Minerals and Mines. 31 



to dig coals at their own expense on payment to the convent 

 of every ninth load. 



During the seventeenth century frequent disputes of a liti- 

 gious nature occurred underground. The vexed questions re- 

 garding the thickness of seams, quantity of coal worked, and 

 rights of proprietorship are very ancient, and the term " suffi- 

 ciens chiminum " occurs in the mediseval coal leases almost as 

 frequently as its English substitute " way leave " occurs in 

 those of the present day. 



There is, however, one case brought into the Durham 

 Bishopric Halmote, on Sept. 13th, 1663,^ which would seem to 

 prove the entire monopoly of mineral property by the seig- 

 norial class. Bearing in mind that the dispute was brought 

 before the private court of one of those great landed magnates 

 who claimed all the wide jurisdiction comprehended in a grant 

 of sac and soc, and making allowance for the differences in 

 manorial rights in various parts of the kingdom, we still 

 possess in this case strong presumptive evidence in favour of 

 seignorial rights to exclusive mineral ownership in every class 

 of land comprised by the manor. The dispute itself was 

 of secondary importance. Briefly stated, the complainants 

 Georgius Vane et alii set out in the bill their title to certain 

 seams of coal leased from the Bishop of Durham, lying under 

 the copyhold lands, wastes^ moors and commons, within the 

 Manors of Whickham and Grateshead, and worked by them m 

 a colliery called the Grand Lease Colliery. The defendants, 

 entitled to certain coal-mines within a freehold tenement, 

 called Brenkburne, had sunk three shafts close to the bishop's 

 boundaries, and were accused of having wrought great quanti- 

 ties of coal out of the complainant's liberty. A commission was 

 appointed by the Halmote to examine the workings and certify 

 the result to the court. Whether the result was favourable to 

 the one party or to the other cannot greatly concern our pur- 

 pose ; but it is of most significant importance to the subject 

 of seignorial mineral proprietorship to note that the bishop's 



^ Green's Chronicles and Records of the Northern Coal Trade in the 

 Counties of Durham and Northumberland : Transactions of North of 

 England. Mining Inst., vol. xv., Appendix A. 



