14 



running water,) was prohibited for the future 

 by King John's Great Charter, and the rivers 

 that were fenced in his time, were directed 

 to be laid open, as the forests to be disaffo- 

 rested. This opening was extended by Henry 

 III. to those also that were fenced under 

 Richard I., so that a franchise of free fishing 

 ought to be at least as old as Henry II." 



The next authority is the case of Warren 

 against Matthews, 6 Modern Reports 73, where 

 it is decided " that every subject of common 

 right, may fish with lawful nets in a navigable 

 river, as well as in the sea, and the King's 

 grant cannot bar them thereof, but the Crown 

 only has a right to royal fish, and that, the 

 King only may grant.''* 



In Lord Fitzwalter's case it is declared, that 

 " in the Severn, the soil belongs to the, owners 

 of the land on each side. The soil of the 

 River Thames is in the King, but the fishing 

 is common to all." 1 Mod. Rep. 105. 



" A person claiming a free fishery, or seve- 

 ral fishery, or a common of fishery, must show 



* Vide also Burrow's Reports 2164, 



