FORESTRY 



same time Sir Richard Savage was appointed constable of Peak, master forester of Peak 

 Forest, and steward of both castle and forest, at a salary of 18 i8s. \d. a year, to be 

 paid him by his kinsman the archbishop as receiver. 1 In the following year Thomas 

 Babington was appointed sub-steward. 3 



Three years later the different offices were again reassorted and to some extent amalgamated, 

 for Sir Henry Vernon in November, 1507, was appointed steward, bailiff, and master forester. 

 In the following January, James Worsley was appointed ' Boweberer infra forestam de Peke ' 

 during pleasure. 8 



Among the Belvoir MSS. is the roll of a swainmote held at Chapel-en-le-Frith in 

 October, 1497. The foresters made various presentments of venison trespass. In six cases 

 the offenders were charged with killing a 'cornilu.'* 



Two other undated complaints, temp. Henry VII., addressed to the chancellor of the 

 Duchy, are also of much interest (but far too long to quote), as showing the power of the 

 deputy-steward of the Peak and the use made of the castle as a prison. 6 



During the reign of Henry VIII. two great courts of attachment for the whole forest 

 were held yearly at Tideswell in August and October, as well as various smaller courts of 

 which many records are extant. At the great courts all the foresters of fee of the three wards 

 had to be present personally or by deputy. At a great court of attachment held in October, 

 1515, twelve offenders were fined for lopping trees in the woods of Ashop and Edale ; one 

 of these, John Marshall, was fined the heavy sum of 6s. 8d., and another, Edward Barbour, 

 1 3*. 4/ The entries are very brief, and the aggravating circumstances concerning these two 

 transgressions are not named. 6 



Smaller courts for the Campana ward were held at Tideswell on 30 November, 1518, 

 and on 27 March, 1519. At the former there were no presentations; at the latter, four 

 vert transgressors were fined for lopping in the aggregate sum of i^dJ 



(The names of the foresters attending a great court of attachment for the whole 

 forest, held at Tideswell in October, 1524, are given in full.) Among the foresters of 

 Longdendale was the abbot of Basingwerk ; he appeared through Thomas Johnson his 

 deputy. At this court ten persons were fined in sums varying from 6d. to 2d. as common 

 transgressors for lopping green wood. Among the transgressors were the vicars of Hope and 

 Castleton.s 



Another great court of attachment was held at Tideswell on I August, 1525, when 

 the large number of seventy-four vert offenders were fined in sums varying from izd. to 2d. 

 yielding a total of 34*. 'id. 



In the midst of this reign, the evil results of letting out or leasing the herbage of the 

 district, to be farmed by those who were not forest ministers, became apparent, so far as the 

 interests of maintaining a deer forest were concerned. The king, in July, 1526, issued a 

 commission to Sir Thomas Cokayne and three others to inquire into the overstocking of 

 ' our Forest of the Champion in the High Peak ' more than was ever wont with numbers 

 of ' capilles bestes and shepe ' by Henry Parker, the farmer of the herbage, and his deputies, 

 insomuch that there was no grass left in the forest ' for our game of dere,' and that thereby 

 many of the deer are likely to perish in the coming winter through lack of meat. The com- 

 missioners were to inquire what number of cattle and sheep the forest could maintain, and 

 whether Parker had more than previous farmers ; also as to the number of the deer and whether 

 they had decreased under Parker. The commissioners met at the chamber within the forest 



1 Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxxii. f. 12, 13. 



9 Ibid. f. 20, Thomas Savage, consecrated bishop of Rochester, 1493, bishop of London, 1494, and 

 archbishop of York, 1503, was the second of the nine sons of Sir John Savage of Stainsby. His 

 mother was a Leake of Sutton Scarsdale, in which church there used to be a memorial window in his 

 honour. After all, his appointment to these Peak Forest offices was not incongruous with his life, for 

 it is said of this archbishop that his chief delight was ' in the sound of the huntsman's horn and the 

 baying of his hounds.' 



8 Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks., xxxii. f. 106 ; also Misc. Bks. xxxix. 99. 



* See Yeatman's Feud. Hist. iii. 384-5, What is a ' cornilu ?' This word, though the assistance 

 of some of our ablest philologists has been asked and courteously given, remains uncertain in its 

 meaning. The probabilities on the whole favour the idea that it was a local name for some kind 

 of horned deer. Possibly it may have been the roebuck. Compare leucoryx, the name for a white 

 antelope. 



Duchy Depos. I. H. 10 and lod. 6 Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. T y T . 



8 Ibid. 4 V T . 



409 52 



