158 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



the offences were probably trifling had simply to find 

 pledges for their future observance of the forest assize. Heirs 

 were held responsible for their father's offences in two or three 

 cases. Many of these vert trespassers were of good position. 

 The worst case at this eyre was that of Roger Foljambe, who 

 was fined the large sum of twenty marks for many transgres- 

 sions ; his pledges were John Foljambe and Warner Coterell. 

 In this roll of transgressors the clergy, especially the religious, 

 were largely represented. The number included the abbots of 

 Basingwerk, Dieulacres, Lilleshall, Merivale, Roche, and 

 Welbeck, the prior of Lenton, and William, vicar of Glossop. 

 The vicar's case must have been a serious one, for the value 

 payment was ^3 and the fine 40^. Another and much shorter 

 roll gave the vert offenders within the forest limits but outside 

 the demesne. 



In the first roll of assarts presented at this Peak eyre, on 

 which twenty-two cases are entered, two of these assarts that 

 had been made without warrant many years before were taken 

 into the king's hands ; and in one case, where William the 

 smith (deceased) had made an assart of three acres without 

 warrant in the liberty of the abbot of Basingwerk in the days 

 of Robert de Lexington (1228-33), the then abbot was allowed 

 to retain it as tenant. It was a dire offence, whether the assart 

 was within the forest or only in the regard or purlieus, to 

 enclose with so stout or high a fence that the deer were ex- 

 cluded. The abbot of Basingwerk, in the time of John de 

 Grey, was reported as having assarted one and a half acres at 

 Whitfield without the demesne, and enclosed it so as to prevent 

 the free roving of the deer and their fawns, and this without 

 warrant ; at the time when the justices were sitting the fence 

 had been removed, but it was declared in the hands of the 

 king. The usual custom in the Peak at this time seems to 

 have been for the tenant of an assart to pay 4^. an acre to the 

 Crown, and at the time of the assart being made to pay a fine 

 to the bailiff for the warrant. In a list of assarts allowed by 

 Warner Engaine at 4^. an acre, the following are the propor- 

 tions and the fines in six consecutive cases : i acre, 2$. fine ; 

 4 acres, 6s. fine ; i acre, 2S. 8d. fine ; 3 acres, 6s. fine ; 2 acres, 

 4.9. fine ; and 3 acres, 3^. fine. When the tenants of Peak 

 Forest assarts died, their heirs paid double rent for the first 



