A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



parliaments of 1687* and 1752. * That so 

 many efforts were made to adjust matters resulted 

 from the close attention which the question of 

 stannary jurisdiction had begun to attract from 

 lawyers and jurists of all sorts. From the tin- 

 ners' complaints to their warden 3 it is evident 

 that a more or less concerted movement was on 

 foot to break down the stannary courts altogether, 

 or, at least, to reduce them to a mere shadow 

 of their power. Essentially a product of the 

 reforming spirit of the Puritans, however, the 

 movement lost headway and seems to have died 

 out altogether with the Restoration. 



Can we reconcile with one another these various 

 interpretations ? There is little doubt but that, 

 granted at the outset a customary law of mining, 

 exemption from all outside jurisdiction was pur- 

 posely confined to tinners whose personal attend- 

 ance was deemed essential for production. As 

 for the others, whether their cases were decided 

 on the manor, or in the shire and hundred courts, 

 or whether by the royal justices, it is not for us 

 to say. Doubtless, as time went on, they grad- 

 ually, and quite illegally, came to use the stannary 

 courts for law suits, and to plead before the 

 warden and his officers to the exclusion of all 

 other tribunals. When we say that, even in the 

 thirteenth century, there probably existed many 

 quasi-capitalist miners who conducted their opera- 

 tions through the medium of hired labour, to 

 say nothing of dealers in ore and refined tin, 4 

 when we admit the possibility of numerous 

 technical questions arising between owners and 

 adventurers and their hired help, which could 

 not be settled save in the stannary courts where 

 the latter were forced to plead, and add to this 

 the aggressive spirit which, from the fourteenth 

 century, as we know, characterized the stannary 

 courts, the above supposition becomes highly 

 probable. 



To interpret the charter of 1305, one must 

 bear in mind the fact that, addressed at the out- 

 set to all tinners, it includes, in the opening 

 paragraph, certain grants of privileges to specifi- 

 cally mentioned bodies, namely, the tinners on 

 the royal demesne lands, the king seemingly 

 ignoring the charter of 1201 and its later con- 

 firmation, and granting freedom from pleas of 

 serfdom to working miners on his own estates, 

 with the additional privilege of being liable for 

 actions arising in the stannary, and not involving 

 land, life, or limb, solely before the warden and 

 his officers. The remainder of the charter is 

 addressed to all tinners, and confirms the 

 ancient rights of bounding, with its concomitant 



1 Convoc. Cornw. 2 Jas. II, c. 1-4, 8, 23. 

 1 Ibid. 27 Geo. II, c. 1-4, 8-10, 14, 17. 



3 On this question see Pearce, Laws and Customs 

 of the Stannaries, 147, 149-151. S.P. Dom. Eliz. 

 ccxxvii, 8 ; Jas. I, Ixxviii, 36. Add. MS. 24746, 

 fol. 92. Manuscript volume in Duchy of Cornwall 

 Office, fol. 337. 



4 Black Book of Exch. No. 10. 



privileges of wood and water ; and grants them 

 (including for the first time those not actually 

 engaged in manual labour) the right of pleading 

 in the stannary courts. These were given 

 cognizance, on the civil side, of all pleas between 

 tinners, and between tinners and foreigners, pro- 

 vided the case arose within the stannaries, with 

 the proviso that, in any suit in which a tinner 

 was involved, if he wished to put it to an 

 inquest of the country, half the jury must consist 

 of tinners. Criminal cases, where the accused 

 was a tinner, were dealt with in the ordinary 

 courts, with the concession to the stannaries that 

 tinners were to be lodged in a special gaol. 



The exposition given in 1376 referred merely 

 to the franchises granted foF"uie first time by 

 this charter, and left untouched the ancient 

 customary rights which antedated all written 

 documents. What we have to note with regard 

 to the word ' tinner ' is the fact that it dealt 

 merely with the special privileges granted to 

 tinners on the royal estates. In their case it 

 was defined as including only manual workers 

 so long as they worked. Upon the more 

 important question as to the comprehensiveness 

 of the word, applied to the great mass of tinners 

 outside the royal domains, no complaint appeared 

 and no definition was attempted. 



Afteralapse of one hundred and thirty-one years 

 we arrive at the Charter of Pardon granted by 

 Henry VII. 5 The specific persons to whom 

 this applied were bounders, owners of tin works 

 and smelting houses, and buyers of ore and 

 tin, men of conditions of life far above that of 

 the labouring tinner. They had offended against 

 certain ordinances made by Prince Arthur for the 

 direction of the stannaries. 6 Now these ordinances 

 could not be applicable to, or bind any others 

 than those who came within the operation of the 

 customs, and consequently within the jurisdic- 

 tion of the stannaries, and therefore all these 

 offenders could only have incurred the penalties 

 from which they were to be relieved, in the 

 character of tinners, in the most extensive con- 

 struction of the term, embracing all persons 

 having an interest or concern in any mining 

 operations regarding tin. 



The commission of inquiry in the sixteenth 

 year of Henry VIII adopted the term ' tinner ' 

 in this sense, as embracing ' such as have portion 

 of tin works, or that employ some charge on 

 the sinking, working, or in the making things 

 necessary for the getting of tin.' The same in- 

 terpretation is to be found by a close examination 

 of the two Acts of Parliament above cited, 7 and 

 in the cases of Boscawen against Chaplin, 8 and 

 Trewynnard against Killigrew. 9 



5 Pat. 23 Hen. VII, pt. vii, m. 29-31. 

 8 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 101-104. 



7 Stat. 23 Hen. VIII, c. 3 ; 27 Hen. VIII, c. 23. 



8 Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 9. 



9 Harrison, Report on the Laws and Jurisdiction of the 

 Stannaries, 55. 



53 



