14 



NOTES. 



BOTNE. 33 Edward III. April 3. Writ of monstrans de droit 

 from the king to his escheator, reciting that on a writ of certiorari as 

 to the cause of escheating three weirs " gurgites" at Rossery, Cnowyth, 

 and Stackallan, on the water of the Boyne, belonging to the abbots of 

 Mellifont, the said escheator returned that the said abbots, without 

 license from the crown, had made a pourpresture or encroachment on the 

 said water, which was the king's stream, by constructing weirs so high 

 that neither vessels, timber, nor fish, could pass as they were before 

 accustomed; and on the part of the said abbot it being alleged that 

 the aforesaid water was his, and not belonging to the crown, and pray- 

 ing that this be inquired into, the escheator is directly to inquire 

 diligently thereinto, "et tune manum amoveat" if the water prove to 

 belong to the abbot. 



Similar writs were issued respecting the claims of the abbot of 

 Duleek, and of Sir John Netterville, to have other weirs. 



The result of the inquiry was contrary to the right of the crown, for 

 on the 25th May, a writ of " ouster le maine" to restore possession of 

 the three weirs at Mellifont, and in July for those "the Nynche," and 

 of Duleek, " because it was accounted that the water where the said 

 weir was constructed was not the king's.' 1 ' 1 Cal. Mot. Pat pp. 79, 80. 



RIVER WEIRS. 'These weirs both obstructing the navigation of 

 rivers, and being the means of destroying the fish, are frequently pro- 

 hibited both by the ancient English and Scottish statutes. The naviga- 

 tion of rivers hath been more early attended to in all countries, than 

 the other method of conveying commodities by land-carriage; and as 

 most of the countries of Europe were at that time of the Roman 

 Catholic persuasion, the preservation of fish was necessarily a greater 

 object than it is at present. It appears by the old chronicles, that 

 there were weirs anciently below London-bridge, as well as above it; 

 these were not destroyed till 7 Henry IV., when all the weirs, from 

 Staines to the Medway were removed. The archbishop of Canterbury 

 gave great opposition to this, who probably owned some of these 

 weirs, and, from his influence, had prevented this chapter of Magna 

 Charta from being put in execution till that time.' Barrington on the 

 Statutes, 1765, p. 14. 



LAW OF FISHERY IN IRELAND RIVERS. Magna Charta, cap. xvi. 

 Nullse riparise defendantur de caetero, nisi ilhe quae fuerunt in defenso 

 tempore Henrici Regis avi nostri, et per eadem loca, et eosdem terminos, 

 sicut esse consueverunf tempore suo. That is, that no owner of the 

 banks of rivers shall so appropriate, or keep the rivers ' several' to 

 him to defend or bar others, either to have passage or fish there 

 otherwise than they were used in the reign of King Henry II. ' This 

 statute, saith the Mirror, (cap. 5. s. 2.) is out of use Car plusors rivers 

 sont ore appropries et engarnies, et mise en defence, que soilunt estre 

 commons a pisher et user en temps le roy Henry II.' Coke's Instit, 

 part ii., folio, London, 1681, p. 30. 



To put a river ' in defence' was to ' defender' or forbid its use by 

 another. Hence the ' de-fence months' of the forest laws. 



Lord Chief Justice Hale ; in a treatise on the king's interest in the 



