fire or lime coal for his own use; besides which, they constituted the Marquis of Worcester, the then Constable of St. Briavel's Castle, as well as Sir Baynham Throckmorton, his Deputy, "free miners to all intents "and purposes."

This same Court decided that "the Winchester bushell, three of which were to make a barrell," should be the constant measure for "iron ore and coale," 4d. being the smallest price allowed to be taken for "a barrell of fire coale." Pits having become numerous, they decreed that "none should presume to sink a pit within 100 yards of one already made without the consent of the undertakers, under a penalty of 100 dozen of good fire coale " (which is the earliest regulation for protecting coal-works). Lastly, six "barganers" were to fix the price at which iron ore should be sold or carried to the different works. The names of forty-eight miners are appended to this “order,” all written in the same hand opposite their respective marks.

The importance of securing a supply of timber for the navy led to frequent Commissions of Inquiry, and the issue of Instructions, with respect to the royal forests. The Marquis of Worcester, Warden of Dean Forest, made a Return, on the 23rd of April, 1680, minutely describing the condition of the older trees, as well as of those planted ten years before, together with the state of the fences surrounding the new plantations. Parts of several of the enclosures are reported to have trees which were grown up out of the reach of cattle, and therefore fit to be thrown open, an equal quantity of waste land being enclosed instead, which was accordingly done by warrant, dated 21st July, 1680, not more than eleven years from the time they were taken in: consequently the young trees must have grown with rapidity, or else were left to take their chance very early. With the design as it would seem of making room for the new plantations, it is further stated that "there "were remaining about 30 cabins, in several parts "of the Forest, inhabited by about 100 poor people, "and that they had taken care to demolish the said cabins, and the enclosures about them." It should be remarked that these poor people must not be classed with the "free miners" of the Forest, although "they "had been born in it, and never lived elsewhere," but

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as "cabiners," who had to work seven years in the pits before they could become "free."

The fourth Record of the Mine Law Court informs us that it sat before Sir Baynham Throckmorton on the

27th April, 1680, at the Speech House, yet barely completed, unless it were the spacious Court-room, devoted to the public business of the Forest, for which it has been

The Speech House.

used ever since. The "Order" then passed implies, that although the last Court had appointed six "bargainers to deal with the difficult question of valuing the minerals offered for sale, inconvenience was yet experienced on this head.

So

It was therefore decreed that a dozen Winchester bushels of iron ore should be delivered at St. Wonnarth's furnace for 10s. ; at Whit; church, for 7s.; at Bishopswood, for 9s. ; at Linton, for 9s. ; at Longhope, for 9s.; at Flaxley, for 8s. ; at Gunsmills (if rebuilt), for 7s. ; at Blackney, for 6s.; at Lydney, for 6s. ; at those in the Forest lately demolished (if rebuilt), for the same as before; at Redbrooke, for 4s. 6d. ; at the Abbey, viz. Tintern, for 9s. ; at Brockweare, for 6s. 6d.; at Redbrooke Passage, for 5s. 6d. ; at Gunspill, for 7s. also no house or smith's coal was to be delivered on the banks of the Wye, below Huntsam Ferry, for less than 8s. a dozen bushels, or for 4s. 6d. if only lime coal; and if above Huntsam, 3s. 6d., on a forfeiture of 100 dozen of good iron ore, the one half to his Majesty, and the other to the miner that will sue for the same, together with loss of "freedom" and utter expulsion from the mine-works—a very heavy penalty for such an offence, showing the arbitrary power assumed by the court, at one time conferring free-minership upon strangers and foreigners, and at another deposing the free miner merely for an over or even an under charge.

This "order" likewise informs us that the instructions given in 1674, to pull down the King's iron-works in the Forest, had been so thoroughly executed, that all the furnaces were ere this demolished, leaving such only to be supplied with ore as were situated beyond the Forest limits. These furnaces seem to have taken about 600 dozen bushels of ore at one time, during the delivery of which no second party was allowed to come in. It is signed by fourteen out of the fortyeight free miners in their own hands, which is so far an improvement; but if the iron trade was unpromising, owing to the course which the Government felt constrained to take, lest its development should endanger the timber, it was not so with the coal, the getting of which the Crown would obviously regard with favour, in the hope that it would relieve the woods from spoliation. Accordingly, we shall find that from about this period on through the next century coal-works were constantly on the increase, so as eventually to throw the getting of iron-ore into the shade. This last

"order" cancelled an agreement passed by the Mine Law Court on the 9th of March, 1675, to the effect that a legal-defence fund be raised; but it confirmed the decree of a former court forbidding any young man to set up for himself as a free miner unless he was upwards of twenty-one years of age, and had served by indenture an apprenticeship of five years, and had also given a bond of ten pounds to obey all the orders of the said court.

One of the most minute of the various perambulations of this Forest dates from about this time, and serves to identify several spots, the early names of which have long passed away. On this occasion nineteen "regarders" went the rounds, preserving much the same course as the bounds of 28 Edward I.

The next, or fifth session of the Mine Law Court was held at Clearwell, on the 19th of September, 1682, Henry Melborne and William Wolseley, Esqrs., acting as joint deputies for the Marquis of Worcester, constable of St. Briavel's Castle.

It confirmed, for the most part, the "orders" already issued, and further exacted the payment, within six days, of 6d. from every miner thirteen years of age and upwards, and an additional 6d. for every horse used in carrying mineral, "for raising a present sum of money for urgent occasions," and required all coal-pits which had been wrought out to be sufficiently secured. Only fourteen signatures are attached to this "order," the remaining thirty-four free miners making their "marks."

In the course of the next year, A.D. 1683, a scheme resembling that proposed ten years before was started by Sir John Erule, supervisor or conservator of the Forest. His project was to raise 5,3907. a year for the Crown, upon an outlay, in the first place, of no more than 1,000l., to be spent in building iron-works, and an annual consumption of 8,000 cords of wood out of the Forest, care being taken that no oak or beech-tree, fit or likely to become fit for shipbuilding, be used.

The

Lords of the Treasury referred the plan to Mr. William Harbord and Mr. Agar, to be investigated and reported on. They rejected it however, as was done in the former case, and for the same reason, namely, that if carried out it would prove injurious to the woods and timber.

The sixth order of the Court of Mine Law records that it assembled on the 8th of December, 1685, at Clearwell, before William Wolseley, Esq., deputy to the Duke of Beaufort, constable of St. Briavel's Castle.

Its principal design seems to have been that of confirming the former 6d. rate, and authorizing the same to be raised to 10s., if necessary, towards keeping up a fund for supporting the miners' claims at law, which of late they had been obliged to do in the Court of Exchequer against Mr. Beck and others. The order concludes with the following direction: "That one-half of the jury should be iron-miners, and the other half colliers," so rapidly had coal-mining advanced, and so important had its condition become. An examination of the original document shows this order to have been signed by one person writing down the names of the fortyeight free miners, since they all exhibit the same hand-writing.

The seventh of the orders still extant reports the Court of the Mine to have been held at Clearwell on the 5th of April, 1687, before William Wolseley, Esq., and commences by stating that more money was wanted for legal purposes, and that every miner must pay two shillings, with two shillings besides for every mine-horse, towards meeting them.

It likewise directed that each coal-pit and dangerous mine-pit, if left unworked for a whole month together, should be fenced with a stone wall or posts and rails, under a penalty of 10s. All previous orders, fixing the prices at which the minerals of the Forest were alone to be sold, were now abolished, not having been found to answer; and all miners were left at liberty to sell or carry and deliver their ore and coal to whom, where, and how they pleased; and whereas previously all colliers were entitled to be first served at the pits, now it was ordained that the inhabitants of the hundred should precede the trade, and that those miners only should keep horses who had land sufficient to feed them. The following provision speaks for itself" For the restrayning that pernicious and abominable sinne of perjury too much used in these licentious times, every myner convicted by a jury of 48 miners in the said Court shall for ever loose and totally forfeite his freedome as touching the mines, and bee utterly expelled out of the same, and all his working tooles and habitt be burnt before his face, and he never afterwards to be a witness or to be believed in any matter whatsoever." Of the fortyeight jurymen whose names are appended to the above, sixteen signed.

It was in the month of January following (1688) that a riotous assemblage of the people pulled down