SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



could aim.'^ The royal forest of Knaresborough included much uncultivated and waste land. 

 There was much forest land, too, in the Dales, even as late as 1 6 1 1 ; those who travelled through 

 Wensleydale Forest ' did pay three farthings to some guide to guide them through the said forest, 

 by reason of the wildnes of the said forest, and for that the same was not inhabited in former 

 times, nor passable without danger.' '' The forest of Pickering, on the border-land between the 

 North and East Riding, was another formidable barrier to agricultural progress.'' At the south of 

 the county, Hatfield Chase, ' the greatest chase of red deer the Kings of England had, containing 

 in all limits above one hundred and eighty thousand acres,' °* was a district resembling rather the 

 fens of Lincolnshire than the rest of Yorkshire. James Ryder, writing in 1588, draws attention 

 to the large extent of Yorkshire given up to the chase : ' By reson of this general appetitt to 

 huntinge, the country is full of parkes and chasis greatly stored with red and fallowe deer with 

 conyes hares fesantes partridges & whatsoever beastes or fowles for gaine or use.' "' 



Both the Cleveland hills and the Yorkshire wolds were cultivated in the 17th century. 

 " Hills called Yorkes wolds lying south from thes are not so great nor Baren, all champion bearing 

 good come medowe and pasture especially good for shepe yet so scarce of wood & fuel of any 

 kinde to biurne as their husbandmen use strawe both for fire and candelle.' ^'^ Deducting fen, 

 forest, marsh, chase, and mountains and common fields, the amount of land inclosed and in use for 

 agricultural purposes in Yorkshire in the 1 6th century was in comparison with the whole insignifi- 

 cant in amount, and except in the East Riding almost entirely pastoral in character. 



Before the era of Parliamentary inclosures there seem to have been several methods of inclosing 

 common fields. Sometimes the landlord simply inclosed his various scattered plots without legal 

 proceeding ; at other times landlord and tenants came to an amicable arrangement without an 

 appeal to law, but more often the Court of Chancery or Exchequer were the final arbiters, and it 

 is from Exchequer depositions and commissions that a great deal of authentic information on the 

 subject can be gained.' 



Settrington, for example, was the scene of many inclosure riots. A special commission was 

 appointed in 1 58 1 to inquire into certain rights on Settrington, Norton, and Sutton Moors. One 

 of the witnesses, a yeoman, Matthew Welburn, deposed — 



that he had known Norton Moor for fifty years and that one Simpkin being the Finder of Norton 

 about thirty years ago went about to impound certain sheep going upon the common in controversy 

 and one John Humble of Settrington rescued the sheep and broke the pinder's head, for the which he 

 was amerced in Norton Court at 10s. for the fray and the blood and 3/. i^.d. for the said rescue 

 which one Nicholson, father-in-law to Humble, paid to this deponent being bailiff of Norton for 

 Mr. Folkington.' 



Considerable light is thrown on the haphazard way in which land was inclosed in those days, 

 by a case in which Thomas Wray the queen's farmer of the woods was plaintiiF, and the tenants 

 of Ravensworth defendants. The dispute concerned two woods, Birk hagg and Washton Law hagg ; 

 the former, according to one witness, had only been inclosed the day before ; according to another, it 

 had been inclosed for seven years. Washton Law hagg had been inclosed for forty years, and had 

 been kept in severalty by the late Lord Marquess of Northampton for fifteen years together, no 

 common rights being allowed. As soon as the estate lapsed to the owner, the queen gave the land 

 to Ralph Storer, who occupied it in severalty for three years ; then Thomas Wray took it over. In 

 spite of the long prescriptive right and the fact that the people of Ravensworth had sufficient 

 common for their use in addition to the disputed woods, they refiised to yield their claim. Nor 

 were they content with verbal remonstrance ; six men armed with piked staves three times pulled 

 down the fences Thomas Wray was erecting. The attacks were made by night and by day : 

 while the workmen were putting them up and could offer fight, and when they were absent. 

 This was done in spite of the fact that the assailants knew that already several years before Henry 

 Coates had been amerced the large sum of £6 for a similar offence.' This is a typical case ; a 

 great deal of inclosing seems to have been connived at for years, then apparently some new, even 

 slight, encroachment seems to have fanned the smouldering discontent into flames, and inclosures 

 that had become legalized by prescriptive right were attacked together with those that were new and 



" F. Drake, Eboracum, 292. ^ Exch. Dep. Yorks. East. 7 Jas. I, no. 34. 



" Forest of Pickering (North Riding Rec. Soc). 



'* Stovin MS. printed in Yorks. Arch. Journ. vii, 198. 



'' Lansd. MS. 119, 8, fol. 119. ™ Ibid. fol. 120. 



As Miss Leonard has pointed out, the awards and decrees are numerous, and many refer to Yorkshire. 

 But they are still unindexed, and therefore inaccessible ; ' The Enclosure of Common Fields,' by Miss Leonard, 

 Hist. Soc. Trans. (New Ser.), xix, no. 



' Exch. Dep. Yorks. Trin. 22 Eliz. no. 9. 



' Ibid. Trin. 24 Eliz. no. 5. 



477 



