A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



early samples, as the output was very consider- 

 able and sustained. In 1656 the stock 1 in 

 hand at the iron-works was appraised at 9,446, 

 ' which is profit above all charges,' while from 

 September, 1654, to March, 1659, 701 tons 

 of shot and 88 tons of iron fittings were made 

 in the forest for the use of the Navy. 2 



At the Restoration, Winter's titles were re- 

 turned to him, but under a new patent he con- 

 fined his activities to the felling of timber in the 

 forest, and the havoc he caused so aroused the 

 king and Parliament as to lead to the important 

 Act of 1668, which, besides its provisions relating 

 to the timber of the forest, declared that all 

 lawful rights and privileges relating to the Dean 

 minerals were to continue, with permission to 

 the crown to lease coal-mines and stone quarries 

 for periods not exceeding thirty-one years. 3 



Some five years previous to the passing of 

 this Act there took place in March, 1663, a 

 session 4 of the Mine Law Court, whose date 

 and proceedings have been preserved. It was 

 held at Clearwell, before Sir Baynham Throck- 

 morton, deputy constable of St. Briavel's Castle, 

 and a jury of forty-eight free miners. The re- 

 cords of this court now at the Crown Office, 

 Whitemead Park, printed by Mr. Nicholl, 6 

 show it to have been in some sense a parlia- 

 ment, similar to that of the tinners of Cornwall 

 and Devon, and capable not merely of declaring 

 the forest custom, but of framing new rules and 

 regulations for the maintenance of the miners' 

 privileges. These enactments had to do chiefly 

 with the question of apprenticeship, 8 the miners' 

 monopoly of coal cartage, and the fixing of prices 

 by bargainers. 



Yet even with this reassertion of the privileges 

 of the free miners we find an ominous indication 

 of the restriction of their ancient rights. In 

 1668 an Act was passed by Parliament with 

 regard to the forest, providing, among other 

 things, that all lawful rights and privileges re- 

 lating to minerals in the forest were to continue, 

 with permission to the crown to lease coal-mines 

 and stone quarries for periods not exceeding 

 thirty-one years. 7 The Dean Forest Commis- 

 sioners, in their report of 1788, remark that 



immediately after the Act of 1668 the colliers, who, 

 it is said, now pretend to have a right to whatever 

 timber they find necessary for carrying on their works 

 in the Forest without paying anything for it, then 

 purchased it from the crown. 8 



1 S.P. Dom. II Nov. 1657, cxxx, 101-2. 



' Ibid. 8 April, 1659, ccii, 70. 



8 20 Chas. II, cap. 8. 



4 In 10 Chas. I, at a justice seat at Gloucester, the 

 earl of Pembroke claimed the right to be the judge 

 of the Mine Law Court (Fourth Report Dean Forest 

 Commrs. 5). 4 Forest of Dean, 45-46. 



6 Award of Dean Forest Commrs. \ 3. 



' Galloway, Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal 

 Trade, i, 208 ; Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 4.2, 43, 231. 



8 Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 46. 



The second existing order of the Mine Law 

 Court states that it met in 1674, on 9 March, 

 at Clearwell, before Sir George Probert, deputy- 

 constable at St. Briavel's Castle, chiefly with the 

 design of raising a fund for defending in a legal 

 way the right of the free miners and affording 

 them support when injured at their work. 9 



To these ends a payment of 6J. per quarter was 

 levied upon each miner digging for or carrying mineral, 

 of fifteen years of age, as also upon every horse so 

 used, payable within fourteen days, under a fine of 2s. 

 Six collectors were to receive the above payments, to 

 be remunerated at the rate of is. per quarter for each 

 pound they gathered. Twice a year they handed in 

 their accounts, under a penalty of 5 and perpetual 

 exclusion from any office of trust if such were found 

 defective. It appears, therefore, that the free miners 

 valued their rights, and not only took thought for the 

 morrow, but provided for it. They added the pro- 

 viso that the servants of the deputy-constable should 

 have the benefit of always being supplied first at the 

 pit, showing that they knew something also of public 

 diplomacy. 



How strictly the enclosures were preserved at 

 this time against all mining operations is shown 

 by the refusal which Sir Charles Harbord 

 gave to a petition presented to the Treasury 

 by several gentlemen and freeholders of the 

 parish of Newland for leave to make a coal level 

 through an enclosure, although they were backed 

 by Sir Baynham Throckmorton, deputy-governor 

 of St. Briavel's Castle, who had also been one of 

 the commissioners first appointed for carrying 

 out the Act of 1668, and who gave it as his 

 opinion that agreeing to the prayer of the peti- 

 tion would conduce to the preservation of the 

 woods in the forest, and to the convenience and 

 advantage of the country. The wording of the 

 refusal was very peremptory, to the effect that 

 ' the enclosures could only be preserved for 

 timber by being kept discharged from all claims ; 

 that although miners and quarrymen had long 

 been permitted to dig where they pleased, yet 

 that they could not prove their right to do so ;. 

 and, as to coal works, any such claims were 

 unknown, much less any liberty of cutting his 

 Majesty's woods for the support thereof.' v 



The third of the Mine Law Courts was held 

 in September, 1678, at Clearwell, before Sir 

 Baynham Throckmorton, whose favour it shows 

 the free miners were most anxious to preserve,, 

 since, upon the understanding that the former 

 order of 1668, forbidding any foreigner to con- 

 vey or deliver minerals, had proved prejudicial 

 to him and his friends and tenants, they now 

 revoked n the same, allowing any foreigner to 

 carry fire or lime coal for his own use, besides 

 which they constituted the marquis of Worces- 

 ter, then constable of St. Briavel's Castle, as well 



8 Award of Dean Forest Commrs. 17. 



10 Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 49. 



11 Ibid. 50. 



226 



