A HISTORY OF DORSET 



kings, and especially in the reign of Henry I, the area of the royal forests of England was 

 largely extended for purposes of revenue, and although under Stephen it is probable that many 

 of "these extensions lapsed, his Angevin successor and his sons, as the Pipe Rolls bear witness, again 

 took full advantage of their forest rights. 



The Forest Charter of the beginning of the reign of Henry III much reduced the forest area, 

 but left four distinct forests, namely those of Gillingham, Blackmoor, Powerstock, and Bere Regis ; 

 the last of these, however, ceased to be forest towards the close of the reign. 



The various forest divisions in early days usually passed under the collective name of the forest 

 of Dorset. As early as the reign of Henry I we learn that forest pleas were held in Dorset, and the 

 name of at least one of the foresters of the court, Warin, is recorded on the Pipe Roll for 1130. 

 Several of the annual Pipe Rolls of Henry II contain brief references to the account rendered by 

 the sheriff for the wastes, assarts, purprestures, and pleas of the forest of Dorset. The amounts 

 greatly varied— 11 70-1, ^TioS 4s. 2,d. ; 1171-2, £i() 8i. ii^. ; 1172-3, 3^. lid.; 1173-4, 

 3s. 2d.; 1 174-5, y. 2d. ; and II 76-7, ^5 35. %d. The large total for the first of these years 

 probably arose from its including the period when the occasional Forest Pleas were held by the 

 justices.' 



Tliese Pipe Rolls remind us that the two great contiguous counties of Dorset and Somerset had 

 for some time a joint sheriff. Nor is it surprising, as the vast stretch of woodland ran continuously 

 across the borders of the two shires in several directions, that there was a certain amount of connexion 

 in their forest rule. Thus, the chief forestership that was vested in William de Wrotham by 

 Richard I extended over Dorset as well as Somerset. This forestership in fee of the whole 

 bailiwick of the forests of the two counties descended from this William de Wrotham to his son of 

 the same name, who was archdeacon of Taunton and a great organizer of the navy under King John. 

 The office next descended to a nephew, Richard de Wrotham, who was a minor until 1225. Richard 

 died without issue in 125 1, and his four married sisters became his heirs. The eldest sister Muriel 

 had married Hugh de Placetis, and their son William de Placetis, or Plecy, succeeded as forester in 

 fee for the two shires. He died in 1274, and his son Richard in 1289. Richard had no issue, and 

 this hereditary office passed to his sister Sabina, who brought it in marriage to Nicholas Pecche. 

 This forestership ended in 1337 by sale, under Matthew Pecche, grandson of Nicholas.^ 



A general perambulation of the forests of Dorset was undertaken by fourteen knights early in 

 the reign of Henry III, as a consequence of the Forest Charter of 121 7, whereby all that had been 

 made forest since the day of the coronation of Henry II was to be restored. The report, as 

 presented before Hugh de Neville, Brian de Insula, and three other justices, stated that Alan de 

 Neville, the king's forester, had afforested all the high lands or downs of the county {omnia montana) 

 after the above-named coronation, and therefore they ought no longer to be under forest rule and are 

 part of the woods pertaining to Bere and the wood of Powerstock which were royal demesne, the 

 latter having been obtained by the crown through exchange with Roger de Newburgh. King John 

 had also afforested the whole island of Purbeck ; and this was no longer to be forest, save for the 

 warren of hares pertaining to Corfe Castle. The perambulation then proceeded to set out the exact 

 bounds of the forests of Gillingham and Blackmoor, docking the former of certain woods that had 

 been added since the accession of Henry II.' 



In June 1228 Hugh de Neville was ordered to proclaim, both by word of mouth and by 

 letter, to the men of Gillingham that they were free to pasture their animals in the woods of the 

 king in accordance with the old customs.* 



In November of the following year the sheriff of Dorset received a mandate to issue general 

 summonses for the approaching Forest Pleas.' Strictly speaking. Forest Pleas were supposed 

 always to follow the Regard, or independent close inquiry held every three years by at least 

 twelve knights of the shire called regarders, who drew up a report as to the condition of the 

 particular forest, especially as to the assarts or inclosures and the purprestures or encroachments. 

 In course of time, however, these pleas were held most fitfully and at very long intervals. 

 Among the forest records of Dorset, however, are the presentments of two of these eyres of 

 the reign of Henry III, which were held at the three years' interval, namely in 1257 and 

 1260. 



There are full accounts extant of the Forest Pleas of Dorset held before four justices in 1257.'" 

 Among the venison presentations made by the foresters and verderers in the forest of Bere we find 



' Pipe R. (Pipe R. Soc), xvi, 17 ; xviii, 75 ; xix, 193 ; xxi, 18 ; xxii, 24 ; and xxvi, 2I-2. 

 ' See Hutchins, Dorset, iv, 517 ; Collinson, Somerset, iii, 63 ; and more especially Greswell, Forests and 

 Deer Parks of Somerset (1905), 138-47. 



' From the Book of Cerne, Canib. Univ. Lib. cited by Hutchins, op. cit. iii, 662—3. 

 ' Close I 2 Hen. Ill, m. 7. 

 ' Close 14 Hen. Ill, m. 2Z d. 

 '" For. Proc. Exch. T. R. No. 10. 



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