178 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



A large proportion of the duchy documents of the latter 

 half of Charles I. 's reign are missing, but from a much later 

 document we are fortunately able to give the true account of 

 this disafforesting process for the first time, and thus to correct 

 a variety of contradictory and erroneous statements that have 

 hitherto been put forth on the subject. 



In 1772 an inquiry was made as to the state of the king's 

 title to timber, mines, and coal within the disafforested forest 

 of the High Peak. The outline history of the forest is correctly 

 given in that report. 



In 1635 tne landowners and inhabitants within the forest 

 petitioned the king, complaining of the severity, trouble, and 

 rigour of the forest laws, and praying that the deer (which 

 were in sufficient numbers to do considerable damage to crops 

 in the forest and its purlieus) might be destroyed, and asking 

 to be allowed to compound by enclosing and improving the 

 same. Thereupon the king issued a commission of inquiry 

 under the duchy seal, and directed that two juries should 

 be impanelled, appointing a surveyor to assist them. The 

 first jury viewed the whole forest and its purlieus, and presented 

 that the king might improve and enclose one moiety in con- 

 sideration of his rights, and that the other moiety should be 

 enclosed by the tenants, commoners, and freeholders. The 

 other jury was impanelled to consider the question of the 

 towns within the purlieus, and they presented that the king, in 

 view of the largeness of the commons belonging to the towns 

 of Chelmorton, Flagg, Teddington, and Priestcliffe, might 

 reasonably have for improvement and enclosure one-third, and 

 the remaining two-thirds for the commoners and freeholders. 

 Both Crown and inhabitants were well pleased with the result. 

 The commons were measured, and surveys made that divided 

 the lands into three sorts best, middle, and worst and the 

 king's share was staked, and maps showing the results were 

 drafted. The surveys were not completed until 1640, and 

 all the preliminaries having been adjusted, the king caused all 

 the deer to be destroyed or removed, and since that date the 

 report expressly states that there were never any deer whatever 

 within the High Peak Forest. The extirpation of the deer 

 was almost immediately followed by the beginning of "the 

 troublous times" that preceded the actual outbreak of the Civil 



