, calves, milk, eggs, etc. 3 Bum, Ecc. Law, 380 ; 2 Bl. Comm. 24.

— Minute tithes. Small tithes, such as usually belong to a vicar, as of wool, lambs, pigs, butter, cheese, herbs, seeds, eggs, honey, wax, etc.

— Personal tithes. tithes paid of such profits as come by the labar of a man's person ; as by buying and selling, gains of merchandise, and handicrafts, etc. Tomlins.

— Predial tithes. Such as arise immediately from the ground; as, grain of all sorts, hay, wood, fruits, and herbs.

— Tithe-free. Exempted from the payment of tithes.

— Tithe rent-charge. A rent-charge established in lieu of tithes, under the tithes commutation act, 1836, (St. 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 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 recoverable by distress as rent in arrear. Mozley & Whitley.

In English law. The tenth part of the increase, yearly arising from the profits of lands, the stock on lands, and the industry of the inhabitants, being an ecclesiastical inheritance collateral to the estate of the land, and due only to an ecclesiastical person by ecclesiastical law. Tithes are, by statute 6 & 7 Will. IV., c. 71, commuted into a rent charge, annually adjusted with reference to the annual price of grain. Tithes are mixed, or such as do not arise immediately from the ground, but from things nourished by the ground, as calves, lambs, chickens, milk, cheese, etc.; personal, or such as arise by the industry of man, being the tenth part of the clear gain, after charges deducted; praedial, or such as arise immediately from the ground, as grain of all sorts, hay, wood, fruits and herbs.

The tenth part of the yearly increase or stock, or personal industry, due the rector maiutenanoe. Those from lands were praedial, mixed, and the last personal. The great wood, hay, etc.; the small tithes included times the latter were called vicarage tithes, vicar, and the former parsonage tithes, as tor. Tithe rent-charge: the rent- charge of all tithes by the 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 71.

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.