Houses of Husbandry Act 1597

Houses of Husbandry Act 1597
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long titleAn Act against the decaying of towns and houses of husbandry.
Citation39 Eliz. 1. c. 1
Dates
Royal assent9 February 1598
Repealed28 July 1863
Other legislation
Repealed byStatute Law Revision Act 1863
Status: Repealed

The Houses of Husbandry Act 1597 (39 Eliz. 1. c. 1) was an Act of the Parliament of England passed during the reign of Elizabeth I. It was declared to be "An Act against the decaying of towns and houses of husbandry".[1]

The Act commanded lords who had let their "houses of husbandry" decay since 1590 to rebuild them.[2] A "house of husbandry" was defined as a house possessing twenty acres of land that had been occupied or let to farm for at least three years during the Queen's reign. The Act ordered that they were to continue in this state "for ever".[3]

  1. ^ J. E. Neale, Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments, 1584-1601 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1957), p. 346.
  2. ^ Penry Williams, The Later Tudors: England 1547-1603 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 362.
  3. ^ Neale, p. 346.