FORESTRY 



the case of Hugh Fitzhugh de la More, who had taken the fawn of a roe deer. In consequence, 

 he had been imprisoned at Ilchester, but apparently had been released before the date of the eyre, 

 at which he did not enter an appearance. He was accordingly outlawed. Several trespassers were 

 charged with taking two deer and a roebuck in the same forest ; others with taking a hind and a 

 roebuck in the same forest ; another with hunting a hind ; two others with hunting and one with 

 taking a stag. The fines for these offences varied from a mark to half a mark. The vert or 

 ' greenhue ' presentments in Bere forest numbered thirty-four cases. The large majority of these 

 charges were for small offences in taking green wood, and the delinquents were fined from izd. to 

 half a mark. One was excused on the score of poverty. Thomas, chaplain of Bloxworth, had not 

 allowed himself to be attached, probably on the ground of his clerical privilege, and a mandate was 

 accordingly directed to the bishop of Salisbury to produce him before the justices. Among graver 

 charges, the heir of Richard de Wrotham, late master forester, was fined 535. 4c/. since that officer 

 had taken the ' coporones ' or top and lop of a large number of oaks felled for the works at Corfe 

 Castle under the direction of Master Gerard, the carpenter. These branches trimmed from the 

 timber Richard de Wrotham had probably appropriated as a natural perquisite. The usual fine in 

 small cases of trespass against the vert was 12^., and the same amount was levied on John, the son 

 of Manser Dodde, who had discovered in the forest a swarm of bees and carried them off. 



The venison presentments for the bailiwick of Gillingham, of which the record is slightly 

 imperfect, included the taking of a buck and doe, of a fawn, of a brocket, two does, four does, 

 two bucks and a doe, and several other fallow deer, as well as hunting with bows and arrows, and 

 hunting with greyhounds. Among other offenders was John, the parson of Fisherton, who had 

 not been attached and did not appear. In consequence, a mandate was directed to the bishop of 

 Salisbury to produce him at Ilchester. The vert cases were upwards of sixty. The heavy fine 

 of 30J. 3(^. was imposed on two men who had sold cablish or wind-uprooted timber in 1256, and 

 105. lod. for a similar offence in 1257. 



It was certified before the justices that eighty logs {ligna), forty from the park and forty from 

 the foreign wood, had been used on the works at Gillingham, and six beams {fusta) for making 

 sluices in 1251 ; six oaks for the works of the chapels of Corfe and Dorchester, in 1252; six 

 timber oaks for the nuns of Shaftesbury, in 1253, ^^^ various other timber gifts to the Dominicans 

 of Wilton and Gloucester, and to different religious houses and individuals, including sixty oaks 

 and sixty ash trees to the earl of Cornwall in 1257. 



The pannage fees of Gillingham Forest varied very greatly from year to year, in accordance 

 with the abundance or the scarcity of acorns or beech-mast. The pannage receipts of 1250 

 were 30J. 5^. ; of 1251, ^^15 45. ; of 1252, £(i 4.5. ^d. ; of 1253, nothing, owing to a deficiency 

 of mast and acorns; of 1254, ^10 3s. jd. ; of 1255, ;^l6 is. 8d. ; of 1256, 431. lod. ; and 

 of 1257, 50J. lod. Various chartered claims foi forest privileges were made and sustained before 

 the justices. 



There is an imperfect roll presented at this eyre of the woodwards of the county of Dorset, who 

 were sworn before the justices, beginning with John Malot, woodward of the king of the wood of 

 Bere and five others of different private woods in that forest. The woodwards of Blackmoor 

 actually numbered upwards of thirty ; six of them were wardens of as many woods that per- 

 tained to the abbess of Shaftesbury. Their number is a proof of the extent and frequency of 

 the actual woods within the Dorset forests, particularly of the Blackmoor division. A forest 

 woodward was an important official. Though primarily responsible, as the term implies, for the 

 actual timber and undergrowth of the district in his charge, he was also to some extent a 

 technical forester, that is, he was at the same time responsible for the venison. To understand 

 their position it is necessary to remember that there was never a single royal forest, all the lands 

 of which were demesne. In each forest, and this was emphatically the case with that of Black- 

 moor, there were various woods that were private property, nevertheless these woods were subject 

 to general forest jurisdiction, such as the free ingress and egress of the king's game. 



Moreover, the owners could not, without the king's licence, do anything therein, such as felling 

 timber, clearing undergrowth, building houses or sheds, establishing forges, or burning charcoal, that 

 might be held to alarm or damage the deer. To look jointly after their own rights and those of the 

 crown, owners of woods within a royal forest were not only permitted but required to appoint 

 woodwards, who took oath before a forest justice to serve the king in the matter of venison, and who 

 had the power to attach and present offenders. 



The venison presentments of Powerstock included : — the charge against the men of Gerard de 

 Bengham, archdeacon of Dorset, of hunting in 1 251 in the forest with the archdeacon's dogs and 

 taking a roebuck ; each of the delinquents was fined 41. ; taking a roebuck with two greyhounds, 

 and the taking of five other roebucks, two roe-does, and two stags by different offenders. The vert 

 presentments of Powerstock numbered fifty-one, and the fines varied from the usual I id. to 3J. In 

 three cases an alibi was established. 



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