1879.] 
of the West of England. 
283 
the Parliaments of the Stannaries, and which were composed 
of representatives eledfed by the miners or “ tinners,” as the 
workers in the Cornish and Devonshire mines were until within 
about the last fifty years commonly called. A Stannary Parlia- 
ment used to meet at a place called Hengiston Down,* subse- 
quently at Lostwithiel, and later on at Truro, to legislate for 
the Cornish tin-mines ; and another at Crockern Tor,t and 
in the middle and later ages at Tavistock, for those of 
Devonshire ; the Members of the Parliament for the former 
county being styled “ Stannators,” and those for the latter 
“ Jurats.” These Parliaments, which in some form appear 
to have existed from time immemorial, and probabty origin- 
ated in gatherings of the miners to discuss the prospects of 
their trade, and later on perhaps used to meet to demur at 
the enormous and oppressive dues levied from them by the 
Crown, acquired in the Middle Ages a very large amount of 
power over the mining interest. To become law a Bill for 
regulating mining affairs required to be signed by each 
Member of the Stannary Parliament before which it was 
brought, and then by the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, 
and by the Sovereign or Prince of Wales in his capacity of 
Duke of Cornwall, and as such the head of Stannary 
affairs. J During the last three centuries, too, the King or 
Duke could not make any law for the Stannaries without 
the consent of the twenty-four Members of either Parliament, || 
and in 1752 (see note p. 284) it was enadted that a Bill 
brought into the Cornish Stannary Parliament required, to 
become law, to receive the assent of sixteen members of the 
Parliament. 
For the administration of the laws made by the 
Stannary Parliaments there were at different places Stan- 
nary Courts, § and “ in all matters of complaint the tinners 
* Near Callington. t On Dartmoor. 
In the eighteenth century Mining Committees were occasionally opened at 
these places and adjourned to a Stannary Court town. (See note § below.) 
t This was according to an old Charter of Edward III., which was the 
most important and implicit of any in its grants to tinners. 
|| This was according to a Charter granted by Henry VII., and called the 
Charter of Pardon. Much of the information above given about the Stan- 
naries has been taken from “ A State of the Proceedings of the Convocation 
or Parliament for the Stannaries of the County of Cornwall, held at Lest- 
withiel, Jan. 29, 1750, &c.” by a Cornishman ; London, 1751 (see pp. 2 and 3). 
No Parliament appears to have previously met since 1710. See also Sir Jno. 
Dodridge’s “ History of the Ancient and Moderne Estate of the Principality 
of Wales, Duchy of Cornewall, &c.” London, 1630. 
§ The old Stannary Court and Coinage towns in Cornwall were Launceston, 
Lestwithiel, Truro, and Helston, and, after 1811, Penzance. In Devonshire 
they were Plympton, Ashburton, Tavistock, and Chagford. There were Stan- 
nary prisons at Lidford and Lestwithiel. The Stannary districts in Cornwall 
were Foweymore, Blackmore, Tywarnhaile, Penwith, and Kerrier, each of 
which sent six members to the Stannary Convocation. 
