172 THE LOST HISTORY OF PEAK FOREST. 



participated in the chase but in the consumption of the venison, 

 must have been very much astonished at the holding of this 

 remarkable Inquest. 



A more important class of Records to the inhabitants of Derby- 

 shire is to be found in the Inquests concerning purprestures and 

 assarts, and it would seem that just as the traffic in hunting and 

 venison was customary, so it had become the fashion to clear the 

 Forest and erect houses all over it. Probably under the early 

 Norman Kings and the first Kings of the House of Plantagenet 

 there were but few, if any, assarts made in this Forest, for every 

 settler at this latter date seems to have been called upon to explain 

 whether he cleared his assart or erected his dwelling with or with- 

 out the consent of the King's Bailiff, and he seems to have been 

 fined in both cases, though few seem to have been excluded from 

 the occupation of the land. 



It was part of the enquiry where and under whose jurisdiction 

 the assart was made, and this is most valuable for genealogical 

 purposes, giving a pedigree for many Peak families dating from 

 the time of King John. The assarts were generally of small 

 areas, but some of the more bold seem to have cleared twenty or 

 thirty acres at a time, which must have made a serious inroad upon 

 the Forest domains. 



The Inquests of the horse-breeding establishments are very 

 curious. At the first date, 36 Henry III., only about a dozen 

 are mentioned. That of the Abbot of Welbec was at that time 

 the most extensive. He had at Cruchel, in the Forest, 20 horses 

 and 20 mares, in his Equitium, which King John had conceded 

 to the monks of Welbec. 



The Abbot of Mirevale had iiad for the past six years 16 mares 

 with their young ; the Abbot of Basingwerke, 20 with their young ; 

 Wm. de Rode had seven ; Thomas Foljambe, the elder, had the 

 same number, and he was dead, and Thomas Foljambe, his heir, 

 was bound to make compensation for the same. 



In 13 Ed. I. the Queen Consort was presented for having in 

 her Equitium in the Compana 115 mares and foals {pullanes), to 

 the great detriment of the Forest, and it was noted that many 



