STANNARY ROLL, 34TH EDWARD I. 241 



In 10th Edw. II the King granted* to Stephen de Abyngdon, 

 his Butler, the coinage of the tin in Devon and Cornwall ; and in 

 the 20th year of his reign the King assigned to William de Somer- 

 hill, of Asperton,t to collect to the King's use the whole of the 

 gold which may be found in the mines already opened, or here- 

 after to be opened, in the two counties. 



Edmund Earl of Cornwall {oh. 1300) is said to have granted 

 sundry privileges to the Stannaries, in consideration of which, 

 the Lords of the seven tithings in Blackmoor, by whose means 

 the Charter was procured, consented to pay unto the Earl one 

 halfpenny for every pound of tin which should be wrought. " This 

 Charter," it is added, " is recorded in mens' memories, but extant 

 it appeareth not.":}: 



It will be observed from these Eolls that the profits arising from 

 the mines amounted to from £1000 to £1500 a year — a large sum 

 in those days ; but it would appear from the caption seizin of the 

 Duke of Cornwall, 5th May, 1 1th Edw. Ill (1337), that the revenues 

 from the Stannaries had considerably increased in amount. The 

 Commissioners returned the profits of the Courts, of the four 

 Stannaries together, as £20 • and the coinage as being worth per 

 annum 3000 marks ; but that year, from the abundance of tin, 

 4000 marks. 1 1 



* Originalia, 10th Edw. II, EoU 17. 



f Idem, 20th Edw. II, Roll 2. 



+ Speculi Brit, pars., Harl. BIS., 6^52, p. 16. 



II Vice T. Thomas, Smirke, Appx., p. 21, 



