Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 25 
scil., of every acre of marsh land 4d., and of every acre 
of arable land 2d., to be paid by the occupiers of them 
in Hailsham ;” and “all the said tax of the said town 
did not exceed the sum of £50.” Now one William 
Jeffrey, gentleman, who resided, not in Hailsham, but 
in Chiddingley, some miles away, both owned and 
occupied 30 acres of the marsh land and 100 acres of 
the arable land so rated. He objected to pay his 
26s. 8d., on tha ground that he ‘was not a parishioner 
of Hailsham. Suffering defeat on this point before 
the spiritual court, he invoked the civil, but met with 
no better success. After taking the opinion of the 
ecclesiastical lawyers, the court decided that he was a 
parishioner and liable to be rated. “It was answered 
and resolved, first, that although the house wherein 
Jeffrey dwelt be in another parish, yet forasmuch as 
he had lands in the parish of Hailsham in his proper 
possession and manurance, he is in law parochianus 
de Haylesham. For the place where he lies, sleeps, 
or eats, doth not make him a parishioner only; but 
also, forasmuch as he manures lands in Hailsham, 
and by that is resident upon it, that makes him a 
parishioner of Hailsham also as to this purpose. If” 
continued the court—and here no doubt is the crucial 
point—"in this case Jeffrey should not be charged to 
the reparation of the church of Hailsham for those 
lands which he himself occupies there, no person 
would be charged for them, upon which great incon- 
venience would ensue; for one who inhabits in the 
next town may occupy the greatest part of the lands 
in another town, and so churches in these days will 
come to ruin.” One of Jeffrey's complaints was that 
the churchwardens had said that he “occupied or