CHAPTER III.

A.D. 1663-1692.

First "Order" of forty-eight free miners in Court-8,487 acres enclosed and planted—Speech-house begun—Second order of the Miners' Court -The King's iron-works suppressed - The six "walks" and lodges planned out - All mine-works forbidden in the enclosures - Third order of the Miners' Court - Enclosures extended- Fourth order of the Miners' Court - Speech-house finished the Forest perambulated Fifth order of the Miners' Court - Proposal to resume the King's iron-works rejected Sixth and seventh orders of the Miners' Court Riots connected with the Revolution

Eighth order of the

Miners' Court - Dr. Parsons's account of the Forest.

CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with the important Parliamentary enactments noticed in the preceding chapter, there took place, on the 18th of March (1663), the earliest session of a local but very significant court, that of “the "Mine Law," whose date and proceedings have been preserved. It was held at Clearwell before Sir Baynham Throgmorton, deputy constable of St. Briavel's Castle, and a jury of forty-eight free miners, and shows that the Forest Miners of that day were a body of men engaged in carrying on their works according to rule, so as to avoid disputes or unequal dealing.

The Court ordered and ordained, as respects the western half of the district, that the minerals of the Forest could only be disposed of, beyond the limits of the Hundred, by free miners; that no manner of carriage was to be used for transporting them, nor more than four horses kept by any one party; that the selling price was to be determined by six "Barganers"; but that any free miner might carry a dozen" of lime coal to the lime slad for 3s., to the top of the Little Doward for 5s. 6d., to any other kilns thereon for 5s. 4d., to the Blackstones for 5s., to Monmouth for 5s. 6d., to the Weare over Wye for 4s., to Coldwall for 3s. 6d., to Lydbrook for 3s., and to Redbrook for 4s. 4d.; that no young man who had not served an apprenticeship for five years should work for himself at the mine

or coal, nor should any of the "labourers" do so unless they had worked seven years, neither was any young man to carry coal, &c., unless he was a householder; and that none should sue for mine, &c., but in the Court of the Mine, under the penalty "of 100 dozen of good sufficient oare or coale, the one-half to be forfeited to the King, and the other halfe to the myner that will sue for the same." The originals of this foregoing, and of the seventeen succeeding "Orders," written on parchment, are preserved in the office of the Deputy Gaveller at Coleford. The forty-eight signatures to it are almost effaced, and about half have "marks" affixed to them, but the whole are written in the same hand.

tion.

The new Act of 1668 was soon brought into operaImmediately after it had passed, upwards of 8,487 acres of open land were enclosed and planted, the remaining 2,513 acres being taken in some time afterwards. The following statement of Mr. Agar, then surveyor of the woods, shows that the cost of making the enclosures was raised as the Act directed. He said that he "received several sums of money by the sale "of cordwood to Mr. Foley and divers others, and of "the timber that did happen to arise out of the old "oaks and beeches felled for the cordwood and other uses, and of wood that I sold to the colliers for their pits, in the whole amounting to 5,1251. 88. 94d., which money was expended in buying Cannope, &c., of "Banistree Maynard, Esq., at 1,5007.; in setting up

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his

Majesty's Enclosures in the said Forest, of 8,400 acres, "with gates, stiles, &c., and some reparations of them; "in employing a sworn surveyor to admeasure them; "in building part of the Speech House; in divers "repairs at Saint Briavel's Castle; in the charge of executing two several commissions, and other services "in the said Forest."

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In allusion to the item of timber sold to the colliers, the commissioners, in their report of 1788, remark: Immediately after the passing of the Act of 1668, "the colliers, who, it is said, now pretend to have a "right to whatever timber they find necessary for carrying on their works in the Forest, without paying anything for it, then purchased it from the Crown. It seems also that "the Speech House" was then commenced, although it was not finished until 1682.

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The second existing Order of the Mine Law Court states that it met in 1674, on the 9th March, at Clowerwall, before Sir George Probert, deputy constable of St. Briavel's Castle, chiefly with the design of raising a fund for defending in a legal way the rights of the free miners, and affording them support when injured at their work.

To these ends a payment of 6d. per quarter was levied upon each miner, digging for or carrying mineral, if fifteen years of age, as also upon every horse so used, payable within fourteen days, under a fine of 2s. Six collectors were to receive the above payments, to be remunerated at the rate of 1s. per quarter for each pound they gathered. Twice a year they handed in their accounts, under a penalty of 51., and perpetual exclusion from any office of trust, if such were found defective. It appears therefore that the free miners valued their rights, and not only took thought for the morrow, but provided for it. They added a proviso that the servants of the Deputy Constable should have the benefit of always being supplied first at the pits, showing that they knew something also of public diplomacy. This "Order" has the names of forty-eight miners attached, all severally sealed, but written in one hand.

In this year also (1674) it was suggested that if the King would put the old iron-works of the Forest in repair, and also build one furnace and two forges, all which might be done for 1,000l., a clear profit of 2,1907. could be made upon every 8,000 long and short cords of wood, of which the Forest was in a condition to supply a vast quantity. This proposal was nevertheless not acted upon, it being judged desirable rather to pull down the old iron-works than erect new, lest the waste in supplying the necessary quantities of wood should ultimately prove destructive to the Forest, now in a flourishing condition. Accordingly the iron-works then standing were ordered to be pulled down, and the materials sold. The greatest attention is admitted by the commissioners of 1788, who examined the office papers relating to this period, to have been given by the then Ministers of State, by Sir Charles Harbord, surveyor-general of the Crown lands, and by his son and successor Mr. William Harbord, to the protection of the young wood and the enclosures; and they affirm that "it is chiefly in those parts of the Forest which

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On the 28th of September, 1675, at the recommendation of Sir Charles Harbord, to whom the plan was probably suggested by the precedent of the ten bailiwicks into which the district had been anciently divided, the Forest was formed into six "walks," or districts, a keeper being appointed to each. Six lodges were built for their use in convenient situations, with 30 acres of land attached, "for the better encourage"ment and enabling of the said keepers to attend and "watch over the said enclosures within their several walks, and to preserve the same, and the young springs of wood and trees thereon growing, and to "grow from time to time, from spoil and harm." The names given to each of the six divisions were derived from some of the most eminent living characters of that day. Thus, the Speech House, or King's Walk, was so called after Charles II.; York Walk and Lodge after the Duke of York; Danby Walk and Lodge after the Earl of Danby, prime Minister at the time; Worcester Walk and Lodge after Henry Marquis of Worcester, the then constable of the Castle of St. Briavel's, and warden of the Forest; Latimer Walk and Lodge after Viscount Latimer; and Herbert Walk and Lodge after Lord Herbert; in the two last instances, out of compliment to the Worcester family apparently. The Speech House was so called from its being intended for the use of the ancient Court of "the Speech," as mentioned in the Laws and Franchises of the Mine. Now also a grant of sixty tons of timber was made by the King towards rebuilding the parish church of Newent, as a tablet therein declares.

How strictly the enclosures were preserved at this time against all mining operations, is shown by the refusal which Sir Charles Harbord gave to a petition presented to the Treasury by several gentlemen and freeholders of the parish of Newland, for leave to make

a coal level through an enclosure, although they were backed by Sir Baynham Throckmorton, Deputy-Governor of St. Briavel's Castle, who had also been one of the Commissioners first appointed for carrying out the Act of 1668, and who gave it as his opinion that agreeing to the prayer of the petition would conduce to the preservation of the woods in the Forest, and the convenience and advantage of the country. The wording of the refusal was very peremptory, to the effect that "the enclosures "could only be preserved for timber by being kept "discharged from all claims;" that "although miners "and quarrymen had been long permitted to dig where "they pleased, yet that they could not prove their right "to do so; and as to coal-works, any such claims were "unknown, much less any liberty of cutting his Majesty's "woods for the support thereof; and the same ought "to be totally suppressed, and would be so by a good officer, as Colonel Wade was in the time of the Usurpation, and that only by the Forest Law, and "the ordinary authority of a Justice of Peace." It is not unlikely that in the last observation a hint was intended to be given to Sir Baynham Throckmorton, lest he should compromise his independent position with the colliers in the Forest by publicly accepting, as he had done the year before at their Mine Law Court, "their thankfull acknowledgment of the many favors "received by them from him," in return for which they agreed that, when he "should send his own horses or "waynes to any of the colepitts for cole, the miners. "shall presently seame and load them before any other "person whatever."

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Passing over an interval of three years, we come to the date of the third of the Mine Law Courts, held on the 8th September, 1678, at "Clowerwall," before Sir Baynham Throckmorton, &c., whose favour it shows the free-miners were most anxious to preserve, since, upon understanding that the former order of 1668, forbidding any foreigner to convey or deliver minerals, had proved prejudicial to him and his friends and tenants, they now revoked the same, allowing any foreigner to carry

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