A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



in the Walk called Duddleswell, and that he and other keepers, time out of mind, had been used to 



cut down and fell certain reasonable birch trees and alders which be dead in the topgrowing, to take 

 for their own use in consideration of fees and wage, which is all the fee and wage the said keeper hath; 

 that he had in consequence caused to be felled in the last five years about 1 20 small birch trees, all 

 little trees and dead in the top. 



Concerning five oaks mentioned by the commissioners of waste, he had felled them by licence of 

 Edmund Hensley, esq., and used them for repairing the lodge. As to the deer he had been ordered 

 to kill one doe for a certain Mr. Fraunkwell, who had a ' warrant ' for a doe, and by chance he had 

 killed a fawn, which had been accepted in lieu of the doe. He denied that he had killed and given 

 to his friends a hind, a doe, or one red deer, as alleged ; ' or that there were diverse times at his 

 lodge pasties of venison.' To these various defences Edmund Henslow replies : ' Answer is uncertain 

 and insufficient and must be tried in this Court ' ; but the ultimate result does not appear. 



Queen Elizabeth issued various commissions to inquire into the waste of the woodlands of 

 Ashdown, and enacted measures to diminish it. In the single parish of Framfield, lying mostly 

 in the forest-land, there were three iron-furnaces that continually drew their fuel of timber 

 from the neighbouring woods. 209 In the third year of this reign, John Pelham, who held much 

 land on the southern verge of Ashdown Forest, was charged with entering on the queen's ' great 

 waste or open sward known by the name of the forest of Claveringge or Claveridge,' of ' claiming 

 the same as his own proper inheritance, and cutting down timber therein to the value of 1,000, and 

 to the intent that he may the better colour and cloke his said intrusion and wrong-doing . . . hath 

 used a new name for the said waste, calling it his forest of Dallington.' 21 A truly extraordinary 

 nomination on the part of Pelham, supposing his intrusion was upon the ancient place called 

 Clavering, or Claverugge, 211 in the parish of Waldron, within the Forest of Ashdown. It is difficult 

 to see any connexion between this locality and Dallington, which lay many miles to the east, in the 

 rape of Hastings. 



In 1583 the queen's attorney proceeded in the Duchy Court against a certain Francis Chal- 

 lenor, who, together with Matthew Comber, had killed a stag within forest bounds after a sporting 

 run extending from Ashdown through the neighbouring forest of St. Leonard westwards into the 

 parish of Lindfield on the south. 218 



The ' Marshal ' of Ashdown Forest at this time was John Roots, a well-connected man and 

 owner of lands and tenements in the neighbourhood of Pevensey. His name is met with chiefly 

 as an asserter of the ancient privilege of his office of exemption from serving on juries of various 

 kinds. 213 



James I was by no means averse to the chase, and was at least sufficiently alive to the necessity 

 of preserving the timber in the woods and forests to issue a proclamation against the use of wood 

 fuel in glass-making. Nevertheless the waste of timber, the destruction of deer, and the decay of 

 the fences and banks in the forest-land of Ashdown still continued, whereby not only was ' Lan- 

 caster Great Park' deteriorated as a game preserve, but the tenants of the neighbouring holdings 

 damaged by the depredations of the deer. At this time Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, was 

 Master of the Game in Ashdown Forest, and possessor of the parks of Buckhurst, Stoneland, and 

 Newenham, all carved at some time out of the forest. In 1605, backed by the tenants in the 

 district, he applied for a commission to cut timber for the repair of the pales in Ashdown Forest, 

 ' in order to preserve the game in which the king delights.' 2U After his death his son Robert, who 

 succeeded to his possessions, petitioned that the office of Master of the Game in Ashdown and Broyle 

 Park, lieutenant of Sussex, and Master of the Swans might also descend to him, and obtained the 

 grant in 1609 ; 215 and the Dorset association with Ashdown continued until broken by the turmoil 

 of the Civil War. During these commotions, with their consequent lawlessness, Ashdown Forest, 

 in common with others, sustained much damage and loss in deer, timber, and pales. But so soon 

 as the authority of the Commonwealth was established, and the Parliament had leisure to turn from 

 waging war to composing civil affairs, they directed their attention to the administration of the lands 

 ' late the possessions of Charles Stuart, late King of England,' appointing Commissioners of Survey, 

 who have left the result of their labours embodied in most voluminous and detailed documents. 

 The following is a much abbreviated transcript of the survey, entitled : 



A Survey of the mann 1 of Duddleswell & great parke of Lane. w th the rights members and 

 appurtenances thereof. ... All which said impal'd parke ancently devided into three wards comonly 

 called Costly ward, South ward and West ward & since subdivided into six walkes commonly called 



"" Horsfield, Hist, of Suss, i, 364. " Duchy of Lane. Plead, vol. 48, fol. 1 6. 



111 Cf. Inq. p.m. 33 Edw. I, No. 173, ' Claveregge boscus infra metas de Asshedowne.' 



111 Duchy of Lane. Proc. v. >ls Ibid. 



" 4 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, vol. 1 3, No. 6. " Ibid. vol. 48, No. 57. 



