A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



At the very close of her life Mrs. Pigott 

 was engaged in litigation in the Court of Aug- 

 mentations, 98 and we hear incidentally that the 

 king, being seised of the park and chase on 

 the death of Queen Jane Seymour, had in July 

 of his thirty-second year granted her a lease 

 under certain conditions. In 1548 she made 

 her will and shortly after died and was buried 

 at Whaddon, Giffard's manor passing by sale 

 after her death to the Greys of Wilton, and with 

 it the hereditary custody of the park and chase 

 and the keepership of the game. 93 



The later history of the chase cannot be dealt 

 with in detail here, but a few notes may be 

 allowed as to the gradual deterioration of its 

 woodland. It is doubtful whether any swain- 

 mote courts were held in the chase after the 

 reign of Henry VIII, but under Elizabeth in- 

 quisitions were made as to the state of the wood- 

 land. It was found by one of these that Wood- 

 pond Coppice, containing fifty acres, was sold by 

 Mr. Sylvester Taverner, 



sythe the begyning of the raign of Quyne Mary and 

 also Nycols Wood, containing 30 acres, was sold by 

 one Vaghan sarvante to the olde Earl of Sussex and 

 by William Cottesford and also they solde five score 

 trees owte of the same wood imedyatly after the 

 vnderwood was gone and every tree was worthe zoJ. 

 Also Mr. Hamden, Clarke of the Quen's Majestys 

 Kytchen, had for the reparatyon of Kyrsloo 40 okes 

 by the Quynes warrant dated the 19 Feb. 2 Eliz. 

 Also he had 20 okes for Kyrsloo aforsayd by Quynes 

 warrant 24 May 1560. 



Other grants are mentioned, and as to apparently 

 unauthorized waste, 



the olde Lord Grey of Wylton sold 20 lodes of fyre 

 wode yearlye for the space of 10 yeares for 2O/. by 

 the yeare. Also we fynde three rydynges made in 

 the chase by Mr. Thomas Wake lyeftenaunt there 

 conteyning 3 acres, 



and so the tale continues of the ill custody of 

 the vert by its sworn guardians. It is noted 

 that Woodpond Coppice ' being fyrewoode was 

 40 years' growth when it was fallen, Nycoll's 

 Wood being fyrewood was 21 years' growth.' 

 The other wood was partly ' firewood ' and 

 partly timber. 94 It must also be remembered 

 that the recognized rights of commoners 95 and 

 others entitled to perquisites were liable to serious 

 abuse and no doubt contributed to the gradual 

 deterioration of the chase at the time. 



9> Aug. Proc. (P.R.O.), bdle. 14, No. 25. 



93 Add. MS. 37069, fol. 140, Lipscombe, Hist, of 

 Bucks,\i\, 498 ; F. of Fines, Bucks. Trin. 5 Edw. VI. 



94 Add. MS. 37069, fol. 144. 



95 ' Also the comyners that boundes upon the chasse 

 do clayme and hath had tyme owte of mynde sufficient 

 hedge boote owt of the Chasse to repayre the Chasse 

 mownde, as oft as nead dyd require,' while certain 

 wood rights were claimed by Lord Grey, Mr. Percival 

 Jefferson, the farmer of Snelshall, the ' baylye of 

 Wynsloo ' and others. Add. MS. 37069, fol. 



Towards the end of the month of March, 

 1594, Sir John Fortescue wrote on behalf of the 

 queen to Thomas Fortescue, His Majesty's Sur- 

 veyor of Lands in Buckinghamshire, and to 

 Thomas Stafford and Edward Walter, Her 

 Majesty's Woodwards, that he was informed 

 that a great deal of the paling and rails of 

 Whaddon Park was blown down and utterly 

 decayed. Repairs must be taken in hand lest 

 'her Majestie's deer breake forth to the decaie 

 of the game there.' The timber necessary could 

 be felled in the park itself, while the top and lop 

 might be sold and the money applied to meet the 

 necessary expenses. 98 



In the autumn of the same year, after the 

 death of Mr. John Savage, lieutenant of the 

 chase, orders were ratified by the Lady Sybil 

 Grey as to the perquisites of the officers. The 

 lieutenant was to have one buck and one doe 

 each year with all waifs and strays and the dead 

 hedges of every coppice, beside all windfalls in 

 the chase above a load, and six loads for fuel, 

 while a certain number of loads of wood were to- 

 be allotted yearly to the other officers who were 

 under the general charge of Mr. Underwood, 

 apparently the senior keeper. 97 Fees of all the 

 deer in the park were to belong to the keeper of 

 the park only, but ' all the other keepers in the 

 chace to haue all the fees of the deare killed 

 every man alyke in his turne.' No browsewood 

 should be sold except in one special case four 

 loads a year, and it was further directed for the 

 protection of the young trees that 



no horse or geldyng be suffered to goe into any 

 coppice there till it shall be 8 or 9 yeres growth 

 without they be tied in any playne where no wood 

 is growyng. 



In the early years of the next reign considerable 

 attention was directed to the woods and forests 

 of the crown, and about 1608 a survey 98 was 

 made of several extents of woodland in Bucking- 

 hamshire and along the Northampton border, 

 including ' Whaddon Chase and Parke parcell of" 

 the Queenes Majesties joynture and Abbottes 

 woodes late the Lord Grayes not in her Majesties, 

 joynture.' As a result of this survey 328 trees 

 were sold for the sum of ^517 Js. ^d. Of 

 these the park furnished forty-two and Abbots 

 Wood eighty-five, the rest belonging to the 

 chase proper. 99 



But the middle of the seventeenth century saw 

 the most serious destruction of the timber in the 



98 Add. MS. 37069, fol. 199. 



97 The park-keeper was apparently Thomas Peers. 

 There seem to h;ive been four keepers in the chase, 

 William Underwood, Richard Smyth, John Maynard, 

 and John Brown, besides William Lorde, in charge 

 of ' Shucklo Warren,' and John Cartwrich, the wood- 

 ward. 



98 P.R.O. Exch. Spec. Com. 7107. 



99 For a later sale of dottard trees in the reign of 

 James I see Egerton MS. 808, fol. 3 et seq. 



142 



