FORESTRY 



The commissions relative to this forest during Elizabeth's reign were frequent. In 1581 

 Edward Stanhope, William Agard, and Simon Arden were commissioned to view and report 

 on Duffield Frith. They called before them the woodwards and collectors of the three wards 

 (for the Colebrook ward had now disappeared, through the appropriation to the Lowe family, 

 and Shottle park was wholly in Duffield ward), as well as divers of the tenants and free- 

 holders, and by their information and perambulations arrived at the following among other con- 

 clusions : That there is a woodward and collector or forester in fee in each ward ; that these 

 wards were ' till of late years replenished with game of fallow deare and had divers other 

 officers and ministers of chase as foresters-in-fee, Bowbearer, and such like ' ; that as ' the said 

 game is utterlie destroyed,' they did not call for sight of any such grants ; that the tenants of 

 the frith and the copyholders bordering on the same have every third year reasonable hedgehote 

 out of the woods to hedge their common corn fields, and in winter to lop hollies and other 

 undergrowth for relief of the queen's game when there were deer and for their own cattle and 

 sheep ; that all borderers and strangers taking away any fuel wood or browse (other than what 

 may be sold by the collectors) are amerced at the woodmote courts ; that all tenants in the 

 precincts of the frith claim and use common of sheep and cattle ; that small benefit would 

 accrue to the crown from the encopsing of the woods, and that it would be prejudicial to the 

 tenants, who are mainly poor and dependent on the relief of pasturage in the frith ; that the 

 aptest places for setting up ' any bloweng mill for the melting of lead ower ' (the same intended 

 to be a water mill) ' is in the Hulland ward, at a little brook called Hulland brook, and in 

 Chevin or Duffield ward at Blackbrook, 'so that there may be one small overshot mill at cache 

 of them, and will have water to furnish worke one day at thone and an other day at the other 

 onless it be in the drowght of somer ' ; that near Hulland brook are ' one or two great and 

 auncient heapes of iron slag or cinders whereby it should seem there hathe ben some water 

 worke there for melting of iron stone ' ; and that the same preferment for lead ore should be 

 charged in the manors of the frith as in the wapentake of Wirksworth, namely a halfpenny 

 for every load of ore, twelve loads commonly making a fother of lead. 1 



In 1587, the inhabitants and borderers of Duffield Frith, numbering 509 copyholders, 

 freeholders, and ancient cottagers and householders (forming a population of 1,800 with their 

 wives and children) petitioned the queen not to carry out the project of leasing the underwood, 

 as they had from time beyond memory been accustomed to crop and browse of these woods from 

 Martinmas to the end of February for their cattle whenever the weather was severe, paying a 

 price for the same at the end of the winter. If the leasing was carried out they considered 

 they would be debarred from this, as well as from their customary wood rights, and that 

 they would ' be utterly impoverished thereby, and constrayned to seek dwellings other 

 where.' This petition was presented in September, 1587, and in June, 1588, Edward 

 Stanhope was appointed by the council of the Duchy to enter into the grievances of 

 these tenants. On 5 July he met seven representatives of the tenants at Nottingham, 

 but after several adjournments they were able to come to no satisfactory compromise. 3 



In 1592 another commission was appointed to secure true measurements of the 

 ' woodgrounds ' of the frith ; but after thrice meeting the commissioners the local jury 

 declared that it was impossible to execute such a task, giving their reasons at length, which 

 were chiefly because of the various barren and stony places with which the woodlands were 

 interspersed. 8 



The woodmote courts continued to be held and were busily engaged in finding vert 

 trespasses. At the court held at Cowhouse Lane in July, 1593, 15 offenders who had 

 carried off greenwood in Duffield ward were fined in sums varying from \d. to 6d., 39 in 

 Belper ward, and 64 in Hulland ward. The fines amounted to 35;., a pannage court was 

 held the same day, when a penny each was received for 109 pigs.* 



On i gth December, 1598, another court, which was a court of attachment as well as a 

 woodmote, was held at Chevin House before Anthony Bradshaw, 6 as deputy steward ; the 



1 Duchy of Lane. Special Commissions, 305. Given in full in Dcrb. Arch. Journ., 1903. 



2 Ibid. s Ibid. 404. * Ct. R., Duchy of Lane. - 3 V T . 



6 Anthony Bradshaw, fourth son of William Bradshaw, of Bradshaw, the deputy steward of the 

 forest, who did so much to sustain the privileges of the tenants of Duffield Frith, resided at Farley 

 Hall. He was a man of some literary power, and wrote a long curious poem of fifty-four stanzas, 

 early in the reign of James I., entitled ' A Frends due Commendacion of Duffield Frith.' He mentions 

 therein the earl of Shrewsbury as high steward, and John Curzon as lieutenant. The six parks of 

 Morley, Belper, Postern, Shottle, Ravensdale, and Mansell are all named, but they were all formed 

 'and yeald no deare at all,' save Mansell, and that 'verie small.' From these rhymes we learn that 



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