A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



by the Lombard commentators 1 made them 

 applicable to mines of all descriptions and in all 

 countries, and the German emperors in the 

 twelfth century succeeded in enforcing their 

 pretensions and in taking all mines under their 

 peculiar care. 2 



It was found, however, that attempts to treat 

 the miners as so many agricultural labourers would 

 be disastrous. The technical difficulties con- 

 nected with mining made it essential that the 

 men be secured from interruption, and also that 

 skilled workmen be called in by special grants of 

 privileges. The upshot was that the emperor, 

 and his imitators, the lesser princes, gradually 

 commuted their mining rights for a proportion 

 of the produce, and threw open the mines to 

 all comers under a series of charters, 3 the pro- 

 visions of which we shall find exemplified, in 

 the main, by those of the Cornish tinners. 

 Germany's policy was followed some centuries 

 later by France, the edicts of Charles VI 4 and 

 Louis XI 5 removing the miner from the power 

 of the landlords, and granting privileges to pro- 

 spectors. Even Norway and Sweden appear at 

 an early date to have regarded the mining classes 

 as of a special status. 6 



In England, in the same general period, we 

 meet with similar codes, applied, however, not 

 to all mines, but to several scattered mining 

 communities the lead miners of the Mendip 

 Hills, 7 Derbyshire, 8 and Alston Moor, 9 the iron 

 and coal miners of the Forest of Dean, 10 and the 

 tanners of Cornwall. It would simplify matters 

 could we regard these codes as descended from 

 Roman law, as was probably the case upon the 



1 See extracts from the Gloss of Accursius and the 

 Summa of Azo, printed in E. Smirke, Vice v. Thomas, 

 App. 104. 



1 See charters of mines, printed in the Spiculegium 

 Ecclesiasticum, Luenig, Reichs Archiv. and cited by 

 J. F. Gmelin, Geschichte da Teutschen Bergbau, 220, 

 241. 



3 See F. L. von Cancrin, Grunds'dzze des Teutschen 

 Bergrechts, 149. A specimen charter is that of Iglau, 

 Peithner, Versuch uber die Naturliche und Polltische 

 Geschichte der Eohmischen und M'drischen Bergwerke, 

 App.; Jars, Voyages Mttallurgiques, iii, 461511 ; 

 Reyer, Zinn, 35, 53, 54, 56, 79. 



* Recueil des Anciennes Lois Francoises, vii, 386390. 



5 Ibid, x, 623; ' The Mining Laws of France,' by 

 M. Migneron, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cormv. vi, 239- 

 258. 



6 Swank, Iron in all Ages (ed. 2)29; 'A Sketch of 

 Mining Law in Germany and other Countries,' by 

 C. Lemon, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cormo. vi, 171-172; 

 Jars, Voyages Metallurgiques, i, 403-416 ; Heron de 

 Villefosse, De la Richesse Minerale (Extrait par 

 M. Patrin, 1811), 40-41. 



7 Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. iii. 



8 Esch. Enr. Accts. 16 Edw. I, No. 34 ; Add. MS. 

 6682, fol. 65 ; Compkat Mineral Laws of Derb. 



9 Pat. 4 Hen. V, m. 8 ; 30 Edw. I, pt. iii, m. 23 ; 

 Par/. R. (Rec. Com.) i, 64. 



10 Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. ii ; Nicholls, 

 The r^.-est if Dean. 



continent. This, however, is not easy to prove. 

 The early references to the English miners' privi- 

 leges give the impression of unwritten law, 

 arisen through custom, rather than of rights 

 formally conferred by charter. 11 In Derbyshire 

 the lead-miners' customs rested on immemorial 

 usage, 12 to which Edward I in 1288 merely 

 affixed his confirmation. 13 In Dean the law 'used 

 time out of mind ' was but restated in the so- 

 called mine charter of ia86. u The Alston 

 miners received a charter from Henry V ; 15 but, 

 again, nothing was granted that had not been 

 previously enjoyed. What also seems strange 

 is that, although these mining camps were 

 operated under conditions of great liberality to 

 the adventurer, all mines outside their limits 

 should be the property of the king 16 or of the 

 landlord. 17 This is no place for a dissertation 

 upon the general subject of the origins of English 

 mining law; but I may here state my opinion, 

 formed after a study of the sources, that, while 

 the king unquestionably tried to imitate the 

 continental sovereigns in claiming all metallic 

 mines, 18 this pretension was never permanently 

 established except for the precious metals, other 

 mines, as a rule, remaining the property of the 

 ground-lord. 19 Under these circumstances, the 

 existence, under peculiar mining codes, of several 

 isolated tracts well known to be the seat of the 

 oldest mines in England, seems due, not to any 

 engrafting of Roman law from the continent, 

 but, as the miners themselves declared, to usage 

 time out of mind. 



It has been stated that the authentic history 

 of the tin mines begins with the year 1156. 

 The earliest entries are but brief items in the 

 Pipe Rolls, 20 but in 1198 appears a letter 21 from 



11 ' The Origins of Mining Law,' by J. Hawkins, 

 Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cormv. vi, 90. 



" It is said that William the Conqueror expressly 

 refrained from disturbing them. Add. MS. 6682, 

 fol. 197. 



13 Esch. Enr. Accts. 16 Edw. I, No. 34. 



14 Nicholls, The Forest of Dean, 17. 



15 Pat. 4 Hen. V, m. 8. 



16 As in the case of mines royal (Pipe R. of Cumb. 

 Westmld. and Dur. Introd. xxiv-xxvi, Fines, 18 

 Edw. II, m. 15 ; Cal. of Pat. 1300, 502 ; 1461, 19 ; 

 Plowden, Commentaries (ed. 1761), 310 (Case of 

 Mines); Ruding, Annals of the Coinage, i, 124 et seq.). 



" As in the coal mines in the north (Galloway, 

 Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, 1 8, 21, 23, 



24> Z 7> 37-39. 44> S9 6 9> 73; Patrick, Early 

 Mining Records of Scotland, Introd. xlv). 



18 Dugdale, Mon. (ed. 1 846), ii, 289 (grant by Rich. I 

 to the bishop of Bath) ; Cal. of Pat. 1283, 73 

 (grant of lead mines to the Carthusian monks). 



19 Plowden, Commentaries (ed. 1761), 310 (Case of 

 Mines). 



80 Pipe R. 2 Hen. II, Devon, and for the following 

 years. It is probable that these entries comprised 

 both the Devon and the (then) less important Cornish 

 stannaries. 



81 Black Book of Exchequer, No. 10. 



524 



