lord of the manor, the rector of the parish, and
other large landholders and persons of influence to agree on the
general conditions of enclosure and draw up a bill appointing
commissioners, and providing for survey, compensation, redistribution,
and other requirements. They then submitted this bill to Parliament,
where, unless there was some special reason to the contrary, it was
passed. Its provisions were then carried out, and although legal and
parliamentary fees and the expenses of survey and enclosure were
large, yet as a result each inhabitant who had been able to make out a
legal claim to any of the land of the parish received either some
money compensation or a stretch of enclosed land. Such private
enclosure acts increased slowly in number till about the middle of the
century, when the increase became much more rapid.

The number of enclosure acts passed by Parliament and the approximate
extent of land enclosed under their provisions were as follows:--

1700-1759 244 Enclosure Bills 337,877 Acres
1760-1769 385 " " 704,550 "
1770-1779 660 " " 1,207,800 "
1780-1789 246 " " 450,180 "
1790-1799 469 " " 858,270 "
1800-1809 847 " " 1,550,010 "
1810-1819 853 " " 1,560,990 "
1820-1829 205 " " 375,150 "
1830-1839 136 " " 248,880 "
1840-1849 66 " " 394,747 "

In 1756, 1758, and 1773 general acts were passed encouraging the
enclosure for common use of open pastures and arable fields, but not
enclosing or dividing them permanently, and not providing for any
separate ownership.

In 1801 an act was passed to make simpler and easier the passage of
private bills for enclosure; and in 1836 another to make possible,
with the consent of two-thirds of the persons interested, the
enclosing of certain kinds of common fields even without appealing to
Parliament in each particular case. Finally, in 1845, the general
Enclosure Act of that year carried the policy of 1836 further and
appointed a body of Enclosure Commissioners, to determine on the
expediency of any proposed enclosure and to attend to carrying it out
if approved. Six years afterward, however, an amendment was passed
making it necessary that even after an enclosure had been approved by
the Commissioners it should go to Parliamen