A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



subject of the king, thereby ceasing to be under the jurisdiction of the forest laws and becoming 

 merely free chases." This is clearly seen in the records of the forest eyre in 15 Edward I, 1286, 

 held at Lancaster by three justices who had been recently appointed to hold pleas of the forest 

 beyond Trent * The roll of this eyre only contains reference to those offences which had been 

 committed since the eyre of 1263, and previous to the grants of 1266 and 1267." The justices 

 had no concern with offences committed within the forest since it had passed out of the king's 

 hand. Many persons were indicted for killing the deer and other game. Some had died since 

 the commission of the offence, some could not be found, those who appeared were usually amerced 

 a mark or 20s. The knights and free tenants dwelling in the forest precincts gave ;^ioo for 

 confirmation of their charter of liberties, but the justices were not fully assured as to the continued 

 effect of the charter of John, count of Mortain, because the knights and free tenants having lands within 

 the metes of the forest had been called to account at the last eyre of the forest, before Robert de Nevill 

 and his fellows, touching hays raised within the metes of the forest, and for the possession of bows 

 and arrows in their houses and for carrying them outside the king's demesne hays and for not having 

 elected regarders, nor having caused them to be elected, and for taking buck and doe and claiming 

 to take the same in the forest outside the king's demesne hays. Consequently they directed that a 

 sworn verdict should be obtained from a jury of twrenty-four men of the county. The verdict was 

 to the effect that since the grant of the charter of liberties the knights and free tenants dwelling 

 within the metes of the forest, when called in question touching the privileges claimed, had always 

 departed without redemption, that is, had been acquitted.*' 



Although the proceedings recorded in the roll relate to matters arising before the grant to 

 Edmund, earl of Lancaster, a regard of the earl's forest was also ordered by the king's letters close, 

 this being immediately followed by a writ of summons of an eyre for pleas of the forest in a month 

 after Easter, 1287, and by the appointment of two justices in eyre of the forest of Lancashire for 

 the period since the grant of the honour and county to Earl Edmund.*' The permission to have 

 justices to hold pleas of the forest, according to the assize of the forest, in the forest which had 

 passed to a subject by the grant of Henry III, was contained in the king's letters patent to Edmund, 

 his brother, dated 25 May, 1285." Thus by the stroke of a pen the whole body of forest laws 

 was enforced over a forest in the hands of a subject of the crown." 



In 127 I the earl gave to Lancaster Priory liberty to take wind-fallen wood for fuel daily from 

 the forest of Lancaster, except in Wyresdale, with two carts and four horses.'* Four years later the 

 king sent Roger Lestrange to take venison in his brother Earl Edmund's chase of Liverpool, that is 

 in Toxteth, and the sheriff was directed to aid Roger in taking ten harts there and to deliver them 

 salted at Westminster within a week after Michaelmas." By agreement with those having 

 pasturage and estovers in the forest of Quernmore, the earl in 1278 inclosed a park five leagues in circuit 

 in a place called Hoton, clearly the place named in Domesday, and brought to cultivation forty acres of 

 land in a place called Starkethwaite, probably the modern Scarthwaite,near Caton. As compensation for 

 the loss of pasturage the earl granted to the burgesses of Lancaster right of way through Scarthwaite to a 

 place called Strehokes and Le Lythe with their carts and cattle, and liberty to pasture their cattle in 

 the forest day and night without any payment for agistment, and if their cattle by chance entered the 

 park for lack of pasture they were not to be impounded.** The year following William de 

 Catherton pledged himself to the earl that he would commit no trespass against the earl's venison, 

 nor countenance such, under pain to forfeit ;^20 for each offence, and John de Caton gave a 



in Wyresdale 5 marks a year from each, 60/. a year from the fattom holding vaccaries for the pasturage of their 

 cattle, 100/. a year for inferior beasts drafted from the stock, 20/. a year for the escape of cattle belonging to the 

 pastures, £20 a year for oxen sold from the stock, a mark yearly for hides of cattle which died of murrain, and 

 50/. a year for aged cows which calved late ; or a total sum of /31 1. is. 8</., for which William le Latimer the 

 younger ought to answer ; Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. 1-7, m. 2. 



"At Christmas, 1280, Robert Banastre and Ranulfde Dacre were pardoned by the king for trespasses 

 committed in the Lancashire forest of Edmund the king's brother ; Cal. Pal. 1272-81, p. 406. 



'" Cj/. Ci>se, 1279-88, p. 436 ; Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 252. 



" Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. bdle. i. No. 7, heading. "' Ibid. m. 2. 



" C<j/. Close, 1279-88, p. 472. Roger Brabazon and William Wyther were appointed at the request of 

 Edmund, the king's brother, justices in eyre of the forest in the co. of Lane, for the period since the said 

 Edmund had held the said forest by the grant of Henry III. Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 263. 



" Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 167. The grant provides that he and his heirs should upon request made in 

 the Chancery have justices to hear and determine pleas of the forest as often as trespasses in his chases and 

 parks make it requisite ; and that the redemptions, fines, and amercements shall go to the said Edmund and 

 his heirs. 



" Select Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc. xiii,), cxi. There is in the P.R.O. a roU of trespasses of venison 

 in the forest of Lancaster, 20 to 24 Edw. I, Forest Proc. Exch. T.R. Lanes. No. 48. 



" Reg. of Lane. Priory (Chetham Soc), 30. «' Cal. Close, 1 272-9, p. 210. 



^ Reg. of Furness, Add. MSS. 33244, fol. 83^. 



442 



