Iron Making in the Olden Times Part 9

{23} Chapter House Records.

{25a} Inquisition of 15 Edward III., Exchequer Records.

{25b} Fosbrooke's Gloucester, p. 44.

{25c} Book of Mine Law.

{28} Lansdowne MSS., No. 166, f. 365.

{31a} State Papers.

{31b} Ibid.

{31c} Ibid.

{31d} Ibid.

{32} State Papers.

{42a} State Paper Office, Domestic Series, No. 835, fos. 675-710.

{42b} Ibid., Domestic Series, Int., No. 816.

{42c} State Papers, Domestic Series.

{43} Brit. Mus., Harl. MS. 6839, fol. 332.

{46} State Papers, Domestic Series.

{47a} On similar principles, the eighth Order of the Free Miners' Court enacted that "no iron ore intended for Ireland should be shipped on the Severn or Wye for a less sum than 6s. 6d. for every dozen bushels."

{47b} Commissioners' Report of 1788.

{54} To these works Mr Th.o.r.esby alludes, in his diary, 7 Sept., 1694, recording that near Egremont he pa.s.sed "by the iron mines, where we saw them working, and got some ore."

{61} There are other important Iron works at Tintern, Redbrook, &c., but it does not appear that Dean Forest iron is used at them.

{71a} It is difficult to explain the bold introduction of so important an insertion, unless we attribute it to the over-wisdom of some modern printer, who regarded Edward III. as the only excellent and redoubted prince of the Edwardian category.

{71b} These comprehensive limits mark an early age; but in mining matters they were hardly more than nominal--the mineral district comprising only a third of the land thus circ.u.mscribed.

{71c} The proximity of the Severn, and particularly the Wye, to the mine works of the age is here shown.

{71d} Printed "pichard," meaning, possibly, the Wye coracle.

{71e} The French word "gree," for agreement or composition, is familiar among our early poets and writers, and occurs in the old statutes.

{72a} In this and in several other pa.s.sages of this doc.u.ment, "myne " is used for mineral or ore.

{72b} This word and its variations is technical, and is nearly equivalent to a prohibition or injunction.

{72c} This general liberty of mining, without apparent restriction as to surface ownership, is to be found in the earliest charters of the Stannaries, and was and still is extensively prevalent in Germany and elsewhere. The authorities are collected in Mr. Smirke's volume already referred to. It was this remarkable liberty that Lord Nelson noticed when visiting the Forest in 1802.

{72d} In very early times the smith ranked very high among artificers, and was honoured in proportion.

{72e} Probably carbon, old iron cinders, are still found at these places.

{72f} The gate being the spot where justice was administered, in accordance with remote practice.

{73a} Or Court of the Mine held in the castle.

{73b} "Tertia manu," with a third hand; that is, with three witnesses or compurgators.

{73c} In allusion to this rude and arbitrary process of distress, Mr.

Smirke states that it is abundantly countenanced by ancient usage, especially in the Hartz Mines. Haltaus says--"Olim pignoris captio ex debitoris rebus moventibus diu privatorum arbitrio permissa."

{73d} The "cattle" here must not be understood as exclusively applicable to live stock, it refers to all personal "chattels" or goods.

{74a} However whimsical this claim may appear, observes Mr. Smirke, it is almost exactly paralleled in the law ascribed to Rob. I. of Scotland:--"Si debitor per vim a parte creditoris namos abstulerit, creditor c.u.m secta vel huesis persequatur ablatorem."

{74b} A copy of the Holy Gospels was eventually used on such occasions.

{74c} This phrase, "to enquire the myne," Mr. Smirke considers of Latin origin, "libertatim inquirendi mineam"--in which language he thinks the whole of the doc.u.ment was probably first composed.

{75a} The German miners, Mr. Smirke says, enjoyed a similar liberty.

See former liberty on this head.

{75b} According to Mr. Smirke, the corresponding demand made upon the Bergmeister, by the German miners, is equally imperative, unless conflicting claims are put in, when the first finder and not the first claimant is ent.i.tled to preference.

{75c} Mr. Smirke has discovered that a like obligation was imposed on the Irons, or Iron Miners, of the forests in the ancient Earldom of Namur. He very plausibly suggests that the appellation, "Verus," by which the Dean Forest Miners designate each other, is derived from the word Firon.

{75d} Mr. Smirke has traced the giving of similar doles in the ancient const.i.tutions of the Miners of Bohemia, Saxony, and the Hartz.

{76a} The proportion of Profit to the Crown is found to vary in different places, sometimes being no more than a tenth part or even a twentieth or less. These provisions respecting the right of the lord of the soil, whether king or subject, have their counterparts in the old summary laws, which regulate the partic.i.p.ation of the landowner in the discovery and working of mines; the _droit de partage_, or "mit-bauhalf,"

&c. of the German miners.

{76b} See the Regard of 10 Edw. I., &c., which contains a similar specification.

{77} The occurrence of these pre-Reformation terms, more especially the latter, proves the original of this doc.u.ment to be of earlier date than that event. The portion of the day, as thus defined, would seem to answer to our forenoon.

{78} An expression that indicates a Latin original--"judicium firmum et stabile remanebit in perpetuum absque ulla appellatione." No appeal or "calling" lies further. This appeal to successive inquests is remarkable. It resembles the process of reversing a verdict of twelve jurors by a verdict of twenty-four by the old writ of attaint. (See Blackst. Com, vol. iii.)

{79a} The German Miners Mr. Smirke found to possess these rights also.

The tin-bounders of the Stannaries also bequeath their dormant liberty of mining, which is in Cornwall regarded as personal property, and pa.s.ses to executors, and not to the heir.

{79b} This claim to timber, at least where the forest is a royal one, has also been generally admitted into the continental mine codes. King John granted it to the tinners of Devon and Cornwall, but such a grant is now inoperative except as against the Crown.

{80} The Mendip Miners are observed by Mr. Smirke to determine the intervening distance of their pits by a throw of "the hache" two ways, the miner standing up to the girdle in the mine groof. In Bohemia the arrow-flight fixes the limits of the work.