FORESTRY 



tion of Philip and Mary. In February 1562, Elizabeth appointed John Haward to act as 

 Robert Eyre's deputy. 1 



A great court of attachment and swainmote for the High Peak was held at Tideswell on 

 30 October 1559. Hugh Needham, Edward Eyre, and George Woodruff, were the 

 foresters who appeared in person ; the rest all sent deputies. Twenty-four offenders were 

 fined for lopping trees and carrying off undergrowth in Ashop wood : the first two names 

 were Robert and Laurence Pursglove. 2 At another like court held at the same place on 

 2 May 1567, twenty-one persons were fined for similar offences. 3 



The disputes as to the respective rights of deer and sheep grew more intensified during 

 the reign of Elizabeth. In 1561 Stephen Bagott of Hilton, Staffordshire, gentleman, occu- 

 pier of the 'Champyon of the Quenes majesties forest of the Peak,' by lease under Edward 

 Lord Hastings of Loughborough, the queen's farmer, complained to the chancellor (Sir Ambrose 

 Cave) that George Blackwell, Thomas Bagshaw, and other servants of George, earl of 

 Shrewsbury, claimed as foresters to have rights of herbage, pasture, turbary, and reeding for 

 deer over the champyon which was a part of the forest ' a very barren country of wood or 

 tynsell,' * contrary to all ancient usage. Blackwell and the other foresters, with their servants 

 to the number of nineteen persons, were definitely charged with having on Monday in 

 Easter week, 4 and 5 Philip and Mary, violently and by force of arms taken 400 wethers 

 and 400 ewes, some with lambs feeding on the champyon, and impounded them within the 

 castle of the Peak and kept them there till the following Friday without either meat or 

 water, by reason of which impounding divers of the wethers, ewes, and lambs died, causing 

 damage to Bagott of 20 or more. 



A further petition of the same Stephen Bagott, complained that in spite of the orders of 

 the court the foresters continued to molest the horses, mares, colts, and sheep feeding on the 

 champyon and to impound them in Peak Castle, especially last Easter, with the result of the 

 loss of 500 sheep in addition to the payment of heavy impounding fees. 



The defendants filed a reply to the effect that they were the servants of the earl of 

 Shrewsbury, justice in Eyre, and high steward of the honour of-Tutbury, of which the cham- 

 pagne of Peak Forest was a parcel : that this champagne was * the principall parte of the seid 

 forest wherein the quenes majesties deer hath theire onlye feedinge and sustenance ' : that 

 the earl riding through the forest on the last 4 of March, perceived a great number of sheep 

 depasturing on the champagne, ' wherebye the feedinge for the seid dere is utterlye con- 

 sumed, and therebye allso the seid deare forced to flee out of the seid forest for their relyfe 

 whereas they be killed and destroyed,' commanded Robert Eyre to drive these sheep to the 

 castle of the Peak ; that this order was carried out without killing, destroying, or hurting any 

 of the sheep : that the sheep were only impounded for half an hour, by which time 

 Bagott's shepherd and the other owners claimed the same, paying, according to ancient custom 

 a penny for every score. 6 



Humphrey Barley, William Needham, Thomas Bagshawe, and William Bagshawe, 

 yeomen and foresters of fee, who had ' charge, custody, and looking unto of all the quenes 

 majesties games of warren and especially hir game of redd deare within the same forrest, and 

 to answere for the defaults and negilent keepinge of the same game of deare yf the same 

 should be ympeyned and destroyed,' reported in 1527 'that the game of redd deare in this 

 the forest hath been much decayed about twoe yeares last past by reason of two extreme 

 wynters in the same yeares, and that through the extremeties of the wether, specyallye frost 

 and snowe, having no browse to help the same dere for that ytt ys a champion and playne 

 place wherein no wood groweth, manye of the said deare be dead and many of them be 

 strayed into other foorests and places adjoynyng and are not herto retorned nor to be re- 

 covered, so that there remayneth not of rede deere in the said forrest of all sortes eyther 

 fallow male or rascall above the number of xxx. dere in all.' In consequence of this, the 

 foresters sent in this statement lest they should be accused of negligence, and pray the 

 chancellor (Sir Ralph Sadler) that a restraint may be had in hunting or slaying the game by 

 any warrant whatsoever for six years until the red deer be replenished to their former 

 number, which was about 360, and to signify the same restraint to the earl of Shrewsbury 

 the queen's master of the game of Peak forest. 6 



1 Duchy of Lane. Misc. Books, xxiii. ff. 22, no, 240. 



2 Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. 42442. 3 Ibid. 42-444. 



* 'Tynsell' or 'tinsel,' small dry wood, such as was collected for heating ovens. 

 6 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, vol. xlviii. B. 19. 6 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, vol. Ixx. B. 30. 



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