68 BERKHAMSTED COMMON. 
custom to have perceive and take in the Fryth (or Common) 
and other waste land, herbage and pannage, bushes, furze, 
stubbes, and ferne for their necessary use for their lands and 
tenements, and common of pasture for their cattle at all times 
of the year ‘sans nombre’, and that the Fryth and other waste 
lands cannot be estimated at anie yearely value, by reason that the 
tenantes and inhabitants aforesaid are manie, and that they perceive 
and take the benefit thereof. And the pannage likewise can be 
nothing worth to the Lord of the Manor, for that the tenantes 
have always had the benefit thereof.” 
The freehold tenants at that time were stated to be 
186 in number, and the copyhold tenants 57. The 
inhabitants of Berkhamsted also were even then 
numerous. 
In spite of this survey, showing that the Common 
was no more than sufficient in area for the rights which 
existed over it, an effort was made within a few years 
to inclose the whole, or considerable parts, of it. In 
1617, the Council of the Prince of Wales, afterwards 
Charles the First, took proceedings with this object. 
The tenants of Berkhamsted and Northchurch, the two 
parishes comprised in the Manor, were consulted on 
the subject. Those of Berkhamsted were willing to 
agree, on the terms that one-half of the Common 
should be assigned to them, in exchange for their rights ; 
those of Northchurch held back, at the suggestion of a 
Mr. Edlyn, a landowner of the district, who exercised 
extensive rights over the Common. The people of 
Berkhamsted were propitiated by the promise of 
a charter of incorporation. The Northchurch tenants 
still refused ; but after the exercise of pressure upon 
