A HISTORY OF CORNWALL parliaments of 1687* and 1752. * That so many efforts were made to adjust matters resulted from the close attention which the question of stannary jurisdiction had begun to attract from lawyers and jurists of all sorts. From the tin- ners' complaints to their warden 3 it is evident that a more or less concerted movement was on foot to break down the stannary courts altogether, or, at least, to reduce them to a mere shadow of their power. Essentially a product of the reforming spirit of the Puritans, however, the movement lost headway and seems to have died out altogether with the Restoration. Can we reconcile with one another these various interpretations ? There is little doubt but that, granted at the outset a customary law of mining, exemption from all outside jurisdiction was pur- posely confined to tinners whose personal attend- ance was deemed essential for production. As for the others, whether their cases were decided on the manor, or in the shire and hundred courts, or whether by the royal justices, it is not for us to say. Doubtless, as time went on, they grad- ually, and quite illegally, came to use the stannary courts for law suits, and to plead before the warden and his officers to the exclusion of all other tribunals. When we say that, even in the thirteenth century, there probably existed many quasi-capitalist miners who conducted their opera- tions through the medium of hired labour, to say nothing of dealers in ore and refined tin, 4 when we admit the possibility of numerous technical questions arising between owners and adventurers and their hired help, which could not be settled save in the stannary courts where the latter were forced to plead, and add to this the aggressive spirit which, from the fourteenth century, as we know, characterized the stannary courts, the above supposition becomes highly probable. To interpret the charter of 1305, one must bear in mind the fact that, addressed at the out- set to all tinners, it includes, in the opening paragraph, certain grants of privileges to specifi- cally mentioned bodies, namely, the tinners on the royal demesne lands, the king seemingly ignoring the charter of 1201 and its later con- firmation, and granting freedom from pleas of serfdom to working miners on his own estates, with the additional privilege of being liable for actions arising in the stannary, and not involving land, life, or limb, solely before the warden and his officers. The remainder of the charter is addressed to all tinners, and confirms the ancient rights of bounding, with its concomitant 1 Convoc. Cornw. 2 Jas. II, c. 1-4, 8, 23. 1 Ibid. 27 Geo. II, c. 1-4, 8-10, 14, 17. 3 On this question see Pearce, Laws and Customs of the Stannaries, 147, 149-151. S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxvii, 8 ; Jas. I, Ixxviii, 36. Add. MS. 24746, fol. 92. Manuscript volume in Duchy of Cornwall Office, fol. 337. 4 Black Book of Exch. No. 10. privileges of wood and water ; and grants them (including for the first time those not actually engaged in manual labour) the right of pleading in the stannary courts. These were given cognizance, on the civil side, of all pleas between tinners, and between tinners and foreigners, pro- vided the case arose within the stannaries, with the proviso that, in any suit in which a tinner was involved, if he wished to put it to an inquest of the country, half the jury must consist of tinners. Criminal cases, where the accused was a tinner, were dealt with in the ordinary courts, with the concession to the stannaries that tinners were to be lodged in a special gaol. The exposition given in 1376 referred merely to the franchises granted foF"uie first time by this charter, and left untouched the ancient customary rights which antedated all written documents. What we have to note with regard to the word ' tinner ' is the fact that it dealt merely with the special privileges granted to tinners on the royal estates. In their case it was defined as including only manual workers so long as they worked. Upon the more important question as to the comprehensiveness of the word, applied to the great mass of tinners outside the royal domains, no complaint appeared and no definition was attempted. Afteralapse of one hundred and thirty-one years we arrive at the Charter of Pardon granted by Henry VII. 5 The specific persons to whom this applied were bounders, owners of tin works and smelting houses, and buyers of ore and tin, men of conditions of life far above that of the labouring tinner. They had offended against certain ordinances made by Prince Arthur for the direction of the stannaries. 6 Now these ordinances could not be applicable to, or bind any others than those who came within the operation of the customs, and consequently within the jurisdic- tion of the stannaries, and therefore all these offenders could only have incurred the penalties from which they were to be relieved, in the character of tinners, in the most extensive con- struction of the term, embracing all persons having an interest or concern in any mining operations regarding tin. The commission of inquiry in the sixteenth year of Henry VIII adopted the term ' tinner ' in this sense, as embracing ' such as have portion of tin works, or that employ some charge on the sinking, working, or in the making things necessary for the getting of tin.' The same in- terpretation is to be found by a close examination of the two Acts of Parliament above cited, 7 and in the cases of Boscawen against Chaplin, 8 and Trewynnard against Killigrew. 9 5 Pat. 23 Hen. VII, pt. vii, m. 29-31. 8 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 101-104. 7 Stat. 23 Hen. VIII, c. 3 ; 27 Hen. VIII, c. 23. 8 Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 9. 9 Harrison, Report on the Laws and Jurisdiction of the Stannaries, 55. 53
