INDUSTRIES 



as Sir Baynham Throckmorton, his deputy, ' free 

 miners to all intents and purposes.' 



One order of this court in 1678 is worth 

 particular notice, because it shows that the 

 miners of Dean were in the ' pit and adit ' stage 

 of mining, 1 but the increasing length and cost of 

 the adits, locally called ' surffes,' for draining the 

 pits made it necessary to modify the old custom 

 mentioned in the Book of La-wi that the bounds 

 of a mine were limited by the distance to which 

 the miner could cast the rubbish from his pit. 

 In consequence, when a ' surfe ' was driven by 

 one party, other miners sank pits near to get a 

 share of the free drainage, which was clearly in- 

 equitable. So it was laid down by this order 

 that ' noe myner shall come to work within 100 

 yards of that surffe,' and we have already seen 

 the distance was at a later time still further ex- 

 tended. 



The fourth Mine Law Court was held in 

 1680 at the Speech House, a building then 

 barely completed 2 for the purpose of carrying on 

 the public business of the forest, which still 

 stands. The order there passed implies that, 

 although the last court had appointed six bar- 

 gainers to deal with the difficult question of 

 valuing the minerals offered for sale, inconveni- 

 ence was yet experienced on this head. It was 

 therefore decreed that a dozen Winchester 

 bushels of iron ore should be delivered at St. 

 Wonnarth's furnace for 101., at Whitchurch for 

 7*., at Bishopswood for 9*., at Linton for 9*., 

 at Longhope for 9*., at Flaxley for 8*., at Gains- 

 mills (if rebuilt) for 7;., at Blakeney for 6s., at 

 Lydney for 6s., at those in the forest lately 

 demolished (if rebuilt) for the same as before, at 

 Redbrook for 41. 6d., at the Abbey (Tintern) 

 for 9;., at Brockweir for 61. 6d., at Redbrook 

 Passage for 51. 6J., at Gunspill for 7*. So also 

 no house or smith's coal was to be delivered on 

 the banks of the Wye below Huntsam Ferry 

 for less than 8;. a dozen bushels, or for 4*. 6d. if 

 only lime coal, and if above Huntsam 31. 6d., 

 on a forfeiture of one hundred dozen of good 

 iron ore, the one half to His Majesty and the 

 other to the miner that will sue for the same, 

 together with loss of ' freedom ' and utter ex- 

 clusion from the mine works a very heavy 

 penalty for such an offence, showing the arbi- 

 trary power assumed by the court, at one time 

 conferring free minership upon strangers and 

 foreigners, and at another deposing the free miner 

 merely for an over or even an under charge.* 



Mr. Nicholls points out that according to this 

 order 



the instructions given in 167410 pull down the king'i 

 iron-works in the Forest had been so thoroughly 

 executed that all furnaces were ere this demolished, 

 leaving such only to be supplied with ore as were 

 situated beyond the Forest limits. These furnaces 



' Galloway, op. cit. i, 209. 

 1 Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 52. 



Ibid. 51. 



seem to have taken about six hundred dozen bushels 

 of ore at one time, during the delivery of which no 

 second party was allowed to come in. It is signed 

 by fourteen out of the forty-eight free miners in their 

 own hands, which is so far an improvement ; but if 

 the iron trade was unpromising owing to the course 

 which the government felt constrained to take lest the 

 development should endanger the timber, it was not 

 so with the coal, the getting of which the Crown 

 would obviously regard with favour in the hope that 

 it would relieve the woods from spoliation. Accord- 

 ingly we shall find that from about this period, on 

 through the next century, coal-works were constantly 

 on the increase, so as eventually to throw the getting 

 of iron ore into the shade. This last order cancelled 

 an agreement passed by the Mine Law Court in 1675, 

 to the effect that a legal defence fund be raised ; but 

 it confirmed the decree of a former court forbidding 

 any young man to set up for himself as a free miner, 

 unless he was upward of twenty-one years of age, and 

 had served, by indenture, an apprenticeship of five 

 years, and had also given a bond of 10 to obey all 

 the orders of the said court. 4 



The next or fifth session of the Mine Law 

 Court was held at Clearwell in 1682. It 

 confirmed for the most part the orders already 

 issued, and further exacted the payment, within 

 six days, of 6d. from every miner thirteen years 

 of age and upwards, and an additional pay- 

 ment of 6d. for every horse used in carrying 

 mineral, ' for raising a present sum of money for 

 urgent occasions, 1 ' and required all coal-pits 

 which had been wrought out to be sufficiently 

 secured." 



The sixth order of the Court of Mine Law 

 records that it assembled in 1685 at Clearwell, 

 before the deputy-constable of St. BriavePs. Its 

 principal design seems to have been that of con- 

 firming the former 6d. rate, and authorizing the 

 same to be raised to lew. if necessary, toward 

 keeping up a fund for supporting the miners' 

 claims at law, 7 which of late they had been 

 obliged to do in the Court of Exchequer against 

 various interlopers. The order concludes with 

 the following direction, ' that one-half of the jury 

 should be of iron miners, and the other half 

 colliers,' so rapidly had coal-mining advanced, 

 and so important had its condition be- 

 come. An examination of the original docu- 

 ment shows this order to have been signed by 

 one person writing down the names of the forty- 

 eight free miners, since they all exhibit the same 

 handwriting. 8 



The seventh of the orders still extant reports 

 the court of the mine to have been held at 

 Clearwell in 1687, and commences by stating 

 that more money was wanted for legal purposes, 

 and that every miner must pay 2s., with 2s. 

 besides for every mine horse, toward meeting 



4 Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 52, 53. 



* Award of Dean Forest Commri. 17. 



* Nicholls, Forest of Dean, 53. 



' Award of Dean Forest Commri. 17. 

 Forest of Dean, 54. 



227 



