A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



forest bailiwick (that is to find and pay the under- 

 forester) in return for these privileges and also to 

 make an annual payment to the king of 4Cw. 36 



In 1280 there was an inquisition as to a night 

 trespass in Bernwood Forest, Buckinghamshire, 

 when the foresters took and imprisoned a com- 

 pany of thirteen. The foresters swore that one 

 of the number, Robert Cripelard, was engaged 

 in placing a snare, formed of a single cord ; but 

 the jury held that Robert was not culpable. 37 



In connexion with the Forest Pleas for Buck- 

 inghamshire, lists were drawn up in 1286 and 

 1287 of quittance of the common summons. 

 Among those whose presence at the eyres was 

 thus excused by the crown, although free tenants 

 or holding privileges within the royal forests of 

 the county, were the abbess of Godstow, the 

 abbess of Barking, the bishop of Coventry and 

 Lichfield, the priors of Merton and La Grave, 

 the abbot ofOseney, the prior general of St. John 

 of Jerusalem, the master of the hospital of St. 

 John-without-Oxford, and the earls of Cornwall, 

 Hereford, and Surrey. 38 



The prison for trespassers in the whole forest 

 of Bernwood was at Brill. In February, 1277, 

 John Fitzneal, the warden of the forest, was 

 ordered to deliver Peter le Provost and his son 

 John, imprisoned at Brill for forest trespass, in 

 bail to twelve men pledged to deliver him before 

 the justices of Forest Pleas when next they came 

 to those parts. In the following May the same 

 warden received a like mandate from the crown 

 to release in a similar manner Hugh Magot and 

 his son Humphrey from imprisonment at Brill.' 9 



In 1292 Elias de Hauvill, steward of Bern- 

 wood Forest, received the crown mandate to 

 release on bail, from the prison at Brill, William 

 de Boyton and seven others, all confined there 

 for forest trespasses. 40 



In the same year Aumary de St. Amando, 

 king's yeoman, obtained licence by letters patent 

 to hunt the fox, hare, badger, and cat, with his 

 own dogs, throughout the forests of Bucking- 

 hamshire, except during the fence month, so 

 that he did not take great game or course in 

 warrens. 41 



Occasionally in the forests of this county, as 

 elsewhere, trespassers obtained immediate pardon 

 from the crown. Thus, in 1294, the justices 

 next in eyre for Forest Pleas in the county 

 of Buckingham received royal orders not to 

 molest James de la Plaunche for the trespass he 

 was said to have committed in taking harts and 

 hinds, as well as bucks and does, in the Bucking- 

 hamshire portion of Salcey Forest without the 

 king's licence, as the king had pardoned him the 



"Inq. p.m. 50 Hen. Ill, No. 25. 

 " Misc. Chan. Forest Proc. bdle. n, file 3 (22). 

 18 Close, 1 4 Edw. I, m. 8 d. ; 15 Edw. I, m. 5 d. 

 " Ibid. 5 Edw. I, mm. 1 1, 8. 



40 Ibid. 20 Edw. I, m. 9. 



41 Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 10. 



136 



trespass. A like letter was directed to the 

 justices next in eyre for the county of North- 

 ampton. 42 



In October 1297 the sheriff of Buckingham- 

 shire received the king's mandate to the effect 

 that he desired the late king's Forest Charter to 

 be observed inviolable in all its articles, and 

 he had therefore appointed Adam Gurdon and 

 William de Mortuo Mari, together with two of 

 the most discreet of the knights of the county, 

 to cause a perambulation to be made, in the 

 presence of the foresters and verderers, to con- 

 firm the perambulations of the late reign which 

 had not been disputed. The sheriff was ordered 

 to summon all the knights of the county to meet 

 Adam and William, and from their number to 

 appoint two successors. 43 



When the perambulation of Whittlewood 

 Forest was shortly afterwards undertaken, Roger 

 le Brabazon and Ralph de Hengham took a sore 

 (a buck of the fourth year) and three does in the 

 Buckinghamshire part of the forest. Letters 

 close were, however, addressed by the crown 

 to the justices next in eyre for Pleas of the 

 Forest, both of the counties of Buckingham 

 and Northampton, ordering them not to molest 

 or aggrieve Roger and Ralph, as they and the 

 others assigned by the king to make the perambu- 

 lation took them by his licence in the course of 

 making the perambulation. 44 



Soon after the accession of Edward III, the 

 sheriff of Buckinghamshire was ordered to take 

 anew in his county court the oaths of the 

 verderers of Bernwood Forest, who had been 

 elected in the late king's lifetime, to inquire 

 into their qualifications and to cause others to 

 be elected in the place of those who might be 

 insufficiently qualified. 48 



An inquisition was held at Brill in 1363, 

 before William of Wykeham, 46 as to the pasture 

 rights of the tenants of Brill, Boarstall, and 

 Oakley, when it was held that they had rights 

 of depasturing their cattle through the whole 

 forest, save in the haye (or park) of Ixhull, 

 without molestation except in the fence month. 

 In the following year an inquisition was held at 

 Headington, before Peter Atte Wood, deputy of 

 William of Wykeham, as to the condition of the 

 whole forest of Bernwood. 4 ' 



There is an original inquisition as to the state 

 of the Buckinghamshire division of Bernwood 

 Forest at the Public Record Office, held in the 

 year 1377, with the rows of small imitative seals 



" Close, 22 Edw. I, m. 9. 

 "Ibid. 25 Edw. I, m. 4< 



44 Ibid. 28 Edw. I, m. 4. 



45 Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, m. 27. 



16 This was the great William of Wykeham, who 

 became bishop of Winchester in 1367. His appoint- 

 ment as warden of Bernwood Forest is not named by 

 any of his biographers. 



" Kennet, Punch. Antij. \\, 146. 



