INDUSTRIES In following definitions of the word ' tinner,' we meet with a novel and arbitrary mode of in- terpretation. The old distinction between tin- ners on the royal estates and those elsewhere had probably long been dropped, and in its stead arose a theory which attempted to apply to all tinners that contrast between working and non- working tinners brought out in 1376,* the main point being the claim that only working tinners might be excluded from all but stannary courts, while others possessed rights of suit at stannary or common-law courts at their choice. Granted this proposition (and it seems to have found ac- ceptance from the first), the question remained as to what tinners belonged to the privileged class, and which were merely ' tinners at large.' The judges, in 1608, decided that the former comprised blowers and all other labourers while at work. The stannary convocation in 1624 seems to have extended the privilege of not being suable in other than the stannary courts, to another sort, namely, to owners of blowing-houses and adventurers who were at any charge for getting or making tin. It was probably this extension of privilege which occasioned the second reference to the judges three years later. Their explana- tory decision amounted to little more than a reversion to the rule of 1608, and the same state- ment may be made with regard to the rules laid down by the king in council in 1632, and the statute of 1641. An inspection of succeeding codes of stannary law in the reigns of James II and George II makes it clear that their provi- sions are built upon this principle, and an unin- terrupted course of usage and practice in con- formity with it carried the doctrine down to The second great question concerned itself with the local limits for the exercise of the stan- nary jurisdiction. None seem to have been prescribed until the charter of 1305, in which, as regards miners on the royal estates, exemption was granted from pleading elsewhere than before the stannary courts for all pleas arising ultra predictas stannarias, i.e. which were on the demesne lands. Other miners were answerable to the stannary court for pleas arising among themselves, and between themselves and out- siders, concerning all trespasses, plaints, and contracts made in places where they worked within the stannaries arising. In answer to the petitions of 1376, the above was interpreted to mean that the jurisdiction extended to places where the workmen were at work and nowhere else, a decision which, if acquiesced in by the tinners, would have resulted in unending con- fusion. The charter of 1305 itself, in its clause of pre-emption, calls for the coinage of the tin in Lostwithiel, Bodmin, Liskeard, Truro, and Helston. All contracts made there for the sale 1 Expediency, of course, was the sole excuse for this interpretation. and purchase of tin were unquestionably de- terminable in the stannary courts, of which we have had an instance in the case of Boscawen against Chaplin, where the cause of action arose upon a contract made at Truro between persons who were not labourers, which, nevertheless, was decided by a stannary court. The judge before whom the question was raised in 1608 decided that transitory actions between tinner and tinner, and worker and worker, might be decided in the stannary courts, even if the cause arose outside the stannaries, or at common law, at the election of the plaintiff. But if in such a case only one of the parties were a tinner, the defendant might have the case removed to a foreign court. They further ruled that the courts of the stannaries had no jurisdiction over local cases arising outside the stannaries, and that the privileges of workmen did not extend to any local case arising outside the stannaries whereby any freehold should be demanded, ' for that matters of life, member and plea of land were exempted by the express words of the charter.' The stannary convocation in 1624 recognized stannary juris- diction as embracing the contracts or dealings of all persons whomsoever in the buying or selling of uncoined tin, without limitation or qualifica- tion as to their condition and withont reference to the place where they might be entered. 2 By the resolutions of the judges in 1627 it was decided, with reference to the extent of the stannaries, that they comprised every village, hamlet, or tithing wherein tin works existed, or should be wrought, during such time only as active mining operations should be carried on. A further step was taken by the Privy Council in 1632, when they decided that, since in prac- tice all Cornwall had been treated by the stan- nary courts as within their jurisdiction, and as the other provisions of the mining charters applied to the entire county, matters had best continue in statu quo. In the twenty-first section of the laws of the parliament of the Cornish stannaries of 1636, the stannary jurisdiction is recognized as embracing all dealings in black tin, and gives a remedy to the party wronged without qualifica- tion as to the condition of the two parties, or reference to the place of dealing. The statute passed by Parliament in 1641 returned to the exposition of 1376, 'that the words in locis ubl operantur, be expounded of the village, hamlet, and tithing where some tin work is situated, and not elsewhere, and no longer than the same tin work is, or shall be working.' Its operation, however, was deemed, in practice, to be confined to the case of labouring tinners, and this construc- tion was adopted in the laws of 1687 and 1752, and has so continued until recent times. It has been seen that, from a legal standpoint, the stannaries were a peculiar jurisdiction, under the operation of certain laws, customary and Convoc. Cornw. 22 Jas. I, c. 5. 531
