THE LOST HISTORY OF PEAK FOREST. 167 



Nottingham, were convicted at this inquest. The Veseys of 

 Fulbec, Warner Engayne, Thomas Gresley, Thomas de Furnival, 

 Ralf Bagot (brother of the Earl), William, the then Earl of Derby, 

 the Saviles, Albinis, and very many clerical magnates, the Bishop 

 of Chester, his Archdeacons and Canons, and many of the secular 

 clergy, some of them for hunting and others for receiving the 

 hunters- and consuming the venison. This latter was a very 

 common offence, and the fact that men dared to run the risk of 

 a conviction for the enjoyment of gracing a wedding feast with a 

 haunch of vension would not indicate that the Forest Laws carried 

 much terror with them at that period, as our veracious historians 

 constantly assert. Nor were convictions a mere matter of course. 

 Sometimes the Verderers failed to convict, though they seem 

 generally to have been successful. 



William de Vesci, Baron, Wm. Latun', Jo. de Auceville, 

 brother of Robert, Wm. de Sattorp, and Robert Viator (? Venator), 

 of the earl, were charged with taking three stags in the forest. 

 John de Auceville was then in the Holy Land on a pilgrimage. 

 William de Vesci protested before the Verderers that he took the 

 stags by the gift of the king, and he brought the king's brief by 

 Brian de Insula, then Justice of Forests, therefore they withdrew 

 the charge, and William with his whole family were quit of it. An 

 unpleasant story, and probably not an uncommon one, showing 

 how lightly life was regarded in that age, appears in a charge against 

 Matthew de Sipeley, Robt. de Burton, Matthew de Storches, Bate 

 Bradule, Roger de Deneby, and Robt. de Rysley, for coming 

 into the forest with their boys and with hounds to commit venison 

 trespasses, in other words, to hunt. They were captured by the 

 king's foresters and liberated by Robert de Esseburn, constable of 

 Peak, for Ralf fil Nicolas (bailiff). They were ordered by the 

 king's writ to be taken before Robert de Ros, then Justice of the 

 Forest, but Robert de Esseburn appeared and said that Bate 

 and Roger had escaped prison and he then beheaded them 

 {decollati), and that he had discharged Robt. de Rysley and the 

 other boys because they were youths. For this, Robert de 

 Esseburn was in misericordia. It would have been satisfactory to 



