246 Mineral Trades 



"pitches" and were the property of the miner as long as he actually 

 used them.^ Likewise in Derbyshire, the tenure of the working 

 miners was absolutely free; immemorial custom gave the right of 

 mining to each and every comer; not even were unions formed among 

 the miners to close the trade. In the vicinity of the peak they set 

 their claims and the barmaster measured off their "meers" which 

 became their property as against all other miners.- Free-mining 

 resulted in a wide ownership of mines by miners of small means. The 

 partnership system was very prevalent and dispersed the ownership 

 still more. "In general as small shares as forty-eights, ninety-sixths, 

 or even 384ths and 768ths, were held in Derbyshire mines and the very 

 smallest mines have often many partners concerned in them."^ 



The product of these small mining properties, operated by the 

 owners, was sold to a wealthier class who functioned both as smelters 

 and merchants. They sometimes financed the poor miners. Their 

 smelters were near the mines. They carried the lead to Derby and 

 Chesterfield and sold it. It proved a very lucrative business, was the 

 means of many fortunes, and was engaged in by many yeomen.'' In 

 1581 at Duffield it was reported that "the most lords and owners of 

 manors within the said county of late years" had been "disposed to 

 buy ore or make it themselves;" they were given the first option on 

 the lead taken from their manors and paid cash for it at the prevailing 

 price. These smelter-merchants were known as "brenners." Some 

 of them had agents in London; the younger sons of the country gentry 

 acted in this capacity.'' In Somerset also the miners sold to merchants 

 and, occasionally, to the wealthier miners. If sold to a wealthier 

 miner he paid the same prices as the other merchants.® In York 

 lead-merchants were mentioned as early as the thirteenth century, 

 coming from Richmond, Arkengrathdale, Redmire, Preston-under- 

 Scar, and Leyburn, to Newcastle and York to sell their lead.'' During 

 the eighteenth century the miners came more and more to sell their 

 ore and lead to regular customers who had their headquarters at Hull. 

 The price of lead at Hull determined the price at the mines. The 



iCf. S. P. Dom. J<:iiz.. CCLXXXVII. 369, for proceedings by which such 

 claims could be lost. 



^ See the transcriptions which outHne the customs at various dates, in V. C. H., 

 Derby, II, 326, 335, 340. 



' Farey, Agric. of Derbj-, I, 370; see Houghton, Compleat IMiner, for tables for 

 coraputing shares. 



••v. C. H., Derby, II, 331. 



•'Ibid., 346. 



« V. C. H., Somerset, II, 375. 



'V. C. H.. York, II, 351. 



