The Forest of Dean: An Historical and Descriptive Account Part 3

Court--Speech-house finished--The Forest perambulated--Fifth order of the Miners' Court--Proposal to resume the King's iron-works rejected--Sixth and seventh orders of the Miners' Court--Riots connected with the Revolution--Eighth order of the Miners' Court--Dr. Parsons's account of the Forest.

Contemporaneously with the important Parliamentary enactments noticed in the preceding chapter, there took place, on the 18th of March (1663), the earliest session of a local but very significant court, that of "the Mine Law," whose date and proceedings have been preserved. It was held at Clearwell before Sir Baynham Throgmorton, deputy constable of St.

Briavel's Castle, and a jury of forty-eight free miners, and shows that the Forest Miners of that day were a body of men engaged in carrying on their works according to rule, so as to avoid disputes or unequal dealing.

The Court ordered and ordained, as respects the western half of the district, that the minerals of the Forest could only be disposed of, beyond the limits of the Hundred, by free miners; that no manner of carriage was to be used for transporting them, nor more than four horses kept by any one party; that the selling price was to be determined by six "Barganers"; but that any free miner might carry "a dozen" of lime coal to the lime slad for 3s., to the top of the Little Doward for 5s. 6d., to any other kilns thereon for 5s. 4d., to the Blackstones for 5s., to Monmouth for 5s. 6d., to the Weare over Wye for 4s., to Coldwall for 3s. 6d., to Lydbrook for 3s., and to Redbrook for 4s. 4d.; that no young man who had not served an apprenticeship for five years should work for himself at the mine or coal, nor should any of the "labourers" do so unless they had worked seven years, neither was any young man to carry coal, &c., unless he was a householder; and that none should sue for mine, &c., but in the Court of the Mine, under the penalty "of 100 dozen of good sufficient oare or coale, the one-half to be forfeited to the King, and the other halfe to the myner that will sue for the same." The originals of this foregoing, and of the seventeen succeeding "Orders," written on parchment, are preserved in the office of the Deputy Gaveller at Coleford. The forty-eight signatures to it are almost effaced, and about half have "marks" affixed to them, but the whole are written in the same hand.

The new Act of 1668 was soon brought into operation. Immediately after it had pa.s.sed, upwards of 8,487 acres of open land were enclosed and planted, the remaining 2,513 acres being taken in some time afterwards.

The following statement of Mr. Agar, then surveyor of the woods, shows that the cost of making the enclosures was raised as the Act directed.

He said that he "received several sums of money by the sale of cordwood to Mr. Foley and divers others, and of the timber that did happen to arise out of the old oaks and beeches felled for the cordwood and other uses, and of wood that I _sold_ to the colliers for their pits, in the whole amounting to 5 pounds,125 8s. 9.25d., which money was expended in buying Cannope, &c., of Banistree Maynard, Esq., at 1,500 pounds; in setting up his Majesty's Enclosures in the said Forest, of 8,400 acres, with gates, stiles, &c., and some reparations of them; in employing a sworn surveyor to admeasure them; in building part of the Speech House; in divers repairs at Saint Briavel's Castle; in the charge of executing two several commissions, and other services in the said Forest."

In allusion to the item of timber _sold_ to the colliers, the commissioners, in their report of 1788, remark:--"Immediately after the pa.s.sing of the Act of 1668, the colliers, who, it is said, now pretend to have a right to whatever timber they find necessary for carrying on their works in the Forest, without paying anything for it, then purchased it from the Crown." It seems also that "the Speech House" was then commenced, although it was not finished until 1682.

The _second_ existing Order of the Mine Law Court states that it met in 1674, on the 9th March, at Clowerwall, before Sir George Probert, deputy constable of St. Briavel's Castle, chiefly with the design of raising a fund for defending in a legal way the rights of the free miners, and affording them support when injured at their work.

To these ends a payment of 6d. per quarter was levied upon each miner, digging for or carrying mineral, if fifteen years of age, as also upon every horse so used, payable within fourteen days, under a fine of 2s. Six collectors were to receive the above payments, to be remunerated at the rate of 1s. per quarter for each pound they gathered. Twice a year they handed in their accounts, under a penalty of 5 pounds, and perpetual exclusion from any office of trust, if such were found defective. It appears therefore that the free miners valued their rights, and not only took thought for the morrow, but provided for it. They added a proviso that the servants of the Deputy Constable should have the benefit of always being supplied first at the pits, showing that they knew something also of public diplomacy. This "Order" has the names of forty-eight miners attached, all severally sealed, but written in one hand.

In this year also (1674) it was suggested that if the King would put the old iron-works of the Forest in repair, and also build one furnace and two forges, all which might be done for 1,000 pounds, a clear profit of 2,190 pounds could be made upon every 8,000 long and short cords of wood, of which the Forest was in a condition to supply a vast quant.i.ty. This proposal was nevertheless not acted upon, it being judged desirable rather to pull down the old iron-works than erect new, lest the waste in supplying the necessary quant.i.ties of wood should ultimately prove destructive to the Forest, now in a flourishing condition. Accordingly the iron-works then standing were ordered to be pulled down, and the materials sold. The greatest attention is admitted by the commissioners of 1788, who examined the office papers relating to this period, to have been given by the then Ministers of State, by Sir Charles Harbord, surveyor-general of the Crown lands, and by his son and successor Mr.

William Harbord, to the protection of the young wood and the enclosures; and they affirm that "it is chiefly in those parts of the Forest which were then enclosed that the timber with which the dockyards have been since furnished from this Forest has been felled, and in which any considerable quant.i.ty of useful timber may now be found."

On the 28th of September, 1675, at the recommendation of Sir Charles Harbord, to whom the plan was probably suggested by the precedent of the ten bailiwicks into which the district had been anciently divided, the Forest was formed into six "walks," or districts, a keeper being appointed to each. Six lodges were built for their use in convenient situations, with 30 acres of land attached, "for the better encouragement and enabling of the said keepers to attend and watch over the said enclosures within their several walks, and to preserve the same, and the young springs of wood and trees thereon growing, and to grow from time to time, from spoil and harm." The names given to each of the six divisions were derived from some of the most eminent living characters of that day.

Thus, the Speech House, or King's Walk, was so called after Charles II.; York Walk and Lodge after the Duke of York; Danby Walk and Lodge after the Earl of Danby, prime Minister at the time; Worcester Walk and Lodge after Henry Marquis of Worcester, the then constable of the Castle of St.

Briavel's, and warden of the Forest; Latimer Walk and Lodge after Viscount Latimer; and Herbert Walk and Lodge after Lord Herbert; in the two last instances, out of compliment to the Worcester family apparently.

The Speech House was so called from its being intended for the use of the ancient Court of "the Speech," as mentioned in the Laws and Franchises of the Mine. Now also a grant of sixty tons of timber was made by the King towards rebuilding the parish church of Newent, as a tablet therein declares.

How strictly the enclosures were preserved at this time against all mining operations, is shown by the refusal which Sir Charles Harbord gave to a pet.i.tion presented to the Treasury by several gentlemen and freeholders of the parish of Newland, for leave to make a coal level through an enclosure, although they were backed by Sir Baynham Throckmorton, Deputy-Governor of St. Briavel's Castle, who had also been one of the Commissioners first appointed for carrying out the Act of 1668, and who gave it as his opinion that agreeing to the prayer of the pet.i.tion would conduce to the preservation of the woods in the Forest, and the convenience and advantage of the country. The wording of the refusal was very peremptory, to the effect that "the enclosures could only be preserved for timber by being kept discharged from all claims;"

that "although miners and quarrymen had been long permitted to dig where they pleased, yet that they could not prove their right to do so; and as to coal-works, any such claims were unknown, much less any liberty of cutting his Majesty's woods for the support thereof; and the same ought to be totally suppressed, and would be so by a good officer, as Colonel Wade was in the time of the Usurpation, and that only by the Forest Law, and the ordinary authority of a Justice of Peace." It is not unlikely that in the last observation a hint was intended to be given to Sir Baynham Throckmorton, lest he should compromise his independent position with the colliers in the Forest by publicly accepting, as he had done the year before at their Mine Law Court, "their thankfull acknowledgment of the many favors received by them from him," in return for which they agreed that, when he "should send his own horses or waynes to any of the colepitts for cole, the miners shall presently seame and load them before any other person whatever."

Pa.s.sing over an interval of three years, we come to the date of the _third_ of the Mine Law Courts, held on the 8th September, 1678, at "Clowerwall," before Sir Baynham Throckmorton, &c., whose favour it shows the free-miners were most anxious to preserve, since, upon understanding that the former order of 1668, forbidding any foreigner to convey or deliver minerals, had proved prejudicial to him and his friends and tenants, they now revoked the same, allowing any foreigner to carry fire or lime coal for his own use; besides which, they const.i.tuted 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 bush.e.l.l, 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 quant.i.ty 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 cla.s.sed with the "free miners" of the Forest, although "they had been born in it, and never lived elsewhere," but as "cabiners,"

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

[Picture: The Speech House]

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 s.p.a.cious Court-room, devoted to the public business of the Forest, for which it has been used ever since.

The "Order" then pa.s.sed 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.

It was therefore decreed that a dozen Winchester bushels of iron ore should be delivered at St. Wonnarth's furnace for 10s.; at Whitchurch, 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 Pa.s.sage, for 5s. 6d.; at Gunspill, for 7s. So 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 a.s.sumed 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 forty-eight 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 5,390 pounds a year for the Crown, upon an outlay, in the first place, of no more than 1,000 pounds, 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 a.s.sembled 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 princ.i.p.al 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 doc.u.ment shows this order to have been signed by one person writing down the names of the forty-eight 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 ent.i.tled 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 forty-eight jurymen whose names are appended to the above, sixteen signed.

It was in the month of January following (1688) that a riotous a.s.semblage of the people pulled down Worcester Lodge and York Lodge, besides much defacing and spoiling the Speech House; an outrage connected probably with the unpopularity of James II., after whom the Speech House and York Lodge were called. With reference to the general feeling of the neighbourhood respecting the principles of the Revolution, Mr. Pyrke, of Dean Hall, states that the release of Lord Lovelace, a supporter of the Prince of Orange, out of Gloucester prison, was effected by "a young gentleman of that county," an ancestor of his, "who took up arms for the Prince, and drove out all the Popish crew that were settled in that city," and that the exploit has been handed down in the following rude lines, sung by his haymakers at their harvest supper:--

"A health to Captain Pyrke, who in Little Dean was bred, And of a thousand men he was the head; He fought for the truth and the Protestant faith; We drink his good health, and so do rejoice.

He down in the West King William did meet, And to him he sent both oxen and sheep, Till he had an order which from him did come, And with honour to Gloucester he brought him along.

When he came to Gloucester he had but forty men, The city of Gloucester all barred unto him; The city was guarded with soldiers about, But he brought Lord Lovelace from his prison quite out.

With sword in his hand he before them did go; He was not ashamed his face for to show: 'They who have anything to say to Lord Lovelace,' said he, 'O then, if they have, let them speak it to me.'

Then up to the Mayor away he did get, And his wooden G.o.d to pieces did beat; And the big golden chair where King James sate He threw in the fire, which made a brave heat.

Then up into Oxfordshire away he did ride, To bring Lord Lovelace safe home; He plundered the Papists along as he goes, He could not endure to see us abused."

Two years later than the date of the above outrages, wood-fellings to the extent of 6,186 short cords were made, pursuant to their Majesties'

letters of Privy Seal. They were sold, it is said, for six shillings a cord, which was considered a good price for the county of Gloucester.

A period of about five years from the time that the last was held brings us to the date of the _eighth_ record of the Mine Law Court, viz. the 17th of January, 1692. It was held at Clearwell, before the three deputies of the Constable of St. Briavel's Castle, _i.e._ Tracy Catchmay, John Higford, and George Bond, Esqrs.

The Court levied a further contribution of 12d. upon every miner, with an additional 1s. on every mine horse, with which to clear off certain charges incurred in a recent suit in the Court of Exchequer at Westminster. It extended the protective distance of 100 yards, within which every pit was guarded from being encroached upon by any other work, to 300 yards. It also provided 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. This order was signed by sixteen out of the forty-eight miners with their own hands, the rest making their marks only.

To this period is a.s.signed Dr. Parsons's quaint remarks on the Forest.

"It abounds," he says, "with springs for the most part of a brownish or umber colour, occasioned by their pa.s.sage through the veynes of oker, of which there is a great plenty, or else through the rushy tincture of the mineralls of the ore. The ground of the Forest is more inclined to wood and cole than corn, yet they have enough of it too. The inhabitants are, some of them, a sort of robustic wild people, that must be civilized by good discipline and government. The ore and cinder wherewith they make their iron (which is the great imployment of the poorer sort of inhabitants) 'tis dug in most parts of ye Forest, one in the bowells, and the other towards the surface of the earth. But, whether it be by virtue of the Forrest laws, or other custome, the head Gaviler of the Forrest, or others deputed by him, provided they were born in the Hundred of St.

Briavel's, may go into any man's grounds whatsoever, within the limitation of the Forrest, and dig or delve for ore and cinders without any molestation. There are two sorts of ore: the best ore is your brush ore, of a blewish colour, very ponderous and full of shining specks like grains of silver; this affordeth the greatest quant.i.ty of iron, but being melted alone produceth a mettal very short and brittle. To remedy this inconvenience, they make use of another material which they call cinder, it being nothing else but the refuse of the ore after the melting hath been extracted, which, being melted with the other in due quant.i.ty, gives it that excellent temper of toughness for which this iron is preferred before any other that is brought from foreign parts. But it is to be noted that in former times, when their works were few and their vents small, they made use of no other bellows but such as were moved by the strength of men, by reason whereof their fires were much less intense than in the furnaces they now imploy; so that, having in them only melted downe the princ.i.p.al part of the ore, they rejected the rest as useless, and not worth their charge: this they call their cinder, and is found in an inexhaustible quant.i.ty throughout all the parts of the country where any glomerys formerly stood, for so they were then called."

CHAPTER IV.

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'