72 BERKHAMSTED COMMON. 
same. And nevertheless, it is not their Lordships’ pleasure to 
determine anything in point of right to the title, but after 
the tyme of privilege of Parliament to leave to the determina- 
tion of the lawe.” 
It would seem that the House of Lords was not very 
certain of its position in the matter. The delinquents 
who had suffered imprisonment at its instance, for 
four months, were released. They were not, however, 
intimidated by this, or by the threat of the House 
of Lords, for it appears from a complaint to the 
Council of the Duchy in February of the following 
year, that divers delinquents had again pulled down the 
inclosure of Berkhamsted, in spite of the order of the 
Lords for quieting the same during the time of Parlia- 
ment. No further notice, however, was taken by the 
Lords, and no attempt was made by the Duchy of Corn- 
wall to question as a trespass, in the Courts of Law, the 
act of pulling down the fences. 
Under the Commonwealth, a few years later, the 
Manorial Rights and the demesne lands of Berkham- 
sted were sold by the direction of Parliament to 
Godfrey Ellis and Griffantius Phillips; and in 1653, 
Ellis offered for sale the 400 acres, approved in 
1639, assuming that the inclosure, though no longer 
physically apparent, was valid in law. John Edlyn 
again came to the rescue. He presented a petition 
praying that Ellis might be compelled to make out his 
title of the land. It was ordered on this “that upon 
security being given by Ellis of all discharges which 
the Commonwealth or the parties concerned should be 
