INDUSTRIES 



In following definitions of the word ' tinner,' 

 we meet with a novel and arbitrary mode of in- 

 terpretation. The old distinction between tin- 

 ners on the royal estates and those elsewhere 

 had probably long been dropped, and in its stead 

 arose a theory which attempted to apply to all 

 tinners that contrast between working and non- 

 working tinners brought out in 1376,* the main 

 point being the claim that only working tinners 

 might be excluded from all but stannary courts, 

 while others possessed rights of suit at stannary 

 or common-law courts at their choice. Granted 

 this proposition (and it seems to have found ac- 

 ceptance from the first), the question remained 

 as to what tinners belonged to the privileged 

 class, and which were merely ' tinners at large.' 

 The judges, in 1608, decided that the former 

 comprised blowers and all other labourers while 

 at work. The stannary convocation in 1624 

 seems to have extended the privilege of not being 

 suable in other than the stannary courts, to another 

 sort, namely, to owners of blowing-houses and 

 adventurers who were at any charge for getting 

 or making tin. It was probably this extension 

 of privilege which occasioned the second reference 

 to the judges three years later. Their explana- 

 tory decision amounted to little more than a 

 reversion to the rule of 1608, and the same state- 

 ment may be made with regard to the rules laid 

 down by the king in council in 1632, and the 

 statute of 1641. An inspection of succeeding 

 codes of stannary law in the reigns of James II 

 and George II makes it clear that their provi- 

 sions are built upon this principle, and an unin- 

 terrupted course of usage and practice in con- 

 formity with it carried the doctrine down to 



The second great question concerned itself 

 with the local limits for the exercise of the stan- 

 nary jurisdiction. None seem to have been 

 prescribed until the charter of 1305, in which, 

 as regards miners on the royal estates, exemption 

 was granted from pleading elsewhere than before 

 the stannary courts for all pleas arising ultra 

 predictas stannarias, i.e. which were on the 

 demesne lands. Other miners were answerable 

 to the stannary court for pleas arising among 

 themselves, and between themselves and out- 

 siders, concerning all trespasses, plaints, and 

 contracts made in places where they worked 

 within the stannaries arising. In answer to the 

 petitions of 1376, the above was interpreted to 

 mean that the jurisdiction extended to places 

 where the workmen were at work and nowhere 

 else, a decision which, if acquiesced in by the 

 tinners, would have resulted in unending con- 

 fusion. The charter of 1305 itself, in its clause 

 of pre-emption, calls for the coinage of the tin in 

 Lostwithiel, Bodmin, Liskeard, Truro, and 

 Helston. All contracts made there for the sale 



1 Expediency, of course, was the sole excuse for this 

 interpretation. 



and purchase of tin were unquestionably de- 

 terminable in the stannary courts, of which we 

 have had an instance in the case of Boscawen 

 against Chaplin, where the cause of action arose 

 upon a contract made at Truro between persons 

 who were not labourers, which, nevertheless, was 

 decided by a stannary court. 



The judge before whom the question was 

 raised in 1608 decided that transitory actions 

 between tinner and tinner, and worker and worker, 

 might be decided in the stannary courts, even if the 

 cause arose outside the stannaries, or at common 

 law, at the election of the plaintiff. But if in 

 such a case only one of the parties were a tinner, 

 the defendant might have the case removed to a 

 foreign court. They further ruled that the courts 

 of the stannaries had no jurisdiction over local 

 cases arising outside the stannaries, and that the 

 privileges of workmen did not extend to any local 

 case arising outside the stannaries whereby any 

 freehold should be demanded, ' for that matters of 

 life, member and plea of land were exempted by 

 the express words of the charter.' The stannary 

 convocation in 1624 recognized stannary juris- 

 diction as embracing the contracts or dealings of 

 all persons whomsoever in the buying or selling 

 of uncoined tin, without limitation or qualifica- 

 tion as to their condition and withont reference 

 to the place where they might be entered. 2 By 

 the resolutions of the judges in 1627 it was 

 decided, with reference to the extent of the 

 stannaries, that they comprised every village, 

 hamlet, or tithing wherein tin works existed, or 

 should be wrought, during such time only as 

 active mining operations should be carried on. 



A further step was taken by the Privy Council 

 in 1632, when they decided that, since in prac- 

 tice all Cornwall had been treated by the stan- 

 nary courts as within their jurisdiction, and as the 

 other provisions of the mining charters applied to 

 the entire county, matters had best continue in 

 statu quo. In the twenty-first section of the 

 laws of the parliament of the Cornish stannaries 

 of 1636, the stannary jurisdiction is recognized 

 as embracing all dealings in black tin, and gives 

 a remedy to the party wronged without qualifica- 

 tion as to the condition of the two parties, or 

 reference to the place of dealing. The statute 

 passed by Parliament in 1641 returned to the 

 exposition of 1376, 'that the words in locis ubl 

 operantur, be expounded of the village, hamlet, 

 and tithing where some tin work is situated, and 

 not elsewhere, and no longer than the same tin 

 work is, or shall be working.' Its operation, 

 however, was deemed, in practice, to be confined 

 to the case of labouring tinners, and this construc- 

 tion was adopted in the laws of 1687 and 1752, 

 and has so continued until recent times. 



It has been seen that, from a legal standpoint, 

 the stannaries were a peculiar jurisdiction, under 

 the operation of certain laws, customary and 



Convoc. Cornw. 22 Jas. I, c. 5. 



531 



