Few laws on the statute book were so frequently enforced as the 31
Eliz. c. 7, which required four acres to be laid to every cottage to
be constructed, for there was a powerful local backing behind the law.
When John Fletcher, "a meere stranger lately come into this Parish
with his wife and children," took certain parcels of land in Severn
Stoke in 1593, and was suspected of the intention to build a cottage
without laying to it the requisite number of acres, the parishioners
immediately complained to the Worcester justices, for they wanted to
provide against the contingent liability of having to support the
inmates.[327] Four acres was then the quantity considered necessary to
maintain a man and his family. It was an indictable offence to sublet,
for then there would be two families where only one was before. Nor
could lodgers be taken, for such increase of the inmates of the house
would surcharge the land.[328]

In short, that feeling of distrust and discrimination against the
outside world, which, in the 18th century, led a Lancashire vestry to
dub all outsiders "foreigners,"[329] is already fully developed by the
end of the 16th century. But we must also recognize that this feeling
engendered in the parish itself solidarity of interests, close
fellowship and local spirit.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Richard Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, Bk. viii, 448-9 (ed.
1666).

[2] Coke, 4 _Inst_., 320 (ed. 1797).