INDUSTRIES been there proclaimed at the three following sessions, in default of opposition, the bounder's title became valid. 1 The mediaeval tinner had also the right of access to running water, 2 without the use of which to cleanse the ores mining would have been impossible. In the miners' charters this right appears as that of diverting streams, 3 and served not only to permit the washing of ore, but also to lay bare the river beds for searching for stream tin. With the above privilege went that of buying brushwood for smelting purposes, 4 amounting, doubtless, to a right of seizure in case the owner refused to sell. In an age when pit coal was rarely used in the metallic industries, this was a concession of importance, especially in view of the fact that the barrenness of the Cornish moors made it difficult to procure a sufficient stock of fuel. Partly in consequence of this, and partly because of the approaching exhaustion of the Cornish peat beds, the tinners were permitted to cut turf in the royal forest of Dartmoor. For Devon this right probably derives its sanction from a custom as old as bounding, 6 but it was not enjoyed by Cornwall until 1465." In Cornwall, the claims of the lord of the soil in which a mine existed were satisfied by the payment of a fixed proportion of the ore on the day of the ' wash ' or ore-dressing, when a servant of the landlord, known as the ' toller," met the tinners, and received his master's share in kind. 7 The proportions of toll were not uniform throughout the stannaries. The tenth 8 or fifteenth dish was usually given, but this de- pended partly on local custom, and partly upon special enactment of the stannary convocation, 9 a general rule prevailing that wastrel land should pay less than arable. In lieu of toll the landlord might receive a share in the mine itself, 10 a 1 Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 31. P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 161, No. 18. ' Chart. R. 33 Edw. Ill, m. 40. For the custom in Derbyshire see Gompleat Mineral Laws of Derb. pt. i, art. 2, 9. 3 ' Et divertere aquas ad operationem eorum ' (Chart. R. 33 Edw. I, m. 40, 41). 4 The king's miners had like privileges (Cal. of Pat. 1283, 69; Cal. of Close, 1333, 152; 1337, 190 ; 1339, 286). Similar liberties prevailed in the Forest of Dean (Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. ii, art. 26, 28, 29, 34), and in Derbyshire (Com- pleat Mineral Laws of Derb. pt. i, art. 1 1 ; Add. MS. 6682, fol. 68). 5 Pat. i Hen. Ill, m. 5 ; Close 3 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 9</, 23. 6 Pat. 5 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 7. 7 Pearce, Laws and Customs of the Stannaries, p. xix. 8 In the Mendip mines the lord received the tenth dish. (Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. iii, c. 1 1). 9 Convoc. Cornwall, 1 2 Chas. I, c. 4. 10 Ibid c. 3. Carew, SUIT, of Cornwall (ed. 1811), 44- practice, however, more frequently to be found in Derbyshire n or in the Forest of Dean. 12 Doubt exists as to whether or no the miners were subject to impressment for work in the royal mines or elsewhere. We find undoubted grants of exemption from forced labour; 13 but, on the other hand, besides several royal writs and letters which call upon the sheriffs of Devon and Corn- wall to furnish workmen for the king's mines, 14 positive evidence from at least one Receiver's Roll for the Duchy of Cornwall shows that tinners were occasionally made to work at the king's wages, 15 a hardship which in Derbyshire, 16 Mendip, 17 and the Forest of Dean 18 was taken quite as a matter of course. In addition we know that the tinners were frequently called upon for special military service, the sole condi- tion being that they be impressed by and with the consent of the warden, 19 and mustered separ- ately from the rest, under his command, 20 a custom which has as a result one of the pro- visions of the Militia Act of i8o2. sl The remaining privileges, those of exemption from the jurisdiction of any but the stannary courts and from the incidence of ordinary taxa- tion, deserve less summary treatment, inasmuch as they are connected with stannary institutions of a similar nature. The clauses in the charter of 120 1 which placed criminal and civil jurisdiction over the tinners in the hands of the warden had resulted in the division of the mining districts of Corn- wall into several distinct provinces or stannaries. 23 The local limits of each of the four stannaries have never been defined. They probably grew up from this general grant of jurisdiction, which we find to have been usual in other mines, 23 and which, perhaps, constituted a mixed personal and local law. The character of the locality seems to have resulted from the aggregation of the tin works in certain situations favourable to them, and the name of each stannary points out 11 Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. i, art. i . 11 Ibid. pt. ii, art. 14. u Cal. of Pat. 1305, 331 ; 1308, 61. 14 Cal. of Close, 1319, 134; 1336, 579. Cal. of Pat. 1320, 537 ; 1328, 318. 15 Receiver's R. 29 Edw. III. Add. MS. 24746, fol. 1 20. 16 Cal. of Close, 1288, 499 ; 1319, 212 ; 1328, 478 ; 1333, 5 2 ; '380, 527. 17 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, clii, 9. 18 Cal. of Close, 1319, 127. 19 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, Addenda, dxxi, 101. 80 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 113. S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxii, 23; ccix, 22; ccxvi, 48; cclxii, 73. S.P. Dom. Jas. I, Ixxviii, 36. Convoc. Cornw. 30 Eliz. c. 6. " Stat. 42 Geo. Ill, c. 72. w The Derbyshire lead fields were also divided into various administrative districts. (Compleat Mineral Laws of Derbyshire.) 23 Pat. 47 Hen. Ill, m. 12 ; 27 Edw. I, m. 35 ; 15 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 22 ; i Hen. VII, pt. ii, m. 25. 527
