172 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



eluding calves ; that many of the deer were in very poor con- 

 dition, and scarcely likely to live over the coming winter ; that 

 the grass was much trampled and poor, and that there was 

 no competent sustenance for them ; that it would be well if 

 sheep were kept out of the champagne of the forest, as they 

 used to be (for so they were assured by many persons) ; and 

 that such action, if enjoined on the farmer and those under 

 him, would be of the greatest service to the deer. 



The attempts made by the chief forest ministers to keep 

 down the sheep in the interests of the deer brought them into 

 various conflicts with the tenants, the bolder of whom ventured 

 to appeal to the chancellor of the duchy. 



In 1529, Allen Sutton, of Overhaddon, lodged a complaint, as 

 one of the duchy tenants, that on 22nd June, about midnight, 

 one Richard Knolls and William Pycroft, with other evilly 

 disposed persons, servants of Richard Savage, steward of Peak 

 Castle, came to a little croft adjoining his house and drove 

 away seventy of his sheep, and also three of his neighbour's, 

 and kept them to "this day" within the castle; -and that 

 he could get no redress from the steward, who maintained 

 these sheep and declined to restore them. To this bill, William 

 Pycroft, bailiff of the High Peak, replied that the matter 

 contained therein was " but feigned, and only intended to put 

 him to vexation and treble " ; and that if it were true, instead 

 of being false, Sutton has his remedy at the common law of 

 the land. To this reply Sutton rejoined that his bill of com- 

 plaint was good and true in every point, and again prayed for 

 restitution of his goods. 



Henry VIII., on 4th March, 1531, commissioned Sir Ralph 

 Longford, John Fitzherbert, Thomas Babington, John Agard, 

 and Ralph Agard, to inquire into diverse complaints made 

 against Thomas Brown, William Pycroft, Robert Folowe, and 

 Allen Sutton, for very heinous and seditious matters. Against 

 Robert Folowe it was alleged that he was outlawed for murder, 

 as maintained by the Archbishop of York and others, but yet 

 dwelt in the High Peak ; that felons and murderers were 

 taken by Folowe and set in the castle of the Peak, and then 

 for a bribe let go again, of which sixteen examples were 

 given ; that in two of these cases he received as much as sixty 

 sheep apiece from two prisoners ; and that he found treasure 



