THE FOREST OFFICERS
The chief local authority over a forest was the keeper or warden, who
was also variously known as a steward, bailiff, and chief or master
forester. In no two forests were the terms for the various ministers
exactly similar, and the nomenclature often varied for the same forest at
different periods. Certain forests, such as those of Cheshire, were ruled
by hereditary wardens or keepers; but they were more usually appointed by
the Crown, during pleasure, under letters patent. This office was often
held in conjunction with that of keeper of the forest castle, as was the
case with the Peak Forest. Writs relative to the administration of the
forest business were addressed to this chief keeper, as well as orders
for the delivery of venison or wood.
For the most part he was expected to preside personally, or through
his deputy or lieutenant, at the local courts. He had considerable
perquisites and privileges, and was generally allowed to distribute a
certain amount of venison to the county gentlemen of the district without
direct warrant.
[Illustration: VERDERER’S SLAB
TWELFTH CENTURY
Bakewell, Derbyshire]
The verderers were forest officers directly responsible to the Crown,
although, like coroners, they were elected by the freeholders in the
county court on writ addressed to the sheriff. The appointment was
considered to be one for life; but any verderer could be removed by
the Crown for incapacity, or for lack of due property qualification
within the forest. The verderers were always men of some position, and
frequently knights; they had no salary, and perquisites of any kind were
the exception. They varied in number; in the smaller forests there were
only two; four seems to have been the average, but in Sherwood there were
six. It was the verderer’s duty to view, receive, and enroll all manner
of attachments for vert or venison trespass; and he had to attend all
forest courts and take the leading part under the steward or keeper at
the swainmotes. In the swainmotes, the verderers were the judges in all
vert cases of the value of 2_d._ or under; this was afterwards raised to
4_d._
[Illustration: VERDERER’S SLAB
TWELFTH CENTURY
Chelmorton, Derbyshire]
[Illustration: FORESTER’S SLAB
TWELFTH CENTURY
Wirksworth, Derbyshire]
The verderer’s symbol of office was an axe. In several forests, as in
Duffield, there was a chief verderer, styled the axe-bearer, appointed
directly by the Crown, and the recipient of certain perquisites.
[Illustration: FORESTER’S SLAB
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Bakewell, Derbyshire]
[Illustration: FORESTER’S SLAB
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Hope, Derbyshire]
Foresters were officers sworn to preserve the vert and venison in
their own divisions, or walks, or wards, which were sometimes termed
bailiwicks. They had to “attach” offenders, and present them at the
forest courts. If they found any man in the forest with bows and arrows,
snares or dogs, they might arrest and imprison him as if they had
actually seen him hunt or kill the deer. They had to take special care
of the deer during the fence or close month, _i.e._ the fortnight before
and after Midsummer Day, when the fawns were usually dropped, and to
provide them with deer-browse or tree-clippings in the winter. They
might not hunt themselves, or even carry a bow, save under warrant or
direct order of the keeper, or when training the young dogs according to
custom. Foresters had always certain rights of pasturage and pannage, and
usually one or two deer and one or two trees during the year. The working
forester was generally also paid so much the day, always reckoning seven
days to the week, as he was supposed to be ever on duty.
The foresters of Clarendon, Wilts, eight in number, received 2_d._ a day
each, at the rate of 365 days to the year, including all Sundays and holy
days. This rate of payment is mentioned in 1360, and it remained the
same in 1483. Twopence a day was also the usual wage of the Pickering
foresters. Occasionally foresters were appointed by letters patent of the
Crown; this was the case with some of the Sherwood foresters, _temp._
Edward IV., who received 4_d._ a day, and were allowed to act by deputy.
There was often a general or itinerant forester for the whole area,
who had a higher rate of pay, and, as he was mounted, was frequently
called the riding forester. Sometimes the Crown appointed several such
foresters, as did Edward I. for Peak Forest at the beginning of his
reign, calling them _forestarii equitii_. In the next century there is
record of the Crown appointment of a chief forester for the same district
at the very high wage of 12_d._ a day. Such an officer as this was, at a
later period, known in various forests under the name of bow-bearer, from
having the right always to carry a bow, personally or at the hands of his
attendant. To this office special perquisites were usually attached, and
eventually the duties were almost entirely honorary, save that he had to
wait upon the king, and regulate the royal hunting, when he came to a
particular forest.
Strictly speaking, the symbol of a royal or chief forester was a bow,
whereas that of the ordinary forester was a horn.
In several of the larger forests, such as those of Lancashire, Cheshire,
Dean, Sherwood, and Pickering, there were hereditary foresters-of-fee.
In the Peak Forest, when the question of their origin came up at forest
pleas, they always claimed to date back to the days of William Peverel.
There were originally four (though afterwards subdivided) for each of the
three great bailiwicks of the Peak Forest, who held certain bovates of
land in serjeanty, discharging their obligations in one case by hunting
wolves, and in the others by some amount of forest supervision. In two of
the three bailiwicks they had sworn servants or grooms under them. This
kind of forestership could be held by women and by clerks, but the duties
had then to be discharged by deputy. The foresters-of-fee were bound to
attend all courts, even the frequent swainmotes of their bailiwick, in
person or by authorised sworn deputy.
[Illustration: FORESTER’S SLAB
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Hope, Derbyshire]
[Illustration: FORESTER’S SLAB
FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Papplewick, Notts]
There were usually special perquisites at the time of holding an eyre.
Thus the justices in eyre in 1488 assigned to the forester of Windsor a
beech and a small oak, and to the forester of the baily of Basilles an
oak and a buck.
In the earlier forest days, foresters appear to have been frequently
quartered, in whole or in part, on the tenants within the bounds. Hence,
long after definite wages had become customary, attempts were made to
maintain these boarding arrangements. These wages in kind for themselves,
their horses, and their dogs, were termed _puture_, or _putre_. A case
occurs in the Year Book of Edward III. of a claim of this kind made by a
forester of Inglewood against the abbot of St. Mary’s, York. He claimed
food and drink at the table of the abbot’s servants on every Friday,
together with the right to carry away, whenever he pleased, a flagon of
the best ale, two tallow candles, a bushel of oats for his horse, and a
loaf of black bread for his dog.
Special provision was made against this levying of payment in kind by the
foresters or their servants, in the Forest Charter of 1217. A statute
of 25 Edward III. also strictly forbade “the gatheringe of vitailes nor
other thing by colour of their office against anye man’s wil within their
bayliwick” by all forest ministers, but at the same time left a loophole
for its continuance by exempting that which was “due of olde right.”
Puture disputes were a special grievance in the Lancashire forests, where
this charge on the tenants became commuted for a money payment.
The drink money of the Dartmoor foresters went by the name of _poutura_
in the thirteenth century.
The position of the woodward of a forest, as distinguished from a
forester, is often misunderstood. The woodward, though primarily
responsible for the actual timber or underwood, as the name implies, was
also, as a rule, a forester—that is, he was at the same time responsible
for the venison. To understand their position, it must be remembered
that all the lands within a king’s forest were never entirely demesne.
In every forest there were various woods which were private property;
but they were subject to general forest jurisdiction, such as the free
ingress and egress of the king’s game. Nor could the owners, without
the king’s licence, do anything therein, such as clearing away growing
timber for cultivation, building houses or sheds, establishing forges,
or burning charcoal, that might be held to do damage or cause annoyance
to the deer. To look after their rights, such wood owners were allowed,
nay, were required, to have officials termed woodwards to guard the
king’s venison, and therefore they were not allowed to act save as sworn
servants, taking oath to serve the king in the matter of venison, and
having power to attach and present.
The symbol of the woodward was a small hatchet or bill-hook.
[Illustration: WOODWARD’S SLAB
TWELFTH CENTURY
Newcastle-on-Tyne]
[Illustration: WOODWARD’S SLAB
FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Papplewick, Notts]
In later forest days a kind of chief woodward was sometimes termed
the axe-bearer; and we find a “sealing axe” mentioned in later forest
accounts of Wiltshire, Worcestershire, and Yorkshire, which was used for
blazoning timber intended to be felled.
Agisters were the officers who were chiefly concerned with the collection
of money for the agistment or feeding of cattle and pigs in the demesne
woods or lands of the forest. Beasts of the plough (for the most part
oxen, but occasionally an inferior breed of horse) were generally
allowed such agistment under certain restrictions; and pigs, from 11th
September to 11th November. But each forest had its own peculiarities.
Horse-breeding establishments, or stud farms, were an early institution
in Peak Forest; whilst cattle were the predominating feature of
Dartmoor. Sheep were usually specially restricted. Goats were at all
times peculiarly disliked by deer, and very rarely permitted. As a rule,
agisters were expected to report to the verderers, or direct to the
swainmote, cases of illegal agistment, or of escapes of animals into the
forest.
Rangers were officials that are not heard of till towards the end of the
fourteenth century; their duties were originally confined to seeing that
forest law was duly observed in the outlands or purlieus of the forest.
Their office corresponded in some respects with that of the mounted
forester.
The regarders were responsible for the regard or survey of the forest,
which has been already explained. Less than twelve could not make a
certificate of their “view,” so more than that number were generally
appointed. When making their regard, they were to require the presence
with them of the foresters and woodwards. The regarders, or some of them,
were expected to be present at every removing swainmote.
Another class of officers, of which there are many in such forests as
Duffield, were the parkers or keepers of the different parks. They not
infrequently had under them palers, palesters, or palifers, who were
permanently employed to maintain the pale fences of the parks.