PURVEYANCE (pwrreance, a providing), a prerogative formerly enjoyed by the king through the means of officers milled purveyors, of purchasing provisions and other necessaries for the use of the royal household, and of employing horses and carriages in his service, in _preference to all other persons, and without the consent of the owners. The parties whose property was thus taken were entitled to n recom pense; but what they received was so inadequate, and so many abuses were committed under the pretext of purveyance, that it seems to have been always considered a most Intolerable grievance. About forty statutes were passed upon the subject, many of them, like all the important early statutes, being a re-enactment of those preceding. Seine of the moat stringent occur in the 3Cth year of Edward 111., and cmfining the exercise of it to the kingand queen, (for It had frequently been asserted as their right by some of the great lords) provide that for the future " the heinous mune of purveyor shall be changed into that of buyer ;" forbid the use of force; and direct that where purveyors cannot agree upon the price, an appraisement shall be made, , &c. The provisions of these statutes appear to have wholly failed ; and others were passed, but without effect. Several of the charges against Wolsoy were the exercise of purveyance on his own behalf. (4' Inst.' 93.) In the time of Elizabeth, two attempts were made in the same year by the Commons to regulate the abuses of purveyance, at which the queen was extremely indignant. She seems to have employed
this prerogative fur the purpose of victualling her navy; but after wards revoked the warrants, and designed to have taken away the commissions relating to the provision for her own household, some counties having agreed to furnish it at a certain rate, to get rid of the collectors—n kind of vermin which the queen called harpies. During the first parliament of James I., Bacon, on presenting a petition to the king, delivered his lamina speech against purveyors, which forms a sort of compendium of the heavy charges made against them. Several novel:alone took place in that reign for the purchase of the prero gative of purveyance, but nothing was done. Under the common wwith it fell into disuse, but was not formally abolished till after the restoration, by the statute 12,Ch. 11.,.c. 24, the king receiving in lieu of it a certain amount payable on oxciseable liquors. In the earlier periods of our history-, purveyance was for the support of the royal household ; hence its continuance in spite of so many attempts to suppress it. Even after its final abolition several temporary statutes were passed, for its partial revival on the occasion of royal progresses. On behalf of the navy and ordnance, a statute to that eflbet occurs as late as 11 and 12 Will. 3. (Camden, 388; Bacon's ' Works,' vol. vi., p. 3, Montassu's edit.; Hume's liist.'; 1 BI.' Com.', 297 ; 3' 82; 4 Inst.', 273.) PUS. [Anscess ;