296 THE STANNARIES OF CORNWALL. 



six to be chosen by a Mayor and Council in eacli of the 

 Stannary divisions." — Borlase, p. 192, Camden's Britannia, 

 p. 4. It would be ec[ually vain to attempt to lix any precise 

 origin to the Parliaments. The gem of them, as thinks Mr. 

 W. C. Borlase in his interesting Historical Sketch of the Tin 

 Trade in Cornwall, may be found in the twelve viri liberi et 

 legales summoned by William de Wrotham (9 Eich. I., A.D. 

 1198) to report on oath as to the weights in use for tin and to 

 advise as to the disposition of the produce of the Stannaries. 

 They may possibly have a still more primitive germ. 



Time and space forbid me to describe the ceremonious 

 proceedings of Convocation when assembled. Any one curious 

 in the matter has only to consult the pages of Pearce. I will 

 just mention that beside the 24 Stannators there was a kind of 

 lower house of Convocation, or standing Council, called 

 "Assistants," each Stannator naming one. Thej^ were taken 

 from " the most knowing and substantial tinners." They met in 

 a separate room and were called in to the Stannators whenever 

 information or advice was wanted (Borlase, Cornish Antiquities, 

 p. 193). For the more orderly dispatch of business the 

 Stannators chose their Speaker and presented him to the Lord 

 Warden to be approved, and '' whatever," says Dr. Borlase, " is 

 enacted by this body of Tinners must be signed'''^ by the 

 Stannators, the Lord Warden (or his deputy, the Vice- Warden, 

 who presides in his absence), and afterwards by the Duke of 

 Cornwall or the Sovereign, and when thus passed has all the 

 authority with regard to tin affairs of an Act of the whole 

 legislature." 



The duties of Convocation were sometimes onerous. That 

 of 2 James II held no less than 25 meetings at intervals between 

 2G Oct., 1686, and 26 Sept., 1688. Great pains were taken by 

 this Convocation in settling the laws "regulating the old laws of 

 the Stannaries and making new ones ; " and the terms of the 

 pre-emption gave much trouble. No company promoter of the 

 present day could have worked harder than the earl of Bath 

 seems to have done in order to "float" the farm in London. ^^ 



12. Signature is not required by the Charter of Henry VII. 



13. Pearce, p. 89, et seq. The farmers were under covenant to make periodical 

 advances for the benefit of the adventurers, and to give the fixed price for the 

 number of years determined upon.— Smirke, Vice v. Thomas, p. gi. 



