were diſcharged of tithes by this unity of poſſeſſion: 4. By preſcription; having never been hable to tithes, by being always in ſpiritual hands: 5. By virtue of their order; as the knights templars, ciſtercians, and others, whoſe lands were privileged by the pope with a diſcharge of tithes[1]. Though, upon the diſſolution of abbeys by Henry VIII, moſt of theſe exemptions from tithes would have fallen with them, and the lands become tithable again; had they not been ſupported and upheld by the ſtatute 31 Hen. VIII. c. 13. which enacts, that all perſons who ſhould come to the poſſeſſion of the lands of any abbey then diſſolved, ſhould hold them free and diſcharged of tithes, in as large and ample a manner as the abbeys themſelves formerly held them. And from this original have ſprung all the lands, which, being in lay hands, do at preſent claim to be tithe-free: for, if a man can ſhew his lands to have been ſuch abbey lands, and alſo immemorially diſcharged of tithes by any of the means before-mentioned, this is now a good preſcription de non decimando. But he muſt ſhew both theſe requiſites: for abbey lands, without a ſpecial ground of diſcharge, are not diſcharged of courſe; neither will any preſcription de non decimando avail in total diſcharge of tithes, unleſs it relates to ſuch abbey lands.
III. Common, or right of common, appears from it's very definition to be an incorporeal hereditament: being a profit which a man hath in the land of another; as to feed his beaſts, to catch fiſh, to dig turf, to cut wood, or the like[2]. And hence common is chiefly of four ſorts; common of paſture, of piſcary, of turbary, and of eſtovers.
1. Common of paſture is a right of feeding one's beaſts on another's land; for in thoſe waſte grounds, which are uſually called commons, the property of the ſoil is generally in the lord of the manor; as in common fields it is in the particular tenants. This kind of common is either appendant, appurtenant, becauſe of vicinage, or in groſs[3].
