A HISTORY OF DORSET 



About twenty years later (1594) under 

 warrant from Lord Burghley, a survey or view" 

 was taken by William Pitt ' of the quarries of 

 stone and mines of oare earth which will burne 

 within the Islande of Portlande.' He found the 

 sea-cliflFs for the most part 'all full of workes 

 and quarries of stone,' and further discovered ' in 

 the same clyfFesand in thesandesandshoares . . . 

 and in other places round aboute and in other 

 places there but especially eastewardes from Her 

 Majesties Castell there a kind of black stone or 

 o.re earth of minerall matter apte to burne which 

 is not granted by lease but remaineth in Her 

 R'lajesties hands as parcell of her manner and 



the Tenants 3d', per Ton, but by Her Majest}''s late 

 Grant ■^li. cut of every I zii. payable to Her Majesty 

 for such Stone has been granted to the Inhabitant;, as 

 appears by such Grant, which 3a'. to the Tenants and 

 Inhabitants is for damage done to the herbage on the 

 Commons by laying rubble or rubbish thereon, but 

 Stone drawn in the Quarries on the Farm for Her 

 Majesty's use pays nothing.' 



Also presented, ' That all the Tenants and persons 

 belonging to the parish employed by them (but no 

 other persons) have had time out of mind a right to 

 open and work what Quarries they please in the 

 Commons or Commonable lands, provided they do 

 not thereby hurt or injure the Highways, paying the 

 Customary duty ; and all Tenants from time immemo- 

 rial have raised what stone they pleased in their own 

 respective tenements, as they are freeholders and never 

 did pay any acknowledgement to any person for the 

 Stone so raised in their own respective grounds.' 



Then follow presentments as to deposit of rubble 

 on weirs or rubble grounds, and payment in respect 

 of same ; and for erecting piers with cranes or sheers 

 for shipping off stone ; also presentments of commons 

 and commonable lands, and of the queen's quarries, 

 and of the custom and pnctice of making an ar- 

 rangement in respect of labour and payment for the 

 same ; and of forfeiture in certain events such as 

 improperly stopping or obstructing the working of 

 quarries. 



Further presentment, that where in working quarries 

 in either p.irish or private lands in the cliffs a public 

 road or way would be destroyed or worked through if 

 the work were continued, it is the custom for the pro- 

 prietor of the adjoining land to allow an equally con- 

 venient roadway through such land for the public on 

 receiving the tonnage-dues for the stone raised under 

 the road so intended to be worked through, and that 

 no person shall work any quarry in the cliffs nearer 

 than 1 8 ft. of any private lands, unless or until he 

 shall obtain from the owner of such private land a 

 substituted road or way of at least 1 8 ft., and so as 

 often as occasion or necessity sh.ill require. 



These extracts are given to show the peculiarity of 

 the customs existing at Portland in respect of quarr}'ing 

 of stone ; other customs are also given, and reference 

 should be made to the Court Rolls for more detailed 

 information. It may be mentioned that the present- 

 ments cannot always be relied upon ; some of them 

 are in opposition to common and statute law, and are 

 of questionable legality. 



" B.M. Add. MS. 29976, fol. 1 1 8^. 



islande of Portlande of which stone or oare earth 

 Her Majesties tenantes in the said Island doe 

 sometimes take and gather to burne for want of 

 woodes and other fewell and may be valued 

 togaether with the said workes and quarries of 

 stone in yerely rent to Her Majestic x;.' Be- 

 sides these, certain stone quarries had been leased 

 for various terms yet ' indetermined, with certain 

 exceptions in the saide grante unto one Nicholas 

 Jones at the yerely rent of 51.' 



Although, as the foregoing references prove, 

 stone had for many hundreds of years before the 

 seventeenth century been quarried in Portland, 

 yet the wide and establibhed repute of the ' mer- 

 chantable ' stone of the true Portland beds re- 

 ceived an enormous extension from its use bv 

 Inigo Jones in the reign of James I, especially in 

 the building of the Banqueting House at White- 

 hall and the additions made to the fabric of Old 

 St. Paul's. In connexion with the first of these 

 enterprises, a new pier was built at Portland at 

 a cost of £112 igs. 2d. and a lasting impetus 

 was given to the quarrying industry of the 

 island.80 



It may be remarked, however, that the 

 quarrying of stone at Portland for the work 

 at Old St. Paul's and its carriage to London 

 met with certain obstacles in the next reign,*' 

 and as a result a spirited remonstrance was 

 addressed in 1637 to the archbishop of Can- 

 terbury. From this it appears that Ralph 

 Bunn and John Elliott ' who have wrought in 

 the quarry at Portland about the stones for the 

 West End of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in 

 London ever since that work begun,' had been 

 taken by the press-gang for the royal navy to the 

 great hindrance of the work. Furthermore com- 

 plaint was made that the ' ships which did bring 

 the stones for St. Paul's had their men pressed 

 out of them the last year, and could not be 

 released though they had a warrant from the 

 officers of the navy.' The press-gang, indeed, 

 held the warrant invalid, as it was without the 

 Admiralty seal, and therefore sufficient warrants 

 were prayed for by the petitioners to secure both 

 quarrymen and sailor?. Laud on the reception 

 of this appeal at once took action, and on 20 April 

 informed Mr. Secretary Nicholas that ' it is His 

 Majesty's express pleasure that sufficient warrant 



*■ It may be noted that, in the purchases made by 

 the Corporation of the City of London in 1630 for 

 the repair of Newgate Prison, while Purbeck stone cost 

 only 5a'. a foot, Portland stone was priced at \s. SJ. 

 Rogers, ^gric. and Prices in England, v, 5 1 1 . In the 

 reign of James I also large quantities of Portland 

 stone were employed in building or repairing the 

 town houses of certain noblemen, as, for example, the 

 dukes of Richmond and Buckingham. Several refer- 

 ences to the Portland quarries will be found in the 

 contemporary State Papers, e.g. S. P. Dom. Jas. I, 

 cxiii. No. 71 ; cxv, No. 75 ; cxlvi. No. 61 ; clxx, 

 No. 25, &;c. 



"' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclii. No. 57. 



340 



