A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



statutory, technical and non-technical, for the 

 administration of which a royal officer, the warden, 

 was responsible. The head of the stannary sys- 

 tem was, accordingly, the king, or, after 1337, 

 the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. 

 Beneath him stood the warden, then the vice- 

 warden, and lastly, the lower stannary courts 

 with their stewards and juries of miners. 



The warden, however, as far back as we find 

 records, invariably delegated his judicial and 

 magisterial powers to his lieutenant and to the 

 stewards, and interfered in legal questions only in 

 appeals from the vice-warden's verdicts. 1 The 

 latter's powers were, first of all, magisterial, for 

 the prevention, by summary process, of offences 

 against stannary laws, and for their summary 

 punishment, if perpetrated. 2 Next, as judge of 

 the vice-warden's court, he had original jurisdic- 

 tion in matters of equity. The origin of this 

 power will always remain obscure, as it is im- 

 possible to find warrant for it in any reasonable 

 interpretation of the charters of 1201 and 1305, 

 which contain no legal phrase not to be found 

 in common-law writs. 3 On the other hand, the 

 early petitions addressed to the Prince of Wales 4 

 are rarely made to the warden, but to the prince's 

 proper officer whoever he might be ; neither 

 were they restricted to the subject of mining. 8 

 Gradually, without doubt, from these petitions 

 and the orders from the prince's council arose an 

 equitable jurisdiction. Similar petitions to great 

 lords and their councils ripened into courts of 

 chancery, notably the case of the courts of the 

 president and council of Wales, 6 and probably 

 only the interposition of parliament prevented 

 the growth of many courts of local equity. 7 The 

 prince's council survived those of other subjects, 8 

 and in the case of the Duchy of Cornwall, long 

 usage, the fact that many of the petitions related 

 to the stannaries, and the union of the warden- 

 ship with the other high offices of the duchy 9 

 for centuries, co-operated to narrow the prince's 

 jurisdiction to the same subjects as those embraced 

 by the tinners' charters. 



As no records were kept of the proceedings of 

 the vice-warden's court till 1752, one cannot 



1 The warden was the general representative of the 

 stannaries as against the government of England, 

 mustered the tinners in times of war, and acted as 

 their spokesman with regard to stannary affairs. 



2 Convoc. Cornw. 22 Jas. I, c. 6, 12, 13. 



3 Smirke, Vice v. Thomas, App. 102. 



4 White Book of Cornwall, 23 Nov. 34 Edw. Ill, 

 cited by E. Smirke, Vice v. Thomas, App. 26. 



5 White Book of Cornwall, i, c. 15. 



e Coke, Institutes (ed. 1661), bk. iv, p. 242-245. 

 ' Stat. 15 Ric. II, c. 12 ; 1 6 Ric. II, c. 2. 



8 It was recognized by parliament (Par/. R. ii, 371). 



9 Close, 8 Edw. II, m. 7. 



10 Convoc. Cornw. 27 Geo. II, c. 16. The case 

 of Boscawen v. Chaplin, in the reign of Henry VIII, 

 seems to have been dealt with as a special case, as it 

 appears to have been tried before the ' underwarden 



say how early it had actual practice in equity. 

 Carew, in 1602, wrote of the warden that 'he 

 supplieth the place, both of a judge for law, and 

 of a chancellor for conscience, and so taketh 

 hearing of causes either in forma juris or dejure et 

 equo. He substituted some gentleman in the 

 shire, of good calling and discretion, to be his 

 vice-warden.' u In a dissertation a few years later, 

 we find words to the same effect, 12 and the vice- 

 warden's power in equity was, in i6o8, 13 declared 

 by Coke to be founded on prescription. The 

 express recognition of these powers in later years, 

 and their unopposed exercise, leave no doubt as 

 to their validity in theory and in practice. 14 



The vice-warden's appellate jurisdiction dates 

 certainly back to 1 5 io, 15 and probably earlier. In 

 that year we see that the course of appeals in the 

 stannary courts lay from steward to vice-warden, 

 from vice-warden to warden, and from warden 

 to the prince's council, and in 1565 this measure 

 was confirmed in the case of Trewynnard against 

 Roskarrock, 16 as well as affirmed repeatedly in 

 stannary records of later years. More recently, 

 however, arose a practice, quite unwarranted, of 

 using the vice-warden's court as one of original 

 common-law jurisdiction. This seems to have 

 been exercised chiefly in cases of debts due to 

 merchants and tradesmen for the supply of 

 materials or goods requisite for the working of 

 the mines, and to tinners for their labour. The 

 delays in the stewards' courts had proved vexa- 

 tious beyond measure, 17 and the fact that, nor- 

 mally, the case was certain to come eventually 

 before the vice-warden now caused it to be 

 carried to him direct. 



This practice seems also to have been due 

 to the system of adventuring, which in the 

 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was at its 

 height in Cornwall. The creditors who supplied 

 the mines were made to look for payment to the 

 purser of the company, 18 and as he received all 

 moneys arising from the produce of the mines 

 they could usually reach him by petition to the 

 vice-warden, 19 while the purser, in turn, had 



and chief steward,' the ' understeward,' and a jury of 

 twenty-four, half tinners and half merchants. Cf. also 

 Acts of P. C. 1593, 266, 342. 



11 Carew, Surv. of Cornw. (ed. 1811), p. 58. 



" Harrison, Report on the Laws and jurisdiction of the 

 Stannaries, App. I. 



13 Close, 6 Jas. I, pt. v. 



14 Convoc. Cornw. 22 Jas. I, c. 21 ; 12 Chas. I, 

 c. 18 ; 27 Geo. II, c. 9, 1 1 ; Add. MS. 6682, fol. 

 507. 



16 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 190, 191. 



16 Coke, Institutes (ed. 1661), bk. iv, p. 233. The 

 same plaintiff had also met similar defeat in 1562 on 

 presenting his bill of complaint in the Court of the 

 Queen's Bench. 



17 Harrison, Report on the Laws and 'Jurisdiction of the 

 Stannaries, App. M. 



18 Convoc. Cornw. 2 Jas. II, c. 6. 



19 Ibid. 27 Geo. II, c. ii. 



532 



