FORESTRY 



patent. For example, in 1235 William le 

 Breton, Nicholas de Romsey, Geoffrey de 

 Lawknor, and Simon de Thorp were appointed 

 justices itinerant in the counties of Huntingdon, 

 Northampton, Buckingham, and Oxford. 1 After 

 a session at Huntingdon they arrived at North- 

 ampton, and on 20 June were hearing pleas ' in 

 respect to the forests of Rockingham and Cliffe. 

 On 30 September they were still at Northampton 

 (possibly there had been a vacation during some 

 part of the intervening period), and there they 

 dealt with the Northampton side of Whittlewood 

 and all the pleas of Salcey.* 



In 1272 another forest eyre was held in the 

 county of Northampton and during the reign of 

 Edward I., the intervals between the eyres be- 

 came longer and more uncertain. It is impos- 

 sible to deal at length with the procedure of the 

 justices, but we may quote an interesting case. 

 During the eyre of 1255 it was proved * that a 

 certain ' beast ' was taken beneath the hedge of 

 the castle of Rockingham by the men of the 

 parson of Easton. One of the verderers, John 

 Lovet, probably to screen a friend, declared the 

 beast was a sheep, and on conviction of false- 

 hood by his fellow-verderers and the court was 

 imprisoned, and only obtained his freedom by a 

 heavy fine of 12 marks. The case was evidently 

 regarded as a bad one. 



As in the King's Court, so in the Court of 

 the Forest, there was normally a special pro- 

 cedure in the case of criminal clerks. Occa- 

 sionally, however, clerical poachers made fine ^ 

 to the king without any statement appearing on 

 the record that they were delivered to the bishop. 

 This appears clearly from a Northampton case, 

 in which Robert, parson of Polebrook, and Wil- 

 liam, parson of Barnack, were concerned.' 



A case occurs in the Northamptonshire eyre 

 of 1253 in which it is declared that a man was 

 not attached because he was a clerk.'' When 

 caught ' flagrante delicto ' clerks were sometimes 

 arrested in spite of their refusal to admit lia- 

 bility .^ For example, in January, 1 250-1, a 

 clerical trespasser was met by night in the forest 

 of Rockingham. In spite of his protests, ' the 

 foresters insisted on arresting him, but he con- 

 trived to escape from their custody. 



Once every three years a visitation or regard 

 was held, or ought to have been held, of wood- 



1 Pat. 65, m. 7, cited by Turner, p. 2, Select Pkai 

 of the Forest. 



2 Forest Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 68. 



5 Ibid. No. 70. 



* Turner, op. cit. p. 35. 



^ In the case of clerks the fine was usually styled a 

 ' tax.' 



6 Forest Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 68. Roll 2. 

 ^ Ibid. No. 70, Roll 3. 



8 Ibid. No. 65, printed by Turner. Sekct Pleas of 

 the Forest, pp. 33 and 94. 



9 This is probably the force of the technical phrase 

 here used, ' non potuit eis plegios invenire.' 



lands within the forest boundaries by twelve 

 knights specially chosen. Special attention was 

 directed to assarts, purprestures, and waste. The 

 original record ^° of three regards made in the 

 forests of Cliffe and Rockingham in the years 

 34, 37, and 39 Henry III., respectively, still 

 remains to us, and presents many points of 

 interest. 



If full accounts of the various perambula- 

 tions of the forests made in the reigns of Henry 

 the Third and his successors had survived to our 

 own day, we should possess trustworthy informa- 

 tion as to the extent of the various forests. Pur- 

 suant to the Forest Charter of 121 7 frequent 

 perambulations were made, and a few still exist." 

 Again, at the close of the thirteenth century, 

 after the Statute ' De Finibus Levatis,' which 

 incorporated the whole of the Charter of the 

 Forest except the first five articles, perambulations 

 were made in Northampton'* and other counties. 

 On the 14 February, 1 301, at the Parliament of 

 Lincoln, Edward I. by letters patent disafforested 

 all tracts outside the boundaries proved in the re- 

 cent perambulations. This concession, however, 

 had been wrung from him under political pressure, 

 and with the sanction of Pope Clement V. he 

 soon disavowed it. But both his successors found 

 themselves compelled to consent to the obser- 

 vance of these very disafforestments. Thus the 

 year 1301 may be taken as a convenient land- 

 mark, separating the period of the full vigour of 

 the forest administration from the time of its 

 gradual dissolution and decay. 



Besides the forests proper we meet in North- 

 amptonshire and elsewhere with tracts of wood- 

 land and heath under the designation of chases, 

 parks, and warrens. 



Districts in which beasts of the forest were 

 preserved, but where only a portion of the forest 

 law was enforced, were often known as chases.^' 

 Such were forests or parcels of forests granted to 

 subjects by their sovereign. But occasionally 

 the word was used to denote a parcel of a royal 



10 Forest Proc. Tr. of Rec. No. 67. Extracts are 

 printed by Turner, p. Ixxxv. 



11 The forest of Rockingham is described in the 

 earliest perambulation extant (14 Edw. I. 1286) as 

 extending from Northampton to Stamford, with a 

 total length of about 33 miles, and from the river 

 Nene on the south to the Welland and Maidvvell on 

 the north-west, with an average breadth of about 

 8 miles. In 1 299 these limits had been much con- 

 tracted. Details as to the perambulations of Whittle- 

 bury are collected in Baker's History of Northants, ii. 75. 

 The part of Whittlebury in Northants enclosed about 

 32 square miles. Salcey was much smaller than either 

 of the other two. 



'2 Forest Proc. Anc. Chanc. No. 102., Turner, op. 

 cit. p. cv. 



1' As early as the reign of Edward I. this termi- 

 nology is employed in official documents. Pat. 23 

 Edw. I. m. \od. 'Liberam chaciam Willelmi de 

 Brevvosa que vocatur foresta sancti Leonardi.' 



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