To these ends a payment of 6d. per quarter was levied upon each miner, digging for or carrying mineral, if fifteen years of age, as also upon every horse so used, payable within fourteen days, under a fine of 2s. Six collectors were to receive the above payments, to be remunerated at the rate of 1s. per quarter for each pound they gathered. Twice a year they handed in their accounts, under a penalty of 5 pounds, and perpetual exclusion from any office of trust, if such were found defective. It appears therefore that the free miners valued their rights, and not only took thought for the morrow, but provided for it. They added a proviso that the servants of the Deputy Constable should have the benefit of always being supplied first at the pits, showing that they knew something also of public diplomacy. This "Order" has the names of forty-eight miners attached, all severally sealed, but written in one hand.

In this year also (1674) it was suggested that if the King would put the old iron-works of the Forest in repair, and also build one furnace and two forges, all which might be done for 1,000 pounds, a clear profit of 2,190 pounds could be made upon every 8,000 long and short cords of wood, of which the Forest was in a condition to supply a vast quantity. This proposal was nevertheless not acted upon, it being judged desirable rather to pull down the old iron-works than erect new, lest the waste in supplying the necessary quantities of wood should ultimately prove destructive to the Forest, now in a flourishing condition. Accordingly the iron-works then standing were ordered to be pulled down, and the materials sold. The greatest attention is admitted by the commissioners of 1788, who examined the office papers relating to this period, to have been given by the then Ministers of State, by Sir Charles Harbord, surveyor-general of the Crown lands, and by his son and successor Mr. William Harbord, to the protection of the young wood and the enclosures; and they affirm that "it is chiefly in those parts of the Forest which were then enclosed that the timber with which the dockyards have been since furnished from this Forest has been felled, and in which any considerable quantity of useful timber may now be found."

On the 28th of September, 1675, at the recommendation of Sir Charles Harbord, to whom the plan was probably suggested by the precedent of the ten bailiwicks into which the district had been anciently divided, the Forest was formed into six "walks," or districts, a keeper being appointed to each. Six lodges were built for their use in convenient situations, with 30 acres of land attached, "for the better encouragement and enabling of the said keepers to attend and watch over the said enclosures within their several walks, and to preserve the same, and the young springs of wood and trees thereon growing, and to grow from time to time, from spoil and harm." The names given to each of the six divisions were derived from some of the most eminent living characters of that day. Thus, the Speech House, or King's Walk, was so called after Charles II.; York Walk and Lodge after the Duke of York; Danby Walk and Lodge after the Earl of Danby, prime Minister at the time; Worcester Walk and Lodge after Henry Marquis of Worcester, the then constable of the Castle of St. Briavel's, and warden of the Forest; Latimer Walk and Lodge after Viscount Latimer; and Herbert Walk and Lodge after Lord Herbert; in the two last instances, out of compliment to the Worcester family apparently. The Speech House was so called from its being intended for the use of the ancient Court of "the Speech," as mentioned in the Laws and Franchises of the Mine. Now also a grant of sixty tons of timber was made by the King towards rebuilding the parish church of Newent, as a tablet therein declares.

How strictly the enclosures were preserved at this time against all mining operations, is shown by the refusal which Sir Charles Harbord gave to a petition presented to the Treasury by several gentlemen and freeholders of the parish of Newland, for leave to make a coal level through an enclosure, although they were backed by Sir Baynham Throckmorton, Deputy-Governor of St. Briavel's Castle, who had also been one of the Commissioners first appointed for carrying out the Act of 1668, and who gave it as his opinion that agreeing to the prayer of the petition would conduce to the preservation of the woods in the Forest, and the convenience and advantage of the country. The wording of the refusal was very peremptory, to the effect that "the enclosures could only be preserved for timber by being kept discharged from all claims;" that "although miners and quarrymen had been long permitted to dig where they pleased, yet that they could not prove their right to do so; and as to coal-works, any such claims were unknown, much less any liberty of cutting his Majesty's woods for the support thereof; and the same ought to be totally suppressed, and would be so by a good officer, as Colonel Wade was in the time of the Usurpation, and that only by the Forest Law, and the ordinary authority of a Justice of Peace." It is not unlikely that in the last observation a hint was intended to be given to Sir Baynham Throckmorton, lest he should compromise his independent position with the colliers in the Forest by publicly accepting, as he had done the year before at their Mine Law Court, "their thankfull acknowledgment of the many favors received by them from him," in return for which they agreed that, when he "should send his own horses or waynes to any of the colepitts for cole, the miners shall presently seame and load them before any other person whatever."

Passing over an interval of three years, we come to the date of the third of the Mine Law Courts, held on the 8th September, 1678, at "Clowerwall," before Sir Baynham Throckmorton, &c., whose favour it shows the free-miners were most anxious to preserve, since, upon understanding that the former order of 1668, forbidding any foreigner to convey or deliver minerals, had proved prejudicial to him and his friends and tenants, they now revoked the same, allowing any foreigner to carry fire or lime coal for his own use; besides which, they constituted the Marquis of Worcester, the then Constable of St. Briavel's Castle, as well as Sir Baynham Throckmorton, his Deputy, "free miners to all intents and purposes."

This same Court decided that "the Winchester bushell, three of which were to make a barrell," should be the constant measure for "iron ore and coale," 4d. being the smallest price allowed to be taken for "a barrell of fire coale." Pits having become numerous, they decreed that "none should presume to sink a pit within 100 yards of one already made without the consent of the undertakers, under a penalty of 100 dozen of good fire coale" (which is the earliest regulation for protecting coal-works). Lastly, six "barganers" were to fix the price at which iron ore should be sold or carried to the different works. The names of forty-eight miners are appended to this "order," all written in the same hand opposite their respective marks.

The importance of securing a supply of timber for the navy led to frequent Commissions of Inquiry, and the issue of Instructions, with respect to the royal forests. The Marquis of Worcester, Warden of Dean Forest, made a Return, on the 23rd of April, 1680, minutely describing the condition of the older trees, as well as of those planted ten years before, together with the state of the fences surrounding the new plantations. Parts of several of the enclosures are reported to have trees which were grown up out of the reach of cattle, and therefore fit to be thrown open, an equal quantity of waste land being enclosed instead, which was accordingly done by warrant, dated 21st July, 1680, not more than eleven years from the time they were taken in: consequently the young trees must have grown with rapidity, or else were left to take their chance very early. With the design as it would seem of making room for the new plantations, it is further stated that "there were remaining about 30 cabins, in several parts of the Forest, inhabited by about 100 poor people, and that they had taken care to demolish the said cabins, and the enclosures about them." It should be remarked that these poor people must not be classed with the "free miners" of the Forest, although "they had been born in it, and never lived elsewhere," but as "cabiners," who had to work seven years in the pits before they could become "free."

[Picture: The Speech House]

The fourth Record of the Mine Law Court informs us that it sat before Sir Baynham Throckmorton on the 27th April, 1680, at the Speech House, yet barely completed, unless it were the spacious Court-room, devoted to the public business of the Forest, for which it has been used ever since. The "Order" then passed implies, that although the last Court had appointed six "bargainers" to deal with the difficult question of valuing the minerals offered for sale, inconvenience was yet experienced on this head.

It was therefore decreed that a dozen Winchester bushels of iron ore should be delivered at St. Wonnarth's furnace for 10s.; at Whitchurch, for 7s.; at Bishopswood, for 9s.; at Linton, for 9s.; at Longhope, for 9s.; at Flaxley, for 8s.; at Gunsmills (if rebuilt), for 7s.; at Blackney, for 6s.; at Lydney, for 6s.; at those in the Forest lately demolished (if rebuilt), for the same as before; at Redbrooke, for 4s. 6d.; at the Abbey, viz. Tintern, for 9s.; at Brockweare, for 6s. 6d.; at Redbrooke Passage, for 5s. 6d.; at Gunspill, for 7s. So also no house or smith's coal was to be delivered on the banks of the Wye, below Huntsam Ferry, for less than 8s. a dozen bushels, or for 4s. 6d. if only lime coal; and if above Huntsam, 3s. 6d., on a forfeiture of 100 dozen of good iron ore, the one half to his Majesty, and the other to the miner that will sue for the same, together with loss of "freedom" and utter expulsion from the mine-works—a very heavy penalty for such an offence, showing the arbitrary power assumed by the court, at one time conferring free-minership upon strangers and foreigners, and at another deposing the free miner merely for an over or even an under charge.

This "order" likewise informs us that the instructions given in 1674, to pull down the King's iron-works in the Forest, had been so thoroughly executed, that all the furnaces were ere this demolished, leaving such only to be supplied with ore as were situated beyond the Forest limits. These furnaces seem to have taken about 600 dozen bushels of ore at one time, during the delivery of which no second party was allowed to come in. It is signed by fourteen out of the forty-eight free miners in their own hands, which is so far an improvement; but if the iron trade was unpromising, owing to the course which the Government felt constrained to take, lest its development should endanger the timber, it was not so with the coal, the getting of which the Crown would obviously regard with favour, in the hope that it would relieve the woods from spoliation. Accordingly, we shall find that from about this period on through the next century coal-works were constantly on the increase, so as eventually to throw the getting of iron-ore into the shade. This last "order" cancelled an agreement passed by the Mine Law Court on the 9th of March, 1675, to the effect that a legal-defence fund be raised; but it confirmed the decree of a former court forbidding any young man to set up for himself as a free miner unless he was upwards of twenty-one years of age, and had served by indenture an apprenticeship of five years, and had also given a bond of ten pounds to obey all the orders of the said court.

One of the most minute of the various perambulations of this Forest dates from about this time, and serves to identify several spots, the early names of which have long passed away. On this occasion nineteen "regarders" went the rounds, preserving much the same course as the bounds of 28 Edward I.

The next, or fifth session of the Mine Law Court was held at Clearwell, on the 19th of September, 1682, Henry Melborne and William Wolseley, Esqrs., acting as joint deputies for the Marquis of Worcester, constable of St. Briavel's Castle.

It confirmed, for the most part, the "orders" already issued, and further exacted the payment, within six days, of 6d. from every miner thirteen years of age and upwards, and an additional 6d. for every horse used in carrying mineral, "for raising a present sum of money for urgent occasions," and required all coal-pits which had been wrought out to be sufficiently secured. Only fourteen signatures are attached to this "order," the remaining thirty-four free miners making their "marks."

In the course of the next year, A.D. 1683, a scheme resembling that proposed ten years before was started by Sir John Erule, supervisor or conservator of the Forest. His project was to raise 5,390 pounds a year for the Crown, upon an outlay, in the first place, of no more than 1,000 pounds, to be spent in building iron-works, and an annual consumption of 8,000 cords of wood out of the Forest, care being taken that no oak or beech-tree, fit or likely to become fit for shipbuilding, be used. The Lords of the Treasury referred the plan to Mr. William Harbord and Mr. Agar, to be investigated and reported on. They rejected it however, as was done in the former case, and for the same reason, namely, that if carried out it would prove injurious to the woods and timber.

The sixth order of the Court of Mine Law records that it assembled on the 8th of December, 1685, at Clearwell, before William Wolseley, Esq., deputy to the Duke of Beaufort, constable of St. Briavel's Castle.

Its principal design seems to have been that of confirming the former 6d. rate, and authorizing the same to be raised to 10s., if necessary, towards keeping up a fund for supporting the miners' claims at law, which of late they had been obliged to do in the Court of Exchequer against Mr. Beck and others. The order concludes with the following direction: "That one-half of the jury should be iron-miners, and the other half colliers," so rapidly had coal-mining advanced, and so important had its condition become. An examination of the original document shows this order to have been signed by one person writing down the names of the forty-eight free miners, since they all exhibit the same hand-writing.

The seventh of the orders still extant reports the Court of the Mine to have been held at Clearwell on the 5th of April, 1687, before William Wolseley, Esq., and commences by stating that more money was wanted for legal purposes, and that every miner must pay two shillings, with two shillings besides for every mine-horse, towards meeting them.

It likewise directed that each coal-pit and dangerous mine-pit, if left unworked for a whole month together, should be fenced with a stone wall or posts and rails, under a penalty of 10s. All previous orders, fixing the prices at which the minerals of the Forest were alone to be sold, were now abolished, not having been found to answer; and all miners were left at liberty to sell or carry and deliver their ore and coal to whom, where, and how they pleased; and whereas previously all colliers were entitled to be first served at the pits, now it was ordained that the inhabitants of the hundred should precede the trade, and that those miners only should keep horses who had land sufficient to feed them. The following provision speaks for itself—"For the restrayning that pernicious and abominable sinne of perjury too much used in these licentious times, every myner convicted by a jury of 48 miners in the said Court shall for ever loose and totally forfeite his freedome as touching the mines, and bee utterly expelled out of the same, and all his working tooles and habitt be burnt before his face, and he never afterwards to be a witness or to be believed in any matter whatsoever." Of the forty-eight jurymen whose names are appended to the above, sixteen signed.

It was in the month of January following (1688) that a riotous assemblage of the people pulled down Worcester Lodge and York Lodge, besides much defacing and spoiling the Speech House; an outrage connected probably with the unpopularity of James II., after whom the Speech House and York Lodge were called. With reference to the general feeling of the neighbourhood respecting the principles of the Revolution, Mr. Pyrke, of Dean Hall, states that the release of Lord Lovelace, a supporter of the Prince of Orange, out of Gloucester prison, was effected by "a young gentleman of that county," an ancestor of his, "who took up arms for the Prince, and drove out all the Popish crew that were settled in that city," and that the exploit has been handed down in the following rude lines, sung by his haymakers at their harvest supper:—

"A health to Captain Pyrke, who in Little Dean was bred, And of a thousand men he was the head; He fought for the truth and the Protestant faith; We drink his good health, and so do rejoice.

He down in the West King William did meet, And to him he sent both oxen and sheep, Till he had an order which from him did come, And with honour to Gloucester he brought him along.

When he came to Gloucester he had but forty men, The city of Gloucester all barred unto him; The city was guarded with soldiers about, But he brought Lord Lovelace from his prison quite out.

With sword in his hand he before them did go; He was not ashamed his face for to show: 'They who have anything to say to Lord Lovelace,' said he, 'O then, if they have, let them speak it to me.'

Then up to the Mayor away he did get, And his wooden god to pieces did beat; And the big golden chair where King James sate He threw in the fire, which made a brave heat.

Then up into Oxfordshire away he did ride, To bring Lord Lovelace safe home; He plundered the Papists along as he goes, He could not endure to see us abused."

Two years later than the date of the above outrages, wood-fellings to the extent of 6,186 short cords were made, pursuant to their Majesties' letters of Privy Seal. They were sold, it is said, for six shillings a cord, which was considered a good price for the county of Gloucester.

A period of about five years from the time that the last was held brings us to the date of the eighth record of the Mine Law Court, viz. the 17th of January, 1692. It was held at Clearwell, before the three deputies of the Constable of St. Briavel's Castle, i.e. Tracy Catchmay, John Higford, and George Bond, Esqrs.

The Court levied a further contribution of 12d. upon every miner, with an additional 1s. on every mine horse, with which to clear off certain charges incurred in a recent suit in the Court of Exchequer at Westminster. It extended the protective distance of 100 yards, within which every pit was guarded from being encroached upon by any other work, to 300 yards. It also provided that no iron ore intended for Ireland should be shipped on the Severn or Wye for a less sum than 6s. 6d. for every dozen bushels. This order was signed by sixteen out of the forty-eight miners with their own hands, the rest making their marks only.

To this period is assigned Dr. Parsons's quaint remarks on the Forest. "It abounds," he says, "with springs for the most part of a brownish or umber colour, occasioned by their passage through the veynes of oker, of which there is a great plenty, or else through the rushy tincture of the mineralls of the ore. The ground of the Forest is more inclined to wood and cole than corn, yet they have enough of it too. The inhabitants are, some of them, a sort of robustic wild people, that must be civilized by good discipline and government. The ore and cinder wherewith they make their iron (which is the great imployment of the poorer sort of inhabitants) 'tis dug in most parts of ye Forest, one in the bowells, and the other towards the surface of the earth. But, whether it be by virtue of the Forrest laws, or other custome, the head Gaviler of the Forrest, or others deputed by him, provided they were born in the Hundred of St. Briavel's, may go into any man's grounds whatsoever, within the limitation of the Forrest, and dig or delve for ore and cinders without any molestation. There are two sorts of ore: the best ore is your brush ore, of a blewish colour, very ponderous and full of shining specks like grains of silver; this affordeth the greatest quantity of iron, but being melted alone produceth a mettal very short and brittle. To remedy this inconvenience, they make use of another material which they call cinder, it being nothing else but the refuse of the ore after the melting hath been extracted, which, being melted with the other in due quantity, gives it that excellent temper of toughness for which this iron is preferred before any other that is brought from foreign parts. But it is to be noted that in former times, when their works were few and their vents small, they made use of no other bellows but such as were moved by the strength of men, by reason whereof their fires were much less intense than in the furnaces they now imploy; so that, having in them only melted downe the principal part of the ore, they rejected the rest as useless, and not worth their charge: this they call their cinder, and is found in an inexhaustible quantity throughout all the parts of the country where any glomerys formerly stood, for so they were then called."



CHAPTER IV. A.D. 1692-1758.

Condition of the Forest described, and management examined—Depredations—Ninth and tenth orders of the Miners' Court—Timber injured by the colliers—The Forest in its best state, 1712—Eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth orders of the Miners' Court—Fourteenth order of the Miners' Court—Swainmote Court discontinued—Extension of coal-works and injury of trees—Forest neglected—Fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth orders of the Miners' Court—Grant of 9200 feet of timber to the Gloucester Infirmary.

Reverting to the general condition and management of the Forest, an important commission was issued this year, 1692, to the Crown officers and some of the neighbouring gentry, directing them to examine and inquire into the six following particulars:—I. The quantity of coppicewood fit for being cut from year to year for twenty-one years to come—II. The annual charge for the next twenty-one years of maintaining the enclosures—III. What the cost would be of disenclosing certain coal-pits, with which some of the plantations were encumbered—IV. What the salaries of the Crown officers of the Forest amounted to, and the cost of making such repairs as the buildings they occupied required—V. As to the way in which the timber fellings of 1688 had been disposed of, with the state of the enclosures, if those who had charge of them had duly protected them from injury—and VI. How far trespass and pounding had been enforced, or unlawful building permitted.

These were all very important questions, and under the first head, as to wood fit to be cut for cording, &c., the commissioners report, that "there are great and valuable quantities of scrubbed beech and birch, with some holly, hazel, and orle, fit to be cut and disposed of, being 192,000 cords, worth at 4s. 10d., amounting to 46,488 pounds, of which 12,000 cords might be cut every year, worth 2,900 pounds. Or, as the total quantity of such wood was 615,500 cords, their worth at 4s. 10d. was 148,745 pounds 16s. 8d., to which 60,000 pounds may safely be added for future clearings if a twenty-one years' lease be granted. 100 pounds a year would suffice to keep the enclosures in repair." The commissioners, in contemplating the expediency of making a grant adapted to the requirements of iron-making, supposing the King's furnaces to be restored, considered that it "would utterly destroy the Forest, now the best nursery for a navy in the world;" since the party obtaining such a lease would be sure to consider their own advantage rather than the preservation of the district. They also urged that a grant like that intimated was opposed to the intentions of the Act of 20th Charles II., as also to the previous decisions of 1662 and 1674, and would cause much dissatisfaction amongst the freeholders of the Forest, who were prepared to petition against it. The commissioners recommended that "the making of the fellets, if put in execution, should certainly be intrusted to the present officers, who had given sufficient testimony of their care in such matters." Their report adds that "the Lea Bayly is now a spring of oak and beech of four, five, and six years' growth, but much cropped and spoiled by cattle, by reason the enclosures made for the preservation thereof have in the night been several times pulled down and destroyed by persons unknown." The other places mentioned in the Act of 1668, called "Cannop Fellet, Buckholt, Beachenhurst, and Moyey Stock," are described as "generally very well grown with oak and beech of fifty, forty, and thirty years' growth, and under, many thousand of them being forty foot and upwards, without a bough to hurt them." They further state, that some of the enclosure fences, especially those on the north-east side of the Forest, would cost 137 pounds 10s. to repair, and 30 pounds a year afterwards, perhaps, to keep them good, the other parts formerly enclosed not needing reparation, the trees being grown up past danger from deer or cattle, "unless in case of some accident, or pulling down by the rabble, as hath been sometimes done." Viewing the places where the last fellets for cordwood were made in 1690, the commissioners state that "a very great stock has been left upon the ground for timber, and all imaginable care taken by the officers employed in making the said fellets, and preserving all the stores and saplings, with the principal shoots of such beech as grow upon old stools well sheltered by other woods, for the improvement thereof." With reference to the expediency of throwing open such of the enclosures as contained coal-pits, we learn that no inconvenience was felt on that account, as "not more than six pits had ever been so situated, and now not one, those plantations having grown up, and their fences down." The sum total of salaries paid to the conservators and six keepers was 210 pounds per annum, arising from wood sales. Various repairs are stated to have been necessary. The Castle of St. Briavel's, it is said, "hath been a very great and ancient building, but the greatest part is ruined and fallen down, and only some part kept up for a place to hold the courts in for the King's manor and hundred thereof, and also for a prison for debtors attached by process out of the said courts, and for offenders and trespassers within the Forest. The same is very necessary to be repaired; and for mending the roof and tyling, and in glazing, plaistering, repairing the prison windows, and building a new pound, &c., will cost the sum of 10 pounds 14s. 2d. The cost of rebuilding Worcester and York Lodges, pulled down by the rioters in 1688, and repairing the Speech House, which was likewise much injured at that time, will be, they calculate, 219 pounds 10s."

As to injury done to the woods, the following presentments amongst many others made by the keepers were instanced:—"John Simons of Blackney, for cutting green orle wood. Edward Revoke and James Drew of Little Dean, for cutting and carrying away a young oak. The same Edward Revoke, for building some part of his house with wood out of the said Forest." Respecting these depredations the commissioners recommend that, in consideration of the colliers having, time out of mind, had an allowance of wood, but not timber for the support of their pits, but which has been stopped for some time, it may be again allowed to them by order of the verderers, and taken by view of a woodward or keeper. The Attachment and Swainmote Courts are stated to have been "duly kept, although ineffectually to the preservation of the Forest, as they can only convict, but cannot punish; and that the trespass-money paid into the said courts in this reign does not exceed 5s., the only remedy being in having a justice seat held for the purpose once a year, for six or seven years." The report is signed by Wm. Cooke, Re Pynder, Wm. Boevey, J. Viney, Jo. Kyrle, Phil. Ryley.

The ninth Mine Law Court was held on the 25th of April, 1694, at Clearwell, before John Higford and George Bond, Esqrs.

It confirmed the punishment already awarded against "the abominable sin of perjury," to prevent which it directs that "no person shall be permitted to sweare in his own cause unless it be for a matter transacted underground, or where it was difficult to have any witnesses;" nor shall any bargain be binding unless it be proved by two witnesses.

All causes of debt or damage amounting to 40s. were to be heard on both sides as in other courts, the verdict being given by a jury of twelve miners; but in lesser causes by the Constable of the Court. Provision was also made that "every defendant have twenty-four hours' notice to provide for his defence," every witness being allowed 12p. a-day, the fees of the Court remaining the same as before, all which, as well as the defendant's time, the plaintiff losing the cause, or being non-suited, had to pay. This "Order" also reduces the price of ore for Ireland from 8s. to 5s. a dozen bushels, pitched at Brockwere, or if at Wye's Green for 4s. ditto; fire-cole at 8s. a dozen bushels; smith's-cole, 6s., and charking at 8s., "without handing, thrusting, kicking, or knocking the same," under the usual penalty. Eighteen miners out of the jury of forty-eight signed their names themselves "to this Order," the remaining thirty only making their marks.

The earliest particular recorded in the next century bears date 1701, on the 27th January, in which year the tenth Miners' Court of forty-eight sat at Clearwell, before Serjeant Powlett and George Bond, Esq., deputies to Charles Earl of Berkeley.

Its proceedings were as follows:—Certain temporary orders, dated the 12th March, 1699, and 11th November, 1700, regulating the loading of horses and carts, forbidding any coal to be sent off by the river Wye below Welch-Bicknor, authorizing the raising of money for paying the costs of the miners' debts in law, securing the Records of their Court, and making the present deputy constable of St. Briavel's Castle a free miner, were confirmed and made perpetual. Mention is also made for the first time of "the utmost seventy" being the greatest number ever comprised in the miners' jury. The order further directs that the Records of Mine-law, used at the hearing of the suit in the Exchequer, be recorded, and put into a chest, to be left in the custody of Francis Wyndham, Esq., whom the court had made a free miner, and that in paying any of the costs incurred in that cause a legal discharge be taken. Now the ton of 21 cwt. was fixed as a weight of coal, to be sold for 5s. to an inhabitant of the hundred, or for 6s. to foreigners; and every pit was to be provided with scales. Upwards of twenty of the forty-eight miners who formed the jury at this court put their names to the above verdict, the remainder being marksmen.

In the year 1705, Edward Wilcox, Esq., Surveyor-General to the Royal Forests, having carefully examined the condition of the woods in the Forest of Dean, stated that he found them very full of young trees, of which two thirds were beech, overtopping the oaks, to their injury; and he recommended that one sixteenth part, or about 700 acres, should be annually cleared and fenced in, which would yield a profit to the Crown of 3,500 pounds a year, and leave the standard oaks and beech to grow to perfection. Lord Treasurer Godolphin consented to this proposal, and granted a warrant for carrying it into execution; but it was petitioned against by those who claimed a right of common, whose free-pasturage would thereby be lessened; at the same time, however, others were desirous that it might take effect, as they would get a living by cutting the underwood, and preparing it for the furnaces. At length on the 4th of July, 1707, the Attorney-General, Sir Simon Harcourt, decided—that "no claim or right of common could prevent the enclosing, keeping in severalty, or improving, as her Majesty should direct, the 11,000 acres mentioned in the Act of 20 Charles II., and preserving the same as a nursery of wood and timber only."

Another event of this year was the holding a Court of Mine Law, on the 1st of July, at Mitcheldean, but afterwards by adjournment at Coleford, before George Bond and Roynon Jones, Esqrs., deputies.

It confirmed the directions of a former court of forty-eight, that the law-papers produced at the late suit in the Court of Exchequer, with all the other records of the Mine Law Court, be collected forthwith, and consigned to the care of Francis Wyndham, Esq.; and that the law debts then incurred be at length paid, out of a 1s. rate upon every miner and mine-horse. The 20s. penalty for leaving pits unfenced was also reimposed. This "Order" bears the genuine signatures of nineteen out of the forty-eight jurymen, the rest merely making their marks.

In the next year, A.D. 1708, Mr. Wilcox, the Surveyor-General, represented to Lord Godolphin that the inhabitants of the neighbourhood had been stripping some of the trees of their bark, whereupon those trees, with any others not likely to be of any use to the navy, were ordered to be cut down and used for gates, stiles, and fences, or sold for the benefit of the Crown. Three years later a similar charge was preferred against certain colliers for cutting trees and wood, but we do not find that it came to anything.

Sir Robert Atkyns, to whom this Forest was well known, describes its condition at this time, as "containing only six houses, which are the lodges for so many keepers. There had been many cottages erected, but they had been lately pulled down;" not that there were literally no other dwellings in it, for the ancient "assarted" lands were probably so occupied, but the mining population lived for the most part in the surrounding villages. Speaking of the different Forest courts, he says—"the Swainmote Court is to preserve the vert and venison, and is kept at the Speech-house, which is a large strong house, newly built in the middle of the Forest for that purpose. There is another court called the Miners' Court, which is directed by a steward appointed by the constable of the Forest, and by juries of miners, returned to judge between miner and miner, who have their particular laws and customs, to prevent their encroaching upon one another, and to encourage them to go on quietly in their labour in digging after coals and iron-ore, with which this Forest doth abound." The room in which most of these courts were held retains its original character, only it has been floored with wood, and is no longer divided by rails into compartments for the jury and the accused. Stains of human blood once marked the ceiling over the north-east corner of the apartment, said to have dropped down from the room above, where an unfortunate poacher, who had been much injured by a gun, was confined. It is asserted that for many years no water could remove nor whitewash hide the unsightly marks.

[Picture: Court Room in "the Speech House."]

In the Commissioners' Report of 1788 it is said that about this time (1712) the Forest was probably in its best state, although its courts had not been so regularly held since the Revolution as before, yet that the greatest attention had been given to it by the different authorities under the Crown. And as the commissioners deplore the unfavourable change which had subsequently taken place, we may contrast the state into which the Forest had then fallen, with its present condition, so much more hopeful and lucrative than it had been at that the brightest period of its past history. There are no public documents relating to this Forest to be met with for many years from this time; indeed it is hardly ever mentioned in the book of the Surveyor-General of the Crown lands, which only contained warrants for felling timber for the navy or for sale. The produce was for the most part directed to be applied to the repairing of lodges, roads, or fences, or the payment of salaries to officers, or fee-gifts from the Crown. The proceedings of the Court of the Miners, on the contrary, remain recorded, and serve to fill up the interval. They show that one was held at the Speech-house on the 7th of January, 1717, before Richard Machen and William James, Esqrs., deputies.

By it a 6d. levy was made on every miner, and on every working horse, towards meeting any law expenses which the Society of Miners might incur in defending their rights; and should more money be required, authorizing a jury of only twelve miners, with the consent of the two deputy-constables, to order the paying of the same. It further imposed a fine of upwards of 30 pounds on any miner who should sue another respecting any matter relating to the mine in any other court. It also constituted the Honourable Matthew Ducie Morton, Thomas Gage, John Wyndham, Richard Machen, William James, and Christopher Bond, Esqrs., free miners, "out of the due and great respect, honour, and esteem borne towards them." We need not call in question the truthfulness of such protestations; but doubtless, had these worthy miners perceived the inconsistency of such admissions, they would not have so readily dispensed with the ancient regulation which restricted the fellowship of the mine to those who had worked therein. They were well intended at the time, but long afterwards weakened in a legal point of view the free miners' rights. This "Order" exhibits only eleven original signatures, the thirty-seven other jurymen making their marks.

Only two years intervened between the holding of the Court just mentioned, and the one which followed it, held at the Speech House, on 10th November, 1719, before Richard Machen and William James, Esqrs., Deputies.

On this occasion certain previous orders were cancelled, and in their stead it was determined that no one living out of the Hundred of St. Briavel's should convey any coal out of the Forest unless he belonged to the Forest division of the county, and carried for his own private use. A penalty of 5 pounds was imposed upon any person under twenty-one years of age carrying ore or coal. All traffic in coal, either up or down the Wye, was to stop at Welch Bicknor, between which and Monmouth Bridge no coal was to be pitched. At Monmouth, fire-coal was to be sold at 9s. the dozen bushels; smith's-coal at 8s.; and lime-coal at 5s. 6d. Above Lydbrook, on the Wye, fire-coal was to be sold at 8s. a ton, or the dozen barrels; smith's-coal at 6s.; and lime-coal at 3s. One free miner was not to sell any fire-coal to another under 5s. per ton of 21 cwt. Roynon Jones and Edmund Probyn, Esqrs., were made free miners. Lastly, any former orders in private hands, together with all writings relating to the Free-miners' Court, were to be delivered to William James, Esq., to be kept in the said miners' chest, at the Speech-house. Perhaps this direction was, with few exceptions, complied with, not, it would seem, in every case, as several of those alluded to in the existing orders of the forty-eight cannot be found. Nineteen signatures made by the parties themselves occur at the end of this Order; the rest are only marks.

Nine years passed away before another full Mine Law Court is recorded. This was on the 12th November, 1728, by adjournment, at the Speech House, before Maynard Colchester, Esq., and William James, Gent.

The following gentlemen were made free miners:—Thomas Wyndham, of Clearwell; Maynard Colchester, of Westbury; William Hall Gage, son and heir to Lord Viscount Gage; William Jones, of Nass, Esqrs.; William Jones, of Soylewell, Gent.; Robert James, of the same place, Gent.; Thomas Wyndham the younger, of Clearwell, Gent.; Thomas Pyrke the younger, of Little Dean, Gent.; and William Lane, Deputy Clerk. A forfeit of 10 pounds was laid upon any miner who had received a "forbidment" from another, if he persisted in carrying on his work in that place. The distance of 300 yards, which, by a former order, made in 1692, protected every pit from interruption, was now enlarged to 500 yards in all levels in all parts of the mines called "beneath the wood," under the same penalty; and further, the giving away of coals was forbidden under a fine of 5 pounds. Twenty-two original signatures appear at the foot of this Order; the other names are merely marked.

The extension of the Forest coal-works, in depth and underground operations, as indicated by the enlargement of the protective distance, effected a corresponding change in the kind of timber required for propping the mine. That is, as the pressure from above increased, owing to the workings being carried deeper, stronger stays and supports were necessary than cordwood or saplings supplied. Nothing less than the stems and main limbs of timber trees would suffice. How the colliers obtained these requisites, the particulars given in the following complaint, made in 1735 by the Surveyor-General, show:—"A practice has prevailed among the colliers of boring large holes in trees that they may become dotard and decayed, and, as such, may be delivered to them gratis for the use of their collieries." The only notice, it cannot be called a remedy, which this evil obtained, was that, for the future, directions were given that "such bored trees as appeared to be dead and spoiled shall be felled, taking care that none be cut down that may be of use to the navy."

It is, however, further stated, that the colliers frequently obtained from the keepers the best trees in the Forest, although their claims merely extended to pit-timber. The existence of so serious an evil proves that many things were going wrong, and we are prepared for the representations made the next year (1736) to the Treasury by Christopher Bond, Esq., Conservator and Supervisor of the Forest. He reported that "after the Act of the 20th Charles II., 11,000 acres had been enclosed; that the officers were duly elected, Forest courts held, and offenders prosecuted and punished, to the successful rearing of a fine crop of wood; but that within the last 30 years these elections had been neglected, the Courts discontinued, and offenders left unpunished; the Officers of Inheritance had grown remiss and negligent, so that some enclosures, and those of only a few acres of the 11,000, were kept up, and these not carefully repaired; a great number of cottages were erected upon the borders of the Forest, the inhabitants whereof lived by rapine and theft; that there were besides many other offences committed, such as intercommuning of foreigners, surcharges of commoners, trespasses in the fence month and winter haining, and in the enclosures; keeping hogs, sheep, goats, and geese, being uncommonable animals, in the Forest; cutting and burning the nether vert, furze, and fern; gathering and taking away the crabs, acorns, and mast; and other purprestures and offences; carrying away such timber trees as were covertly cut down in the night time; by which practices several hundred fine oaks were yearly destroyed, and the growth of others prevented; and that it was feared that some of the inferior officers of the Forest, finding offenders to go on with impunity, were not only grown negligent, but also connived at, if not partook in, the spoil daily committed."

To remedy this bad state of things, Mr. Bond proposed that a new law should be passed, explanatory of the Act of 1668, by enforcing the Forest officers to do their duty, and by superseding the odious, because unlimited and arbitrary, proceedings of the former Chief Justices in Eyre by a jury, and convictions before the verderers at their Swainmote Court, with a power lodged in those officers to fine, under a certain sum, all offenders. The Surveyor-General of the Crown Woods had the above proposal submitted to his consideration, and was directed to attend the Attorney and Solicitor-General, Sir John Willis and Sir Dudley Ryder, to take their opinion thereon, which was, that "the offences were chiefly owing to the neglect of putting the Stat. 20th Charles II. in execution; and they recommended, therefore, that the several vacant offices of the Forest should be filled up, that the Forest Courts should be regularly held, and that the officers should be strictly enjoined to do their duty." It is disappointing to find no evidence that anything was done in consequence of this opinion.

About this time the fifteenth of the series of "Orders" enacted by the Mine Law Court of forty-eight, informs us that it met by adjournment at the Speech House on the 6th of December, 1737, before William Jones, Esq., Deputy Constable of St. Briavel's Castle.

Owing to the injury which it was considered foreigners had done to the free miners by carrying coal out of the Forest for merchandise, it was decided that for the future no such carrying should be allowed except to certain persons named, under a penalty of 5 pounds, or property to that amount, or imprisonment in St. Briavel's Castle for a year, to the perpetrator or any cognizant thereof. From this it seems perfectly plain that the free miner regarded the carrying of coal as much a part of his profession as getting it, and therefore equally requiring protection. The "Order" proceeds to direct that in every suit before the Mine-Law Court the plaintiff and defendant were to pay 6d. to the Clerk for entering the same, which was to form his salary. The rights of free-minership were conferred upon the Honourable Thomas Gage, Christopher Bond the younger, Esq., Thomas Crawley, Esq., James Rooke, Esq., Thomas James, Gent., Thomas Barron the younger, Gent., Thomas Marshall, Yeoman. John Wade was to be made "free" on his working a year and a day in the mine; and making it a rule that a foreigner's son, being born in the Hundred, and seeking to become a free miner, was to serve by indenture an apprenticeship of seven years. The above "Order" has only twenty-three marks attached to it, more than half the jury signing their own names.

Proceeding to the date and objects of the next "Order" of the same Court, we find that it had been adjourned to the 2nd March, 1741, at the Speech House, before Edward Tomkins Machen, Esq., Deputy. It commences by explaining the terms "above" and "beneath the wood" to be two ancient divisions of the Forest, "beginning at the river Wye at Lydbrook, where the brooke there leading from the forges falls into the said river, and so up the said brooke or stream unto a place in the said Forest called Moyery Stock, and from thence along a Wayn-way at the bottom of a place called the Salley Vallett, and so along the same way between the two old enclosures that did belong to Ruardean and Little Dean Walks unto Cannop's Brooke, and down the said brooke to Cannop's Bridge; and from thence along the road or highway to the Speech-house, and from thence along the said highway to Foxe's Bridge, and from thence down Blackpool Brooke to Blakeney."

It is worthy of remark, that the same boundary line, with only a trifling difference, defines the two townships of East and West Dean, into which the Forest is now divided for the purposes of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The connexion of this division with the Court of Mine Law consisted simply in this, that the attendance of a free miner on the jury was regulated by the position of his works and habitation in one or other of them.

A 5 pounds penalty was laid upon all miners who should send or carry any coals to Hereford or Monmouth by the Wye, except lime-coal at "the New Wears," at 4s. a dozen bushels. A similar fine was inflicted on any inhabitant of the Forest division of the county who should "presume" to carry coal otherwise than for their own use; so also no miner was to work more than two pits at one time; nor to carry coal for any person not a free miner; neither to sell fire-coal or stone-coal charks under 7s. a dozen bushels, or 5s. if smith's coal, at Redbrook, which, if refused there, a "forbid" shall be declared until the former coal should be accepted. This "Order" further enacted that if coal was found in any bargeman's boat, and he refuse to say from whom he had it, a general "forbid" shall be declared that no miner serve him with any more. A free miner is briefly defined to be "such as have lawfully worked at coal a year and a day." A foreigner selling coal at Hereford for less than 13s. per ton was to be summoned, or abide the consequences of a general "forbid." Should there be at any time more than a sufficiency of coal for the trade on the Wye, the barge-owners were to employ the services of the miners, or be fined according to their wages. A horse-load to the Wye was fixed at 2 cwt. and a quarter for 6d., ten such making a ton, to be weighed, if required, under a forfeit of 2s. 6d. Miners beneath the wood were bound to sell not less than a cwt. of coal for 4d.; 3 bushels of smith's coal for 5d.; and 1 bushel of lime coal for 1d. at the pit. No team was to be served with less than 2 cwt. nor more than 21 cwt., to be weighed, if desired, or forfeit 5 pounds. This Order constituted Richard Clarke and Edward Tomkins Machen, Esqrs., free miners, and exhibits at the end the penmanship of only 18 of the jury, all the rest merely making their marks.

We now arrive at the seventeenth or last "Order" issued by the Mine Law Court. It dates 22nd October, 1754, and sat at the Speech House, before Maynard Colchester and Thomas James, Esqrs.

It records the election to free-minerships of the Right Honble. George Augustus Lord Dursley, Charles Wyndham of Clearwell, Esq., Rev. Roynon Jones of Monmouth, John Probyn of Newland, Esq., his son Edmund, Maynard Colchester the younger, Esq., Roynon Jones the younger, of Nass, Esq., Kedgwin Webley of London, Gentleman, Kedgwin Hoskins the elder, of Clearwell, Gent., William Probyn the younger, of Newland, Gent., Mr. Kedgwin Hoskins the younger, of Clearwell, Mr. Edmund Probyn the younger, son of the said William Probyn, Mr. Thomas James the younger, Mr. Thomas Baron the younger, son of Mr. Thomas Baron of Coleford, Herbert Rudhall Westfaling, of Rudhall in Herefordshire, Esq., John Clarke, of "The Hill," in Herefordshire, Esq., Thomas Foley the elder, of "Stoke Eddy," in the said shire, Esq., Thomas Foley the younger, of the same, Esq., John Symons, of the Mine, in the same county, Esq., Ion Yate, of Arlingham, Esq., William Lane, of "King's Standley," and Barrow Lawrence, of Bruen's Lodge, Gent.

So full a list of persons of position and influence as this Order exhibits, lending their names to the Free Miners' Society, indicates the existence of considerable importance in that body; and yet this was the last Court having forty-eight free miners on the jury whose proceedings have been preserved, the fact being that they failed to agree in their verdicts, and then gentlemen refused to attend, owing, it is said, to the violent quarrels and disputes which arose between foreigners possessed of capital, who now began to be admitted to the works, and the free miners. It is also reported that the decisions of the court were seldom observed, no Act of Parliament having passed to render them valid. The former protective distance between one mine and another was increased from 500 to 1000 yards of any levels, and enforced by a 5 pounds penalty. The order concludes with directing that

"The water-wheel engine at the Orling Green, near Broadmoor, be taken to be a level to all intents and purposes." This machine was evidently the first of its kind erected in the Forest, as was also the steam-engine which superseded it, each manifesting the improvements going on in the method of working the mines. The signatures appended to this final "Order" show twenty-five marksmen, and twenty-three names written by their possessors.

The Benefaction-Boards of the Gloucester Infirmary record, in reference to this period, the following particular:—"A gracious benefaction from his Majesty King George II. of 9,200 feet of rough oak timber from the Forest of Deane."



CHAPTER V. A.D. 1758-1800.

Mr. John Pitt suggested 2,000 acres to be planted—The Forest surveyed—Great devastations and encroachments—The roads—Act of 1786, appointing a Commission of Inquiry—New plantations recommended—Messrs. Drivers employed to report on the Forest—Corn riots—Mitcheldean market.

Reverting to the state of the woods and timber in the Forest, it appears that ere this the old enclosures had been thrown open, the trees planted early in this century having attained to considerable size, and some parts so far cleared as to suggest the formation of new plantations. In 1758 John Pitt, Esq., then Surveyor-General of Woods, &c., proposed to the Treasury that 2,000 acres should be enclosed, which was ordered to be done accordingly; but probably it was executed in part only, since Mr. Pitt was removed from his office five years afterwards, when a survey of the timber was made, and it was computed that there were 27,302 loads of timber fit for the navy, 16,851 loads of about sixty years' growth, and 20,066 loads dotard and decaying. To this period also belongs the first opening of the old Fire-engine colliery, or Orling Green coal-work, galed to "foreigners," but subsequently conveyed by them at different times in shares to various persons, including the gaveller, by whom the first fire-engine was put up about 1777, a date also memorable as being the one on which the Court of Free Miners wholly ceased to act.

Mr. John Pitt was reinstated in 1763, and represented that he found "great spoil had been committed, and great quantities of wood and timber, amounting in value to 3,255 pounds, cut by order of Sir Edmund Thomas, the late Surveyor-General, without warrant." The year following, Mr. Pitt presented a second memorial to the Government, proposing that 2,000 acres more should be taken in, at an estimated cost of 2,077 pounds. The usual warrant was issued for the purpose, authorizing wood-sales to that amount, although the expense ultimately came to 3,676 pounds 5s. 6.5d.

The attention of Parliament was directed at this time to the best means of increasing the supply of timber to the Royal dockyards. A committee formed for investigating the matter produced the clearest evidence of decrease of navy timber throughout the kingdom, to the extent of at least two-thirds within the last forty years, according to the experience of thirty different dealers. The annual amount of such timber supplied from Dean Forest is stated to have averaged at this time about 2,000 loads. Probably the most correct view of the disposition of the woods, plantations, &c., and of the district in general, is afforded by Mr. Taylor's map of the county of Gloucester, published in 1777. It indicates the enclosures formed since the beginning of the century, as well as a considerable extent of woodland; indeed we know, from the return made to a Parliamentary survey taken in 1783, that the Forest contained 90,382 oak-trees, amounting to 95,043 loads, besides 17,982 beech-trees, in which were 16,492 loads; to protect which more effectually, Mr. Pitt instituted the place of "watch-man," attaching to it a dwelling-house on Oaken Hill, and a small quantity of land, with a salary of 10 pounds, and any fines or rewards obtained on the conviction of timber stealers.

Very mischievous devastations and encroachments were nevertheless still continued. For instance, Mr. Slade, the purveyor to the navy, stated to the Treasury, that "he had discovered and was informed of most shameful depredations of the oak timber, which was cut every day by persons living round the Forest; and that for some years it had been the custom to steal the body of the tree in the night, and cut it into cooper's wares, leaving the top part on the spot, which the keepers took as their perquisite; and that whole trees were conveyed every spring tide to Bristol; and that when he was at Gatcomb, in one day there were five or six teams came with timber, planks, and knees, winter-felled, and other timber, among which were several useful pieces for ships of fifty and sixty-four guns." It was also stated by Mr. Pitt, the Surveyor-General, that "everything in his power had been done to put a stop to them, but that the offenders had become so desperate and daring as to bid defiance to his deputies, and render every attempt of his in a summary way totally ineffectual," adding that, "not long before, a number of persons in disguise had openly cut down two large timber-trees at Yorkley, in Dean Forest, and wounded several keepers who attempted to oppose them." Mr. Colchester likewise informed the Government that "the greatest part of the fine timber this Forest has been so famous for has been cut down, and the large and extensive tract of land formerly covered with the noblest timber is now become a barren waste and heath."

Mr. Thomas Blunt, the deputy-surveyor, also reports, in allusion to this period, that, "having formerly pulled down and destroyed many cottages, fences, and enclosures, he had latterly been obliged to desist, fearing his life and property were endangered by the repeated threats and insults of the encroachers and their party." He adds that "about 1000 loads of oak timber were annually being felled for the use of the miners, of which at least one-fifth part was fit for naval purposes; and that the great waste, spoil, and destruction of timber and wood on the Forest is and hath been occasioned by an improper application of the timber delivered to the miners for the use of their works, one-half of which would have been more than sufficient, for that he had frequently seized large quantities of offal timber, and such other timber as the miners could not use in their works; and in particular that on or about the 28th of January, 1783, he seized and took 586 feet of oak-timber, and more than 200 cleft pieces of oak, called kibbles, from one George Martin, who acknowledged that they had been stolen. He had also seized at the Fire-Engine in the Forest between two and three waggonloads of timber, hewn up and converted by the colliers into cooper's wares for market, as the neighbourhood, being a great cinder country, would require." Joseph Pyrke, Esq., a verderer and deputy-constable, further stated that "numberless encroachments, enclosing one, two, or three acres, were taken in for gardens by the idle poor, and also by people in good circumstances," and that "nothing short of a capital offence would ever preserve the remaining timber."

We obtain information on the subject of pit-timber from Mr. Hartland's evidence before the Parliamentary Commissioners. He says that "the sorts of wood or timber delivered to the miners were oak and beech, and none other; chiefly oak in the summer, more pits being sunk in the summer than in the winter, and the keepers having the bark; more beech is allowed in the winter than oak. But oak timber is necessary, and is always allowed, for sinking the pits, and for making what the miners call the gateway, or gangway, from the body of coal to the pit, and also for the gutters in the levels, for draining off the water; but beech, birch, orle, holly, or any other kind of wood, would serve for the purpose of getting coal, and supporting the earth after the coal is taken away, but none is ever delivered to them but oak and beech." He goes on to say that "the evil of the colliers misapplying the timber served to them by the keepers could only be remedied by refusing it for the future to such parties as had been detected therein. Fining them was found impracticable, owing to the difficulty of proving the timber to have been the King's, without which proof the justices could hardly act."

Rewards of 20 pounds, and in gross cases of 50 pounds, were offered to any persons making a discovery whereby any of the offenders should be convicted; but without much effect, for the sufficient reason, as stated in the official report of 1788, that the resident officers derived advantages from the continuance of the abuse. Thus the Deputy-Surveyor took as perquisites the tops of all timber rejected by the navy, as well as of all stolen timber; all trees found felled by wood-stealers; one moiety of the cord-wood made from the offal-wood of timber delivered to the miners, and of stolen timber, besides from four pence to six pence for every tree felled for the use of the miners; whereby his salary was raised from 50 to 500 pounds a year. It was much the same with the six keepers, who received one shilling on every order for delivery of timber to the miners or colliers; the moiety of all offal-wood of timber cut for the miners; the moiety of all cord-wood of stolen timber; all lengths or pieces of trespass, and the bark of timber delivered to the miners, stolen timber called kibbles, and of all stolen timber found within their respective walks, by means of which their stipends were increased 100 pounds a year each.

Mr. Miles Hartland, the assistant-deputy-surveyor, in his examination, on the 15th of May, 1788, before the Dean Forest Commissioners, also stated that "he believed the cottages and encroachments in the Forest have nearly doubled within the last forty years. The persons who inhabit the cottages are chiefly poor labouring people who are induced to seek habitations in the Forest for the advantages of living rent free, and having the benefit of pasturage for a cow or a few sheep, and of keeping pigs in the woods; but many encroachments have been made by people of substance. The cattle of the cottagers are impounded when the Forest is driven by the keepers, as all other cattle are; and when the owners take them from the pound, paying the usual fees to the keepers, they turn them again into the Forest, having no other means of maintaining them. The greater number of the cottagers are from the neighbouring parishes; but there are also a great many from Wales, and from various parts of England, remote from the Forest. They are detrimental to the Forest by cutting wood for fuel, and for building huts, and making fences to the patches which they enclose from the Forest; by keeping pigs, sheep, &c., in the Forest all the year, and by stealing timber."

Speaking of the Forest roads, on which 11,631 pounds 3s. 10d. had been expended within the preceding twenty-five years, Mr. Hartland stated that "the principal were the road from Mitcheldean to Monmouth, and from Little Dean to Coleford. These two are public high roads, not necessary or useful to the Forest, but rather detrimental to it by affording the readier means to convey away the coal in waggons and carts, in which timber has sometimes been found concealed. Besides the above, there are several roads leading from the Forest to Newland, Coleford, and St. Briavel's, which have been kept in repair at the charge of the Forest, but are of no use to it—rather the contrary. The only road now used for conveying the navy timber is the Purton Road, which is the most convenient for carriage to the water side from all parts of the Forest except the Chesnuts in Edge Hills, and the Lea Bailey; but there is no navy timber now in either of these places except the Lea Bailey. If the repairing of the public roads at the charge of the Forest were to be discontinued, the public would be obliged to put up turnpike gates on the roads, and collect tolls for repairing them, as in other parts of the country."

The parts of the Forest which Mr. Hartland described as being "bare of timber and yet fittest to be enclosed as being of a very proper soil, were Hazle Hill and Edge Hills, including Tanner's Hill, Green Bottom and Greenhill, Badcock's Bailey and Chesnuts, East and West Haywood, part of Great Staple Edge, Meezeyhurst, Howbeach and Putmage, Buckhall, Moor and Bradley Hill, Bircham Dingles and Mason's Tump, Blakevellet, Breames Eves and Howell Hill, the Perch and Coverham, Great and Little Bourts, the Lea Bailey, Bailey Hill and Lining Wood, Great and Little Berry, Pluds and Smithers Tump, Blackthorn Turf and Serridge, Kensley's Ridge, Daniel Moor and Beechenhurst, 'forming in short twenty plantations,' which might, he thinks, be enclosed by a ditch about 3 feet deep and 3.5 wide, with a quick hedge planted upon the bank."

The detection of the various abuses which the above extracts exhibit constitutes the first fruit of the enactment of the 26th George III. (1786) for appointing commissioners to inquire into the state of the woods, forests, &c., of the Crown, and to report thereon, adding such observations as should occur to them for their future management and improvement.

Upwards of 2,000 pounds worth of timber out of the Forest was granted, 26th of April, 1786, towards building a gaol in Gloucester, as well as a penitentiary house and houses of correction within the county, at a total cost of 30,000 pounds, upon the plea that the old castle, on the site of which the gaol was to be built, belonged to the King, and also that one of the houses of correction was to be erected within the Forest, whereby the rights of the Crown would be supported. The execution of this grant required 1,690 trees.

The gentlemen appointed to act in the commission above named were, Sir Charles Middleton, John Call, Esq., and Arthur Holdsworth, Esq., who forthwith proceeded to collect information on the history and management of the Forest of Dean, as well as the claims and usages of the mining population. Their report, being the third of the series, was published on the 3rd of June, 1788. Commencing with an introduction respecting the Royal Forests generally, it proceeds to this Forest in particular, "as being in proportion to its extent by far the most valuable and the most proper for a nursery of naval timber," and refers first to the origin and results of the important Act of the 20th Charles II.; then to the abuses which have since crept in, with their disastrous effects; and, thirdly, to the best way of settling the claims of commoners, and how to render this Forest a very valuable nursery of timber for the royal navy.

All particulars bearing upon the two former heads have been as fully stated in the preceding pages of this work as circumstances permitted: under the last head, the suggestions of the commissioners amounted briefly to this,—that, agreeably to the plan begun about the year 1638, under the supervision of Sir Baynham Throckmorton, a commission should be created to superintend the enclosing of about 18,000 acres. The most wooded parts of the Forest were to be selected, and where the soil was best fitted for the growth of timber, avoiding the coalworks, and leaving out all necessary roads to be made and kept in repair by turnpikes, unless required for the carriage of timber only; the rights of commoners were to be discharged by allotting an equitable extent of land suitable for pasture, and the colliers to pay for all pit timber; the deer were to be disposed of, as demoralizing the inhabitants and injuring the young wood; and lastly, the commissioners recommended ejecting the cottagers who had established themselves in the Forest, as often before, in defiance of authority, and who numbered upwards of 2,000, occupying 589 cottages, besides 1,798 small enclosures containing 1,385 acres. As to defraying the cost of executing the above works, the commissioners recommended the sale of about 440 acres of detached pieces of Crown land adjoining the Forest, and if necessary dotard and decayed trees, or such as would never become fit for naval use.

The surveyors, Messrs. A. and W. Driver, calculated the fencing, planting, and keeping up the contemplated enclosures, for the whole of the ensuing 100 years, at 564,330 pounds, by which time the timber would probably be worth 10,680,473 pounds, and yield an annual net revenue of 52,052 pounds. According to the Report of these gentlemen, the Forest then contained about 24,000 oak-trees averaging one and a half loads each, and 24,000 oak-trees measuring about half a load each, not including unsound trees, of which there were many, besides a considerable number of fine large beech as well as young growing trees. The principal stock of young timber, from which any expectation could be formed, was in the Lea Bailey and Lining Woods, which were in general well stocked, and would produce a considerable quantity of fine timber, if properly fenced and protected from the depredations of plunderers. As to the names, extent, and character of the plantations then existing, they report as follows:—

"The Great Enclosure, which contained 743 acres 35 poles, was begun to be made about twelve years ago, with post and rail; but before the whole was completed, a great part was taken away, and nothing now remains but the bank; there are no young trees of any kind."

"Stonedge Enclosure was made about twelve years ago; it contained 125 acres 1 rood 10 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, which is, for the most part, destroyed; there are a great many thorns and hollies, with some very fine large oaks, but no young timber of any kind coming up."

"Coverham Enclosure, which contained 350 acres 2 roods 34 poles, was made about fifteen years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and part post and rails; nothing but the bank now remains. There was a great quantity of young timber, particularly birch, in this enclosure, which is nearly all destroyed in consequence of the fences being pulled down."

"Serridge Enclosure was made about twelve years ago. It contained 409 acres 3 roods 20 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, of which but little remains, being quite open in many parts; there are no young trees of any sort, and but few old trees."

"Heywood Enclosure contained 715 acres 3 roods 38 poles, and was made about ten years ago, part with a dry stone wall, and part pales; very few traces remain, and in some parts none at all. We have been informed that great part of the wall was pulled down, or fell, before the whole was completed, and the pales carried away by waggons, &c., soon after they were put up; and from its present appearance it is evident no advantage has been derived from this enclosure, as there are no young trees in any part of it."

The three following enclosures, containing together 323 acres 1 rood 33 poles, are all that remain enclosed and in good repair, except the Buckholt Enclosure mentioned last, viz.:—

"Stapleage Enclosure, containing 183 acres 1 rood 3 poles, has been made about five years, part with dry stone wall, and part dead hedge; in general in good repair. In some parts of it there are a few small oak and beech plants, and also a few large oaks and beeches."

"Speech House Enclosure, containing 5 acres 6 poles, was made four years ago by the Deputy Surveyor, and planted with acorns which have produced some young oaks."

"Birchwood Enclosure, containing 135 acres 24 poles, has been made about five years, part with dead hedge and part dry stone wall, which in general is in good repair; there are but few young oaks coming up."

"Buckholt Enclosure, which contains 352 acres 3 roods 20 poles, has been made about eighty years, the greatest part with a stone wall, the rest hedge and ditch. The fences of this enclosure have of late years been kept in good repair. There are some very fine large oaks in it, but in general it contains a great quantity of fine young beech. There are also some oak-trees of about ten or fifteen years' growth, and young oaks are coming up from acorns which have been set in vacant places. A few Weymouth pines have also been planted in this enclosure, which grow very well."

The total acreage of these enclosures was 3,220 acres 6 poles, and their position is shown pretty accurately by Mr. Taylor in his map of the county. Messrs. Driver's report also informs us that there were now 589 houses, 1,798 pieces of land encroached from the open Forest, comprising 1,385 acres 3 roods 21 poles, thus distributed in the six "walks:"—

Number of Number of pieces Their extent. Cottages. of land A. R. P. Speech-House Walk 1 2 0 0 21 Worcester do. 218 455 295 2 36 Herbert do. 95 487 325 2 22 Latimer do. 53 257 122 3 22 Danby do. 367 1201 744 1 21 York do. 98 173 195 3 15 Ellwood do. 113 397 417 3 10

Detached parts. Wallmore 2 3 0 1 24 Northwood Green 3 4 0 1 33 The Bearce - 3 1 1 13 Mawkins Hazles - 5 15 1 28 The Tence 6 10 10 0 9 Glydden - 2 0 0 28 —- —— —— —- —- 589 1798 1385 3 21

Upwards of seventeen different Reports on the condition of "the Forest and Land Revenues of the Crown" were made to Parliament by the Commission of 1788, a fact which will partly explain the delay which took place in carrying out the plans recommended in the Commissioners' Third Report with reference to the Forest of Dean. The chief improvements effected were in the roads, under an Act passed in the year 1795, for mending, widening, and altering the existing roads, and making new ones through the Forest to places adjoining, in the parishes of Newland, Lydney, and Awre. Mr. John Fordyce, now the Surveyor-General, alluding to the subject in his Report, dated 1797, says, that an arrangement had been made with the principal inhabitants in the neighbourhood, whereby the cost of keeping up the roads was to be met by means of turnpikes, the Crown constructing them in the first instance.

The year 1795 is associated with the disturbances commonly called, even now, for they are not forgotten, "the Bread Riots." They arose from the circumstance of the foresters being mainly dependent upon the adjacent farms for their corn, but which was now, owing to war, largely bought up by the Government, mostly at Gloucester and Bristol, for the supply of the army and navy. Hence the inhabitants of the Forest district were left destitute of those supplies which the miners and colliers of the Forest considered they were entitled to, in return for the fuel which they furnished to the farmers.

The following extracts from the contemporary numbers of 'The Gloucester Journal' minutely relate the acts of violence which ensued:—

"On Saturday morning, 30th October, 1795, as Mr. King's waggon, of Bollitree, was bringing a load of barley to the Gloucester Market, it was beset by a number of colliers from the Forest of Dean near the Lea Line, who inquired what the bags contained, and when told that it was barley, they cut the bags to examine; whilst this was passing, a waggon, loaded with wheat, came up the hill belonging to Mr. Dobson, of Harthill, in the parish of Weston, which was taken to in the same manner, and both waggons with the grain were taken off to a place in the Forest of Dean, called Drybrook, where the people divided the corn, and sent back the waggons and horses to the owners." The next Saturday "a party of foresters, chiefly from the neighbourhood of Lidbrook, stopped a waggon belonging to Mr. Prince, of Longhope, loaded with ninety-two bushels of wheat, and lodged it in Ross Market-house, professedly with the intention of selling it out on Monday morning at eight shillings per bushel. A magistrate, however, reached Ross early on Monday, and, accompanied by ten of the Essex Light Dragoons, saw the grain reloaded into Mr. Prince's waggon, and sent it off under their escort. In about an hour upwards of sixty foresters collected together, and set off in pursuit of the waggon. The magistrate followed on horseback, and at the Lea he came up with the waggon, which he sent on, and ordered the cavalry to stop till the approach of the mob. They soon made their appearance, and being at first somewhat refractory, the ringleader was taken into custody; when, after the most persuasive remonstrances of this very active magistrate, and the patient forbearance of the soldiery, they were at last prevailed upon to give up the desperate idea of rescuing the grain, and returned peaceably to Ross."

A reputed highwayman, and noted deerstealer, named William Stallard, living on the Upper Purlieu, above the Hawthorns, is stated to have been the instigator of these outrages, and others of a similar kind on Mr. Prince's flour-mill at Longhope. His lawless career, however, brought him to the gallows at Gloucester for horse-stealing, at the age of forty, on the 16th August, 1800, as appears by the records of that gaol. The decline of the market in Mitcheldean is said to date from the above disturbances, which naturally deterred the neighbouring farmers from sending their grain thither for sale. {85}

Nor were the bread riots confined to the northern side of the Forest, as upon "the evening of the same day, November 9th, many persons assembled at Hanstell, in the parish of Awre, in this county, where a vessel belonging to Eversham, and bound to Bristol with a cargo of pease, oil, flour, leather, and wheat, was waiting for the tide. About twenty men boarded her, examined the lading, and, upon discovering the flour, gave loud huzzas, when the bank was instantly covered with their comrades, who had many horses in waiting, with which they proceeded to carry off the flour, though the trowmen (unable to defend the vessel, and menaced with instant destruction) had offered to sell it to them at a reasonable price. About 7 o'clock one of the trowmen contrived to slip ashore, ran to Newnham, and sent off an express to Gloucester for immediate military aid; but fortunately that assistance was nearer at hand. In consequence of some apprehension of a disturbance at Mitcheldean, an officer, with a serjeant and ten file of the Essex Fencibles Cavalry, had marched into the place early in the morning, and upon the arrival of the express from Newnham instantly set forth for the scene of depredation, under the command of Lieutenant Wood, and headed by Mr. Pyrke, a magistrate of Little Dean. The freebooters fled in every direction, but five men, named Thomas Yemm, Thomas Rosser, Richard Brain, George Marfell, and John Meek, being the most active ringleaders, were apprehended, some in the act of conveying away the flour upon packhorses, some had sacks of it upon their shoulders, some were just landed from the vessel; and many were busied on the bank, which was strewed with flour, dividing the sacks into smaller quantities to render it more portable, for even women and children were of the number." The five men already named were fully committed on the following Tuesday to Gloucester Castle, there to be tried at the Spring Assizes, being guarded thither by one hundred of the Surrey Fencibles, who had arrived in Newnham at 3 o'clock previously. Shortly afterwards, the serjeant of the military, called out on this occasion, was desperately bruised by a stone thrown at him by some desperadoes as he was riding near Mitcheldean, and, on a subsequent Thursday, some villains fired a piece loaded with slugs into the bed-chamber of Mr. Pyrke. At the ensuing Assizes, Thomas Yemm and Thomas Rosser were left for execution, which, although, from the excellent character they previously bore, some gentlemen of the Forest, and of the Grand Jury, interceded with his Majesty on their behalf, they underwent on the 11th April, 1797, acknowledging the justice of their sentence. The extraordinary scarcity, and consequent high price of provisions about this time, were so acutely felt in this neighbourhood, that the Crown distributed 1,000 pounds worth of grain amongst the distressed Foresters.



CHAPTER VI. A.D. 1800-1831.

Lord Nelson's remarks on the Forest—Free miners endeavour to restore their Court of Mine Law—White Mead Park planted—Act of 1808, authorising the replanting of the Forest; six commissioners appointed for that purpose—Six enclosures formed in 1810—Mice—Inquiry as to the best mode of felling timber—Last of the enclosures formed 1816—First Forest church consecrated—High Meadow Woods purchased—General condition of the Forest—Unsuccessful efforts to restore the encroachments to the Crown—Plantations mended over—Ellwood and the Great Doward Estates purchased—The blight—Single trees planted out by the roads—Blight on the oaks.

There is a statement of Lord Nelson's relating to this Forest, written about the year 1802, {87} in which he says: "Nothing in it can grow self-sown, for the deer bark all the young trees. Vast droves of hogs are allowed to go into the woods in the autumn, and if any fortunate acorn escapes their search, and takes root, then flocks of sheep are allowed to go into the Forest, and they bite off the tender shoot." He speaks of "a set of people called Forest free miners, who consider themselves as having a right to dig for coal in any part they please," adding that "trees which die of themselves are considered as of no value to the Crown. A gentleman told me," (he says,) "that in shooting on foot (for on horseback it cannot be seen, being hid by the fern, which grows a great height), the trees of fifty years' growth, fit for buildings, fencings, &c., are cut just above ground entirely through the bark, and in two years die," so becoming a perquisite to the authorities. Lord Nelson calculated that the Forest would sell for 460,000 pounds. He forcibly concludes: "The reason why timber has of late years been so much reduced has been uniformly told me—that, from the pressure of the times, gentlemen who had 1000 to 5000 pounds worth of timber on their estates, although only half grown (say fifty years of age), were obliged to sell it to raise temporary sums—say to pay off legacies. The owner cannot, however sorry he may feel to see the beauty of his place destroyed, and what would be treble the value to his children annihilated, help himself. It has struck me forcibly that if Government could form a plan to purchase of such gentlemen the growing oak, it would be a national benefit, and a great and pleasing accommodation to such growers of oak as wish to sell."

Mr. Fordyce's second report, as Surveyor-General of the Land Revenues of the Crown, appeared on the 14th of December, 1802; but neither this nor his third, dated the 4th of March, 1806, says anything about the Forest of Dean. In 1807 the free miners of the district held a meeting, at which a resolution was passed, earnestly requesting the wardens of the Forest to hold a Court of Mine Law, as soon as possible, with the view of regulating the levels, pits, and engines.

Mr. Fordyce's fourth and final report appeared on the 6th of April, 1809, but it only speaks of the Forest so far as related to the lands called "Whitemead Park," hitherto in the occupation of Lord Berkeley, but whose lease would expire in January, 1808, and was sought to be renewed. The Surveyor-General declined complying with the request for renewal, upon the ground that the Park was unfavourably situated for farming purposes, and that the buildings on it were in very bad repair; whereas a large quantity of very fine timber, valued at 11,736 pounds, had grown up on the land, proving the excellence of the soil for that purpose; besides which, it was situated in the midst of the Forest, and Mr. Fordyce determined to plant the whole of it with oak at the earliest opportunity. This circumstance appears to have stimulated the Government to commence in good earnest the forming of plantations, in accordance with the suggestions made in the Commissioners' Report of 1788, {89} which had been kept in view ever since, and as authorized by the old Acts of the 20th of Charles II. c. 3, and 9 and 10 William III. c. 36.

The propriety, however, of acting upon these old enactments was now doubted, as they had been so long overlooked or irregularly executed; and hence the declaratory Act of the 48th of George III., c. 72, was passed in 1808, confirming the original power to enclose 11,000 acres, as well as legalizing the enclosures of Buckholt, Stapledge, Birchwood, and Acorn Patch, formed a few years previously, containing altogether 676 acres, and making it felony to persist in breaking down any of the fences belonging to the same. The above-named enclosures were the only ones then existing. The Buckholt principally contained beech; Stapledge was thinly stocked with oak, except on the north side, and there called Little Stapledge, on which there was plenty; and Birchwood had some clusters of natural young oaks scattered about it. The Acorn Patch was well filled with thriving young oaks about 25 years old. The same Act likewise directed that the contemplated plantations should be marked out under the supervision of not less than six Commissioners, who were named as follows:—

Lord Glenbervie, Surveyor General of Woods, &c. R. Fanshaw, Esq., of Plymouth Dockyard.

Right Hon. C. Bathurst, Lydney } Park, The Rev. Thomas Birt, Newland, } Magistrates The Rev. Richard Wetherell, } Westbury,

Sir William Guise, Highnam, } Joseph Pyrke, Esq., Little Dean, } Verderers Edmund Probyn, Esq., Newland, } Roynon Jones, Esq., Hay Hill, }

Edward Kent, Esq., Itinerant Deputy Surveyor. Edward Machen, Esq., Deputy Surveyor.

The connexion with the Forest of two of these gentlemen, viz. Lord Glenbervie as Surveyor-General, and Mr. Machen as Deputy-Surveyor, dates from this period; and to their joint exertions, aided by the official labours of Mr. Milne, his Lordship's excellent secretary, and at length one of the three Commissioners of Woods, &c., the existing enclosures owe their formation as well as their present promising condition; but especially to Mr. Machen is the credit due, as being the result of his able and conscientious management of the Forest for well nigh half a century.

With a prospective reference to the plantations shortly to be made, the most laudable pains were taken by Lord Glenbervie to ascertain the best mode of planting and raising the young trees. He truly remarks that "the space of nearly 100 years must elapse before the success or failure of any plan adopted in the cultivation and management of oak timber for the navy can be clearly ascertained, during the whole of which time a persevering attention and uniformity of system in the execution of the plan adopted would be equally requisite, in fact through a succession perhaps of three or four generations." His Lordship made extensive inquiries whether acorns or plants should be first used, or rather some of each; what was the best age and size for transplanting; if plants or trees of any other kind should be set with them, or in places where oaks would not thrive; at what distance apart should they be planted; ought the soil to be cleared or dug, or how prepared; are the old trees to be removed, and the stumps of oak or beech suffered to remain?

On the 23rd of July, 1808, the general principle agreed upon in these respects was, "to plant an intermixture of acorns and oak-trees, with a very small proportion of Spanish chesnuts; so that, if either the acorns or young oaks should succeed, a sufficient crop might be expected, and to plant no trees of any other sorts, except in spots where it should be thought that oaks would not grow, and which it might be necessary to include, in order to avoid the expense of fencing, or for shelter in high and exposed situations." The first enclosures were planted agreeably to this method, only afterwards it was found necessary to set young oaks instead of acorns, few of these only coming up.

Lord Glenbervie also interested himself in some experiments for testing the transplanting of young trees of various ages, selecting Acorn Patch in the centre of the Forest for the purpose. The annexed table, carried on to 1846, gives the result:—

A. transplanted at 16 years of age } B. transplanted at 23 years of age } girth at 6 ft. from the ground. C. not transplanted at all }

A. B. C. Sep. 14, 1809 7.625 Inches. 7 Inches. 11.75 Inches. Oct. 5, 1814 14.75 ,, 11 ,, 15.625 ,, Oct. 20, 1820 23.825 ,, 19 ,, 19.825 ,, ,, 1826 32.125 ,, 27.75 ,, 23 ,, ,, 1830 40.5 ,, 35.75 ,, 26.5 ,, ,, 1836 48.75 ,, 39.5 ,, 30 ,, ,, 1840 53.25 ,, 42.5 ,, 32.5 ,, ,, 1846 60.5 ,, 47.75 ,, 36.5 ,,