A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



during the years 1787 to 1793. The reports having special reference 

 to Hants are the fifth (1789) dealing with the New Forest, the sixth 

 (1790) concerning Alice Holt and Wolmer, and the thirteenth (1792) 

 relating to Bere. The improvements ordered with regard to the New 

 Forest not proceeding rapidly enough, a map of it was in 1812 ordered 

 to be made and to be completed within five years (52 Geo. III. cap. 

 clxi. sec. I9). 1 



The Deer Removal Act of 1851, likewise due to the report of 

 a royal commission in 1850 appointed under An Act to authorize Her 

 Majesty to issue a Commission to inquire into and report upon Rights and Claims 

 over the New Forest in the County of Southampton and Waltham Forest in the 

 County of Essex (12 & 13 Vic. cap. Ixxxi.), and presided over by Lord 

 Portman empowered the enclosure of up to 10,000 acres in lieu of 

 the right to keep deer, and in addition to the 6,000 acres provided by 



1 To the exceedingly full and complete (fifth) report on the New Forest in 1789 an excellent 

 map was attached, which still remains the best map ever published of the forest. It was surveyed in 

 separate sections by Messrs. Thomas Richardson, William King, and Abraham and William Driver. A 

 complete terrier was also made out by those surveyors giving a full description and valuation of every 

 acre of land within the perambulation of the forest that either belonged to or had been encroached 

 from the Crown. In 1 800 an Act was passed 'for the better preservation of timber in the New Forest and 

 for ascertaining the boundaries of the said Forest and of the lands of the Crown within the same.' Under this 

 Act another royal commission (having no reference to the commission of 1786) was appointed, consist- 

 ing of Messrs. Nathaniel Bond, John Lens and James Burrough, all barristers-at-law, who were directed 

 ' to ascertain and distinguish the boundaries of the said forest called New Forest, and of the lands of His 

 Majesty's subjects within the same, and to enquire of Purprestures, Encroachments and trespasses on 

 the soil of His Majesty within the boundaries of the said forest.' They were further directed to 

 ' cause a map or plan to be made of the said forest, in which map or plan the boundaries of the said 

 forest and the lands within the same belonging to His Majesty as ascertained and settled by the said 

 Commissioners shall be accurately and distinctly marked, set out and distinguished, and the lands within 

 the bounds of the said forest belonging to other persons shall also be marked and distinguished in the 

 said map or plan, so far as the said Commissioners shall be able to ascertain the same ; and the said 

 Commissioners shall cause two parts to be made of such map or plan, and they or any two of them 

 shall attest and certify the truth and accuracy of both such parts, by signing their names thereto ; and 

 one part of the said map or plan so certified by the said Commissioners, or any two of them, shall be 

 transmitted by them to the Steward of the said forest, or his under-steward, to be deposited among and 

 kept with the records of the Courts of attachment of the said forest, held at Lyndhurst in the said 

 county of Southampton, and the other part of the said map or plan, certified as aforesaid, shall be 

 transmitted to the auditor of the land revenue, to be kept in his office.' 



The boundaries of the forest were ascertained and a perambulation thereof made in 1801, which 

 has been acted upon ever since as defining the true boundaries ; but, although the powers of the 

 Commissioners were extended by a short Act passed in 1 80 1, and again in 181 1, the map (probably for 

 lack of funds) was never made. In 1812 (52 Geo. III. cap. clxi. sec. 19) yet another Act relating to 

 this plan was passed, by which the powers for making it were transferred from the original commission 

 to the Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury 'to employ surveyors or other proper persons in 

 framing such map or plan, and they are hereby required to complete the same within five years from and 

 after the passing of this Act.' Accordingly, in 1817, Mr. Kelsey of Salisbury was employed to make an 

 independent survey of the New Forest, and to prepare a plan which should show the boundaries of all 

 lands belonging to the Crown within the forest, and of course, incidentally, the boundaries of all private 

 property bordering on Crown lands was also shown, with all the encroachments which had been made 

 from time to time. A plan was prepared on a larger scale than that of Messrs. Richardson, King and 

 Driver of some thirty years previously, and the boundaries of all the lands were accurately laid down, so 

 that for all questions of dispute as to boundaries within the forest it serves to this day as a true record. 

 But the map was never completed in duplicate as originally ordered, nor was it deposited either with 

 the auditor of the land revenue or among the records of the courts of attachment. Neither was it 

 signed and certified according to the instructions to the original royal commission. The map there- 

 fore, though useful as a record, has not the effect of being indisputable legal evidence on any such point 

 as to boundaries which it was intended that it should be by the terms of the original act. One copy 

 only exists of this plan, and it is kept in the office of the deputy surveyor of the New Forest, where 

 it is constantly referred to. 



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