A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



and their respective heirs for ever, — except as 

 regarded all timber-trees and all good saplings 'to 

 be reserved for stadles or samplers,' as ordered by 

 the statute for the preservation of timber. Thus 

 the duke of Grafton became entitled to the profits 

 arising from the underw^oods only. The local 

 forest officers consisted in 1 790 of a warden or 

 master forester (Mr. Frederick Montagu), a 

 lieutenant or deputy warden, two verderers, a 

 woodward, and four keepers, while the timber 

 was under the control of the surveyor-general of 

 woods and forests. During 1 the reign of Eliza- 

 beth and in the first half of the seventeenth century 

 the wardenship had been successively held, upon 

 patents for life, by the earls of Cumberland and 

 Essex, Sir Christopher Hatton, the marquis of 

 Northampton, the Lord Williams, the dukes of 

 Lennox and Buckingham, and the earl of Dorset,^ 

 before it was granted in 1661 to Mr. George 

 Montagu of Horton and his male heirs. The 

 head of deer maintained was about 1,000, and 

 the usual number killed off each year was twenty- 

 eight brace of bucks and twenty-four does, four of 

 each being supplied for the use of the royal house- 

 hold, while by ancient custom the various forest 

 officers had all ' fee buck and does ' in fixed 

 numbers. Although the forest soil was well 

 adapted to the growth of oak, no- timber appears 

 to have been taken from Salcey for the use of 

 the navy until 1781, when shipwrights from 

 Deptford Yard converted the wood on the spot 

 in order to lessen the excessive cost of trans- 

 port. 



Whittlewood Forest, in 1792, consisted of 

 5,424 acres, 'almost entirely encompassed 

 with a ring mound, which has been its 

 boundary beyond the memory of the oldest 

 man.' The rest of the lands within the ancient 

 perambulation had either been granted away and 

 altogether exempted from the forest laws, or 

 were private estates merely burdened with certain 

 privileges for the royal deer and other forestal 

 rights. It now consisted of copses (3,895 acres), 

 unenclosed plains and ridings (887 acres), un- 

 enclosed meadows and pastures of the lord 

 warden, lieutenant, and keepers (313 acres), and 

 enclosed lawns for the deer and cattle of the 

 warden and lieutenant (329 acres). It was 

 divided into five walks (Hasleborough, Sholbrook, 

 Wakefield, Hanger, and Shrob), and the copses 

 were worked in the same manner as those in 

 Salcey. Seven copses (418 acres) in the parish 

 of Silverstone (Hasleborough Walk) were found 



1 Report on Salcey Forest (1790), p. 6. 



2 It is clear from the Report of the Commissioners 

 that no timber for naval purposes was felled in Salcey 

 between the death of the Queen Dowager Catherine 

 of Braganza in 1705 and the date mentioned in the 

 text. In the seventeenth century note seems to have 

 been made of wood suitable for shipbuilding, but if 

 any was taken from this forest for the purpose it was 

 to a very small amount. 



to belong, as to both timber and underwood, to 

 Earl Bathurst, the right of the crown extending 

 only to herbage and cover for deer ; while the 

 remaining copses (3,476 acres) were included in 

 the royal grant to the family of Grafton, above 

 referred to. Fifteen parishes enjoyed, under 

 certain limitations, the privilege of common 

 pasture over 4,486 acres (all but Shrob Walk, 

 295 acres), in Whittlewood Forest. Only 

 horned cattle and horses were allowed to graze, 

 not sheep or swine ; and the forest was driven 

 once a year to find and impound cattle not 

 marked as belonging to commoners. The local 

 forest officers were the warden (duke of Grafton), 

 his deputy, two verderers, a woodward, a purlieu 

 ranger, and six keepers, besides the surveyor- 

 general of woods. At the Restoration the 

 lord-wardenship was held by the earl of North- 

 ampton, who had received it for life by grant 

 from Charles I; but on 12 January, 1680, 

 Charles II issued letters patent granting this office, 

 on its reversion after the death of the earl of 

 Northampton, to Henry, earl of Arlington, for 

 life, and then to Henry, duke of Grafton, and his 

 male heirs for ever. As both of these pre-deceased 

 the queen dowager, a new patent was issued on 

 19 July, 1 7 12, by Queen Anne 'granting and 

 confirming the office of master forester to the 

 duke of Grafton, and his heirs male, subject, 

 however, to the correction of certain abuses that 

 were pointed out by the surveyor-general of 

 woods. The number of deer was about 1,800, 

 the number annually killed being about 138 bucks 

 and 100 does. This forest seems at this time^ to 

 have supplied no great quantity of timber for the 

 navy, although conversion on the spot was tried, 

 as in Salcey, in order to reduce the cost of carriage. 

 But the forest was found in a very bad state, owing 

 to wasteful fellings caused by the perquisites 

 attached to the office of surveyor-general. 

 Against those the warden protested strongly in 

 1 77 1, while the commissioners reported in 1792 

 that ' it is not by profusion in felling the timber, 

 or in the execution of works done in the forests, 

 that the property of the crown has alone been 

 injured ; the total want of any uniform plan of 

 management and care of the trees while growing 

 has perhaps been still more destructive in its 

 effects.' 



The retrogression in the condition of the two 

 forests may be seen by comparing the results of 



' In the reign of Charles II, however, Whittle- 

 wood seems to have furnished a fair amount of timber 

 for shipbuilding. For example, on 22 March, 1668, 

 a warrant was issued for felling 1,000 trees in this 

 forest for the use of the navy, and the statement is 

 made that the earl of Oxford, Chief Justice in Eyre, 

 had certified that, though considerable quantities of 

 timber had been felled there by the late Lord Trea- 

 surer's order, yet the forest was so well stored that 

 1,000 trees might be spared without defacing the 

 same. (See Report VIII, on Whittlewood, p. 11.) 



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