tithe commutation
{{Short description|Process exchanging tithes for other payment forms in Britain and Ireland}}
Tithe commutation was a 19th-century reform of land tenure in Great Britain and Ireland, which implemented an exchange of the payment of a tithe to the clergy of the established church, which were traditionally paid in kind, to a system based in an annual cash payment, or once-and-for-all payment. The system had become complex, with lay owners by impropriation entitled to some tithes, which were of a number of kinds.{{cite book|author=Joan Thirsk|title=Chapters from The Agrarian History of England and Wales: Volume 3, Agricultural Change: Policy and Practice, 1500–1750|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOIXixmIkzgC&pg=PA216|date=1 March 1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-36882-7|page=216}}{{cite book|author1=Roger J. P. Kain|author2=Hugh C. Prince|title=The Tithe Surveys of England and Wales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBLYDsJ6U14C&pg=PA7|date=20 April 2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-02431-0|page=7}}
History
In Scotland, a form of commutation of teinds applied from 1633.{{cite web|url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/teind_n1_v1|title=Dictionary of the Scots Language :: SND :: Teind n.1, v.1|access-date=21 March 2016}} A full reform was carried out in the 1930s.{{cite book|author=Callum G. Brown|title=Religion and Society in Scotland Since 1707|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Ds4886jwFIC&pg=PA68|year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0886-7|page=68}}
Commutation of tithes occurred in England before the 19th century major reform, since it was an aspect of enclosure, a legal process under which rights to common land were modified by an act of parliament. An estimate places 60% of enclosure acts as involving tithe commutation.{{cite book|author=Gordon E Mingay|title=Parliamentary Enclosure in England: An Introduction to Its Causes, Incidence and Impact, 1750-1850|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jh3YAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46|date=17 June 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-89033-1|page=46}} In such cases, commissioners who dealt with the detail of enclosure acts handled tithes by allocation of land, as part of the division of ownership.{{cite book|author1=Jonathan David Chambers|author2=G. E. Mingay|title=The Agricultural Revolution, 1750–1880|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7lo2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA86|year=1966|publisher=Batsford|page=86|isbn=9780713413588}} By this mechanism, in the period between 1750 and 1830, the glebe land increased, and clerics in some places became active farmers.{{cite book|author=David Hempton|title=Religion and Political Culture in Britain and Ireland: From the Glorious Revolution to the Decline of Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3AQ_ZrhPkh4C&pg=PA8|date=26 January 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-47925-7|page=8}}
From the 17th century, tithe commutation became seen as part of agricultural improvement, and by the later 18th century, tithes were seen as a major obstacle to improvement, for example by Adam Smith. and the Board of Agriculture.{{cite book|author=Stuart A Raymond|title=Tracing Your Ancestors' Parish Records: A Guide for Family and Local Historians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xPaxBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA145|date=27 February 2015|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=978-1-78303-044-6|page=145}}
In England and Wales, existing tithe payments were abolished by the Tithe Commutation Act 1836. It introduced in their place a cash payment, the "corn rent". The legislation was shaped by the parliamentary contribution of William Blamire, a farmer and self-styled "practical man" who became a tithe commissioner.{{cite ODNB|id=2601|first=Eric J.|last=Evans|title=Blamire, William}}
Tithe maps
File:Tithe map of Southover circa 1840.jpg
Implementation of the Commutation Act for England and Wales required detailed maps. Robert Kearsley Dawson took the opportunity to press for a substantive cadastral survey.{{cite book|author1=Roger J. P. Kain|author2=Hugh C. Prince|title=The Tithe Surveys of England and Wales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBLYDsJ6U14C&pg=PA69|date=20 April 2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-02431-0|pages=69–70}}