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John Still was born 1543 at Grantham, Lincolnshire. After finishing his schooling at The King's School, Grantham he became a student at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a BA in 1562, MA in 1565, and DD degree in 1575. In 1561 he became a fellow of his college and took holy orders.

He was appointed in 1570 Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, subsequently held livings in Suffolk (where he was Archdeacon of Sudbury from 1576 to 1593) and Yorkshire, and was master successively of St John's College (1574) and of Trinity College (1577). Still was vice-chancellor of the university in 1575/6 and again in 1592/3, and was raised to the bishopric of Bath and Wells in 1593. In 1604 he purchased the manor of Hutton, Somerset, east of Wells and to the west of the Mendip Hills, with its residence of Hutton Court. He died on 26 February 1608, leaving a large fortune from lead mines discovered in the Mendips. There is a fine monument to Still in the north transept of Wells Cathedral, erected by his son Nathaniel.

Simon Swaffield is a Professor of Landscape Architecture. He was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1971, graduating in Geography in 1976. He is married to Jenny Moore.
Following experience as a landscape architect and landscape planner in the UK, Swaffield travelled with his wife to New Zealand in 1982 in response to a lecturing position advertised at Lincoln College. They stayed and became New Zealand citizens. He went on to become the programme leader, the foundation head of department, and then in 1988 Swaffield became New Zealand’s first Professor of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University, eventually retiring in 2018.
He serves on several editorial boards of international landscape journals. He also has an affiliate role at the University of Copenhagen and he’s engaged in a number of writing projects with colleagues in New Zealand and internationally.
Swaffield’s research combines insights into the theoretical foundations of landscape architecture with analysis of landscape values, dynamics and governance in NZ production and urban landscapes. His work involves collaborations and comparative studies in both North America and Europe. Over the years his major focus has been helping landscape architecture develop from a scholarly profession into a full university discipline, and it is now an important part of Lincoln’s academic profile. In 2007 he received the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture award for outstanding research and communication. In 2010 he was a Velux Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen.
He continues to make a major contribution to research into landscape change and the globalisation of local landscapes. He has co-authored and had published a number of books on theory, research, and analysis, which have contributed to landscape education well beyond New Zealand. Swaffield’s publications include: ‘Theory in Landscape Architecture’ (2002); ‘Globalisation and Agricultural Landscapes’ (2010); ‘Landscape Architecture Research’, (2011) and ‘Landscape Analysis’ (2017). He was also the founding editor of the journal ‘Landscape Review’.

A family photography firm, founded in Glasgow by Thomas Annan (1829-1887) in 1855.
Originally from Dairsie in Fife and after an apprenticeship as a lithographic writer, Thomas Annan took up employment in 1849 with Joseph Swan, owner of a lithographic printworks in Glasgow. He then set up business with a trainee chemist called Berwich in 1855 as photographers with a colotype studio at 86 Woodlands Road. Berwick soon left to pursue a medical career and in 1857 he set up business on his own at 116 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
Originally specialists in architectural photography, a lot of his business at that time came from photographing country houses and mansions around Glasgow, and also from photographing paintings whilst at the houses. He also created carte-de-visite portraits and produced scenic and stereoscopic views, but he became best known for his artistic portraits and landscapes.
By 1859, Thomas Annan was based at 200 Hope Street and had a printworks in the town of Hamilton, east of Glasgow. During the 1860’s he began to specialise in creating photographic reproductions of paintings, the skill for which he would be most celebrated during his lifetime. His first notable commission in this area was in 1862 for the Glasgow Art Union. The next came in 1865, from David Octavius Hill, when Annan photographed his enormous painting of the founding of the Free Church. Annan produced thousands of prints of the painting using the new permanent carbon process developed by his mentor Joseph Swan, for which he purchased the patent rights for Scotland a year later. On Hill's death in 1870, Thomas inherited many early calotype negatives from the studio, from which he made and exhibited carbon prints.
At this time Thomas Annan lived next door to David Livingstone and took a well known portrait of him. He also took a series of images documenting the new Glasgow Water Work Scheme including a view of Queen Victoria at the Official opening. In 1868, Annan undertook what is now his most famous work. He was commissioned by the Glasgow City Improvement Trust to document the slum dwellings of Glasgow's East End prior to demolition. This is claimed to be one of the first times photography was used as documentary evidence. Annan used the most sensitive technique available, the wet collodion process, to cope with the lack of light in the narrow streets. It was an inconvenient process and photographs required immediate development and fixing, necessitating the use of a portable darkroom. Thus, three years were required to take 35 photographs. Two editions of 'The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow' were published in Annan's lifetime, in 1872 and 1877.
Thomas Annan's brother Robert joined the firm in 1869 to assist with administration, and in 1873, the studio moved to 153 Sauchiehall Street, where it also served as an art gallery. The Gallery side of the firm flourished in the late 1800s when a major new painting would be borrowed from an artist or collector, it then became a great social occasion to view this piece in a dimly lit room then purchase a photogravure print of it. During the 1880s, the firm established an autotype works in Lenzie and also an engraving works in South Lambeth, London. In 1881, the Annan firm employed eight men, seventeen women and four boys.
In 1887, at the age of 57, Thomas took his own life. Upon Thomas Annan’s death his elder son, John (1863-1947), took over the business which became 'Annan and Sons' in 1888. John specialised in architectural photography, and is thought to have been responsible for the firm's engineering photographs. Annan’s younger son James Craig (1864-1946) had set up a photo-engraving business with Donald Swan in London in 1885, but upon his father's death returned to Glasgow to become a partner in the family business.
Like his father, James created new prints from Adamson and Hill's original calotypes, this time employing the new technique of photogravure which he had learned alongside his father from its inventor Karl Klíc in Vienna. He printed etchings and engravings by Scottish artist Muirhead Bone among others, and photographed the leading figures in the Glasgow Style movement. James became friendly with the famous Glasgow Architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and took the definitive portrait of him with his distinctive "floppy bow tie" as well as many contemporary images of his works.
The Annans took numerous photographs of Glasgow streets and buildings; were official photographers to the Glasgow International Exhibitions of 1888, 1901, and 1911; and in 1889, were awarded a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria as 'Photographers and Photographic Engravers to her Majesty in Glasgow'.
James began to do more personal work from around 1890. He was one of the first to use a hand-held camera and he would manipulate the plates before printing, achieving very different prints from the same plate. He travelled in Europe with Scottish artist David Young Cameron, an etcher, and their joint exhibition in 1892, where some works portrayed the same subject, invited comparisons between the two media.
In the early 1890s, James was admitted to Glasgow Art Club as a 'photographic artist' and to the Linked Ring Brotherhood, a society formed to promote photography as fine art.
From the mid-1890s, James became an influential, international figure with exhibitions and one-man shows across Europe and the USA, and his photography and writing was widely reproduced in journals. It was through his correspondence with James from 1895 onwards that the American photographer Alfred Stieglitz became interested in the early Scottish pioneers of photography, introducing them to the American public and photographers worldwide via his journal Camera Work. James convened the photographic committee for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, and two years later, buoyed by the financial success of the Exhibition, the firm commissioned Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh to design new premises at 518 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
The gallery side of the firm gradually evolved into selling paintings and etchings rather than photographic prints of them. Many famous artists exhibited in Annan's over the years including a show by L.S. Lowry in 1946. In 2006, Douglas Annan, the fifth generation of the family, left the business to concentrate on the photographic archive, and the Annan Gallery in 164 Woodlands Road now bears no family connection.

Lady Elizabeth Talbot was a daughter of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, and Lady Margaret Beauchamp. She was married to John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

Joseph Robson Tanner was born on the 28th July 1860, the son of Joseph Tanner, who headed a printing firm in Somerset. He was educated at Mill Hill School, before coming up to St John’s in 1879. There, he placed in the First Class of the Historical Tripos, and was both Treasurer and President of the Union Society. Tanner became a Fellow of the College in 1886; from there, he also held posts as College Lecturer in History (1883-1912), Director of Historical Studies (1905-1920), Assistant Tutor (1895-1900), Tutor (1900-1912) and Tutorial Bursar (1900-1921). He was also a member of the Council of the Senate, the Press Syndicate, and edited the Historical Register of the University of Cambridge.
Tanner continued to write frequently after his post-war retirement from College services, producing and editing works such as the Cambridge Medieval History, Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy, and English Constitutional Conflicts of the Seventeenth Century.
Tanner was married in 1888, to Charlotte Maria Larkman. He died on the 16th January 1931, and his funeral was held in the College Chapel the following week.

Obituary in the Eagle: Vol. 46, Easter 1931, p. 184

Born c. 1778 in Barton, Whittingham, Northumberland, Ralph Tatham was the eldest son of Rev. Ralph Tatham (BA 1776). He was baptised there on 6 November 1778, and was educated at Durham School before being admitted as pensioner to St John's. He matriculated Michaelmas Term 1796, and was then admitted as Scholar. He graduated as 12th Wrangler in 1800, and achieved his MA 1803, BD 1811, and DD (per Lit. Reg.) 1839. Both his brothers, Thomas Tatham (BA 1806) and William Tatham (BA 1810) also attended St John's College. Ralph Tatham became a Fellow of the College in 1802; was a tutor 1814-30; was President 1827-39; and on the death of James Wood he was unanimously elected Master in May 1839, a position he held until his death in 1857. He was also Junior Proctor 1809-10, and Public Orator for the University of Cambridge 1809-36. For the years 1839-40, and 1845-6 he also served the office of University Vice-Chancellor.

He also had interests in the Church, and was first ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Rochester on 8 July 1804, followed by Priest on 30 September that same year. He was Curate of Longstowe with Croxton, Cambridgeshire, in 1807, and Chaplain of Horningsea in 1809. In 1816 he was instituted Rector of St Mary Colkirk with Stibbard, Norfolk, and he held this position until his death. He died on 19 January 1857, at St John's Lodge, aged 79, and was buried beside his brother, Thomas Tatham, in the old Ante-chapel. The slab covering his grave can be seen on the site of the old Chapel.

Born 24 May 1840 in Westminster, Charles Taylor was the son of William and Catherine Taylor. After losing his father aged 5, Taylor moved to live in Hampstead. He was educated at St Marylebone and All Souls Grammar School, London (in union with King's College), and afterwards at King's College itself. He won prizes at both of these schools, and it was at King's College that he began his lifelong friendship with Ingram Bywater (later Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford).

Taylor entered St John's College in October 1858, where initially he devoted most of his attention to mathematics. In 1860 he was elected to one of the new foundation scholarships, and in 1862 he obtained his BA as 9th Wrangler and was also placed in the second class of the classical tripos. In 1863, he obtained a First in the theological exam, and in 1864 he won the Crosse scholarship and the first Tyrwhitt scholarship. He was elected to a fellowship in 1864; obtaining his MA in 1865, the Kaye Prize in 1867, and his DD in 1881. Taylor also had interests in the Church, and was ordained deacon in 1866, priest in 1867, and was Curate of St Andrew the Great 1887-8. He was also Select Preacher at Cambridge 1887, 1893, and 1899, and 1873 he was appointed as College Lecturer in Theology; a position from which he soon made his mark as a Hebrew scholar.

In 1877-8, Taylor took an active part in the revision of the statutes of the College, and in 1879 he was chosen as one of three commissioners to represent the College in conferring with the University Commission. Before these new statutes could come into force, the College Master, W. H. Bateson, died, and Taylor was elected as his successor on 12 April 1881. From November 1880 Taylor was a member of the Council of the University. He represented the university at the 250th anniversary of the founding of Harvard, where he received an honorary degree on 8 November 1886. He served in the office of Vice-Chancellor of the university 1887-9, and in 1889 he was one of two university aldermen who were chosen as members of the borough of Cambridge; an office he retained until 1895. He made important donations to both the University Library and to St John's College (including the Lady Margaret Boat Club), and published many works from 1863 onwards. He was also President of the University Theological Society 1902-3, and of the Philological Society 1900-1.

As a student at St John's, Taylor was fond of sculling and rowed in the college boat races from 1863-6. He was always a great walker, and proved to be an energetic mountaineer during the period 1870-8; writing for the Alpine Journal in 1872, and being a member of the Alpine Club from 1873 until his death. In October 1907, Taylor married Margaret Sophia (1877-1962), daughter of the Hon. Conrad Adderly Dillon, but he then died suddenly less than a year later on 12 August 1908 whilst on a foreign tour at the Goldner Adler, Nuremberg. After a funeral service in St John's College, his body was buried in St Giles's cemetery, Cambridge, on the 17th. A stained-glass window was placed in the College Chapel by his widow to commemorate him.

Taylor served as bursar then proctor of Queens' College, Cambridge from 1523 to 1537, and master of St John's College, Cambridge from 1538 to 1546. He was rector of St Peter upon Cornhill, London, of Tatenhill, Staffordshire, Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, a Reformer and Commissioner for the first Prayer Book.
His government of SJC was not felicitous and he was involved in continual disputes with the fellows. These occasioned a visitation by the bishop of Ely in May 1543, and subsequently the formation of a new code of statutes for the government of the College. In 1546, Taylor resigned his mastership of the College.
He died at the home of his friend in Buckinghamshire in 1554.

SJC Matric. 1697; B.A. 1700-1; M.A. 1710. Third Master at Shrewsbury School, 1702-1715; and Master 1715-1728.

The Thames Conservancy was founded in 1857 by the passing of the Thames Conservancy Act. It was eventually responsible for the management of the whole of the River Thames from its source in Cricklade, Gloucestershire to the Thames Estuary where the river becomes tidal.
It originally comprised a board of 12 members: the Lord Mayor, two aldermen, four nominees of the common council, the Deputy Master of Trinity House, two nominees of the Lord Admiral, one nominee of the Privy Council and one by the Trinity House Deptford Strand.
The Corporation of London had administered the lower river from Staines to the estuary for 660 years, but in the 1850's, a financial crisis arose. Income fell as railways became established and took over the transport of many goods. The river was becoming heavily polluted from the increase in industry, and the wash from the modern steamboats was eroding the banks of the river. The corporation was failing to raise enough income to properly fund its responsibilities. In 1857 the Corporation of London handed over the management of the river from Staines to the estuary to the newly formed Thames Conservancy.
The Thames Commission was also in financial difficulties due to the competition of transport by rail. It was believed that under single management with the upper river maintained properly and with lower tolls overall the traffic would increase. Under an Act of 6 August 1866, the Thames Conservancy took over management of the river, resulting in responsibility for the whole of the river Thames from its source to the estuary at Yantlet Creek.
The Conservancy had far-reaching powers concerning the navigation of the river. It undertook dredging; built and maintained locks and weirs; was responsible for water supplies taken from the river; and licensed various activities undertaken on the river. The Thames Conservancy was largely responsible for many of the facets of the Thames that are still in place today - full-time lock keepers, river patrols, well-maintained locks, weirs, and cottages, dredged channels, stabilised banks and public moorings.
They were influential in passing the Thames Preservation Act in 1885 which was to enshrine the preservation of river for public recreation. It prohibited shooting on the river which had become a cause of concern. The act noted "It is lawful for all persons for pleasure or profit to travel or to loiter upon any and every part or the river". The river had become exceedingly popular for sport and leisure and events on the river were very well-attended with prominent examples being the Henley Regatta and the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race.
By the end of the 19th century the advance in the size of ships and the growth of the Port of London raised questions of management and a Royal Commission reported in 1900 recommending that a single body take responsibility for the Port. In 1908, the Port of London Act transferred responsibility for the Tideway including Richmond Lock to the Port of London Authority, which began its duties on 31 March 1909.
In the 1960s modernisation of the locks began under the Conservancy with the first hydraulic system introduced at Shiplake Lock in 1961.
On 1 April 1974, the Thames Conservancy was subsumed into the new Thames Water Authority, although much of the organisation remained intact as the authority's Thames Conservancy Division. However when Thames Water was privatised in 1990 the river management functions passed to the new National Rivers Authority and in 1996 to the Environment Agency.

The Charity Commission regulates and registers charities in England and Wales. It produces guidance for trustees on how they should meet their legal duties and responsibilities.
There were several attempts at charitable trust reform and legislation during the 1840s, all of which foundered on the powerful opposition of the Church, the courts, the companies, and the universities. In 1849 a special commission was set up by royal warrant and recommended the establishment of a permanent board of charity commissioners. A bill introduced in 1851 was unsuccessful, but following a change of government in 1852 a less comprehensive measure was introduced which resulted in the establishment of a permanent Charity Commission in October 1853.
Unlike earlier commissions, the Board of Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, constituted under the Charitable Trusts Act 1853, was a permanent body. Under this Act the commissioners were empowered to inquire into the management of charitable trusts, although certain specified charities were excepted (e.g. those of universities, churches, friendly societies, etc). The Board was enabled to appoint officers of the Charity Commission as official trustees of charitable funds, subject to Treasury approval. The Board's secretary was designated a corporation sole for the purpose of holding charitable lands and given the title of Treasurer of Public Charities (changed in 1855 to Official Trustee of Charity Lands).
The commissioners' powers were strengthened by the Charitable Trusts Amendment Act 1855 which required charitable trusts to render annual accounts of their endowments. Further strengthening resulted from the Charitable Trusts Act 1860 which enabled the commissioners to exercise certain powers regarding the removal and appointment of trustees, the vesting of property and the establishment of schemes for the administration of charitable trusts. The jurisdiction of the commissioners did not, however, extend to cases of a contentious character or those that might be dealt with more appropriately by the court. There was also a right of appeal to the court from their proposals. Section 60 of the 1853 Act provided for annual reports to the sovereign, to be laid before Parliament.
The powers of the commissioners, whereby they interpreted the administration of charities as closely as possible to the testator's intentions, were held by the Schools Inquiry Commission (1864 - 1867) to stand in the way of the methodical reorganisation of the grammar schools. Their recommendations resulted in the Endowed Schools Act 1869, which allowed obsolete endowments to be diverted to educational purposes and transferred the administrative control of educational charities to an Endowed Schools Commission. In 1874, however, control of such charities returned to the Charity Commission when the Endowed Schools Commission was abolished under the Endowed Schools Act 1874. Both sets of commissioners had to have the consent of the Committee of Council on Education to any scheme made by them. Subsequently, the powers of the Charity Commission in respect of endowments held solely for educational purposes passed by Order in Council to the Board of Education under the Board of Education Act 1899. These powers passed, in turn, to the Ministry of Education under the Education Act 1944 and were extended to quasi-educational trusts by the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948.
In 1950 the Prime Minister appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Lord Nathan, to consider and report on the law and practice relating to charitable trusts. The committee's report in 1952 was broadly accepted by the government and formed the basis of the Charities Act 1960. The records of the Charity Commission from 1853 to 1960 are available to view in the National Archives.
The Commission is currently part of the civil service and is an independent, non-ministerial government department, accountable to Parliament. It runs an online register of charities, which provides full information – including financial – about all registered charities. This includes deciding whether organisations are charitable and should be registered. We also remove charities that are not considered to be charitable, no longer exist or do not operate. Charities with an income of more than £5,000 need to register. Charities with less income still need to abide by charity law (under the Charities Act 2011) and in almost all cases, the Commission still acts as regulator.
The Commission investigates accusations of wrongdoing. The vast majority of errors are simple mistakes, and help and advice from the Commission to trustees is enough to rectify things. However, in some rare cases, a statutory inquiry is necessary to find out what has gone wrong and how it can be fixed.
If a serious problem is uncovered, the Commission has powers to restrict transactions a charity may enter into; appoint additional trustees; ‘freeze’ a charity’s bank account; suspend or remove a trustee; appoint an interim manager or make a referral for investigation to the police and other law enforcement agencies.
The Charity Commission works across four sites in Liverpool, London, Newport and Taunton, employing approximately 350 people. The Commission also ensures charities meet their legal requirements, including providing information on their activities each year. It makes appropriate information about each registered charity widely available to the public and it provides guidance to help charities run as effectively as possible.

St John's Hospital originated as a small building erected towards the end of the 12th century by Hugh Eldcorn, with the agreement of the town of Cambridge and on land probably donated by Henry Frost, burgess of Cambridge, as a shelter for the poor. It was granted an oratory and burial ground, as well as income from the church of Horningsea, by the Bishop of Ely, and the bishops of Ely were recognised as its patron. The right to appoint the Master of the Hospital was contentious. Various grants of rights and privileges, as well as small grants of land, in the first decade of the 13th century, indicate that it was formally established then. In 1228, Pope Gregory IX took it into papal protection. In 1250, Pope Innocent IV confirmed the rule drawn up for the brethren by the Bishop of Ely. In c 1266 it was damaged by fire and by rioters rebelling against the King. In 1280 the Bishop of Ely obtained letters patent establishing scholars in the Hospital alongside the brethren, with the scholars living according to the statutes of Merton College, Oxford. The arrangement was unsuccessful and the two communities separated in 1284, with the scholars leaving and being given a share of the Hospital's endowments. These included St Peter's Church (now Little St Mary's), which was a significant loss for the brethren, and hostels which formed the basis of Peterhouse College, founded in 1284. The Hospital continued to be supported by the townspeople and to acquire small amounts of land and property throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, ownership of which was transferred to St John's College when the Hospital was dissolved in 1511.

Founded by John Walter I 1785, The Times is Britain’s oldest national daily newspaper. It was first published under the title Daily Universal Register, before becoming the first newspaper in the world to use the Times name in 1788.

The Times introduced digital subscriptions to the paper in 2010. The Times is the biggest selling quality print newspaper in the UK, and was named Britain’s most trusted newspaper by Oxford University.

Thomas Thirlby (or Thirleby; c. 1506–1570), was the first and only bishop of Westminster (1540–50), and afterwards successively bishop of Norwich (1550–54) and bishop of Ely (1554–59). While he acquiesced in the Henrician schism, with its rejection in principle of the Roman papacy, he remained otherwise loyal to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church during the English Reformation.
For more information see: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/thomas-thirlby

Thomas Thomson was Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge, 1510-1517, and Vice-Chancellor, 1510-1512. Other notable appointments include Vicar of Gateley, Norfolk, 1520- 1530, and Vicar of Enfield, Middlesex, from 1505 to his death c.1540. An early benefactor to St. John’s College, Thomson helped to support the income of two fellowships and contributed, through a donation of rents in Cambridge, to the construction of a chantry on the south side of the College Chapel in 1524.

William Thomas (Bill) Thurbon began working in the College in 1920 as a clerk under Ned Lockhart, chief clerk and college butler. Thurbon became the bursary assistant in 1931 and bursar’s clerk from 1955 to 1970. For another twenty years Bill assisted in organizing the records of the College. Bill Thurbon began working in the College in 1920 and was Bursar’s Clerk from 1955 to 1970. For another twenty years Bill assisted in organizing the records of the College. He was married to Alice Zillah Thurbon.

The Tithe Commission was established in 1836 under the Tithe Commutation Act. It was set up in order to establish exactly what tithes were due in each area of the country and to whom, and to formalise the commutation of tithes from payment in kind to cash payments.
Tithes were payments made from early times for the support of the parish church and its clergy. Originally these payments were made in kind (crops, wool, milk, young stock, etc.) and usually represented a tenth (tithe) of the yearly production of cultivation or stock rearing. The tithes were often stored in a tithe barn attached to the parish.
The ownership of the tithe was a property right that could be bought and sold, leased or mortgaged, or assigned to others. This resulted in many of the rectorial tithes passing into lay hands - particularly after the dissolution of the monasteries. These tithes then became the personal property of the new owners.
From early times money payments had begun to be substituted for payments in kind. Fixed sums (moduses) were substituted for some categories of production, particularly for livestock and perishable produce; while adjustable payments known as compositions, which were sometimes assessed annually, were increasingly being substituted in local arrangements in latter years.
Tithe commutation was the process by which the payment in kind was substituted for a cash payment. By the time of the Tithe Commutation Act there was considerable discontent over payment of tithes. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 was designed to ensure that commutation was achieved smoothly and quickly throughout the country. It required tithes in kind to be converted to more convenient monetary payments called tithe rentcharge. There had been an increasing demand for the Commutation of Tithe during the 18th century (some reformers campaigned for the abolition of tithe) and in 1836 the government of the day successfully steered the Tithe Commutation Bill through Parliament. The Act received the Royal Assent on 13 August 1836.
The Act substituted a variable monetary payment (referred to as the "corn rent") for any existing tithe in kind. This payment was originally calculated on the basis of seven-year average prices of wheat, barley, and oats, with each type of grain contributing an equal part to the total. Prices were determined nationally. Some land was free of tithe obligation, due to barrenness, custom, or prior arrangement.
The 1836 Act set up the Tithe Commission which was established to identify all affected properties and to resolve boundary issues arising from their survey. It was headed by three commissioners sitting in London who were William Balmire (chairman), Thomas Wentworth Buller and the Rev. Richard Jones. Valuation of current tithes could be negotiated by the parties; in the absence of an agreement, they were determined by the commission.
The first tasks of the Commissioners were to find out where commutation had already taken place, and also to establish the boundaries of every unit in which tithes were paid separately. This unit was mapped and named as a tithe district to distinguish it from a parish or township. Enquiries were directed to every parish or township listed in the census returns. The results of these enquiries are found in the Tithe Files at The National Archives. Tithe districts are usually parishes, but a minority are townships, and some are chapelries, hamlets, or extra-parochial places, many of which enjoyed separate status solely for tithe commutation purposes. Areas in which tithes had already been commuted were not mapped, so that coverage varied widely from county to county. The maps indicated parcels of land and buildings, assigning each a number. The initial intent was to produce maps of the highest possible quality, but the expense (incurred by the landowners) led to the provision that the accuracy of the maps would be testified by the seal of the commissioners, and only maps of suitable quality would be so sealed. In the end, about one-sixth of the maps had seals.
There were two distinct stages to the commutation process, first, the fixing of a global assessment for the tithe district and second, the apportioning of the tithe rent-charge on the individual properties.
The apportionment was recorded on a map and in a written schedule. These maps and schedules together constitute what is usually termed by historians ‘the parish tithe survey’. The essential purpose of a survey was to provide an accurate measurement of the acreage of each parcel of land, or tithe area, and record its observed state of cultivation. Associated with each map was an apportionment schedule, which listed each map item by number. For each entry the owner, tenant, area, name or description, state of cultivation, rent charge payable, and the tithe owner was listed. A preamble gave the name of the tithe owner, the circumstances under which tithes were owed, and whether the apportionment was agreed by the parties or was being imposed by the Crown. Assistant tithe commissioners travelled to all the non-commuted tithe districts to hold meetings with parishioners about valuations, and to settle the terms of the commutation of their tithes.
The surveying was carried out expeditiously, with the majority of the work performed by 1841, and largely completed by 1851. In some cases, amendments had to be filed when properties were divided or other circumstances intervened. The work was also complicated by numerous inconsistencies in how tithes were assessed. For example, timber might or might not include standing trees, branches, acorns, mast, and even charcoal. Variations as to the circumstances of tithe-paying were also considerable. The terms of the commutation were formalized in a document called a tithe agreement, if all parties concurred, or a tithe award, if the assistant commissioner had to arbitrate in a dispute. The agreement or award formed the basis of the tithe apportionment, which was the legal document setting out landowners’ individual liabilities. Each apportionment was accompanied by a map; both were signed by the Tithe Commissioners. Tithe rentcharge then became payable.
The Tithe Act provided for the making of an original and 2 copies of every confirmed instrument of apportionment; all were sealed and signed by the Commissioners. The originals were retained in the custody of the Commissioners and are now in a complete set in The National Archives. The other two copies were deposited one with the Diocesan Registrar and the other with the incumbent and churchwardens of the parish. Some of these copies remain in the parish churches but many are now deposited in the local record offices. Most record offices also have photocopies of the maps and schedules for their district.
This commutation process reduced problems by effectively folding tithes in with rents. Rent charges in lieu of abolished English tithes paid by landowners were converted by a public outlay of money under the Tithe Act 1936 into annuities paid to the state through the Tithe Redemption Commission. The Commission ceased to exist when such payments were transferred in 1960 to the Board of Inland Revenue, and those remaining were terminated by the Finance Act in 1977.