A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



was present, and the justice decided 'We can do 

 nothing to there grownde if they have no knoledge 

 thereof ; we sit here but as voyde for this mater.' 

 As to the stubborn jury, he continued, ' I daresay 

 these men ben good and true and a true verdyt 

 they have brought, houbeit they be not abull 

 men to shew the kinge.' Therefore he ordered 

 twelve neighbouring gentlemen to be 'paneld 

 upon a quest,' who were to bring in their verdict 

 by St. Bartholomew's Day next. According to 

 the popular account we have been following, 

 these gentlemen did not bring in their verdict 

 nor were ever called so to do. 'So this matter 

 standyth as it dyd before tyme which have ever 

 be caled purlew grownde and it is no chace and 

 never was.' The further business of this court 

 as set out in what appears to be the official 

 record 80 need not detain us further details as to 

 the deer, offences against customs of common, and 

 such inclosures and purprestures as the flagrant 

 instance of Mr. Stafford's ' Hoggesty.' 



No other forest court seems to have been held 

 in Whaddon for several years, but about 1500," 

 and probably in the autumn, Mr. Pigott com- 

 manded 'another courte to be holden at Whaddon ' 

 and the old questions were, in part, thrashed out 

 anew. He brought forward ' olde evidence,' and 

 by reason thereof urged the jurors to declare 

 Mursley Grove and Nicols Wood within the 

 bounds of the chase. ' We never saw it,' they 

 answered, ' ne yet our fathers before us, where- 

 fore we will never gree thereto.' He then offered 

 to ensure their legal immunity if they consented. 

 Then made answer John Macke, the foreman of 

 the quest, ' How will you bare us out if we 

 fortune to be laid in prison ? ' and his fellows 

 exclaimed 'all with hole voyce that they would 

 never agree thereto but as there fathers dyd by 

 olde tyme. Than he waxed angry and called 

 them all churles and said, if he lyved, that he 

 would quit them all there mede.' 



Baffled on this point Mr. Pigott asked the 

 the jurors whether they would direct that 

 Mr. Stafford's hog-sty should be pulled down by 

 a certain day. They answered all and said ' They 

 would not meddle therewith ; there they found it 

 and there they would leave it.' This answer ex- 

 hausted the hereditary keeper's patience. He 

 ordered his clerk to take up the books and left 

 the court-room. But when Mr. Pigott had reached 

 the yard he turned again into the house and bade 

 the steward ' to wryte at chace all that ever was 

 within the bounds of the diche,' and promised to 

 bear him out. Further he ordered the steward 



80 Assuming that the swainmote of 9 Hen. VII was 

 the occasion of this ' Syttynge.' Unfortunately in Add. 

 R. 53964, the portion of the date which would fix 

 the exact month is illegible. 



81 The popular account leaves the date vague. The 

 time suggested is an inference from indications in D. 

 of Lane. Forest Proc., bdle. 3, No. 19, if, as is possible, 

 the presentations there refer to this court. 



'lay ^lO upon Mr. Staffbrde's hed ' that his hog- 

 sty be pulled down by the Michaelmas following. 

 Part of Mr. Stafford's offence, as appears from the 

 presentments 82 of the foresters in 14-15 Hen. VII, 

 was his appointment of a swineherd who was not 

 sworn 'to our Lord the King.' The hog-sty 

 was situate at Tattenhoe Bare. He had also been 

 guilty, during the years immediately preceding, of 

 trespasses against the king's venison, having with 

 others unknown slain a buck 'apud Snelleshale 

 quarter' on 18 June, 12 Hen. VII, and similarly 

 on 20 July, 14 Hen. VII, chased a doe at Salden 

 Leys outside the bounds of the king's chase of 

 Whaddon, but actually killed it at the Frith, which 

 was within the bounds. Mr. Thomas Stafford 

 was also a keen fox-hunter and ' usualiter de anno 

 in annum ' entered both park and chase in 

 pursuit of his quarry. But it is clear that there 

 was a considerable amount of poaching in the 

 king's chase during the last years of the fifteenth 

 century among the neighbouring residents, both 

 high and low, from Marmaduke Constable, knight, 

 who killed a ' pricket : at Westwood Hill, on 

 2O August, 13 Hen. VII, to Henry Chery of Fenny 

 Stratford, yeoman, who on 26 August, two years 

 later, entering the king's chase at the Frith, 

 killed and carried away ' unam damam vocatam 

 a tegge.' Besides the venison trespasses there 

 were a number of interesting presentments as to 

 common rights, 83 and a recital of the bounds of 

 the chase proper which we can merely mention 

 here. 



So unsatisfactory had been Mr. Pigott's ex- 

 perience of courts in connexion with Whaddon 

 chase, 84 that no other was held in his lifetime. 

 He died a serjeant-at-law about 1520, leav- 

 ing his second wife Elizabeth a widow. This 

 redoubtable lady, who was the eldest coheiress 85 

 of John Iwardby of Great Missenden, had already 

 been married to a Northamptonshire squire before 

 her alliance with Mr. Thomas Pigott. On her 

 second husband's death she found herself 8e in 

 possession of the manor of Doddershall, which she 

 had as her marriage-portion, and besides other pro- 

 perty held the manor of Whaddon and the custody 

 of the park and chase for the term of life with 

 remainder to William Pigott her step-son. The 

 timber and venison of the park and chase, with the 

 exception of certain recognized perquisites, were 

 apparently reserved to Queen Catherine, who had 

 succeeded her mother-in-law in their enjoyment. 



88 D. of Lane. Forest. Proc. (P.R.O.), bdle. 3, No. 19. 



83 One complaint was that the warden of New 

 College, Oxford, had inclosed the common at Prior's 

 Wood to the extent of twenty acres. 



84 None till 1 6 Hen. VIII, according to Add. 

 MS. 37069. Possibly this is a scribe's mistake for 

 17 Hen. VIII. 



85 Cal. Inq.p. m. Hen. Vll. Nos. 6 and 1080. 



86 Cf. Rentals and Surveys (P.R.O.), ptfo. 2, No. 7, 

 and Chan. Inq. p.m. Ser. 2, 12 Hen. VIII, No. i. 

 Thomas Pygott. 



I 4 



