MINING—LEAD AND SILVER
The lead-mining industry in England is important and interesting from
its antiquity, the value of its produce, large quantities of silver
being obtained from this source during the medieval period, and the
organisation of its workers. Although lacking the completeness of
organisation which rendered the tinners of Cornwall and Devon almost
an independent race, the lead miners of Alston Moor, Derbyshire, and
the Mendips, the three great mining camps of England, were more highly
organised than the iron miners of Dean, who form the lowest class of
privileged 'free miners.'
The lead mines of Britain were worked by the Romans from the earliest
days of their occupation of the island, pigs of lead having been found
in the Mendips stamped with the titles of Britannicus (A.D. 44-48)
and Claudius (A.D. 49).[123] Mines of this period exist at Shelve and
Snailbeach in Shropshire and elsewhere, and smelting-hearths have been
found at Minsterley in the same county and at Matlock.[124] Nor was
the industry discontinued after the departure of the Romans. Lead mines
at Wirksworth in Derbyshire were leased by the Abbess of Repton to a
certain Duke Humbert in 835,[125] and a 'leadgedelf' at Penpark Hole
in Gloucestershire is mentioned in 882,[126] though that county was
not a great centre of lead production at a later date. In the time of
Edward the Confessor the Derbyshire mines of Bakewell, Ashford, and
Hope yielded £30, besides five wainloads of lead, but in 1086 their
yearly value had fallen, for some reason, to £10, 6s. Besides these
three mines Domesday Book alludes to others at Wirksworth, Metesford,
and Crich.[127]
During the twelfth century the output of lead was considerable. The
'mines of Carlisle,' that is to say of Alston Moor, on the borders of
Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Northumberland, occur on the Pipe Roll of
1130, and were farmed during the reign of Henry II.[128] at an average
rent of £100; during the same reign large quantities of lead from
Derbyshire were carried across to Boston and shipped to London and the
Continent: the Shropshire mines were also active, one hundred and ten
loads of lead being sent down to Amesbury in 1181 alone. King Stephen
granted to the Bishop of Durham certain mines in Weardale, probably
of silver-bearing lead, as the non-precious minerals already belonged
to the bishopric, and during the vacancy of the see of Durham in
1196 considerable issues of silver were accounted for.[129] A similar
grant of lead mines in Somerset was made to Bishop Reginald of Bath by
Richard I.[130] How soon the three great mining camps acquired their
privileges and organisation cannot be definitely stated: some of the
regulations seem to have been traditional from very early times, even
in the case of the Mendip mines, of which the laws were largely based
upon the Derbyshire code. So far as the northern mines are concerned,
we find Henry III. in 1235 confirming to the miners of Alston the
liberties and privileges 'which they used to have.'[131]
Of the regulations in force at Alston Moor[132] we have but few
details, but of the laws of Derbyshire[133] and the Mendips[134] we
have ample information. In each case there was a mine court, known
in Derbyshire as the 'berghmote' or 'barmote,' of which the ordinary
meetings were held every three weeks and special sessions twice a year,
at Easter and Michaelmas. The 'body of the court' consisted of twelve,
or in the 'great courts' twenty-four, miners of good standing and the
presiding officer was in Derbyshire the barmaster and in Somerset the
lead-reeve: at Alston[135] he appears as bailiff, 'king's serjeant,'
and steward. Associated with this official was the coroner:[136] the
two offices indeed seem to have been combined at Alston during the
thirteenth century as in 1279 complaint was made that the coroners of
the Scottish king's liberty of Tindale (that portion of the present
county of Northumberland which adjoins Alston Moor) were acting in
the mine 'where the serjeant of the mine appointed by the English
king ought to exercise the office of coroner in all things':[137] by
1356, however, it was the custom for the Alston miners to elect a
coroner separate from the bailiff or king's serjeant.[138] The exact
degree of independence possessed by these mine courts is difficult to
determine. During eyres in Cumberland it was customary to send special
justices to Alston to hold the pleas of the Crown. This was already an
old-established custom in 1246,[139] and we find that Robert de Vipont,
who about the beginning of the reign of Edward I. had formed a manor
out of what had been moor and waste, had usurped the right to try
thieves in his manor court, when they ought only to be tried in the
mine court.[140] Even in Derbyshire there was a tendency to use the
courts of the Duchy of Lancaster instead of, or to overrule, the mine
courts, at least in the sixteenth century.[141]
By the Derbyshire mine law a small trespass was punishable by a fine
of 2d., but if this was not paid at once the fine was doubled each
successive day until it reached the sum of 5s. 4d. This same sum of 5s.
4d. (doubled in a similar way up to 100s.) was the fine for bloodshed,
or for the offence of encroaching upon another man's claim underground.
For a thrice-repeated theft of ore the offender's hand was pinned
with a knife to the uprights of his windlass, and if he succeeded in
getting free he had to forswear the mine for ever. A similarly savage
and primitive measure of justice was meted out to the Mendip miner who
stole lead worth 13½d.: his property was forfeited, and the bailiff was
to bring him 'where hys howse or wore [_i.e._ ore] hys, hys work and
towlls with all instruments belongyng to that occupacyon and then put
hym in hys howss or working place and set fyer yn all together about
hym—banyshe hym from that occupacyon for ever by fore the face of all
the myners there.' Both methods of punishment are clearly of early
origin, and it seems probable that they originally involved the death
of the thief, though a later and more humane generation connived at his
escape while retaining the ancient form of punishment. If the burnt
thief did not dread the fire, but returned and stole again, he was
handed over to the sheriff's officers and committed to prison, being
no longer one of the privileged community. It is worth noting that the
great mining camp on the borders of Cornwall and Devon, though not
apparently possessing any mine court, had, as we might expect, certain
control over the excesses of the miners, as in 1302 there was made 'a
pit in the mine by way of prison to frighten (_ad terrorem_) evildoers
and bad workmen.'[142] The Devon miner, as we have just said, had no
code of laws or privileges; at Alston the code applied only to the
miners actually living in the collection of 'shiels,' or huts on the
Moor; in Derbyshire the full system of regulations was confined to the
royal 'field,' though a few private owners of mining fields established
barmotes on similar lines;[143] but the customs of the Mendips appear
to have applied throughout the district, whoever might be lord of the
soil.
By mining law the miner had the right to prospect anywhere except in
churchyards, gardens, orchards, and highways; on the Mendips, however,
he had first to go through the formality of asking leave of the
lord of the soil, or of his lead-reeve, who could not refuse their
permission; he might then pitch where he pleased and break ground
as he thought best. In Derbyshire, when the prospector had struck a
promising 'rake' or vein, he cut a cross in the ground and went to the
barmaster, who came and staked out the claim into 'meers,' each being
four perches of twenty-four feet: the first two meers were given to
the finder, the third to the king, as lord of the soil, and the others
to those miners who first demanded them. Within three days the owner
of a meer must set up a 'stow,'[144] a wooden frame with two uprights
joined by a bar or spindle placed at the top of the shaft, and serving
as a windlass. If the claim was not then worked, the barmaster nicked
the spindle, and if this were done three times, and the claim was still
unworked, it was declared forfeit and granted to the first applicant.
The regulations in use on the Mendip field were rather different. There
the pitches or claims, instead of being of one standard size, were
decided by the throw of the 'hack' or small pick, weighing 3 lbs. 14
oz. 'Every man when he doth begyn hys pyt, otherwyse callyd a grouff,
shaull have hys haks throw ij weys after the rake,[145] so that he
do stand to the gyrdyl or wast in the gruff'; while this decided the
limits of the pitch along the line of the vein the pitcher had always
eighteen feet on either side of his 'grooffe or gribbe.' The hack,
however, was not thrown unless another party wished to pitch in the
neighbourhood; in that case the newcomer, or 'younger pitcher,' could
demand that the hack be thrown by the 'elder pitcher' and his partners,
'when they have their chine, rake or course,' that is to say, when they
have struck the vein. The lead-reeve then proffered the hack to one
of the elder pitchers, and if they failed to throw it within fourteen
days the younger pitcher had the throw.[146] The rules for reserving a
claim were probably founded on those in use in Derbyshire. 'The first
pytcher in any grounde muste make yt perfecte wyth a caddel of tymber
and a payre of styllyngs within fowre and twentie howers next after
the pyching.' Although this was the strict law, custom seems to have
been content with the making of the 'caddel,' some sort of framework of
timber, the first day, and to have allowed a month for the 'styllyngs,'
or stow. If a claim lay unworked for four weeks, the lead-reeve caused
proclamation to be made, and if the old partners did not turn up within
fourteen days, it was forfeited.
Besides the right of prospecting where they chose, the miners had
right of access to the nearest high-road, and in Derbyshire if this
were refused them the barmaster and two assistants might walk abreast
with arms stretched out, and so mark out a way direct from the mines
to the road, even through growing corn. They were also privileged to
take timber from the neighbouring woods for use in the mines, and in
Cumberland, where fuel was scarce, they might even prevent the owners
of the woods from cutting them until they had obtained a sufficient
supply for the furnaces. Their proprietary rights in their mines were
recognised, and they could dispose of them, wholly or in part, without
licence. They might also take their ore to what 'myndry' they pleased,
to be smelted, and the only restriction upon the sale of the ore or
lead was that in some places the king, or other lord of the soil, had
'coup,' that is to say pre-emption, the right of buying the ore at the
market price before it was offered to any other purchaser, and in 1295
we find the Derbyshire miners paying 4d. a load in respect of 'coup'
for licence to sell to whom they pleased.[147]
The terms upon which the miners held their mines varied. On private
lands, when the owner did not work the mines himself by hired labour,
he usually bargained for some proportion, an eighth, a tenth, or
a thirteenth, of the produce. On the Mendips the lord of the soil
received the tenth part as 'lot'; on the royal field of Derbyshire the
king had the thirteenth, and at Alston the ninth dish of ore, the dish
in the latter case being 'as much ore as a strong man can lift from the
ground.'[148] At Alston the king had in addition the fifteenth penny
from the other eight dishes, but had to provide at his own expense a
man called 'the driver,' who understood how to separate the silver from
the lead.[149] This method of paying a proportion of the produce was
clearly the fairest to all concerned, for, as the Cumberland miners
said in 1278, though they knew that there was ore enough to last to
the end of time, no one could tell the yearly value of the mines, as
it depended upon the richness of the ore they struck,[150] and in
the same way when Robert de Thorp was made warden of the Devon mines
in 1308,[151] it was expressly stated that no definite sum was to be
demanded of him, because the silver-bearing ore, the refined lead,
and the reworked slag all had 'diversetez de bonntez et quantitez
de respouns.' In addition to the payment of lot ore, the miners had
to give tithes to the Church. In some cases these tithes originated
in a definite grant, more often they seem to have been regarded as
compensation for the tithes of crops which would otherwise have grown
on the ground taken by the mines; but the strangest reason for claiming
them was that lead was itself a titheable crop, because it 'grew and
renewed in the veins.'[152]
While many small mines were worked by parties of free miners under
these conditions, for their own profit, and at their own risk, there
must have been from very early times a large number of poor men who
worked for the king, the lord of the soil, or capitalist adventurers,
receiving wages either by piece or by time. The regulations for the
payment of these hired miners in the royal mines of Beer Alston, in
Devonshire, drawn up in 1297 are of considerable interest.[153]
'As to the piecework of the miners, those who can find ore in their
diggings shall receive for piecework as before, that is to say 5s.
for the load,[154] as well of black as of white ore, if the white
cannot reasonably be put lower. And those who are engaged in "dead"
[_i.e._ unremunerative] work, and cannot find ore in their diggings,
and yet work more, for some dead work is harder than (digging in) the
vein, shall be at wages (_a lour soutz_) until they reach the ore, so
that all piecework be undertaken by two or three gangs who divide the
profits between themselves, as well to those doing dead work as to the
others.'
That the price of 5s. a load was calculated to pay the miners for
their preliminary unproductive 'dead' work, may be gathered from the
fact that 'tithe ore,' that is to say the ore paid to the Church, was
bought back from the rector of Beer at 2s. the load, and a further 9d.
was deducted from this sum for washing the ore.[155] At the same time
it is clear that where the 'dead' work was exceptionally heavy or the
eventual yield small this system of payment would not work; and in 1323
we find that the 'dead work' of clearing, searching, and digging into
an old mine in Devon was paid at the rate of 3s. 4d. the fathom, and
that two gangs of six men were paid at the daily rate of 7d.-9d., about
1½d. a head, for searching for the vein and for piercing the hard rock
to follow up the vein in hope of finding a richer vein.[156]
By the Ordinance of 1297 wages were to be paid every Saturday, though
as a matter of fact we find that they were constantly falling into
arrears.
'All the ore of each week shall be measured before the Saturday and
carried to the boles or other places where it is to be smelted. And
knowledge shall be taken each Saturday or Sunday of the issues of each
week in all things. And the payments shall be made to the miners and
other workmen the same Saturday. And no miner shall remain in a market
town under colour of buying food, or in other manner after the ninth
hour on Sunday, without leave.'
Besides their wages the miners received such iron, steel, and ropes
as they required, free of charge, and had the use of a forge for the
repair of their tools.[157] At Beer, in 1297, there were three forges,
one for each of the three mines into which the field was divided,[158]
and each worked by a man and a boy. In addition to the smiths[159]
there would be, as auxiliaries, one or more candlemakers, carpenters,
charcoal-burners, and woodcutters. In many mines it was also necessary
to employ a number of hands in baling water out of the pits with
leathern bodges or buckets; during April 1323 an average of twenty
persons were so engaged at Beer Alston, and during one week the number
rose to forty-eight.[160] So greatly did the accumulation of water in
the pits interfere with work, that in early times the Devon mines were
closed down during the winter,[161] and it was not until about 1297
that means were found of dealing with this evil. About that date the
plan of draining the pits by means of 'avidods' or adits, that is to
say horizontal galleries driven from the bottom of the pits to a level
of free drainage on the surface, already in use in the tin mines, was
introduced into the lead mines. The ordinances of 1297 arranged for one
hundred tinners to work in 'avidods,' and the accounts of the working
of these mines for the same year show payments averaging £12, 10s.
to 'William Pepercorn and his partners,' and to six other gangs 'for
making avidods.'[162] It was probably in the following year that Walter
de Langton, Bishop of Chester, reported that the yield of the Beer mine
had been doubled by the new method of draining, as they could now work
as well in the winter as in the summer.[163]
The ore having been raised was broken up with a hammer, no mechanical
stamps being used apparently before the sixteenth century, if then,
though there is mention in 1302 of a machine (_ingenium_) for breaking
'black work' or slag.[164] It was then washed in 'buddles' or troughs,
with the aid of coarse sieves, women being frequently employed for
this process. The washed ore, separated as far as possible from stone
and other impurities, was then carried to the smelting furnace. The
commonest type of furnace was the 'bole,' a rough stone structure
like a limekiln, with an opening at the top, serving as a chimney,
and also for charging the furnace, and one or more vents at the base
for the blast. These boles were usually built in exposed and draughty
positions, and could only be used when the wind was favourable. At
an early date they were supplemented by 'slag-hearths' or furnaces
(_fornelli_) possessing an artificial blast and closely resembling
blacksmiths' forges. The bellows of these hearths were usually driven
by the feet of men or women, but a water mill was in use in Devon at
least as early as 1295,[165] and at Wolsingham, in Durham, in 1426
water power was used when available, the footblast being used during
dry seasons.[166] The fuel of the boles was brushwood, and that of
the hearths charcoal, with peat and, for the remelting of the lead,
sea-coal. In Devon mention is made of a third type of smelting house,
the 'hutte,' the nature of which is obscure. The huttes are usually
classed with the boles;[167] thus it was noted in 1297 that 'from each
load of black ore smelted at the huttes and boles there come 3½ feet of
silver-lead, each foot containing 70 lbs. of lead, each pound weighing
25s. sterling. And from a load of black ore smelted by the mill furnace
come 3 feet of silver-lead. And from a load of white ore smelted by
the furnace or elsewhere come 1½ feet of silver-lead. Moreover a pound
of lead made from black ore smelted by the boles and huttes and by
their furnaces yields 2 dwt. of silver; a pound of lead from black ore
smelted by the mill furnace yields 3 dwt. of silver; and a pound made
from white ore 1½ dwt.' In the same way the 'black work' or slag of
both boles and huttes were reworked at the furnaces.[168] A possible
hint is found in the fact that large quantities of refined lead had to
be put into the hutte when it was first lit,'as the huttes cannot burn
ore or smelt lead without the addition of sufficient melted lead at the
start to roast (_coquenda_) the ore in the lead so added.'[169] This
certainly suggests some sort of cupellation furnaces. Yet another type
of furnace was the 'turn-hearth' used in the Mendips; the construction
of this, again, is obscure, but it seems to have derived its name from
some portion of the hearth being movable and adjustable to changing
winds, while it would seem that the ordinary furnace could only be used
when the wind blew from a particular quarter.[170] There are references
in 1302 to a '_fornellus versatilis_' used in the Devon mines, and one
entry speaks of making the furnace 'upon the turning machine' (_super
ingenium versatile_).[171]
The bolers and furnacemen, who were paid about 12d. to 16d. a week,
their assistants receiving about half those amounts, having cast the
lead into pigs and stamped it, handed it over to the wardens of the
mine. The next process was the refining of the silver from the lead
by cupellation. When an alloy of silver and lead is melted on an open
hearth with free access of air, the lead is oxidized and, in the form
of litharge, can be removed either by skimming it off or by absorption
by the porous body of the hearth, leaving the silver in a more or less
pure form. By adding more lead and repeating the process the silver can
be further refined. In England it seems to have been usual to remove
the litharge by absorption; in the case of the Romano-British refinery
at Silchester,[172] the absorbent material used was bone ash, but in
the medieval refineries at the Devon mines charred 'tan turves,'[173]
or refuse blocks of oak bark from the tanneries, were used, and
probably the same material was used in Derbyshire, the southern mines
being largely worked by Derbyshire miners. A thick bed of this tan-ash
was made with a dished hollow in the middle, in which was placed the
fuel and the lead; the hearth was then fired and blast supplied from
the side: when the whole was melted the fire was raked aside and the
blast turned on to the upper surface of the molten metal, which was
thus rapidly oxidized and so refined.
But first, as soon as the mass of silver-lead was in a fluid state,
'before the ash has absorbed any of the lead, the lead is to be stirred
and mixed so that it is of equal quality throughout, and a quantity of
the lead amounting to about 6s. weight shall be taken out, and this
shall be divided into two parts, half being given to the refiner,
ticketed with his name, and the date and sealed by the wardens, and
the other half shall be assayed by the king's assayer in the presence
of the wardens and of the refiner, and the refiner shall answer for
the whole of that refining at the rate of the assay, as nearly as is
reasonable, having regard to the fact that there is greater waste and
loss in the big operation of refining than in the assay. And when the
silver has been fully refined it shall be given by the refiners to the
wardens for a tally (or receipt) of the weight, so that there shall
be neither suspicion nor deceit on either side.... And the lead that
remains in the ash after the refining shall be resmelted at a suitable
time.'[174] These ordinances of 1297, just quoted, arranged for there
being five skilled refiners at the Devon mines, and the account rolls
show that they received from 18d. to 2s. a week.
The silver seems to have been cast into plates or ingots varying from
ten to twenty pounds in weight and value (for the monetary pound was
simply the pound weight of standard silver). Its purity probably
varied, for while in 1296 the pound of refined silver was mixed with
14d. of alloy to bring it to the standard,[175] a few years later
silver weighing £132, 5s. was worth only £131, 13s. 7¼d. in coined
money,[176] and 370 lbs. of silver sent up from Martinstowe in 1294 had
to be further refined in London before it could be made into silver
vessels for the Countess of Barre.[177] In the case of the lead we
have the usual medieval complexity of weights. An early entry[178]
records that 'a carretate (or cartload) of lead of the Peak contains
24 fotinels, each of 70 lbs., and the fotinel contains 14 cuts[179] of
5 lbs. A carretate of London is larger by 420 lbs.' The London weight
appears to have gained the day, as a later entry gives 13½ lbs. to a
stone, 6 stones to a foot, and 30 feet (or 2430 lbs.) to a carretate
'according to the weight of the Peak.'[180] In Devon we find in 1297
carretates of 24 feet and 32 feet in use simultaneously, the foot being
70 lbs. here as in Derbyshire.[181]
In no other part of England had the lead-mining industry so continuous
a history of steady prosperity as in Derbyshire. The Devon mines
seem to have been richer and more productive during a short period,
but the half century, 1290-1340 practically covers the period of
their boom. During the five years, 1292-1297, these mines produced
£4046 of silver, and about £360 worth of lead; next year the silver
amounted to £1450. Then in April 1299 the king leased the mines to the
Friscobaldi, Italian merchants and money-lenders, with whom he had many
dealings.[182] They agreed to pay 13s. 4d. a load for the ore, but
after about a year, during which time they drew some 3600 loads of
ore,[183] they found that they were losing heavily, the ore not being
worth more than 10s. a load, and the costs of working being higher
than they had expected.[184] The mines, however, continued to yield
well when worked by the king for his own benefit, as much as £1773
of silver and £180 from lead being obtained in 1305: this, however,
seems to have been the highwater mark, the yield for 1347 being only
£70.[185] After this the mines were let to private adventurers from
time to time; but such records as we have do not suggest that many
fortunes were made from them: in 1426 the yield for the previous two
and a half years had been 39 ounces of silver,[186] for the year 1442
it was £17,[187] but for the six years, 1445-51, the average output
rose to 4000 ounces.[188] At the beginning of the boom, in 1295, it
was found necessary to recruit labour from the older lead-mining
districts, and commissioners were appointed to select miners for Devon
from Cheshire, Earl Warenne's liberty of Bromfield in Shropshire, the
Peak, Gloucester, Somerset, and Dorset.[189] The ordinances of 1297
stipulated for 150 miners from the Peak, and an equal number of local
men from Devon and Cornwall, though the accounts show that there were
that year 384 miners from the Peak, and 35 from Wales.[190] On the
other hand, in 1296, while we have over 300 miners coming from the
Peak, a twelve days' journey, we also find four picked men sent from
Devon to the king's court, and thence to Ireland to prospect on the
king's behalf.[191]
The prosperity of the Devon mines caused an increase of activity in
those of Somerset, where a number of fresh strikes were reported
during the early years of the fourteenth century, about one of which
an optimistic lead reeve wrote to the Bishop of Bath and Wells as
follows:[192]—
'Know, my lord, that your workmen have found a splendid mine[193] of
lead on the Mendips to the east of Priddy, and one that can be opened
up with no trouble, being only five or six feet below the ground. And
since these workmen are so often thieves, craftily separating the
silver from the lead, stealthily taking it away, and when they have
collected a quantity fleeing like thieves and deserting their work,
as has frequently happened in times past, therefore your bailiffs are
causing the ore to be carried to your court of Wookey where there is
a furnace built at which the workmen smelt the ore under supervision
of certain persons appointed by your steward. And as the steward,
bailiffs, and workmen consider that there is a great deal of silver
in the lead, on account of its whiteness and sonority, they beg that
you will send them as soon as possible a good and faithful workman
upon whom they can rely. I have seen the first piece of lead smelted
there, of great size and weight, which when it is struck rings almost
like silver, wherefore I agree with the others that if it is faithfully
worked the business should prove of immense value to yourself and to
the neighbourhood, and if a reliable workman is obtained I think that
it would be expedient to smelt the ore where it is dug, on account of
the labour of carrying so heavy material such a distance. The ore is in
grains like sand.'
There is no evidence that this mine fulfilled the sanguine expectations
of its discoverers, but about the same time, in 1314, we find Herman
de Alemannia and other adventurers working a mine in Brushford, near
Dulverton.[194] The Germans were for many centuries the most skilled
miners, and English mining owes much to their enterprise. As an
instance of their greater skill we may take the case of Thomas de
Alemaigne, silver finer,[195] who being out of work petitioned the king
to grant him the refuse and slag (_les aftirwas et les remisailles_)
thrown aside at the mines in Devonshire, which had been refined so
far as those at the mines could refine them: no one else would touch
them, so the king would get no gain unless he granted them to Thomas,
who was willing to pay 20s. a year for the right to rework them. This
same Thomas de Alemaigne was appointed in 1324 to dig, cleanse, and
examine the king's mines in Cumberland and Westmoreland.[196] Probably
these mines had not been worked for some time previous, as in 1292
the total issues of the Alston mines for the last fourteen years were
said to have been £4, 0s. 2d., possibly owing to the absence of fuel,
which is given as the reason for an iron mine there being worth only
15s. a year.[197] Later, in 1359, Tilman de Cologne was farming the
Alston mines, and in 1475, as a result apparently of a report by George
Willarby[198] that there were in the north of England three notable
mines, one containing 27 lbs. of silver to the fodder of lead with a
vein half a rod broad, another 18 lbs. with a vein five rods broad, and
the third 4 lbs. with a vein 1¼ rods broad, the mines of Blaunchlond in
Northumberland, Fletchers in Alston, Keswick in Cumberland, and also
the copper mine near Richmond, were granted for fifteen years to the
Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Northumberland, William Goderswyk, and
John Marchall.[199] The two noblemen were presumably sleeping partners,
and appear to have abandoned the arrangement, as soon afterwards, in
1478, William Goderswyk, Henry Van Orel, Arnold van Anne, and Albert
Millyng of Cologne, and Dederic van Riswyk of England, received a
grant for ten years of all mines of gold, silver, copper, and lead in
Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, paying one-fifteenth of
the profits.[200]
Although gold is mentioned in this last entry and in a number of other
grants of mines in the fifteenth century, and though Galias de Lune
and his partners were licensed in 1462 to dig ores containing gold in
Gloucestershire and Somerset,[201] gold does not appear to have been
worked in paying quantities in England. In 1325 John de Wylwringword
was sent down to the mines of Devon and Cornwall to seek for gold:
he obtained from the Devon mines 22 dwt., of which he refined 3 dwt.
at Exeter; this yielded 2½ dwt. of pure gold.[202] The remainder was
sent up to the Exchequer and eventually refined at York; but this is
almost the only note we have of gold being found, though no doubt small
quantities were found from time to time in the Cornish stream tinworks.
In 1545 one St. Clere declared that certain gold called 'gold hoppes
and gold oore' in every stream tinwork in Devon and Cornwall was by
ignorance of the tinners molten with the tin, and so conveyed abroad;
certain persons were appointed to test his statement.[203]