A.D. 1692-1758.
Condition of the Forest described, and management
examined--Depredations--Ninth and tenth orders of the Miners'
Court--Timber injured by the colliers--The Forest in its best state,
1712--Eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth orders of the Miners'
Court--Fourteenth order of the Miners' Court--Swainmote Court
discontinued--Extension of coal-works and injury of trees--Forest
neglected--Fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth orders of the Miners'
Court--Grant of 9200 feet of timber to the Gloucester Infirmary.
Reverting to the general condition and management of the Forest, an
important commission was issued this year, 1692, to the Crown officers
and some of the neighbouring gentry, directing them to examine and
inquire into the six following particulars:--I. The quantity of
coppicewood fit for being cut from year to year for twenty-one years to
come--II. The annual charge for the next twenty-one years of maintaining
the enclosures--III. What the cost would be of disenclosing certain
coal-pits, with which some of the plantations were encumbered--IV. What
the salaries of the Crown officers of the Forest amounted to, and the
cost of making such repairs as the buildings they occupied required--V.
As to the way in which the timber fellings of 1688 had been disposed of,
with the state of the enclosures, if those who had charge of them had
duly protected them from injury--and VI. How far trespass and pounding
had been enforced, or unlawful building permitted.
These were all very important questions, and under the first head, as to
wood fit to be cut for cording, &c., the commissioners report, that
"there are great and valuable quantities of scrubbed beech and birch,
with some holly, hazel, and orle, fit to be cut and disposed of, being
192,000 cords, worth at 4s. 10d., amounting to 46,488 pounds, of which
12,000 cords might be cut every year, worth 2,900 pounds. Or, as the
total quantity of such wood was 615,500 cords, their worth at 4s. 10d.
was 148,745 pounds 16s. 8d., to which 60,000 pounds may safely be added
for future clearings if a twenty-one years' lease be granted. 100 pounds
a year would suffice to keep the enclosures in repair." The
commissioners, in contemplating the expediency of making a grant adapted
to the requirements of iron-making, supposing the King's furnaces to be
restored, considered that it "would utterly destroy the Forest, now the
best nursery for a navy in the world;" since the party obtaining such a
lease would be sure to consider their own advantage rather than the
preservation of the district. They also urged that a grant like that
intimated was opposed to the intentions of the Act of 20th Charles II.,
as also to the previous decisions of 1662 and 1674, and would cause much
dissatisfaction amongst the freeholders of the Forest, who were prepared
to petition against it. The commissioners recommended that "the making
of the fellets, if put in execution, should certainly be intrusted to the
present officers, who had given sufficient testimony of their care in
such matters." Their report adds that "the Lea Bayly is now a spring of
oak and beech of four, five, and six years' growth, but much cropped and
spoiled by cattle, by reason the enclosures made for the preservation
thereof have in the night been several times pulled down and destroyed by
persons unknown." The other places mentioned in the Act of 1668, called
"Cannop Fellet, Buckholt, Beachenhurst, and Moyey Stock," are described
as "generally very well grown with oak and beech of fifty, forty, and
thirty years' growth, and under, many thousand of them being forty foot
and upwards, without a bough to hurt them." They further state, that
some of the enclosure fences, especially those on the north-east side of
the Forest, would cost 137 pounds 10s. to repair, and 30 pounds a year
afterwards, perhaps, to keep them good, the other parts formerly enclosed
not needing reparation, the trees being grown up past danger from deer or
cattle, "unless in case of some accident, or pulling down by the rabble,
as hath been sometimes done." Viewing the places where the last fellets
for cordwood were made in 1690, the commissioners state that "a very
great stock has been left upon the ground for timber, and all imaginable
care taken by the officers employed in making the said fellets, and
preserving all the stores and saplings, with the principal shoots of such
beech as grow upon old stools well sheltered by other woods, for the
improvement thereof." With reference to the expediency of throwing open
such of the enclosures as contained coal-pits, we learn that no
inconvenience was felt on that account, as "not more than six pits had
ever been so situated, and now not one, those plantations having grown
up, and their fences down." The sum total of salaries paid to the
conservators and six keepers was 210 pounds per annum, arising from wood
sales. Various repairs are stated to have been necessary. The Castle of
St. Briavel's, it is said, "hath been a very great and ancient building,
but the greatest part is ruined and fallen down, and only some part kept
up for a place to hold the courts in for the King's manor and hundred
thereof, and also for a prison for debtors attached by process out of the
said courts, and for offenders and trespassers within the Forest. The
same is very necessary to be repaired; and for mending the roof and
tyling, and in glazing, plaistering, repairing the prison windows, and
building a new pound, &c., will cost the sum of 10 pounds 14s. 2d. The
cost of rebuilding Worcester and York Lodges, pulled down by the rioters
in 1688, and repairing the Speech House, which was likewise much injured
at that time, will be, they calculate, 219 pounds 10s."
As to injury done to the woods, the following presentments amongst many
others made by the keepers were instanced:--"John Simons of Blackney, for
cutting green orle wood. Edward Revoke and James Drew of Little Dean,
for cutting and carrying away a young oak. The same Edward Revoke, for
building some part of his house with wood out of the said Forest."
Respecting these depredations the commissioners recommend that, in
consideration of the colliers having, time out of mind, had an allowance
of wood, but not timber for the support of their pits, but which has been
stopped for some time, it may be again allowed to them by order of the
verderers, and taken by view of a woodward or keeper. The Attachment and
Swainmote Courts are stated to have been "duly kept, although
ineffectually to the preservation of the Forest, as they can only
convict, but cannot punish; and that the trespass-money paid into the
said courts in this reign does not exceed 5s., the only remedy being in
having a justice seat held for the purpose once a year, for six or seven
years." The report is signed by Wm. Cooke, Re Pynder, Wm. Boevey, J.
Viney, Jo. Kyrle, Phil. Ryley.
The _ninth_ Mine Law Court was held on the 25th of April, 1694, at
Clearwell, before John Higford and George Bond, Esqrs.
It confirmed the punishment already awarded against "the abominable
sin of perjury," to prevent which it directs that "no person shall be
permitted to sweare in his own cause unless it be for a matter
transacted underground, or where it was difficult to have any
witnesses;" nor shall any bargain be binding unless it be proved by
two witnesses.
All causes of debt or damage amounting to 40s. were to be heard on
both sides as in other courts, the verdict being given by a jury of
twelve miners; but in lesser causes by the Constable of the Court.
Provision was also made that "every defendant have twenty-four hours'
notice to provide for his defence," every witness being allowed 12p.
a-day, the fees of the Court remaining the same as before, all which,
as well as the defendant's time, the plaintiff losing the cause, or
being non-suited, had to pay. This "Order" also reduces the price of
ore for Ireland from 8s. to 5s. a dozen bushels, pitched at
Brockwere, or if at Wye's Green for 4s. ditto; fire-cole at 8s. a
dozen bushels; smith's-cole, 6s., and charking at 8s., "without
handing, thrusting, kicking, or knocking the same," under the usual
penalty. Eighteen miners out of the jury of forty-eight signed their
names themselves "to this Order," the remaining thirty only making
their marks.
The earliest particular recorded in the next century bears date 1701, on
the 27th January, in which year the _tenth_ Miners' Court of forty-eight
sat at Clearwell, before Serjeant Powlett and George Bond, Esq., deputies
to Charles Earl of Berkeley.
Its proceedings were as follows:--Certain temporary orders, dated the
12th March, 1699, and 11th November, 1700, regulating the loading of
horses and carts, forbidding any coal to be sent off by the river Wye
below Welch-Bicknor, authorizing the raising of money for paying the
costs of the miners' debts in law, securing the Records of their
Court, and making the present deputy constable of St. Briavel's
Castle a free miner, were confirmed and made perpetual. Mention is
also made for the first time of "the utmost seventy" being the
greatest number ever comprised in the miners' jury. The order
further directs that the Records of Mine-law, used at the hearing of
the suit in the Exchequer, be recorded, and put into a chest, to be
left in the custody of Francis Wyndham, Esq., whom the court had made
a free miner, and that in paying any of the costs incurred in that
cause a legal discharge be taken. Now the ton of 21 cwt. was fixed
as a weight of coal, to be sold for 5s. to an inhabitant of the
hundred, or for 6s. to foreigners; and every pit was to be provided
with scales. Upwards of twenty of the forty-eight miners who formed
the jury at this court put their names to the above verdict, the
remainder being marksmen.
In the year 1705, Edward Wilcox, Esq., Surveyor-General to the Royal
Forests, having carefully examined the condition of the woods in the
Forest of Dean, stated that he found them very full of young trees, of
which two thirds were beech, overtopping the oaks, to their injury; and
he recommended that one sixteenth part, or about 700 acres, should be
annually cleared and fenced in, which would yield a profit to the Crown
of 3,500 pounds a year, and leave the standard oaks and beech to grow to
perfection. Lord Treasurer Godolphin consented to this proposal, and
granted a warrant for carrying it into execution; but it was petitioned
against by those who claimed a right of common, whose free-pasturage
would thereby be lessened; at the same time, however, others were
desirous that it might take effect, as they would get a living by cutting
the underwood, and preparing it for the furnaces. At length on the 4th
of July, 1707, the Attorney-General, Sir Simon Harcourt, decided--that
"no claim or right of common could prevent the enclosing, keeping in
severalty, or improving, as her Majesty should direct, the 11,000 acres
mentioned in the Act of 20 Charles II., and preserving the same as a
nursery of wood and timber only."
Another event of this year was the holding a Court of Mine Law, on the
1st of July, at Mitcheldean, but afterwards by adjournment at Coleford,
before George Bond and Roynon Jones, Esqrs., deputies.
It confirmed the directions of a former court of forty-eight, that
the law-papers produced at the late suit in the Court of Exchequer,
with all the other records of the Mine Law Court, be collected
forthwith, and consigned to the care of Francis Wyndham, Esq.; and
that the law debts then incurred be at length paid, out of a 1s. rate
upon every miner and mine-horse. The 20s. penalty for leaving pits
unfenced was also reimposed. This "Order" bears the genuine
signatures of nineteen out of the forty-eight jurymen, the rest
merely making their marks.
In the next year, A.D. 1708, Mr. Wilcox, the Surveyor-General,
represented to Lord Godolphin that the inhabitants of the neighbourhood
had been stripping some of the trees of their bark, whereupon those
trees, with any others not likely to be of any use to the navy, were
ordered to be cut down and used for gates, stiles, and fences, or sold
for the benefit of the Crown. Three years later a similar charge was
preferred against certain colliers for cutting trees and wood, but we do
not find that it came to anything.
Sir Robert Atkyns, to whom this Forest was well known, describes its
condition at this time, as "containing only six houses, which are the
lodges for so many keepers. There had been many cottages erected, but
they had been lately pulled down;" not that there were literally no other
dwellings in it, for the ancient "assarted" lands were probably so
occupied, but the mining population lived for the most part in the
surrounding villages. Speaking of the different Forest courts, he
says--"the Swainmote Court is to preserve the vert and venison, and is
kept at the Speech-house, which is a large strong house, newly built in
the middle of the Forest for that purpose. There is another court called
the Miners' Court, which is directed by a steward appointed by the
constable of the Forest, and by juries of miners, returned to judge
between miner and miner, who have their particular laws and customs, to
prevent their encroaching upon one another, and to encourage them to go
on quietly in their labour in digging after coals and iron-ore, with
which this Forest doth abound." The room in which most of these courts
were held retains its original character, only it has been floored with
wood, and is no longer divided by rails into compartments for the jury
and the accused. Stains of human blood once marked the ceiling over the
north-east corner of the apartment, said to have dropped down from the
room above, where an unfortunate poacher, who had been much injured by a
gun, was confined. It is asserted that for many years no water could
remove nor whitewash hide the unsightly marks.
[Picture: Court Room in "the Speech House."]
In the Commissioners' Report of 1788 it is said that about this time
(1712) the Forest was probably in its best state, although its courts had
not been so regularly held since the Revolution as before, yet that the
greatest attention had been given to it by the different authorities
under the Crown. And as the commissioners deplore the unfavourable
change which had subsequently taken place, we may contrast the state into
which the Forest had then fallen, with its present condition, so much
more hopeful and lucrative than it had been at that the brightest period
of its past history. There are no public documents relating to this
Forest to be met with for many years from this time; indeed it is hardly
ever mentioned in the book of the Surveyor-General of the Crown lands,
which only contained warrants for felling timber for the navy or for
sale. The produce was for the most part directed to be applied to the
repairing of lodges, roads, or fences, or the payment of salaries to
officers, or fee-gifts from the Crown. The proceedings of the Court of
the Miners, on the contrary, remain recorded, and serve to fill up the
interval. They show that one was held at the Speech-house on the 7th of
January, 1717, before Richard Machen and William James, Esqrs., deputies.
By it a 6d. levy was made on every miner, and on every working horse,
towards meeting any law expenses which the Society of Miners might
incur in defending their rights; and should more money be required,
authorizing a jury of only twelve miners, with the consent of the two
deputy-constables, to order the paying of the same. It further
imposed a fine of upwards of 30 pounds on any miner who should sue
another respecting any matter relating to the mine in any other
court. It also constituted the Honourable Matthew Ducie Morton,
Thomas Gage, John Wyndham, Richard Machen, William James, and
Christopher Bond, Esqrs., free miners, "out of the due and great
respect, honour, and esteem borne towards them." We need not call in
question the truthfulness of such protestations; but doubtless, had
these worthy miners perceived the inconsistency of such admissions,
they would not have so readily dispensed with the ancient regulation
which restricted the fellowship of the mine to those who had worked
therein. They were well intended at the time, but long afterwards
weakened in a legal point of view the free miners' rights. This
"Order" exhibits only eleven original signatures, the thirty-seven
other jurymen making their marks.
Only two years intervened between the holding of the Court just
mentioned, and the one which followed it, held at the Speech House, on
10th November, 1719, before Richard Machen and William James, Esqrs.,
Deputies.
On this occasion certain previous orders were cancelled, and in their
stead it was determined that no one living out of the Hundred of St.
Briavel's should convey any coal out of the Forest unless he belonged
to the Forest division of the county, and carried for his own private
use. A penalty of 5 pounds was imposed upon any person under
twenty-one years of age carrying ore or coal. All traffic in coal,
either up or down the Wye, was to stop at Welch Bicknor, between
which and Monmouth Bridge no coal was to be pitched. At Monmouth,
fire-coal was to be sold at 9s. the dozen bushels; smith's-coal at
8s.; and lime-coal at 5s. 6d. Above Lydbrook, on the Wye, fire-coal
was to be sold at 8s. a ton, or the dozen barrels; smith's-coal at
6s.; and lime-coal at 3s. One free miner was not to sell any
fire-coal to another under 5s. per ton of 21 cwt. Roynon Jones and
Edmund Probyn, Esqrs., were made free miners. Lastly, any former
orders in private hands, together with all writings relating to the
Free-miners' Court, were to be delivered to William James, Esq., to
be kept in the said miners' chest, at the Speech-house. Perhaps this
direction was, with few exceptions, complied with, not, it would
seem, in every case, as several of those alluded to in the existing
orders of the forty-eight cannot be found. Nineteen signatures made
by the parties themselves occur at the end of this Order; the rest
are only marks.
Nine years passed away before another full Mine Law Court is recorded.
This was on the 12th November, 1728, by adjournment, at the Speech House,
before Maynard Colchester, Esq., and William James, Gent.
The following gentlemen were made free miners:--Thomas Wyndham, of
Clearwell; Maynard Colchester, of Westbury; William Hall Gage, son
and heir to Lord Viscount Gage; William Jones, of Nass, Esqrs.;
William Jones, of Soylewell, Gent.; Robert James, of the same place,
Gent.; Thomas Wyndham the younger, of Clearwell, Gent.; Thomas Pyrke
the younger, of Little Dean, Gent.; and William Lane, Deputy Clerk.
A forfeit of 10 pounds was laid upon any miner who had received a
"forbidment" from another, if he persisted in carrying on his work in
that place. The distance of 300 yards, which, by a former order,
made in 1692, protected every pit from interruption, was now enlarged
to 500 yards in all levels in all parts of the mines called "beneath
the wood," under the same penalty; and further, the giving away of
coals was forbidden under a fine of 5 pounds. Twenty-two original
signatures appear at the foot of this Order; the other names are
merely marked.
The extension of the Forest coal-works, in depth and underground
operations, as indicated by the enlargement of the protective distance,
effected a corresponding change in the kind of timber required for
propping the mine. That is, as the pressure from above increased, owing
to the workings being carried deeper, stronger stays and supports were
necessary than cordwood or saplings supplied. Nothing less than the
stems and main limbs of timber trees would suffice. How the colliers
obtained these requisites, the particulars given in the following
complaint, made in 1735 by the Surveyor-General, show:--"A practice has
prevailed among the colliers of boring large holes in trees that they may
become dotard and decayed, and, as such, may be delivered to them gratis
for the use of their collieries." The only notice, it cannot be called a
remedy, which this evil obtained, was that, for the future, directions
were given that "such bored trees as appeared to be dead and spoiled
shall be felled, taking care that none be cut down that may be of use to
the navy."
It is, however, further stated, that the colliers frequently obtained
from the keepers the best trees in the Forest, although their claims
merely extended to pit-timber. The existence of so serious an evil
proves that many things were going wrong, and we are prepared for the
representations made the next year (1736) to the Treasury by Christopher
Bond, Esq., Conservator and Supervisor of the Forest. He reported that
"after the Act of the 20th Charles II., 11,000 acres had been enclosed;
that the officers were duly elected, Forest courts held, and offenders
prosecuted and punished, to the successful rearing of a fine crop of
wood; but that within the last 30 years these elections had been
neglected, the Courts discontinued, and offenders left unpunished; the
Officers of Inheritance had grown remiss and negligent, so that some
enclosures, and those of only a few acres of the 11,000, were kept up,
and these not carefully repaired; a great number of cottages were erected
upon the borders of the Forest, the inhabitants whereof lived by rapine
and theft; that there were besides many other offences committed, such as
intercommuning of foreigners, surcharges of commoners, trespasses in the
fence month and winter haining, and in the enclosures; keeping hogs,
sheep, goats, and geese, being uncommonable animals, in the Forest;
cutting and burning the nether vert, furze, and fern; gathering and
taking away the crabs, acorns, and mast; and other purprestures and
offences; carrying away such timber trees as were covertly cut down in
the night time; by which practices several hundred fine oaks were yearly
destroyed, and the growth of others prevented; and that it was feared
that some of the inferior officers of the Forest, finding offenders to go
on with impunity, were not only grown negligent, but also connived at, if
not partook in, the spoil daily committed."
To remedy this bad state of things, Mr. Bond proposed that a new law
should be passed, explanatory of the Act of 1668, by enforcing the Forest
officers to do their duty, and by superseding the odious, because
unlimited and arbitrary, proceedings of the former Chief Justices in Eyre
by a jury, and convictions before the verderers at their Swainmote Court,
with a power lodged in those officers to fine, under a certain sum, all
offenders. The Surveyor-General of the Crown Woods had the above
proposal submitted to his consideration, and was directed to attend the
Attorney and Solicitor-General, Sir John Willis and Sir Dudley Ryder, to
take their opinion thereon, which was, that "the offences were chiefly
owing to the neglect of putting the Stat. 20th Charles II. in execution;
and they recommended, therefore, that the several vacant offices of the
Forest should be filled up, that the Forest Courts should be regularly
held, and that the officers should be strictly enjoined to do their
duty." It is disappointing to find no evidence that anything was done in
consequence of this opinion.
About this time the _fifteenth_ of the series of "Orders" enacted by the
Mine Law Court of forty-eight, informs us that it met by adjournment at
the Speech House on the 6th of December, 1737, before William Jones,
Esq., Deputy Constable of St. Briavel's Castle.
Owing to the injury which it was considered foreigners had done to
the free miners by carrying coal out of the Forest for merchandise,
it was decided that for the future no such carrying should be allowed
except to certain persons named, under a penalty of 5 pounds, or
property to that amount, or imprisonment in St. Briavel's Castle for
a year, to the perpetrator or any cognizant thereof. From this it
seems perfectly plain that the free miner regarded the carrying of
coal as much a part of his profession as getting it, and therefore
equally requiring protection. The "Order" proceeds to direct that in
every suit before the Mine-Law Court the plaintiff and defendant were
to pay 6d. to the Clerk for entering the same, which was to form his
salary. The rights of free-minership were conferred upon the
Honourable Thomas Gage, Christopher Bond the younger, Esq., Thomas
Crawley, Esq., James Rooke, Esq., Thomas James, Gent., Thomas Barron
the younger, Gent., Thomas Marshall, Yeoman. John Wade was to be
made "free" on his working a year and a day in the mine; and making
it a rule that a foreigner's son, being born in the Hundred, and
seeking to become a free miner, was to serve by indenture an
apprenticeship of seven years. The above "Order" has only
twenty-three marks attached to it, more than half the jury signing
their own names.
Proceeding to the date and objects of the next "Order" of the same Court,
we find that it had been adjourned to the 2nd March, 1741, at the Speech
House, before Edward Tomkins Machen, Esq., Deputy. It commences by
explaining the terms "above" and "beneath the wood" to be two ancient
divisions of the Forest, "beginning at the river Wye at Lydbrook, where
the brooke there leading from the forges falls into the said river, and
so up the said brooke or stream unto a place in the said Forest called
Moyery Stock, and from thence along a Wayn-way at the bottom of a place
called the Salley Vallett, and so along the same way between the two old
enclosures that did belong to Ruardean and Little Dean Walks unto
Cannop's Brooke, and down the said brooke to Cannop's Bridge; and from
thence along the road or highway to the Speech-house, and from thence
along the said highway to Foxe's Bridge, and from thence down Blackpool
Brooke to Blakeney."
It is worthy of remark, that the same boundary line, with only a trifling
difference, defines the two townships of East and West Dean, into which
the Forest is now divided for the purposes of the Poor Law Amendment Act.
The connexion of this division with the Court of Mine Law consisted
simply in this, that the attendance of a free miner on the jury was
regulated by the position of his works and habitation in one or other of
them.
A 5 pounds penalty was laid upon all miners who should send or carry
any coals to Hereford or Monmouth by the Wye, except lime-coal at
"the New Wears," at 4s. a dozen bushels. A similar fine was
inflicted on any inhabitant of the Forest division of the county who
should "presume" to carry coal otherwise than for their own use; so
also no miner was to work more than two pits at one time; nor to
carry coal for any person not a free miner; neither to sell fire-coal
or stone-coal charks under 7s. a dozen bushels, or 5s. if smith's
coal, at Redbrook, which, if refused there, a "forbid" shall be
declared until the former coal should be accepted. This "Order"
further enacted that if coal was found in any bargeman's boat, and he
refuse to say from whom he had it, a general "forbid" shall be
declared that no miner serve him with any more. A free miner is
briefly defined to be "such as have lawfully worked at coal a year
and a day." A foreigner selling coal at Hereford for less than 13s.
per ton was to be summoned, or abide the consequences of a general
"forbid." Should there be at any time more than a sufficiency of
coal for the trade on the Wye, the barge-owners were to employ the
services of the miners, or be fined according to their wages. A
horse-load to the Wye was fixed at 2 cwt. and a quarter for 6d., ten
such making a ton, to be weighed, if required, under a forfeit of 2s.
6d. Miners beneath the wood were bound to sell not less than a cwt.
of coal for 4d.; 3 bushels of smith's coal for 5d.; and 1 bushel of
lime coal for 1d. at the pit. No team was to be served with less
than 2 cwt. nor more than 21 cwt., to be weighed, if desired, or
forfeit 5 pounds. This Order constituted Richard Clarke and Edward
Tomkins Machen, Esqrs., free miners, and exhibits at the end the
penmanship of only 18 of the jury, all the rest merely making their
marks.
We now arrive at the _seventeenth_ or last "Order" issued by the Mine Law
Court. It dates 22nd October, 1754, and sat at the Speech House, before
Maynard Colchester and Thomas James, Esqrs.
It records the election to free-minerships of the Right Honble.
George Augustus Lord Dursley, Charles Wyndham of Clearwell, Esq.,
Rev. Roynon Jones of Monmouth, John Probyn of Newland, Esq., his son
Edmund, Maynard Colchester the younger, Esq., Roynon Jones the
younger, of Nass, Esq., Kedgwin Webley of London, Gentleman, Kedgwin
Hoskins the elder, of Clearwell, Gent., William Probyn the younger,
of Newland, Gent., Mr. Kedgwin Hoskins the younger, of Clearwell, Mr.
Edmund Probyn the younger, son of the said William Probyn, Mr. Thomas
James the younger, Mr. Thomas Baron the younger, son of Mr. Thomas
Baron of Coleford, Herbert Rudhall Westfaling, of Rudhall in
Herefordshire, Esq., John Clarke, of "The Hill," in Herefordshire,
Esq., Thomas Foley the elder, of "Stoke Eddy," in the said shire,
Esq., Thomas Foley the younger, of the same, Esq., John Symons, of
the Mine, in the same county, Esq., Ion Yate, of Arlingham, Esq.,
William Lane, of "King's Standley," and Barrow Lawrence, of Bruen's
Lodge, Gent.
So full a list of persons of position and influence as this Order
exhibits, lending their names to the Free Miners' Society, indicates the
existence of considerable importance in that body; and yet this was the
last Court having forty-eight free miners on the jury whose proceedings
have been preserved, the fact being that they failed to agree in their
verdicts, and then gentlemen refused to attend, owing, it is said, to the
violent quarrels and disputes which arose between foreigners possessed of
capital, who now began to be admitted to the works, and the free miners.
It is also reported that the decisions of the court were seldom observed,
no Act of Parliament having passed to render them valid. The former
protective distance between one mine and another was increased from 500
to 1000 yards of any levels, and enforced by a 5 pounds penalty. The
order concludes with directing that
"The water-wheel engine at the Orling Green, near Broadmoor, be taken
to be a level to all intents and purposes." This machine was
evidently the first of its kind erected in the Forest, as was also
the steam-engine which superseded it, each manifesting the
improvements going on in the method of working the mines. The
signatures appended to this final "Order" show twenty-five marksmen,
and twenty-three names written by their possessors.
The Benefaction-Boards of the Gloucester Infirmary record, in reference
to this period, the following particular:--"A gracious benefaction from
his Majesty King George II. of 9,200 feet of rough oak timber from the
Forest of Deane."