A HISTORY OF SURREY 



whole of Surrey had been forest in Henry II.'s time, and that none of it 

 had been afforested during that king's reign.* 



Edward I.'s reafforestations throughout the kingdom caused grave 

 discontent, and the barons in Parliament took up a firm stand about the 

 matter. His infringements of the Forest Charter led to his being made 

 to confirm it formally in 1299. Fresh perambulations of all the royal 

 forests were held in the same year, and when the records were certified 

 and returned a reconfirmation of the Forest Charter took place in 1300. 

 In 1305 he obtained a papal bull absolving him from his oaths and 

 obligations regarding confirmations of Magna Charta and the other 

 charters, but this only led to the enactment of an important Forest 

 Ordinance in 1306, modifying the harshness of the forest laws and 

 their application. 



There was no special legislation regarding forests in the reign of 

 Edward II., but when Edward III. ascended the throne in 1327 the 

 forests were ordered to be perambulated as in the time of Edward I. 

 The Commonalty of Surrey obtained letters patent that such perambula- 

 tions as had previously been made should be confirmed, and that such 

 as had not yet been made should be held as soon as possible and duly 

 recorded. This latter point had reference to the small portion of the 

 county granted to Henry III. as forest by the Abbot of Chertsey, but 

 which it appeared the king was always trying to extend further south- 

 wards. Commissioners were appointed to make the necessary inquiry, 

 and strong endeavours were made by Swinnerton, deputy-warden of all 

 the forests south of Trent, to obtain a judgment determining as forest a 

 much larger area than had actually been the case after 1225. But the 

 jury now found that the true limits of Windsor Forest, as it was declared 

 to be bounded by the perambulation of 9 Henry III., included no portion 

 of the county of Surrey. Matters then came to a deadlock. The king 

 insisted on having the lands along the north-western edge of the county 

 perambulated as forest. A perambulation was therefore made along the 

 north-western boundary of the county, but excluding any portion of the 

 same from Windsor Forest ; and after considerable delay a charter, dated 

 26 December, 1327, was obtained and delivered by king's writ to the 

 sheriff for general proclamation, which granted and confirmed for ever 

 ' that the whole county of Surrey is without the Forest.' 



From that time forth none of the numerous forest laws enacted in 

 England should have applied to Surrey, the woodlands in which were 

 only affected by the several Acts relating particularly to timber and 

 coppices. The first of these was An Act for Inclosing of Woods in the 

 Forests, Chases and Purlieus, passed in 1 48 2 — the ' purlieus ' being tracts 

 which had been disafforested.* 



1 Manwood, op. cit. fol. 139, 14.0. 



» The north-westem part of the county, known as the bailiwick of Surrey, having once been 

 afibrested and then disafforested, was a purlieu. On all such lands the king still reuined full pro- 

 prietary right over deer straying into them from the neighbouring forest, and could maintain ' Rangers ' 

 for driving the deer back into the forest. 



This Act of 1482 enabled landowners to enclose their lands against deer and cattle for seven years 



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