A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



courts is the part played by the village tithing- 

 men as assistants to the court bailiffs in present- 

 ment of criminals, 1 while as regards civil suits, 

 the stannary laws inform us that in cases which 

 involved a bailiff the returns were made by the 

 tithingman of the place where the venire arose, 2 

 and the same procedure held good when the bailiff 

 was challenged in a civil suit on grounds of 

 favouritism. 3 Presentments were made also by 

 the toller, who seems to have served as connect- 

 ing link between the stannaries and the manor. 

 We have seen in him the servant of the lord who 

 received from the tinners their toll. Next we 

 find him, no doubt in his master's interests, inter- 

 vening in the bailiff's absence to arrest ore in 

 dispute, 4 and to commit it to custody until the 

 contention was settled. From that it was but a 

 step for him to be empowered to make returns 

 for civil suits when neither bailiff nor tithingman 

 was able to act, 5 while repeated instances also can 

 be found of presentments of offenders by the 

 toller of this or of that place, in the same nature 

 as those brought by the tithingman and bailiff. 6 



The two leet courts with view of frank- 

 pledge r contained several novel features. In the 

 stannary of Blackmore, as far back as the earliest 

 extant court rolls, 8 eight tithingmen in the hun- 

 dred of Powder appeared with their tithings to 

 do suit and to present criminals, acting in the 

 latter capacity as ex officio bailiffs. 9 Another fea- 

 ture was the presentment of stannary offenders by 

 a grand jury of twenty-four 10 tinners, composed 

 in later centuries at least of the more substantial 

 of the brotherhood. 10 



The leet's functions did not cease with the 

 ordinary business of a law court. Attended, 

 theoretically at least, by every tinner of the 

 district, 11 it resembled in many ways the manorial 

 halimote, or the court of a trade guild, inasmuch 



1 P. R. O. Ct. R. bdle. 156, No. 27. 

 ' Convoc. Cornw. 12 Chas. I, c. 28. 

 3 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 279. Presentment of the 

 jury of Penwith and Kerrier, 1636. 

 4 Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 39. 



5 Add. MS. 67 1 3, fol. 246. 



6 P. R. O. Ct. R. bdle. 161, No. 81. 



7 Add. MS. 24746, fol. 122. The leet courts in 

 Dean were known as the Mine Law Courts, and were 

 held by the constable of the Castle of St. Briavel's 

 (Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. ii, art. 20). In 

 Derby they were known as the Great Barmote Courts 

 (Compleat Mineral Laws of Derbyshire, pt. ii, art. 

 18, 25). 



8 1355- 



9 Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 3. P. R. O. Ct. R. bdle. 

 157, No. 13. 



10 Convoc. Cornw. 30 Eliz. c. 26. Add. MS. 671 3, 

 fol. 259. Note also that a special jury of four ' of the 

 best sort of tinners ' was returned by the grand jury, 

 to assess amerciaments (Convoc. Cornw. 30 Eliz. c. 27). 



11 ' The Ancient Stannary of Ashburton,' by R. N. 

 Worth, Trans. Devon Assoc. viii, 321. Fines for non- 

 attendance appear in various court rolls. Cf. P. R. O. 

 Ct. R. bdle. 152, No. 21 ; bdle. 159, No. 16. 



as it seems to have been the common meeting 

 place of the miners, and the administrative 

 centre of the stannary district. There the 

 tinners chose such officers as they had within 

 their power to elect. What the manner of pro- 

 cedure had been in earlier times it is hard to say, 

 but by the seventeenth century the power of 

 choice had become vested in the grand jury. ' 

 Thus, from the records of the Cornish mine 

 parliament of 1636, it appears that they desig- 

 nated, at the first law court after Michaelmas, a 

 receiver for the stannary common funds, while, 

 at the same time and place, the receiver for the 

 time being accounted for his charge and turned 

 it over to his successor. 13 There a jury of twelve 

 decided on measures to be used against tinners 

 who refused to pay their stannary assessments, 13 

 while the grand jury nominated a few petty 

 officers of a quasi-manorial character, such as 

 supervisors of roads and port-reeves. 14 



The leet served also to register the initiation 

 oaths of stannary officials. In open court ap- 

 peared the head bailiff, the weigher, and the 

 assay master and his deputies, who weighed and 

 tested the tin at the coinage, and in the presence 

 of the jury took oath to fill their office justly. 16 

 The owners of blowing-houses appeared and 

 registered their house-marks in the steward's 

 book, and presented their men to take an oath of 

 honest service. 16 At the Michaelmas session 

 came the verification of the gallon and foot-fate 

 measures used in the dividing of the ore, which 

 former duty was performed by the head bailiff 

 with a few tinners empanelled for that occasion. 17 

 Proclamation was made by the stewards of royal 

 ordinances or of statutes which dealt with the 

 stannaries, 18 and presentments were occasionally 

 made by the grand jury of the more important 

 customs used in that district. 19 



Few phases of stannary history are more 

 obscure than the tinners' parliaments or convo- 

 cations. The presence of similar bodies in the 

 Forest of Dean, 20 the possible analogy of ancient 

 tribal assemblies among the British, and the 

 exasperating way in which all documentary evi- 

 dence before the reign of Henry VIII has dis- 

 appeared, tempt one to speculate as to the origin 

 of these bodies instead of proving it. In both 



11 Convoc. Cornw. 12 Chas. I, c. 36. 

 15 Ibid. 30 Eliz. c. 27. 



" P. R. O. Ct. R. bdle. 1 56, No. 2 1 , Convoc. Cornw. 

 22 Jas. I, c. 32. 



15 Convoc. Cornw. 12 Chas. I, c. 12. 



16 Convoc. Cornw. 1 6 Hen. VIII, c. 17. P. R. O. 

 Ct. R. bdle. 156, No. 21. 



17 Convoc. Cornw. 12 Chas. I, c. 20. 



18 Pearce, Laws and Customs of the Stannaries, 154. 

 The stannaries were, of course, at the mercy of an Act 

 of Parliament. Cf. Stat. 1 6 Chas. I, c. 15; 

 4 Hen. VIII, c. 8, dealing with Strode's case. 



9 Add. MSS. 24746, fol. 122 ; 6713, fol. 279. 

 10 Nicholls, The Forest of Dean, 45, 47, 49, 54, 

 chap. iv. 



534 



