Definition
In English ecclesiastical law, minute tithes (also called small tithes) were the tenth part of the minor, miscellaneous produce of the land and its occupants — goods such as wool, lambs, pigs, butter, cheese, herbs, seeds, eggs, honey, and wax. These were distinguished from the great tithes, which were the tenth of the principal grain crops (corn, hay, and wood). Minute tithes were customarily assigned to the vicar of a parish, while great tithes were typically received by the rector or, following the dissolution of the monasteries, by lay impropriators.
The term reflects the structure of the English tithe system, in which the produce of a parish was divided by kind and allocated to different ecclesiastical or lay recipients depending on local custom, appropriation, and subsequent legislation.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Minute" as an adjective means extremely small or insignificant. "Tithe" means a tenth part, especially a tax or contribution of one-tenth.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Minute" (adj.) — "Very small; little; tiny." "Tithe" — "The tenth part of anything; specif., the tenth part of the increase arising from the profits of land and stock, allotted to the clergy for their support."
The compound term can mislead a modern researcher into reading "minute" as simply meaning very small or trivial. In legal usage, "minute" here is a term of art distinguishing a specific category of tithe by subject matter and by ecclesiastical entitlement — not merely by quantity. The distinction between minute and great tithes had significant legal consequences for who was entitled to receive them and what remedies applied when they were withheld.
Common Confusion
Minute tithes and great tithes are complementary categories within the same system, not interchangeable. Great tithes (decimæ majores) attached to the principal crops of the land; minute tithes (decimæ minutæ or minores) attached to smaller or more varied yield. Mixed tithes — sometimes identified as a third category — covered produce that was partly natural and partly the result of human industry, such as milk or the increase of livestock, and could overlap with minute tithes depending on local custom. Researchers should not assume that a source's silence on "minute tithes" means no tithe obligation existed; the applicable category may simply be labeled differently.
Why It Matters in Research
Minute tithes belong to a body of English ecclesiastical property law that was substantially reformed and eventually commuted in the nineteenth century. The Tithe Commutation Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV, c. 71) — cited by Bouvier — replaced payment of tithes in kind with tithe rentcharges, making the detailed historical distinction between minute and great tithes less practically significant after that date. Researchers working with sources before 1836 will encounter the minute/great distinction operating with full legal force; sources after 1836 may use the terminology historically or in connection with surviving disputes over pre-commutation rights.
In corpus research, expect the term to appear most heavily in ecclesiastical law materials, chancery records, and treatises on church property. Burn's Ecclesiastical Law (cited by Bouvier) is a primary reference. Coke's Institutes (2 Inst. 649, cited by Burrill) and Cowell's Interpreter are the older authorities. American legal sources have minimal use for this term except in historical treatments of inherited English law; the concept has no operative role in American ecclesiastical or property law.
The vicar/rector distinction embedded in this term is a navigational signal: when a source discusses who holds the right to minute tithes, it is also working through the question of appropriation and the structure of the benefice. These threads connect to impropriations, advowsons, and the role of lay patrons — all of which appear in the same bodies of English church law.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four sources agree on the substance: minute tithes are small tithes belonging to the vicar, identified by a consistent list of examples (eggs, honey, wax, herbs, seeds, with some variation in livestock references). Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence are nearly identical in phrasing and appear to share a common lineage. Burrill adds the Latin forms (minutæ decimæ, minores decimæ) and cites Cowell and Coke's Institutes, giving the term its deepest historical grounding among the four dictionaries. Bouvier is the only source to cite specific legislation — the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 — which is a meaningful addition because it anchors the term's transformation in statutory history.
None of the four sources address the post-1836 landscape in depth, and none offer meaningful treatment of American law, which is appropriate given the term's exclusively English ecclesiastical character. Researchers should treat these entries as oriented toward pre-reform English practice.
Jurisdictional Note
Minute tithes are a creature of English ecclesiastical law and have no operative equivalent in American law. The concept survives in legal research only in its historical context — English church property disputes, tithe records, and the literature generated by the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 and its administration. Scots law had a distinct tithe system (teinds) that does not map cleanly onto the English minute/great distinction.