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who succeeded his father, Daniel Hechstetter, in the management 

 of mines. We find that Joseph Hechstetter and Francis Hech- 

 stetter of Keswick, together with John Bankes, son of WilUam 

 Bankes of Castlerigg, with others to the number of sixty, tenants 

 of the manor of Castlerigg and Derwentwater, joining together to 

 enfranchise their lands and tenements from arbitrary fines to fine 

 certain, for the sum of ;^i44i, paid to Sir Edward Ratcliffe and 

 his brothers Francis and Cuthbert Radcliffe. 



This was in the year 1623, just when John Bankes|was in 

 practice, and as he is a witness to the deed, we may fairly conclude 

 that the Hechstetters and the Bankes took a principal part in 

 bringing about this arrangement. We need not stop to speak of 

 the incalculable advantage which this enfranchisement brought to 

 the neighbourhood by abolishing arbitrary fines, and creating them 

 customary freeholds. The old tenure was at once''a source of 

 impoverishment to the tenant, and a bar to all improvement to 

 the lands and buildings. 



Is it assuming too much to say that indirectly we are indebted 

 to the rise of Sir John Bankes from the yeoman^class, through the 

 prosperity of his father, occasioned by the introduction of this 

 new industry ? 



Sir John Bankes did not forget his native place, but by his will 

 left property to create another industry, but which, in consequence 

 of the unsettled state of the country consequent on the civil war 

 then raging, was never put in force. The Charity, however, 

 remains a memorial of his liberality, and affection for his native 

 place. 



