FORESTRY 



Serjeants as long as he shall have the custody. On 22 September of the following year 1 we 

 catch a glimpse of the early stage of industrial development which in modern times has made 

 Kingswood one of the colliery districts of Western England, for then the same constable is ordered to 

 permit Petronilla de Vivonia, wife of David Le Blund, to dig sea-coal in her wood within the 

 king's chase of Kingswood, as the king learns by inquisition taken before him at Bristol that 

 Petronilla and her ancestors from time out of mind were wont to dig sea-coal in the said wood 

 until Robert Waleraund, then constable, wilfully hindered her. The king, however, still cared for 

 his deer, and although Thomas de Berkeleye was granted a licence* in 1283 to hunt the fox, 

 hare, badger, and cat in the Forest of Mendip and in the Chase of Kingswood on both sides 

 of the River Avon by Bristol except in the fence-month, it was with the proviso that he should 

 take no deer nor course in the king's warrens. Early in the reign of Edward III inquisition ' 

 was made into the condition of the Forest of Kingswood and the Somerset Chase of Filwood, 

 which were still grouped together, and the keeper Michael de Aune was found to have felled 

 a hundred oaks in the forest and taken 80 acres of ' gorst ' and converted the profits to his 

 own use, and also taken six bucks and six does of the king's venison without warrant. 



A few years later, in 1336, a commission 4 was appointed to survey the wastes of the free 

 chase of Kingswood, which was held for life by Queen Philippa, and to approve and lease these 

 to tenants for life or for a term of years in order that they might assart them and bring them 

 into cultivation. But we are debarred from following in detail the history of this forest or 

 chase. During the reign of Henry VIII the rangership or custody of Kingswood was with 

 the Berkeley family. For a short time in the reign of Philip and Mary it was held by Sir Nicholas 

 Poyntz, and a Star Chamber case 1 at that time throws considerable light on the condition of 

 the forest. Edward Reve, who acted as the deputy of Poyntz, complained that Richard Barkley 

 of Stoke, 'a young gentilman of verey light disposition and havour,' with over twenty others, 

 ' riotously arraid in names,' about midnight on Epiphany eve hunted in the forest and set on 

 fire a great part of the furze and covert. Challenged by Reve, Barkley called him ' villayne, 

 with diverse other words of reproche,' and some of the attendant malefactors waylaid the ranger 

 and beat him. In the May following while Reve was away in the service of the crown on the 

 high seas, Barkley broke into his house and carried away ' one hound called a brache.' Again 

 on 20 September i & 2 Philip and Mary the same offender sent a number of riotous persons, 

 mainly his household servants, eight on horseback with ' long chasing staves,' and the rest on foot 

 and assaulted two of the keepers Edward Bassett and George Reve, tearing them from their 

 horses which they hamstrung. So mangled with sword-cuts were the keepers that their lives 

 were despaired of, the unfortunate Reve losing one hand clean cut off, while, in the language 

 of the bill, the other arm ' unnethily hangith by the skynne.' 



The Council immediately called on Barkley and his friends to answer these grave matters. 

 The principal offender had evidently a weak case. He first alleged spite on the part of Poyntz, 

 and declared with respect to the first allegation that he had been peaceably ' byrdebeyting' with 

 Hugh Partridge and other of his servants, but on his return within a quarter of a mile of his 

 house of Stoke Park and a mile beyond the forest he was met by Reve and ' ij other wilfull and 

 yvell disposed persons ' who dogged his footsteps, and if they were assaulted by his servants they 

 deserved everything they got. As for the ' brache,' it of its own free will joined his hounds in a 

 certain village, stayed two or three days and went home again. The other allegations he absolutely 

 denied, and disclaimed responsibility for the murderous attack on the keepers. 



If this case fairly illustrates the lawlessness which prevailed at Kingswood, and if the constant 

 encroachments of the coal-workings be considered, we are prepared for the picture drawn of the 

 forest some sixty years after in Norden's Survey.* Norden having taken ' the depositions of divers 

 ancient borderers," points out that the herbage for the deer was practically the only thing reserved 

 to the Crown, for various claimants ' doe swallowe up the whole forest not allowinge his Majestic 

 the bredth of a foote ' while ' the timber, wood, bushes, soyle, coale mines and all other profittes 

 altogether arc carryed from his Majestie by unknowne righte ' whereas in other forests ' truely 

 knowne owners cutt not downe their trees or woods of covert without the specyall lysence of the 

 Justice of Oire.' 



Kingswood Forest 7 was then divided into four 'walks' and as many keepers were allowed, 'all 

 havinge under their charge by theire owne depositions not above IOO or 120 dcere at the most.' 

 As to the lodges, not one was in use for its original purpose ; the oldest was utterly decayed, while 

 a second dating from the reign of Henry VIII, which stood within the claim of Mr. Richard 



1 Col. Close (1272-9), p. 310 (m. 4). ' Pat. 1 1 Edw. I, m. 23. * Close, 2 Edw. Ill, m. 4. 



4 Pat. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35 J. * Phil, and Mary, A- 



S.P. Dom. Ja*. I (1615), Ixxxiv, 46. 



' The name was now restricted to the Gloucestershire portion of the ancient Forest of Kingswood, the 

 Somerset portion being known as Filwood Chase. This distinction had been made at least as early as the 

 reign of Edw. Ill, tee text and n. 3 supra. 



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