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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
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THE GIFT OF
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h.X9r i-HrSr ■ % 3 J IE. 7 /f
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ITS
HISTORY, LAWS, ADMINISTRATION
AND ANCIENT CUSTOMS,
AND
THE WILD DEER WHICH LIVED IN IT.
BY
WILLIAM RICHiED FISHEE,
Oi? LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTE^^T-LA W.
Author of "The Law of Mortgage and other Securities upon Property.'
BUTTERWORTHS, 7, FLEET STREET.
DUBLIN: HODGES, FIG&I8 & CO., GBAITON STREET.
CAXiCtTTTA : THACKEE, SPINK & CO. MELBOITENB : G. ROBERTSON & CO.
MANCttESTBR: MEREDITH, RAT & LTTTLBR.
EDmBUBGH: T. & T. OLAEK; BELL & BBADFUTE.
1887
\_AU Rights Reserved.']
LONDON :
PRINTED BY C. F. ROWORTH, GREAT NEW STREET, FETTER LANE, E.C.
PREFACE.
I^KlSn^ORIiftJJS, following the old chroniclers, or
-%^ one another, have dwelt much upon the cruelties
^ practised under the Forest laws, but have told us
very little about the Royal Forests themselves or
their Purlieus; or of the manner in which the
laws were administered.
Of the Forest of Essex in particular we have little
or no information from the County historians, beyond
occasional notices of the holders of Forest offices, or of
the position of their estates within the bounds of the
Forest.
Yet the district which from time immemorial was
Royal Forest formed no small part of the County ; and
nearly the whole of it was at one time or another made
subject to the Forest laws. The encroachments made
by the early Kings upon the rights of the inhabitants
of this, and other Forest districts, were for hundreds of
iv PREFACE.
years the subjects of dispute, and their history forms an
important part of the history of England.
The rights of lopping wood and of pasturing cattle
on the wastes of the Forest of Essex also deserve atten-
tion. The presence of the' marked cattle on the Forest
lawns, and of trees everywhere made into pollards by
the wood-cutters, have for the most part been treated
as the common incidents of a wide expanse of pasture
and manorial waste, explained perhaps, as regards the
wood cutting, by a supposed grant of right from Queen
Elizabeth. Both in fact were the remains of an ancient
agricultural system, extinguished in almost all parts of
the country by improved methods of cultivation, and by
the exhaustion of the woods, or the arbitrary acts of their
owners, but preserved in this district by the restrictions
of the Forest laws. I have always regretted that the
last complete remnant of these ancient rights of wood
cutting which existed in the parish of Loughton, was
not allowed to remain under regulations. It was of great
value to the poor inhabitants, and as a relic of antiquity
was not less worthy of preservation than Queen Eliza-
beth's Lodge or Ambresbury Banks.
In the last two chapters of the Book will be found
an account of the great work of the Corporation of
London in rescuing much of the illegally inclosed land,
PREFACE. V
and buying and dedicating to public use the whole of
the Forest wastes, and of the events which led to it.
It was to this action of the Corporation that my
Book owes its origin ; for in ordeir to enable me to
advise them as to the nature of the rights of pasture,
by establishing and enforcing which it was determined
to stay the inclosures, it became necessary to study an
immense mass of ancient and modern Forest documents,
collected under the superintendence of Mr. Robert
Hunter, who acted in the proceedings as the agent of
the late Sir Thomas Nelson, then City Solicitor; and to
whose energy and acuteness in conducting the litigation
its success was largely due.
These documents, under permission given by Sir T.
Nelson, I have used as the foundation of my work,
which, however, has required much additional research,
and has occupied my leisure during more than four
years.
The " Cambridge MS." which I have often cited
is a volume in the Cambridge University Library in
handwritings of the first half of the 17th century; the
contents were probably extracted from original records
in order to form instructions for some of the Ministers of
the Forest.
vi PREFACE.
The irregular spelling of the names of many
persons and places may be noticed. Finding it impos-
sible to fix it with accuracy, I have adopted the spelling
used in each document or part of a document, just as I
found it.
I am indebted to many friends for their assistance.
The trustees of the late Lord Mornington have kindly
lent me a great number of original documents relating
to the office of Lord Warden of the Forest; and the
re-production of one of these by the Autotype Company
forms the frontispiece of the work. Mr. Crawford, the
present City Solicitor, has also supplied me with many
documents ; and I have to thank the Reverend J. M.
St. Clere Raymond, of Belchamp Hall, for the loan
of Chapman and Andre's large map of Essex, upon
which are delineated many of the Forest boundaries
laid down in 1641. Mr. Walter de Gray Birch,
Mr. E. Scott, and Mr. H. Jenner, of the British Museum,
have also given me great assistance in the investigation
of various questions which have presented themselves
in the course of my labours, and in directing me to
many sources of information.
Guildford,
November, 1887.
CONTENTS,
-♦-
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The General History of the Forest to the end of the
17TH Century i — 52
CHAPTER n.
The Laws and Courts of the Forest 53 — 104
CHAPTER ni.
The Justices and Ministers of the Forest 105 — 185
CHAPTER IV.
The Wild Deer 186—229
CHAPTER V.
The Woods and Wood Rights in the Forest 230 — 264
CHAPTER VI.
The Pasture and Pannage Rights 265 — 311
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PAGE
Inclosures in the Forest 3 '^ 346
CHAPTER VIII.
How THE Wastes were Disafforested and made Places
OF Recreation 347 — 37^
APPENDIX.
Lists of Verderers, Foresters, Regarders and King's
Woodwards 373 — 392
Perambulation of 1301 393 — 399
Abstract of Perambulation of 1641 400 — ^403
INDEX 40s
ERRATA.
Page 8, line i—For "stob or stock," read " stob and stock."
63, lines 9 and tl—J'br "Ealdennan," read "Ealdorman."
192, line i^—For "vermn," read "vermyn."
„ iS—For "Later," read " EarUer."
262, line 18 — For "cover," read "covert."
339, line 2— For "Her," read "His."
353, at end of line 8, add " the."
THE
FOREST OF ESSEX.
CHAPTER I.
The Ge?ieral History of the Forest to the
end of the i^th Century.
" In the Forests also are the Kings' places of retirement and their
" chief delights; for to them they come for hunting, when they lay aside
" their cares, that they may refresh themselves with a season of rest," '
HE Forest of Essex, known from the beginning
of the 14th century as the Forest of Waltham,
and in modern times as Epping Forest, was one of
those large districts called Royal Forests, which were
once common in England ; and were so ancient, says 4tii inst. 319.
Sir Edward Coke, as no record or history doth make
any mention of their erections or beginnings. Being speim. Gloss.
for the most part uninhabited and abounding in woods,
they were set apart for the support of the King's wild
animals ; and, though unfenced, were protected by fixed
* Dialogues of the Exchequer, Book I. Chap. XI.
B
2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
boundaries, and by established laws, with magistrates,
judges, officers, and ministers.
The soil of these Forests was sometimes in the
Crown, and sometimes wholly or partly in private
owners ; but in either case, the right of forest, commonly
known as the right of vert and venison, belonged to the
Crown. From a very remote period, the right of hunting
in the Royal Forests was the exclusive privilege of the
Sovereigns, and of those whom they allowed to share
with them the pleasures of the chase.
sirRobt. Waltham Forest, which was one of their favourite
A^'fa^ places of resort, was described in the 17th century as
ehequer^Tus having " 3. vcry fertile and fruitfuU soyle, and being
Esset°cl?'i', ^^^^ of "^°st pleasant and delightful playnes and lawnes,
No. 31 (1628). j^^g^ useful and commodious for hunting and chasing
of the game of redd and falowe deare," and as having
been " alwaies especiallie and above all theire other
fforests, prized and esteemed by the King's Maiestie
and his said noble progenito™ the Kings and Quenes of
this Realme of England, as well for his and theire own
pleasure disport and recreation from those pressing cares
for the publique weale and safetie which are inseparablie
incident to theire kinglie office, as for the interteynment
of forreyne Princes and Embassado", thereby to show
unto them the honor and magnificence of the Kings and
Queen es of this Realme."
During the Commonwealth, and in later times as it
came to be understood that the Crown lands belonged to
the Sovereign only by virtue of his office, those parts of
GENERAL HISTORY. 3
the Forests of which the Crown had both the soil and
the forest right were used as nurseries for timber for
the navy, as well as for their original purpose; and
when hunting in them by the Kings fell into disuse, and
the timber was no longer wanted, these, and the rights
of vert and venison in the Forests, the soil of which was
not in the Crown, fell into the hands of a public body Second
whose chief object was to administer them merely for select c°om-
the purpose of producing revenue at as little cost as open spaces ;
possible, and with a cynical disregard to the rights of m" Howa°d,
the other persons interested. ^^' ^ ~'°^'
Except in the case of the New Forest, if in truth it
be an exception, history is silent as to the dates at which
the Forests became subject to the Forest laws. The EiUson
other Forests are only rarely and incidentally noticed in I'^Toi. ^'
the Domesday Survey, which, except in mentioning a
person in Writtel who was made forester of the King's Domesday,
wood after the Conquest, contains nothing about the '' ^
Forest of Essex.* One document is extant, which, if it
^ Unless a grant, a copy of which is in the Chartulary of
Glastonbury Abbey, in the Bodleian Library (Wood, i fo. 234), and
which is printed in Cod. Dipl. No. 398, and Vol. VI. p. 232 ; Cart.
Sax. No. 800, may be excepted.
It purports to be a grant by King Edmund, a.d. 944, of lands at
Neteligtone (Nettleton in Wiltshire), the boundaries of which refer to
Stratford and Woodford. There are places of these names in Wiltshire,
but at the opposite end of the county, in which I cannot identify the
other places named in the boundaries. But Stratford and Woodford,
together with Aldersbrook, the Mere dyke, Hengrave (Ingrave), and
perhaps, Abbanberge (Abridge ? Abury ?), which are all mentioned in
the boundaries, are in Essex at no great distance from one another,
and in or close by the ancient Forest.
The only probable explanation of the difficulty which occurs to me,
B 2
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
were genuine, would afford conclusive evidence that the
Forest was a Royal Forest before the Conquest.
This professes to be a grant by Edward the Confessor
Cod. Dipl.
Nos. 119, 288.
Cart. Sax.
Nos. 207, 321.
Baluzius,
Vol. I.
Capits. of
Charlemagne,
A.D. 800.
Lex Ripua-
riorum Ixxvi.
Dagobert,
A.D. 630.
4tli Inst. 319.
Spelm. Gloss.
" Foresta."
Rot. Chart.
S John (1203).
R. C. 104b.
Charter of
Abbot of
Stratford.
Exch. Treas.
ofRect. PI.
For. 17 Ed. 2.
is, that in the original document, of which that in the Chartulary is a
copy, the boundaries of the land granted may by mistake have been
written upon the wrong grant. If the boundaries belong to Essex,
the interest of the document lies in the last boundary mark. This in
the Chartulary is written the " fer ist sone," which Kemble reads
" the forest stone." If this be correct, as I think it must be, we have
not only a Forest boundary more than loo years before the Conquest,
but a very unusual form of the word " Forest."
During the Anglo-Saxon period the Royal Forests were called the
King's woods (sylvas regis or regales), and a forest was called deor
wald, the word "deor" being applied to wild beasts in general.
The words " foresta" and "forestarius" were used on the Continent
at the beginning of the gth century ; but in the 7th the phrase
is " the King's woods " ; and I have been unable to find the word
" Forest " in any Anglo-Saxon document, except the Latin version of
the Forest laws, attributed to Canute, the date of which, however,
is probably not long before the Conquest. " Forest " is commonly
believed to be from " foris," something beyond certain boundaries, as
opposed to " intus " ; and " foris " is often so used in the Anglo-
Saxon Charters ; but according to a derivation proposed by the author
of the Dialogues of the Exchequer, " forest " is from " feresta," the
e being changed into 0, and the word being made out of " ferarum
statio," a habitation for wild beasts.
This is the only document in which I have found the word written
according to this conceit of the Bishop of London, who is supposed to
have written the Dialogues in the time of Henry II.
Coke and Spelman fall into the curious error of supposing that the
Anglo-Saxons called a forest "buck holt," i.e., sylva ferina. It is not
certain that the fallow deer was a wild forest animal during the Anglo-
Saxon period ; but if it were, the name of the stag or hart would
certainly have been preferred to that of the buck. Buck holt is no
doubt a corruption of boc holt, i.e., a wood held by book or charter.
A corresponding compound is boc hurst, of which there were several
examples in the Forest of Essex. One was a wood granted by John,
under the name of La Bocherste, to the Monastery of Stratford, and
was still " Bookhurst " in the time of Edward II.
GENERAL HISTORY. 5
of the office of Keeper of part of the Forest to Randolf Buxton's
Peperking and his family ; and it shows, as we have been Forest, p. 13,
gravely told, the nature of the functions originally en-
trusted to the chief officers of the Forest.
This charter was long since declared by Morant to History of
, Essex, vol. I.
be a forgery, upon the ground that its language was 327, note.
that of the 14th century.^ He took it to be the inven-
tion of some idle poetaster in the reign of Edward I. or
Edward II. ; but takes no note of the possibility that it
might have been a paraphrase or free translation in the
dialect of that period, of a genuine Anglo-Saxon grant.
There may be in it enough of the language of forest
grants, to give colour to the suggestion that it was the
work of an idler who had some knowledge of such
matters ; perhaps of
" A clerk foredoomed his father's soul to cross,
Who penned a stanza when he should engross " ;
but this, I think, is not the true explanation of its origin, mss. Hari.
2ii5,fo. 143b.
It is known by a copy in the British Museum, writ-
ten about the time of Henry VIII., and which runs as
follows : —
" A coppie made of a graunt by King Edward called
the Confessor, before the Conquest, and re-
mayn^ of record in the Exchequer.*
' Kemble includes it in the Codex Diplomaticus (No. 899) without
note or comment ; but it is not the only doubtful document contained
in that work ; nor is its claim to authenticity improved by the fact that
it was cited on behalf of the Crown in 1635 on th6 question as to the
Forest boundaries.
^ Camden (Brit. 2. 43, Gough) refers to the Exch. Treasury of
Rect. Hil. T. 17 Edw. II., which must have been an inspeximus
Charter ; but a search for it has been unsuccessful.
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
" Iche Edoard Kinge have yoven of my forreste y*
keepinge
Of the hundreth of Chelmer and Dawncing,
To Randolphe Peperking and his kinling ;
With hart and hind, do and bokke,
Hare and Fox, Catt and Brooke,
Wylde foule with his flock,
Partriche feasant hen and feasant cock ;
With greene and wyld, stob and stock.
To kepen and to yeomen by all ther might,
Bothe by daie and eke by night ;
And hounds for to hould
Good swyfte and Boulde
Four greyhounds and vj Raches,
For hare and fox and wild Cattes ;
And therefore I make him my booke.
Wittnes the Bysshop Wolfston
And book y learned many a one
And Swayne of Essex our Brother
And liken to him many other
And o' Stuard Howelyn
That besought mee for him."
Ranulfus Piperellus, otherwise Ralph Peverell or
Peperking, was a Norman, who is recorded in the
Domesday Book to have held large estates in several of
the Essex hundreds, including Chelmsford and Dengie^
though it does not appear that he held them during the
reign of the Confessor.
Assuming that the document may be a paraphrase
made about the 13th century, we may pass over the
GENERAL HISTORY. 7
circumstance that rhyme was very rarely used in Anglo-
Saxon poetry. But there are many other difficulties.
The hundred of Dengie, here corrupted into Dawncing,
was called Witbrictesherna,^ at and presumably before
the date of the Domesday Survey.
The grant to Peperking and his kinling is equiva-
lent to a grant of the office in fee; but though there
were several foresters in fee in Essex, there is no trace
of such an office in Chelmsford or Dengie.
The Forest laws attributed to Canute, and which are
probably at least as old as the time of the Confessor,
must be assumed, in the absence of knowledge of any
other Forest laws before the Conquest, to have been in
force during the reign of the Confessor; and the supposed
grant does not agree either with it or with the Norman
Forest laws.
It specifies the red and fallow deer, but omits the
wolf, the wild boar, and the roe, which are all mentioned
in Canute's laws; the wolf probably, and the boar cer-
tainly, being wild in the forests during Edward's reign.
The fox was not under the care of the Forest officers
appointed by Canute's laws; nor do they speak of the
cat or the brock. The partridge, the pheasant, and the co.Litt.233a.
mallard were fowls of warren after the Conquest, but so
far as I can find, they were not under the care of the
Forest officers before it ; or protected by any Forest law
' Query, Witbrict's horn or projection, in allusion to its position.
Dengie is commonly supposed to be Danes eye=Danes Island. It has
been suggested that " Den " in Dengie is a valley or low ground
(Cough's Camden, 2. 53); but if it was called after a Dane, the
transition to Danes Island is very easy.
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Maawood,
ch. 18.
Exch. Treas.
ofRect.Pl.
For. 20 Ed. I,
Charter Roll,
Essex.
except the general prohibition against the use of weapons,
dogs, and snares, and against hawking.
If " stob or stock " is the right to have gallows and
stocks,^ such a privilege was sometimes annexed to the
estate of the lord of a manor,^ but not to the office of a
Minister of the Forest.
The right to hunt the hare, the fox, the cat, and
sometimes the brock or badger, and to keep for the pur-
pose a fixed number of greyhounds and brackets (of
which word "raches" is another form^) was often granted
by the Plantagenet kings to Forest landowners in words*
so exactly corresponding to those used in the supposed
grant by the Confessor, that it is impossible not to
' Stob means a post or the trunk of a tree ; and Halliwell gives an
instance of its application to the post of a gibbet (Dictionary of
Archaic Words). In Scotland, to have " stob and stailc " in a place,
meant to be domiciled there (Jameson's Sc. Diet. Supp.) ; but this
meaning seems entirely inapplicable.
^ E.g., William Earl of Salisbury in 1630, and James Earl of
Salisbury in 1670, in respect of their manors of Roydon Hall and
Temple Roydon, claimed " pillories, tumbrells, and gallows " for
punishing malefactors within the manors and the liberties thereof;
and at the manor Court of " Rokholt" on the 21st May, 1532, it was
presented that the lord of the manor might make a pair of stocks and
a pair of gallows between the manor of Wanfield and the manor of
Rokholts.
3 " Thre grehoundes he ledde on bond,
And thre raches in on bond." —
Arthur and Merlin, 172 (Halliwell).
* Take, for instances, i Richard I. — Grant to Ralph de Hoodenk
and his heirs through our whole Forest to take hare and fox and wild
cat. 37 Henry lU. — Grant to Richard de Tany and his heirs, to have
if they will, eight harriers and twenty brackets, to course and hunt
hare, fox, badger, and wild cat through our whole Forest of Essex,
&c. Many claims made at the Courts of Justice Seat profess to be
founded upon charters made in similar language.
GENERAL HISTORY, 9
suspect that they were copied from a grant made in a
later reign.
Again, the principal witness to the supposed charter
is called " Swayne of Essex, our brother." Now Sweyn,
the king's brother, must have been he who was the son
of Earl Godwin, and the brother of Queen Eadgyth. But
it was a different person whose large estates in the county
are described in the Domesday Book under the head Domesday,
"SVENI de Exssessa." He was a favourite of the4ibr'^™'
Conqueror, from whom he received large grants of land
in Essex, and was the builder of Rayleigh Castle. His
father's name was Robert.
Lastly, there is no evidence that the two hundreds
which formed the district included in this supposed charter
were ever within the bounds of the ancient Forest. It
was, on the contrary, found by those who made the
perambulation of the Forest in 1301, that the hundred of ch. Misc.
. , , „ RoUs,No.ii3.
Dengie was beyond the Forest, because it was afforested 27—29 Ed. i,
after the coronation of Henry II., and by the Kings
Richard and John ; and that, except the vill of Writtel,
which was Crown demesne, the hundred of Chelmsford
was also beyond the Forest.
This brings us to what I take to be the true explana-
tion of the matter. In the 13th century it appears to cotton, roU
have been the practice to link together two hundreds or ^^' ^'
half hundreds for the purpose of Forest administration.
Chelmsford and Danesei were so linked in 1250, when
they were claimed as part of the Forest. They had in
common one forester, with three sub-foresters, and four
regarders, and each had two verderers, and woodwards
of its own woods.
No. 2.
lo THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Ex. Treas. The rccords of the Court of Justice Seat, held in
RoUs"Esse°x,' 1292, also show that these hundreds then formed the
baiUwick or district of one of the Riding Foresters, who
was removable at the pleasure of the Steward of the
Forest. And as the dialect of the charter agrees with
the language then in use, it seems likely that this rhyming
charter was forged about the end of the 13th century, in
order that it might be produced at one of the inquiries
which were held at that time concerning the bounds of
the Forest, as evidence that these hundreds were legally
afforested ; possibly also to support a claim by one of the
descendants of Peveril^ to the office of forester in fee,
against that of the Steward or Warden of the Forest to
have the disposal of it.
The absence of any documentary proof that the
Forest of Essex had been placed under the Forest law
before the Conquest does not, however, raise any
inference that it was not afforested till after that time.
No traces have been found of any afforestations, except
such as were enlargements of a Forest already in exist-
ence, and which it can hardly be doubted was so, long
before the Conquest.
We may learn something as to the manner in which
this, and probably other forests in England became
what they were, by considering the original state of
the district ; the rights exercised over the land by the
' Peveril had a grandson, known as William Peveril of Essex.
Dugd. Baronage, i. 437.
GENERAL HISTORY. 1 1
early Kings and their nobles ;* and the position of the
inhabitants.
I may remind my readers that, during a long period
before the Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon Kings and their
Councils exercised the right of granting lands absolutely
to different persons, including the Kings themselves,
in severalty, subject to the usual burdens of military
service, and the making and repairing of bridges and
castles.
The grants were made by book or charter, and the
land was thence called "bocland;" that from which it
was taken being " folk land," that is, the people's land.
But it was only treated as the people's land in the sense
that it was used for the purposes of the state, and this
use was at the discretion of the King and his witan.
Such parts of it as were not granted by charter, or
temporarily disposed of in the manner presently men-
tioned, were in practice used at the King's pleasure; and
there seems to be no doubt, that from such of it as was
suitable for the purpose, the Royal Forests were origi-
nally formed. When and by what process those which
existed before the Conquest were made subject to the
Forest laws is unknown ; but it is not necessary to
assume that any formal act of afforestation took place.
The question as to the earliest introduction of a
body of written Forest law in England depends upon
' See upon this subject Allen on the Royal Prerogative ; Kemble's
Saxons in England, and Introduction to Codex Diplomaticus ; De
Laveleye, De la Propri6t6 et de ses formes primitives ; Seebohm on
the English Village Community.
1 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the authenticity of the Code commonly attributed to
Canute, and called Constitutiones de Foresta. This will
be discussed in the next chapter ; and, if I am right in
my conclusion that the Code is a Latin translation or
reconstruction of a genuine body of Anglo-Saxon or
Anglo-Danish Forest laws, its contents show that at a
still earlier date than the reign of Canute, there were
Forest laws or customs in England, which may have
formed the foundation of the Code itself.
Now in the Forest of Essex, originally a wild and
uncultivated country, for the most part thickly wooded,
but interspersed with lawns, plains, and marshes, there
were formed in remote times a number of settlements
conveniently placed for the use of the woods and
pastures, and for the cultivation of a sufficient quantity
of land ; which according to a very ancient practice was
held in open and common fields and meadows, some of
which yet remain ; and with the existence of which the
wood and pasture rights exercised in the Forest were
closely connected. The custom of wood-cutting in
Loughton only ceased with the existence of the original
constitution of the Forest in 1878 ; and it will be shown
that similar customs once prevailed over the greater
part, and probably over the whole of the Forest.
Almost all the Forest vills which represent these
ancient settlements are shown by the Domesday Book to
have been in existence before the Conquest; but except
in. the case of Waltham, which is said to have been
founded by Tovi or Tofig, the standard-bearer of Canute,
we have no information as to the time of their settlement.
GENERAL HISTORY. 13
It was probably long after their foundation that the
boundary line of the ancient Forest was fixed; for that See map of the
, Forest accord-
part of It which has always been treated as forest only ingtoperamb.
■>■,.. o{ 16^1, infra,
included parts of several parishes. Stratford, West 15 Rep. of
Ham, East Ham, Great and Little Ilford, Barking, 1793, App."
Dagenham, Navestock, and Theydonboys, were all
divided by it ; and it seems to follow, either that these
places, and the vills which were entirely within the
Forest, must have been allowed to grow up in a district
which was already afforested, or that the Kings must
have assumed a right to afforest at their pleasure the
lands of their subjects. The right to do so was, as is
well known, claimed by them after the Conquest, and
enforced by the afforestation of large tracts of land in
Essex and other counties.
These, after a long struggle, their successors were
compelled to give up, but the claim was revived in the
1 7th century for the purpose of extorting money ; though
it was stoutly denied by Coke, who declared that " the 4* inst. 301.
common law hath so admeasured the Kings' prerogatives
that they should not take away nor prejudice the in-
heritance of any."
The difficulty may perhaps be explained in this way.
There were large tracts of land in the possession of
subjects, but which, being held neither for estates of in-
heritance, ftor by charter, might have been made subject
to the Forest laws without violence to the rights of the
occupiers.* These were the Isen (Anglice, loan) lands,
■ The population of course was thin. In the whole of the nineteen
parishes which were wholly or partly in the Forest, there were at the
date of the Domesday 2 priests, 513 villeins, 451 bordarii, 58 serfs, and
14 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
upon which, either by way of reward for military services,
or by favour of the Kings, people were allowed to settle
without receiving grants of any permanent estate in them.
Such lands were subject to various burdens, amongst
which obligations to provide lodging and sustenance for
the Kings, their huntsmen, horses, dogs, and hawks, and
those who had the care of them, and to assist the King
in his hunting, were common/ It is probable that a
right to hunt over these lands themselves would co-exist
with these obligations, either by express reservation when
the Isen was granted; or because the original settlers
may have squatted upon their lands either before the
existence or during the suspense of any settled govern-
ment, and may afterwards have been allowed to retain
them in the nature of Isen land, and subject to the Forest
and other rights of the Kings.
In a district used under these circumstances as
forest, subject to such Forest laws and customs as then
existed, the fixing of the boundaries may not only have
taken place long after the foundation of the Forest vills,
but may have been delayed until the settlement of the
1 8 freemen. A large proportion of these were in Waltham, Barking,
West Ham, and Walthamstow.
' As one of many instances : — " Soluta et liberata sit . . ab opere
regali et pastu regis et principis, vel juniorum eorum ; ab hospitorum
refectione, vel venatorum ; etiam equorum regis, falconum, et ancipi-
truum, et puerorum qui ducunt canes." (Cod. Dipl. No. 258; Cart.
Sax. 450. See Introduction to Cod. Dipl. p. liv. ; and for other
instances see Cod. Dipl. Nos. 214, 216 {id. Cart. Sax. 370), 223
(?■(/. Cart. Sax. 395), 237, 261, 278 {id. Cart. Sax. 488), 306, and Cart.
Sax. 413,443, 454, 612.
GENERAL HISTORY. 15
surrounding lands had made it necessary or desirable to
define the exact limits of the Royal Forest.
It was the custom at different times not only to call
the whole Forest by the names of the principal places in
it, such as Waltham or Epping, but to call the part of it
which surrounded a particular vill or place, the Forest of
that place. Thus, besides the outlying forests, so called,
of Kingswood, Writtle, and Hatfield, which were ancient
Crown demesnes, we find constant mention in the records
of the Forests of Theydon, of Loughton, of Chingford, of
Walthamstow, and other places ; and on the eastern side
of the Forest there were the Forests of Havering and
Hainault. All these were originally integral parts of
the Forest of Waltham, and were subject to the same
regulations (except some local customs), and administered
by the same officers.
The name of "Hainault" is a comparatively modern
corruption of a word variously written in the 13 th and
14th centuries as "Hineholt" or " Hyneholt ; " in the
1 6th as "Inholt" or "Henholt;" and later as " Hen-
ault" or "Heynault." "Hainault" occurs in the
records, I believe, for the first time in 1719-20.
The same name of " Hyneholt " was borne by part
of the King's wood at Colchester in the 14th century;
the Anglo-Saxon "Holt," a wood, evidently forms the
last syllable ; of the first I can offer no satisfactory
explanation.
The manor of Havering was ancient Crown demesne,
and in the time of Edward I. was part of the Hundred of
1 6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Becontre, It is hardly worth while to notice the tradi-
tion* that the name arose from the sending- of a ring by
a pilgrim to Edward the Confessor. The syllable "ing"
is a common suffix of the names of places in Essex ;
it may refer to a meadow or pasture, but was probably
used as an Anglo-Saxon patronymic.
Exch. Treas. Not long after the perambulation of Edward I.,
ofRect. PI. . ^ ^
For. 17 Ed. 2, made m 1301 and which made Havermg part of the
Essex, No. 3. _ . . , . , , ^ -
forest, his son and successor assigned the " Forest of
Havering," with many other possessions, to his consort,
Queen Isabella, for her dower, with power to nominate
justices itinerant for Pleas of the Forest, and with the
fines and amerciaments for trespasses committed in the
PI. For. Forest; and accordingly, in 1323-4, on the nomination
of the Queen, he appointed Henry Beaufytz to be an
associate with Aymer de Valance, Earl of Pembroke, and
the three other justices itinerant of the Forest, and com-
manded them to admit him to act with them.
Cooke''" Havering thenceforth became a liberty separate
Wright"' ^^'^1^ Becontre hundred. The Crown still claimed it in
Exch snis 161 7 as part of the Forest. But the defendants, in the
and Answers, _ _ ^ '
jas. r, Essex, suit in which it was so claimed, said that it was dis-
No. 270. State
Pap. Dom. tinguished by known bounds from the Forest ; that the
Vol- 202, foresters had not intermeddled with it; the tenants or
inhabitants had not been required to appear at the Forest
Courts, and it had been treated as purlieu. The ac-
curacy of these statements is shown by the facts, that
the bounds which separated it from the Forest were laid
down by the perambulation of 1641 ; and that in 1630 it
had a Ranger, an officer whose duties lay in the purlieus.
^ The story is repeated by Lord Lytton in Harold, BookX. Chap. II.
No. 22.
GENERAL HISTORY. 17
And in the x 8th century, when its people were presented Attachment
for agisting their cattle in the Forest, the Reeve said 1770-'
that for sixty years they had been accustomed to pay for
this privilege.
As to Colchester, the actual Forest district subject
to the Forest laws, included not only that anciently known
as King's Wood and King's Wood Heath, and in
modern times as Mile End Heath, but, as appears by
the perambulation of 1301, the Castle and the whole
town within the walls. The estate was granted to the Movant's
£SR6X vol I
burgesses of Colchester by Henry I. or Stephen for a (Colchester),
fee farm rent of \os. About 1168 it came to the hands of coichester,
of Henry II., and by grant from him and Richard I. no 170.' " '
forester was allowed to molest any man within the
liberty ; and all the burgesses might hunt the fox, the
hare, and the polecat within the limits. The estate con-
tinued in the Crown till the reign of Henry VIII., who,
for the sum of 100/., granted it to the bailiffs and
commonalty as part of the liberty of the town of Col-
chester.
Hatfield Regis remained in the Crown till the reign Morant,
of Henry III., who, in 12 17, granted it to William de ^°' '
Cattingham, and in 1241, with Writtle, to Isabel wife of charter
Robert de Brus. In this family they remained till 1306, Ex. Treas. of
K-ect Plac
when they came by forfeiture to Edward I., and were For. 20 Ed. i.
afterwards granted by Edward II. to Humphrey de Bohun.
The history of Writtle is almost the same as that of Morant,
•' vol. 2. 61, 63.
Hatfield to the time of the grant to Humphrey de Bohun. Ex. Xr. of
1 8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Rect.H.For. At a Forcst Court held in 34 Henry III. (1250) a memo-
cott. Roll, randum was entered of liberties claimed by Isabella de
'""■^" Brus under the King's grant; and there were then
separate foresters, verderers, and regarders, for the
half hundred of Chelmsford in the parts of Writtel,
besides woodwards of several woods.
Morant, In the reig^ns of Henry III., Edward I., and
vol. 1. 61— 63. ° , . ^ . .
Edward II., land was held by the serjeanty of keepmg
the Forest of Writtel, and whoever held it was on
account of it to discharge the Bayliship.
The whole county of Essex, except the district in
the south-western part of it, which from all time, has
been known as Royal Forest, and except perhaps some
of the north-western part beyond the Great Roman Road
called the Stanstrete, was brought under the Forest laws,
probably, by William the Conqueror and his successors ;
and to them must be attributed the introduction of the
system of Forest government which, with some modifica-
tions, lasted till the middle of the i gth century.
The description of this, of the Court of Attachments,
and of the Swainmote, which presented, examined, and
assessed the fines for Forest offences ; of the Court of
Justice Seat which punished them, and of the Ministers
who were the eyes and the ears of the Courts, will be
found in later chapters ; and we now pass on to the times
when the pecuniary necessities of the Kings, and the
complaints of the hardships caused by their illegal
afforestations, led by degrees, and after long struggles,
to their abandonment.
GENERAL HISTORY. 19
Some disafforestations were made both by Henry II. Assise of
^ -^ Woodstock,
and his predecessors; but the earliest record which I §xvi. Andsee
, r , r WritsofApril,
have found of any m Essex, is that by which John dis- 1228, infra.
rr 1 1 1- . ■, ., , , , 1 Rot. Chart.
anorested the district described as " beyond the causeway s John, 1204,
towards the north which leads from Stratford towards c. p. 123). '
Colchester, as far as the wood of Weldhora, where, at the
head of the ditch called Haydiche, it is joined to the
aforesaid causeway; and from thence beyond the causeway
as the wood extends to the New Bridge; and from thence
as the highway extends, as far as Heiland."
The "causeway" is, of course, the Stanstrete, but a
later perambulation, made in 1301, shows that only a
part of the country on the north of this road was forest,
and included in this disafforestation.
I cannot identify the other places named ; but the
bridge is probably one of the Colchester bridges, and
Heiland may be the wood marked as Highwood in old See Chapman
and Andre's
maps, and situate at the south part of Mile End Heath, map.
This disafforestation was confirmed by Edward IV., Confirmation
Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. 7 Eiiz. No. 7.
In 1 2 15, John, by Magna Charta (§ 47), in accord-
ance with one of the articles in the agreement with his
barons, disafforested all the forests which were afforested
in his time, and the banks made to protect them. And
shortly after, the famous instrument called the Charter Matth. Paris
of the Forest was granted by Henry III. in consideration ^'^°'°- ^^J-
of i-i5th of all the moveables of the whole kingdom of
England. It provided that all forests which Henry, the
King's grandfather, afforested should be viewed by good
and lawful men ; and if he had made forest of any other
wood more than of his own demesne, whereby the owner
c 2
20 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
of the wood had hurt, forthwith it should be disafforested;
and if he had made forest of his own wood, then it should
remain forest.
In accordance with this charter, perambulations were
ordered to be made before March, 1224-5, ^s is shown
Pat. Roll, by a document issued by the king in that month ; in
m. s. ' ' which, referring- to a perambulation already made under
the Charter of the Forest, he directs that the knights who
made it should not disturb or in anywise destroy whatever
See M. Paris the knights of this last perambulation should affirm. The
92, 94 (M. R. language is somewhat obscure, but the reference is pro-
bably to an intended further perambulation, which was
actually ordered by a writ dated 9th May, 1225.
This was directed to Hugo de Nevill, Briennus de
Insula, and Master H. de Carn ; and constituted them
the King's Justices in Essex, Surrey, and Sussex ; " that
by your view having called to your aid the foresters of
the fee, and the verderers of those counties, a correct
perambulation may be made by 12 lawful knights of
those counties, who, being for this purpose elected and
sworn, the better may know and be willing to declare the
truth before you, between the parts of those counties
which are to be disforested, and those parts which shall
remain forest, according to the tenor of our charter
of Forest liberties granted to our good men of Eng-
land."
They were therefore directed to cause the metes and
bounds between each part of the counties, to be placed
and enrolled, with the names of the knights who made
the perambulation, under the seals of the Commissioners,
of the knights, and the sheriffs ; and that until it was so
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GENERAL HISTORY. 21
completed, no woods should be felled, nor any venison
taken on account of it.
The records of two of the perambulations of the Cotton mss.
Forest of Essex, which are extant, are probably those
made upon these occasions. One of them is entered in
the Register of the Monastery of Waltham Holy Cross
preserved in the British Museum. It does not deal with
the whole of the afforested lands, nor does it contain the
names of the knights. It is therefore, I consider, the
earlier of the Essex perambulations made by Henry III.
under the Charter of the Forest.
The knights who made it say, first, that a certain
wood called "Kyngeswood" next Colcester was appur-
tenant to the town of Colcester at the time of the first
coronation of King Henry, the grandfather of King John ;
and after that it was taken into the hands of the King, and
the burgesses of Colcester were computed at 40^. on behalf
of the Exchequer in respect of their farm in the same
wood ; " with regard to which the lord the King shall do
as he wishes, as of his own demesne lands."
They then say that " whatever is towards the East
from the river formerly flowing from Tyltey {i.e. the
river Chelm) as far as Chelmaresford. And from Chel-
maresford to Maldon, and from thence as far as the
Eastern sea where the same river flows into the sea,
was afforested after the first coronation of King Henry
(II.) the grandfather of the lord the King, and for
that reason they place it without the bounds of the
Forest. Likewise they say that from the highway which
stretches from Chelmaresford as far as the bridge of
2 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Stratford, which is between Essex and Middlesex, what-
ever is from that way towards the South^ (all the appur-
tenances of the lord the King's manor of Havering-
being excepted^) as far as the Thames is without the
bounds of the Forest for the aforesaid reason."
The knights then began the perambulation of the
ancient part of the Forest at a place called Delle on the
London and Chelmsford highway near Romford, where
by a bridge, called Dellebridge in the perambulation of
1 30 1, it crossed the Ingreburn brook. The name of the
place was, perhaps, preserved in that of "The Dial
House," marked in Chapman and Andre's map. The
boundary went up the Ingreburn between Havering and
(South) Welde to a factory on the border of the wood of
Nastock, and thence across to the river Roding ; down
that river to Abridge, thence by the house of William de
Bosco to the Tyledehawes (tiled house^) belonging to the
Abbot of Waltham, and from that house to the Cross next
the inclosure of (North) Welde, called Holonecouche ;
and so between the hundreds of Aunger and Waltham,
and of Heilawe and Waltham to the stream called Laye.
They said also that whatever was contained between
the aforesaid places and the highway coming from Strat-
^ I am not sure whether the hundreds of Daneseye and Rochford
•were included in this description, nothing being said, as in the case
of the other district, about the Eastern sea. According to the
perambulation of 1301, Daneseye was afforested after 1154; but
Rochford was found to have been beyond the Forest from time
immemorial.
^ These includeci lands in Homchurch, Rumford, and other parishes
in the liberty, lying to the south of the highway.
Claim No. 75. ' There was also an " Old Tyled House" in Barking in 1670.
GENERAL HISTORY. 23
ford as far as the place called Delle, was preserved
from taking game on the day of the first coronation of
King Henry II. ; and for that reason the game in
those places was the right of the lord the King, saving
to all free tenants their woods and tenements, quit from
rent and regard, and from all manner of hindrance of
the foresters.
Then after stating that certain free alms belonging
to the monastery of Waltham, were within the bounds,
and leaving to the judgment of the King and his Council
other property belonging to the churches of St. Paul,
St. Ethelburga, and other religious houses, the knights,
pleading their imbecility and the difficulty of the task,
conclude by leaving all the lands beyond the limits laid
down, except the King's demesnes, to be disposed of
according to his will; adding, that there were certain
places in Essex beyond the limits of the Forest which
were not afforested after the first coronation of Henry IL
These are the districts left uncoloured in the map. They
are also left out of the Forest by the perambulation of
1 301, which is equally silent as to their history. They
were doubtless afforested by one of the early Norman
Kings, and some parts of them which lay on the north of
the causeway were, as we have seen, disafforested by John.
It was probably because of the obvious imperfections
in this perambulation that the King issued the writ
already mentioned for a second perambulation, the record
of which is entered in the MS. copy of Bracton in the Rawi. mss.
Bodleian Library. It was made before Hugh de Nevyle, '"''^ ' °'"°'
Justice of the Forest, one of the Commissioners named
in the writ, and the Lord Richard, son of William, for
24 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
this purpose, assigned with the aforesaid Hugh. It con-
tains the names of the twelve knights who made the
perambulation, viz. Robert de Senaunce, Gilbert Mandut,
Ralph son of William, William de Hispania, Ralph de
Berners, Thomas de Plumbereway, Philip de Rokele,
William Mandut, Thomas de la Downe, Walter de Badne,
Richard de Hesketot, and Alexander de Ridelings.
These knights laid down the bounds of the ancient
afforestations in almost the same words which were used
by their predecessors. They gave the names of the
Crown demesnes, to which the latter had only referred
generally, viz. , Havering, Writtle, Hatfield, and Kynges-
wode next Colcestre; and "the knights also say that
whatsoever is afforested beyond the demesnes of the lord
the King and the places and divisions above noted in
Essex, was afforested after the coronation of the aforesaid
King Henry, grandfather of the lord the King Henry III.
And therefore they say that all that may be without the
Forest,"
chron'Ma- "^" '^^'^1 ^ the King, at the instigation, it is said, of
(M.R. Series), Hubert de Burgh, the chief Justiciar, quashed the charter
vol. 3, p. 125. ^
of the Forest, on the pretence that having been under
ward he had no power to grant it. On its restoration
upon the demand of Richard Earl of Cornwall, Henry
found another way of attaining his object. He issued
writs dated the 24th April, 1228, to the sheriffs of Essex
?i°H ^m ' » ^""^ °*^^^ counties,' setting forth that the knights who
made the perambulations in those counties had acknow-
ledged that they were led into error, because the writs
under which they acted directed them to disforest all .
' Stafford, Worcester, Surrey, and Salop.
GENERAL HISTORY. 25
woods which Henry 11. had afforested, and did not except
those which before his time were forest, and which he
had afterwards restored to forest. Wherefore they be-
lieved that of such disafforesting, there were woods which
he had restored to forest, as well as those which he had
newly afforested. " They say, therefore, that all the
Forest of the said county, which they in their perambu-
lation aforesaid deafiforested, was afforested before the
time of our aforesaid grandsire ; and when it was in the
wars of King Stephen destroyed, was again, by our said
grandsire, restored to forest as it had been in the time
of King Henry his grandsire (Henry I.). And there-
fore we command that you cause it to be proclaimed
throughout your bailiwick, that the Forest shall be kept
by the same bounds and metes by which it was kept in
the time of our lord King John our father, before the
war moved between him and his barons of England.
And we forbid any to trespass in vert or venison in the
same Forest ; and bows and arrows, harriers and brackets
are to be removed from within the same."
To the Essex writ is added ** except the hundred of
Thendrig which King Henry (II.), grandsire of the king,
afforested anew."
The further perambulation was made by the same
knights who made the perambulation of 1225, and runs
as follows : —
" Essex. This is the perambulation in the county For- ptoc-
(Chancery)
of Essex in the 1 2th year of the reign of King Henry III., De Antiquis
T-> 111-- Forestis,
between the ancient Forest, and the Forest afforested No. 88.
after the first coronation of King Henry, grandfather of
26 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the lord King Henry III., by the knights underwritten, as
jurors, by the precept of the lord the King ; before the
lord Hugh de Neville, Justiciary of the Forests
Richard Fitz William for this purpose appointed with the
lord Hugh de Nevill ; To wit, Robert de Sonant, Gilbert
Mandut, Ralph Fitz William, William de Ispania, [Ralph]
de Ber[ners, Thomas] de Plumberge, Philip de Rupela,
William Manduit, Thomas de la Dune, Walter de Badewe,
Richard de Assecots, Alexander de Briclinges ; who say
that whatever afforestation existed on the day of the per-
ambulation, was afforested before the day of the first
coronation of the lord King Henry (II.), grandfather of
the lord the King Henry III. Except the hundred of
Tendringes, which was afforested after the first coronation
of King Henry II. And the same [knights] say that the
hundred is beyond the Forest. And the residue of the
county of Essex which was heretofore afforested, shall
remain in the Forest as it was aforetime."
By this audacious act, Henry III. at one stroke can-
celled almost all the disafiforestations in Essex made by
the Great Charter, and by the Charter of the Forests ;
Cotton Roll and in 1250 he had foresters, verderers, regarders, and
woodwards in the hundreds of Tendring and Lexden
(Alrefen), of Thurstapel, and the half hundred of Lexden
at Tippetri ; the half hundreds of Wenestre, Wyham, and
Felsted ; the hundreds of Chelmsford, and Daneseye,
Berdestapel and Chafford, Chelmsford in the parts of
Writtel, and Ongar ; and the half hundred of Waltham.^
' The MS. being imperfect, it is possible that there may have been
ministers of the Forest in some of the other hundreds.
xiii. 5.
GENERAL HISTORY. 27
The records of the Justice Seat held at Chelmsford ^^- For.
. 5 Ed. I.
in 1277, also contain pleas of vert concerning the half
hundreds of Lexden (in respect of the Crown demesnes
of Colchester and Alrefen or Kingswood), and for
Wesentre (Wenestre), Thurstable, and other districts
beyond the Forest bounds laid down in 1225 ; and Reeves
(who, I think, must have been Forest Reeves) for Langho
(Langenhoe), Tolleshunt and ToUesbury in the two latter pi.For.sEd.i.
hundreds ; and a charter licensing the Abbot and Monks
of the Cistercians of Coggeshall to enclose their woods
in Tolleshunt with a small fence ; and the entries at the Exch. Treas.
r< r 1 1 r i ■. • ofRect. Plac.
Justice beat 01 1292 show that foresters and their yeomen For. 20 Ed. i.
were then acting in the whole or part of every hundred
south of the Stanway, except Wenestre, Thurstable,
Tendring, and Rocheford; the district of one of these
foresters being Dengie and part of Chelmsford, which
are included in the rhyming Charter.
The supervision of one forester, with never more
than three assistant yeomen, over districts which some-
times included two hundreds, could not have been
very strict. But that there might be no mistake about
the extent of the claim set up by the Crown, a pre-
sentment of the boundaries was made in the reign of
Edward I., and was enrolled at the Justice Seats of 1277
and 1292; and to this the Crown lawyers appealed in Exch. Treas.
aftertimes as conclusive evidence that the whole county For. r? Ed.' 2.
was subject to the Forest laws. The presentment was as
follows : — " It is presented by 12 knights and other jurors ror.ProcCh.
joined with them, being chosen out of the county, that ForesSs''^™^
the Forest of the lord the King in the Coimty of Essex ^°" ^^'
is included in metes and bounds from the bridge of
28 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Stratford unto the bridge oi Cattywad in length, and in
breadth from the Thames unto the king's highway which
is called Stanstrete."
Cattywad bridge crosses the river Stour just above
Manningtree, and its mention here as a Forest boundary
appears to show that the Crown still claimed the hundred
of Tendryng as part of the Forest.
Close RoU, It had been disafforested by Stephen ; and we have
seen that Henry III. in 1228 admitted that it was no
part of the Forest because it had been afforested anew
by Henry II.* But as the previously disafforested parts
of Dunmow, Hinckford, and Lexden hundreds north of
the Stanstrete, were not included in the Forest claimed
by the Crown, there would, if Tendring hundred was also
omitted, have been a belt of some miles of disafforested
land separating Cat)rwad from Colchester ; and the
latter place would have been the extreme point of the
Forest in that direction.
Further perambulations were made in 1298, 1299,
and 1300 ; at which time the King, being sorely pressed
for money, demanded the tenth penny from his subjects,
but the Commons granted to him one-fifteenth only in
consideration of new perambulations of the Forests, and
of pardon for all offences against the King's deer : and
these perambulations were made in accordance with the
meaning of the directions for carrying out the Charter of
Exch. Treas. ' It was afterwards expressly made quit of the Forest by Edward II. ;•
For T7 Ed' 2 ^'^'^ ^^^ Simonds D'Ewes says it was excepted from the claim made by
Autobio- the Crown in 1635, having been enjoyed quietly by the inhabitants for
graphy,2.i36, about the space of 400 years free from Forest laws.
An. 1635.
^
Tofacc-paije 'iff.
GENERAL HISTORY. 29
the Forest as stated in the proclamation of Henry III.,
and with the abandonment by his predecessors of some
of their encroachments.
The perambulation of the Forest of Essex, which
was accordingly made in 1301, is illustrated by the
annexed map, and a translation of it will be found in the
Appendix. It throws much light upon the early history
of the Forest; the reasons why several large tracts of
country were declared to be, or not to be in the Forest,
being carefully stated, though not quite in accordance
with other sources of information.
It describes the main body of the ancient Forest by chancery
■^ ^ Misc. Roll,
Its metes and bounds, declares which vills and hundreds No. 113, 2710
are within, and which are beyond the Forest, and refers
to the outlying parts in speaking of the hundreds in
which they are situate.
Three special reasons for disafforestation are al-
lowed, and another is stated but not allowed. The first
applies to the hundred of Westodeleford, Estodeleford
(Uttlesford), the half hundreds of Frosschewell (Fresh-
well), and Clavering, and the hundreds of Tendring and
Rochford; of all which it was declared that they were
wholly beyond the Forest, and that they were so from a
time beyond the memory of man. This last phrase was,
perhaps, used in its strict legal ' sense as implying that stat.wesimr.
these districts had been out of the Forest since the ist c. 39. ' '
'year of Richard I., and not that they were never known
to have been in the Forest ; for Tendring, it is clear, was
known to have been so.
30 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The hundreds of Dunmow, Hinckford, and Lexden,
traversed by the Stanstrete, which, it will be remembered,
was claimed in 1277 and 1292 as the northern boundary
of the Forest, are with some exceptions declared to be
out of the Forest ; but as to the parts lying to the north
of the Stanstrete, the special reason is given that it was
by purchase of Alberic Earl of Oxford.
Dugd. Baron- The sccond of the De Veres, who held the title of Earl
age. Dugd.
Monast.voi.4, of Oxford, and who was steward and warden of the Forest,
p. 432, ed. . .
1823. and died in 12 15, was the person to whom the perambu-
Charterof latlon rcfcrs ; for the first earl died in 1194, and Tiltey
Abbot of Abbey and many of the lands belonging to it, which
were in the hundred of Dunmow, on the north of the
Stanstrete, were in the Forest in 1 199. This was, there-
fore, clearly the disafforestation already mentioned to
have been made by King John in 1204, of the lands
beyond the Causeway towards the north.
The interest of the De Veres in the nunneries of
Castle Hedingham, and of St. Cross, at Hengham, and
other places north of the Stanstrete, sufficiently explains
their desire to obtain the release of the district from the
Forest laws.
The perambulation also puts beyond the Forest the
parts of the hundreds of Dunmow, Lexden, and Hinckford
lying to the South of the Stanstrete, except the part of
Colchester which was within the Forest, and the wood
of Blakholay. No reason is given for this finding ; the
inference is that they had been notoriously afforested by
one of the King's predecessors.
The third reason for which lands are held to be
GENERAL HISTORY. 31
beyond the Forest touches the hundreds of Chafiford,
Bordestable (Barstable), Danuseye (Dengie), and the
half hundreds of Wytham, Thurstable, and Winestre
(Winstree) ; which are declared to be entirely beyond the
Forest, according to the tenor of the Great Charter of the
Forest, because they were afforested after the coronation
of Henry L, and by the Kings Richard and John.
As to the districts found to be within the Forest, the
persons who made this perambulation, also for the most
part contented themselves by stating the fact without
giving their reasons. The places are the vill of Havering
with its appurtenances, which was royal demesne, the vills
of Wanstead, Leyton, Welcomestow (Walthamstow), and
Woodford, and parts of the vills of Stratford In West-
ham, Eastham, Hyleford parva (Little Ilford), Berking,
and Dakenham in the hundred of Becontree ; the whole
of Loketon", Chlgewell, Lamborn, and Stapleford Abbatis,
and parts of the vills of Nostock (Navestock) and Theydon
Boys in the hundred of Ongar ; all the other vills in that
hundred being beyond the Forest. The whole half
hundred of Waltham without exception was within the
Forest. But Hatfield Regis, with the hamlet of La Walle,
and the wood called Monkswood; the vill of Writtle, and
the vill of Colchester, with the castle and the tract of
wood called Kingswood, on the north of that town, are
declared to be in the Forest because they are ancient
demesne of the lord the King. As to Felsted (which is
called both a vill and a manor) with the wood of Blak-
holehey and its appurtenances in the hundred of Hlnck-
ford, the Abbess of Caen, who held them by gift of
3 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
William the Conqueror, claimed to have them as freely
as they were held in the time of Edward the Confessor ;
but it was adjudged that they ought to remain wholly in
the Forest.
No reason is given for this decision. It is evident
that it was not the same which applied to Hatfield,
Writtle, and Colchester ; for the ancient demesne lands
of the Crown were only such as were set down among
the Terrce Regis in the Domesday Book, and as belonged
to the Crown at the time of the Conquest.* But Felsted
is entered in the Domesday as the property of the Holy
Trinity of Caen, and in the time of the Confessor belonged
to Earl Algar, from whom the Conqueror must have taken
it. Being forest in his hands as his own demesne,
' It is not clear what lands are technically ancient demesne of the
Crown. The Real Property Commissioners (3rd Report, p. 12) say,
"All agree that it exists in those manors, and in those only, which
belonged to the Crown in the reign of Edward the Confessor and
William the Conqueror, and in the Domesday are denominated Terra
Regis." But so far from all being agreed in this view, Coke (4th Inst.
269) and Fitzherbert (Nat. Brev. 14 D.), who are followed by Black-
stone, say that those manors are called ancient demesnes of the
Crown which were in the hands of S. Edward the King and Confessor,
or of William the Conqueror, and are included among the Terrs
Regis ; and as many estates which were included in the Terrae Regis
were not in the hands of the Confessor, the diiference is great. The
value of Fitzherbert's authority is much weakened by the strange
remark that the Domesday Book was made in the time of S. Edward
(16 D.), and that all the lands which were in his hands when the book
was made were ancient demesne. Nor is the present perambulation
in all respects accurate ; but, so far as it is reliable, it supports the
view of Coke and Fitzherbert ; for Writtle and Hatfield are both
entered among the Terrae Regis, and are called in the perambulation
ancient demesne of the King; and yet they belonged to Earl Harold,
and not to Edward the Confessor.
GENERAL HISTORY. 33
though not ancient demesne of the Crown, when he
granted it to the Holy Trinity at Caen in 1082,^ several
years before the completion of the Domesday Book, it
seems to have been considered that it must so remain
notwithstanding the grant. The other places found by
the perambulation of 29 Edward I. to be in the Forest
because they were ancient demesne were, like Felstead,
actually in the Crown at the date of the perambulation,
and therefore, as the King's demesne, were strictly
within the exception in Charta Forestae.
But the language of the perambulation appears to 33 Kd. i,
have caused some doubt at the time, for four years later, 2-9.'
in answer to a petition to Parliament by persons who
were put out of the Forest by the perambulations, that
they might be discharged of all those things which were
formerly demanded of them by the foresters, the King
said, that after he had granted the perambulations,
it was his pleasure that it should be as he had granted,
and as it ought to be without demanding anything, or at
least he intended it so ; but that all his demesne lands,
whether they were those which were anciently in the Crown,
or which came by way of escheat or in any other manner^
should be free chases and free warrens, and should be
held and kept as such for his own use, and all the woods
therein in such manner for ever after as he pleased.
' The Abbey, however, had only four of the five hides of which the Domesday,
manor consisted. Of the fifth the King gave three virgates to a ^ ^aiij^'Iiii
person who rejoiced in the name of " Roger God save the Ladies " fo. g6b.
(Deus salvet dominas) ; and the fourth virgate to Gislebert, the son of
Salomon.
34
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Plac. For.
Exch. Tr. of
Rect. Essex,
Bundle 27,
No. I.
Therefore from that time all the land found by the
perambulation of 130 1 to be within the Forest as ancient
demesne of the Crown, that is to say, Hatfield Regis,
Writtle, and Colchester, became only Royal chases and
warrens, and were thenceforth omitted from the Forest
perambulations; and in 1641 the hundreds in which they
are situate, and all the towns and parishes in them, were
declared to be wholly out of the Poorest.
Writtle, however, being still a Royal chase, was
included in an inquisition into the state of the Forest
of Chelmsford, held at Barking in 39 Edward III.
(1365).
For. Proc.
Chy. De
Antiquis
Forestis,
No. 37.
The perambulation of 1301 was alleged by certain
knights, who were directed to examine it on behalf of the
King, to contain several inaccuracies. They reported that
whereas the hundreds of Westhodelesford and Esthodeles-
ford. (Uttlesford) and Froschewell (Fresh well), were found
to have been wholly outside the Forest beyond the
memory of man, it was shown by the Domesday Book
that Newport, Rickling, Sandford, and other places in
these hundreds, with the woods belonging to them, were
ancient demesne of the Crown, and therefore ought to
have been left In the Forest ; that Phyrigheria, with the
wood of Ingrave, and Cittendis In Chafford hundred ;
Bernflet, In Berdestaple ; and WItham with Its wood. In
the hundred of WItham, being In the same position, the
whole of those hundreds ought not to have been excluded;
and that the vill of Stanway, and Lessenden, In the hundred
of Lexeden, were also ancient Crown demesnes ; and
they referred to the perambulation of 1 2th Henry III. as
GENERAL HISTORY. 35
showing generally that the metes and bounds of the
Forest were incorrectly placed in the perambulation of
1301.
This appears to have been in the nature of a protest,
on the part of the King, against the perambulation, which
left him only the ancient part of the Forest and a few
inconsiderable Crown demesnes ; and it was followed up Exch. Xreas.
■^ of Rect.
by a presentment m 1323, at Pleas of the Forest held at Essex Bag.
" Stratford atte Bow," that the Forest extended to the
bounds laid down in the 5th and 20th Edward I. But
the Great Charter of the Forest was confirmed in 1327, i Ei3, st.2,
C. I.
1405, and 1416, the perambulation made in 1301 being 7H. 4, c. i.
expressly mentioned on the first of these occasions ; and
all the subsequent Courts were held within the ancient
part of the Forest, or in the Royal demesnes of Colchester
or Hatfield Regis, although at some of them cognizance
was taken of the Regard of Chelmsford, which was one
of the disafforested hundreds ; and Willinghall Spain, in Piac For.
the disafforested part of Ongar, was fined as a defaulting
vill at the Justice Seat of 1324.
The same remark applies to the various inquisitions
which were held in the 14th century as to the condition
of the different parts of the Forest. They were held in Presentments
, on Inqs.
1333 — i335j 3-t Colchester, as to the Forest of King's 72(1.3(1333).
Wood ; at Hatfield Regis, as to the Forest of Chelmsford ;
and at Stratford atte Bowe, as to the Forest of Aunere ; Ex. Treas. of
° Rect. JIisc.
in 1344 at Stratford atte Bowe, and in 1362 at Berking, For. roUs,
as to the condition of the Forest generally; in 1365 at Rolls 19, 37.
the same place, as to the Forests of Aungre and Chelmers- Trea°.of^ect'.
ford ; in 1369 at Hatfield, as to the Forest of Essex of the n?.^i'. ^' ^^'
D 2
36 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
l^-^Treas.of Regard of Chelmersford ; at Old Stratford, in 1372 as
Rolls. B. iss, to the Forests of Aungre, Hatfield, and Waltham ; in
Id. B. 153, the same year as to the Forest of Chelmersford and
RoU27. Bekentre; and in 1374 at Romford as to the Forest of
Essex in the Regard of Chelmersford.
^Ed! 6* pt 3 ^^ *^^ reign of Edward VI. the Forest laws were
neglected, and he issued a proclamation setting forth
that "yt hathe byne muche brutyd and noysed" among
divers of his loving subjects that he intended to dis-
afforest the Forest, and to destroy the deer and game
there, by which many of them had been encouraged to
destroy the vert, and to hinder and disquiet the deer and
game, " and sembleably to murdre and kyll a nombre of
the said deare, not a lyttle to our dyspleasure;" and
informing them that he intended to maintain the Forest
laws as his father or any other of his progenitors had
done, under which every offender was liable to imprison-
ment for three years, and to make fine at the King's
pleasure, and to find sureties or abjure the realm.
In 1 61 7 James I., being engaged in attempting to
inclose, perhaps for a deer park, the open lands in the
neighbourhood of his palace of Theobalds in Enfield
Chase, ^ appears to have aroused the fears of the
' Evelyn, speaking of Enfield Chase in the 1 7th century, says :
Diary, 2nd "That which I most wondered at was that in the compass of twenty-
June, 1676. fjyg miles, yet within fourteen of London, there is not a house, church,
bam, or building besides three lodges. To this lodge" (Secretary
Coventry's) " are three great ponds, and some few inclosures ; the
rest is a solitary desert, yet stored with not less than 3,000 deer."
GENERAL HISTORY. 37
inhabitants of Waltham Forest that encroachments would
be made upon their wastes. Sir Fulke Grevyll, Chan- state Papers,
11 /- 1 T^ 1 • ■»«• o Dom. Series,
cellor of the Exchequer, in a letter to Mr. Secretary James i,
Lake, dated 28th April, 1617, speaks of the proposed No. 50!
purchase for the King of the Lammas Commons at
Cheshunt and other property, and thus refers to Waltham
Forest : — " The last weeke I had notice that the Steward
of Waltham Forest being in hande with the necessarie
worke for setting out the true boundaries of it, the contry
growing gealouse of some further intention of inclosing
their Comons began to mutyne ; and not knowing how
farre this publique discontent might give interruption to
my Lo. Treasorer's proceedinge at Theobalds, I went to
my Lo. Denny, and with him took a course for deferring
of that Comission till his Ma*'®' inclosures on this side
the water were fullie finished : yet within some fewe daies
after, Tresswell going to Theobalds for perfecting the
surveyes of his Ma*"®° farms now to be enclosed, what
a showre of Shrewes he encountred with I leave to the
storie of his own letters. Wherin y® may see how easilie
this tight Sea of busie people is raysed up with every
wynde ; so as a tender proceeding with them can be no
preiudice."
In the year 1630, at Pleas of the Forest held on the chancery For.
2ist September, boundaries were again laid down which No. 153.
practically agreed with those of 1301. The alarm and
indignation of the county may be imagined, when, four
years later, the Crown officers began to carry out in
Waltham Forest the plan for raising money by extending
the Royal Forests. Sir John Finch, then the King's
38 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Attorney-General, came to the Justice Seat at Stratford
Langthorne, and, without previous notice of his intention,
claimed on behalf of the Crown a right to revert to
the enlarged boundaries which had been so often reduced,
with such violence and pertinacity, that the grand jury
acceded to his demands ; though an adjournment was
granted by the judges, to enable the county to instruct
counsel to argue questions of law as to the effect of the
ancient proceedings. A full account of the proceedings
is contained in the following memorandum by Robert
Rich, Earl of Warwick, who was one of the presiding
"Oct. ye5^ 1634-
state Papers, " Last night, being the 4*^ of this present moneth, I
1634, vol. 275, came from the Justice and Oyer Seate att Stratford Laing-
No. 21. . -^ °
ton, and being late and weary I deferd setting downe the
declaration of what I saw passed in that Court w*^ was
thus. I came on Wednesday before, being the first of
October, to that towne att dinner, where I found the
Justice and Oyer, accompanied w*^ Mr. Justice Jones and
Barron Trevor his assistants and my Lord Willowby
Warden of the Forrest, and all his officers and divers
others w°^ accompanied my Brother,* as my Brother
Newport, my Brother Cheeke, S' Robert Rich, my Cosen
Edwin Rich and many, my Lord Midelsex, Mr. Coventry,
and afterwards came S' John North and others ; I found
them in a great perplexity, for that the Writt from my
brother was not there brought, by w'=^ they might sitt
' /. e., the Earl of Holland, Chief Justice of the Forest.
GENERAL HISTORY. 39
and p[roceed] to theire business : and blame was much
laied on Mr. S'. Johns for it, who excused himselfe ; he
had sente it to my Lord Willowby by a footman of his,
and did desier mee to excuse him to my Brother Holland
whoe had fined him ; and my Lord Willowby acquainted Wednesday
mee that he had sent for it to London : after dinner the ^ ^™°°"-
writt came, soe as wee went to the Bench and after the
reading of that and the suinons to all the Office™ by my
Lord Wardens warrant, they fell to calling of the Office"
of the Court. First the Lord Warden and the rest, whoe
delivered up their homes* to the Justice and Oyer on
their knees ; when they read all the Officers, as Verderers,
Raingers, Keepers, Under Keepers, Regarlders, Wood-
men, and fower Reeves of every Towneship in the
Forest; then the Grand Jury; and gave them theire
Oaths with other formalityes of that Courte; then the
Verderors deliver in the Roules of the presentments of
the Swalement Court, and others were delivered by
the Regarders as I take it; w""* were read, and some
were find for the trespasses they did ; some in hunting,
some for building, some for cutting their woods w"^
out lycence, some for not well fencing them in, some
' " Every Forester when he is first called ought upon his knees to sir W. Jones,
deliver his home to the Chief Justice in Eyre, which is then delivered ^^P- '^^*^-
to the Marshal. They pay a fine of bs. %d. before they are re-delivered.
Likewise, every Woodward, when he is first called, ought to present
his hatchet to my Lord." Ceremonies of the same kind were pro- lq„j ^^^
bably performed at the Swainmote. The claim by the lord of the 1852, p. 3857.
manor of Minestead in the New Forest in i8sz states that the
lord's woodward was to appear at the Swainmote Court at Lj'ndhurst,
and place his horn on the table, and receive the same again, and
present all wild beasts and venison of the Queen preserved in the
manor.
40 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
for keeping doggs expeditated [? unexpeditated] some
for makeing warrens w*^ in the Forrest, and so for divers
offendo™.
Thursday. " Then Mr. Attorney namely S* John Finch made a
Speech to the Justice in Oyer, wherein he semes much to
taxe ye Regarders that they had not given in the bounds
lymitts and metes of the Forrest, and ernestly pressed to
have them well fined for it. They on the otherside ex-
cused themselves and sayd that att the last Justice and
Oyer they had given in none, neither did theire articles
comand them soe to doe, but they had p' pared one in
paper after the last Iter and brought it in to Mr. Keeling
the Gierke of the Iter, whoe had it. Then Mr. Attorney
Finch adrest his Speech to the Justice and Oyer, and
tould him he was come to lett him and the country know
he had found an auncient Record of Edw. the i** whereby
the bounds and meetes of the Forrest of Essex had bin
from Bowbridge to Catway bridge in length, and in
breadth from the River of Thames to Stan Street, and he
would know how his Master had lost every inch of it ;
and adrest also his Speech to y^ lawyers there p'sent, that
if they were there for the Country they should doe well
to prepare themselves for theire defence ; and asked them
if they were there for the Country ; they answered they
were then ready if any would entertaine them, but they
weare not entertayned, but some of them for pticular clames
w*"" in the Forest : whereat Mr. Attorney grew into great
impatiency, and sayd he had traced them dry foot (for
that was his word) and that they had made searches for
theire defence, and that he would not stir from thence till
GENERAL HISTORY. 41
hee had had a verdict for the King if they would not make
theire defence. I seeing Mr. Attorney soe violent upon
them, I stood up and desiered a word or two to my Lord
w""^ was to this effect : that I came there on of my love to
my Lord, not knowing of anything of extending the
bounds and lymitts of the Forrest from what it had usually
this many yeares bin reputed. I perceaved there was
never an Essex man there but myself that was not a
forrester ; that if I had had the spiritt of divenation what
Mr. Attorney would have bin att by enlarging the bounds
of the Forrest, myselfe and many of the Lords and Free-
holders of the Countrey woulde have been there w*^ theire
evidences and Charters to have given satisfaccon to that
Court not to extend their bounds farther then now they
were. I therefore in my owen and the Countreys behalfe
did desier my Lo-Justice that wee might understand
whether Mr. Attorney did intend to extend the bounds
for the King, and that wee might have tyme to aunswere
him soe as wee might not be surprised ; and I doubted
not but wee should give such satisfaccon to that Court
and to his Ma**^, as we might still enjoy w"' quietness the
possessions of our Ancesto" which had bin oute of the
Forrest for three hundred and thirty yeares. Mr. Attorney
replyed on mee that I fought close like a man of warr at
my locke, ^ but he was resolved to give noe longer tyme
then till morning it growing then somewhat late, and soe
willed the Councell to expect not an hower longer ; soe
they wente to other business of that Court, and then
adjourned. On Fryday morne after the Court sett,
and some business done, he caused the Grand Jury
' I.e., at my diiBcuIty.
42 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
to Stand together to heare the evidence for the King,
and after he had asked the lawyers whether they
were p' pared for theyre defence, whoe answered him they
were not entertayned by the Countrey neither was it pos-
sible for them soe to bee, the Countrey not being somoned
nor warning given them, only to the Forresters. He toulde
them he sawe the Country was sullen and he woulde
proceed notw*^standing and soe willed the Grand Jury to
listen to a Roule w** he drew oute from the Roule keepers
bagg, very ancierit, and appointed Mr. Keeling to read
the Titell of it : being a Roule as I remember of the 1 7
of Edwd. 1° w** made the lymitts of the Forrest of Essex
to bee in length from Bowbridge to Catway bridge, and
in breadth from Thames to Stan Street ; after he had
heard this he read an other parte of the Roule of the
same Kings time, or of Edw. 2°, w*^ confirmed as much,
and recited an other Roule w"* Mr. Attorney sayd they
could not find ; he then pressed the Jury to have given
a verdict and not to have gone thence ; but the Foreman
makeing some scruple, he fell into such a rage, and
threatned them and swore he would have a Verdict for
the King ere he stir'd a foot thence, w*'' very high and
threatning wordes, as he would see who durst goe against
it ; and wordes of higher nature and most violent Action.
And when some of the Jury desired to see the Roule and
to have it w*^ them, he grew into a further rage and said
they should not see a worde but what he had read to
them, comanding the Roule Keeper to goe w*'' them but
that they should see nothing else; so they went togeather.
Then Mr. Attorney moved my Lord Warden all his
Officers of the Forrest should goe w*'^ them w*^ they did
GENERAL HISTORY. 43
to the number of 40 or 50 as I conceived them by view.
The Grand Jury were 16 or 17, soe they went togeather
and after some two houres being away, they retourned w***
this Verdict : ' That the Bounds of Forrest of Essex were
from Bowbridge to Cattway bridge in length, and in
breadth from Thames to Stanstreet,' w* Mr. Attorney
caused them to sett theire hands to all. After this they
went to other business of that Court, to the allowing and
disallowing of clames, after w"*" my Lo : Justice and Oyer
spoke somewhat to the Countrey that he had an intention
to adjorne that Court to an other day, wherein he woulde
heare what the Countrey can say in theire defence, and
that he would doe them all the right he might ; and soe
concluded that day what other business being Friday.
On Saturday after they had satt a while, I tooke my
leave and retorned home, where next day I sett downe
this relation as far as my memory would give me leave,
" Warrwicke.
" The lawyers' names I saw there were Mr. Atkines,
Mr. Attwood, Mr. Scott, Mr. Sise, Mr. Turner,
Mr. Edward Rich, Mr. Jermin, and others I know not.
Gent", S' Ro. Quarles, Mr. Wrighte, Mr. Fanshawe, Sir
Hen. Mildmay of Wansted, my Lo: Peeter's Solicitor,
Sir Tho. Barrington's Sollicitor and others. Willis the
Nurse's husband.
" After the Verdict was given in Mr. Attorney made
a great complainte against Searle one of the Grand Jury,
that when the Jury were togeather he had p'duced a
coppie of Record in paper of King John's, and moved
44
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
to know whether the Lo. Justice would fine him there, or
transmitt him to the Starr Chamber ; whoe transmitted
him to the Starr Chamber, but upon intersession of some
friends pardoned him."
Proc. at
Justice Seat,
Bodl. Lib.
Ranke Ge-
schichte, 2.
197, Eng.
vers. 2. 34.
The adjourned sitting was held at Stratford on the
8th April, 1635, i" the presence of Henry Earl of
Holland (who was conveyed to the Court in a Royal
carriage*). His Majesty's Judges, including Sir John
Finch, then Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, the High
Sheriff of the County, the officers of the Forest, and a
Jury. Finch, although as Attorney-General, he had
argued the case with so much heat on behalf of the
Crown, delivered the opinions of himself and the other
judges."
' I am indebted to Mr. T. C. Baring for tiie reference to this
passage in Ranlce, wlio by a misprint malces tlie date 1633.
" The great case of The Commissioners of Sewers v. Glasse, in which
the rights of the commoners over the Forest wastes were established,
was heard by the late Sir George Jessel, the Master of the Rolls,
although he had previously held a brief for some of the defendants ;
but this was at the request of all the parties to the suit, to which there
were twenty-one defendants ; and perhaps there could be no stronger
proof of the profound confidence which was felt in the character and
learning of that distinguished judge.
The following is from the shorthand writer's notes at the trial : —
" The Master of the Rolls : I objected to hear this case because
I had a prejudice against the plaintiffs' case, and I told them so in
Chambers. I had been counsel for the defendants, not on the merits,
but on the demurrer, and I had a prejudice in favour of my own clients.
In the first instance I did decline to hear it on that ground ; but it was
very much pressed upon me, and I was told that it could not be heard
at all unless I consented, and therefore I reluctantly consented."
(Printed Notes, p. 1404.)
GENERAL HISTORY. 45
After a long argument by four counsel on behalf of
the shire, and by the Solicitor-General for the King,
Finch said that he and his brothers had considered the
records on both sides and the points of law stated, and
had unanimously agreed that the presentment of the
bounds made at the last sitting should be enforced.
The presentment was then, but it seems not very
willingly, entered by the Earl of Holland, who said he
would do anything he could to mitigate the Forest law,
which he knew to be sharp and severe.
The above statements by the Earl of Warwick are Hist. coUec-
borne out by Rushworth ; who further says that the p. 1057. ' '
(Forest) Court, to effect their design, did unlawfully
procure undue returns to be made by jurors, in joining
with them other persons who were not sworn ; the Court
also using threatening speeches to make them give a
verdict for the King ; and that, on the final sentence of
the Court, " many inhabitants were fined great sums of
money, or [must] forthwith depart from their houses and
estates, and retire out of the Forests, for that they were
found by verdict given against them to have encroached
upon the Forests."
SirSimonds D'Ewes remarks upon these transactions AutoKo-
that " Besides this great and dreadful wound inflicted by
this levy of Ship money upon the subject's liberty in
general, this present year, 1635, the county of Essex had
in particular a most heavy and fatal blow ; for the whole
shire upon the matter, except the hundred of Tendring,
which the inhabitants had enjoyed quietly for about the
46 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
space of 400 years free from Forest laws, was found to
be within the Forest of Havering, otherwise called the
Forest of Essex. It was found to be so by a jury of
verderers, rangers, and other forest officers ; and that
verdict afterwards adjudged to be good in law by Finch,
Joanes, Treaver, and some other judges, of which the
before mentioned Crooke and Hutton were none. The
Crown and Sceptre are free from this sad fate of that
county; were that judgment right or wrong, upon the
consciences of the jury and the judges it must rest,
to be determined at the last dreadful day. God of his
infinite mercy preserve the true religion amongst us
and without the intermixtures of heresy, superstition,
idolatry, whatsoever become of our estates and fortunes ! "
It is interesting to find that Croke and Hutton, who
had denied the legality of ship money, also refused to
support the presentment as to the bounds of the Forest ;
but somewhat strange that D'Ewes, who had many
friends in Essex, and was constantly passing through it
to go to his country house in Suffolk, and who from his
position must have known the real nature of the trans-
action, should throw the whole blame upon the jury and
the judges.
liT p"^]' °^ ^^^ enlargement of the Royal Forests which was
p- 16. attempted through the whole country ^ was reckoned
with the compelling of knighthood, with tonnage and
poundage, and with ship money, among the national
grievances ; and was no doubt planned and carried out
Strafford ' " ^^^ Justice Seat in Essex hath been kept this Easter week, and
Letters, 1. 413. all Essex has become forest ; and so they say will all the counties in
England but three — Kent, Surrey, and Sussex."
GENERAL HISTORY. 47
by or with the help of Finch and others, in order to raise
money for the King. ^
' Finch was certainly a strong and unscrupulous partisan of the
King ; but there seems to be nothing to justify Lord Campbell in Lives of the
stating that he was universally execrated in his own times, and that yoi_ 2 p. jcg.
when on the bench he prostituted in the most shameless manner his
judicial duties for his private ends ; or in classing him with such a
vulgar ruffian as Jeffreys, or even with Scroggs. The language of his
contemporaries points to no such feeling against him as would have
been provoked by acts like theirs.
May, an impartial writer, says that " he was a gentleman of good Page 85.
birth, of an high and imperious spirit, eloquent in speech, though in
the knowledge of the law not very deepe." When, at his own request,
he appeared to defend himself before the House of Commons previous
to his impeachment, he spoke, says Rushworth, "with an excellent Vol. i, pp. 124,
grace and gesture. Many were exceedingly taken with his eloquence '^^•
and courage ; and it was a sad sight to see a person of his greatness,
parts, and favour, appear in such a posture, before such an assembly,
to plead for his life and fortune."
On his impeachment the principal charges against him related to Rushworth,
his conduct about the Forests, and about ship money. There were ^ol- ^ P; '36-
also accusations of misconduct in his office of Chief Justice, and a Hargrave, '
general charge (which seems to have been the foundation of Lord vol. 7, p. 314.
Campbell's statement) that for his private benefit he had endamaged
and ruined the estates of very many of His Majesty's subjects, contrary
to his oath and knowledge. But only one instance of corruption is
specified. The impeachment was presented three weeks after Finch,
considering with what impetuosity and violence everything was
managed, got up early on the morning after it was resolved to impeach
him, and escaped in disguise into Holland ; and it would of course be
most unjust to assume the truth of all its contents.
Lord Falkland, who managed the impeachment, said little or Rushworth,
nothing about the charges of private corruption. His speech was '^'^- '> P- '39.
for the most part an echo of the impeachment ; but in one part of
it he neatly summed up the effisct of Finch's public acts, by remarking
that " he gave our goods to the King, our lands to his deer, our
liberties to his Sheriifs ; so that there was no way by which we had not
been oppressed and destroyed, if the power of this person had been
equal to his will, or that the will of His Majesty had been equal to his
power."
48
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Morant, I.
Id. I. 245.
Id. I. 319.
Camb. MS.
Harl. MSS.
6853, fo, 589.
History, 2.
197-
Eng. Vers.
2-34-
Rushworth,
4. 206.
The Forest Courts do not appear to have attempted
to enforce these judgments. No officers were appointed,
or presentments made, in the districts to which they
related, the sole object apparently being to extort money
from the owners of the afforested lands. This had been
already done before Charles' advisers obtained a formal
judgment as to the bounds of the Forest — for in the time
of Elizabeth (1563) Sir Henry Appleton and others paid
to the Crown 500/. for the disafforestation of the manors
of Jarvis Hall (6,660 acres) and South Bemfleet (3,000
acres), the farm of Leigh Park (180 acres), and other
estates in the hundred of Barstaple, and there were
doubtless other like transactions. In the same hundred
Paul, Viscount Banning, after 1625, compounded for his
manor of Vange at Noke ; and, amongst many such
transactions after the judgment of 1635, the Governors
of the Charterhouse, in 1638, compounded for South-
minster and other manors in Rocheford hundred; Sir
William Marten for the manor and parish of Nettlewell
in the hundred of Harlow; and in 1639, Francis Stonard
for the manor of Steeple Grange in the hundred of
Dengie.
It was not until the year 1640, when large sums
must have been raised by many payments of this kind —
it is said by Ranke, that in Essex alone they amounted to
300,000/. — that the King attempted to retrace his steps.
On the 1 6th March in that year, being just four months
after the meeting of the Long Parliament, the Earl of
Holland signified to the House of Lords, that the King
had commanded him to let them know " That His
Majesty, understanding that the Forest laws are grievous
GENERAL HISTORY: 49
to the Subjects of this kingdom, his Majesty, out of his
Grace and Goodness to his People, is willing to lay down
all the new Bounds of his Forests in this kingdom ; and
that they shall be reduced to the same Condition as they
were before the late Justices Seat held."
Accordingly, in the same year an Act was passed by i6Car.i,c.i6.
which it was declared that from thenceforth the meets,
meers, limits and bounds of all the Forests should be
taken to extend no further than those commonly reputed,
used or taken in the 20th year of the reign of James I. ;
and all subsequent presentments, and all perambulations,
surveys, extents, and other acts theretofore made, by
which the bounds of the Forest were further extended,
and all presentments and fines by reason of them, were
declared void. And no places where no Forest Courts
had been held, or verderers chosen, or regard made, for
sixty years next before the first year of the reign of
Charles I. were to be taken to be within the Forests.
Inquests were to be held for ascertaining the proper
bounds ; the returns were to be taken into the Court
of Chancery ; and all places beyond the certified bounds
were to be as free as if they had never been or been
reputed to be forest.
Another clause in effect confirmed all charters of
disafforestation made since the 20th year of James I.,
though no relief was given to the unfortunate persons
who had been fined and had paid for charters of dis-
afforestation after the late extension of boundaries.
Finally, the Act contains a clause saving to the owners
and occupiers of lands left out of the Forest, such rights
of common as anciently or accustomably they had enjoyed,
50
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
st.s.
Petty Bag
Office, 17
Car. I.
notwithstanding anything in the present Act, or any Act
or ordinance in 33 Edward I., or any custom or law of
the Forest or other thing to the contrary.
Almost immediately after the passing of this Act a
perambulation was- made by virtue of a Commission under
the Great Seal, directed to the Earl of Warwick and
forty-four other Commissioners. The boundaries shown
in the map, and set forth in the Appendix, agree almost
exactly with those laid down in 1301, except that they
omit the liberty of Havering, and the demesnes of King's
Wood, Writtle, and Hatfield. By the almost supernatural
powers of an Act of Parliament, these boundaries became
in contemplation of law, the boundaries for times past as
well as for those to come, and they so remained until the
disafforesting in 1851 of the Forest of Hainault.
Thus ended a controversy about the bounds of the
Forest, which had lasted from the time of King John.
Scobell's
Acts, 1653,
c. 26.
The whole Forest was in no small danger of extinc-
tion during the Commonwealth. On the 2 2nd November,
1653, the Long Parliament passed an Act vesting all
forests and all honours and lands within their precincts
and perambulations belonging to the late King, his
relict or eldest son, and all royalties, privileges, &c.,
belonging to them, in trustees, to be sold for the benefit
of the Commonwealth.
The trustees summoned all persons pretending to
have any interest in the Forest of Waltham to put in
their claims, a great number of which were accordingly
sent in. But Cromwell in the following year took the
matter out of the hands of the Parliament, and soon
I'o ^(7/x; pci/c ■'JO.
GENERAL HISTORY. 51
afterwards we hear less of the Commonwealth and more
of the Protector. In 1654 an ordinance was made by ScobeU's
" his Highness the Lord Protector, by and with the advice
and consent of his Council," that Commissioners should
be appointed by his Highness under the Great Seal to
survey all the late King's Forests, according to the peram-
bulations made in 17 Car. -I., and to consider how the
same might, both for the present and the future, be best
improved and disposed for the benefit and advantage of
the Commonwealth. They were directed to make minute
inquiries into the situation of the Forests, and the public
and private rights in them, including rights of wood and
pasture ; and to hear and determine claims of rights and
interests; to make allotments in satisfaction of them, and
for highways, and to treat for the disafforestation of
afforested lands.
The Commissioners — Widdrington, Whitelocke, state Papers,
Sydenham, and Montagu — recommended that the Forest ten-egnum,
rights of his Highness should be restored, and the Courts Bundle 652,
re-established. They reported to the Council, that the °' *^*'
Forests being already by Act of Parliament vested in
trustees to be sold for certain uses, " and the said trustees
conceyving themselves lymitted to dispose in that way
and to these ends and noe other" (although it was impos-
sible then to put the Act in execution), there was a doubt
of the title, and difficulty either in selling or leasing, and
great uncertainty as to the profit to his Highness and the
Commonwealth by selling or leasing the Forests, by reason
of the claims of interests to be satisfied. It was therefore
suggested that four Forests should be sold by way of
experiment, and that as to the rest, " Lawn es .and Inclo-
E 3
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
sures belonging to his Highness should be let from year
to year at the best rates that could be got for them ; that
fellible coppice woods should be preserved till fit for sale,
and then sold ; and that for finding out and restoring his
Highness' rights in Forests, preservation of timber, punish-
ment of wastes, spoiles, incroachments, and other tres-
passes committed within the Forests, officers belonging to
Forests, where any were wanting, should be supplied; that
the Wardens, Lieutenants, and other chief officers of the
forests should be ordered forthwith to cause Courts of
Attachments and Swainmott Courts to be kept, in order
to a Justice in Eyre's seat; and as soon as conveniently
it might there should be a Justice in Eyre's seat."
The restoration of the Forest system thus advised
by the Commissioners was not effected during the short
remaining period of the Commonwealth. After the
Restoration, the Courts and their machinery were re-
newed for a short time in 1670 ; but the principal Courts
again fell into disuse ; and the Court of Attachments,
with the staff of Ministers of the Forest, remained until
the middle of the present century, as the only repre-
sentatives of the ancient form of government.
Here therefore, I leave, to be resumed in connection
with the subjects of the succeeding chapters, the general
history of the Forest, that I may describe its laws, its
Courts, and its Ministers ; the wild animals which fre-
quented it, and how they were preserved and hunted and
otherwise persecuted; and the customs which affected
the Forest lands and their owners.
( 53 )
CHAPTER II.
The Laws and Courts of the Forest.
" Ask, to the Forest Laws, what man gave birth ? " '
HE Capitularies of Dagobert, dated in the 7th,
and of Charlemagne, and Louis the Debonnaire
early in the gth centuries, contain many scattered regula-
tions concerning the Royal Forests in France to which I
shall hereafter have occasion to refer, and which are thus
summarized by Houard : " The King's Foresters had the Coutumes
•' . ° Anglo -
duty of preserving the Forests ; they had power to make Noraiands, 2.
assarts in places proper for cultivation, and were to see
that no lands were put under cultivation in which woods
flourished. All the game was under their care. They
received the service of sparrow-hawks or other birds fit
for hawking, which were due to the King. They let out
the pannage to farm. From time to time the King's
hunters visited the Forests, and held council there, and
the Foresters were bound to conform to their regulations.
They kept account of those who had taken wolves in
traps, or with hounds. The hunting of wolf cubs, took
' Peter Pindar.
54 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
place regularly every year in the month of May. The
Forester was subordinate to the Compte. This officer
also had the care of the Royal Fisheries, and saw that
none exceeded the rights of chace granted to him by the
Prince."
Houard, Diet. Thesc laws Were preserved by the Dukes of Nor-
de la Coutume ^ •'
de Normandie mandy, and with additions and modifications, may have
Forets, Art. I. -" ■'
been transplanted into England as well before^ as after
the Conquest.
But it does not follow that the English Forest laws
were entirely derived from them. In a country like
England, full of woods and wastes, and governed by
Kings who delighted in hunting, Forest regulations may
very well have had an independent origin ; and that such
regulations existed here at a very remote period is shown
by a passage in the Forest law attributed to Canute, which
j™' is certainly of great antiquity, and which speaks of a
regulation as then existing ab antiquo.
■^'' '• ^'" The author of the Dialogues of the Exchequer says,
with truth, that the rules of the Forests, and the punish-
ments or acquittals of offenders in them, were kept wholly
apart from the other judgments of the kingdom, and
submitted to the will of the King alone, or of some
adviser of his specially deputed for the purpose. He
adds that the laws of the Forests were considered to rest
upon the voluntary institution of princes. In this view
* Alcuin, the favourite instructor of Charlemagne and his Court,
was an Englishman, who had been sent by Offa, King of the Mercians,
Cait. Sax. I. on an embassy to Charlemagne ; and the latter was in correspondence
m- with Oifa in the latter part of the 8th century.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 55
he is apparently followed by the Bishop of Chester, who 1^^^^^^^^°
observes that the legal enactments of Henry II. were ^oi. 2. cxviii.
passed in the presence or by the advice of the arch-
bishops, bishops, abbots, and nobles ; that there was a
well-drawn line between the common law of the kingdom
and the Forest jurisdiction, which was the arbitrary rule
of the Sovereign ; and that the very maintenance of the
form was a protest against despotism. '
It may be, and probably is the fact, that many of
the Forest regulations were brought into or made in
England by the sole authority of the Kings and of their
Forest officers. But if it was intended to say, that the
form of passing the general laws of the kingdom in the
presence of the kings, councillors, or great men, dis-
tinguished those laws from the general forest laws,
this is inaccurate ; because both before, and in, and after
the time of Henry II. general laws for the Forests
were made nominally by the advice of the King's
Councillors, in the same manner as the other laws of
the realm.
Assuming for the moment the authenticity of Canute's
Forest laws, they begin thus :
" These are the regulations of the Forest, which I constitutiones
de Foresta.
Canute the King establish and make with the advice of
my chief men."
The laws of Henry II. :
"This is the assise of our Lord Henry the Kins", Assises of
■' ° Woodstock
son of Matilda, m England, concerning his Forest and (1184).
hunting, by the advice and assent of his Archbishops, Rog.deHove-
Bishops, and Barons, Earls, and nobles of England, at (m!'r. ser",'
Woodstock." cm.id.'
56 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
And again, those of Richard I. :
AssisaReg. " This is the assise of the lord the King, and these
tis(ii98), the rules of his Forests in England, made with the
p. 784, vol. 4, consent and advice of his Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots,
Ser.f. ' ■ Earls, Barons, and Knights of his whole kingdom."^
An. 123s, We also find that a dispute, which closely touched
Monastici, the personal interests of the King, as to the respective
Ser.). ■ ■ duties of the Chief Justice of the Forests and the bailiffs
of the King's demesnes in respect of vert and venison,
was settled before Henry III,, the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, and the other magnates of the King's Council.
And in later times the Forest laws were often limited
and altered by Parliament both in favour of and against
4th Inst. 319. the interests of the Crown ; and it was therefore rightly
said by Coke that " the laws of the Forests of England
are certain and established by authority of Parliament,
and not as in other countries changeable and floting in
uncertainty ad principis placitum."
Much of the hardship suffered by the inhabitants of
the Forests arose from the arbitrary regulations of the
Forest officers, and from the manner in which they
enforced the laws, as much as from the laws themselves.
This appears from various ordinances, by which relief
was given against demands not directly authorized by
the general Forest laws, and by the proceedings of the
Forest courts.
For. Laws of ' It is true, that in each of these bodies of law the King speaks ais
Canute, xxx. the maker of the law ; but the same form occurs in some of the
ahdRich'd. I, general laws of the kingdom. In the Assise of Clarendon (1166) the
passim. phrases "vult dominus rex" and "prohibet dolninus rex" are quite
Ben. Abb. common.
2. cxhx4
THE FORSST LA WS AND COURTS. 5 7
The complaints of John of Salisbury in the reign of poiycraticus,
Henry 11. appear to be directed to oppressions of this ' '" '^^^' '''
kind. " It was strange," he said, " that it should be a
crime, punishable by loss of goods or limbs, to make
traps for birds, to set snares, to entice them by call
or pipe, or to over-reach them by other arts. The
birds of the air, and . the fishes of the sea, one might
suppose to be common, but they belong to the State,
and the Forest law claims them wheresoever they fly.
. The husbandmen are kept from their fields
so that the wild beasts may roam over them. That these
may have the more space for grazing, the soil is taken
from the cultivators, the newly sown grounds from the
farmers, the pastures from the herdsmen and shepherds ;
the beehives are shut out from the flower beds,^ and the bees
themselves are scarcely allowed their natural liberty."
It is certain that these complaints were, for the most
part, well founded. The fish of the sea, it is true, were
not subject to the Forest laws, although the Crown had
a prerogative right to whales and sturgeon.^ But there Cust. and
was a rule, that all the metes of the Forest belongwhoUy to Forest, Ruff-
the King, so that where a river was a "Forest bounder," v.^^10, p.' 26^ '
Harl. MSS.
No. 6839,
' So that the bees might be driven to take shelter in the woods, Art. 40.
where the honey would belong to the King.
The word " floralibus," used by the writer, probably refers to places
planted with flowers for the feeding of bees, which were largely cultivated.
In a Charter purporting to be of the 7th century, land is granted Cod. Dipl.
"cum . . . pascuis apium." The services due from the bee rart''s
farmer to his lord in the loth century, are set forth in the Reciitudines No. 25.
Singularum Personarum,
' The sturgeon wholly belonged to the King ; but as to the whale, Britton,
the ancient usage was that the King should have the head, and his ^- '8' § 4-
, ,, , ., Bracton,liD.3.
consort the tail. Ee Corona,
58 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the whole river was the King's, and none ought to fish
therein without licence.
Many of the Essex grants and claims included the
Duch.ofLanc. right of fishing in the waters of the manors : and the
Misc. Rec. .
PI. For. Abbot of Waltham claimed, under such a grant, a right
to fish in the river Lee, which was a Forest " bounder."
M. Par. The concessions made in the supposed Forest Char-
Chron. Maj. ^'^
vol. 2, p. 6oi. ter of John, and in that of Henry III., that every freeman
WiUdns, ...
p. 372. might have in his woods his eyries of hawks, as well
sparrow-hawks ^ as falcons, eagles and herons, and the
honey found in his woods, also show that these had been
previously claimed on behalf of the King.
32H. 8, c. ir. A statute of Henry VIII., which prohibited the
taking of the eggs and young of falcons, may account
Hari. Mss. for the directions to the Regarders, and for the inquiry
No. 6839, fo. fe » ^ J
26r, Art. 27. to be made by the Grand Jury in Waltham Forest, in
1634, "Whether any have taken hawks in the Forest
Duch. of without licence." But the ancient claim of the Crown
Lane. Misc.
Rec. 4 H. 7. to honey in the Forest woods may be traced in the claim
of the lords of the manor of Wanstead, in 1489, to the
Manwood, profits of becs, honcy, and wax, in Wanstead wood ; ^ and
p. '226, \ IS, in the charge at the Swainmote (which probably followed
Justice seatf an old form), "Item, if any man do take out of the
hollow trees any honie, wax, or swarmes of bees within
the Forest, yee shall do us to weet."
Exchequer Again, almost 500 years after the time of John of
Bills and
Capit. Reg. ' Hawks and sparrow-hawks were to be provided for the use of
FrMic. Charlemagne by his foresters. A regulation, that to ensure a supply
vol. I, col. 336. for the King no private person should take the hawks in his woods in
the Forests, would be a natural consequence of such a law.
Lond. Gaz. ^ The lord of the manor of Minestead in the New Forest claimed in
1 52, p. 3 57. jgj2 the honey found in his woods.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 59
Salisbury, Sir Bernard Whetstone, lord of the manor Answers,
of Woodford, in Essex, in his answer to the suit of No.' 265.
the Attorney- General for making illegal fences, draws
a picture of the losses caused by the deer to himself
and his tenants, which, if it was accurate, leaves
very little ground for charging the satirist with ex-
aggeration. They were forced, he said, to give over
ploughing and sowing their arable land, of which the
greater part of the demesnes of his manor consisted.
He was still obliged to pay composition wheat and oats
for the King's household, though not a foot of the
demesnes had been ploughed for the last ten years, by
reason of the number of deer which would utterly destroy
the corn ; and the cessation of ploughing caused the in-
crease of the deer, by reason that the barren and dry
fallows were converted into sweet and fresh green pas-
tures to layer and feed the deer.
The code of Forest laws which is attributed to Canute
is the earliest known in England. It is also the only
body of English Forest law which is complete in itself;
and as it purports to have been made both for the Eng-
lish and the Danes, who had many settlements in Essex,
the Forest of that county must at one period have been
governed by it, unless, as some writers have insisted, it
is a forgery.
. Its authenticity was long since disputed by Coke, 4th inst. 320.
and though it has been quoted by many learned writers
— by Spelman, Sharon Turner, Palgrave, Ellis, Kemble,
and Lappenberg — without any expression of doubt, Mr. Norman Con-
Freeman also pronounces it to be a forgery, probably of ^rs, p."4s6.
6o THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the time of Henry I. ; designed, as he says, to employ
the venerated name of the great Dane, to shelter the
legislation against which men cried out.*
I shall presently consider the reasons given both by
Coke and Freeman for these conclusions.
^o]'5^ni-\' '^^^ Code, as we have it in Latin, is printed in
Sp. Alt. HoHnshed's Chronicles from a copy which was in his pos-
(t Foresta " .
Thorpe, vol. I, session; and also in Spelman's Glossary, and in Thorpe's
^' ■ Ancient Laws and Institutes ; but I have been unable to
ascertain where any more ancient copy, or the original
is to be found. It consists of thirty-four sections written
in concise language, and clearly and skilfully arranged.
The first twenty sections provide for the government of
the forests by fifty-two officers in each province of the
kingdom. Four of these, called the chief men (primarii)
of the Forest, were to be taken from the higher class of
freemen, called by the English thanes (thegenes), and
were to be persons who knew the customs.
\\ i. X. They were to administer justice both to English and
Danes, and to determine civil and criminal matters
affecting the lower classes of officers ; those which affected
themselves being determined by the King. They had
§xi- regal powers (saving the rights of the King) ; and four
times in the year they were to hold Forest meetings and
inquiries into offences relating to vert and venison, (called
" muche-hunt," i. e. the great hunting,) to which all accu-
sations concerning any thing done in the Foi'est were to
be brought, and submitted to the threefold ordeal. Each
Const. Hist. ' The Bishop of Chester also says that the work is spurious, or so
I. 200. much interpolated as to be without value, and refers to the objections
of Maurer and Brunner.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 6 1
of these chief men had yearly for a fee, from the King's § vi.
stores/ two horses, one with and the other without a
saddle, one sword, five lances, a spear, a shield, and two
hundred shillings of silver.
Under each chief man, were four of the next class of §§ "• iu-vii.
officers (mediocres), called in English lesser thanes (les As to the
thegenes), and in Danish yoongmen, who had the care thaimisofthe
of the vert and of the wild beasts, but were not to inter- see Seid. tu.
fere with the administration of justice. These were
always to be accounted freemen, such as the Danes
called Ealdermen; and each had for his yearly fee a
horse, a lance, a shield, and sixty shillings of silver.
It may be inferred that they were chosen from the
lowest order of freemen, called Twyhynde men or ceorls, § xxxiii.
their wer-gild being, according to a later clause, of the Thorpe, Anct.
same value, (two hundred shillings,) which was fixed for 484-
that class.
Under each lesser thane were two of yet lower rank, k iv.
(minuti), whom the English call " Tinemen" (A.-S. Tyn fg^^^^^^'^^o.
=ten), perhaps the chief of an association of ten men.^ n'^d'n'and
To them was given the care of vert and venison by night, references in
as well as servile duties. If any of them were a serf he -A-^ct. Laws,
■^ _ vol. 2 Gloss.
was to become free as soon as he was placed in the Maurer, in-
. . , . quuy into
Forest; and all these were mam tamed at the Kmg's cost. a.-s. Mark
Each of them had a lance, a crossbow^ (arcubalistam), and § v.
fifteen shillings of silver. 5 ^•
' Here the Code has "quos Angli vocant Michni" ; of which last
word, though I have sought the help of several learned persons, I can
find no satisfactory interpretation. The word is probably corrupt.
* " And we will that every freeman be brought into a hundred and
into a tithing who wishes to be entitled to the right of purgation, and
to his wer in case any shall slay him after he is twelve years old."
' It is, perhaps, doubtful whether the crossbow was used in England
62 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
§ ix. All these officers were freed from the burdens of the
hundred law, from war scot, and from suits by strangers.
The provisions for their appointment bring us to the
first of Mr. Freeman's objections to the whole Code.
"What," he says, "can be made of such a state of
society as we find there ? First we hear (c. 2) of medi-
ocres honiines quos Angli * les thegenes,' nuncupant;
then (c. 3) of liberales quos Dani ' Ealdormen' appellant ;
then (c. 4) of minuti homines quos ' Tinemen ' Angli
dicunt ; lastly (s. 12) of liberalis homo, i. e. ' thegen'."
The Code is certainly not open to this criticism.
Mr. Freeman begins by citing the second clause ; but
if he had begun with the first, he would have found in it
the liberalis homo, the "thegen" or thane of clause 12, in
his proper place in society, if the Code is dealing with
grades of society ; or in his proper rank as a Forest
officer, if tha,t be the meaning.^ And the mediocres, in
in Canute's time. The word " arblaste " occurs in the description of
MS. Cott. ^ fray which happened in 1078 or 1079, the last years recorded in one
Tib. B. iv. of the MSS. of the Saxon Chronicle ; see Ingram's Edition and the
M. R. Series.
Mr. Jenner, of the British Museum, who has examined the original
MS., informs me that the handwriting is considered to be of the latter
part of the i ith century. It is, therefore, nearly contemporary with
the period mentioned in the record ; and some time must have elapsed
before the word " arcubalista," used in Canute's Code, became corrupted
Sir H. EUis, into " arblaste." The intermediate form " arbalistarii " is used in
fctrod. to Domesday. It is, therefore, not impossible that Canute's Tinemen
91. ' may have been furnished with crossbows ; but it may be that at the
somewhat later date of the compilation of the Code, the crossbow was
common, and the officers in question were actually armed with it.
^ The primary meaning of the word "thegen" is a minister or servant ;
and it is remarkable that almost everywhere in the old records of this
Forest its officers are called " ministers of the Forest." As to the
duties and dignities of the different classes of Anglo-Saxon thanes, see
Selden's Titles of Honor, and Thorpe's Ancient Laws, Glossary.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 63
English "lesthegenes," of clause 2, are the same persons
of whom in clause 3, it is declared that they are always to
be accounted liberales or freemen ; a direction which is
repeated in clause 5 as to the minuti or lowest class of
Forest officers ; the intention being that all of them, from
the highest to the lowest, should have the status of free-
men. The Danish name, " yoongmen," which is also
given to the mediocres in clause 2, perhaps refers to their
character of Forest officers ; that of " Ealderman," in
clause 3, indicating their position as freemen; for the See§xxi.
Ealderman with the Danes was a person of much less saxons in
1 1 A 1 <-. England, 2.
importance than among the Anglo-Saxons. 149.
The punishments prescribed by the Code are care-
fully graduated. False testimony and violence against §xiv.
the chief Forest officers were punished, the former by
loss of right to testify and by a fine of 105. ; the latter by § xv.
loss of liberty and goods in the case of a freeman, and of
the right hand in the case of a serf for the first offence ;
and to each death for a second offence. Penalties are §xvi.
prescribed for breaches of the peace in the Forest ; and § xvii. &c.
it is declared that the punishments of the free and the § xxi.
unfree, the lord and the serf, the well known and the
obscure, were not to be alike ; nor were those for civil
and criminal matters ; for beasts of the Forests and Royal
beasts ; for dealings with matters relating to vert {i. e.
trees and shrubs) and hunting ; the latter, says the Code,
having of old been among the greater offences which
deserve punishment ; while those against vert (save that
they were breaches of a Royal Chase) were hardly thought
worthy of notice.
The law was very severe as to offences against §§ xxii.— xxv.
64
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
§ xxvi.
See Selden,
Titles of
Honor, 518.
venison. For causing a beast of the Forest to run
(either by chance or intention), so that it panted for
breath, a freeman was fined los., one not free 20^., and a
serf was scourged.^ These penalties were doubled if
the beast was killed. But for chasing a Royal stag, so
that it panted, the freeman was imprisoned for a year,
the unfree for two years, and the serf became an outlaw,
in the expressive Anglo-Saxon a " frendlesman." If
the beast were killed the freeman lost his freedom, the
unfree his liberty, and the serf his life.
Bishops, abbots, and king's thanes were not to be
prosecuted for hunting if they did not kill Royal beasts ;
if they killed them, they were punishable at the pleasure
of the King. In the Code, the words used here are
"Episcopi abbates et barones mei." The 'word barones
may be suspected as an anachronism, but it was no
doubt introduced by the translator as the equivalent of
King's thanes, as it is in a parallel passage in the laws
of Edward the Confessor.
Laws of Ine,
§ 5, and see
Laws of
Edward and
Guthrum,
§§ 7, 8.
The laws relating ^to the wild and other animals,
and to the offences against vert within the Forests, are
noticed in other chapters. The former are not classed
after the manner used by the Normans; and it is
' It has been said, I suppose on the authority of the words " careat
corio " here used, that under Canute's law offenders were ordered to
be flayed alive. Such a meaning is absurd, as well as improbable ; for
the Code would then inflict this horrible punishment for a small
offence, while greater crimes were more lightly visited. The expres-
sion, that an offender "shall pay with his hide," i.e., be scourged, is
to be found in several of the other codes of the Anglo-Saxon period.
"If any one put his hide in peril, and flee to a church, be the scourging
forgiven him."
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 65
remarkable that throughout the Code there is neither
mention of nor allusion to the fence month, which was
one of the principal institutions of the Norman Forest
system.
Upon the rights of hunting in the Forest as ex-
pressed in this Code, Sir E. Coke grounds his opinion, 4th inst. 320.
which Mr. Freeman appears to adopt, that it is not
authentic. The Code declares that every freeman shall § xxx.
have at his will rights of venison or vert in his plains
on his own lands, but without right of chace ; whereas,
by one of Canute's secular laws, which Coke con- §ixxxi.
siders to be the true law, and which is repeated in
the laws of Edward the Confessor, the land owner De Hereto-
has the rights of hunting both in his woods and his a.-s. Laws,
1 • 205.
plams.
It is surprising that these regulations should be
thought to be inconsistent. It appears on the contrary
that the variation between them supports the authenticity
of the Forest law. The latter relates to what might be
done within, and the secular law to what might be done
beyond the bounds of the Forest. In the one case the
beasts might be killed on the Forest plains, that is, the
open unwooded spaces, by means of such noiseless
artillery as was then in use ; and hunting was forbidden
lest the deer should be disturbed in the woods : but in
the unafforested districts no such restriction was neces-
sary.
Each of the regulations as to the right of hunting, can.Sec. §8r.
in the secular and Forest laws of Canute, and in that of Ed"'conf.^^°'
Edward the Confessor, ends with a warning against ^^^^' ^°^'
trespassing upon the rights of the King where he might
66 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
wish to have his hunting ; and this has been used as an
argument in support of the pretended general right of
the Kings to afforest the lands of their subjects. It is,
however, a claim to hunt and not to afforest ; it may
refer to a right to hunt, either upon waste lands not made
into forest, or upon Icen lands in which the subject had no
permanent estate ; or possibly to an ancient prerogative
claim of the British Kings to hunt over their subjects'
lands, such as that which was plainly asserted in the
See ch. III. ancient laws of Wales.^ And perhaps some of the regu-
inf. Rangers. . r Jr- e>
lations as to the King's hunting in the purlieus of the
Forests may be founded upon this ancient claim.
Upon the whole I see no reason to doubt that the
Code is a late Latin version or compilation of Anglo-
Danish Forest laws, which were themselves founded upon
ancient regulations or customs. In some respects it re-
sembles the Norman Forest laws. In each there was a
separate establishment of judges, who held Courts, made
inquiries, punished offences, and were invested with
supreme authority over all Forest matters; and subor-
dinate officers, discharging duties which in later times
were performed by regarders, foresters, and other
ministers. In each also there were severe, though not
identical punishments for breaches of the Forest laws,
and regulations respecting the keeping and mutilation
of dogs in the Forests.
' Dimetian Code (S. Wales), bk. ii. c. xiii.— "It is free for the King
to hunt everywhere in his country;" Leges Wallice, lib. 2, c. xxv.
§ 6 — Licitum est regi ubique venari per suam terram; and Leges
Howeli Boni, lib. i, c. xv. § i, in almost the same words.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 67
The literary forger almost always betrays himself
by errors of time or place, or by other inconsistencies,
such as those which I have pointed out in the pretended
charter of Edward the Confessor, mentioned in the last
chapter : but with the slight exceptions which I have
already noticed and explained, I can find none in this
Code.
This opinion in no way clashes with the remarks of
Spelman and of Dr. Brunner^ on the Norman character
of the legal terminology of the Code, which appears to
me to bear internal evidence that in its present form it is
the work of a Norman.
As in the Capitularies of Dagobert and many other See Codex
T • 1 • II' Dipl. passim.
ancient Latm documents, native words are here intro-
duced by way of explanation, where the exact meaning
could not be expressed in Latin ; a circumstance which
affords strong evidence that the contents of the document
were derived from a native source. The writer of this
Code, after using the Latin word, invariably adds " which
the Angles " or " the Danes " (as the case may be) call
by such a name ; as, for example, " canes quos Angli
' greihounds ' appellant."
He speaks as being neither an Angle nor a Dane,
and was therefore probably a Norman.^
But as he refers to the Angles and the Danes as
distinct races, and to their languages as still in use, it
• Holtzendorff's Encyclopadie, p. 232.
' Many of the Anglo-Saxon charters show in this way the nationality
of their writers : e.g., "in commune silfa q. nos Saxonice in gemennisse
dicimus." (Cod. Dipl. ccxli., and see id. cclxi., cclxxvli., cclxxxi.)
F 2
68
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
seems probable that the work is of a date not later than
the time of Edward the Confessor.
Sax. Chron.
An. 1087.
Mat. Par.
Chron. Maj.
and Hist.
Angl. An.
1085.
Rog. of
Wendover,
M. R. Ser. 4,
63 ; Wilkins,
351-
Assise of
Woodstock,
^ I ; Stubbs,
Sel. Ch. 150.
William of
Newburgh,
Hist. Rer.
Angl. lib. I,
cap. 3.
I am unable to understand Mr. Freeman's sug-
gestion, that this Code was forged for the purpose of
sheltering the Forest legislation of the Normans under
the name of Canute. However severe Canute's laws
may have been, in prescribing the loss of the right hand
and afterwards death, for violence against the Forest
officers, and death for offences against the King's deer,
the Normans surely could find no shelter under them for
their own barbarities.
The chroniclers tell us that plucking out the eyes
was the punishment in the time of William the Con-
queror for slaying the stag, the roe, or the wild boar.
The English were "vehemently" oppressed by the
Forest extortions in the time of Henry I. ; and the
nature of the oppression is shown by the Forest law
of Richard I., that if any should offend and be convicted
in anything touching matters of hunting or of the King's
forests, full justice should be done upon them as was
done in the time of Henry the King's great-grandfather,
viz., that they should lose their eyes, and suffer mutila-
tion. The laws of Henry II. were prefaced by a similar
order, though the punishments were not specified.
But it was not only In vindication of the King's
forest rights that these savage acts were committed.
When we are told that in the time of Henry I. little dis-
tinction was made in the chastisements of slayers of stags,
and homicides, the writer brings as heavy a charge, so
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 69
far as regards cruelty, against those who authorized the
punishments of the latter, as of the former.* Nor were Sax. chron.
homicides and stealers of deer the only persons who suf-
fered these punishments. In the reign of Henry I. Ralph
Basset and the King's thanes held a mote in Leicestershire,
at Huncothoe, and there hanged more thieves than ever
were known before, that is, in a little while, forty-four
men, and despoiled of their eyes and mutilated six men.
" Many true men," adds the chronicler, " said that there
were several who suffered very unjustly. First the people
were bereaved of their property and then they were slain.
The man that had any property was bereaved of it by
violent guilds and violent moots. The man that had not
was starved with hunger."
The responsibility for these cruel laws does not, how-
ever, rest entirely upon the Kings. I have already shown
that they were expressed to be made with the consent of
the great ecclesiastics and nobles, who enjoyed some ex- Canute f. l.
emptions from their severity, and had certain liberties in
the Forests — liberties which the Charter of the Forest
expressly reserved to the archbishops, bishops, abbots,
priors, earls, barons, knights, and other persons both
ecclesiastical and secular, and to the Knights Templars ch. For. § 17.
and Hospitallers.
The ecclesiastics had a still more substantial interest wuk. 372.
in the Forests in the shape of tithes. The Bishop of ass. 0° wood-
stock, § 9.
' The punishments were not dictated by mere delight in cruelty :
the object was that the culprit might remain a living example.
" Interdicimus ne quis occidatur vel suspendatur pro aliqua culpa, sed
&c. ; ita quod truncus remaneat vivus in signum proditionis et nequitiae
sue." (Carta R. Wilhelmi Conq. de quibusdam Statutis, § 67.) Wilkiiis, 229.
70 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
6 John. cii. London in 1 204 had a grant of the tithes of such venison
E.?c.^' '^ ' as was taken for the King's use in Essex; and one of his
pf-H, R.'c. successors, Stephen, and the Dean and Chapter of St,
'^r^^iZ' Paul's, claimed these tithes for the bishop in i323-4>
although the claim was then thought doubtful ; the words
"before the King" being written on the margin of the roll.
Richard, another Bishop of London, if he be rightly-
credited with the authorship of the Dialogues of the
Dial, of Exch. Exchequer, was not ashamed to justify the payment of
tithes for the Forests, by the suggestion that as the greater
part of the payments from them came from pleas and
exactions, the payment of tithes seemed in some sort to
make amends for all illicit gains. In the reign of
Edward L the claim of the Bishop of Carlisle, as Rector
of Thoresby, to forest tithes, drew from William de Inge,
the Attorney-General, the sarcastic remark that the busi-
ness of bishops and rectors was to take care of sheep,
and not of wild beasts.
The cruel punishments already mentioned, and the
cutting off the hands and feet of offenders, which was
also practised in the time of the predecessors of Richard I.,
were abolished by him. It seemed to the pious King,
chion. Maj. says Matthcw Paris, that it was too inhuman so to treat
An T 2 3 2
men who were created in the image of God, on account
of wild beasts, which according to natural law were given
alike to all ; and fines, imprisonment, and abjuration of
wiikiiis, 372. the realm were ordained in the place of them. A similar
decree was made by John.
Several bodies of Forest law, to which I shall have
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 7 r
occasion to refer, were made after the Conquest. Of
these the laws made at Woodstock by Henry II. ; those
of Richard I. ; the famous Charter of the Forest made by
Henry III. ; and a code in almost the same terms, which
bears the name of John,^ are the most important.
' It is considered by the Bishop of Chester, that the charter which Select
bears the name of John is only that of Henry III. with an altered ^^^'^'«''=' 338-
salutation. Luard asserts that R. Wendover and M. Paris, having M. Paiis,
omitted the Forest clauses in the Great Charter, inserted this from the Chron. Maj.
' vol. 2. 598, n.
records at St. Albans, and put John's name instead of Henry's at the (M. R. S.).
beginning.
The facts do not appear to me to support these conclusions.
The circumstance that in each of the five places in which " King
Henry our grandfather " is mentioned in the charter of Henry III.,
the same words are used incorrectly in that of John, does, at first
sight, raise a strong inference that the contents of the latter document
were copied from the charter of Henry. But the conclusion is
weakened when we find that Richard, who in Henry's charter is
correctly called our uncle, is in John's also correctly called " our
brother." The contents of some of the clauses are also different ;
and in other places, where the meaning is the same, the language
varies.
The disafforestations in Henry's charter include the woods afforested
by Richard or by John ; but Richard's afforestations only are dealt with
by the charter of John. The liberty given by Henry's charter to
certain persons to take a beast or two by view of the foresters, or on
sounding a horn, is unrestricted. In John's charter it is limited to
the occasions upon which the privileged persons are coming to the
King by his command, or are returning from so doing.
The charter of Henry III. contains the clause saving to archbishops,
bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, and others ecclesiastical
and civil, and to Templars and Knights Hospitallers, their liberties and
free customs in the Forests and beyond them, and in warrens and
other places, which, except the special reference to the Forests,
appears in Magna Charta. But this clause is omitted from John's
Forest Charter.
It is clear, therefore, that there are important distinctions between
these documents. I think it may be inferred that a Forest Charter
was prepared and intended to be issued in the reign of John, and was
the foundation of the charter of Henry III. ; and that from the
72
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Coutumes
Ang.-NoiTi.
2- 563-
Skene's
Regiam
Majestatem.
§11.
Cotton, MS.
Vesp. B. 7,
fo. 92.
A curious body of regulations attributed by Houard
to the middle of the 13 th century, is alleged by Sir John
Skene to be the work of William of Scotland, who began
to reign in 1165. It contains the provisions in the
English Charter of the Forest, which licensed great
ecclesiastics and nobles, in passing through the Forests
on their way to or from the King, to kill a deer or two ;
and it corresponds very closely with a document called
"Articles of Attachment of the Forests," a MS. of which
in the Cottonian library is in a handwriting of about the
time of Edward II.*
Skene's regulations, however, contain several
provisions which are not to be found in the Articles of
Attachment. In particular, they specify punishments for
trespasses in the Forest during the fence month, which
is not even mentioned in the latter document.
In the Forest of Essex, as in most of the other Royal
Forests, the Forest laws, from some time after the Con-
quest, were administered by three Forest Courts, known
as the Court of Justice Seat, the Swainmote, and the
Court of Attachments or Forty-day Court. As the
Swainmote always retained its Saxon name — ^which prob-
carelessness of a scribe, or some other accident which cannot now be
explained, the document which has come down to us as the charter
of John has been taken partly from one and partly from the other of
these documents.
' A copy of this document in the Record Commissioners' edition of
the Statutes, vol. i, p. 243, is said to be taken from the Lansdowne
MSS., vol. 480, fo. 19s ; but the reference is wrong. Both versions
are probably corrupt. Ruffhead's edition of the Statutes, vol. 10,
Appendix, p. 25, has a very inaccurate copy of the Cotton MS.
Rastall's and Cay's Abridgments have also versions of the articles.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 73
ably signifies the Court of the Ministers^ — and the Court
of Attachments was anciently called the Woodmote, it
may be inferred that they both existed in some form
before the Conquest, and were afterwards incorporated
into the Norman System. Of the Ministers of the Forest
a more particular account will be found in the next
chapter. They were the chief warden or justice, with
assistant justices ; the steward, afterwards the hereditary
lord warden ; the sub-steward or lieutenant of the Forest ;
foresters, verderers, regarders, a ranger of the purlieus,
woodwards, and reeves ; the last two being offices of
Anglo-Saxon institution.^ There were also, in many
Royal Forests, King's agisters ; but except in the hun- Cotton
dreds of Tendring and Lexden in 1250, I have found no Duch.ofLanc.
notice of any in Waltham Forest ; because the Crown, pi. For. 1489.
for many years before the dissolution of the monasteries,
had no estates there.
The Forest Courts in no way interfered in questions Attachment
of right, between the lords of the Forest manors and i7°9!'^^
their tenants; or with the right of the former to hold
their Courts, so that they did not meddle with Forest waidns, 372.
matters; but it was forbidden to any Castellain, Con- Charta
stable, or Bailiff, to hold pleas of the Forest either for °^^^ *> 5 ' •
greenhue or hunting. And when, contrary to the assise ExcH. Xreas.
of the Forest, the Prior of Bermondseye in 1323 held pleas 17 Ed. 2.
of vert in his Court, he was fined at the Justice Seat for
the trespass,
' Anglo-Saxon : Swein, a minister ; but see Lye, Art. Swan.
' We read of a Swainreeve (Swan geref) in the gth century. And Cod. Dipl.
the rights of the Woodward in the 1 oth century are set forth in the '^'^'"^•
Thorp
Ancie
Laws, I, 441.
Rectitudines Singularum Personarum. Thorp's
Ancient
74 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The Courts also gave no protection to persons who,
without being properly qualified, took upon themselves
to deal with offences against the Forest law.
I"'- Jo""- An unauthorized act of this kind in Essex, is re-
5 Jiu> I*
corded in 1277, in the form of a complaint by Richard de
Bernstede, steward of the Abbess of Berkinge, that
Alexander Not of Havering entered the wood of the
Abbess by night, and felled an oak, value 5^, ; and the
jury having found that he entered the wood by day, and
that the value of the oak which he felled was only 2^., he
was ordered to satisfy the Abbess for the damage, and
was also in mercy for the transgression, that is, for the
offence against the vert. But this was condoned at the
instance of the King's Chancellor ; while De Bernstede
for making a false accusation was fined half a mark.
There was then a cross complaint against him by
Not; as to which the jury said that De Bernstede, finding
Not in the wood where he had felled the oak, tried to
attach him, and on his resistance, De Bernstede seized
and bound him, took him to Barking and imprisoned
him for three days, and afterwards delivered him to the
forester and the verderer, but did not strike him as
alleged. Therefore Not was in mercy. And because
De Bernstede was not sworn of the Forest, he was also in
mercy, and was to satisfy Not for the transgression.
It is not quite clear whether the meaning Is that
De Bernstede was not a sworn officer of the Forest, or
w^^^dstocic ^^^ ^^ ^^*^ "^°^ complied with the ordinance of Henry II.,
§ J3, Bra. that every man of the age of twelve years remaining
Series), vol. 2. <' within the peace of the hunting" {i.e. within the
jurisdiction of the Forest laws), and clerics who held lay
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 75
fees, were to be sworn to the peace of the hunting.
There is little notice of this practice in the Essex records,
though it certainly existed in the Forest in early times.
The grand jury were instructed at the Essex Forest Hari. ms.
Courts, to inquire whether the rule had been observed; art%'^ '
and in answer to the justices' inquiries in 1630, it was ch.For.Proc.
found that " the custome of swearinge the inhabitants of No. 153'; and
see Camb.
the Forrest w"'^ are above the age of twelve yeares, to ms. fo. 38.
be trew to the game, hath been likewise discontinued
many yeares." And the Reeves of Nasing and of
Roydon hamlet answered, "We know not that any have
been cal'd thereunto." The increase of the population
probably led to the discontinuance of the practice in the
Forest of Essex.
The oath was in rhyme : — Man-wood,
p. 249,
ed. 1615.
" You shall true Liegeman be Book of Oaths,
Unto the King's Majestic. '^49, fo. 302.
Unto the beasts of the Forest you shall no hurt do,
Nor to any thing that doth belong thereunto ;
The offences of others you shall not conceal
But to the utmost of your power you shall them reveal
Unto the officers of the Forest,
Or to them who may see them redrest :
All these things you shall see done.
So help you God at his Holy Doom."
The Court of Attachments, anciently the Woodmote,
and also called the Verderers', or the Forty-day Court,
whatever may have been its original nature and jurisdic-
tion, was held after the Conquest under the Forest law wukins, 372,
' '■ Ch. For.
of King John, and of the Charter of the Forest ; which 9 h. 3, § 8.
directed that the foresters and verderers should meet
every forty days to see the attachments of the Forest,
76 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
both for greenhue and hunting, by the presentments of
the foresters and afore them attached. The attachments
Coke, 4th were received and ordered to be enrolled by the Verderers,
who presided as judges of the Court, and who afterwards
returned them to the Swainmote. The Court of Attach-
Mauwood, ments had originally no power to proceed judicially ex-
cept as to trespasses relating to vert, the value of which
was less than /^d. The matter was then thought not
worthy to be heard before the Chief Justice of the Forest,
and the Court of Attachments might both assess and
levy the fine, and enter it on their roll. Additional
powers which were given to the Court in modern times,
for enabling it to deal with encroachments in the Forest,
are mentioned hereafter.
There are no early records of the Court of Attach-
ments of Waltham Forest; but it was found in 1630, in
ch.For.Proc. answer to the justices' inquiries, that "for the most pte
No. 153! the Courte of Attachment hath bin kept." There are
some records in the British Museum of its proceedings
in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and others may perhaps
be in existence. In a series of rolls, extending with some
interruptions from 17 13 to 1848, and which were printed
at the cost of the Corporation of London for the purposes
of the inquiry before the Epping Forest Commissioners,
are recorded the doings of the Forest officers during that
time ; and these, which form a large part of the modern
history of the Forest, are fully noticed in the next and
other chapters.
Const.de For. We have Seen that the Forest Court or inquiry into
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 77
offences relating to vert and venison, which was estab-
lished by Canute, was to be held four times in the year.
The Swainmote was also a Court of the Ministers of the
Forest for receiving presentments and trying the truth
of them by a jury of freeholders ; and the direction in wukins, 372.
the law of John, and in the Charter of the Forest, that ^ ^"' ^'
it should not be held oftener than thrice in the year,
seems to imply that it had previously been held more
often. It may therefore have had its origin in Canute's
Court; the Woodmote, as a minor Court, performing the
same functions as that, which under the Normans became
better known as the Court of Attachments. It seems
that the Swainmote was not held in all the Forests, as
the Charter of the Forest directed that it should be only § 8.
in those counties in which it was wont to be held.
Of the three periods fixed for the holding of the ^^■^°''; „
Swainmote, one was fifteen days before the Feast of St.
Michael, when the King's agisters came to agist his
demesne woods; and another about the Feast of St.
Martin, when they came to receive his pannage : to
these two Courts were to come the foresters, verderers,
and agisters. The third Swainmote was to be held at
the beginning of the fifteen days before the Feast of St.
John the Baptist, which was the time of the fawning
of the deer; and to it were to come only the foresters
and the verderers. This arrangement shows the great
importance attached to the King's rights of pannage
for swine, in those forests in which he had demesne
woods.
It was, however, directed by laws made in the ord. For. 34
Ed. I, St. 5, }i;
78 THE FOREST OF ESSEX,
I Ed. 3, St. I, reign of Edward I., and re-enacted during that of
C.8
Edward III., that presentments of trespasses in the
Forest concerning vert and venison, should be before
the foresters, verderers, regarders, agisters, and other
ministers of the Forest by the oath of knights, and other
honest men of the nearest parts; and that the truth
being inquired of, the presentments, with the accord and
consent of all the ministers, should be solemnly confirmed
and sealed with their seals; to which the statute of
Edward III. added that an indictment made in any other
manner should be void.
There were therefore present at the Swainmotes
jurors for each of the Forest bailiwicks, to inquire for
the King upon the Articles of the Forest. ^
§4- The same ordinance of Edward I. directed that
ministers of the Forest who were surchargers {i.e., were
guilty of extortion) should be removed and imprisoned
at the discretion of the justice of the Forest or his lieu-
tenant, those who placed them there being also punish-
able at the King's pleasure. And at every Swainmote
inquiries were to be made of the surcharge of the
foresters and other ministers, "and of their oppressions
done to our people ; and they shall make thereof amends,
and shall be punished as above is expressed." These
enactments show the existence of great irregularities by
Duch. of ^ They had fee deer for their services. In 1489 a scare was ordered
Lane. Jfcc. ^^ ^^ given to William Cooke and his fellows, free tenants of the
PI For Exch. Fo^est. In 1663, and 1667 the underkeepers of Loughton Walk were
Treas. of directed to kill a fat buck of the season for the freeholders, in one of
Bimdie^zT"' these years, of the Forest, and in the other, of the parish of Loughton ;
pt. I, No. 21, and in 1666 the underkeeper of New Lodge Walk received a similar
an/73^°^" '° direction for the beneiit of the freeholders of Waltham and Chingford.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 79
the subordinate Forest officers, who probably lived almost
at free quarters upon the Inhabitants. The next provi-
sion shows that the highest officers were also guilty of
oppression. It declared "that divers people be dis- i Ed. 3, c. 8.
inherited, ransomed, and undone by the chief wardens
(sovereins gardeins) of the Forests on this side Trent
and beyond, and by other ministers against the form of
the Great Charter of the Forest, and against the declara-
tion made by. King Edward, son of King Henry." And
therefore, because the chief wardens (chiefs gardeins) of
the Forests had not observed the same form hitherto, it
was agreed and ordained that from thenceforth no man
should be taken or imprisoned for vert or venison unless
he were taken with the manner,* or else indicted in the
form already mentioned; and then the chief warden
(soverein gardein) of the Forest was to allow him to be
bailed till the Eyre of the Forest without taking any
thing for his deliverance, and in default he should have
a writ for the purpose out of the Chancery. If the
warden, after receiving the writ, did not admit the person
accused to bail, he was to be admitted to bail by the
sheriff in the presence of the verderers, to whom the
names of the bail were to be delivered; and if the
warden were attainted thereof, he was to be liable to
' A man was said to be taken with the manner : — for venison, when
he had wounded a wild beast, and was found with a hound drawing
after him to recover it ; when he was found at a stand ready to shoot
at a deer, or with greyhounds in a leash ready to slip ; when he had
killed a beast, and was found carrying it away ; when he was found in
a Forest in a suspicious manner, and was bloody : and for vert, when
he was found cutting or carrying it away.
8o THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the plaintiff in treble damages, and was also to be com-
mitted to prison and ransomed at the King's will.
Another Act for preventing illegal imprisonments
and ransom of the captives by the officers of the Forest
was passed in the yth year of Richard II.
There are records of several of the Swainmotes held
Duch. of in Waltham Forest. The earliest of these relates to a
Lane. Misc.
!<•«=• Court held at " Bukkershyl " (Buckhurst Hill) on the
6th of October, 1495, before two verderers, three re-
garders, two foresters, five woodwards for the half
hundred of Waltham, and eight free tenants (six others
having made default), thirteen woodwards of the baili-
wick of Ongar, and ten free tenants. It contains
many presentments relating to the destruction of deer
of various ages, either by persons named, by murrain,
or by unknown means; and to the " overleyynge "
of the common by divers persons with " bolokes,"
" schepe," or other animals, the values of which are
specified.
Directions for I havc not scen any records of Swainmotes held in
ordering For.
of Waltham. the 1 6th ccnturv. Tames I. directed that one should be
Camb. MS. J J
Exch. Bills nsld every year at the least ; but Sir Robert Heath said,
Esset^crr!"^?,' i^i 1 62 8, that hunting having been less esteemed by
^°-3'- Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth than by former
Sovereigns, there was less care during their reigns
of the due observance of the Forest laws ; and the
keeping of the Courts of Swainmote and Justice Seat
ch.For.Proc. was almost totally neglected and disused. In 16^0 it
6 Car. I, ^ , . , . . .
No. 153. was found, m answer to the mquiries of the justices,
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 8i
that " the Court of Swainmote hath bin discontinewed
for many yeares."
The revival by Charles I. of the Forest laws led to Chancery For.
the holding- of a Swainmote at Stratford Langthorne, on waitham,
the 14th September, 1630. At this Court there was 143! ^^ ^"
a very full attendance of Ministers. The steward in fee
of the Forest was Robert Earl of Lindsey. Philip Earl of
Pembroke and Montgomery, Chief Forester of Loughton
and Woodford Walks, was absent on the King's service;
but there were present Edward Earl of Norwich, Chief
Forester of Epping, New Lodge, and Chingford Walks ;
Sir Thomas Edmunds, Deputy of the Earl of Lindsey ;
Sir Henry Edmonds, Chief Forester of Chappell Hennault
Walk; Sir Robert Quarles of Leyton and West Hennault,
and Sir Henry Rowe of Walthamstow Walks ; four
verderers, twelve regarders, twenty-seven under-foresters,
eleven woodwards of the woods of the King and others ;
the principal Ranger of the Forest, the Ranger of the
liberty of Havering, and four under-Rangers ; with sixty
free tenants of the half hundred of Waitham, twenty-nine
of the hundred of Ongar, and forty-seven of the hundred
of Becontre ; and for each of those bailiwicks twelve
jurors, to inquire for the lord the King upon the articles
of the Forest ; and a thirteenth, separately named, who,
perhaps, was the foreman.
Of other Swainmotes, one was held at Stratford For. Pro. ch.
Langthorne on the 14th September, 1631, another at c'ar.' 1,°' '
Chigwell on the same day in 1632, at which there was ^^^^^1^0]%.
a great attendance of Ministers ; another at Stratford
82 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Langthorne on the 15th September, 1634, and another
at Brentwood on the nth June, 1640; at the Justice
H.For.Exch. Seat held in 1670, the roll of another Swainmote held on
Tr. of Rect. ' ' ■, r- i ^
County Bags, gth Tune, 1 666, and adjourned to 14th September, 1670,
Essex, No. 8. ^ -^ ' , . , T i i j
was presented. And it may be that some were held
after that date.
The steward of the Forest was present at these
Swainmotes, and the Courts are stated on the Rolls
to have been held before him and the other ministers ;
but he did not sign the Rolls. This is in accordance
Cap. 23, ed. with the remark of Manwood, that " although the chiefe
warden of the Forest doth sometimes use to sit at this
Court, or his lieutenant . . . yet it should seem that the
chiefe Warden of the Forest is no judicial officer appointed
to sit there ; for if hee were, hee could not appoint his
deputy to sit there for him ; for a judiciall place cannot
be executed by a deputie."
The mode of proceeding of the Swainmote was, that
after calling the names of the officers, and fining such as
were absent without good reason, and after swearing the
jurors, the latter made their presentments after this
manner : " It is presented by the 1 2 jurors of the bailwick
of . . . within the Forest of Waltham in the County of
Essex and convicted" {i.e., found to be the fact) "by the
foresters, verderers, regarders, and other ministers of the
said Forest, that A. B. on such a day, within the Forest,
kept one dog unexpeditated. And that the same dog on
such a day, in such a walk within the Forest, chased a
certain male deer called a prickett, against the laws and
assize of the Forest."
THE FOREST LAWS AND COURTS. 83
The fines for the various offences were "-affeered,"
i.e., fixed, and were written In the margin of the roll; a
memorandum being added that this was done, and that
the indictments were affirmed by the assent and consent
of all the foresters, verderers, regarders, and other
officers. The roll (which was of parchment^) was sealed
by the chief foresters, verderers, and regarders, and was
signed by the steward. Every person indicted was then
bound in a penalty of 20/., with two sureties each in 10/., to
appear and answer what should be objected against him
at the next Justice Seat ; not to" depart without the licence
of the Court; and in the meantime to be of good
behaviour towards the King's game, and the vert and
venison of the Forest.
The Swainmote which was held next before the Court
of Justice Seat, had also before it the return of the regarders
of the Forest, whose duty, as will be shown more fully in
the next chapter, was to view the trespasses done in the
Forest every third year before the holding of the Justice
Seat, and to present the Regard roll at the Swainmote.
The province of the Swainmote was therefore to inquire
whether an act alleged to be an offence against the Forest
law had been committed ; and if it had, to certify the
fact, and to fix the proper fine on the assumption that it
was an offence : the power of deciding that it was so, and
of punishing the delinquent, being reserved to the Court
of Justice Seat over which the Chief Justice of the Forests
' At a Justice Seat for Windsor Forest each verderer was fined 20/. sir -w. Jones,
for delivering in their rolls on paper, .when they ought to be engrossed ^^P- 267-
on parchment.
G 2
84
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Ben. Abb.
{M. R. Ser.)
I- 323-
Stubbs, Sel.
Ch. 127.
An. 1 198,
Hoveden,
vol. 4. P- 63
(M.R. Series).
Exch. Lord
Treas. Re-
membcer.
Memda.
z8 H. 3.
Cotton Roll
xiii. 5.
4th Inst. 291.
or his deputy presided. The manner of holding the
Court of Justice Seat is minutely described by the Earl
of Warwick in his letter which has been set out in the
first chapter. It is by no means clear at what date the
Court was established, in the form in which we find it
in the earliest of the Waltham records.
The office of Chief Justice of the Forests was at an
early period combined with that of Master Forester ; but
several justices were assigned to a single forest or group
of forests by Henry II. ; who also appointed Master
Foresters both of his own forests and of those of his
barons and knights. These justices visited the forests at
the same time when the justices itinerant went their cir-
cuits ; at which time it was required by an ordinance of
Richard I., that through all the counties through which
they went, they should convene before them at the Pleas
of the Forest, the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and
all free tenants ; and from each vill a reeve and four men,
to hear the precepts of the King.
A writ commanding the Sheriff of Essex to allow
Alicia de Holdeng and her tenants to be free from an
amercement made at the last Iter of the Forest before the
King's justices, they having already paid their share,
proves that a Forest Court was held in Essex before 1 244 ;
and the fragmentary record of a Court held in 1250, refers
to one held by Robert Passlewe, which may have been
the Court at which he deprived Richard de Munfichet of
the Stewardship of the Forest.
The Court of Justice Seat was not to be held oftener
than every third year, and was actually held at much
longer intervals. It was summoned forty days before the
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 85
time fixed for the sitting, by the sheriff of the county
under the King's writ. And its duties were not only to Manwood,
• 1 1 . , ch. 24,
punish by fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the
judge, offences against the Forest laws, which had been
already examined and "convicted" by the Swainmote,
and such as were presented at the Justice Seat itself, but
to determine claims of liberties and franchises ; such as
the rights to have parks, warrens, and coney burrows, to
be quit of assarts and purprestures, to be out of the
Regard of the Forest, to kill beasts of chase, and other
matters of the like nature.
It also performed within the Forest many of the
duties which were commonly discharged by the Court
Leet of a manor. It dealt with the decay of bridges, the Answers to
deepening of fords, the neglect to scour ditches, to mend inquiries,
ways, and to train hedges ; the blocking up of sewers ; no. 153'
{z\ Scot
and the keeping of unlicensed ale-houses : with the 1630). '
broken bridges and foul ways, as preventing the lord the
King from hunting in the Forest without danger; and
his subjects from passing thereon without great peril to
their lives and loss of their things and goods, " to the
grievous damage of the Forest." In one case we are
told that in frosty weather in consequence of the overflow
of a sewer, " the isse standeth and doth ofend the King's
deere, that they cannot have noe passage over the
grownd."
Another finding sets forth that Locke Bridge, within
the precinct of the Forest, and leading from Waltham-
stow to Hackney, was cleane decayed and broken down.
"And that one Clement Serbye " (who might have
studied his profession under Peter of the Brig, celebrated
86 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
in "The Monastery"), "doth exercise a Ferrye there, and
will not pass over any poore Passengers be they never
soe many in number, unlesse they will paye to him a
half penny a peece both for goeing and comeing. And
will not carry horses over, unless the Owners thereof will
give to him such prices as hee will demand, although the
water be never so dangerous to passe over."
Ch. For. Proc. Again, it was presented that a great stone bridge,
6 Car, I,
called Bow bridge, and a certain other stone bridge called
Charl . . bridge, otherwise Channeles bridge, both in the
Forest, in the parish of Westham ; and a certain path,
in English a "causway," leading from Bow bridge to
the vill of Stratford Langthorne, were ruinous, broken,
and in great downfall for default of repair and mending
thereof Then it was found that Henry Mewtys, of West
Ham, by reason of a certain mill (called Wiggen Mill),
and lands of which he was tenant,* and which were situate
near the site of the late monastery of Stratford Lang-
thorne, ought to repair the said bridges and causeway ;
and he saying nothing in bar, the sheriff was ordered to
distrain upon his lands.
Alehouses were also under the jurisdiction of the
Justice Seat. They were always treated as nuisances,
because they harboured poachers and the numerous
. Plac. For. vagabonds who resorted to the forests. At the Justice
ofRcct. ' Seat of 1670, the Lord Chief Justice (Sir Thomas Fanshaw,
Lysou's ' These bridges were built, and the road made, by Matilda of
^f i."°d^ Scotland, the Queen of Henry I. She also gave manors, and the
vol. 3. 390'. mill mentioned above, formerly called Wiggen Mill, to the Abbess of
Barking to repair them.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 87
deputy of the Earl of Oxford), by the advice of Chief county Bags,
Justice Vaughan, Justice Wyld, and Baron Wyndham, 22 Car. i.
and the King's Counsel present, declared that the trade
was a " nusans " to the forests; and that no person could
use it without the licence of the Chief Justice in Eyre
without being liable to punishment by the Forest laws,
with which the licences of the justices of the peace could
not dispense.
The records of the Justice Seat held in 1631 contain ch.For.Pioc.
an exact account of the names of all the then keepers of
alehouses and victuallers in the following 16 vills of the
Forest. There were in
Great Ilford, 3. Dagenham, alehouse keeper, 1 ;
Little Ilford, i. victualler, i.
Loughton, 3. Lambourn, alehouse keepers, 2 ;
Waltham Holy Cross, 21 ; and innkeeper, r.
innholders, 2. Walthamstow, 7.
Roydon hamlet, i . Chigwell, 7.
Layton, 5. Wanstead, i.
Chingford, 3. Woodford, 5.
Epping, innholders, 5 ; victu- Stratford Longthorne, 9 ; and
allers, 10. innholders, z.
Barking, 6 ; and innholders, 3.
The licences contained a condition that the persons Attachment
licensed should not entertain or harbour any deer-stealers 1749!
or persons suspected to be such, and should In all things
behave themselves according to the laws and customs of
the Forest.
In these and other matters the Chief Justices of the
Forest assumed considerable powers. Several proclama- By Lord
. , , .^ Breadalbane
tlons are extant m which they empowered the Forest m 1757 ; Lord
officers to kill all dogs trespassing in the Forest ; to seize Mr. Grenvme^
1809.
88 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
all guns and nets kept without authority ; all wood, under-
wood, turf, &c. cut or dug without licence; and all
horses, carts, and materials used in carrying them ; and to
search alehouses^ for unlawful guns, nets, and weapons ;
and required the verderers to sell the things taken for
the benefit of the captors. The beadles and other Forest
officers were also ordered to give notice of the proclama-
tions in the towns, churches, and other public places in
or adjoining the Forest.
The records of the Justice Seats of 1250 (38 H. III.),
1277 (5 Ed. I.), and 1292 (20 Ed. I.), show that the Forest
government was then extended over a large portion of
the county of Essex which was disafforested in 29
PI. For. Edw. I. The Court of 1277 was held at Chelmsford,
S Ed. I. . .
and its proceedings include pleas of vert and venison
concerning the half hundreds of Lexden, Wenstre, and
Thurstaple, as well as of the hundred of Waltham ; the
quarrel already mentioned about the Abbess of Barking's
oak tree, being among the entries. Many persons are
fined ; some give pledges, and others are presented for
offences against vert. One found sureties and paid a
mark. Another was ordered by the sheriff to attend the
Court, but "because he is feeble he is pardoned for the
King" {i.e., for the benefit of the King's soul). And
other entries were made to which I shall have occasion
to refer hereafter.
Then came presentments about the inclosure of
parks and warrens ; and pleas of venison of the hundreds
' This direction was omitted in 1789 and 1809, being probably
considered to be beyond the powers of the Chief Justice.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 89
of Harlow, Ongar, and Waltham ; the regard of Col-
chester and of Ongar; and many entries relating to
wastes of woods, and to old and new assarts ; and then
the roll of charters, including those of the Abbots of
Stratford, of Waltham, and St. Paul's, London.
At the Justice Seat of 1292, also held at Chelmsford, Exch. Treas.
. ., , , . ' , r ^^ of Rect. Plac.
Similar matters are dealt with, and are more fully re- For. No. 2. a.
corded; and in addition we have the presentment that
the Forest extended from Stratford bridge to Cattewad
bridge, and from the Thames to the Stanstrete.
The next Justice Seat of which the record remains pi. For. Exch.
Treas of
was held in 1323-4 (17 Ed. II.) at "Stratford Bow." Rect.' County
In this case the inrolment of the charters precedes the No. 3.
presentments and the claims. The charter roll includes pi. For. Ex.
Treas. of
the charter of the hundred of Tendring, by which " two Rect.'
hundreds of Tendring" were disafforested, and many m. 10! d.
other charters and claims of liberties in the Forest, some
of which are allowed, but others, for which no warrant
was shown, are referred to the King. And a present-
ment was again made as to the extended bounds of the
Forest corresponding with that of 1292. This was
probably intended as a protest against the disafforestation
of 1301, and to preserve the King's rights such as they
were over the disafforested districts.
I have seen no records of the holding of any other
Justice Seats for 165 years after that of 1323-4, nor any
records of Swainmotes before 1495. It may be that the
ravages of the plague in 1349, 1362, and 1369 prevented
the holding of the regular Forest Courts during the latter
half of the 14th century.
90 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Duch. of The next Justice Seat of which there is a record
Rec. 4H. 7. was held in 1489 at Waltham Holy Cross. Its pro-
ceedings are recorded at great length. First we have
an exemplification of the King's letters patent appointing
the justices of the Forest, the original having been lost ;
then the justices' precept to the sheriff to summon
twenty-four honest and lawful men of every hundred
within the Forest, and round about the same, who were
Seethe to inquire and do those things which then and there
Ordinance of ^ _ °
R. I, su-pra. shouM be enjoined them on the part of the King.
Charge of c.j. These inquiries (of which in 1634 there were 03)
Harl. MSS. , ^ . , ., . , '
6839, fo. 261. extend to the mmutest details concernmg the acts of
the officers and inhabitants and other people in the
Forest which were contrary to its laws or might tend to
its injury ; and conclude with a comprehensive direction
to make true presentment of the state of the Forest, by
setting forth its bounds, the number of its bailiwicks,
and of the officers and ministers in every bailiwick, its
woods, coppices, and timber trees ; and how many deer,
male and female, red and fallow, were in each bailiwick.
The precept goes on to direct the sheriff to cause
proclamation to be made in markets, fairs, and other
public places within the county, that all who claimed
liberties, franchises, privileges, or profits within the
Forest should come and show by what right they
claimed them ; and that the sheriff and the bailiffs of
the hundreds should also come with the names of the
men and the precept.
Then comes the return (response) of the sheriff,
Henry Teye, Esq., stating his compliance with the
precept, and giving the names of the men sworn for
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 91
the hundreds of Becontre and Waltham Holy Cross, and
the half hundred of Waltham.
Next, a precept by the justices to the warden of
the Forest, requiring him to cause to come before them
all the foresters, verderers, regarders, agisters, wood-
wards, and all other ministers of the Forest, with rolls,
writs, tallies, and other things come to pass since the
last pleas, " every one for his own time, and as it
concerns his own ■ duties separately to answer and to
act: " and to summon the fre6 tenants who have lands
or tenements within the metes of the Forest, and from
every town and village within the Forest and county
four men and the provost (reeve) ; from every borough
there twelve honest and lawful men, and all others who
ought to come before the justices ; and all attached
or "convicted" persons detained in custody, or en-
larged on bail, or by surety, for trespasses of vert and
venison within the Forest and county done since the last
pleas, with their bail and sureties; and all persons claim-
ing liberties or franchises in the Forest.
Then the response of John Earl of Oxford, the Cus-
todian (Warden) of the Forest, containing the names of
the Forest officers, viz., the lieutenant (locum tenens), the
riding forester, and four other foresters, the ranger, the
verderers, the regarders, the woodwards (the agisters
and keepers of parks being blank), twenty-one free
tenants, and seventeen vills, with their four men and
reeves ; but no burgesses — none of the Forest vills being
corporate towns ; and those who claimed liberties in the
Forest, viz., the Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, the Abbot
of Waltham, the Abbess of Berkyng, the Prioress of
92
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Stratford-at-Bow, the Abbot of Stratford Langthorn, the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and the laymen ; to all
of whom time was granted to bring in their claims.
Then a number of presentments, some relating to
vert, some to venison, some to the surcharging of the
Forest pasture, and one to the stopping of a public way.
Then the regarders' return.
Then warrants by the justices to the keeper of the
Forest, or his lieutenant, to deliver fee deer to divers
officers of the Forest, viz., to Robert Plumer and his
fellows, verderers of the Forest aforesaid, one male deer
and one female deer in winter; to James Blount, Knight,
lieutenant of the Forest, one male deer; to Reginald
Sic. Pympe and Richard Barle and his fellows, regarders of
the Forest, two deer called soures, and two female deer
in winter ; to the clerk of the Swainmote one deer ; to
William Cooke, Gent., and his fellows, free tenants of
the Forest aforesaid, one soure ; to William Heydon,
one of the clerks in Session, one male deer ; to William
Jerlofeld, another clerk in Session, one male deer ; and
to Richard Harpur, " our deputy in the office aforesaid,"
four oaks and one male deer ; and in each warrant is
added, " taken of our gift as the " \name of office] "there
at whatever session there held in Eyre of the state of
the Forest, by ancient and laudable custom have hitherto
been used and accustomed to have."
Then comes a list of the persons found to have
offended against the Forest laws, and their sureties.
The first is M. Ciprian de Turner, of London, Gentylman;
and another Lombard, to wit, Ambrosius de Saluagiis,
of London, merchant; with three other London merchants,
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 93
all apparently foreigners, and other offenders, some of
London, and others living in or near the Forest.
Lastly come the claims of a great number of land-
owners in the Forest to rights and privileges which, as
they alleged, had been granted to them, and the
evidences of which, so far as was in their power, they
produced.
In 1558, Queen Mary directed Sir Edward Walgrave, st.Pap.Dom.
Sir William Petre, Sir Henry Tirrell, Serjeant Browne, No. 44,
Mr. Sollycytor, Mr. Earners and Mr. Powle, who had ^'' ^'^'^' '^^^"
been appointed by "Therle of Sussex, Chief Justice of
the Forests on thisyde Trent " to be his deputies,^ to be
attendant at Ilford for the purpose of holding a Court of
Justice Seat on the 22nd August.
This Court was probably held, although no record
of it has been found; for on the 24th February, 1564, st.Pap.Dom.
Queen Elizabeth directed Serjeant (then Justice) Browne no.'zo.
to act for the Earl of Sussex at the adjourned sessions
to be held upon Tuesday before Shrove Sunday ;
remarking that he had assisted the Earl of Sussex with
his advice at the sessions lately held by him for the
Forest " w*^ we p'ceave yo'^ did very well to the furder-
ance of ou' service."
A letter written by Robert Johnson to the Earl of st.Pap.Dom.
Salisbury, Lord High Treasurer, on the 30th March, 16 10, No." 50.^° ' ^^'
appears to show that although the holding of Justice
Seats was then unfrequent, one or more may have been
* The Earl was performing his duties as Deputy in Ireland.
94
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Ch. For. Proc.
6 Car. r,
!No. 130.
Plac. For.
Excli. Treas.
of Rect. Co.
Bags, Essex,
No. 8.
22 Car. 2.
St. Pap. Dom.
Car. I,
vol. 27s,
No. 21.
held between that year and 1564. The writer suggests
that the presentments of the Swainmotes should be yearly
returned into the Exchequer, and be by Act of Parlia-
ment " made a little more fortefyed," observing that as
they now lie idle till a Justice Seat be kept, (which is so
rare' that it is scarce once in twenty years) they have no
execution at all ; and he remarks that to help this by
keeping yearly Justice Seats " wold charge his Ma''®
more than the pfitt wold amount to."
There are records of three other Justice Seats, which
were all held at Stratford Langthorne — one on the 21st
September, 163 1 ; another on the ist October, 1634,
and by adjournment on the 8th April, 1635, when the
memorable scenes recorded in the last chapter, and in
which Sir John Finch took a leading part, were enacted ;
and the last on 30th September, 1670, at which nothing
more remarkable is to be noticed than the severity of
some of the fines inflicted. One person who had twice
offended by killing deer was fined in each case 30/. ; but
each fine was afterwards reduced to 10/. Another, sub-
mitting to be fined for a like offence committed by his
son, had to pay 20/. And another for cutting oaks,
valued at 20s., was fined 10/., which was afterwards re-
duced to 5/. Of inclosures and purprestures, some were
arrented and others ordered to be thrown down.
Lyson's
Environs of
I-ondon, 4.
133-
Buxton's
Epp. For.
It has been said that Queen Elizabeth's Lodge at
Chingford was designed and used for the holding of the
lesser Forest Courts.^ I can find no evidence of its being
' According to tradition, it was used by Queen Elizabeth as a lodge
when she resorted to the Forest ; and until given to the Conservators,
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 95
SO used, and certainly none of the Courts of Justice Seat or
Swainmote, of which records have been found, were held
there.
In the reigns of James I. and of Elizabeth the Court
of Attachments was held at ChigTvell ; and in and after
17 13 its sittings were always " apud le King's Head
in Chigwell." This was probably also "the house Camb. ms.
of Bibby," at Chigwell, to which, in 1630 and 1632,
the bailiff of the Forest was directed to summon the
constables to appear before the Forest officers, for the
purpose of choosing the four men. In this quaint and
pleasant inn may still be seen the room in which the
Court of Attachments was held,^ and also an arched recess
in the cellar, made to hold the wine which served for the
revels of the ministers of the Forest, after the graver
labours of the day. One source from which that recess
was filled is pointed out by the following entry in the
rolls of the Court under the date of 3rd June, 1723 : —
" Ordered y' every person y* has the permission of a
Lycense to shoot, hunt, &c. in y® fforest of Waltham,
before he be permitted to enter y® same, shall pay to y®
officers at y Court when the same shall be entered 3 doz°
of Wine."
, We have seen that the punishments by death and
mutilation which in very early times were ordered to be
it was a Forest lodge belonging to the Crown. The roof appears to
be of earlier date than the reign of Elizabeth, and the lodge may have
been built for and used by earlier Sovereigns.
' It is now called the "Chester Room," after one of the principal
characters in "Barnaby Rudge," in which Dickens introduces the
"house as " The Maypole Inn."
96 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
inflicted for offences against the Forest laws, were
abolished by Richard I. and John. As the earliest
Justice Seat of which there is a tolerably complete
record was held in 5th Edward I., we have no in-
formation as to the perpetration of these barbarities in
the Forest of Essex ; and in truth there appears to
be very little evidence beyond the general statement of
the chroniclers, of their infliction anywhere by the Forest
Courts.
The object of such punishments must have been to
strike terror into offenders by sharp and quick retribution,
for which the proceedings of the Courts were very ill
Assise of adapted. Even in the time of Henry II., before the
\ 12. ' abolition of the penalties of death and mutilation, pledges
were ordered to be taken for the first and second trans-
gressions against the Forest laws ; it was only on the
third offence that the body of the offender was to be
answerable ; and it seems more likely that the cruelties
of which complaints were made, and which were certainly
authorized by the more ancient Forest laws, were com-
mitted by such tribunals as those of which the Saxon
chronicler complains, than by Courts which moved in as
leisurely a manner as the ancient Court of Chancery ;
first by presentment, then by " conviction," and lastly,
after a period which might easily be three years or even
longer, from the date of the original offence, by punish-
ment.
But this system was admirably adapted to harass
offenders ; they were obliged to attend, first, before the
Court of Attachments ; then at the Swainmote, with
their sureties, as often as the Forest ministers might
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 97
think fit to summon them ; and lastly, under pain of fine
and imprisonment if absent, and with the certainty of
fine, if not of imprisonment, when present at the Justice
Seat.
And the fines in those days were very heavy, as
may be seen in the case of Henry le Martre, who, in the Madox, Hist,
reign of John, to be quit of the trespass of being found quer, i. 499.
in the King's Forest with harriers, beating the King's ^•'°^°' "^ '
foresters, and other Forest transgressions, paid sixty
marks ; a sum which at the present day would amount to
much more than 500/.
A pecuniary fine was the punishment commonly
inflicted by the Forest Courts in later times. In the
earlier Essex records, fines with the alternative of im-
prisonment, and imprisonment for contempt of, or dis-
obedience to the orders of, the Court, or for offences by
the officers of the Forest, are not unfrequently mentioned.
And that many persons were imprisoned for offences
against the Forest laws, appears from the grant by which
James I. authorized the Earl of Oxford to build a gaol 22 May,
for their confinement ; though having regard to the rarity pL. LoJd
of Justice Seats, it is not clear by what authority they Tra™eef'°" ^
were confined in it. °' ^ '
Although the Courts had cognizance only of offences
committed within the Forests, they were armed with
power to reach offenders who had escaped beyond their
boundaries. The Assise of Clarendon directed, that stubbs' Sei.
if any sheriff notified to another sheriff that a man had j^x™.' '^'*'
fled from his county for (amongst other things) an of-
fence against the King's Forests, he should take him.
F. H
98 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
'^Ed'^"'^' '^^^^ power was exercised in Waltham Forest in 1277,
when Thomas Thurkyld of Yarmouth, with his workmen,
having" made great destruction in one of the Forest
woods, and having resisted the attempt of the King's
forester to attach him, was compelled to come by the
sheriff of Norfolk ; and for resisting the attachment was
adjudged to prison and fined 20^-. by the pledges of
Geoffry le Paumer of Walden, and Richard son of Martin
of Colchester.
^-f^- P™^' At the same Court, and at that held in 1292, divers
of Rect. Plac. -^ '
For. 20 Ed. I. persons were ordered to be imprisoned; one for a
trespass of vert, and for not appearing when summoned
until brought by the sheriff ; another for a like offence in
the forbidden month, and for not suffering himself to be
attached ; and a third for taking to his own use the
profits of land seised into the King's hands for waste.
Offenders who could not be found or did not come, were
put in exigent, that is to say, proclaimed at the Sheriff's
Court as a step preliminary to outlawry.
A more serious fate nearly overtook one Searle, a
member of the Grand Jury at the Justice Seat of 1634,
which was convened for the purpose of bringing back the
Letter of Earl Forests to their former illegal limits. For producine to
of Warwick, , ^ , t i r t^- t ■■ / ,
sup. p. 43. the Grand Jury a record of Kmg John (doubtless that
by which he disafforested the county north of Stanstrete)
Searle was transmitted to the Star Chamber, but was
afterwards pardoned.
c ■ ■^rkxch ■^^ ■^^^^ several persons were severely dealt with for
Treas.'of contcmpt. A fine of 20/. imposed upon Lord Middle-
Rect. County '-
Bags, Essex, sex, probably for non-appearance, was discharged ; but
Abraham Church, having been fined a like sum for
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. 59
contempt and misdemeanour in Court, was ordered to be
committed until payment ; while John Harris, for striking
the crier in the face of the Court, was committed, and
on the next day brought to the bar, fined 100/., and
committed to close imprisonment until he paid it.
The fines varied much in amount. In 1277, many ^i- For.
Regarders were fined for concealment, generally each
half a mark {6s. Sd.), one /^od., and one 10^. ; and town-
ships each half a mark for not having fully come, i. e. for
not sending the proper number of tenants, to the Court :
and fines, varying from one to twenty marks, and some-
times imprisonment, were inflicted for unlawful hunting
and receiving the stolen venison. But Reginald, the
porter of Waltham Abbey, was only fined one mark for
the latter offence. In another case, the Preceptor of the
Templars of London and their bailiff being the offenders,
the bailiff was ordered to be proclaimed ; and Stephen
de Ayeneste, a brother knight of Roger de Rolbynge the
Preceptor, appearing as his attorney, made a fine of
20 marks, " whereof the Master of the Knights Templars
in Engfland will answer." Sometimes, as in the case of pi. For.
1 . ... 20 Ed. I,
Thomas de Ardern, Knight, m 1292, it is noticed that Treas.ofRect.
the culprit *' is pardoned for the King s soul, because he Essex, No. 2.
is poor."
At the Swainmote in 1632, the fines, although For. Proc.
" afifeered " by the Court at only half the sums written thamFor.'
in the margin of the roll, were yet considerable. Amongst 6 Car.' i,
them were fines of 305. for keeping an unexpeditated dog ; """ ^''°'
5/. for killing a fawn ; 50 marks (33/. 6^. %d) for making
a coney burrow, which was also ordered to be destroyed,
H 3
xoo THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
and the burrows to be stopped ; and 20/. for placing", on
divers days, engines made of ropes, to take the game of
the lord the King,
c^'mi" ■'^^ 1634 the fines were "afifeered" by the Swainmote
Aam For. at the Same rate. A forester, fined 5/. for killing a hind
No 140. without warrant, appears to have been pardoned as to
the fine, but to have been put out of his office ; a hus-
bandman had to pay 3/. 65-. ^d. for keeping four hare
nets and two cross-bows with arrows ; and an under-
forester 20^-. for not affirming in Court a presentment
which he had made at the Court of Attachments.
Offences against vert were generally, as is stated to
\ xxi. have been the practice at the date of Canute's Code,
punished by very small fines, or only presented, unless
the offender was an officer of the Forest, or the offence
Consuet. de was aggravated by violence or contempt of Court. For
head, sut. wasting a wood a fine of half a mark was fixed by an
^^■^■^ ■ ancient Forest law. But in the 13 th century, when the
King had seized a wood for waste, no more than this
sum was required to be paid both for the waste and for
re-delivery of the wood.
pi.For.Excii. In 1670 the entries for offences against vert include
Re^ct!' County a fine of 2ol'. for cutting forty trees, each' of the value of
^ags^ <ssex, g^ g^_ A purprcsturc, by the enlargement of a mansiou-
22 Car. 2. house, cost 2o/., which the offender wisely elected to pay,
rather than have his. house pulled down, and be fined
5/. for the trespass.
Inclosures by Lord Grey of Werke, and the cutting
of logs by the Earl of Manchester, although admitted,
were not "convicted" by the Court, by reason of privi-
lege of Parliament.
THE FOREST LA WS AND COURTS. loi
The difference in the purchasing power of money at
various times must of course be considered, in judging of
the burdens imposed by these fines. The amount of a
fine inflicted in the 15 th century ought, according to the
estimate of Mr. Thorold Rosrers, to be multiplied by six. Centuries
, . . , , . , , , ofWorkand
twelve to ascertam its present value ; and m the 13th and Wages, 1886,
14th centuries, when in Essex a hen was valued aX id.,
100 eggs at 2)d., a cow at 6s. 8d., a heifer at 2s., and six ckimof
Heiuy de
sheep at ks., the difference would be much greater. cokynton,
I2Q2.
Some few fines were inflicted in the 1 8th century by inquisitions,
the Court of Attachments, but these were almost always 48 Ed! 3!
under the modern statutory powers vested in the Court ; Misc.For.
and there was no means of enforcing them except by roE°44.'
application to the justices of the peace.
The Steward of the Forest Courts.
The Court of Attachments and the Swainmote, had a
steward, who in modern times was appointed by the Lord
Warden. It was the duty of this officer to enter the
proceeding's of the Courts in the proper books, to enrol Memorial of
. ■■ , 1 ^1 • r T • , . , Earl Tylney,
licences eranted by the Chief Justice, and to swear in the Attach.
^ Z , Roll, i; Sept.
Forest officers.^ 1777.
^ In 17 19 Sir George Cooke was appointed by Chief Justice the Attach. Roll,
Earl of Tankerville to be Clerk of the Iter of the Forests south of Trent '3 Oct. 1719-
during his will and pleasure ; and this is the only entry which I have
found relating to this officer. It may be that the duties of Clerk at the
Court of Justice Seat were at an earlier date performed by the Clerks
102
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
For. Roll,
No. 90,
Harl. Rot.
C.C. 13.
Cli.For.Proc.
Waltham,
No. 140.
10 Car. I.
Hist, of the
Rebellion,
I- 324-
Rushworth,
8. 702.
Sometimes these officers signed the rolls as Seneschals
or Stewards of the Forest, which was the ancient title of
the Lord Warden. This was done by Thomas Powle in
1590, and by John Winche on the Regard and Swain-
mote Rolls in 1630. Their much more famous successor,
Oliver St. John, was content to sign himself " Steward "
at the foot of the Swainmote roll in 1634.
This stern Republican, who was afterwards Solicitor-
General and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, is de-
scribed by Clarendon as a man reserved and of a dark
and clouded countenance^ ; very proud, and conversing
with very few, and those men of his own humour and
inclinations.
It was probably his experience at the Forest Swain-
mote, which suggested to him the shameful illustration
by which he supported his argument in favour of the
attainder of Strafford. " Frustra legis auxilium invocat,
qui in legem committit^'' he is reported to have said ; "he
that would not have had others to have a Law, why should
he have any himself? Why should not that be done to
him, that himself would have done to others ? It's true
we give Lav/ to Hares and Deers, because they be Beasts
of Chase. It was never accounted either cruelty or foul
play to knock Foxes and Wolves on the head, as they
can be found, because these be Beasts of Prey. The
Mat. for Hist, of Session, each of whom, as we have seen, was entitled to a fee deer,
of reign of ^ j j^^^g j^^j. fgund any note about the remuneration of the Clerk of the
p. 466 (M. i?.. Swainmote in the Essex Forest. In Rockingham Forest each of the
Senes). ^^q clerks had 25J. per annum.
Diary, 12th ' Pepys, who met him after his retirement at Hinchinbroke, where
October,i662. }jg ^^^^ staying with his daughter, Mrs. Bernard, says, " he looks now
like a very plain, grave man."
THE STEWARD OF THE FOREST COURTS. 103
Warrener sets traps for Polcats and other Vermine for
preservation of the Warren."
In 1 64 1, Thomas Coke, one of the persons sum- ^^'J^^^e
moned for the perambulation of the Forest, is described 17 Car. r.
as Steward of the Forest; but he was probably only-
Steward of the Courts.
In 1 77 1 , a dispute arose about the right of Earl Tylney
to appoint the Steward of the Court of Attachments. John
Price, appointed in 17 13, and his successor, Eliab Harvey,
had both been appointed by the Earl's father; and on
the death of Harvey, in 1769, the Earl appointed John
Coxe to be Steward, with the assent of the verderers. roUs, 8 June,
But when, on his resignation in 1770, Sir James Long, Rouj^jjuiy,
as attorney for Earl Tylney, appointed Peregrine Bertie '7'*-
to the office, the verderers refused to admit the appoint-
ment, as being exceptionable in matter of form and law.
And in 1777 they repeated their refusal, and claimed the RoUs,i7Sept.
1777-
right of appointment for themselves.
The Earl and Mr. Bertie then appealed to Sir
Fletcher Norton, the Chief Justice of the Forests south of
Trent, who, on the ground that the Earl and his prede-
cessors were holders of the Bailiwick of all the Forest of
Essex and keepers and stewards of the Forest, and that
he and his father, in right of the said offices, had ap-
pointed the Steward of the Court, ratified the appoint- RoUs,i7Sept.
ment of Mr. Bertie, and ordered that he should be ad- '^''^"
mitted.
The verderers did not acquiesce in this decision ;
the Courts were in consequence interrupted, and their
powers paralysed ; and there is a hiatus in the records
between 29th July, 1771, and 17 th September, 1777, and
I04 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
another between 5th August, 1782, and 4th July, 1785;
RoUs, 4ju]y, but in 1 7 85 an entry was made on the rolls stating that
no Courts had been legally held during the dispute, by
reason of which the Forest, " as to deer and timber, have
laid open to depredations to all who chose to rob or tres-
pass on the same." And that Sir J. T. Long and the
verderers present, "in great respect and regard to the
said Sir James Tylney Long, agreed that upon the
resignation of Mr. Bertie he should again be appointed,"
the entry being in the same words as were used at the
appointment of Mr. Coxe by Earl Tylney ; but it was to
be without prejudice thereafter to the rights claimed by
any of the parties ; and all entries made by Mr. Bertie
or by Mr. Hutchinson (the rival steward appointed by the
verderers) in the books of the Court, were to be deemed
null and void, and never used as records of the Court.
This practically ended the dispute ; for on the death
of Mr. Bertie, in 1787, the verderers assented to the
RoUs,26Sept. appointment by Sir James Tylney Long of Mr. Skirrow;
/<;. 28juiy, on his death, in 1794, to that of Mr. Bullock; and on
'''^''' his resignation to the appointment, in 1796, by Lady
7^.20 June, Catherine Tylney Long, guardian of the then infant
''^^' Lord Warden, of Mr. Arnold.
Id. 10 Aug. The office was afterwards held by Mr. Tomlyns,
7<f. iSSept. appointed in 181 2; by Mr. Rankin, appointed in 1830;
/I?9ju]y, ^"^ ^" ^^31 by Mr. Cutts. Mr. J. C. Williams was
'^31- steward in 1849, Mr. Withers in 1864, and Mr. F.
Driving . ^^ ^
Warrant, M. Russell in 1 87 1. Each of these officers was ap-
30 May, 1849. 1 T 1
Apptmt. pointed by the Lord Warden to be Steward of the
Appt'mt. Court of Attachments, and of all other Courts of the
7 July, 187 1.
Pen. Ld. Forest.
Momington's
Trustees.
( 105 )
CHAPTER III.
Of the Justices and Ministers
of the Forest.
" Wa command and strictly enjoin you to cause to come before us or
" our deputies in this behalf at Waltham Holy Cross ... all the
" Foresters, Verderers, Regarders, Agisters, Woodwards, and all other
" Ministers of the Forest," '
The Forest Justices.
HE office of Master Forester and Justice of all
the Royal Forests in England had been filled by-
Alan de Nevill from 1 166 to 1 175, and by his son of the r. deHove-
same name, who during part of that time appears to have Abb. Waiter
acted as his deputy; but on the death, in 1184, of An. ns","^'
Thomas Fitzbernard, who had succeeded the elder of°Eng. 1.284.
Nevill, Henry II. divided the Forests into two districts,
one of which included those on the north, and the other
those on the south of the Trent ; ^ and appointed over
' Precept of the Forest Justipes to the Custodian of the Forest of Duchy of
Waltham Holy Cross, 1489. RecordP'"'
" But Hoveden in another place says that in 1189 Hugo de Nevilla y^j g
was chief of the Justices of all the Forests in England. He was M. R. Senes.
called Cuuelu.
io6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
each of them four justiciaries — two of whom were
knights, and two clerics — with two servants of his
household, to be keepers of venison and vert over all
other Forest officers, both of the King and of his barons
and knights ; and these were sent to hold Pleas of the
Forest according to the Forest laws.
It is difficult to distinguish between the duties in
these early times of the Forest justices and of the
steward of the Forest, as to the custody of venison and
vert, which Henry II. thus vested in the justiciaries.
The titles of warden and keeper of the Forest were borne
both by them and by the steward ; and that the duties of
the justices were not very clearly defined appears from
Annaies the fact that a question arose in the 13th century whether
Monastici _ "^
(M.R. Series), the Chief Justice or the King's bailiffs^ were to be
I. 251, An. -' °
I23S- answerable for vert and venison in the Forests. The
decision of the King in Council was that the Chief
Justices had the full custody of all the Forests, as well
those which were the King's demesnes as others ; and
that the bailiffs of the King's demesnes had those things
in the King's woods which belonged to their manors,
such as nuts, honey, and pannage ; and agistment by
view of the agisters and foresters ; and herbage for the
King's cattle by the view and advice of the Chief Justice ;
or, for the greater convenience of the King, by the view
of the verderers and foresters. And if there were woods
which did not belong to any of the King's manors, then
Matth. Paris, * Geofifty de Langley, mentioned in a later page, was the King's
voK*3 p.^82 bailiff as well as Justice of the Forests.
(m!r. Series).
THE FOREST JUSTICES. 107
the Chief Justice should keep and absolutely be answer-
able for them.
It would probably be impossible to ascertain the
names of all the ancient Justiciaries of the Forest ; and
of many of them nothing is recorded which relates par-
ticularly to the Forest of Essex.
It is not quite clear whether Aubrey de Ver, Earl of
Oxford, was Justiciary and Master Forester, or Forester
of Essex (which appears to have been the same office as
that.of steward) in the early years of John ; when the King
directed him to allow certain -persons to hunt in the Forest, ciaus. Rot.
and to permit the Bishop of London to take a limited (r.c.))p.i29.
number of deer, and to make inclosures. for his cattle, pp. '140b, 146,
Later in the same reign, Hugh de Nevill and his son ^^^^ ^^^^
each held the oificeoi Protho/orestarms or Master Forester; '7 J°i™
the Lord Hugh de Nevill being also called Justiciary of p- 144, Matth.
the Forests in 1228 ; and in the reign of Henry III., John For. Pi-oc.
de Nevill, having been accused by Robert de Passelewe Antiqi^s
of grave offences, was heavily fined and removed from his no^.^88!'
office.
Passelewe, who afterwards held it, was in 1233 one Matth. Pans,
of the Assistant Keepers of the Royal Treasury, and by voi!2,ppf3'53,
the counsel and judgment of him and of Stephen de (m.'r. s.).
Segrave his colleague, the Bishop of Winchester,
is said to have managed the affairs of the whole
kingdom. In 1234, Passelewe was also removed, but
was restored in the following year on payment of i ,000
marks to the King.
In 1 244 he was Archdeacon of Lewes and Clerk and id. 497.
spiritual adviser of- the King; and in anticipation of M^aMM*^".
io8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Ser.), vol. 4, Finch and his colleasfues in the time of Charles I., he
pp. 400, 426, . ...
427 ; vol. 6. taught the King how to raise money by inquiring into and
levying fines for encroachments upon the Royal Forests.
/AHist.Ang. In 1249 he had received priest's orders, and he died
^■^^" in 1252 at Waltham. Matthew Paris had a very bad
Id. 3. 120. opinion of him. He describes him as wholly given to
worldly matters, and says that though himself a richly
beneficed cleric, he had not hesitated to pauperize many
that the King by right or wrong might be enriched. He
was buried under a splendid tomb at Waltham, and the
chronicler spitefully observes that " his works do follow
him."
Matth. Par. Passelewe was succeeded in his place of Justice of
chron. vol. 3, the Forests by Geoifry de Langley, of whom the same
(ii. R. s.). chronicler says that that Passelewe had fostered him
and raised him in the world : but that after the manner
Id. p. 322. of the cuckoo, the nursling supplanted the nurse. Else-
where he tells us that, as compared with his successor,
Passelewe was thought to be very mild.
Piac. For. The Justice Seat for the Forest of Essex in 1277,
^ ^' '■ was held before Roger de Clifford, Bartholomew de Co-
lumbariis, Geoffry de Piccheford, and Nicholas de Romes,
who are styled " Justices to hear and determine the
same Pleas," and not by the title used later " Justices of
the Forest on this side Trent." After 1277, the practice
was to appoint but one justice for the ordinary Forest
duties, assigning judges of the Common Law Courts to
assist him at the holding of the Courts of Justice Seat ;
the holder of the office of Chief Justice of the Forests
4th Inst. 315. being commonly, as. was said by Coke, a man of greater
dignity than knowledge of the laws of the Forest.
THE FOREST JUSTICES. 109
Althoug-h, therefore, the Kine's writ for the holding- an ch. inq. post
... ^ . -r. , Mort.i3Ed.i.
inquisition as to the inclosure of Nasing Park was
directed to Roger 1' Estrange alone as Justice of the
Forests on this side Trent, the Justice Seat of 1292 was ExcH. Xreas.
held before him and Simon de EUesworth and John de For.
Crokesley, justices assigned to hear and determine the
said pleas ; who, however, in the opinion of Mr. Foss, judges of
were only Forest justices. In 1301, four justices, Ralph chf^Misc.
de Hingham,. William Tressell, Stephen de Graveshend, Ed!\',No!n3!
and William de Simon, were assigned to make the
perambulation of the Forest of Essex.
In 1323, Aylmer de Valence Earl of Pembroke, ^'^^j^|"°''-
William La Zouche de Ashby, and William de Cleyden
were appointed justices itinerant to hold Pleas of the
Forest ; and Phillip de Say to act with them ; Henry '
Beaufytz being also associated for the "Forest" of
Havering, which had been granted by Edward II. in
dower to his Queen Isabella.
In 1323-4, Roger I'Estrange held an inquisition excH. xreas.
In the Forest as Justice of the Forests on this side Trent. 17 Ed. 2.
In 1333. Sir Robert de Ufford was Chief Justice or 7Ed. 3, Pre-
sentments on
Warden of the Forests on this side Trent, and held inquisitions.
inquisitions at Colchester, Chelmsford, and Stratford- Treas.ofRect.
at-Bowe, on one of which John de Laidham acted as his RoUs,B°'^rs3,
deputy. ° ^ ■
In February, 134 1-2, the warden was Sir Bartholo- i^-'&- iss.
mew de Burghersh, Thomas de Bourne being his deputy.
In 1344, William de Clynton, Earl of Huntingdon, M.-a.-in,
was warden, and John de la Lee his deputy.
In 1362 and 1365, William de Wykeham was warden, J^- RoU 37.
and in the latter year Peter Attewode was his deputy.
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
/rf B 1S5, In 1368 John de Foxle was warden, and Thomas de
Roll 26. .
ch. inq.post Holland in 1 379 ; Baldwin de Bereford being his deputy.
Mort.4,Rd.2.
During these fifty years and upwards, the titles
of warden and deputy-warden of the Forests on this
side Trent were alone used. But at the Justice Seat,
which was held in 1489 at Waltham Holy Cross, letters
patent were produced by which, in February, 1485-6,
Henry VII. appointed John Ratclyff (Lord Fitzwalter^)
and Sir Reginald Bray^ to the office of warden and
chief justice and justices itinerant of the King's Forests,
parks, chaces, and warrens on this side Trent, to hear
and determine all manner of pleas of the Forest ; and
chief keepers and masters of the sport of all the premises.
Richard Harpur was their deputy.
Their patent gave them these offices during the life
of them and either of them, to be exercised by them-
selves or their deputy, with the fees, wages, profits, and
emoluments from ancient times due, accustomed, or per-
taining to the office, and the power of appointing all
officers to the same office from ancient times due and
accustomed. Although the King thus assumed a right
to enable the Forest justices to appoint deputies, it was
doubted whether the office, being judicial, could be de-
puted, and authority to appoint a deputy was therefore
given by statute.
The Earl of Sussex was Chief Justice in 1558 ; but
being unable, by reason of his duty as Deputy of Ireland,
to attend in person at a Justice Seat intended to be held
' Afterwards executed as an adherent of Perkin Warbeck.
' The reputed architect of Henry VII.'s Chapel.
Duch. of
Lane. Misc.
Records,
iz Aug. 1489,
And see
Campbell,
Mat. for Hist,
of Reign of
H. 7, I. 249.
Duch. of
Lane. Misc.
Rec. For. of
Waltham,
1489.
32 H. 8,
C.3S-
THE FOREST JUSTICES. 1 1 1
at Ilford on the 17 th August In that year, he appointed
seven deputies, viz. Sir Edward Walgrave, Sir William
Petre, Sir Henry Tirrell, Serjeant Browne, the Solicitor-
General, Mr. Barnars, and Mr. Powle, who were desired state Papers,
, Dom. Mary,
by Queen Mary to attend and execute the office. No vol. 13, No. 44.
records of this Court have, however, been found. Serjeant
Browne was probably Anthony Browne, a native of Essex, foss, judges
who became owner of South Weald Hall. He was a ° ^^^^ '
judge of the Common Pleas in the time of Queen Eliza-
beth, who, in I "564, also directed him and others to act l^^'^^SP-
as deputies to the Earl of Sussex as Chief Tustice of the l°^- 36. ,
'^ -' No. 20, 1564.
Forest. After the Earl of Sussex, Robert Dudley, Earl _ _ —
' ■" Ch.For.Proc.
of Leicester, added the office of Lord Chief Tustice of the Bundle 130,
m. 16.
Forests south of Trent to his other numerous honours.
In 1602, Charles, Earl of Nottingham, Lord Howard ch.For.Proc.
of Effingham, and Lord High Admiral of England, was m. 16. '
Chief Justice of the Forests south of Trent. After him
came the Earl of Pembroke, upon whose death Charles L, ch.For.Proc.
in 1630, placed the office in commission; the Earl of No. 130!
Manchester, Lord Newburgh, Sir Thomas Edmonds, and
Sir Humfry May, being the commissioners ; and Sir
Thomas Richardson, Chief Justice of the King's Bench,
and Sir Thomas Trevor, Baron of the Exchequer, being id.
appointed, by special warrant of the King enrolled at
the Justice Seat, to assist them.
In 1634, Henry Rich, Earl of Holland,^ was Chief better of Eari
. Warwick, St.
Justice, and was assisted by, amongst others, Justice Pap. Dom.
Jones and Baron Trevor. Both these judges had given wi. 275,
their opinions in favour of the right to levy ship money. st.Triais,Har-
grave, vol. i,
pp. 637, 663.
' Executed by the Republicans in 1649.
1 1 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
ScobeU's Durinsf the Commonwealth the^ office appears to
Acts, 22 Nov. ° ^^
1653, 30 Aug. have been in suspense, all the Royal Forests havingf by
1654, cap. 10, .
1656. an Act of the Long Parliament been vested m trustees
for sale.
st.Pap.Dom. In i67o, Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was Chief
Car. 2, Dec. ' ' •'
1670. Justice, and Sir Thomas Fanshawe presided at the Justice
Seat held on the 30th September in that year as his
deputy, assisted by Sir John Vaughan, Chief Justice of
the Common Pleas, Justice Wyld, and Baron Wyndham.
Licence, James, Duke of Monmouth, was Chief Justice in 1675;
29 Dec, 167c. . ,
and from 1701 to 1817 the office of Chief Justice of the
Forests south of Trent was held by the following
persons : —
1701. Lord Wharton. 1756- Earl of Breadalbane and
1 7 14. Lord Abingdon. Holland.
1716. Earl of Tankerville. 1766. Lord Monsen.
1722. Lord Cornwallis. 1767. Earl Cornwallis.
1737. Earl of Jersey. 1769. Sir Fletcher Norton, after-
1746. Earl of Halifax. wards Lord Grantly.
1748. Duke of Leeds. 1789. Viscount Sydney.
1756. Lord Sandys. 1800. Right Hon. Thomas
Grenville.
The Chief Justice presided at the Court of Justice
Seat, and with the judges assigned to assist him, exer-
cised the powers of the Court which are mentioned in the
last chapter. He continued to be appointed long after
the Court ceased to be held ; and his duties appear to
have then chiefly consisted in the granting of licences for
sporting, for the cutting down of woods, and the inclosure
of parts of the Forest wastes : in the former of which
THE FOREST JUSTICES. 1 1 3
branches of industry, and in the 18th century also in the
others, they showed great activity.
Mr. Grenville, who died in 1821, was the last of the
Chief Justices of the Forests south of Trent ; the offices
of Wardens, Chief Justices, and Justices in Eyre of all
the King's Forests, Parks, and Warrens, North and
South of Trent, having been abolished upon the termina-
tions of the existing interests, by an Act passed in 1 8 1 7 ; 57 Geo. 3,
by which, and by later Acts, their powers and duties 10 Geo. 4,
were vested in and ordered to be performed, at first by '^' ^°' ^' ^^'
the First Commissioner of Woods, Forests, and Land
Revenues, and afterwards in Epping Forest, by the 29 & 30 vict.
Commissioners of Works and Public Buildings, without
salary, fee, or emolument.
The disastrous effect of this change in the govern-
ment of the Royal Forests, as regards Epping Forest;
will be shown in later chapters.
The Justices of the Forest were entitled by ancient ms. Brit,
custom to fee deer. To their deputy, four oaks and a Duch. of
buck were ordered to be delivered at the Justice Seat Rec!'pi.'For.
in 1489. ''^■''■
The Lord Warden and Lieutenant.
I have mentioned that the Justices of the Forest
were anciently also called Wardens ; but this title was
afterwards specially appropriated to an important Forest
I x4 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
officer, who was sometimes called the Steward, some-
times the Custodian or Keeper, and in more modern
times the Lord "Warden. He held his office in fee, and
had a deputy or sub-warden, who, later, had the title of
Lieutenant of the Forest.
The family of Montefichet, by corruption, Munfichet,
appear to have been the earliest recorded holders of the
Dugd. Baron. Stewardship ; Richard, son of Gilbert Munfichet, having-
'•438, 439- ^^^^ appointed by Henry IL to be Forester of Essex
in as ample a manner as any of his ancestors had held
the same ; and he had also the custody of the King's
house of Havering, which office, until the year 1 709, was
always annexed to that of Steward. He was confirmed
Id. in the Stewardship in the 2nd, and died in the 5th year
of King John.
His son Richard was afterwards Steward ; but it
seems that he was not appointed immediately after his
father's death ; for it was not until the seventeenth year
Pat. Roll, 17 of John, that Hugh de Nevill was commanded to deliver
p. 144. ' ' to Richard de Munfichet the custody of the Forest of
Essex with the appurtenances, which the King had re-
stored to him as his right.
Matth. Paris, Richard de Munfichet was one of the rebellious
vol! '2, p.^2'12, barons who were taken prisoners at the battle of Lincoln,
and he was deprived of his stewardship by the judg-
ment of the Forest Court of which Robert Passelewe
was then Justice; but upon payment of a fine, in 1252
An inspexi- (36 Hen. IIL), was restored by the King to the "bailiwick
musofthe -,__, -^jja r 1 • • t
grant is in oi the t orest m tee. An autotype copy of the origmal
26* Hen. 6. rc-grant to him of the office, in the possession of the
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 1 15
trustees of the late Lord Mornington, forms the frontis-
piece of this volume.* Munfichet was a landholder in
the Forest, being owner of an estate called Le Frith, in
Walthamstow ; and in 1253 he was licensed by the King ch^at.RoU,
to inclose a wood and to make assarts in Theydon.
The grant of 1252 empowered him to appoint and
remove all foresters and bailiffs of the Forest, in manner
as he and his ancestors had been theretofore accustomed
to do.
This right was of great pecuniary value, sums of
' The grant runs as follows in English : — " Henry, by the grace of
God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and
Aquitaine, and Earl of Anjou, to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots,
Priors, Earls, Barons, Justices, Foresters, Sheriffs, Reeves, Ministers,
and all his Bailiffs and faithful people, greeting : Know ye that for a
fine which our trusty and beloved Richard de Munfichet hath made to
us, we have restored to him the Bailiwick of all our Forest of Essex of
which the same Richard, at the time when Robert Passlewe was
justice of our Forest, was deprived by the Judgment of our Court.
To have and to hold of us and of our heirs to the same Richard and
his heirs for ever, together with the custody- of our houses and our
Park of Haveringe, as fully and entirely with the appurtenances and
liberties to that Bailiwick pertaining, as the same Richard more
beneficially and freely held the same before the aforesaid Judgment
against him. And we do grant to the said Richard for us and our
heirs, that he and his heirs may for ever at their pleasure appoint and
remove all Foresters and Bailiffs of the same Forest, in manner as he
and his ancestors have been heretofore accustomed to do. These
being witnesses — Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford ;
Roger le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, and Marshal of England ; William Note that he
de Valence, our brother; William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle; !!i^°'i'^;^a^j'^
John Mansell, Provost of Beverley; Master William de Kilkenny, shal:" see
Archdeacon of Coventry ; Ralph, son of Nicholas ; Bertram de SeUen's Tit.
Orwill ; John de Besinton ; Robert Walerand ; Reginald de Moun p. 567. '
(Mohun) ; Robert le Norreys ; Imbert Pugeys ; and others. Given
under our hand at Westminster the 24th October in the 36th year of
our reign."
I 2
1 1 6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Rep. of Sei. from 2)Ool. to 500/. having in modern times been often
Evidence, ' paid to the Lord Warden for the nomination to the office
p. 71. ^
of Master Keeper.
MS. Hari. In a grant made by Henry III. to the Abbey of
Regist.'cart. Waltham, in 1257, Munfichet is styled Warden of the
Waitham. Forest of Essex, and he then had Hugh de Dyne for his
ch. Pat. Roll, deputy. But in 1261 he is again called Steward of the
piac. For. Forcst. He was also Sheriff of Essex, and had the
R^ecdpZ ° custody of the Castle of Colchester ; and it is recorded
Essex' No. 2' that while holding these offices, with the Stewardship of
'^^^" the Forest, he appropriated to himself of the issues of
the bailiwick of Kingswood and Alrefen, rendered by
Symon Norman, the riding forester of that bailiwick,
I IS. 8d. yearly for rent certain, and 40 hens yearly and
500 eggs, each hen being valued at id. and each 100
eggs at 3(/.* These profits were retained by Munfichet
after he gave up the county (that is the shrievalty), and
until he gave up the Stewardship to Thomas de Clare ;
and De Clare retained the payments until he gave up the
office of Riding Forester of the bailiwick of Alrefen and
Kingswood to Ralph le Mareschall, who received them
for twenty years.
li H^l' orig ^^^ grant by which the Stewardship was given
Mom^n 'ton's "P ^^ Munfichet to Thomas de Clare was confirmed by
Trustees, Henry III. in 1267.
No. 561. -' '
ch. inq. post In 1 285 Henry de Cokyntone was Steward for life
Mort. 13 Ed. I, ^_-^_, A,. ,^
(1285). by grant from De Clare. And m 1 292 the Stewardship
PI. Kor. -"^
20 Ed. I.
Cotto^oll ' Entries at a Court, probably of Justice Seat, held in 1250, record
xiii. 5. the claim of the Constable of Colchester Castle to 40 hens at
Christmas, and 500 eggs at Easter, and to cheminage and other
payments.
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 117
was held by Nicholas Eyserewas, whose sub-steward, ^/^RgJ''^'^-
William de Sturtt, was committed to prison for taking 2° ^- '•
an oak in the wood of Wanstead when it was in the
King's hands for new waste; and for permitting the
bailiff of Eleanor d'Echalers, the lady of the manor, to
sell heath in the wood.
The reversion of the office appears to have passed
to Gilbert, the son of Thomas de Clare, in 15 Ed. I. S?^°™!!^
Hist. 01 iiiSScx,
(1287), and from him to his brother Richard in i Ed. II. p- 169-
(1307). Richard's son died in 14 Ed. II. (132 1) without
issue, leaving his two paternal aunts, Maud, the wife of
Sir Robert de Wells, and Margaret, the wife of Bar-
tholomew de Vadelsmere, his co-heiresses.
In 1323 Sir Robert de Wells had one part of the ^^-^1%
Wardenship as the inheritance of his wife; and in 1338 izjuiy, 12
Giles, who was probably the son of Margaret de Vadels- pen. id.
,^^.,,. /-, 1 r i-r 1 Momington's
mere, granted it to William Carleton tor hie, the grant Trustees,
being confirmed by Edward III. in the same year.
On a partition the office became vested in Maud or Ogbome, 169.
Matilda, the wife of John de Veer, 7th Earl of Oxford, Peer. '
and sister and heiress of Giles de Vadelsmere. ch. inq.
In 1342 Alexander de Betoigne was Steward; and leEd.s!'
in 1360 Matilda, the widow of John " de Veer,"^ Earl sam"eye°ar,
of Oxford, granted the office to Aubrey de Veer for his xreas^'of "
life under a patent by Edward III. Aubrey, the loth '^^f'^^'
Earl of Oxford, is described as Warden in 1365, and ^J^\'
12 July,
34 Ed. 3.
' In the documents relating to this family the name is written " de Lord Mom-
Veer" down to 1604; and the title "Oxenford" is used to 1629, xnistees
these being the dates of the latest original family documents to which No. 563.
I have had access. In the Close Rolls, temp. John, the name is " de
Ver."
ii8
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Inq. at
Barking,
9 Ed. 3 ;
at Hatfield
Regis,
43 Ed. 3.
Morant.
I-S8.
Copy pen.
Lord Mom-
ington's
Trustees,
No. 564.
Exch. Treas.
of Rect.
12 Hen. 8.
L. R. Com.
1793, No. ix.
30 Dec. 1563.
Lansdowne
MSS. 6,
No. 47.
For. of
"Waltham,
Bodl. Lib.
Attachment
Roll, 1590.
For. Roll,
No. 90
(Harl. Roll,
C.C. 13).
as Steward in 1369, when William Langrich was his
deputy.
John de Veer, the 13th Earl, having been deprived
of his estates during the Lancastrian wars, the custody
of the Forest was given by Edward IV. in 1475 to Sir
Thomas Montgomery; and in 1484 to Robert Braken-
bury. In 1485 John de Veer was restored to his estates
and to the office. In the writ for the Justice Seat held
in 1489, he is styled Custodian of the Forest; and in
a grant made by James I. in 1603 it is stated that he
held the office in 4th Henry VIII. {15 13).
Sir James Blount was lieutenant in 1489.
The Earl of Oxford afterwards granted to the King
for life, power to appoint to the offices of Steward, of
one Riding Forester, and of three yeomen foresters, in the
three bailiwicks of the Forest ; and the office of Steward
or Warden, notwithstanding the limited terms of the
grant, remained in the gift of the Crown till the time of
James I.
At some time between the years 1537 and 1547,
Richard Rich, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and the
grandfather of the Earls of Warwick and Holland, was
Lieutenant (or, as he wrote it, "lieftunte") of the Forest,
as appears by his letter from his " poor house at Lees " '
to Sir William Cecil, asking for leave to fell and inclose
the " Great and Little Shrobetts."
Thomas Powle, a master keeper in 1590, was Steward
of the Forest in 1594.
By the grant of 1603 mentioned above, the Steward-
' Leighs Priory, in Essex, of which he had obtained a grant.
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 119
ship, and the offices held with it, were re-granted in fee
to Edward, the 20th Earl of Oxford, as the male heir of
Earl John, who held them in 1513 ; and in whose family
they were stated to have been from time immemorial.
Sir Thomas Edmondes, treasurer of the King's For- ptoc.
"f Waltham.
household, was at this time Sub-steward under the title
of Lieutenant of the Forest.
Earl Edward, on the i8th Tune, 1604, granted the Ong. grant,
2 las, I
. Wardenship to his very good and special friends, his (pen. coiiyer
T_, ._,,.,.. ,,. , . Bristow,
" sonne-m-law, t rancis, LordNorris, and his good cossm, No. 565).
Sir Francis Veer," for eleven years. Letters pat.
Henry de Veer, the 21st Earl, was warden in 161 7 ; 22 May,'
and in 1621 he granted to Sir Thomas Edmonds, then pen. Lord
JS^ 's T'lnstccs
Lieutenant of the Forest, power to execute the office of no. 566. '
Warden during the Earl's absence beyond seas. He ch.For.Proc.
afterwards granted the office for life to John Wright. No. iio.
In 1627, the widow of the Earl, and the Earl oi q,^^^^^,^^^^^
Exeter (his trustees) . sold the offices to Robert, Earl ^gn^^o^j
of Lindsey, Great Chamberlain of. England, for 1,500/., no%^8!^'^^''
and for the further sum of 2,000/. paid to Robert, Granti2june,
3 Car. I,
then Earl of Oxford. And in the followmg year the pen.LordM.'s
Trustcss
Dowager Countess of Oxford conveyed' the herbage. No. 569.'
pannage," and agistment of Havering park to Sir George 10 Nov.
Manners and Sir Robert Cotton, as trustees for the Earl LordM'.'s
of Lindsey. And thus the Wardenship of the Forest, and no. 571.'
the custody of Havering manor, house, and park, finally
passed from the De Veers, who, except during some short
intervals, had held them for nearly 300 years.
Robert, the ist Earl of Lindsey (who fell at the
battle of Edgehill), was Keeper and Steward in fee at the
Justice Seat of 1630; and at the Swainmote of 1631;
1 20 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
John Wright being, however, returned at the Justice Seat
as Steward for his life by grant of Henry, late Earl of
Oxford.
St. Pap. Sir Thomas Edmondes, at these dates, still held the
Domestic,
Nov. 1640. office of Lieutenant, in which he was succeeded by Sir
Warrant ' •'
for deer, William Hicks, who held it between 1640 and 1670. In
Aug. 1666. ' .11-1
Justice Seat, the latter year he was fined 50/. for neglectmg to publish
PI. For. to the keepers, a warrant from the Chief Justice in Eyre
for a restraint upon the killing of the deer in the Forest.*
23 Nov. 1633. In 1633 the Earl of Lindsey granted the offices to
Trustees his son and heir apparent. Sir Montagu Bertie, Lord
of Lord _ ... . -
MomingtoD, Willoughby, in consideration of the payment by him of
574- ' ' debts of the Earl amounting to 6,642/. Lord Willoughby
// Nos.'s7S," shortly after mortgaged them for 3,000/., but discharged
29 Sept. 1634 the mortgage in the same year.
^5^77!!^'.^°'- On the death of Lord Willoughby, who had suc-
^^^582.^^'^' ceeded to the Earldom, he was followed in the Warden-
indenture ship by his son. Earl Robert : whose son Robert, Marquis
30 May, 1709 . . ' T.
(penes Lord of Lindsey, in 1709, for the sum of 5,000/., conveyed the
Diary ii and ' Pepys describes Sir William Hicks' seat at Ruckholts, where (as
'3 Sept. 1665. Lord Braybrooke tells us) he entertained King Charles after hunting,
as a good seat, with a fair grove of trees by it, and the remains of a
good garden ; but let to run to ruin, and both house and everything in
and about it ill-furnished, and miserably looked after, there being not
so much as a latch to the dining-room door ; and in much discontent
with the bad dinner given to him and his friends by the Lieutenant
(to which they had invited themselves), Pepys accuses him of all kinds
of meanness. Sir William Hicks, who was an ancestor of Sir Michael
Edward Hicks-Beach, lately Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary
for Ireland, died in 1680. In his monument in Leyton Church he is
Lyson's Env. represented in a recumbent position, holding a baton in his hand as
of London, Lieutenant of Waltham Forest,
vol. 4, p. 166.
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 121
Wardenship alone, without the right of custody of the ^^™™f'°*''''
manor, King's house, and park of Havering, to Sir No. 589).
Richard Child : to whom the Dowager Countess of Lind- indenture
° 16 May, 1710.
sey, in the following year, released her right of dower on id. No. 592.
payment of the further sum of i ,600/.
Sir Richard Child, afterwards Earl of Tylney, was
the son of Sir Josiah Child, the builder of Wanstead
House; of which Evelyn in his Diary notes how, in 1683, Vol. a, p. 182.
he went to see Sir Josiah Child's prodigious cost in
planting walnut trees about his seat, and making fish-
ponds many miles in circuit in Epping Forest in a barren
spot.^
In 1 709, William Harvey held the Lieutenancy of Sched. to
the Forest for his life; and at the Court of Attachments 30 May, 1709.
held on nth February, 1719-20, the Lieutenant was for
the first time included in the list of officers at the head
of the roll of that Court, and was always afterwards
named there.
Mr. Harvey held the office until November, 1731, RoUs.zgNov.
1731.
and Sir Richard Child, then Earl of Tylney, is entered
as Lieutenant from that time until June, 1733 ; when his
son. Viscount Castlemain, was sworn as Lieutenant in Rolls, njune,
. / . 22 Nov. 1733.
the room of William Harvey, deceased.
After November, 1733, no Lieutenant is named on
the rolls until May, 1743, when Lord Castlemain was Rolls, 7 May,
again sworn as Lieutenant.
' According to Mr. Johnston's note in Mr. Buxton's Guide to the
Forest, the trees were planted under Evelyn's direction. Evelyn
certainly does not say so ; he seems to have made only a casual visit
to the place.
1 2 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Attachment Qii the death of Richard Earl Tylney in 1749, John
Roll, 23 Dec.
1749. Lord Castlemain succeeded to the Earldom, and to the
Grant of office r t • • i
of Master office of Warden ; and the office of Lieutenant remained
Keeper to iit-iiii -j
Saiwey, vacant until 1754, when the Earl by deed appointed
^pen"i.or<i° Smart LethieuUier of Aldersbrook to be Lieutenant
TmTt™ef).°" ^ during his pleasure ; and although within the last
Rou,''8'juty, twenty-one years two of his predecessors had been
'''^'^" sworn into the office, an entry appears on the rolls that
Mr. LethieuUier tendered himself to take the oath, " but
there not appearing to be any oath annext to his office,
he was not sworn." According to the memoranda
relating to Waltham Forest, the oath was the same as
that taken by a forester, except that for the words " office
of a forester" in the first clause, the office of Deputy
Warden or Lieutenant was substituted.
/A 27 Sept. In 1 76 1, Earl Tylney appointed John Henniker of
/i?. 19 Oct. Newton Hall, afterwards Sir John Henniker, Bart., and
later Lord Henniker, to be Lieutenant during his life,
he covenanting to support and maintain the vert and
venison and all the privileges of the Forest, and of the
Earl of Tylney as Chief Warden.
Lord Henniker retained the office till his death, and
Rolls, 13 June, was Succeeded in 1803 by Mr. Samuel Bosanquet, who
\dX?, July, is not stated to have been sworn. He died in 1 806, and
'^°^' T Colonel John Bullock was sworn Lieutenant in 1807. The
Id. IS June, ■> '
1807. office was vacant from 1810 to 181 1, in which year Sir
Id. 10 August,
i8i2. William Smijth, Bart., was appointed. He died in 181 7 ;
1817" ^^'' but it was not until 1830 that a record appears of the
fs'J^^^^'-" appointment in his place of Admiral the Right Hon.
Sir George Cockburn, with whom worthily ended the long
line of the Sub-stewards or Lieutenants of Waltham Forest.
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 123
In the meantime John, the 2nd Earl Tylney, who ^^^-^^"^^
died in 1784, devised the office of. Hereditary Lord Treasury and
report, 23
Warden, as it was now called, to his nephew. Sir James Jan- 1787
T-IT r ^' ..- (Lord Mom-
1 ylney Long, for life, with remainders over m tail ; and ington's
Trustees
on the death of Sir J. T. Long, in 1794, he was sue- nos. 593,
ceeded by his son of the same names ; during whose life AttachiAent
(he being a minor) Lady Catherine Tylney Long, his 1785'. "^'
mother and testamentary guardian, exercised his powers, viscount
He died in 1805, and was succeeded by his sister, 1850.^^^^'
Catherine Tylney Long, also a minor; of whom, in 181 2, Rou'^e'jX
it is recorded in the rolls of the Court of Attachments, that j-^^^-^ , ^
*' since the last Court Miss Catherine Tylney Long was '''9'^-
■^'^•9 July.
married to William Wellesley Pole, Jun., Esq., and they 1806.
took the names of William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley' 1812? "^^ '
and Catherine Tylney Long Wellesley ; and thereupon
the said William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley and
Catherine Tylney Long Wellesley ' are warden ' of the
Forest in right of the said Catherine Tylney Long
Wellesley, and Mr. Long Wellesley took his seat at this
Court accordingly."
Except in a very few instances, when during the
minorities of the two last wardens, the Courts of Attach- Attachment
ments had been held before the Lieutenant of the Forest 1803^;' 10 June
,and one or two verderers ; and on two occasions during i8o5727"ju'ne
the same period, when it was irregularly held before a i8o8;i9":^ne'
Riding forester and a Master keeper only, some, or, very 'g°|^ ^ ^g^ .
rarely, one alone of the Verderers, had presided at all 27 May, 181 1.
' Horace Smith, for the sake of his metre, took a great liberty with
the Lord Warden's name in the line
" Long may Long Tylney Wellesley Long Pole live."
1 24 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Coke,4thinst. the Courts of which the records are extant; and this was
289, 282.
Manwood, strictly in accordance with the Forest law, which makes
^'°^' ^^' the verderers the judges of this Court.
The name of the Warden of the Forest did not
appear at all at the head of the Attachment Roll, among
Attachment the officers of the Forest, until the year 1745 >' "o^ that
1745;' " ' of the Lieutenant until 1719-20. But from the time of
Mr. Long Wellesley's accession, he seems to have
assumed a right to preside at the Court, and to take
precedence of the Verderers ; and he caused the names
of himself and his wife to be placed at the top of the
roll, the other officers being entered in the following
order: — Verderers, Lieutenant^ Riding forester. Purlieu
ranger. Master and Underkeepers, Under purlieu ranger,
Woodward, and Beadle.
Mr. Long Wellesley continued to preside from
1 81 2 to 181 7, generally with several, but sometimes
with only one, of the verderers. The Courts then
ceased for thirteen years, and when they recommenced
Attachment in September, 1830, we find him again presiding: with
Rolls, iSSept. ^, , /,,TT T,^
1S30. one or more of the verderers (Mr. Henry John Conyers,
who was one of them, being usually present) until the
year 1832. The Courts then again ceased for eleven years,
and from the year 1843, when they were resumed, until
the last Court entered on the rolls, which was held on
6th December 1848, the Warden did not appear, and
the Court was held before the Verderers only.
Original in But at a Court held on 15th January, 1849, of
woodl which a note has been preserved, the Warden, then Earl
of Mornington, not only insisted upon his right to pre-
side, but declared that the Verderers were only the jury
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 125
to take care of the rights of the freeholders ; and that,
although he was ready to receive any suggestions from
the verderers, he reserved to himself the right to decide
any question that might come before the Court.
This claim he made by way of protest against any
interference under the Act of 10 George IV., c. 50
(which empowered the verderers to call the Court, and
to punish offences), with the supposed rights of the
Warden. It seems clear, however, that the contention
of the Warden was unfounded.
The Lord Warden, supported by Mr. Conyers, then
required the Steward of the Court to deliver up the
Court books, which he refused to do without the joint
authority of the Warden and the verderers, (it being the
duty of the latter to keep them,) and payment of his
account; alleging that he had never been paid a farthing
by the office of Woods and Forests. Finally the Warden
and the Verderers agreed that the former should preside
as Lord Warden for that day, that the opinion of coun-
sel should be taken, and that another Court should be
held as soon as possible. The usual business was then
transacted, but no further Courts were held at that time,
and the pretensions of the Warden had no practical
result.
On the death of the Earl of Mornington in 1857, he
was succeeded in his title and in the office of Warden by
his son, William Richard Arthur, who, on the dis-
afforestation of Hainault Forest in 1851, received 5,250/. Rep. of Sei.
as compensation for the loss of his office in that part of E^'dence/'
the Forest. He died in 1863, having by his will devised ^' "'"
1 2 6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the office of Warden of the remainder of the Forest to
Mr. Richard Bulkeley Glasse, Q.C., and Mr. Andrew
Alfred Collyer Bristow, as trustees ; and they held it
when it was finally abolished on the disafforestation of
Rep. ofEp. Epping Forest in 1878, and were awarded 300/. by the
For. Com. of - .
Corp. of arbitrator as compensation.
London, 1S83,
p. 19.
Besides the right of appointing foresters and bailiffs,
the Steward was anciently entitled to other valuable
PI. For. privileges. Henry de Cokyntone, who became Steward
Exch.Treas. in or before 1285, in succession to Thomas de Clare,
claimed in 1292 to have 20 marks sterling pertaining to
his bailiwick from the farm of his foresters ; that is to
say, of the forester of the hundred of Bekentre 5 marks ;
of the forester in the hundreds of Chafford and Bard-
staple 40.y. {i.e., 3 marks) ; of the forester in the hundred
of Chelmsford and Daneseye 40.^. ; of the forester in the
hundred of Wyham (Witham) 405-. ; of the forester in
the hundred of Herlawe and Dunmawe 405-. ; of the
forester in the hundred of Aungre 405-. ; and the power
of appointing all the foresters in these hundreds, which
were included in the Forest at the date of this claim.
De Cokyntone also claimed the custody of the
King's houses, park, and outlying woods in Havering;
and cheminage in the bailiwick of Havering; viz., from
every cart carrying timber, brushwood, bark, and coal
(charcoal), \d. yearly, except during the interval between
the Feasts of St. Michael and St. Martin which belonged
to the farm of the said town. Also windfallen wood, and
bark of timber trees in the park and wood, except timber
and windfallen wood in the outlying wood, between the
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 127
same feast days, which pertained to the farm of the said
town.
The rights of the Warden were somewhat differently-
described by Edward de Veer, Earl of Oxford, who held Demise
. . i8 June, 1604.
the office in 1604. He claimed the right to substitute 2 jas. i
a Lieutenant, and to appoint and remove one Riding of Lord
forester and three Yeomen foresters ; a right to all waifs No. 565).
and strays ; to all deerfallen wood or browsing wood ; ^
to all amerciaments arising from the Swainmote and
other Courts called Wood Courts,^ except those for
venison and bodies of oaks ; to receive a penny of each
shilling from the sale of every covert and hedgerow ;
from every wood sold within the Forest, the second best
oak, and from the buyer and seller of every such wood,
one bow and one broad arrow ; and one penny of every
shilling on the sale of the wood : the oak and the broad
arrow by delivery to the Lieutenant of the Forest, and the
penny of every shilling by the hands of the Forester of
the bailiwick in which the covert, hedgerow, or wood
happened to be ; and also in right of his office the
custody of the manor, house, and park of Havering.
All which, he added, had rightfully descended to him
from his ancestors " Erles of Oxenford."
' Wood cut for the shelter of the deer. According to the Ancyent
Forest Lawes the browse wood was to be " no bigger than an inch
boure, nor heavyer than a deere may turne upp w"" his home." But Letters of
according to Articles of Instruction dated in the same year as this ?5'5'^^^'
claim, every keeper was entitled to a certain stinted allotment of 13 Jas i.
"browst" or browse wood for "his fewell," and the rest was to be
sold for his Majesty.
'^ The Court of Attachments.
1 2 8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Claim No. 41. Thcsc claims were repeated in almost the same
language by his successor the Earl of Lindsey in 1634 J
and he in addition claimed cheminage within the Forest
yearly during fifteen days before and fifteen days after
the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (this being the fence
month), i.e., of every carriage 4^^., and of every waggon,
cart, or dray 2d., led or going through the street of
Stratford Langthorne within the Forest ; and for every
load of hoops /\d., led or going through the said street;
and for every pack of wool in a carriage or cart or on
horseback d^d. ; and for every half pack of wool 2d.
carried as aforesaid, and going through the said street ;
and for every horse burdened with any load tied with a
"wantye"' led or going through the said street 2d.
He also claimed a gaol or prison in Stratford Langthorne
for the safe custody of trespassers or malefactors arrested
or committed to prison for crimes against the Forest
laws, by the justices or other ministers of the Forest; and
power to appoint a gaoler, who was to receive the same
fees, wages, allowances, and perquisites, as the gaoler of
the county gaol received for prisoners committed for any
cause except treason or felony.
This part of the claim was founded upon a grant
22 May, made by James I. in 161 7, empowering Henry de Veer,
pen. Lord ' Earl of Oxford, then Warden, to erect a prison for of-
Trustees, fcndcrs against the Forest laws, who (says the charter^
No. 566). r r ■, • . , . , ^^ -^ ^
for want of such a prison withm the Forest were daily
encouraged and emboldened to commit many insolent
' A leather tye or rope. — Halliwell.
THE LORD WARDEN AND LIEUTENANT. 129
and insufferable offences within the Forest, as well by-
huntings and killing- our deer as otherwise.
The thrifty King, however, took care to stipulate
that the Earl should provide an able and sufficient keeper
of the prison "without demand of any fee, stipend, or
allowance from us, ourheires or successors, for the same."
This prison still existed in 1793 ; but has since been j^'^^^.f- °^
taken down. '793-
In the time of Henry VIII. both the Warden and the
Lieutenant had fee deer.
At the Justice Seat in 1489 the latter was ordered
to have one male deer ; but in 1 793 Sir John Henniker id. App.
r No. 12.
claimed one buck and one doe annually from each walk
in the Forest, which was no doubt in excess of his right ;
as was also the claim of Sir James Tylney Long, the
Lord Warden, to red and fallow deer without stint. Sir id.
J. T. Long also claimed, and was shown to have had for
some years, 100 loads, or 10,000, of faggots cut yearly in
the King's wood (Hainault); but it was considered by
the Commissioners of Land Revenues that this was pro- id. No. 19.
bably an usurpation of the fee wood of the keepers, as it
is not mentioned in any of the Wardens' claims, or in the
order of the Court of Exchequer relating to the fee wood
of the Forest officers in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
F. K
I -,o THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The Verderers.
Manwood, jhe Verdcrers (viridarii) were judicial officers, and
have been thought to be the successors of the four chief
men (primarii) who were appointed by Canute's Forest
law to do justice in the Royal Forests.
There were certainly four verderers in Waltham
4tii Inst. 293. Forest from the 15th century; and this is said by Coke
to be the proper number ; but as there were always more
before that time, the identity, so far as it depends upon
their number, cannot be shown, nor do I find that the
Waltham Forest verderers ever claimed to be so de-
scended.
Cotton The first mention which I have found of the Verd-
erers of Waltham Forest is at the Court held in 1250,
when eighteen verderers are named ; viz., two for the
hundreds of Tendring and Lexinden, two for Thurstapele
and Wensetri, three for Wyham and Felstede, four for
Chelmersford and Danesei (two for each), two for
Berdestaple and Chafford, one for Chelmersford in the
parts of Writele, two for Aungre, and two for the half
hundred of Wantham.
piac. For. At the Justicc Seat of 1277, we have the names of
three verderers for the half hundreds of Lexden,
Winstree, and Thurstable, two for the hundred of Ongar,
and two for the hundred of Wantham.
inq. post Again, at an inquisition made at the Cross of
Moit.i3Ea.r. ^
THE VERDERERS. 131
Husse in 1285, fifteen verderers of Ongar and other
Regards are named.
In 1292 and 1323, there were also two for each of
the hundreds of Waltham and Ongar alone ; but in and
after 1489, the number for the whole Forest was only
four. It seems probable that the number of verderers
was so fixed soon after the date of the Forest ordinance
of 34 Ed. I. (1306), the provision of which, that the § 2.
officers " shall be put in as heretofore it hath been used
to be, except the verderers, who shall be ordained by-
election and by our writ," shows that the verderers had
not theretofore been so chosen.
The writ was directed to the sheriff of the county,
who, in obedience to it, caused a verderer to be elected Attachment
by the freeholders of the county, and sent the writ, with 1743.'
his return of the result of the election, to the Petty Bag.
Office in Chancery, where it was filed among the records
of that Court.^
A certificate of the writ and return was then made
by a clerk of the Petty Bag Office, and was read at, and
entered on, the records of the Forest Court of Attach-
ments; after which, and down to 1792, the verderer was
sworn before that Court. But in 181 2, Mr. Lockwood,
' The cost of election was sometimes 500/. or 600/.; but on the
occasion of a contest between Colonel Burgoyne and Mr. Bosanquet,
they kept the poll open for fourteen days, and brought people from all
parts of the county, at a cost to Mr. Bosanquet of 7,000/., and to Rep- of Sel.
Colonel Burgoyne of 10,000/. " I believe it was the point of honour Evidence^'
which caused the contest," said Colonel Palmer. The election p. 22.
referred to was, I suppose, that of 1798, when Montagu Burgoyne ^",?'^'*'"t"f
was elected a verderer in the room of Richard Lockwood. 1798.' ' '^'
K 2
1 3 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Attachmeut ^ho was chosen verderer on the appointment of. Sir W.
Roll, 10 Aug. ^ '■
i8>2- Smijth to the Lieutenancy of the Forest, was sworn by
the sheriff.
Memda. de A Verderer was sworn truly to serve the Kinef in the
Foresta. -^ °
office of verderer in the Forest of Waltham ; to the utter-
Manwood, most of his power and knowledge to do for the profit of
4 Inst 292 the King so far as it appertained to him to do ; to pre-
1649, fo. 297. serve and maintain the ancient rights and franchises of
the Crown ; not to conceal from his Majesty any rights or
privileges, nor any offence either in vert or venison, nor
any other thing ; not to withdraw or abridge any default,
but to endeavour to manifest and redress the same ; and
if he could not, then to give knowledge thereof to the
King or his Justice of the Forest ; to deal indifferently
with all the King's liege people ; to execute the laws and
assises of the Forest, and do equal right and justice as
well to the poor as to the rich in what appertained to his
office, and not to oppress any person by colour thereof
for any reward, favour, or malice.
The verderers were to be esquires or gentlemen of
Mamvood, good account, ability, and living, wise and discreet men,
and well learned in the laws of the Forest. They were
the judges of the Court of Attachments, and presided at
the Swainmote, and had the custody of the rolls of the
Forest Courts. When they took an inquisition one sealed
and another kept the roll, and so from one Forest Court
Cons, et Ass. to another. On the coming of the justices all the minis-
de For. Ruff- •'
head, St. ters presented the roll, or were fined.
p. 2b. ' ■ If a verderer died, his heirs or executors were bound
THE VERDERERS. 133
to bring such of the rolls as came into their possession to charge of
t-- J- 1634.
the next Court. It was probably for this purpose that Hari. ms.
Elias, the son and heir of Hamo the Clerk, a former
verderer, appeared with the verderers at the Justice Seat
in 1277.
In 1670, at the Justice Seat, the sheriff was ordered 3° Sept. 1670
Plac. For.
to seize the lands of the verderers who were dead, and of excH. xreas.
the heirs not bringing in the rolls, until they delivered County Bags,
"F.sqpY No 8
the rolls and made fine ; but Mr. Carew Mildmay pre ■
senting all the rolls, the order was discharged.
The verderers were entitled to fee deer at the sitting
of the Court of Justice Seat, as appears by the warrant of Duchy of
the Justices in Eyre in 1489 already noticed; and in mlsc. Rec.
modern times at least they had no other remuneration.'
In 1582, amongst other officers to whom woods were said Lansd. ms.
to have been delivered without warrant, each of the four 34 euz. 15.
verderers had five loads. Ten years later complaints cyiTcn,
were made against them for taking this wood, and their ^^' '^'
right to do so was disallowed by an order of the Court of
Exchequer. " ■
The powers of the verderers, except their small juris-
diction as to vert, were practically limited to inquiry into
matters presented at the Court of Attachments by the
Forest officers ; and an excess of their jurisdiction was
punishable by a severe fine, as was experienced by the
* The fee in modern times was said to be two bucks and a doe Sel. Com.
annually, which the verderers did not often get. i863,Ev.p.22.
In Rockingham Forest each of the four verderers received 25^. per Hist, of H. 7,
annum. 1489. vol. 2,
p. 466 (M. R.
S.).
1 3 4 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
pkc. For. 22. verderers of Waltham Forest in 1670, when each of them
Car. 2. ^ . ' . , .
was fined 20/. at the Justice Seat for discharging a man
taken in the fact of killing a stag, and distributing the
Consuet. et fine at their pleasure ; this being in breach of an ancient
cott! M.^s.""^' law, that a person taken for killing a wild beast in the
Vesp. B. 7. p^j-gg^ without warrant, was not to be set free but by the
special order of the King or his justices.
The discontinuance of the Justice Seat and the
Swainmote having left the ministers of the Forest without
power to prevent the numerous inclosures of parts of the
52 G. 3, c. 161, waste, an Act was passed early in the present century by
which power was given to the verderers to inquire into
unlawful inclosures and purprestures, and to prosecute the
offenders in the Court of Attachments ; to inflict fines not
exceeding 20/., and to abate the inclosures; with sum-
mary powers of recovering penalties before a justice of the
peace. But if the person accused insisted that the land
in question was not within the bounds of the Forest, the
verderers were not to convict, but were to certify the pre-
sentment to the Attorney-General. The Inclosers were
not slow in acting upon this proviso, and as the Attorney-
General did not interfere when the inclosures were small,
10 Geo. 4, the Act was practically useless ; as was also another Act
C, '\0 SS. 101
102, ':o4. ' of the sam.e kind which was passed in the following reign.
THE FORESTERS. 1 3 5
The Foresters.
The Forester, or keeper of the King s wild beasts, was Memoranda
„ . , . ,, . -r- deForesta.
sworn to execute his office in his walk in the I* orest ; to
be of good behaviour himself to the King's wild beasts,
and the vert of the Forests ; not to conceal the offence of BookofOaths,
any other person either in vert or venison done within his °' °°'
charge, but as well the same offence as also all offences
to present at the next Court of Attachments or Swain-
mote, which should first happen to be holden for the
Forest ; and to the uttermost of his power to maintain
and keep the assise of the Forest,* and in all things the
King's right defend concerning the same [and be loyal
and true to the Warden and Lieutenant of the Forest^], so
long as he should be keeper there.
The Charter of the Forest, probably in consequence
of the appointment of an excessive number of foresters,
directed that so many should be appointed for the custody § 7.
of the Forests, as by view and oath of the twelve Regarders
when they made their regard, should seem reasonably
sufficient for the keeping of them; and "whether the
fforesters be soe manie as they ought to be, or more than
is fitt to be," was one of the inquiries which the grand § lo.
' "The King commands that all his foresters shall swear to keep AssisaH. zde
to the utmost of their power the assise of his forests." Foresta, § 6.
"^ The bracketed words are only in the Memoranda of Waltham
Forest, and are doubtless interpolated.
136
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
jury were charged to make at the Court of Justice Seat
for Waltham Forest in 1634.
See Conyers'
Answer to
Inquiries,
14 Nov. 1788.
The grant of the Stewardship of the Forest to
Richard de Montfichet, in 1252, included the right to
appoint and remove all foresters and bailiffs of the
Forest ; and this right was exercised by the Stewards
and Lords Warden down to the latest times as to all the
foresters except those who held their offices in fee ; and
who, in the Forest of Essex, were much fewer in number
and less unfortunate than their brethren of Inglewood
Forest, slain by Adam Bell and his comrades in their
raid upon Carlisle ; when
Adam Bell,
Clymof the
Clough, and
William of
Cloudesley.
' The baylyes, and the bedyls both,
And the sergeauntes of the law,
And forty fo'sters of the fe,
These outlawes had yslaw."
9 Hen. 3, §16,
4th Inst. 315.
Writ, 9 May,
1225. Pat.
RoU, 9 H. 3.
The Charter of the Forest imposed upon foresters
in fee (whose office being in trust for the King could not
be granted over without licence) the duty of making
attachments and presenting them to the verderers of the
provinces; and when these were inroUed and inclosed
under the seals of the verderers, they were to be pre-
sented to the Chief Justices of the Forest when they
came to hold pleas of the Forest, and were to be
determined before them.
The foresters in fee also assisted the knights,
who made the perambulations of the Forest under the
Charter.
Tal'acr ocui&i37.
THE FORESTERS. 137
The foresters, who about the end of the 15th
century were divided into Master Keepers (with one
Riding Forester), and under keepers, were before that
time commonly, but not always, called Riding Foresters,
and Walking or Yeomen Foresters; and the Riding
Foresters appear to have performed in the intervals be-
tween the Regards of the Forest, tke same duties which
on the latter occasions belonged to the Regarders ; the
oaths taken by each class of officers being alike, except Memoranda
the formal words relating to the office of Regarder.
In 1 2 150 they are called Foresters and Sub-foresters Cotton RoU
on the roll of the Court. There were then in Tendring
and Lexinden two foresters ; in Thurstapele and Wen-
setri one forester and three sub-foresters; in Wyham
and Felstede one forester and two sub-foresters; in
Chelmersford and .Danesei one forester and three sub-
foresters ; in Berdestaple and Chafford the like ; in the
parts of Writele, in Chelmsford, two foresters ; and in
Aungre and Waltham, one forester and three sub-
foresters.
At the end of the 13th century there were nine Treas. of
. Rect. For.
Riding foresters in Essex, each having charge of a RoUs, Essex,
separate district or bailiwick. 20 Ed. i.
One had the bailiwick of Becontre hundred, and under
him one yeoman forester at Stratford, of whom he re-
ceived yearly two marks {26s. 8d.) ; and another at
Barking, of whom he received yearly three marks (405-.).
He rendered to the Steward of the Forest yearly for his
bailiwick five marks.
Another had the bailiwick of Brentwood, that is to
138 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
say, the hundreds of Chafford and Barstaple. He rendered
to the Steward yearly 40ir., and had under him three yeo-
men foresters, from each of whom he took one mark.
Another had the bailiwick of Chelmsford and Danes-
eye, which extended in Daneseye from the town of St.
Peter atte Wall to the Foldhatch, and from the bridge
of Heybridge (Abridge) to the ford of Brickesheth ;
and in the half hundred of Chelmsford, from Brecke-
ford bridge to the bridge of the priory of Leyes
(Leigh), and from the town of Dronewell (? Runwell),
including the same town, through the middle of the
town of Chelmsford, as far as the boundary of the liberty
of Writele. He rendered to the Steward 40s., and
also had under him three yeomen foresters, of each of
whom he took one mark.
Another Riding forester had the bailiwick of the
half hundred of Witham, which extended from Cogges-
hall to Boreham, and from Little Keynes to Tiptree. He
also rendered 40^. to the Steward, and had under him
two yeomen foresters, of each of whom he took 205-.
In the bailiwick of the hundred of Dunmawe and
Herlawe, which extended in Dunmawe from Dunmawe to
Pleciz (Plassey), as far as Mathinge Green, and from Little
Norton St. Martin to Stanstrete, and in Herlawe from
Bettisso Bridge in Roydon to Martinsford, and to Welde
Park as far as Herlawe Mill, there was also a Riding
forester who rendered 40s. to the Steward, and had
under him three yeomen foresters, of each of whom he
took one mark.
And in the bailiwick of Aungre, which extended from
Bockhurst to Roynge (Roding) Beauchamp, and from
THE FORESTERS. 139
Royne Wood to Benecleye, was another Riding forester,
who also rendered yearly for his bailiwick 40^., and
had under him two foresters, from each of whom he
took 20s.
All these six were removable at the pleasure of the
Steward of the Forest, and each of them took for chemin-
age (that is, toll for wayfarage through the Forest) in his
bailiwick, four pence yearly for each cart carrying timber,
brushwood, bark, and coal (charcoal).
This, however, was an illegal demand ; for, accord-
ing to the Charter of the Forest, made nearly seventy 9 h. 3, § 14.
years earlier, no forester not a forester in fee paying the
King farm for his bailiwick might take cheminage. It
was only a forester in fee, paying farm to the King* for
his bailiwick, who had a right of cheminage, viz. : for
carriage by cart, the half-year, two pence ; and for
another half-year, two pence ; for a horse that bore loads,
one halfpenny by the half-year, and by another half-year,
one halfpenny; and this only of those who came as
merchants from without the forester's bailiwick, by
licence, to buy and sell again bushes, timber, bark, and
coal in his bailiwick ; but for none other carriage by cart
should cheminage be taken ; and it should be taken only
where it used to be taken. And those who bore on their
backs brushment, bark, or coal, though it was their living,
were to pay no cheminage to the King's foresters [except
they took it in the King's demesne woods.]
' Among the documents relating to the Justice Seat of 1292, is a Treas. of
petition (which, however, has no signatures) claiming freedom from f^'ro^ '
cheminage, because the bailiwick of the forestership was in fee, not Essex, No. 2.
rendering a farm to the King.
140 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Hari. MS. The duc observance of these regulations was directed
§5^0, 'zl. '' by the Chief Justice of Waltham Forest, in his charge, to
be inquired after by the grand jury/
T.eas. of There were also, in the 13th century, three foresters,
FoT. Rolls, or riding foresters in fee. One of these, Ralph le Mare-
foEd.^°''' schall, held the bailiwick of Alrefen and Kingswood
(Colchester) in 1292 by grant from Thomas de Clare
(the successor of Munfichet in the Stewardship) to him
and his heirs, rendering to Thomas one penny, but
nothing to the King, for his bailiwick.
In the time of Munfichet, the riding forester of this
bailiwick was Symon Norman, who received of the Issues
of the bailiwick of Kingswood ii^. 8af. yearly for rent
certain ; and forty hens yearly, and five hundred eggs
at the Castle of Colchester ; which profits, as we have
seen, were appropriated by Richard de Munfichet when
he was Steward of the Forest. Norman also claimed all
broken and windfallen wood in the wood of Kingswood.
There were under him five yeomen foresters ; one in
Kingswood, of whom he received yearly half a mark for
holding his bailiwick ; another in Dyham Wood, of whom
he received yearly 55., and he had besides cheminage
in the bailiwick ; a third in Dolewyneshaye, from whom
he received 20s,, and besides had cheminage in the baili-
wick ; a fourth In the half hundred of Wensentre, of whom
Ch. For.Proc. ' It was found by the jurors at the Justice Seat of 1630 that "in
No Kt ' '^^ Fence moneth there is a wronge done to his Ma'° leige people
Justices' dwellinge within the Forrest by the Officers, w"'' take Toale at Stratford
Inquines. ^£ ^ Passengers, as well Forresters as others, that is to say ij for Lyne
and wantie " (probably burdens fastened to a horse by line and rope),
" and iiij for a Carte, which ought not to be taken of the Forresters."
THE FORESTERS. 1 1 1
he received yearly 165., and he had also chemlnage there ;
and a fifth in the bailiwick of Alrefen, from whom he
received yearly two marks, besides having cheminage
there.
There was another forester in fee, one Henry Fitz-
aucher, in the half hundred of Waltham, who rendered
no farm to the lord the King, but " ought to make wan-
lace" {i.e., bring the quarry to bay) "when the lord the
King Cometh in these parts to hunt in his bailiwick."
This forester had one yeoman forester, of whom he
received yearly half a mark. The forestership was Duch.ofLanc.
claimed by and allowed to the Abbot of Waltham in Essei, For.
1489, under a fine levied in the reign of Richard II. 4 h. 7. ^™'
Although not specially mentioned in the surrender to Exch.Aug.
__ TTTTT r 1 • r 1 • mentation
Henry \LU. of the possessions of the monastery, it pro- office,3iH.8.
bably passed under the words " rights, jurisdictions, fran-
chises, liberties," &c. ; and I have found no further trace
of it or of the other foresterships in fee.
The district of the third forester in fee was the baili-
wick of Horsefrith, in the hundred of Chelmsford, which,
according to Morant, was that one of the two parks at Voi. 2. 63.
Writtle which lay on the road to High Ongar, and was
later known as Hoastley Park or Osterley Park ; it had For. roUs,
■^ •' Essex, Charter
been emparked by Richard de Brus, under a licence RoU, 1292.
granted by Edward I. in 1280. Theother was the King's
Park or Writtle Park, which lay towards Ingatestone.
According to the records, this forestership was held by
John de Wolanstone before 1292. He rendered no farm
to the King, but held (as he said) one virgate of land in
142 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the town of Writele, which pertained to the bailiwick,
and rendered to the manor of Writele, which was there-
tofore the demesne of the King-, 20^. yearly. He held
under charter made by King John to Brian de Terefeld,
by which he gave to Brian one carucate^ of land with
the serjeanty of the Forest at Writele. When John de
Wolanstone died, Robert de Brus, Lord of Writele,
" accroached " and appropriated to himself the serjeanty,
and demised it to Hugh de Merk, with the land, for sixteen
marks, which he gave him ; which serjeanty, it was said,
pertained to the King for the custody of his Forest.
The forester of Horsefrith paid nothing to the Steward
of the Forest : he had one yeoman forester, who gave
him 10s. yearly, and he had the same right to cheminage
as the other foresters.
It will be observed that the Riding foresters, who
were removable by the Steward, paid him the exact
amount which they received from their own yeomen.
Manwood, It is implied by the charge to the jury at the Justice
Seats, that the foresters in fee sometimes took rewards
from their yeomen for their offices, and afterwards
removed them and put others in their places for new
rewards, "to the great detriment and hurt of the Forest
and grief of the countrie" ; and we may be sure that •
there was good reason for the provision in the Charter
of the Forest, that no forester or beadle should thence-
9 H. 3, § 7. forth make extortion (scotale^), or collect barley (garbas),
' The land of a plough team, the amount being, like that of the hide,
variable.
'^ Scotah is commonly supposed to mean the keeping of an alehouse
THE FORESTERS. 143
oats, or other corn, or lambs, or young pigs, or demand
money.
Other misdeeds to which the foresters and other
ministers of the Forest were prone, may be inferred from Hari. ms.
the charge of the Chief Justice ; who directed the jury to Camb. ms. *
inquire whether the foresters entertained persons sus-
pected to offend in the Forest — ^whether they did not
rather make gain by killing the game, than use care to
preserve it^ — how they demeaned themselves towards
in the Forest by a Forest officer ; which none might do without the
licence of the Chief Justice. But Spelman's view, that it means
generally an exaction of money or other thing, is preferable, and is
supported by the terms of a statute of Edward III., which provides 25 ^d. 3, st. 5,
that no forester, nor keeper of forest or chace, nor any other minister, ^ ^"'
shall make or gather sustenance, puiure, nor other gathering of victuals,
nor other thing by colour of their office, against any man's will, within
their bailiwick, nor without, but that which is due of old right. The
word "puture" evidently corresponds with "scottalls" in one of the Harl. MS.
inquiries directed by the Chief Justice at the Justice Seat, in which ^^^9. § 22.
scottalls are precisely defined. " Whether they have kept any fg. 20.
scottalls in the fforest, which are unjust exactions or gatheringe w"*
in the fforest ; as taking reward to suffer men to take their rights in
the fforest, as to take barley, oates, sheep, lambe, or the like, of the
Comoners, to suffer them to take theire rightful Comon."
The meaning of the word " scotale " is discussed by the learned
editor of the Historical Charters of London ; but like almost all in index,
other writers, he assumes that the last syllable of the word relates to
ale. This I believe to be only a fancy, with no better foundation than
similarity of sound. It was not used by the Chief Justice of the Forest
when he denounced alehouses in 1670. It was sometimes spelt Harl. MS.
"scottall," and in Latin " scotallum," and appears to have been 6839.
evolved from " scottum," i.e., tribute or forced payment, which is ' °^' '^'
used in the grant by Richard I. to the Canons of Waltham, who were Clmter Roll,
to be free " ab omni Scotto et Geldo." Inspeximus.^"
1 The duty of the keeper is to preserve the deer and keep them for Manwood,
the King and his use, and not to kill or hurt any deer, except he have '^^^ '^•
a warrant from the King or his Justice.
144 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the King's people — what oppressions or extortions they
had committed by colour of their offices, and upon
whom — if any of them browsed any mast, or boughs of
great oaks in winter, more for his own gain than for
sustenance of the deer, or mowed any several ground
where the deer were wont to feed — whether they had
taken any fine or amerciament of trespassers within the
Forest and converted them to their own use — ^whether
they had brought in any new customs into the Forest to
the damage. of the King or trouble to the country — or
whether any Forest or other officer for his own gain, had
suffered those that were no commoners to put their cattle
into the Forest, or had taken gifts or rewards to suffer
strangers' cattle to take common there.
Very few complaints of the conduct of the foresters
as a body are to be found in the answers to these
ch For.Proc. inquiries; but in 1630 it was found that "the foresters
(o Car. I), -^
No. 153. do usually ryde and hunt the Kine's deer aforce w*''
Justices' J J o
Inquiries. hounds w*'' a great company w**" them, to the disturbance
of the game and great trouble and great damage of the
country in breaking of theyr fences and gates, contrary
to the ancient customes of the Forrest." A note in the
margin states that it is fit for consideration to be ordered
to be left, that it should not be done.
Demise of The namcs of the Riding foresters which I have
Warden by been able to find are in the Appendix. At and after the
ford, 18 June, Justicc Seat of 1489, there was but one Riding forester for
Moniington's the wholc Forest, who, with his three yeomen foresters,
N™.^56X' was appointed by the Warden.
Rep."^. The duty of the Riding forester, according to Sir
THE FORESTERS. 145
William Jones, was to lead the King in his hunting ; a
statement which agrees with if it does not fully describe
the " making wanlace " performed by Fitzaucher in the
13th century. The office existed until 1848, but seems
to have been vacant between 1742 and 1748, and again
between 1789 and 1794. Mr. John Wright was the last
Riding forester mentioned in the rolls of the Court ; but
although the office was held by several persons of con-
sideration, no more important duties were attached to it
in modern times, so far as appears by the -Attachment RoUs, 18 juiy
Rolls, than looking after the erection of "spurr gates," 1718.
by means of which the keepers could ride through the
inclosed forest lands ; and examining into the claims of id. 16 juiy,
persons who were said to be illegally pasturing the Forest
wastes.^
In 1489 the districts of the foresters were still called Duch.ofLanc.
Misc. Rec.
bailiwicks. In 1582 they had acquired the name of For. ofWai-
"walks." And at the Swainmote and Justice Seat of Lansd.MS.
1630, and the Swainmotes of 163 1 and 1634, the foresters ^^' ^' ^^'
were distributed as follows : —
There was one chief forester for Lucton (Loughton) Ch. For. Rec.
^ ' Waltham,
and Woodford walks, with five under foresters for 6 car. i,
Loughton, and two for Woodford ; one chief forester for n, Jo car. i,
the walks. of Epping, New Lodge, and Chingford, with ^'°- '+°-
five under foresters for Epping, two for New Lodge,
and three for Chingford ; one chief for the walk of
Chappel Renault, with two under foresters ; one chief
for the walks of Layton and West Renault, with
' In 1863 Colonel Palmer said that the duty of the riding forester Sel. Com.
IS to keep all the rides open. '^^3' •'^''•
F. L ' '
146 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
four under foresters for the former and two for the
latter ; and one chief for Walthamstow, with two under
foresters.
Attachment The records of the Court of Attachments from 17 13
\i\i^et infra, show again a different arrangement. The chief and
under foresters had become Master and Under keepers.
The walks were ten in number, viz, Epping, New
Lodge, Chingford, Woodford, Walthamstow, Layton and
Wanstead, West Heynault, East Heynault, Lambourn
and Chig^vell, and Loughton ; for each walk there was
one Master keeper and one Under keeper, and this
afterwards continued to be the arrangement. In 17 14
there is a notice of a sworn assistant to the under keeper
of Loughton walk; but it was not till 181 2 that the
assistant under keepers were entered among the ministers
of the Forest on the rolls of the Court. Shortly after
that time each under keeper had one and sometimes two
assistants.
I May, 1661. The office of chief forester or keeper of a walk was
Appointment
of Earl of granted to him, to be exercised by him or his sufficient
Sandwich to
Walthamstow deputy (for whom he was to answer), by deed under the
1 701, Lord ' seal of the Lord Warden, and for the life of the forester
Moruington's r i • 11 a 1 ■
Trustees, Or oi him and others. And in an appointment- to the
Appointment officc of Forester or Keeper of Chingford Walk, made in
Bo^thbyto 170I' he was bound to keep the lodge belonging to his
wiuf"'*^ walk in repair, and to provide one or more resident
fheo^^ihS'*° under keepers, who were to receive such yearly salary as
^TiTnTiyw sh°^^^ be agreed upon; in default of which, or if the
Lord Mor- master keeper should transfer the walk without the licence
nmgtou's ■■■
Trustees. of the Lord Warden, or should refuse to serve such
THE FORESTERS. 147
warrants as were directed to him, the grant was to be
void. The grant was sometimes made to women, and
sometimes to several and the longest liver of them, and Attachment
° . Roll, 19 May,
in reversion as well as in possession. For a grant of the i77S-
office of Keeper of Chingford Walk to himself, his wife,
and his son, Mr. Heathcote, in 1774, paid 550/. to Earl id.
Tylney; and the like sum, but partly in deferred and
contingent payments, was the price of a similar grant of -''f- ^s Jan.
that walk in 1733.
The Riding forester and each Master keeper were
entitled to fee deer. The former, in 1788, claimed one isthRep. of
buck and one doe from each walk in the Forest. But App.'No.'iz.'
Sir James Tylney Long's particular, (1788) stated that
the fee was only one buck and one doe. Mr. Conyers,
the Master keeper of Epping Walk, in his answer to the 14 Nov. 1788,
Parliamentary Commissioners in the same year, claimed Works.
two bucks and two does yearly ; and these, and the
salary paid at the Exchequer to the under keeper of the
walk, were, according to him, the only emolument
attached to the office of Keeper.
But in 1582 the Riding forester received for salary Lansd. ms.
1 2/. 35. &fd. A like sum was paid to the Chief forester '
of each of the walks of Woodford and Walthamstow ;
18/. 55. to the Forester of Chingford walk; 61. \s. 8d.
to the Forester of Layton walk ; and to the Forester of
Hennalt and Chapel Lodge walks, 24/. 6s. 8d. In the
reign of Elizabeth the Keeper of Walthamstow walk had
a yearly fee of 12/. And in 1703, three Master foresters isthRep. of
had from the Exchequer, fees calculated at 36/. 105. per 1793," Ap^*
No. 8.
annum.
L 2
148 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Lansd.MS. Moreovcr, in 1582, the Keepers of the three walks of
Walthamstow and of East and West Hainault, had 20
isthRep. of loads of dead wood. An order of the Court of Ex-
L. R. Com.
1793, App. chequer in 24 Elizabeth directed that the Keepers of these
three walks should have 20 loads of dead wood, loppings,
and shreddings, for fee wood and livery wood yearly.
^"achn^nt And in 1735 the Master keepers of Woodford, Loughton,
1737' ' and Lambourn walks were considered to be entitled to
15th Rep. of
L, R. Com. an allowance from the King's woods in Hainault of
Nos.'io, 19. livery logs (dead pollards) or 505. in money.
In the 13th century, as we have seen, the Forester of
the bailiwick of Alrefen and Kingswood claimed wind-
fallen wood, which anciently was the usual perquisite of
the Woodward.
Earl of War- A hom was the symbol of the forester's office, and
wick s Letter, -^
sufra, p. 40. when called at the Justice Seat it was his duty to deliver
it, kneeling, to the Chief Justice.
It does not appear from the records that the Master
keepers in modern times took a very active part in the
affairs of the Forest, except by attending the Courts.
The ordinary duties of the office were performed by the
Under keepers, who were in fact the chief executive officers
Charge of of the Forest. Those duties were to take account of all
Hari'. MS." deer killed or which had died, and of all trees felled in
6839, f. 261. 1 T7-- > 1
Consuet. et the King s demesnes ; to present what deer had been
Ruffhead, ■ killed; by whom, by what warrants, and what kind of
App. 25. deer. They were to be stout, strong, and of good couraee,
cott. MS. ^ ^ 1 rr , . , „ ° , ?., .,
Vesp. B. 7, to take otienders m the Forest, whom they, like all others,
°" ^^' were bound to capture if they could, and if they could
not to raise "hu et cry;" they were to keep the Forest
THE FORESTERS. 149
carefully in the fence month, and not suffer commoners
to put in their cattle, neither in the plain nor in the
covert ; to be careful in walking the Forest that no man
passing by them had any dog loose to chase the deer ;
and that men went not with bows bent or guns charged
as they passed through the Forest ; and when trespasses
had been done in venison, it was the duty of the Foresters
to assemble the four nearest vills to inquire of it, or cause
them to be amerced for not coming to inquire. They
were also to attach and hold to pledge offenders against
the vert. The jury were further directed to present
whether any of the Foresters had been removed, and when,
by whom, and for what cause; how every keeper had
used his walk ; what he claimed to belong to it, and what
he claimed by reason of it ; and he was bound ^o affirm Swainmote
at the Swainmote presentments which he had made at the
Court of Attachments.
The Under keepers executed the warrants for deer
ordered to be killed for the Sovereign or his nominees, or justice Seat,
which were allowed to the ministers of the Forest ; and Attachment
when ordered so to do, they brought in accounts of the ^°g^' ^^p'"
number of deer in their walks ; they looked to the lawing j^NoVina^-
of dogs, and took away and brought to the Court of P"^ '/'!'.
Attachments the guns, nets, axes, and other implements peb^'Z/it".'
used by poachers and persons detected in illegally cutting ^^y- '744-
or stubbing the woods. The Court commonly allowed Attachment
them to keep such of these things as they might lawfully 1715,'Aug."
use, and ordered the rest to be burned. J787! "'
The Under keepers also executed the orders of the
Court to throw down illegal inclosures, to keep open the
riding gates, and to do other things of the like nature.
ISO
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Attachment
Roll, 31 July,
1732.
Mat. for His-
tory of H. 7,
Campbell,
26 Nov. 1490
{M.R. Series).
ISth Rep. of
L. C. Com.
1793, App.
No. 8.
Return of
R. Hould,
1788.
The Art of
Hunting.
They and their assistants were sworn officers of the
Forest, and might be removed by the Court of Attach-
ments for misconduct ; but they were appointed by the
Master keepers of their walks.
A grant made in 1489 to John, Earl of Oxford, then
Steward of the Forest, shows that a rent of 9/. 2s. was
made payable out of the Manor of Ralegh for the wages
of three walking or yeomen foresters, in the three baillies
of the Forest ; besides which they appear to have taken
cheminage. They probably also extorted both money
and supplies from the Inhabitants of the Forest.
In 1703, the Under keepers received from yl. to Sd.
per diem ; and in and after 1704, each of them received
for wages 20/. per annum, reduced by the payment of
fees to 17/. 75-.
The Under keepers had also, in respect of all war-
rants executed within their charge, for the King or any
other person, one guinea for every buck, and half a
guinea for every doe killed, besides the skin, and the
part of the deer usually claimed by keepers * — a custom-
ary right of the successful hunter, which is mentioned by
Guillaume Twici, the huntsman of Edward II. ; and
which, as we may infer from the Foresters' song in " As
You Like It," prevailed in Shakespeare's time in Arden,
and probably in other Forests.
"What shall he have that Idll'd the deer ?
His leather skin and horns to wear."
tiiary, 13 ' The keeper, according to Pepys, was entitled to the umbles of
Sept. 1665. ^jjg (jggr_
THE REGARDERS. 1 5 1
The Regarders.
In every third year a regard or view of the Forest Assisa de For.
was directed to be made, together with an inquiry as to Aisfsade For.
the lawing of dogs. These things were done by officers Leg.' For.
called Regarders, who represented the twelve knights ch! For.
appointed by the Assises of Woodstock to be in each D^f. Exdl'
county in which the King had hunting, for the custody ^i'sisadeFOT.
of the venison and vert. ^^' ^' ^ '''
The Regarders of the Forest of Essex in the 17th
century evidently considered, that as the successors of
these knights, they were also the representatives of the
mediocres ox lesser thanes, to whom by Canute's Forest
law was committed the care of vert and venison ; for in
1630 and 1670 they claimed "as of old accustomed" ch.Foi-.Proc.
the same yearly fee which belonged to the mediocres. Bundle 130,
viz., a horse, a lance, a shield, and 60^.; with the ^^'^.^j^ ^
addition, in 1630, of the left shoulder of a slayed beast ^°- '9-
of venary.^
By the Forest laws of John and Henry III., the Re- Mat. Par. cii.
garders were to go through the Forest to make their m. r. s!
regard as at the time of the first coronation of Henry II. ' ' '
' According to Guillaume Twici, the person who slayed the hart had J'^^ A"^' °^
,,,,,., '^ ' Hunting.
the head and shoulders by right. -^^^^ ^^^
The lord of the manor of Minestead, in the New Forest, claimed the 1852, p. 3858.
left shoulder of all wild beasts found slain or wounded in the said Brayley &
manor. And in Dean Forest the chief forester in fee claimed the Beauties of
same part of all bucks and does killed within the Forest. England and
Wales, 5 .
711, n.
1 5 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
They were set in motion by the sheriff of the county,
who was required by the King's writ to summon the
Foresters and Regarders ; to cause the number of the
latter, if there were vacancies, to be filled up, so that
there should be twelve in every regard ; and that both
Foresters and knights {i. e., the Regarders) should swear to
the true making of the regard, by going through all their
bailiwicks to view the trespasses expressed in a writing
sent with the writ ; and they were liable to a fine if they
^68^' ^°^^' ^^^^ ^"^ insufficient return. On the completion of the
Cambridge regard it was to be engrossed on parchment, and pre-
sented at the Swainmote.
Book of The oath of the Regarders was as follows •} — " You
Oaths, fo, 299. ,
shall truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King in the
office of a Regarder of the Forest of Waltham ; [you shall
make the Regard of the same Forest in such manner as
the same hath been accustomed to be made ;] you shall
range throughout the whole Forest and through every
bailiwick of the same, as the Foresters there shall lead
you to view the same Forest ; and if the Foresters will
not or do not know how to lead you to make the [Regard]
range of the Forest, or that they will conceal from you
any thing that is forfeited to the King, you yourselves
shall not let for any thing, but you shall see the same
forfeiture [and cause the same to be inroUed in your
roll] ; you shall inquire of all wastes, purprestures, and
assarts of the Forest, and also of all concealments of
' Except the bracketed words, and the substitution of "riding
forester" for "regarder" at the beginning, this oath also served for
the riding foresters.
THE REGARDERS. 153
any offence or trespass in the Forest either in vert or
venison, by any officer of the same Forest; and all
these things you shall to the uttermost of your power
do."
The things to be done at the regard of the Forest AssisadeFor.
were specified in the Forest Assise of Henry II., and vol. 2, p.' 243
more shortly in the laws of Richard I. Ben. Pet."^
They included inquiries into the old assarts, the /^.' ^' ^' "^
purprestures, the wastes in the King's demesne and
other woods, and in the King's closes and fenced
grounds ; into the mines, the eyries of hawks, the new
assarts, and the forges in the Forests.
The instructions issued to the regarders of Waltham Camb. ms.
Forest in 1630 bear internal evidence that they were in °'^'
the form used in or soon after the reign of Henry III.
They directed the regarders to view the assarts and
purprestures made after the beginning of the second
year from the first coronation of that King, i.e., from
1 2 1 8 ; and to report the several particulars concerning
them which will be found in a later chapter ; also to See ch. vii.
view the old and new wastes of wood, the King's de-
mesne woods and parks, and the wastes in them; the
aeries for the goshawks, sparrow hawks, and falcons,
and who had and ought to have them ; the forges and
mines, and the customs and rents rendered in respect of
them ; the parts of the sea to which ships and boats
moor, to carry away timber and firewood from the Forests;
if any one had them anew which were not in the time of
King Henry, who made them ; to view the honey if any
was in the Forest, who had it, and whether it belonged of
right to the King or others ; and who had bows, arrows,
1 5 4 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
crossbows, brackets, or harehounds, or other contrivance
for harming the King through his wild animals.
Thorpe's Somc of the Forest offences, for the discovery of
Ancient Laws,
I- 527- which these inquiries were framed, are mentioned in
the supposed Anglo-Saxon laws collected during the
wiUcins, 352. reign of Henry I., and others in the Forest laws of
Hoveden, z. ° ■'
24s ; 4- 63 Henry II. and Richard I. : which declare that whosoever
(M. R. Ser.). ■' '
should offend in the King's Forest as to the vert, either
by the felling or disbranching of trees, the digging of
turves, the stripping of moor land, the cutting of under-
wood, or by assarts or new purprestures by fence or
ditch, or by the removal of a windmill, or the course of
a stream, or of slaughter or other houses, or by cutting
crops beyond the banks or ditches, should be in the
King's mercy as to his goods, unless he had the warrant
of the Verderers or the King's Foresters. It was to be
the same as to those who carried bows or arrows, or
brought dogs without a leash through the Forest; and
all these things, as well as the particulars concerning
the old and new assarts, were to be examined at the
regard of the Forest.
It was of course impossible for the regarders in
1630, to execute the instructions which related to acts
Cambridge donc more than 400 years before; they were therefore
further instructed not to limit their inquiries to what was
set down in the above articles, but principally to respect
and present offences done since the last Justice Seat,
without neglecting earlier ones of which due proof
should be given ; and to present any remarkable nuisance
or annoyance to the Forest leading to the terror of the
MS. fo. 12.
THE REGARDERS. 155
wild beasts (such as mills), or to the endangering of
them by digging pits in the walks, straitening and
stopping common ways, not repairing hedges, and the
like, by which the King's hunting was impeded; and
also unexpeditated mastiffs, the making of cony warrens,
and other offences leading to the destruction of the vert
and venison.
The wastes of some of the landowners were exempted
from the visits of the Regarders. It has been said that
such exemption was alone equivalent to disafforestation.
But the real effect of it is shown by the result of an excH. xreas.
111. . 1 /- -r- 1 1 T 1 ofRect. PI.
mquiry held m 1292, under a wrir of Edward I., by the For. No. 2a.
Foresters, Verderers, and Regarders of the three regards
of Colchester and Alrefen, of Ongar, and of Chelmsford,
with thirty- six knights and others, into a complaint
made by the Abbess of Barking ; that whereas certain of
her woods were without the Regard, so that she ought
to cause them to be kept by her servants and ministers see infra,
... . "Wood-
v/ithout the ministers of the King, the latter hindered wards."
and imposed divers burdens upon her, so that her minis-
ters could not keep the same woods as they had been
accustomed in times past, to her no small loss and
grievance. The finding was that the Abbess had in
Barking, Tolesbury, and other manors in the Forest,
certain groves which had always been used to be without
the Regard, so that the King's Foresters entered the
same when they would, and had wholly the custody of
the venison within the same, but the Regarders did not
make a Regard therein. So the Steward and other
' The writ was tested at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
1 5 5 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
ministers of the Forest were ordered entirely to desist
from causing any hindrance and grievance to the Abbess
and her servants in her said groves, and to suffer her to
hold them without the Regard, as she had been accus-
tomed to do in times past.^
Another place which was out of the regard, was
Corbicum or Corpechum, afterwards called Wallwood,
in Leyton, but this was expressly disafforested by a
charter in 1253, which was on several occasions con-
firmed by later charters, as will be found in another
chapter.
Bodi. Lib. There was a woodward, one Thomas Horsenayle,
For ofWal-
tham. 36Eiiz. for this wood in 1594, at which time it was the property
See Ass. For. r .-i r^
H. 2, § 4. 01 the Crown.
The early history of the regarders of Waltham
Forest is somewhat obscure.
Cotton Roll In 1250, there were two regarders for the hundred
of Thurstapele, two for Wensetri, and two for Lexenden
at Tippetri (Tiptree) ; two for Wyham and Felstede, four
for Chelmersford and Danesei, one for Berdestaple and
Chafforde, one for Chelmersford in the parts of Writele,
four for Aungre, and two for the half hundred of Wan-
tham — twenty in all.
Hac. For. The presentments made in 1277, at the pleas of vert
for the half hundreds of Lexendene, Wesentre, and
xm. s.
1277.
Lansd. MS. ' This may have been the foundation of a statement which occurs
34> I- 97- in a memorandum made about 1582, that "Henholt" was parcel of
the Abbey, and not of the Forest ; and that no lieutenant of the
Forest had anything to do in Henholt before the suppression of the
Abbey.
THE REGARD ERS. 157
Thurstapele, were made by the three verderers and by
Elias the clerk, son and heir of Hamo the clerk, formerly
Verderer ; the pleas of venison for the hundred of
Waltham by Henry the son of Aucher the Forester ; and
only the Regards of Colchester and Ongar were duly
presented by eleven " Regarderors," the first holders of
the office whom I have found mentioned in the Forest
of Essex under that title.
In 1292 the Foresters, Verderers, and Regarders of
the three Regards of Colchester and Alrefen, Ongar, and
Chelmsford, held the inquiry just mentioned about the
woods of the Abbess of Barking ; and several present-
ments were made by Regarders in the same year, and
also at the Justice Seat in 1323 : but it is not till the Duch.ofLaiic.
year 1489 that we have a full record of a Regard. There 4 h.'?.
were then eighteen Regarders — but only three are named Duch.ofLanc.
at the Swainmote of 1495, two of these being among
those mentioned in 1489.
At the Swainmote of 1594 there were twelve Re- Bodi. Lib.
garders, which was the number prescribed by the Assise
of Woodstock. The like number was present at the
regard of 1630, and at the Justice Seat held immediately ch.For.Proc.
after it; when the revival by Charles I. of the Forest 6Car.f(i63o),
laws for the purpose of raising money, led to the most °" '^'''
searching Regard which is on record in this Forest. The
Regarders certified that they had made their perambula-
tion, and had ranged through the whole Forest, and
every bailiwick of the same, and had there viewed the
wastes, purprestures, assarts, offences, and trespasses
thereafter presented. Their presentments were more
than 400 in number; and some of the offences were
1 5 8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
alleged to have been committed from forty to sixty-six
years before the date of the Regard.
They were said to have been done in Waltham-
stow, Woodford, Wanstead, Westham, Layton, Barking,
Dagenham, Chingford, Waltham, Nazing, Epping, Lam-
bourne, Chigvvell, Theydon boys, and Loughton ; all
places within the Forest as the bounds were fixed in
1 301, and not extending to the larger district afterwards
claimed by the King; and they included the making
inclosures, building, and digging pits on the waste ;
stubbing up woods; girdling, and cutting down timber
trees ; leaving woods unfenced which had been cut ;
making coney burrows ; hunting in the Forest ; lopping
trees when the leaf was coming forth, by which the deer
were hindered of browse ; leaving lanes incumbered with
wood and bushes, so that the King was hindered in
hunting ; erecting buildings on the waste ; and keeping
and using dogs and guns In the Forest : in conclusion
the regarders certified that more than 150 dogs were
Ch.For.Proc. uuexpcdltated.
Waltham, i^ , . , ^ . , , ,
No. 140. Eleven regarders appeared at the bwammote held
wiifham^'^"'^' in 1 63 1, and twelve at that of 1634. In 1638 the regard
H°c^f I. f°r the hundreds of Becontree and Waltham, and for the
Ex TreTs. of P^^* of Ongar hundred which was within the Forest, was
Es^sex ^0^6^" ^^^ ^y "^"^y ^^'^ regarders; but at the Swainmote of
'^7°- 1640, the names of forty-eight regarders appear — twelve
chy. Waltham for cach of the districts of the hundreds of Waltham and
16 Car. I, ' Becontre, the hundred of Chelmsford, the hundred of
Colchester, and the bailiwick of Ongar. Of these fifteen,
and another not named in the lists, signed the roll.
Ex. Treas. of At the first regard of 1670 there were thirteen, and
Rect. PI. For.
THE REGARDERS. 159
at the second only twelve "regarders. At the Justice Seat Essex, Nos. s,
6, 8. 1G70,
of 1670, a Regard roll made in 1665 was presented, and
this appears to be the last Regard which was made in the
Forest, all the subsequent presentments recorded having
been made by the Keepers or Foresters or their subordi-
nates at the Court of Attachments.
At the Justice Seat in 1489, it was ordered that to Duch. of
■' -f J' ^ Lane. Misc.
Reginald Pympe and Richard Barle and his fellow Re- Rec.
garders should be given two deer called soares, and two
female deer in winter.
The Ranger of the Purlieus.
The duties of the Ranger were, for the most part,
exercised beyond the actual limits of the Forest. He
watched over the rights of the King in the purlieus, i. e.
the free or exempted places on the borders of the Forest,
which, though not part of the Forest, were not entirely
discharged from the rights of the Crown.
The history of the purlieus begins with the declara-
tion in Magna Charta, which was reaffirmed by the first § 47.
Charter of Henry III., that all forests which had been §38.
afforested in the time of John should forthwith be disaf-
forested. Henry III., in Charta Forests, also discharged § 3.
from the Forests all woods afforested by John or Richard
1 60 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
to the time of Henry's first coronation, saving only his own
5 '• demesne woods. But by another clause he had directed
that if it should be found, upon a view of the Forests,
that Henry II. had afforested any woods other than his
own demesnes " to the loss of him whose wood it was,"
they should be disafforested. This disafforestation cer-
tainly enabled the owners of these lands to stub their
woods, and inclose^ and otherwise improve their lands ;
4th Inst. 303. and it was the opinion of Coke that in any of the disaf-
Manwood,
ch. 20. forested lands, whether they had been afforested by
Henry II., Richard, or John, a man might also as law-
fully hunt in his own grounds as any other man might in
his lands that never were afforested.
But it was held by some that the words " to the loss
of him whose wood it was," which were used only with
reference to the forests made by Henry II., meant that
the disafforestations were only for the benefit of the
owners of the disafforested woods ; and that against all
the rest of the world the wild beasts still belonged to
the King, and he might hunt, and forbid all except
the owners to hunt, in the purlieus, as if they were still
forest.
Whether this was the intention or not, it seems to
have been upon these words, that the Crown rested its
claim to make regulations as to the hunting in the Forest
purlieus. These regulations were certainly enforced in
' Some inclosures in Theydon purlieu presented in September, 1785,
were thrown open by Thomas Hatherill, the under ranger, in July,
1787; but he no doubt exceeded his powers. No attempt was made
to act upon other presentments made by the same officer in October,,
1789, and July, 1803, of the digging up and inclosing purlieu land.
THE RANGER OF THE PURLIEUS. l6i
the purlieus of the Forest of Essex, and afford some evi-
dence, not inconsistent with the perambulation of 1301,
that the districts included in these purlieus had been
afforested by Henry II. ; which is the more likely because
his afforestations, as the earliest which were treated as
illegal by Charta Forestse, would naturally comprise the
lands adjoining- the ancient and legal Forest. The Illegal
afforestations of the later Kings, on the other hand, ever
widening In area as they became more remote from the
original Forest, would upon disafforestation be beyond
the supervision of the purlieu officers, of whom there
was never a large staff. And In fact all the purlieus
mentioned in the records, except Rayleigh, viz. those of
Leyton, Nasing, Epping, Stapleford, Weald side, Bentry
or 'Benfry heath, Ongar park, and the liberty of Haver-
ing, He on the outskirts of the ancient Forest. Their
assumed position is shown on the map which faces
page 50.
The distance of Rayleigh purlieu from the Forest Is
perplexing. The village is in the hundred of Rochford,
which, according to the perambulation of 1301, had been
out of the Forest from time immemorial ; although that
of 1225 states that it was afforested after 11 54, which
would bring It within the above definition of a purlieu.
Both perambulations agree that the hundreds of Chafford
and Barstaple, which He between the Forest and Roch-
ford, were also afforested after 1 154 ; so that possibly the
purlieu may have taken Its name from Rayleigh as the
vill nearest to its extreme end, and lying, in fact, only
just beyond the bounds of the hundred of Barstable.
r. M
1 62 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The office of the Ranger is described in his oath as
exerciseable upon the borders of the Forest.
There are no means of fixing the external boundaries
of the purlieus. The perambulation of 1301 shows that
the hundreds of Chafford, Barstaple, and Dengie, and the
half hundreds of Witham, Thurstable and Wenestree,
were afforested by the three Kings, Henry II., Richard,
and John. Some disafforestations were made by
5 x\A. Ben. Henrv II. and his predecessors : and the Assise of Wood-
Abb. (M. R. -^ ^ . r
Ser ), vol. I, stock seems to refer to the purlieus, in speakmg of places
beyond the Forest where the King's beasts resorted or
had peace. But except for the slight indication suggested
by the proximity of the purlieus to the ancient Forest, it
is not known what lands were afforested or disafforested
by each of these Kings.
The bounds of Richard's afforestations are not men-
tioned; and the banks by which John protected his
afforestations were included in the disafforestation,* and
were doubtless destroyed at once by the owners of the
lands upon which they stood.
The perambulations do not mention the purlieus,
except that those of 1630 and 1641 refer by name to the
purlieu hedge and purlieu bank at Theydon Green,
Epping, and Thornwood Common, but only as Forest
boundaries without the names of the adjoining purlieus ;
the banks were the boundaries between the Forest and
the purlieus, and not the external boundaries of the pur-
MagnaCharta, ' " Omnes forestae quae afforestatas sunt tempore nostro, statim
H"- deafforestentur ; et ita fiat de ripariis quse per nos tempore nostro
positae sunt in defenso."
THE RANGER OF THE PURLIEUS. 163
lieus. Part of the purlieu bank still remains at Epping,
and is under the special protection of the Conservators
of the Forest;* and this, and "the Purlieu Farm," on
the east of Epping Thicks, are believed to be the only
remaining traces of the purlieus of this Forest.
After the perambulation in 29 Edward I., a question
seems to have arisen as to its effect upon the rights of
the owners of lands which it put out of the Forests.
These persons having requested that they might be
acquitted of their charge and of things that the foresters
demanded of them as theywere wont to be ; the King, with
some ill humour, answered, that where he had granted
purlieu, he was pleased that it should stand in like
manner as it was granted, "albeit that the thing was
sued and demanded in an evil point,"
The purlieu officers were the Chief Ranger, who was Attachment
^ . RoUs, 1763
appointed by the Warden of the Forest; and under him and iSn.
four sub-rangers appointed by himself. . The names "of and 1763.''^^'
the rangers are not entered in the records of the earliest
Courts, and the districts of the sub-rangers were more
than once altered.
Ralph Coterell, ranger (rangiator) in 1489, is the Duch.ofLaiic.
J^Jjgc R.CC
first whose name I have been able to find ; and rolls of p.^^ 'j^^,, "
the Court of Attachments for the years 1589 and 1590 rqu^^^c"^''
contain the names of several sub-rangers : Hamblet '2> '3-
Johnson for Laighton walk, Edward Stanmer for " Hern-
old," John Growe for Chappie Heinault and Lowe woods,
Richard Elkin for Epping, and Henry Wright for
' Epping Forest Act, 1878, s. 7 (3).
M 2
1 64 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Lamborne — the names of the purlieu officers being thus
taken from districts lying opposite to the purlieus within
the Forest boundaries.
s^vainmote, \^ I ciod, " The Most Noble " Sir Thomas Heneage,
36P:iiz. 1594, o -:>"(■> o
Bodi. Lib. Knt., Vice-Chamberlain, was Ranger; and between
ch. For.Proc. that date and 1630 were, first, Sir Moile Finch, and,
No. 130! on his death, Sir John Wentworth, who surrendered the
i<^- office to Henry, Earl of Oxford, from whom he had
received it.
fd. After them Sir John Hippesley was Chief Ranger
in 1630, and Edward Compton ranger for the liberty of
Havering, which having ceased, as we have already seen,
to be part of the Forest, was now treated as purlieu.
There were also four under rangers — one for Dagenham
side, which probably included the districts formerly
named from the walks of Hainault, Chappie Heynault,
and Lowe woods; one for Epping, one for Loughton,
and one for Layton.
ch.For.Proc. In 1 634 Sir Johu Hippesley was still Chief Ranger,
10 Car. I, and Henry Breame ranger of the liberty of Havering atte
Bower, and Dagenham side ; with a sub-ranger for each
of the purlieus of Loughton, Epping, and Layton with
West Hainault.
Commission In 1 64 1 Thomas Witherings was Chief Ranger and
of Perambu- , . , . . , . -
lation and also ouc 01 the commissiouers for makmg the perambula-
Petty Bag tiou of that year ; and among the persons summoned to
"''' ' "^'^ take part in it were Henry Breame, formerly called the
Ranger, but now only the sub-ranger of the liberties of
Havering atte Bower, and the sub-rangers of Epping,
Leighton, and West Hennault.
In 1 701 Robert Boothby, of Fryday Hill, in Ching-
THE RANGER OF THE PURLIEUS. 165
ford, although not nominally a ranger, was appointed a ^ J," Lord of'
gamekeeper of the county of Essex, with the same power Man.ofciiing-
as the ranger, to give account of and to rechase and
with hounds drive back the outlying deer in the county
into the Forest, and generally to seize the guns and
implements of poachers.
From 1 709 to the break-up of the Forest establish-
ment, there were always a Chief Ranger and four sub-
rangers. During this period the names of the purlieus
in which the latter acted, are not mentioned in the head-
ings of the rolls of the Court of Attachments ; though,
as in the case of the under ranger of Ongar Park
purlieu in 1719, of one of the "Poraliew Rangers of
Raighleigh" in 1740, and of three under rangers of the
purlieus of Hainault in 1786, the names are sometimes
added to the entries of the swearing of the officers.
The following persons were the rangers in and
after the year 1 709 : —
1709. John Wroth, Esq.* iSched. of
Grants of
1 7 18. Lord Castlemain. offices to
Conveyance to
1722. John Goodere, Esq., who held the office till sir r. child,
1709.
1757. The rest from
. Attachment
1763. Anthony Bacon, Esq. RoUs.
1786. Sir William Smijth, Bart.
181 1. Charles Smith, Esq.
1814. William Matthew Raikes, Esq. (died 181 7).
1830. William St. Julien Arabin, Esq.
1 83 1. Sir Emanuel Felix Agar, Knt., who still
held the office at the date of the last Court
entered on the rolls, 6th December, 1848.
1 66 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Memoranda The duties of the Ranger and his under rangers
de Foresta.
— appear from their oath, which bound them well and truly
Book of ^^ . , ,. - ,^- , ,
Oaths, 1649, to execute their office in the purlieus of Waltham upon
°'^^ ' the borders of the King's Forest of Essex, otherwise
called the Forest of Waltham ; ^ to rechase, and with
their hounds drive back again, the wild beasts of the
Forest, as often as they should range out of the Forest
into their purlieus ; truly to present all unlawful hunting
and hunters of wild beasts of venery and chase, as well
within the purlieus as within the Forest ; and these and
all other offences, to present at the King's next Court
of Attachment or Swainmote, which should first happen.
isthRep. of The Chief Ranger had, up to 1703, td. per diem.
1793. In 1704 the salary was 20I. per annum, and that of each
Richd.Houid, under ranger 10/. In 1788 the latter had only 8/. 13^. (id.,
the reduction being probably caused by Treasury fees.
Doct. temp. And the Ranger was entitled to fee deer, which, ac-
Mus.' cording to the claim of Sir William Smijth in 1788, con-
L^ RXom, sisted of one buck and one doe annually from each walk.
1793. App.
No. 12.
The purlieu laws related almost exclusively to hunt-
ing. It has already been said that an owner of lands in
the purlieu, who was called a purlieu man, could only hunt
there according to certain regulations. First, he must
have free land within the purlieu to the yearly value of
i3R.2,c. 13. 40^., or must possess such other statutory qualification
and see Can. ■^ ^
F. L. §§ XXX. as would enable him to keep dogs for hunting ; and if
Manwood, he had it not, he might only chase the wild beasts out of
ch. 20.
' The oath in this form was probably not of earlier date than 1489,
when the expression "Forest of Waltham" first appears on the
records of the Courts, though it was used in the perambulation of 130 1.
THE RANGER OF THE PURLIEUS. 167
his own purlieu lands with little dogs ; if he had no free-
hold, the land as to him was absolutely forest.
Again, if qualified to hunt, the purlieu man might
hunt only with dogs, and might not use any engine for
the destruction of the beasts. He must begin the chase
in his own purlieu land. Having done so he might
follow it over any other free land within the purlieu ; but
he must chase the game towards the Forest, and by no
means "forstall," that is, get between the beast and the Ass.ofWood-
1-, . - . , -^ stock, \ 16.
rorest so as to prevent it from returnmg to the forest;
for it was written in the Assises of Woodstock that no
man should, upon pain of a year's imprisonment and
fine and ransom at the King's pleasure, make any fore-
stalling for his wild beasts, either with dead hay' or
quick hay, between the King's forests and the woods or
other places by him or his progenitors disafforested.
He was also bound to call his dogs off the quarry by Manwood,
blowing the rechase before they entered the Forest, un-
less, being already fastened on the deer, it drew them
into the Forest.
If the wild beasts recovered the Forest again, though
not infra fihitn forestce, but within the lyst or the brink of
the Forest, before the dogs fastened upon them, then
they were absolutely the King's wild beasts again, or
those of the owner of the Forest.
It was also a rule that the purlieu man might hunt
only with his own servants ; he might not hunt upon, or Camb. ms.
within the bounds of the Forest ; nor chase unseasonable Manwood,
deer; nor hunt in the night, before sunrising or after
' Dead fence, which would include nets ; or quick fence.
1 68 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
sunset, nor on Sundays,^ nor in the fence month, nor
more than thrice in the week; and therein, says the
Fos. 37,38. Cambridge MS., it is the ancient course of this Forest,
for the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays to be
reserved for the rangers to drive back the deer to the
Forest, and purlieu men not to hunt therein.
Neither might he hunt within forty days before or
after a general hunting by the King, nor after notice
that a forester was serving any warrant {i.e. executing
an order to kill or capture deer) near the border of the
purlieu ; and in hunting he was not to associate with
wrongdoers.
See Charge, It was also a rule in the purlieus of Waltham Forest,
§4i,Hari.MS. that the deer were not to be hunted against the wind.
6839, fo. 261.
4th Inst. 303. Coke, however, appears to put the hunting rights of
the purlieu owners as high as those of persons whose
lands were never afforested. The rights of such persons,
Skene's Reg. according to Skene's Forest Laws, were not only abso-
L^ws, capl'17. lute beyond the Forest, but, within certain limits, also
Ang.-Norm. ' existcd within it. The regulation declares that, if any free
cap^'i7°voi.2, tenant, having by virtue of his infeoffment free power to
^■^''^' hunt within his own land marching near to the King's
Forest, lets and suffers his dogs to run within his own
land, and they follow the beast within the King's Forest,
he may follow his hounds within the King's Forest as far
as he may cast his horn and his dog leash. If the hounds
take the beast within that space, the man may take the
Tib. A. 3, 'A very ancient rule. In .(Elfric's Colloquies, the hunter is asked,
fo. 61. « jja^g^- tjjQ„ hunted to-day .?" He answers, " I have not, because it is
Sunday."
THE RANGER OF THE PURLIEUS. 1 69
beast and his hounds without challenge, but if he exceed
the space, he must pay eight cows, and forfeit his hounds
with the beast.
The purlieus afforded great facilities to poachers ;
and Man wood remarks, that " it seemeth the pourallee ch. 20.
men with their adherents have consented together to
destroy the Forest by colour of pourallee hunting ; which
they have almost brought to passe in the Forest of
Waltham : or at least they will do so in short time if
their hunting be suffered as it is now used."
The rarity of presentments of breaches of the pur-
lieu laws in the Forest of Essex probably arose from the
inability of the rangers to watch the large spaces
included in their districts ; and partly, perhaps, from
the fact that during a long series of years the illegal
afforestations, of which the purlieus consisted, were upon
several occasions reclaimed by the Crown, and were
then treated as forest.
There were, however, several of such presentments Duch.ofLanc.
IS^isc. R.CC
at the Swainmotes of 1495 ^"^ 1594. Included in the pH.'?.
first of these was Rauf Coterell, the " Comyn Hunt " of \Z^!Ji^z.
London, and William Gyket, his son-in-law, who with ■^°''^- ■''*•
another person slew two harts in the purlieus.^ In 1594
one presentment is for killing a great buck with grey-
hounds, in the Forest, coming out of the purlieus ; another
for killing two stags with two crossbows by night in the
purlieu; another for standing up with a crossbow in
the purlieus near Bentrye Heath in the night ; a fourth
' This they could only do if they hunted the harts on their own
lands in the purlieus as is stated, above.
1 no THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
for standing with a crossbow bent, and a forked arrow
in the same, between the hours of viii and ix of the
clock in the night, between the Forest of Waltham and
the purlieus of the same ; a fifth for having killed a
fawne in the winter in the purlieus, by " unorderlye
hunting." The last offender only appears to have
hunted by right, but against the rules; as did also
several purlieu men and divers belonging to them, who
" killed one redd deer, being a ' herst,' upon the xxiiij
day of June being Sondaye in the mornyng, about xi of
the clocke in the same mornynge, in the service tyme at
Wield side plaine, beinge purliews belonginge to the
Forest of Waltham."
ch.For.Pioc. At the Swainmote of 1634 there are also several
Waltham, ■, • • ■,
No. 140, presentments against persons for huntmg m the purlieus
of Leyton and Stapleford Abbott, not having any lands
or tenements in the same. One of these misdoers,
being a gentleman, was fined 20s.; another, a yeoman,
10/.; and a third, a butcher, who had assisted another in
hunting in the fence month, 20^.
Attachment In 1716-17 the under-ranger presented a stag killed
1 7 16- 1 7. within the purlieus of the Forest, by Sir John Tyrell's
and 6 Sept. and Lady Peter's hounds, and carried to Sir John
''' ■ Tyrell's house. And in 1718 a person was presented
for slipping a leash of greyhounds at a sore and sorel as
the Ranger was hunting them into the Forest again, the
said deer being within the purlieus of the same Forest.
But no further presentments are recorded, although the
Ranger with his under rangers, continued to hold office
for more than 100 years later.
THE WOODWARDS. 171
The Woodwards.
The Kings Henry II. and Richard I. ordained Assises of
that all who had woods within the bounds of the King's §§ 4, 5.
Forests should put proper foresters in their woods, for ch. 150.
whom the owners of the woods themselves should be Laws', 351. '
pledges ; or should find proper pledges, who should be
answerable if the foresters were guilty in anything
belonging to the King. Those who had woods beyond
the regard of the Forest in which the King's hunting
"had peace" were not allowed to have any forester
unless he swore to the assise of the King, and the
peace of his hunting. And the King's foresters were
to oversee the Forest of the knights and others who had
woods within the bounds of the King's Forests, that the
woods were not destroyed ; for if they were destroyed
the owners were warned that amends would be taken of
them or of their lands, and of none other.
The officers who were appointed by the owners of
woods under the above ordinances were always called
Woodwards in the Forest of Essex ; the foresters being,
as we have seen, officers of the Crown, appointed by the
Lord Warden, having the oversight of bailiwicks or
walks, and various duties not specially connected with the
woods. The Woodwards were sworn at the Forest Courts
to keep and occupy the office of the woodwardship of ^emd^. de
the Forest of Essex, and truly attach and true present-
172
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
ment make to their power of all manner of trespasses
done to vert or venison, waif or stray, within their keeping
at the next Court of Attachments.
It is shown by several entries at the Justice Seat
PI For. held in 1277, that the above ordinances referred to the
woodwards. Thus, Richard Leyr, woodward of the wood
of Heybrigge^ (in Chingford) having kept it badly, and
permitted much damage, the attorney of the Dean of
St. Paul's, to which the wood belonged, by command
of the Crown, made him come, and he was fined one
mark.
Again, it was complained that the Templars of
Chingford took the woodward out of the wood of that
manor, which they had in farm, and that it was without
a sworn keeper of the peace of venison ; and that Richard
de Tany withdrew the surety of his woodward of the
wood of Stapleford, and did not permit him to be sworn
of the custody of venison as he ought ; and when the
wood was taken into the King's hands, De Tany seized
it, and caused it to be felled ; for which offences he was
fined 205., and presented his woodward sworn to the
PI. For. Kxch. custody of the woods. It was also found in 1292 that
Treas.ofRect. - , .
No. 2 a. the Abbess of Barkmg oup-ht to have her woodwards
20 Ed. I. . 1
sworn to the Kmg of the five great woods of Alfrefen,
Hyneholt, Gaysham, Alesereth, and Henglegh wood,
which belonged to her house and manors, and were fully
within the regard of the Forest.
If woodwards were not duly appointed, or if they
neglected their duties, the woods were seized into the
Domesday of ' The same wood had been wasted before 1222 by Simon de
fc^mT^Soc), Stanbrigg, a canon of St. Paul's,
p. 107.
THE WOODWARDS. 173
King's hands. Several woods are stated to have been Cotton RoU
xiii. 5.
SO seized m 1250. The same thing, as we have seen,
happened to the wood of Richard de Tany in 1277, and
in 1323 to that of William Gernonn, near "Wynterree" Ex. Xreas. of
. . Rect.i7Ed.2
(Wintry), in Theydon Gernonn, for the recovery of which m. 26 to
William had to pay a fine of 5^-. ; and to woods of John xreas'ofRect.
Wade, Canon of St. Paul's, and of Thomas Priour, in roiis, R^iss.
T T>7 O Roll 27.
^ol-^- 46 Ed. 3.
The rules as to woodwards were strictly enforced in Cotton roII
the 13th century. At the Court held in 1250, the names
of 121 of these officers are mentioned, of a very small
number of whom it is stated, that they were not yet
sworn.
At the Justice Seat of 1489, 29 woodwards of Duch.ofLanc.
. Misc. Rec.
different manors were present and sworn ; and 5 or 6 4 Hen. ;.
of these, with others, in all ^'^■^ were present and sworn ' " ^"'^^
at the Swainmote of 1495, being described as woodwards
of different woods in the half hundred of Waltham, and
of the bailiwick of Ongar.
In 1594, at the Swainmote only 18 woodwards, and sodi. Lib.
the woods for which they were sworn, are mentioned. rtram,°36Eiiz.
In 1590, and again in 1630 and afterwards, the walks For. roU,
of the Forest formed the districts in which the woodwards 32°ehz. Hari.
. J Roll,C.C.i3.
acted. Ch. For. Proc.
6 Car. I,
Bundles 130,
The lords of the Forest manors, long before this, '^^' ^'^^'
had found the advantage of having servants in their
woods, who were responsible to themselves as well as to
the Crown ; and they claimed as a right to make the
appointments which were required by the Forest law.
As early as 1323, the Earl of Arundel claimed to have Exch. Xreas.
"^ of Rect. PI.
1 74 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
For. 17 Ed. 2, his woodward for guarding his own woods in his own
manor of Wolfhamston, "so that he gives his oath before
the King as is the custom." A claim was made in like
terms by the lord of the same manor in 1670, and also
For. Proc. by the lord of the manor of Higham Bempstead ; and in
Excii.Q.Rem; 1630, 1653, and 1670, claims to appoint woodwards were
Treas.'ofRe'ct! made by the owners of the manors of Waltham Holy
1670. °^' Cross, Nazing, Sewardstone, Claverhambury, and Wood-
rydden; Wanstead and Stonehall ; Chingford; Theydon
Hall; Woodford and Hill House; Chobhams; Ruckholt;
Walthamstow ; Wolfhamston ; Epping ; Lamborne Hall ;
and Battelshall : and for the woods of Larks and Dun-
Jiurst Hill in Chingford Earls; the estate of Barrington's
in Chigwell ; and some other woods and coppices.
The last entry which I have found of the swearinsf
Attachment - . , 1 • ^ ,
Rolls. of a private woodward was m October, 1728, when
Thomas Catlin was sworn as woodward to Sir Harry
Hicks, lord of the manor of Ruckholts, "to preserve
his woods from being destroyed, subject to the Forest
laws."
When the Crown became the owner of woods in
Hainault, there was also a King's woodward who, like
the other woodwards, was sworn at the Court of Attach-
ments. The grant of this office to keep the King's
woods in Chappie Heynault, West Heynault, Tom att
Woodes, and Gresham's Hall Fee, was made by the King,
L R^Co' ^" ^ James I., to Robert Barefoote for life, with the wage
1793- and fee of 40 marks yearly; besides which he was riding
bailiff of the demesnes of Barking and the liberties of
Eastholt, otherwise Hainault, and Gresham's Hall Fee,
THE WOODWARDS. 175
with the wage of 325. 40^. yearly; and shortly after the ch.For.Proc
rr 1 • • 1 1 T7-' T 1 Waltham,
orhce was granted in reversion by the King to John ecar. i,
Holmes and Gerson Holmes for their lives. Barefoote and''i43?' ^ '
appeared as King's woodward at the Swainmote and z^;. 10 Car. i.
Justice Seat in September, 1 630, and Gerson Holmes at °' ^^
the Justice Seat in 1634. The appointments to this l. r. co'm.
office were in modern times made by the Lord Warden, ''^^'
and with those of the under woodwards, are regularly
entered on the Attachment Rolls from 1 7 1 3 down to July
1 81 6. The names of the King's woodwards will be
found in the Appendix.
In the rolls which I have seen of the time of Elizabeth
the names of the woodwards of private woods are also
entered among the ministers of the Forest, but they
do not appear on the rolls of the i8th and 19th cen-
turies.
The offices of King's woodward and of his two
under woodwards continued to exist so long as the
Courts were held. Their duties, so far as can be judged Attachment
froni the records, consisted of the general supervision of '
the woods, and of the exercise of the rights of lopping
them ; and they provided assignments of wood for such
as were entitled to them.
They also marked with the broad arrow, spear trees
which vrere not to be pollarded ; cut timber or trunks of
dead pollards (called wholves) for the construction and
repair of foot-bridges, and of gates and gate-posts, in
their districts in the Forest, and for other like purposes ;
and when necessary lopped branches for the shelter of
the deer in hard weather.
Tj6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
To the woodward belong-ed by ancient custom all
ijthRep. of wind-fallen wood.* In Waltham Forest the Kind's
L. R. Com. .
1793- woodward had the right to take dead or decayed wood
Treas.ofRect. for fuel for his own use and not for sale : but the broken
For. RoUs,
Essex, No. 2. and wind-fallen wood in Havering Park was claimed by
20 Ed. I. ° ■^
Henry de Cokyntone, the Steward of the Forest, in the
13th centuiy.
Sir w. Jones' A hatchet was formerly the symbol of the wood-
Rep. 266. . . ■^
ward's office^, and it was his duty at the Justice Seat to
deliver it upon his knees to the Chief Justice. The
piac. For. record at the Justice Seat of 30 September, 1670, that
Exch. Treas. Thomas Tompson was fined i/. for an ill hatchet,
County Bags, probably refers to an irreverent performance of this duty
ssex, o. . ^.^j^ ^ dirty or broken weapon.
isthRep. In the 1 8th century, the instrument used was
[■•Dp ji^n?
described as a marking hammer, and by delivery of it
the office was conferred.
The Reeves.
The Reeves, as has already been said, were origin-
ally parish officers, who, probably after the Conquest,
' The Latin version of the Rectitudines Singularuvi Personarum runs :
"Wudeward; id est custodi nemoris vel forestario, jure cecidit lignum
omne vento dcjectum." This also shows that the sanae meaning was
given to the words "woodward" and "forester." The Anglo-Saxon
text only contains the word " wudeward."
Lond. Gaz. . "^ In the New Forest, according to the claim of the lord of the
I 52, p. 3 57- liianor of Minestead, the symbol was a horn ; and the duties seem to
include those of a forester.
THE REEVES. 177
became sworn officers and subject to the jurisdiction of
the Forest Courts, although they were still nominated by
the parishes, and performed duties in which the parish-
ioners as such were chiefly interested.
In the 1 2th century, a reeve (praepositus) and four Hoveden, An.
men from each vill were included among the persons ' "
directed by Richard I. to be convened by the Justices
itinerant of the Forests, to hear the precepts of the
King. But they are not mentioned at the Court of cotton rou
xiii. 1;.
1250.
The earliest of whom I have found any notice was st. Paioi's
William de la Hache, Reeve of Chingford in 1222 ; and chingford.'
in 1277, Stephen, Nicholas, Gerard, and Reginald, ^^^i^°^'
under the title of prsepositi or provosts, were Reeves for
Tolesbury, Langho (Langenhoe), Tolleshunt, and Ongar,
which were then within the Forest.
In 1489 (4 H. 7), at the Justice Seat, and in 1594 Duch.ofLanc.
(36 Eliz.) at the Swainmote, we have the names of the swainmote,
^ ' . . 36Eliz.Bodl.
reeves in many of the Forest parishes ; each reeve bemg Lib.
then and thereafter recorded to have been summoned to
the Court, with the fourmen who assisted him.
The seventeen parishes, the reeves and fourmen of
which were summoned in 1489, were —
Stratford, Stapleford Abbotts,
Woodford, Navestock,
Wansted, Waltham,
Leyton, Nasing,
Walthamstowe, Epping,
Loughton, Chingford,
Theydon Boys, Barking,
Lamborne, Dagenham.
Chigwell,
F. N
1 7 8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The list of 1594 contains only thirteen parishes,
Stratford, Loughton, Stapleford Abbotts, Navestock,
and Dag-enham being omitted, and Woolhamstone Hall
being added.
ch.For.Proc. Jn the record of the Justice Seat of 1630, the names
No. 130. of the fourmen and reeve of " each villate withm the
Forest" are set forth. The number of the villates was
seventeen, and the list corresponds in this respect with
that of 1489; but Stratford, Navestock, and Chingford
are omitted, and Roydon hamlet, Little Ilford, and West
Ham are added. The last no doubt represented Strat-
ford, and Chingford was omitted by mistake: as it
Ch.For.Proc. appears in the Swainmote list of 1631, which in other
No.^140.' respects agrees with that of 1630, as does also the Swain-
No ho'"'' '' "^°*^ ^^^* '^^ ^^34-
Peraliib"i 01 Little Ilford was partly within and partly beyond the
Ch.For.Proc. Forest ; the former part was so thinly inhabited in 1630,
6 Car T' that only two fourmen were returned as assistants of the
wnmAf'^"'^' reeve ; and in 1 63 1 both these persons had left the Forest.
7 Car. I. J 1634 it is recorded that except the reeve there was no
!d. 10 Car. 1. \^ ^ ...
other inhabitant of the villate within the Forest, to avoid
the burdens of which the people had no doubt migrated
to the other parts of the parish.
The list of parishes which sent reeves and fourmen
to the Forest Court, and the inhabitants of the Forest
parts of which claimed common on the Forest wastes,
stood thus in 1634 —
Waltham Holy Cross, Stapleford Abbotts,
Dagenham, West Ham,
Woodford, Little Ilford,
Chigwell, Chingford,
THE REEVES.
Barking,
Lamborne,
Epping,
Nasing,
Theydon boys,
Leyton,
Walthamstow,
Wansted,
Roydon hamlet.
T-oughton.
179
In and after 1803 the list is nearly the same; but Attachment
Navestock is added, Little Ilford omitted, and Broadley put 25- juiy, 1803.
in the place of Roydon hamlet. As Broadley is not a parish,
it was probably the place where the reeve lived, and was
inserted by mistake instead of the district for which he
acted. It was omitted in the list of 181 2, and in those
which followed, Roydon being restored, and the number
of parishes being reduced to seventeen by the omission
of West Ham; the reason of which was, that the lord Man. of west
Ham, Court
of the manor of West Ham alleging that Ham Frith, RoUs, 18
. April, 1808.
part of the manorial waste, was "now disafforested,
took upon himself to appoint a reeve or bailiff, with
power to mark with the following device —
the cattle of the persons having a right of common
thereon, and to distrain and impound those found
trespassing.
N 2
i8o
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Attachment
Roll, 23 April,
1723, 12 Oct.
1789.
Id. 29 April,
1 721, and
passim.
Id. 29 April,
1725-
Id. 29 June,
I74S-
Id. 21 June,
1790.
The Reeves were nominated by the vestries of the
Forest parishes for which they acted, and vvere presented
at one, and approved by the verderers and sworn at the
next Court of Attachments, which by a special order
directed that this course should be observed. This,
however, was not always done: a reeve for Epping
having on one occasion been sworn upon the certificate
of a great number of the inhabitants of Epping, and
without presentation by the vestry; and a reeve for
Barking, at another time, only on the recommendation
of Mr. Bamber Gascoyne, one of the verderers.
Attachment
Roll, 26 Jan.
1725-6.
The oath of the Reeve ran as follows : — " You shall
swear that you will well and truly execute the office of
a Reeve in the parish of . . in the Forest of Waltham ;
you shall drive and assist the Foresters in driving the
Forest, as often as the laws direct or you are thereunto
required ; you yourself shall not surcharge, nor see or
suffer any person to surcharge or put any uncommonable
cattle upon the said Forest, but you shall be of good
behaviour yourself towards Her Majesty's wild beasts
and the vert of the same Forest ; you shall not conceal
the offence of any person whatsoever either in vert or
venison, that shall be done within your charge, but shall
present the same at the next Court of Attachments or
Swainmote which shall first happen to be holden for the
same Forest. And you shall to the uttermost of your
power maintain and keep the assise of the Forest ; and
in all things the Queen's right defend concerning the
same, so long as you shall be Reeve there."
THE REEVES. i8i
It win be observed that the oath is exclusively
directed to the performance of those duties which
concerned the Crown ; it specifies the driving- and the
prevention of surcharges of the Forest, but takes no
notice of the duties of the Reeve to the commoners,
viz., the marking of their cattle, which pastured upon the
wastes of the Forest, or the driving of the pastures.
The Court of Attachments, however, exercised full Attachment
power over the Reeves, and their assistants the fourmen, 17 May, 1715;
(who were also sworn) in all their duties. It gave 1723-4;
them directions as to the driving of the Forest, marking i3Ap^ni,i74ii
the cattle, bringing In accounts of the cattle marked, iijuife, 1748!
and other matters; it summoned them to answer for 24 Aug! 1801 •
neglect of duty, and fined or dismissed them for mis- 31 juFy.'is^.'
conduct, requesting the parish in the latter case to
nominate another person to fill the vacant ofiEce.
The driving of the Forest pastures has time out of
mind been part of the duty of the Reeves, who, still
bearing the title of parish reeves, drive the wastes of
Waltham Forest, just as the swain reeve did those of coa. Bipi.
219.
Mercia a thousand years ago. Cart. Sax.
There is no very early mention of the driving in the "
Waltham records ; but that it was an ancient custom in
1630, is shown by the presentment made by the Regard- ch. For. Proc.
ers in that year, another part of which affirmed the right 6 Car. i, '
of common of pasture on the Forest wastes. "Wee °''^'^'
saye and p'sent that it hath byn the Anycient Custome
of the Forrest to bee Driven twice every yeare by the
Officers of the said Forrest, to avoyde Forrainners cattle,
For y* it may not be surcharged."
1 82 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The entry also shows that the driving was not done
32 Hen. 8, under the statute of Henry VIII. for improving the breed
of horses, which required Forests and other wastes to be
driven yearly, at or soon after Michaelmas, or as often as
should be thought fit. The beginning and end of the
fence month were in later years made the times for
Attachment driving. Fifteen days before Midsummer is called the
usual time in an order made on the 17th May, 17 15,
and that time and the end of the fence month are fixed
by the modern driving warrants which were in the form
set out below. ^
Memorandum Double fces {J.X,, 2s.) Were charged for impounding
Charges, Cattle during the fence month, viz., from 12 at nieht on
WalthamFor. '^ . . °
2ist June to 2 1 St July. Sixpence per mile was payable
' "To all Verderers, Foresters, Regarders, and other officers of
Epping Forest part of the Forest of Essex, otherwise called
the Forest of Waltham in the County of Essex.
Whereas by the Forest laws for the preservation of the wild beasts
with their Fawns the Forest ought to be driven yearly 15 days before
Old Midsummer day, and 15 days after. These are therefore to
require you to assign a certain day for the driving of the said Forest,
and to give notice to all officers and others concerned in such drifts
to give their assistance, and also to the owners of such beasts and
cattle as shall be found then coming upon the said Forest to come and
challenge their beasts and take them away, or else to seize them as
strays for the use of the Warden. And for your so doing this shall be
your sufficient warrant.
Dated this day of
Warden.
N.B.— The day of is the Driving day.
To
Reeve, Loughton."
THE REEVES. 183
for driving to the pound ; 2s. 6d. when the beasts were
taken to the manor pound ; and always is. per day for
keep. After being- seven days in the manor pound, the
beasts were cried in the three market towns of Romford
on Wednesday, Waltham Abbey on Tuesday, and Epping
on Friday, at a cost of is. each and expenses. If not
owned, they were to be advertised when they had eaten
their heads off, in the Chelmsford and Hertford papers,
and then sold by auction at Romford Market.
The duties of the Reeves as to the marking of the
cattle on the Forest wastes, are so closely connected with
the rights of common of pasture, that I have thought it
more convenient to describe them in the chapter relating
to that subject.
1 84
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The Beadle.
■VVilkins, 372,
Ch. For. 9
H. 3, s. 7.
Memoranda
de Foresta.
There is not much notice of the Beadle of the Forest
in the Waltham records, although it is shown by the
Forest laws of John and Henry III., which forbad foresters
and beadles to make extortions and gatherings in the
Forests, that his office existed at an early date. He
does not appear among the ministers of the Forest on
the Waltham Attachment Rolls until 1770; nor, except
"William the Bedel," who was in default at the Justice
Seat in 1277, and who was perhaps a Forest beadle, is
there any mention of this officer on the rolls before June,
1 7 1 8 ; when John Peckover was sworn beadle in the room
of Edward Alexander, and at the next Court presented
one Jones of Stratford for assaulting and pulling him
from his horse, and taking his (Jones') horse out of the
pound.
The beadle and the woodward appear to have taken
the same oath, which bound them to present, to the
utmost of their power, all trespasses to vert or venison,
waif or stray, within their keeping, at the next Court of
Attachments.
Richard Hould, who held the office in 1788, in
answer to an inquiry by the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests, said that his duties were to see that the
Forest was not surcharged by cattle commoning without
right ; to drive the Forest at fence month, and at other
THE BEADLE, 185
times of unmarked cattle ; and to officiate as crier of the
Court of Attachments.
Hould was also a Reeve, and perhaps did not cor-
rectly distinguish the duties of the two offices. In fact, Attachment
the beadle also pounded strayed beasts, delivered notices 2s°jiy, 1719;
ordered by the Forest Courts to be issued, and per- ^'J'™^''79o-
formed the duties prescribed by his oath by preventing u. 25 Nov.
the unauthorized use of weapons in the Forest, and n Oct. 1746.
seizing them if possible ; when he did so, the Court
usually directed, as in the case of the under foresters,
that he might keep them as a reward for his diligence.
1 86
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
CHAPTER IV.
The Wild Deer.
" I am one of the King's hunters.
" How dost thou exercise thine art ?
" I malte my nets and set them in an open place, and set on my
" hounds to chase the wild deer till they come to the nets unawares, and
" so are entangled j and I slay them in the nets.
" Canst thou not hunt except with nets ?
" Truly, I can hunt without nets,
" In what manner?
" With swift hounds I overtake the wild deer.
" What wild deer dost thou mostly take !
" I take harts, boars, and bucks and goats j and sometimes hares."'
1st Inst. 233a.
8 Rep. 138a.
Manwood,F.L.
Gwill. Her.
ch. 14, s. 3.
Hist, of Ang.-
Sax. Book viii,
GGOr^DING to the English authorities on
forestry, the hart, the hind, the hare, the boar,
and the wolf, to which Coke adds the buck, were properly
' Colloquies of ^Ifric, Tib. A. 3, fo. 61.
The word " bucks " is represented in the original MS. (which is
written both in Anglo-Saxon and Latin) by the Anglo-Saxon " pann,"
and by the Latin " dammas." Sharon Turner makes the former word
"fiana," and translates it "reindeer," which is not likely to be the
meaning, the animals mentioned being, for an obvious reason, such
as were commonly known.
Mr. Birch considers the date of the MS. of the Colloquies to be
early in the i ith century. As it was therefore written during the life,
or soon after the death, of the author, the use of the word " dama,"
which is commonly taken to refer to the fallow deer, carries great
weight.
THE WILD DEER. 187
beasts of forest or venary ; and the buck, the doe, the HoUnsh. i.
fox, the marten, and the roe, beasts of park or chase. Book of
But Coke, in his treatise on the Forest Courts, adds the fo.'ao. '
fox, and the marten, to the beasts of the forest ; and says 4th insTsie.
that whatsoever beast of the forest is for the food of man
(and therefore the red and fallow deer, the wild boar, and
the hare), is venison ; but that the roe, because it is no
beast of the forest, is not venison, though it be food, and
taken by hunting. And it was settled by the Justices
and King's Counsel in 13 Edward III. that capreoli {Jd ist inst. 233a.
est, roes) are not beasts of the forest, for this curious
reason; ''^ eo qtiod fitgant alias /eras ^ But as a general
rule these fanciful distinctions were rather matters of
woodcraft than of law, and probably varied at different
times, and in different forests.
In Waltham Forest neither the fox nor the marten
had any higher rank than that of vermyn or raskalls, in
which class some of the writers on venary also included
the wild cat and the badger, and in some districts the
wolf and the hare.^
The Forest law of Canute made an entirely different § xxvu.
division of the wild animals. It states that besides
' Shakespeare also used the word raskall for a deer out of condition. "As You Like
It *' act X
"The noblest deer hath them as huge as the raskall." gg'_ ,_
The badger was vermin in law ; but it was a trespass to dig him out
of another man's land without licence ; for, as Justice Dodderidge
wisely remarked, " he might have got him out either by smoking 2 Bulstrode,
him out, or by using of tarriers to get him out." If the justice had ^°-
lived later he might have added a third way, said to have been used
by a gentleman in Norfolk, who, for a wager, drew a badger with his
teeth.
1 88 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
beasts of the forest {i.e. it seems stags and boars)
there were some beasts, such as roes, hares, and rabbits,
for the killing- of which within the bounds of the Forest
recompense must be made; and others, such as oxen,
cows, and the like, which, though living within the
bounds, and under the care of the ministers of the Forest,
could not be considered as belonging to it. Foxes and
wolves were neither beasts of the forest nor of venary,
and no penalty was incurred for the destruction of them,
though it was a breach of a royal chase to kill them
within the Forest. The boar, though a beast of the
forest, was not usually considered to be a beast of
venary.
This last is a remarkable distinction. The fox has,
in England, always been held to be noxious, the roe of
inferior rank, and the rabbit of little consequence ; even
the hare has not always had the position given to it by
Coke; but the wild boar was, in Norman times, one
4th Inst. 316. of the principal objects of the chase ; and Coke says
that his flesh is as much venison as that of the deer. It
must, however, be remembered that the laws of Canute
refer* to and probably embody laws still more ancient
than themselves, and made at a time when both the wolf
and the boar were too common and destructive to be
the objects of preservation, or of the special care of the
foresters.
The wild animals which, according to Fitzstephen's
description of London, inhabited in the 12th century,
§ xxi. ' " Crimen veneris ah aniiquo inter majora et non immerito
nuraerabatur."
THE WILD DEER. 189
the densely wooded thickets of the vast Forest which lay
close to the North side of the city, were stags, fallow
deer, boars, and wild bulls, or (as one of the MSS. has
it) bears ; of the existence of which last, however, in
historical times, there is no evidence.
The red and fallow deer have for many centuries
been the only representatives in the Forest of Essex of
those larger beasts of chase which were the principal
object of the Forest laws, and of the care of the Forest
ministers.
There are no entries about the Wolf in any of the Transactions
records of the Forest of Essex which I have seen. But ciub, vol. 3,
that it was once common there is shown by the discovery ^'
of its remains during- the construction of the reservoirs
at Walthamstow ; and there is satisfactory evidence of
its presence in the Forest and in other parts of the county
during the historical period, though none of the time at
which it became extinct. The boundaries of land in
Welde and -^Iwarton, granted by Edward the Confessor cod. Dipi.
to Waltham Abbey in^ 1062, included a "wolf pit" and
a "wolf run" or "leap;" and in 1277 there is a pre- pi. For.
sentment for wasting a grove called " Wolvesgrave." Regard of
The name of the manor of Wolfhamston, in Barking, Colchester.
may also be connected with it.
Among the tenures by which lands were held in
Essex and the neighbouring counties was the duty of Bioimt, 23:.
finding certain dogs for the destruction of wolves and ^^ ' ' ^°'^'
martens, cats, and other vermin. In the reign of Ed-
ward III. Thomas Engaine held lands in Pitchley in
Northamptonshire, and Sir Thomas de Ailesbury and Blount, 260.
Katherine his wife at Laxton in the same county,
1 90
Blount, 235.
See Holins-
hed, 2. 225.
Transactions
of Essex Field
Club, vol. 3,
p. 6.
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
subject to this duty ; and by the service of keeping for
the King five wolf dogs (canes lupararios) William
de Raynes held land in Finchingfield, in Essex, in 13
Edward I.
But it cannot be inferred from these facts that the
wolf ran wild in Essex during the reigns of those Kings.
The destruction of wolves by Edgar was, of course, not
complete ; and the natural increase of those which re-
mained, immigration from the northern forests, and
possibly, occasional reintroductions for the purpose of
hunting, would account for their being sometimes found
in England, much later than the time at which they are
popularly supposed to have been extirpated. But the
evidence of comparatively late grants of land upon the
tenure of killing wolves is of very small value, as they
were commonly made in the same terms as more ancient
grants which they confirmed, or for which they were
substituted.
The remains of the Wild Boar are abundant in the
peat and shell marl at Walthamstow; and Fitzstephen
speaks of it as existing in the Forest in his time ; but the
Forest records contain no distinct evidence that it sur-
vived to a later period. The claim of John Barefoote,
lord of the manor of Lambourne Hall in 1670, to hunt
and take foxes and all other wild beasts within the Forest,
except hogs and deer, was probably copied from a much
more ancient claim or grant ; but it is interesting,
because, on the principle noscitur a sociis, it shows the wild
boar in its proper position as a beast of forest or venary.
In later times there are notices of the finding of deer,
dead and devoured by hogs or swine ; but these were
THE WILD DEER. 191
without doubt swine which had been turned into the
Forest for the sake of the pannage.
Some remains of the Roe were found in dieg-ing the Transactions
°° ° of Essex Field
reservoirs of the East London Waterworks at Waltham- ciub, vol. 3,
p. 7.
stow, but they were not common ; and the animal is not
mentioned in the rhyming charter, or in any Forest docu-
ment which has come to my knowledge. The roe was u. vol. i,
reintroduced into the Forest in 1884, by the exertions of Buxton's
Mr. E. N. Buxton. iSf p. 79,
The records are also silent as to Wild Cattle, though
they are mentioned by Fitzstephen. They were not §xxvii.
beasts of forest or of venary under the laws of Canute ;
nor of forest or chase under the Norman laws.
The Wild Cat, or Wood Cat, is mentioned in several
of the ancient Forest claims and grants. The monks of Carts An-
Waltham Abbey were empowered by Richard I. to hunt March, 1189-
QO,
it, together with the hare and the fox, in Essex and
West Waltham; and their successors in title, the Earls
of Norwich, and Manchester, lords of Waltham Holy For. Proc.
Cross ; the Countess of Winchelsea, and Lord Grey of thamVor! '
Warke, lady and lord of Epping ; the Earl of Norwich, "' '"
and William Pocock, lords of Sewardstone ; Edward
Elrington, and John Forest, lords of Theydon Hall, and
others, claimed a right to hunt it in 1630 and 1670.
It is possible that the animal referred to may have
been the marten, which was recognized as a beast of
chase if not of the forest, and is nearly allied, and not
much inferior in size, to the true wild cat.
The Hare is not mentioned by Fitzstephen, and
never seems to have been greatly valued in Essex.
Although placed by Canute's law in the same category
1 92 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
with the roe and the rabbit, it was afterwards classed
among the beasts of venary, perhaps in consequence of
Sax. chron. the Order of William the Conqueror : who " decreed by
A.D. 1087. ^ ■'
the hares that they should go free."
Coke says it is venison, and reminds us of the pre-
eminence given to it by Martial :
Lib. 13, Ep. " Inter aves turdus, si quis me judice certus,
^^" Inter quadrupedes, gloria prima lepus."
ch.For.Proc. But in 1630 no better reason was given for presenting
Certificate of a pcrsou for hunting and coursing hares, than that it was
No. 71. ' "to the general disquieting of the King's deere there."
Still less respect was shown to it at the Justice Seat in
1634, 9-t which the grand jury was charged to inquire
" whether anie by colour of huntinge the Hare or Fox
or other vermn in the Forest w^'out lycense, have killed
or chased the Deere." And it is also included among
the vermin which the holders of various lands were
bound by tenure to destroy. Later, perhaps as affording
a more easy kind of sport to James I., it was treated as
EnroUed at a beast of warTcn ; and in 1 6 1 1 , on the death of John
21 Sept. 1630. Man wood, the King appointed Anthony Lewes "Keeper
6 Car. I, "^ ■ of our game of hares, pheasants, and partridges" during
o.r3o,m.i . j^.^ j.^^^ .^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ample manner and form as
John Manwood, Gentleman, lately deceased, enjoyed
the same, and at the wages and fee of 1 2d. by the
day.
There were several claims to hunt and kill it in
1630 and 1670, besides numerous claims of free warren,
in which that right was included.
THE WILD DEER. i93
It was the custom of the foresters to distinguish
the beasts of forest and chase by particular names,
according to their age and sex. Sir Thomas Malory M^te
tells us, that of the famous knight Sir Tristram came, bk. x ch'. lii.
^ and bk. viii.
as books report, "all the good terms of venary and ch. iu.
hunting, and all the sizes and measures of blowing of
an horn; and of him we had first all the terms of
hawking, and which were beasts of chase and beasts of
venary, and which were vermins." Sir Tristram, as the
romance says, had in his youth spent seven years in
France ; and some of the names of the fallow deer cer-
tainly bear marks of French origin.
The young of the Red deer of either sex, is called
in the first year a Calf, the female sometimes a Hind 4th inst. 316.
•' ^ GwUhm,
calf; in the second year the male is a Brocket, and 6th ed. 153.
the female, according to the writers on Forest law, a ■
Brocket's sister; but at the Swainmote held in Waltham 10 June, 1594.
Forest in 1594, she is called a Herst;* in the third year
the male, according to the forest writers and Gwillim, is
a Spayad ; and this is the only one of these terms of
woodcraft which I have not found in the Forest records :
the female in the same year, and ever afterwards, is a
Hind. In the fourth year the male is a Staggard; in
the fifth a Stag ; and in and after the sixth year, a Hart.
But if he had been hunted by the King, he became a
Hart Royal ; and if the King, in consideration of the
sport which he had given, had proclaimed that he
was not to be hunted again, he became a Hart Royal
' In Dryden's Notes to Twici the word is written " Hearse."
F. O
1 94 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Proclaimed; but I have found no record of any deer
which had attained these dignities in the Forest of Essex.
Nor were any such honours bestowed upon the
Fallow deer, which were more numerous in the Forest
than the red kind. Gwillim speaks of the stag as
HeiakUy, " a goodly beast, full of state in his gate and view, and
6th ed. ...
pp. 150, 159. among beasts of chase the chief for principal game and
exercise;" elsewhere he says, that in the opinion of
some authors the attires of gentlewomen's heads were
first found out and devised "by occasion of the sight of
the horns of this beast,^ because they are seemly to
^^- 157. behold and do become the beast right well." But he
speaks with some contempt of the buck, as " a worthy
beast, which hath a degree and measure of all the pro-
perties of the stag, but cometh far short of his state-
liness and boldness."
4th Inst. 316. In the first year, the young of the Fallow deer,
Manwood,
ch. 4. whether male or female, is cailed a Fawn ; the male of
Grwillim, ._-.,
6th ed. 155. the second year is a Pnckett, and the female, according
to the writers on forestry a Prickett's sister; in Waltham
Forest it was called a Tegg. The male in the third
year is a Sorel, and the female then and afterwards a
Doe ; the male in the fourth year, a Sore ; ^ in the fifth
' Barcham, the reputed author of Gwillim's Heraldry and a learned
antiquary, must be credited with this pleasantry. The book seems to
have been written some time before its first publication in 16 10.
Fairholt's The horned head-dresses, which he ridicules, were prevalent in the
Costume in 14th, and till the end of the 15th century ; but I cannot find that they
yded.1.181). lasted so long as Barcham's time. About 1700, ladies' head-dresses
Spectator, again " shot up to a very great height," as Addison says ; but they do
No. 98. jjQ^ appear to have been in the shape of horns.
^ The reader will remember the play upon the words Prickett, Sorel,
and Sore in "Love's Labour's Lost," Act 4, Scene 2.
THE WILD DEER. 195
a Buck of the first head ; and in the sixth and afterwards,
a Buck or great Buck.
These names had been settled by the end of the 15th
century ; but they varied at earlier times. At the begin-
ning of the 14th century, although the red deer during
the first three years was called calf, brocket, and spayad,
Guillaume Twici, the huntsman of Edward II., called it a Art of Hunt-
soar in the fourth year, a great soar in the fifth, and a
stag of the first head in the sixth ; thus giving it one of
the names which was afterwards used for the fallow deer
only. And, says Gwillim, some ancient writers do Heraldry,
report that in times past, foresters were wont to call him ^ ' ^' '^^'
(/. ^., the male red deer) a stag at the fourth year, and
not a staggard ; and at the fifth year they called him a
great stag.
The discovery in the Walthamstow deposits of only Transactions
one antler (said to be probably recent) of the fallow deer, ciub,%oi. 3,
and the absence of any mention of it in Canute's Laws, ^" ''
support the opinion that it was not indigenous to this
country. If it is referred to in the passage cited from Supm, p. i85.
the Colloquies of ^Ifric, it was probably a well-known
wild deer in the English Forests in the loth century;
but it Is singular that It should have had no other Anglo-
Saxon name than " pan " which appears to have been also
applicable, with a slight (If any) variation, to the roe and
the goat. The names "buck" and "doe" denote the
male and female of these and of several other animals,
though they are applied par excellence to the fallow deer.
The word "fallow" refers to the usual reddish-brown
colour of the species, but the Essex deer are of an almost
uniform dark-brown tint. These were Introduced into the
o 2
1 96 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Transactions Forest, it Is Said, by James I. ; but Mr. Harting produces
ciubTvoi-i! evidence of the existence of this variety in Windsor
EveVshiiey Forcst in 1465 ; and if the deer in Waltham Forest
onDeerParUs, y^^^^^^ ^j^g ^jj^g ^f ja^es werc of the ordinary colour,
it is strange that they should have entirely disappeared.
The hunting and coursing in the Royal Forests of
the various wild animals described by ^Ifric's huntsman
as "wild deer," and of some others, was from very early
times forbidden to all but the King, and those who were
specially authorized by him, or for his service.
In commenting upon the Forest laws which bear the
name of Canute, I have already mentioned the punish-
ments which they prescribed for the offence of chasing
the wild beasts.
§§ I. ?. 12- Henry II., in the Assise of Woodstock, forbad trans-
See also
Houard, Gout, gressions against his hunting or his forests, and warned
vol. 2, p. 563, offenders that they would not merely be held answerable
cap. XV.
m their goods, but would be punished as in the time of
Henry I. ; and bad his foresters to have no scruple in
laying hands upon clerical offenders. For the first and
second transgressions substantial bail must be found ; on
the third occasion the offender's body only, and no pledge,
was to be taken.
St. 21 Ed. I In the time of Edward I., a forester, or persons who
aided him, were not to be troubled if, without malice,
they killed a trespasser wandering in a forest, park, or
warren with intent to do damage, and who, refusing to
yield after hue and cry, fled or defended himself with
force and arms.^
Le^l^r^''^' ' ^y Skene's laws, if a stranger found in a forbidden place in the
cap.ix. Forest would swear upon his weapons that he knew not the way to
THE WILD DEER. i97
The Forest records contain but few notices of the
hunting in it by the Kings in person ; but it is well
known, that from the time of Edward the Confessor, and
probably much earlier, they frequented it for that purpose.
Edward VI., as we have seen, complained of the destruc- Supra, p. 36.
tion of the deer in consequence of reports that he intended
to disafforest the Forest ; and gave notice that he would
maintain it as his father had done. Queen Elizabeth
also hunted in it, and resorted to the lodge at Chingford,
which bears her name; but in her latter years the neglect
of the laws again led to great irregularities; and James I. Deiaration,
had sat on the throne for hardly a year, when he violently Addenda,
scolded his subjects for their ill-manners in interfering p.45i,No.84'.
with the sport of himself and his family ; and threatened
not only to enforce the Forest laws against all stealers
and hunters of deer, and to exempt them from his
general pardon, but to debar any person of quality so
offending from his presence, and to proceed against
those who provoked his displeasure by martial law !
He had hoped, he said, seeing his subjects knew
how greatly he delighted in hunting, that none would
have offered offence to him in his sports; gentlemen
of the better sort had behaved as those who knew
their duty, but not some of the baser sort ; there had
have been forbidden, and knew not the right way, the forester was to
convoy him to the common way, and there suffer him to pass away
without trouble. But if he were a " knawin man," he was to be taken
and conveyed to the King's castle ; and there without the port of the
castle, the forester before witness was to take his " upmaist cloth " ;
and all which was in his purse was to pertain to the forester ; and his
body was to be delivered to the constable or porter, to be kept at
the King's will.
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
been more offences since his last coming forth to his
progress than even in the late Queen's time, when, her
years being less fit for recreation, the game was less
carefully preserved; such offences showed insolence
and want of reason ; and he wondered, seeing he had
shown his maintenance of the laws of the realm, that
they should think he would not enforce the Forest laws,
which were as ancient and authentic as the Great Charter.
Some entries on the Court rolls show that James'
successors sometimes hunted in the Forest; but they
ceased to do so for many years before the disafiforesta-
tion.
Sports and
Pastimes,
ch. I.
7 H. 3, Close
Rolls, 564.
(R. C.)
It was the practice in modern times to issue warrants
to the foresters to supply such venison as was required
for the use of the Sovereigns or their friends, or for the
accustomed fees to the Forest officers. But at an earlier
period the Kings employed servants, such as the hunter
who figures in .^Ifric's Colloquies, to assist them when
they hunted in person,' and to go to the numerous Royal
Forests with attendants, horses, and hounds, for the
purpose of obtaining the necessary supplies of venison.^
It was doubtless one of the great causes of complaint
against the early Kings, that these officers were quartered
during the close times sometimes upon the landowners
' An account of the arrangements for a Royal hunting from a MS.
called "The Maisler of the Game," written for the use of Prince
Henry, son of Henry IV., will be found in Strutt.
^ For example : " The King to Hacon de Hathelakeston. We
command you that the venison which Master Guido and his fellows,
our hunters, took in your bailiwick, you send to us without delay in
good and strong waggons."
THE WILD DEER. i99
and sometimes upon the sheriffs of the counties, who were
directed to supply them with necessaries and allowances ;
in the case of the sheriffs at the cost of the Exchequer ;
but commonly without any such direction for the benefit
of private persons ; who often held their lands subject to
obligations of this kind. Four or five hunters would |^^yg't°^^
sometimes be sent, with several horses, and forty or fifty Joim, 7, is,
hounds and their attendants ; and if these people de- h. 3, 3, 6.
served the evil character given by John of Salisbury to all PoUcratkus,
hunters, the burden and annoyance which they caused must
have been very great. They smelt, he said, of the Centaurs ;
seldom was one of them found who was courteous, steady,
or chaste ; never, as he believed, one who was sober.
But the service was ill-paid, and was not free from
danger. When ^Ifric's huntsman was asked what the Colloquies,
King gave him in return for the venison which he fo. 6ib!
brought, the answer was, " He clothes and feeds me,
and sometimes gives me a horse or a bracelet, that I may
the more willingly exercise my art."
Grants of deer to be taken yearly, were sometimes Charter Roils,
made. The Knights Templars enjoyed such a right by memb.'33
grant of King John, to take by view of the foresters three • • p- •
stags yearly in the Forests of Essex or Windsor. A p^- ^°\ ^
similar grant was made by Richard II. to Nicholas 2- '5- „
^ -^ For. Roll.
Morice, Abbot of Waltham Holy Cross ; and the Abbot Hari. roU,
is said to have been entitled to fee deer in the time of ciaim of Eari
of NoiTvich,
Henry VIII. In 1630, 1670, and 1714 the lord of the For. Proc
1 All, 1 . Waltham For.
manor, as the Abbot s successor, claimed under this 6 car. i.
right, and was allowed three bucks of good season in ofManchester,
summer yearly at the Feasts of the Reliques (July 11), Attachment
^ ^•> J 1' Roll, 28 June,
1813.
20O THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
of St. Augxistine (May 26), and of the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross (September 14^), and three does in the
winter seasoij yearly, as fee deer.
Attachment But the claim was refused in 181 3, on the ground
1813! ' that the warrant of 17 14 was not entered on the rolls of
the Court, and was only personal to the then Abbot.
Duch.ofLanc. The Abbot of St. Mary, Stratford, had a similar
For.ofwki- grant during his life from Edward IV. of two bucks in
Claim of " ' their season, and two does in their season, to be taken
Charter? within the Forest of Waltham.
For. RoU, The Lady of Barking (the Abbess) and the free-
Har"'Riu,^' holders were also entitled to fee deer in the time of
Henty VIII.
c. C. 12.
Sometimes, also, a right was granted to take a
ci.R.Hjohn, certain number of live deer. Roger de Bigod had a
• • p- 123- gj-ajit of forty deer in the Forest of Essex from King
John, one of the King's foresters being ordered to be
ci.R.isjohn, sent with him until he had taken them ; and in the next
' '^' ' year William Bishop of London was allowed by gift of
the King, to take twenty deer and two stags. . The
ci. R. 9 H. 3, Bishop of Ely had a similar licence to take from the
Forest of Essex ten deer and two stags, which had been
given him by the Lord Richard; it seems there was
a scarcity of them at that time, for it was added, that
because it might be difficult to take them in that Forest,
he might take them in the Forest of Rockingham, unless
CI.R.10H.3, he had already taken them in Essex. Another grant in
1225 to Thomas de Muletoh, was of ten does and one
' These are the nearest feasts to the end and the beginning of the
fence month ; and the end of the season for hunting the buck.
THE WILD DEER. 201
buck to place in his park at Kelvedon ; and one of the Pat. roII,
^ ^ 2 R. 2, pt. 2,
same kind was made by Richard II. to the Abbot and m. 15.
Canons of Waltham.
Licences were also granted to keep hounds and to
sport in the Forests ; but limited as to the number of
hounds, and to the hunting of the inferior kinds of game
— usually the fox, the hare, and the wild cat. In 1200
King John notified to Albrecht de Ver, the warden, that
he had granted to Richard Gosfield and his heirs the close RoU,
right to have eight brackets, and one male and one r: c°' ^' '^^'
female harrier in the Forest to take such game ; and in
subsequent years, the son of the Earl of Arundel, and id. 1212-13.
John Juvenis, Steward of the Abbey of Waltham, had p. 129, k.c.
grants — the former, of the right to hunt hares, and the 15 john,
latter, hares and foxes in Essex. The grants by Richard I. ^' 'tl-L
and Henry III. to the Abbot and Canons of Waltham, to 5 Ed. i°Exch.
take the hare, the fox, and the wood cat, were the c^nty Ba|s!'
foundation of their claims to hunt made in 1323-4, and piac^For!' '"
1489 ; which were repeated by their successors, the Earls Exch.^xrers"'
of Norwich and Manchester, William Pocock, and the ,7 e^^'j
Countess of Winchelsea and Lord Grey of Warke, in Charter roU.
Duch.ofLanc.
1630 and 1670. Misc. Rec.
The Abbess of Barking had dogs and harriers Waitham, '
coursing in the Forest in 1292, under an ancient charter. Treas.ofRect.
The Bishop of London and the Dean and Chapter of 1°^;^^^!,%
St. Paul's claimed a right for the Bishop to hunt with ^oEd. i.
his dogs, the hare, the fox, and the cat, as he passed
through the Forest ; and claims were made by Thomas
of Huntercombe, of a right of free chase through the
whole Forest, with two greyhounds and four hounds;
and by George Rodney, lord of the manor of Waltham-
202 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
stow Toney or High Hall, to hunt with eight harriers
and twenty brackets; the claims being limited to the
taking of the hare, the fox, and the cat, except that the
last also included the badger. Several of the iponasteries
and other landowners had also ancient grants of free
warren, claims to which were made by many of the lords
of manors in 1630 and 1670.
A right of hunting in the Forest traditionally held
to belong to the Corporation of London, and to have
been exercised yearly on the occasion of the Epping
hunt, was claimed by the Corporation before the Epping
Rep. of Coal, Forcst Commissioncrs ; but no documentary evidence
Corn, and Fin.
Committee, could be found to support it, although careful search was
p. 7- ' made among the City records. The charter of Henry I.,
&i!'of clt^^of the earliest which conferred hunting rights upon the
No°m'. citizens, and the only one which defined them, limits
them to the chaces enjoyed by their ancestors in Chiltre
/^. Nos. V. & (Chiltern), Middlesex, and Surrey. And the confirma-
tions by the first charter of Richard I. (1194), and by
the fourth charter of Henry III. (1227), contain no
mention of any right to hunt in Essex.
In the 1 8th and igth centuries the power of granting
sporting licences was exercised by the Chief Justices "of
the Forest. Their licences gave a right to take all beasts
and fowls of forest, chase, park, or warren (red and
fallow deer only excepted), with moderation, so as not
to prejudice the King's vert or venison ; and were
required to be entered on the rolls of the Court of
Attachments.^ Either the granting of the licences by
Claim No. 48, 1 According to a claim made by Thomas Bingley in 1850, the sum
paid for a licence to sport from the Chief Justice was twenty guineas.
THE WILD DEER. 203
the Chief Justices was thought to be an innovation, or
the restrictions on their use were not regarded ; for in
1720, several of the master keepers complained at the
Court, of abuses and great destruction among the deer
by people claiming a right of shooting under licences
granted by Lord Tankervill when Chief Justice ; and a Attachment
representation was ordered to be laid before him. And ° '
in 1722-3, another representation upon the same sub- id.K^rH,
1722—'^.
ject was ordered to be laid before Lord Cornwallis,
then Chief Justice. But these remonstrances appear. to
have had no effect in lessening the number of grants ;
for in the same year seventeen licences were granted,
and twenty-one in 1724. In 1726, eleven licences
granted by Lord Tankervill, and forty-eight by Lord Attachment
Cornwallis, were running; and though the numbers
presented at the Courts were less for some years after,
158 were found to be in force in 1737. During the /<?. 1737-
next twenty-five years the average yearly number
granted was less than five; and in three decennial
periods after 1769, less than three. In the last of these
(1802), appear among the licensees the names of Louis
Joseph de Bourbon Prince of Cond^, and the Due de
Bourbon, the only persons of title on the lists.
Soon after this time, foxes were included in the Attachment
excepted game. In 1815 some difficulty was raised 1812'.
about the enrolment of a licence granted by Chief
Justice Grenville, and from this date to the abo-
lition of his office, when the power of granting licences
fell into the hands of the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests, very few licences were brought for inrol-
ment.
204
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
§xxvi. The provisions of Canute's Forest law as to the
'*■ penalties incurred by all, except bishops, abbots, and
thanes, who killed or hunted wild beasts in a Royal
§xxxi. Forest, have been already mentioned. Another clause
forbad the mediocres to keep greyhounds, but allowed
freemen to do so when the dogs had been hocksinewed
in the presence of the chief ministers of the Forest.
§ "^- As the mediocres themselves were freemen virtute officii,
the restriction was obviously designed to prevent them
from abusing their trust as keepers of the game.
Assisade It was forbidden by Henry II. and by Richard I.
Foresta, H. 2, ■' ■' •'
§ 2. Hoveden, that any should have bows or arrows,' dogs or hounds
Ser.). Assis. (leporarios) in his forests, save by licence of the King,
Reg.Ridi.i, ^ ^ . ' ,, -^ ,. 1 o- J
de For. Id. 4. Or of some person able to grant a licence ; the offender
' being in misericordia Regis. No cleric might offend con-
Assis.H.2,§9. cerning the King's hunting ; the foresters were enjoined
R. I, Wilk. -1 , .. . . , ,
351. to take those who did so into custody. -^
Assis. R. I, Offenders who hunted in the Forests were by the
law of Richard punishable by loss of their eyes and by
Wilk. 372, mutilation. But the supposed charter of John and that
Ch. For. § 10.
of Henry III. declared that none should lose life or limb
for the King's hunting, but that any one convicted of
Reg. Maj. 1 A passage in Skene's Code shows that its framers objected to the
dp.' lyT' carrying weapons more than to the mere act of hunting in the Forest.
Houard, Cust. Whoever shall follow his hounds, running at any beast from his own
vol^2 'p.°w. ^^^^ ^^^'^ *^^ King's Forest, he shall lay aside his bow and arrows ; or he
may bind the bow and arrows with the bowstring ; and if the hound
slays the beast, he with his hound and the beast shall pass away quit
and free, but {i.e. without) any challenge of the King or the lord of
the Forest.
Kar. Mag. " A law of Charlemagne declared that bishops, abbots, priests,
Capit. cxix. deacons, nor any other of the clergy, presume to keep hunting dogs,
Baliizius, I. or hawks, falcons, or sparrow hawks.
369-
THE WILD DEER. 205
taking venison should be heavily fined if he had any
possessions, and if not, should be cast into prison for a
year and a day ; and should then find pledges or abjure
the realm.
The abjuration was made before the coroner in the BookofOaths,
following form : — " Master Crowner, heere you this ; > °- •
that I have offended our Soveraigne Lord the King in his
venison ; for which cause I abjure the realme of England,
and hereafter I shall never return into it againe without
the leave of our Soveraigne Lord the King. So God help
me and those holy Saints."
Something of the same indulgence which was given
by Canute's code to the great ecclesiastics, in respect of
the observance of the Forest laws, was extended by the
charters of John and of Henry IIL to Archbishops, M.Paris.
Bishops, Earls, and Barons ; who, while passing through 598(m.r!s.^,'
a Royal Forest as they came to the King at his command, ^' pg/'j „_
and as they returned,* might take a beast or two by view
of a forester, if any were present ; otherwise they were to
sound a horn, lest it should seem to be done secretly.
This provision is also in Skene's Forest code, and was Reg. Maj.
probably brought into England from Normandy. In the Houard,'cout.
Forest of Arduenna (Ardenne) the liberty of hunting in voi.^2," p?s7i.
passing through the Forest was in force in the 9th cen- c^{^'"J^^^g,.
turv. but was not restricted to the occasions when the 111.43,0.32.
-' ' Baluzius,
nobles were on their way to or from the King. ■^oi- ^•
The sounding of a horn to give notice of the death
or capture of the deer was an ancient and general
' See note at p. 71, supra.
2o6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
custom. It was followed, according to an old ballad, by
Robin Hood.
A lytell geste
of Robyn " Robyn slewe a full grete harte,
^°'^^- His home then 'gan he blow ;
That all the outlawes of that Forest
That home coud they knowe."
Art of Hunt- The Call known as the "prise"* or "prize" was,
according to Twici, that which was proper on the taking
of the hare or the buck ; and four " mortz" on the taking
Book 4, ch. 6. of a hart. But in Morte d' Arthur, when the King had
killed a hart, the author says, " Then King Arthur blew
the prise, and dight the hart."
It was also the duty of a person who killed a deer,
or found one dead in the Forest, to sound his horn, so
that it might be shown on the spot that he was not guilty
of a breach of the Forest law.^ This explains an entry
Duch.ofLanc. in the roll of the Essex Swainmote held at Buckhurst
Misc. Re-
cords, 9 H. 7. Hill in 1495, that "the kep fande a sowyr (soare) dede
in Chyngeforde hawe, the iiij day of Auguste ; and the
keper bleu for the wodewarde, and no mane wold
anseure."
Stat. App.^ Another duty was thrown upon the finder of a dead
Cotton MS. or wounded wild beast by the Assises of the Forest^
^^' ' ''■ supposed to be of the time of Edward II. An inquisition
^ For remarks on hunting music, see notes to Dryden's Twici.
Lond. Gaz. " The lord of the manor of Minestead, in the New Forest, claimed
PP^^38S7-8. ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^'^ woodward should have a stag yearly in summer, and
a hind yearly in winter, to be killed by him yearly in the same manor,
and to give notice thereof to the keeper of the Forest by a blast of
his horn.
THE WILD DEER. 207
was to be made by four of the nearest vills in the
Forest/ arid was to be entered on the roll, and the finder
was to provide six pledges. The flesh of the deer was to
be sent to the nearest lepers' house, if by the testimony
of the verderers and the county there were any near ; if
there were no such house near, it was to be given to the
poor and infirm ; the head and skin to the freemen of the
next town, and the arrow, if any should be found, was to
be given to the verderer and entered in his verdict.
The manner in which these good intentions were Ed. s.Nekon,
. -^pp- 409-
construed by the Forest officers may be inferred from the
remark of Manwood or his editor, that this ordinance
must be intended of such deer which are not sweet or fit
to be eaten by the better sort of people ; for if a principal
beast is found newly killed, 'tis not intended by this
statute that it should be given to an hospital ; and if such
beast is dead it is the King's deer; for so it was when
alive, and the property is not altered by the killing ; and
in such case the Chief Justice may dispose of it at his
pleasure.
From which we may infer, that epicures had not
then discovered the virtues of high venison.
During the troublous reign of Richard II. hunting
was used, as it has been at other times, as a cover for poli- c. 13.
tical meetings. A statute of 13 Rich. II. sets forth that
" divers artificers, labourers, servants, and grooms, keep
greyhounds and other dogs, and on the feast days, when
' In Skene's version the inquisition was to be made at the next Reg. Maj.
Court ; and the arrow is given to the Justitiar.
2o8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
good Christians are at church hearing Divine Service,
go hunting in parks, warrens, and conyngers (rabbit
warrens) of lords and others, to the very great de-
struction of the game, and at times (a la foitz), under
such colour, make their assemblies, conferences, and
conspiracies to rise and disobey their allegiance;" and
then ordains that no artificer, labourer, or other layman,
who has not lands and tenements to the value of 405-.
per annum, nor any priest or other clerk if he be not
advanced to the value of 10/. by the year, shall have or
keep henceforth any greyhound, hound, nor other dog
to hunt ; nor shall they use fyrets, hays, nets, harepipes,
nor cords, nor other engines^ for to take or destroy deer,
hares, nor conies, nor other gentlemen's game, upon
pain of one year's imprisonment. It was under this
Swainmote, Act, that in 1 594 z. presentment was made against
several purlieu men for killing " one red deer, being a
herst, upon the 24th day of June being Sondaye in the
morninge about xi of the clock in the same morninge in
the service tyme, at Wield side plaine, being purliews
belonging to the fforest of Waltham."
Hunting by night, both within and without the
Forest, wherever the King's beasts frequented, or had
or had been wont to have peace, was forbidden by the
5 16. Assise of Woodstock, under pain of a year' s imprisonment,
and fine and ransom at the King's will. Many com-
Capituia ex- plaints wcre made of this offence, which, together with
Lragow5^ the practice of hunting with the face hidden, or covered
ch. V. Car.
Mag.A.D.801. 1 That no one presume to lay snares in the demesnes, forest, or
Baluzius, I. .1 T) 1 1
n.a. a-ny other Royal place.
THE WILD DEER. zcg
with hood or visor, or painted or disgTiised "to the
intent he would not be known," was also forbidden in
the time of Henry VII. " h. 7, c. 7.
Turberville, the author of the "Noble Art of 1611.
Venerie," seems to have taken particular pleasure in
hunting by night, and to have feared that too much
confession would not be good for his soul. He says,
" There is more art to be used than in any course els.
But because I have promised my betters to be a friend
to al Parkes, Forests, and Chaces, therefore I will not
here expresse the experience which hath been dearer
unto me particularly, than it is meet to be published
generally."
There is an entry on this subject in the Essex rolls Treas.ofRect.
at the Court of 1292, to the effect that Sir John de Essex, No.' z,
Tracy, Knt., and others, one being the Steward of
Sir Richard de Tany, came into the Forest of Wyntre
at night, on Sunday next after the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross (14th September) in 13 Edward I., with
bows, arrows, nets, and mastiffs, and hunted through the
whole night, and stretched their nets, and took wild
animals ; and thence returned to the house of John de
Tracy with the venison and their malefeasance. And
Richard de Tany knew of the wrongdoing of his afore-
said servants.
There are many other examples of the offence of Treas.ofRect.
Misc. For,
unlawful pursuit of the deer, both by day and night. In RoIIs, b. 153,
1333 the Earl of Chester, with certain of his household; ° ^ '
Master John de Eversdon, Dean of St. Paul's ; John de
RoUesbury, groom of the same Master John, and others
p. p
2IO
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Swainmote,
36 Eliz.
Bodl. Lib.
of his household; and Richard the Chaplain, lately
dwelling with Thomas de Haselyntine, Rector of the
Church of Theydon Boyes, are accused of hunting- in the
Forest with their dogs and harriers after stags and hinds,
and chasing the same from their haunts; and in 1495,
Duch.ofLanc. Edmonde Coyre, the King's footman, and Gylbert
gH.V, ' Lambert, groom of the King's chamber, several hus-
bandmen and a servant, William Brekyll a merchant of
London, and another Londoner, killed deer without
warrant; but "a buke scleyn for the meir of London,"
and another slain by Bolday, one of the clerkes of the
Chauncery, were both killed by warrant.
In the 1 6th century the poachers were very numerous
and bold. In 1594 a father and son named Dimsdale,
and one John French, all of Woodford, were great
offenders. One or both of the Dimsdales stood up at
night with a crossbow, at a corner in the Forest, while
French " fetched the wanlace," that is, drove the deer
towards his companions. On one occasion the three went
to Chigwell hills, where William Dimsdale (the father)
" killed a hynde at stalke."
Sometimes the poachers and the keepers came to
blows. On a night in 1593, when John Porter and
others, of Kelvedon, were coursing deer in the Forest,
" the keeper's man coming in unto them did chardge
them in God his name and the Queen's to stand;* then
the said John Porter did alight of his horse, and main-
teininge his mastief upon the keap's man, w*^ a bill
did very sore hurt him." On another occasion, it is
Id.
Id.
' " You are to bid any man stand in the Prince's ndime."— Dogberry's
Charge.
THE WILD DEER. 2II
recorded that at CoUyers Row, a doe was killed in the
night, " by four or five of Mr. Anthonie Cook's house,
whose names be unknowne, w"^ did sett upon some of
the keep's men, and wounded them very sore."
Another dangerous practice of the deer-stealers was 3 w. & m.
... J c- 10(1692),
attempted to be stopped by a statute of William and
Mary : speaking of them as lewd, sturdy, and disorderly
persons, who confederate together in great numbers,
making among themselves as it were a brotherhood
and fraternity, whereby, if any of them should be dis-
covered and convicted, which seldom happens, because of
their great force and clandestine manner of combination,
they, by a common contribution, pay for the persons
apprehended the pecuniary penalties ; the Act goes on
to impose fines for illegal hunting, and imprisonment
and the pillory in case of non-payment ; and gives power
to search the houses of suspected persons, who are made
liable to the same penalties if found in possession of
venison, the skin of a deer, or " toyls," of which they
could not give a satisfactory account.
But the Act failed to stop these combinations ; and
in the reign of George I., the Black Act was passed in 9 Geo. i,
order to check deer-stealing and other crimes. Under
it many deer-stealers, who, from their habit of blacking
their faces by way of disguise, are called "Blacks" in
the statute, were convicted and suffered death.^
' The " Waltham blacks" took their name from Waltham Chase, in
Hampshire. An account of the confessions and executions of seven of
them, by a person who professed to have met them by accident at an
alehouse in the chase, is to be found in the " History of Famous High-
P 2
2 1 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
See 31 H. 8, Many other Acts for the prevention of deer- stealing
Z2id. c. II; were passed both before and after the Black Act, but the
5 Ehz. c. 21; ^
2 jas. I, c, 27, number of them shows how difficult it was to stop the
s. 3;
3 id. c. 13 ; offence.
13 Car. 2, c. ro, . , . ,
down to 24 & As regards the Court of Attachments, such little
25 Vict. c. 96.
' power of dealing with the deer-stealers as remained to it
after the discontinuance of the Court of Justice Seat,
See Attach- became obsolete ; but the verderers occasionally ordered
ment Rolls, -'
Sept. and Oct. prosccutions under the Act of William and Mary, though
1720; Aug. with very little effect.
1759; June, -'
1813.
As to the weapons and other devices which were
used for the destruction of the game, the first complaint
of the unlawful use of bows and arrows in the Forest,
which was forbidden by the law of Richard I., occurs at
the Court held in 1292. The misdoers were Richard de
Treas.ofRect. Biykyndon of Wantham(Walthara), Reginald "who was
RoUs, Essex, then porter of the Abbey of Wantham, and hath now a
certain livery at the priory of Hurle, in the county of
Berks"; Thomas le Rous of Loketon (Loughton) and
Sir Thomas de Ardern, knight, with others then dead.
They came into the Forest with bows and arrows and
harriers, on Sunday next after the Feast of the Apostles
Philip and James, in the fifth year of King Edward
(1277), and took five deer and carried away the venison ;
■waymen," by Captain Charles Johnson, p. 356, ed. 1814. They are also
mentioned in White's Selborne, Letter VII.
Rep. of Select There were also " blacks " in the Essex Forest down to a late
186^'Evf-^ °^ period— persons (said Colonel Palmer, the last survivor of the old
dence, p. 25. verderers) who lived on the Forest ; who lived entirely by deer-steal-
ing ; very desperate characters.
No. 2.
THE WILD DEER. 213
that is to say, part to the gate of the Abbey of Wantham,
which the aforesaid Reginald the porter received ; and
the men, being asked if the Abbot of Wantham, or the
Canons of the same house, were the receivers or knew
anything thereof, say they did not : * and another part of
the venison was carried to London, where is unknown.
Then the prior of Hurle was commanded to cause
Reginald to come on the morrow of St. Martin ; and
Richard and Thomas came, and were adjudged to prison.
Afterwards came Reginald the porter, and he, and
Richard de Brykyndon, and Thomas le Rous, each made
fine ; the first one mark, the others 205. And Thomas
de Ardern was pardoned for the King's soul because he
was poor. Robert West of Chigwell was sent to prison
at the same Court for receiving stolen venison.
In the same year it was found, at the Regard of Treas.ofRect.
. . , / , For. RoUs,
Colchester, that Richard Bishop of London had dogs Essex, No. 2,
20 Ed. I.
and harriers coursing in the Forest, and had taken hare,
fox, and wild cat, at his time of coming to his manors in
Essex ; and the huntsmen and others who followed his
dogs, carried bows and arrows in the Forest against the
assise of the Forest. And he and his huntsmen were
ordered no longer so to do. The coursing appears to
have been warranted; for Stephen the Bishop's successor,
and the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, claimed in Exch.Treas.
1324 a right for the Bishop, when he should pass through For. lyEd.'z,
the King's Forest, to take of the King's wild beasts, yet ^'
in moderation and without waste. But the carrying of
bows and arrows in the Forest by the Bishop's men, and
^ But it looks very much as if they had attempted to move Reginald
the porter out of the jurisdiction of the Court.
2 1 4 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
by those of the Abbot of Waltham, who were also pre-
sented, was in breach of the Forest law of Richard I.
The dwellers in the Forest, however, sometimes had
Treas.ofRect. licences to keep such weapons. Ralph de Hoodenk and
Essex, No.' 2, his hcirs had a grant by Richard I. of liberty to have
Charter Rou. bows and arrows in their halls, for defending themselves
Exch. Treas. against their enemics. And in 1323 Thomas of Hun ter-
ror. 17 Ed.' 2, combe showed a charter to the like effect.
m. 54.
Hari.Mss. xhe grand jury were directed at the Justice Seat to
inquire whether the foresters were careful that men went
not in the Forest with bows bent, or had any bows, guns,
shafts or buck-stalls, or any manner of engines to catch
or kill the deer withal ; and who had been the setters or
receivers of them. And many presentments are found
on the rolls, of the use of bows and arrows, crossbows or
arbalests, and firearms.
For. ofWai- The crossbow was long the favourite weapon, and
tham Swam- ^ '■
mote, 36 Eiiz. no less than twenty-five entries of its use occur at the
Bodl. Lib, ■'
Court of 1594, as against six of the use of the longbow.
Some time after the introduction of firearms, there are,
in 1630, four presentments for keeping or using crossbows,
wakham^'^"'^' "^ complaint of keeping arbalest arrows was made at
icTcar^i the Court held in 1634, 3-nd I have found no later refer-
Pres. Ko. 27. ence in the records either to long or crossbows, or to
arrows, in Waltham Forest.
For. of mi- The first mention of the gun is at the Sv/ainmote of
thain, 36 Eliz. °
Lodi. Lib. loth June, 1594, when it was presented that Richard
Mufifett, servant to Edward Eldrington of Theydon Boys,
shott at a buck with a gun at Baker's Brook " the xxiij
day of Julye in the xxxiij yeare of Her Ma*^^' raygne;"
THE WILD DEER. 215
and this is almost immediately followed by a presentment
for using a " muskett " in the previous year. There are
two other entries at this Court relating to the gun, and
one to the petronel ; and subsequent complaints of the
use of both are very numerous.
They commonly end with a statement that the
weapon is "noe muskett or such as is used for defence
of the realm," an allusion to the " Act concerning Cros- 33 h. 8, c. vi.
bowes and handgunnes," which excepted guns fit for
the above purpose from the prohibition against the use
of handguns.
In August, 1750, the rifle is mentioned in the
Attachment Rolls, under the name of a screw barrel
gun ; and there are a few subsequent entries relating to
its use.
Besides chasing the deer with hounds, and killing
them with arrows, crossbow bolts, and firearms, various
unlawful means of destruction were used ; and notably by
that numerous class who infested the Forest, and who
are variously described in the presentments as common
hunters by night and day, and as common loggers and
poachers.
These people had many devices for killing the deer. "^^ p™c-
They used "engines called wyers;" engines made of '4 Sept. 1630,
ropes : withes ; deer hays : buckstalls ;* and tramel and "•
. . Swainmote,
other nets, one of which is described as a "thief net" 1631, Pre-
sentment 7.
* There is a story in Farmer's History of Waltham Abbey of the P. 77.
capture in a buckstall, by Sir H. Colt of Netherhall, for the amuse-
ment of Henry VIII., of a party of the monks of the Abbey on their
return from a stolen visit by night to the nunnery at Cheshunt.
2 1 6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Swainmote, baited With bottles, flowers, looking-glasses, &c. ; an ap-
Presentments paratus designed to practise upon the curiosity oi the
Attachment deer, and which brings to mind the quaint habits of the
Roll, 28 July, . . .
1753- Australian bower bird.
fo'Ehz^Bodi. One man was presented for pitching halters about a
^'''- grove ; another for " hanging a lyne in a creepe-hole to
ketch a deer;" another for killing a sorel with a cross-
bow in the night out of Thomas Little his house through
a loopehole kept open for the same purpose ; and another
for killing a deer with a bow by means of a " stawking
19H. 7, c.ii. horse ;" stalking either with bush or beasts without
licence being forbidden by statute.
Of course these operations were for the most part
carried on in secrecy, and by night ; or, as we are told in
Swainmote, one case, "between the dog and the wolf," that is, by
Ch. For. Proc. ' o
waitham, twilight. But in 1594, when poaching was very preva-
10 Car. i. lent, James Atkin, of Chigwell, went about it in a very
seEH^Bodi. deliberate manner. He employed one Powell, a butcher,
' ■ to kill a deer with a crossbow from the back of Atkin' s
own house. "And when," says the record, "the sayd
Powell had doon this fact, he acquainted the sayd James
Atkyn therew*'', who sent two of his servants for the same ;
.... whoe conveyed the Buck to the said Mr. Atkin' s
house, and brake it upp in his kitchen ; and Mr. Atkin
had the same, and bestowed the one half thereof upon
his brother, Thomas Atkin ; the other he baked and spent
in his own house : the crossbowe and the furniture was
the said James Atkin's." It does not appear what the
butcher had for his work.
The owners of inclosed parks in the Forest also
THE WILD DEER. 217
made salteries, or deer-leaps ; contrivances by which the
deer could easily leap into the park over a fence of
moderate height, but were prevented from returning by
a steep upward slope, and sometimes a ditch, inside the
park wall or fence. Four deer- leaps in the pale of Wan-
stead park, three being against Leyton walk, and the
fourth against that of West Hainault, were presented at ch. For. Proc
the Court of 21st September, 1630; and the making of
such leaps was the subject of one of the inquiries with \ 36-
which the grand jury was charged at the Justice Seat. 6839, f. 261.
The deer were also thinned by murrain and weakened
by cold. In 1489 a great destruction from murrain and Duch.ofLanc.
other causes is recorded: ^^ Item ther is devored w swyn,
and slayn w' curres, and smeten w* arrowes, and dede of
murreyn, in the baylewyke of Stratford 86; Ongre 72;
Ilford 88; Waltham 70;" and in September, 1495, there id.
are several presentments of the finding both of red and
fallow deer " dede of murreyn."
On such an occasion in 161 5, a proclamation was state Papers,
issued from Theobalds by James I.: "For that great 16 Sept. 1615.
numbers of Deere both Red and Fallow have been
destroyed by the last great Frost and Snow, and those
that remaine and have escaped the hardnesse of the
weather have beene so weakened and surfeited by the
extremetie of the colde, so as they will hardly hold out
this next Winter," the taking of pawnage, and the sur-
charge or other wronging of the grounds which might
scant them of their feed, was forbidden. The remedy
seems to have been effectual, for only three or four years Exch. BiUs
later. Sir Bernard Whetstone in answer to the suit jas.i,N^265.
2 1 8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
brought against him by the Attorney-General, in which
it was alleged that the defendant had done illegal acts
to the exile and driving away of the King's game of
deer out of his lands, declared that by his care of the
King's deer in his manor and lands of Woodford, the
red and fallow, deer had so greatly increased, that he and
his tenants were forced to give over ploughing and
sowing their arable land, of which the greatest part of
the demesnes of his manor consisted.
Duke of When the M'Leods of Skye had lost a great number
Ecraoi^c ^^ °^ \he\T men in the civil wars, and at Worcester, it was
thTiif r.°^ agreed by the general consent of the Northern clans, that
c"^'r*v *^^y should have a respite from war until their numbers
1883, p. 187. should increase. In like manner, when the deer in the
Royal Forests became so reduced in number as to
endanger the prospects of future sport, it was the custom
to put a temporary stop to their destruction.
st.Pap.Dom. Thus in July, 1643, the Earl of Holland, Chief
vol. 384. Justice of the Forests, ordered a general restraint and
sparing of the deer in Waltham Forest for three years,
except by warrant under his hand; by reason of the
great slaughter and destruction late made of the deer in
the Forest by unruly persons, who take the liberty to kill
and dispose of them at their pleasure.
Exch. Treas. About 1 668, a further restraint on the killing of
For. Essex,^*^' deer in the Forest was ordered; and in 1670, Sir
22'car. 2. William Hicks the Lieutenant was fined 50/. for not
making it appear that he had published this warrant to
the keepers, whereby deer had been killed, particularly
for himself.
THE WILD DEER.
219
Again, in April and November, 1722, there were Attachment
7 -r-,, ,.'^ Roll, 26 April
general restraints of the deer and game m the Forest, and 13 Nov.
1722
the first by Lord Tankerville for three, and the second by-
Lord Cornwallis for two years. And the like was done ffjif ^°^'
for one year in 1731; for one year in 1744, by reason '^'^- '3 Aug.
of the depredations of deer-stealers ; for three years in
1748 in the walks of Wanstead, Woodford, Waltham- f?;J.^^''"
stow, Chingford, New Lodge, Epping, and Loughton;
and for one year as to fallow deer in 1770. Besides 1770. "^'
that on several occasions, orders were made to kill the
deer during certain periods without hunting them.
The early entries relating to either kind of deer in
particular are few ; but the following comparative table
of presentments of deer killed or injured, made at the
Swainmotes of 1495, 1594, and 1630, shows that from
the 15th century the fallow deer was far the most
common in the Forest.
Red deer :
Hind Calf
Brocket . .
Staggard . .
Stag
Hart
Hind ....
Fallow deer:
Fawn . . . .
Pricket ....
Teg
Sorel
Sore
Buck
Great Buck
Doe
1495
1S94
1630
2
S
I
I
I
....
5
4
S
I
I
5
2
8
21
9
2
4
2
3
4
4
6
I
3
6
3
II
20
2
4
9
11
3
220
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
For. Rolls,
Lansdowne,
R. Charters,
20.
Buxton,
Epping
Forest, p. 79.
Keepers' Re-
turns, Office of
W. and F.
In 1589-90 a record of the deer killed and found
dead, shows a still greater preponderance in the numbers
of the fallow deer. The presentments at the Courts of
Attachments in the 1 8th century cannot be trusted as
evidence either of the actual number, or of the relative
proportions of the two kinds of deer in the Forest. Ac-
cording to them, the fallow deer, between 17 13 and 1720,
exceeded the red in the proportion of about six to one,
which may be nearly correct. But the proportions of
three to two between 1720 and 1746, and something
very near equality between 1747 and 1761, cannot be so,
unless the fallow deer during those intervals had been
very much reduced. The keepers were probably negli-
gent in ascertaining the numbers.
After the latter date the presentments at the Courts
relating to the deer almost entirely ceased. The remain-
ing red deer were sent to Windsor about twenty years
after the beginning of the present century, but some have
lately been restored to the Forest. The keepers' returns
of fallow deer show that in 1792 there were thirty-four
brace of bucks in the Forest, fit to serve for warrants ;
and a series of returns to the office of Woods and Forests
show how the fallow deer gradually decreased, and at last
almost became extinct in the present century. There
were about 212 male and female deer in the Forest in
1846, and 209 in 1847 and 1848. In 1849 there were
223 ; but only 9 fit for the Queen's service, for which in
1850 no bucks were available. In 1855, after the dis-
afforestation of Hainault, there were 86 deer in Epping
Forest, of which 6 were bucks and 3 1 does, the rest being
immature. In June, 1856, there were 75 in all, including
THE WILD DEER. 221
5 bucks and 27 does. In 1857 there were 57, of which
3 were bucks and 19 does; 48, of which 2 were bucks and
20 does, in 1858 ; 32, of which 2 were bucks and 13 does,
in 1859 ; and in 1870 only 5 to 6 brace of deer and but
I buck. They were, therefore, nearly extinct when the
litigation began in 1871.
The times fixed by the Forest laws for hunting were coke, 4th
r ,, Iiist. ; Man-
as lOliOWS : wood; Strutt.
The hart and the buck were hunted from the feast
of St. John the Baptist (6th July) to Holyrood day (25th
September). The hind and the doe from Holyrood to
Candlemas (14th February). And it was on account
of this difference in their seasons that the latter were
reckoned as beasts of the forest separately from the
former.
The fox was hunted from Christmas to Lady- day,
the hare from Michaelmas to Midsummer, and the boar
from Christmas to Candlemas.
The time when each kind was in season was called stmtt, ch. i.
Manwood.
its "grease time," and so a hart killed at this season
came to be called a hart of grease. The phrase is as
old as the time of Richard II., who granted to Nicholas Pat. roU,
2 R.. 2 pt. 2
Morice, the Abbot of Waltham, three bucks, "tempore m. I's.'
seisone de grees" (Fr. : graisse). At the Swainmote oi^-J^^^°'^'
1634 it was "presented and convicted" that John ^°^'^'J°'j
Noades, Forester of Lucton walk, within the Forest at
"grease time," in the summer last past, in the coverts
and lawne of the walk aforesaid, at three several times
carried with him one weapon, in English a gunn, and for
this and another offence he was fined io.y.
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
§5 xxxi. —
xxxiv.
Assisa H.
Reg. 2, de
For. § 2.
Assis.R. I.
Wilkins, 351.
Assis. F. R.I,
§ xiv.
Hoved.Chr.4.
65 (M. R.
Ser.).
Willdiis, 352.
Cotton MS.
Vesp. B. 7,
fo. 92b.
Harl. MS.
6839, f. 261.
By the law of Canute no lesser thane [mediocris)
might keep greyhounds ; but the higher class of officers
might do so if the dogs were lawed in the presence of
the chief officer of the Forest ; or without lawing at a
distance of ten miles from the Forest ; one shilling being
payable for every mile less than that distance, and ten
shillings within the Forest. The dogs called velteres
or langeran and ramhundt might be kept without lawing.
If mad dogs were found wandering in the Forest by the
neglect of their owner, he was mulcted in 200 shillings,
which was the value of a mediocris. If a mad dog bit a
wild animal, the fine was 1,200 shillings, being the value
of a freeman ; but if a Royal beast were bitten the offence
was of the highest class.
By the Forest laws of Henry II. and Richard I. it
was forbidden to have dogs or greyhounds (leporarios) in
the Forests unless by the authority of the King or other
person able to warrant it; he who was convicted of
leading dogs through the Forest without a leash was in
the King's mercy. And by another Forest law, if a
greyhound were found running to the hurt of the Forest,
the Chief Forester was to retain it in the presence of the
verderers, and to send it to the King or the Chief Justice
of the Forest. The using and keeping of dogs by the
inhabitants and others in the Forest, was the subject of
several of the inquiries which were directed to be made
by the grand jury at the Justice Seat.
The dogs most used for taking deer in Waltham
Forest, are described as greyhounds and harriers ; the
records often speak of mastiffs, braches or brackets,
stuckle dogs, curs and mongrels ; but I have found no
THE HOUNDS. 223
mention of the dog used to start the game which was
called by Twici "lymer," and by Caius " leuiner," or
" lyemmer,' ' from the collar or thong by which he was held. EngUshe
. . , . o J Dogges, p. II.
Cams says he is in smelling singular, and in swiftenesse
incomparable ; and that he taketh the prey " with a ioUy
quicknes."
Greyhounds and brackets are mentioned in connec- close RoU,
• 1 1 T-' /- T- • • ,- 12 H. 3, 1228.
tion with the Jborest of Essex in a proclamation of
Henry III. ; and the former are also mentioned in the Duch.ofLanc.
Misc. Rec.
record of the Pleas of the Forest held in 1489 ; in 1594, For. of wai-
tham, 4 H. 7.
there were twenty presentments about them at the For. of wai-
. tham, 36 Eliz.
Swainmote. Bodi. Lib.
There appears to be some confusion in the records
between the greyhound' and the harrier, which from the
13th century is also often mentioned. The breed of dog of English
, , . Dogges, p. 3
now called the harrier, was well known in the i6th (1576).
century; for, says Dr. Caius, "Wee may kn owe these
kinde of Dogges by their long, large, and bagging lippes,
by their hanging eares reachyng downe both sydes of
their chappes, and by the indifferent and measurable
proportion of their making." Yet at the Iter of Sep- ^•^°'^'
tember, 1630, Thomas Courtman of Loughton was fined ^Car. i.
£2s 6.?. 8(2^. for keeping within the Forest one harrier
■ If this is the dog which Lord Lytton calls the "grehound," he Harold, bk. 4,
says it was so called from hunting the gre or badger. " Grey," some- "^ ' ^'
times written " gre," is a name of the badger; but that a dog which
hunts by sight, and is bred for speed, should have been used to hunt
a rather heavy crepuscular, and nocturnal animal, which sleeps in a
hole during the day, passes belief. A badger was probably a " grey "
because of its colour (Anglo-Saxon : grseg) ; we still say " grey as a
badger." The greyhound may also have had its name from the colour
of the ancient breed.
224 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
called a greyhound, with which he killed a sorell ; and at
the same Iter two other persons were fined for keeping
in the Forest two harrier dogs, "in English a brace of
greyhounds," and for hunting by night in the Forest.
The old greyhound was probably a larger and more
powerful dog than that which now bears the name, and
was more like the present deerhound. In the time of
Dr. Caius, the name seems to have been applied to
P- 10- several breeds. He calls it " a spare and bare kind of
dogge (of fleshe but not of bone) ; some are of a greater
sorte, and some of a lesser : some are smooth skynned,
and some are curled : the bigger therefore are appoynted
to hunt the bigger beasts, and the smaller serve to hunt
the smaller accordingly."
Brache, Bracket, or Rache, was a general term for
a hound which hunts by scent. The hounds which
Richard I. sent as a present to Saladin, consisted of
greyhounds (leporarios) and brackets (braschetos) ; and
Benedict of the chronicler who records the gift, adds that the latter
Peterborough, . x i-i i i
A.D. 1 191. were odort seguentes. In hke manner we have seen these
two classes of hunting dogs constantly coupled together,
in the mandates of the early Kings to their subjects to
take care of their huntsmen and hounds, and in the
licences which they granted to hunt in the Forests. The
same thing is found in the apocryphal- but ancient charter,
alleged to have been made by Edward the Confessor to
Randolph Peperking.
Suipra, p. 6. " Four greyhounds and vj Raches,
For hare and fox and wild Cattes."
The word bracket was, however, sometimes specially
THE HOUNDS. 225
applied to the dogs used as pets by ladies. In Morte
d' Arthur, we read not only of brackets, both black and
white, in the sense of ordinary hunting dogs, but also of
the little bracket given by Sir Tristram to La Beale Isoud, Book ix. ch.
which "was sent from the King's daughter of France
unto Sir Tristram, for great love." It is used in the
same sense in King Lear. And in both senses by Sir Act i, sc. 4.
Henry Taylor in Philip van Artevelde. pt. 2, Act 2,
sc. 3.
" Down lay in a nook my lady's brach,
And said, ' My feet are sore ;
I cannot follow with the pack,
A-hunting of the boar.'"
The Mastiff, probably nearly the same as the mastiff
of the present day, is often mentioned at the Swain-
mote of 1594 and afterwards; but I cannot identify the
"Stuckle dogg" or the "Stonhill dogge" which appear
■ in the records of the Iter of 1630. Presentments for
keeping mongrels and curs are very numerous through-
out the rolls. Two other breeds of dogs are mentioned
in Canute's Forest laws, viz., sheep dogs, and others §xxxii.
called in Latin "velteres," In Anglo-Saxon "langeran."
Veltrarius or Vautrarius (Fr. : vautre) according to Tenures, 233.
Blount was a mongrel hound used for the chace of the
wild boar;^ a kindred German word "Welters" sig-
nifies a greyhound. Lye translates lang-legera, canis
.' One of the laws in the Capitularies of the reign of Dagobert I. Capit. Reg.
A.D. 630, is " De canibus veltricibus." The Franks at this time had ^'■?°'=- ^^^
•' Bajuvar.
many breeds of dogs. 1 he same laws mention seven others, by the Tit. xix.
names (probably corrupt) of leitihunt, triphunt, spurihunt, bibarhunt,
hapihuhunt, suvarzuvild (this kind was used for bears and wild oxen),
and hovauvarth ; which last was for protecting its master's curtilage.
226
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
§ xxxii.
§ Ixxxi.
2 Thorpe's
Anct. Laws,
544, note i.
leporarius. Langeran is doubtless a corruption of Lan-
legeran, which is used in the 13th century version of
Canute's secular laws as synonymous with vealtris. It
certainly was not the "greihund" of Canute's Forest
laws, as it might be kept in the Forest without being
lawed ; nor of his secular lav/s, if the curious pas-
sage in the 13th century version of them, by which a
scale of fines is fixed for the destruction of the different
kinds of dogs, is genuine. It is there distinguished
from the greyhound, and a higher value is set upon it.'
xvii. de Plac.
For. Thorpe's
Anc. Laws, i.
527-
The mutilation of the dogs of those who lived in
the Forests to prevent them from chasing the game,
commonly knov/n as the lawing of dogs, was a very
ancient practice. In the law of Canute it is called genui-
scissio, which was probably much the same as the process
afterwards known as hamling or hoxing, i. e. hocksinewing.
But in the time of Edward the Confessor, if the
collection of his laws made in the time of Henry I. may
be trusted, the cutting off of the claws called expeditation
was in use, and this was also directed by the Forest law
Ass.ofWcod- of Henry II. to be done to mastiffs wherever the King's
wild beasts had or had been used to be protected.^
' The fines are — for a dog which keeps its lord's sheepfold and
drives off the wolf, ds.; for a greihund which has not yet taken a
hare or other game, j^-od. ; but if it has been broken in, and has taken
game, iod.; for a mysterious dog "qui in pluvia sine alicujus cura
vigilat, quern Angli dicunt renhund," rid. ; and for the vealtris, called
by the English lanlegeran, los.
Baluzius, * I am not sure whether an obscure passage in the Capitularies of
I- 394, 9 3- Charlemagne, a.d. 803 (Capit. 3, ch. xviii.), and repeated in those
of Charlemagne and Louis the Debonnaire (ch. ccxxxvi.), " Decanibus
qui in dextro armo tonsi sunt," refers to any form of lawing.
THE HOUNDS. 227
The expeditation according- to the assise used in charta
the time of Henry III., and then ordered to be followed,
consisted in the cutting off three claws from the forefoot
without the ball. "The mastive " (says Manwood) Forest laws.
" being brought to set one of his forefeet upon a piece
of wood eight inches thicke and a foot square, then one
with a mallet^ setting a chissell two inches broad upon
the three clawes of his forefoot, at one blow doth smite
them cleane off."
The regulations about the lawing of dogs, both
before and after the Conquest, appear to have been
properly applicable only to particular breeds. Under
Canute's law only greyhounds were subject to the genui-
scissio, it being declared that velteres or langeran, as
manifestly not dangerous, and sheep dogs, should be
free. Mastiffs, according to the opinion of Coke, were 4 inst. 30s.
the only dogs liable to expeditation by the laws after the
Conquest, because in the assises of Henry II. and Ass.ofWood-
Edward I. they are the only dogs which are directed to ass. et Cons".
be so treated. The Cambridge MS. also says that the 59.'
only dogs allowed in the Forest, are mastiffs for keeping fo. 17.
men's houses, which are to be expeditated ; and little And see 6 Ed,
dogs which are unable to hunt or disturb the deer.
It is said that Rufus' great stirrup was the gauge, in
the New Forest, by which the size of these little dogs
was measured. " All who could not pass through the
gauge," says Sir Francis Palgrave, "being subjected to History of
the painful mutilation which, even during the generations and England,
vol. 4, p. 185.
v/hen the duty of mercy to the beast was almost wholly
forgotten, excited commiseration and horror." In fact
the mutilation when done according to the Forest laws,
Q 2
228
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
History of
Normandy
and England,
vol. 4, p. 648
SO far as we know them, was no more painful than the
cutting or biting off parts of dogs' tails and ears, which
is practised by the present merciful generation; and
when we are further told of " the brach or hound being
dragged through the King's great stirrup," and of " the
live flesh being scooped from the foot of the writhing
animal," we may remember, that inasmuch as the dog
which passed through the stirrup would be free from the
law, neither the King nor his foresters would be likely
to defeat their own object by forcing him through it.
For the rest, we may consider that the eminent historian
was recording an isolated act of brutality ; or we may
mark with admiration how his power of word-painting
kept touch with his imagination : but we must not sup-
pose that the acts of which he speaks were directed or
justified by the Forest laws.
The officers of Waltham Forest did not confine
their presentments to mastiffs, but reported to the Courts
6 ca^°i' '^'^°'^' ^^^ kinds of unexpeditated dogs. Of 147 so presented
at the Regard of 1630, 9 were greyhounds, 41 mastiffs,
85 " mungrells," 3 " stucklecurrs," 3 hounds, and 6
spaniels. The jurors found in that year, that some of
the dogs in the Forest were lawed, but for the most part
they were not.
(Waltham),
No. 44.
Id. No. 153,
Justices'
Inquiries,
memb. 25.
Matt. Paris,
Ch. Maj. 599
(M. R. S.) ;
Wilk, 371;
Ch. For. § 6.
The inquiry or view, sometimes called a Court, for
the lawing of dogs, was directed by the laws of John and
Henry III. to be done at the time of the Regard, that is,
from three years to three years ; and then by the view
and testimony of lawful men, but only in places where it
THE HOUNDS. 229
was wont to be done from the first coronation of Henry II.
He whose dog was then found unexpeditated was to pay
3^. The provision that no ox was thenceforth to be taken
for the lawing- of dogs, doubtless points to a mode of
oppression previously exercised by the Forest officers.
By the Customs and Assises of the Forest, if an ex- cottonMS.
peditated mastiff were found running upon a wild beast, ^^^^2 b.' '''
the owner should be quit, but if the dog were not ex-
peditated the owner should be guilty, and was to find six
pledges. No mower might bring with him a great mastiff Ms'^Ruir"
by night to the banishment of the deer, but he might bring ^^'^^ ^'
little dogs expeditated' to watch outside the coverts. p- ^^•
The right to have their dogs free from expeditation
was granted to and claimed by large landowners and
persons of consideration in the Forest of Essex. Richard I. excK Treas.
granted it to the Canons of Waltham as regarded their pkcrFor.
house dogs ; and they claimed it in their charter shown '^
in 1323-4. Stephen Bishop of London, and the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul's, claimed it at the same time,
showing a charter of John. Like claims were made by
the Earl of Arundel, lord of the manor of Wolfhamston,
and by Thomas, of Huntercombe, and others.
' The word " expeditated " is not in the Record Commissioners'
version, and seems doubtful.
THE FOJREST OF ESSEX.
CHAPTER V.
The Woods and Wood Rights in the
Forest.
" As is common in ancient forests in the neighbourlnood of men's
" wants, tlie trees were dwarfed in height by repeated loppings, and the
" boughs sprang from the hollow gnarled boles of pollard oaks and
"beeches. . . . The trees thus assumed all manner of crooked, deformed,
" fantastic shapes— all betokening age, and all decay— all, in despite of the
" noiseless solitude around, proclaiming the waste and ravages of man."^
IJPHEI^JFO the history of the Forest has for the
most part been confined to matters relating to
the Crown and its privileges. I have now to describe
the customary rights, which, with the acquiescence, and
under the protection of the Ministers of the Forest, were
enjoyed by the landowners and inhabitants over the wide
and unbroken waste of woodland and pasture, formerly
stretching along the whole length of the Forest; but
which, by encroachments made during several centuries,
has become everywhere narrowed, and in some places is
no longer even continuous.
The whole of thd ancient Forest had from a very
early time been granted out to different owners, who,
' Lord Lytton — Harold.
'i^Q face poc^e ZSI.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 231
either by their original or by later grants, acquired the
rights of lords of manors, and in whom were vested the
soil and timber of so much of the Forest as lay within
their respective boundaries ; but subject to the right of
the Crown under the Forest laws to forbid the inclosure
of the land, and the destruction of the wood ; and subject
to the rights of cutting wood, of pasture, and of pannage,
the nature and origin of which, I am about to examine.
The relative position of the principal Forest manors
is shown on the opposite map. Down to the time of the
dissolution of the monasteries, a great number of them
belonged to the Church. Waltham, Woodford, Nasing,
Nettleswell, and Loughton, were among the lordships Cod. Dipi.
granted by Harold, and confirmed by Edward the Con-
fessor, to Waltham Abbey ; which, later, also became pos-
sessed of Sewardstone, Roydon, Epping, with Upshire Dugd.
and Hallifield, and Theydon Boys. Wanstead, originally °°^^ '
the property of St. Peter's at Westminster, afterwards
belonged to St. Paul's, which also had Chingford
St. Paul's ; Layton and West Grange belonged to
St. Mary's, Stratford; and Barking, with Dagenham and
a number of smaller manors, to the Abbey of Barking.
Other Forest manors were in the possession of private
owners, except when from forfeitures or other accidents
they sometimes belonged to the Crown ; and after the dis-
solution of the monasteries, the ecclesiastical manors were
again granted out, with the exception of a considerable
part of those in East and West Hainault, which had be-
longed to the Abbey of Barking ; and which remained in
the Crown until the disafforestation of that part of the
232 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
15th Rep. of Forest in 1851. In 1793, the King's woods in Hainault
1793- contained by measure 2,939 statute acres, and the rest of
the Forest by computation about 9,000 acres.
It was forbidden by the Forest laws, as well to the
owners of trees and underwoods as to strangers, to cut
them without the licence of the King * or of the Forest
\\ xxviii. xxix. ofhccrs. " Nouc," says the Forest law of Canute, "shall
touch our wood or underwood without the licence of
the chief men of the Forest ; whoever does so shall be
guilty of a breach of the royal chace. But if any cut an
oak or other tree which bears fruit for the deer, he shall
besides pay 205. to the King."
Assis. of Henry II. ordained that if his demesne woods in the
§ viii. ^'""^ ^' keeping of his forester were destroyed, and no good
cause could be shown for their destruction, the forester
should be answerable in his person only for the waste.
Jd. \ iii. The same King and Richard I. also forbad the giving,
§ iii. ' selling, or wasting the woods in the King's Forests ; but
allowed the taking of such wood as was necessary by
view of the foresters and (R. I.) of the verderers.
RastaU Abr. Delivery of housebote and haybote might be made
Consuetudines as the State of the wood permitted, but not according to
Foresta.^ ^ the demand of the person to whom it was delivered ; and
vesp°"B. ■;'. Hone might sell any of the King's wood without his
Ruff.App.2t;. .
^^ ^ warrant.
Id. and see If a man cut down an oak beyond the demesne
Houard Gout. . . •'
Angi.-Nonn. woods, and within the Forest, without the view and de-
Close Rolls, ' See a direction by Henry III. to Richard de Montfichet to provide
9 H. 3, 1225, oaks from the Forest of Essex for the master of St. Bartholomew's
memb. M. tt -^ i • t i
"^ Hospital in London.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 233
livery of the forester or verderer, he was to be attached vol. 2. Leg.
_ For. cap. xu.
by four sureties, and the value of the oak was to be
appraised by view of the forester and written in the roll
of the foresters and verderers : six pledges were to be
taken the first time, twelve the second, and the offender's
body the third time. The foresters were also to attach
all persons offending against the vert ; the first time by
two and the second by four sureties ; the third time the
culprit was to be brought before the verderers, and to
be attached by eight sureties ; and after the third time
his body was to be attached and detained.
The vert of the Forest, sometimes called by the
English term " greenhue," included all trees, whether
bearing fruit or not, and also underwood ; and such as
bore fruit fit for the food of the deer, viz. pear and crab,
hawthorn, black thorn, white thorn, and holly, and all
other great and small trees, when growing in the King's
demesne woods, were called "special vert." ^ The
' To this definition of vert several writers add, with variations, "the
ash tree if he be old [or if it be the ancient use in the Forest] being SeeManwood.
in the arable land within the Forest because the King is in possession."
The Articles of Attachment of the Forest mentioned in Chap. II. are p. 72 supra.
the supposed authority for this. I have been unable to trace the
version used by the Record Commissioners; but the word "fraxinus"
is not in the Cotton MS., of which Ruffhead professes to give a copy ;
and he introduces another word, which is also an interpolation. The
sentence in this MS. runs thus : —
" Omnes arbores fructum non portantes, et etiam hec que fructum Vesp. B. vii.
portant per totum annum extra dominicum, si antiquitus fuerint in foresta *°- 92 b.
et arabil(i) quia dominus Rex est seisitus." Record
The meaning is obscure. Another writer introduces the maple, as Stat. vol. i.
an equivalent of the word which in the Cotton MS. is plainly written \.?'^^' ,^^y'^
" arabil." The objection both to the ash and the maple is that they Forests ; '
are already included in the general definition of vert. Rastall's Abr.
r^, -.rr.r, ,11 1 • . r ,. , Manwood, on.
The MSS. are probably wrongly copied from an earlier document. (, § i
234
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Camb. MS.
fo. 22 ; Harl.
MS. 6839,
fo. 261.
E. F. Aibitn.
Mills' Case,
Ev. ofH. J.
Ilatherill,
2311-17.
46th article of the charge to the grand jury of Waltham
Forest, in 1634, declares that hawthorne, crab tree, holme
or holly, and " old fearne," ' are accounted vert by the
ancient Iters, and may not be cut down within the regard
of the Forest. It is the King's vert.
Accordingly, some of the persons who claimed wood
rights in the Forest excepted from their claims the right
to cut "whitebush, hull, and crab;" and even in the
19th century, we find the Forest officers exercising their
ancient right to enter into any man's woods in the Forests,
and cutting these kinds of vert as "browst" for the
deer's winter food, in the wood assignments, the owners
of which claimed a general right to underwood.
Manwood,
ch. 6, § 3.
Ch.For. Pioc,
6 Car. I,
No. 153.
Assisa Reg.
R. I. de
Forestis.
The destruction of special vert was a greater offence
than that of common vert. A simple money fine might
atone for the latter ; ^ but for the former, the culprit was
not only to pay the value of the wood, but forfeited the
cart and horses with which it was drawn out of the Forest.
That this law was still in force in Waltham Forest in
1630, is shown by some of the answers to the justices'
inquiries, which only state the value of timber and pol-
lards wrongfully cut in Chingford, Sewardstone, and
some other parishes; but in the King's demesnes in
Hainault also give the value of the horses, and of the
"unshodd carte," used for drawing the trees out of the
woods.
' Old fern is not mentioned, so far as I can find, in any Forest law
or regulation. Having- regard to the subject of the last note, it is
curious that in the Camb. MS. the word " fearne" looks at first sight
very like " fraxine."
* "Qui autem forisfecerit in Foresta Regis de viridi . . . erit in
misericordia Regis de pecunia sua."
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 235
When the injury done to a wood by cutting, was Dial. Exch.
such that any one standing and resting upon the pro-
jecting trunk of a felled oak or other tree, could see on
looking around, five trees cut down, it was called waste ;
and such a misdeed, even when committed in a man's
own wood, was of so grave a kind that it ought never to
be quieted at the Session of the Exchequer, but ought
rather to be punished by fine according to the means of
the offender. A punishment so regulated was, of course,
abused. When the regarders spied out the woods of Mat. Paris
one whom they knew to be wealthy, they forthwith de- i6s7m.r^s.)."
clared, whether truly or not, that they had been wasted.
Wasted woods were also seized into the hands of the
King. Henry I. impleaded every year the owners of
the woods, to ascertain if they hunted in them, or
diminished them to supply their own wants. And he
not only seized, but kept them, for one of the oaths
taken (but not kept) by Stephen, when he came to the fd. 163.
throne, v/as that he would not keep in his hands the
woods either of priests or people, as had been done by
King Henry.
The Essex records show that in the 13th century piac.For. 5
the Forest woods were frequently seized on the King's 20 kd. i ' '
account for waste : the rule v/as that, if a wood remained consuet ^t
in the King's hands for a year and a day, it remained at -'^^^- ^°''-
the pleasure of the King, unless it could be recovered App.' p. 25,
by the judgment of the Forest Justices. In Essex woods
were often given up after a longer time, on payment of ■
a fine. But the offence of wasting a wood was not
entirely condoned by payment of a fine, half a mark
being made payable by another rule in respect of a id.
2 3 6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
piac. For. wasted wood at each subsequent Justice Seat. For such
2oEd. I. old wastes, Roger le Veneur and others in 1277, Ralph
de Tony in respect of his wood at Walthamstow in 1292,
and Cypriana de Boys and several others in 1323, in
respect of a wood in Nastok (Navestock), each paid that
sum.
The records of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries,
abound with complaints of the destruction of the vert of
piac For. the Forest. At the first Justice Seat, held in 1277, the
entries about the vert are numerous. The proceedings
extended to the hundred of Lexden, and half of each of
the hundreds of Wenestre and Thurstable, which were
then claimed as part of the Royal Forest ; and a regard
of Colchester was duly presented, in which it was found
that the wood of John le Burgo of Cestreweld had been
wasted by him, and that there were " Extractors and
Destructors" {Extradores et Destrudores ; afterwards
called "malefactors of vert") of the said wood. Their
names were William Springold of la Milaunde; Ralph
the Sawyere of the same place ; William del Frith, Philip
de la Hegge, Colemannus de Quercu, Stephen Clerk of
Withernum de Ford, Hamo Toll, Richard [his] brother,
John Toll ; Nicholas Molin, Roger le Clerk of Colecestre,
and Geoffrey le Warener of the same place. Some of
them, however, seem to have proved an alibi, and one
was dead ; but several were fined.
Thomas Thurkyld of Yarmouth was also found to
have caused great destruction in the same wood, carrying
away the vert in large ships, and wasting the grove
called Wolvesgrave ; and resisting when the King's
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 237
foresters attempted to attach him and his workmen. He
was compelled to appear before the Forest Court by the
Sheriff of Norfolk, and was adjudged to prison, and
fined 20s. by the pledges of Geoffry the Palmer of
Waldon, and Richard the son of Martin of Colchester.
There were great complaints at this Court of damage to
woods, both in the old and in the wrongfully afforested
districts; with the afforestation of which these riotous
acts were probably connected.
Again, in 1292, many persons, including Master
John de Lucca, Canon of St. Paul's, London, were fined
for trespass of vert. In 1323 the Prior of ** Bermounsye"
was presented for wasting his wood, which was seized
into the King's hands. John le Tailor, of Wodeford, was
denounced as a common malefactor of vert, as well by
day as by night, in divers woods in the Forest ; and
there were many other like complaints : and notably in
1489, no less than twelve against Christopher Stubbes of justice Seat,
Loughton, for cutting, selling, and carrying away, in all,
3,50 loads of timber, and committing other depredations
upon the vert. The great number of these complaints
shows that in those days, as well as in the 19th century, E.F.Arbit.
there were many who thought it no crime to steal wood nltheriu, "
from the Forest ; and possibly the gradual destruction of ^^ °"
the ancient common wood rights may have been the
cause of the mischief.
The robberies were not all committed by strangers.
In 1489 the forester of the bailiwick of Inholt was pre- Duch.ofLanc.
sented and convicted as a common destroyer of the Pieasof Vert,
woods of the Abbess of Barking in Inholt ; and her riding WaitLm.
bailiff wrongfully cut oaks in the King's waste soil.
238 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
It was perhaps in consequence of the connivance of
the Forest officers, that complaints of the destruction of
the vert were much fewer in the i6th and early in the
iOct.,sjas.i. 17th century. In 1607, a man was presented at the
Manor Court of Eppingbury for cutting 157 trees on the
waste of the manor in the Forest ; but among the 340
ch.For.Proc. presentments at the Forest Regard of 1630, which covered
6 Car. I, ' many previous years, very few relate to the vert ; and of
those which do, several refer, not to active waste, but to
the omission to fence woods which had been felled, in
order to preserve the young springs from being injured
by cattle.
Appt. of The connivance of the under keepers at the wilful
Supermt. of r i • i -i • i r
Reeves, Concealment of this neglect was complained of by James I.
in 1624. The owners of such woods had originally only
a permissive right to fence them for three years ; this in
22Ed. 4, c. 7. 1482 was extended to seven years; in 1543, the in-
c.^i'^f"'^' creasing destruction of the woods led to an enactment,
that all coppices or underwoods of or under fourteen
years' growth, should be inclosed after cutting, during
four years ; all above fourteen and not over twenty-four
years' growth, during six years; and all woods over
twenty-four years' growth, during seven years.
The same statute directed that for every acre of
coppice wood cut, of twenty-four years' growth or under,
twelve storers or standils of oak should be left ; or if there
were not so many, then of elm, ash, or beech, likely to
be timber trees : and in woods over twenty-four years'
growth, a like number of trees for timber were to be left
for twenty years. These however might be cut for the
personal use of the owners, for the repair of houses,
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 239
bridges, floodgates, and the like, and for ships. In 1 570, 13 eiiz. c. 25.
each of the times prescribed by the last statute for
keeping up the inclosures of woods, was increased by-
two years.
The object of these provisions was, of course, that
the Forests should not be entirely stripped of timber ;
but James I. had regard also to the ornamental character
of the woods on the Crown demesnes, and directed the Articles an-
Commissioners for sale of the woods, not to cut any commission
tree, other than in places assented to by such as the ing Forest,
King had appointed to take care for the beauty of '^'' ' °^'
the Forest, park, or chase, in which timber was to be
sold.
All these precautions were neglected during the
Commonwealth, at which time the destruction of timber
was very great. In 1656, according to a certificate state Papers
made by Carew Hervey or Mildmay and John Brewster interregnum
•, T 1 -r. . ■ r ■, • 1656, Bund.
to the Lord Jrrotector, in pursuance or his warrant 654, fo. 249.
directing an inquiiy into the spoils of the " Forest by
cutting timber and underwood, much spoyle was comitted
in three groves, called Great King's Grove, Little King's
Grove, and Queen's Grove, w"'' belong to y'' Heighness,"
and were formerly preserved as nurseries for young tim-
ber for shipping, lying near to the waterside. Above
100 timber trees and oaken spears were carried away.
One workman alone felled in one of the groves 500 of
long tallwood,* being oaken spears, and 1,500 of short
' Mr. Rogers seems to imply that " tallwood " was wood used for Six Centuries
burning. The "long tallwood" here mentioned was certainly not ^a^es'^^^'s
firewood; the "spears" with which it is identified were oak trees, ed. 1886.' '
240 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
tallwood, some of which was hornbeam, besides Ostrey
faggots/ and brush faggots to a great quantity ; and the
like proportion was believed to have been felled in the
other two groves. These were on Crown lands. But the
destruction in other parts of the Forest was as great.
Besides much timber, trees sufficient to produce 10,000
logs, 50 loads of spraywood, and as many of livery wood,
were carried away and sold out of the Forest. And it
was "testified, that Mr. Payne hath sold to one Townsend
and oth™ all the Maple trees, Servis trees, and holly trees
y" are growing w*^ in ye Forrest." For prevention
whereof the expedient was humbly offered, which was a
constant rule before observed in the Forest, " that
noe Keeper, Woodward, or oth'' Offic'' of Forrest, under
what pretence soever, presume to cutt, fell, or cart
away any Tymb'' or other Tree or Wood w*'' out y® view
and approbacon of a verderer and Cheife Mr. Keep."
Notwithstanding these depredations, much timber
fit for the use of the navy still remained in Hainault.
Diary, i8 Jan. Pepys saw many trees of the King's, a-hewing in the
Forest in 1662 ; and he mentions the complaint of the
Admiralty officer that the country was backward to come
which were preserved for timber. The " short tallwood " may
probably be the pollards, which were kept for lopping ; the trunks,
when ceasing to produce shoots, being used for the repair of bridges
and such purposes, under the name of " wholves," and sometimes for
firewood.
Mats. lUust. Again, in the 15th century the distinction between firewood and
of Reign of tallwood appears in the following entries: — "Item ccc di fagottes,
beiV2.^24^" P"ce the c, iiig. viiid— xiig. lod. Item 11'' talwoode, price the c,
(M. R. S.). vid— xiig ;" in the last entry the vid. being evidently a mistake for vi.g.
' I cannot find any explanation of this term.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 241
in with their carts.^ A great quantity was also cut early 'Sth Rep. of
in the i8th century, 1,245 trees having been sold in 172 1 1793-
and 2,075 in 1725. In 1794, 470 loads of oak timber Auach. RoIIs,
8 Sept. 1794.
were felled in Hainault for the use of the navy, of which
442 loads were actually used, and the rest, with the bark,
lops and tops of the whole were sold — the 28 loads of
timber producing 68/. 13s. 6d., the bark 312/., and the
lops and tops 139/. 165.
The comparative scarcity of large trees in the
Epping division of the Forest arose from the continual
felling of the timber, and from treating the new growth
as coppice wood, which was cut at short intervals. This
was much practised in the i8th century. The rolls of
the Court of Attachments between the years 17 13 and
1770 are full of applications for, and of grants by the
Chief Justices of the Forests of licences to cut woods ;
and many of these applications were renewed at intervals
of from ten to twenty, but generally of about twelve or
fourteen years ; the woods being described as then of full
growth.
Between 17 13 and 1723, in particular, there was an
epidemic of wood cutting. During these years, leave
was given to cut groves covering upwards of 680 acres.
Afterwards the applications were much fewer, but the
acreage was about 314 between 1724 and 1733, 251 be-
tween 1734 and 1743, 283 between 1744 and 1753, and
246 between 1754 and 1770.
' This remark seems to imply that the King's officers were still
■attempting to enforce the right of purveyance, which had been
abolished in 1660.
F. R
2 4 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
During the whole of this period, leave was given to
stub up about 123 acres of the woods mentioned in these
applications.
After 1770, either from the neglect of the officers of
the Court to make the proper entries, or because the
owners cut without licence, no applications for leave to
cut or to stub up woods appear on the rolls.
The proper course was first to obtain leave from the
Court of Attachments, and then to apply to the Chief
Justice for a licence, which was seldom refused. Lord
Lansdowne Riche Said that when he was Lieutenant of the Forest,
he never refused an applicant leave to cut or inclose his
own woods. But later, the Lieutenant does not appear
to have been concerned in the matter ; and that licences
were sometimes irregularly obtained, appears from the
Atiachment admission of a person in 1728, that he obtained a licence
1728'. " to stub a wood by payment of 5/. 5^. to the clerk of the
Secretary of the Chief Justice, after refusal of leave by
the verderers.
There were various special rights of cutting wood in
the Forest, arising either by grant or by ancient custom,
and exercised in some cases independently, and in others
under the control, of the Forest officers.
The charters by which Edward the Confessor
granted or confirmed lands to the monasteries of Waltham,
Cod. Dip]. and St. Paul's, London ; to the former " the land by the
No. 813. _ ' _ ' _ ■'
inhabitants of old time called Waltham," which included
Passefeld (Passelow), Walde, Tippendene (Debden),
Alwartune (Alderton), Wodeforde, Nesingen (Nasing),
Nethleswelle (Nettleswell), Lukintone (Loughton), and
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 243
Other places; and to the latter, Chingford St. Paul's;
contain no restrictions upon the use of the woods. But
the grant by Henry II. which confirmed these old pos- h. 2(1154).
sessions of Waltham, and added to them Sewardstone, tiqu^,
M. n, 2.
and Epping, declares that it shall be lawful for the
monks freely to use their woods ; while a later charter i Richd. r,
1 T^ . 1 , T . .1 , 1 r 1 , „ /<^. M. No. 6.
by Richard I. gives a right only to take ireely and suffi-
ciently from all their woods without view of the foresters
for the use of their house. It was, however, admitted by the Exch. Treas.
■' ofRect. Plac.
Abbot of Waltham m 1292, that he had no right to give For. 20 Ed. i.
or sell his woods, without the King's permission ; and Pat. roU,
1 1 A,i f^ 16 Ed. 3, Part
licences were granted to the Abbot and Convent to cut 3. m- "•
• 1 • 1 /<f. 2 R. 2,
and sell woods to a certain value m 1343 and 1379. Part 2, m. 15.
By other charters of the same and of later Kings,
the Abbess of Barking, the Church of St. Paul's, and
other large Forest landowners were entitled to take of
their woods for the use of their houses without view of
the foresters.
It is probable that these grants, which practically
extended over the whole of the ancient Forest, were
inserted in the charters for the purpose of confirming the
rights, which, time out of mind, had been exercised by
the inhabitants in this, as in other forests, of pollarding
and lopping the trees for fuel and other purposes.^ The
' In the manor of Writtle the tenants had a right against the lord's Cowell's In-
demesnes called "Frampole," -which was evidently of the same t^'T"'*'^'''
character, and was exercised in much the same manner, as the Forest
right of lopping. The tenant had as many trees or poles as he could
reach from the top of the ditch with the helve of his axe, towards the
R 2
244 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
prevalence of this practice is shown, as well by the
abundance throughout the Forest of such trees as are
described in the passage quoted at the head of this
chapter, as by many ancient documents.
In 1630 and 1670 the lords of fifteen Forest manors
and sub-manors claimed, in almost similar language,
power to lop and cut all their own trees called pollard
trees, anciently lopped and growing on the demesnes of
their manors ; in most cases, without view of the foresters,
and for burning on their hearths, or for mending their
hedges and inclosures. Like claims were made at the
same time by owners of freehold and copyhold lands
and houses, to cut the pollards on their own lands. And
in Sewardstone, Wolhampton in Waltham, Chigwell,
Ruckholt, Walthamstow Toney, Theydon Hall in They-
donbois, Woodford, and Stapleford Abbot, not only
customary tenants, but also freeholders and inhabitants
of the vills and parishes, claimed estovers, sometimes in
a general form, and sometimes expressly by lopping
pollards.
It can hardly be doubted that the rights of cutting
which thus prevailed in many neighbouring parishes, the
position and circumstances of which were alike, had the
same beginning in all ; or that they were remnants of
those ancient common wood rights which existed in this
and many other countries before the forest and waste
lands had become private property, and which in later
repair of his fence. The etymology has been doubted ; but it is
tolerably clear that the word refers to the profit or free right (Anglo-
Saxon, freame) of polling or pollarding.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 245
years existed in the modified form of rights of estovers *
for the use of ancient houses ; but often disappeared be-
cause they could not be justified by the rules which had
grown up under the feudal law.
Grants of, and references to such rights, are com-
mon in charters of the gth and loth centuries. " Com- Cod.Dipi.190.
J . . . Cart. Sax. 322.
mon wood with the other men according to ancient —
,, ^ ,,.,,. , . Cod. Dipl.
custom ; common of wood, "hke that of other men in 1041.
the same land; " "freewood, according to ancient custom ^' — "*
and regulation, to be taken in summer, in the common cart.sLx.'426!
wood which we Saxons call in gemenisse,'" "the wood ° ■ 'P" '^^'
which from olden time was declared by law to be com-
mon," are examples of the language of such grants,
made by Cuthred and .^Ethelwulf of Kent, and ^thelwulf
of Wessex, in 805, 832, and 839; and the "wood rights Cod.Dipi.soj;
. , . . and see td.
in the wood which the freemen enjoy" occurs in a grant 179. andCart.
probably of the same century by Bishop Werfrith.* Dipi. 198,
432, 714, 843,
1041 ; Cart.
The wood rights, traces of the former existence of
which are to be found in all parts of the Forest, were
still exercised in the parish and manor of Loughton,
' The right of estovers, in Saxon-English called "botes," includes
a right to take wood for burning upon the hearths of ancient houses,
and for the repair of buildings, fences, and implements of husbandry;
and according to its use for any of these purposes, it is known as iire
bote, house bote, hay or hedge bote, or plough bote.
' De Laveleye refers to the words " in silva communi seu regis " in De la Pro-
a law of Dagobert, a.d. 630, as illustrating the manner in which the P"^'"l' ^'^■
Kings treated the common woods as the property of the Crown ; but
he cites the passage without the least regard to its sense. The law to Capit. Reg.
which he refers fixes the fine to be paid by a person who, from a wood Fra""^- Eago-
which is common, or belongs to the King, or lo any one else, removes Baluzius, 1.50!
timber for building or split logs.
10 Jas. I.
246 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
when the Loughton wastes passed into the hands of the
Conservators of Epping Forest. They are undoubtedly
of the same character as those referred to in these ancient
charters ; and also resemble the customary rights which
have existed from remote times in some of the cantons
of Switzerland, and in other countries, in which, at the
time of their origin, wood was plentiful and people few.
Ducii.ofLanc. Two survevs of the manor of Loughton, when it was
Rec. Surveys •' .
of Woods, parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, were made m 1608
Div. 19, vol. 9. .
Duch.ofLanc. and i6i2. According to the first there were m the
Surveys and , i i /•
Deputations, Crown demesnes 212 loads of timber and 1,586 loads of
firewood. The other shows that both on the demesnes
and on the waste called Fairmead, within the manor,
there were great numbers of pollards ; the ancient tenants
of the manor having, as it was stated in the survey, a
right of common of estovers over the waste ; besides a
similar right in Highwood on payment yearly of twenty-
nine smoke hens to the lord. The survey says, in
conclusion, "Upon all wch pcells of wood and wast, are
dispersedly growing divers pollards, and old decayed
beech and hornbeam trees, which only beare cropp for
the above-mentioned uses of the tenants of the said
manor."
The validity of the right of lopping which was
claimed and exercised by the people of Loughton, was
much disputed before the Epping Forest Commissioners,
and also before the Epping Forest Arbitrator, by both of
whom it was held to be well established, having regard
to the Forest laws. But as the question of its validity
depended upon principles of English law which are
entirely artificial, it is unnecessary to discuss it here. I
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 247
purpose only to show the nature of the custom, its probable
origin, and its bearing upon the other rights of common
which prevailed in the Forest.
Omitting some exceptions which it is not necessary
to state, the right as found by the Epping Forest Arbi-
trator, after careful examination of the evidence, was,
that the occupiers of houses in the manor and parish of
Lough ton had the right to lop under the name of " lop-
wood," for the proper use and consumption of [the
inhabitants of] such houses, as fuel, from the hour of
twelve o'clock at night on the nth day of November
(All Saints) in each year to the same hour of the 23 rd
day of April (St, George) in each succeeding year, the
boughs or branches of the trees growing upon the waste
lands of the Forest, within the precinct of the said manor
and parish (except upon Monks Wood and Loughton
Piece), in such manner as not to destroy or unnecessarily
injure the trees ; and at such a height from the ground
as not to destroy the covert or browsing of the deer of
the Forest. The finding of the Epping Forest Commis- Final Rep. of
• • <-, 1 rr 1 • f 1 E. F. Com.
sioners m 1877 was to the same effect, but it did not p. 4(1 Mar.
contain the clause about the covert or browsing of the
deer ; which for a reason to be presently mentioned, I
consider to have been founded upon a mistake.
It was almost ah article of faith in Loughton, that
the right of lopping was granted to the inhabitants by
Queen Elizabeth, who was lady of the manor. It is pos-
sible (for such traditions are seldom without foundation)
that the Queen may have confirmed, or renewed some
earlier confirmation of the ancient rights, or may have
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Loughton
Rolls, 2 1 Sept.
Claim No. 2,
Bundle A.
1850.
E. F. Com.
Evidence of
Maynard ;
Salmon ;
Wade;
Parish.
Proceedings,
PP- 3417—
3429-
Ch. For. Proc.
Waltham.
prevented their destruction. But it is certain that she
did not originally grant them; for in 1570, when she
had been on the throne but twelve years, several persons
were fined at the manor court because they carried their
custom wood in carts, against the custom of the manor.
Moreover, the belief that the right was granted by
charter was not confined to Loughton. The inhabitants
of Theydon Bois, in 1841 and 1850, when the right of
the parishioners to lop was interfered with and disputed
by the lord of the manor, claimed a right of lopping ;
and alleged, in their claim in 1850, that Waltham Abbey,
Epping, Loughton, and Theydon Bois had all at one
time an equal right. In 1875 they also claimed this right
before the Epping Forest Commissioners ; and though
for technical reasons of law the claim was only allowed
to the tenants of ancient tenements held of the manor,
the evidence of several aged witnesses showed, not only
that the right was exercised at the same time and in the
same manner as at Loughton, but that according to
tradition it was the right of the parishioners ; some
of whom had always continued to cut in order to
preserve the right, although they had been prosecuted
for so doing, and imprisoned for non-payment of their
costs.
In Sewardstone also, in 1630 and 1670, the men
and inhabitants of ancient messuages and tenements,
both free and customary, claimed lopping rights in the
hamlet, in terms which, as to the mode of taking the
wood, were almost identical with the description of the
Loughton custom, viz. a right to cut, from the Feast of
AU Saints to that of St. George, sufficient fuel to be
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 249
burnt in their ancient messuages, and carried away in a
sledd with two horses for each turn only.
I shall show further on that these and the rights of
some other parishes, were probably represented in modern
times by permanent assignments of parts of the waste for
the exercise of the rights of lopping, but under the same
regulations which were observed in the lopping of the
common wood in Loughton.
Except by taking care that the lopping was con-
ducted in accordance with certain regrilations which were
for the advantage of the deer, the Forest officers never
interfered with it, although it was a direct injury to the
vert of the Forest. Like many other customary rights,
which were originally managed by the communities to
which they belonged, the regulation of the Forest lopping
had for centuries been in the hands of the manorial
Courts, which were continually striving to lessen the
burden upon the lords' woods, and in several of the
manors succeeded in altogether destroying it.
The time at which the lopping began in Loughton
was formerly All Saints' day — the ist November; but
by an order of the Loughton Manor Court, made on the
14th May, 1753, in consequence of the change in the
calendar, the day was shifted to the 12th November,
it being stated in the order that the anticipating the
nominal day for the beginning to take or cut wood, called
lopwood, would be attended with great inconvenience,
and be very prejudicial to the growth of wood in the
Forest.
The inhabitants seem to have thought It necessary e. f. Com.
Evidence of
2 so THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
H. Bacon ; for the preservation of their rights that they should begin
j! Mathews ; to lop as the clock struck the hour of midnight on the
^' preceding night ; and they met in the woods for that
E. F. Arbitn. purposc, generally at a place called Staples Hill, where,
Luffinin. after lighting a fire and celebrating the occasion by
draughts of beer, they lopped from 12 till about 2 o'clock,
and then returned to their homes.
E F Arbidi '^^^ manner of lopping was for each person to mark
H"T*Hatheriii °^^ ^°^ himsclf the piece of ground upon which he pro-
posed to work for the season, by cutting off and dropping
a bough here and there, to show his boundaries. These
were observed till towards the end of the season, during
which he lopped within them at his pleasure, notwith-
standing the restrictions which the manor court attempted
to impose.
E. F. Com. There were no disputes about the cutting, although
A^i.Taimage; there appears to have been no person in authority who
j.'spicCT;' had power to regulate it. The only care of the Forest
J. at ews. Qf][^cgj-g a^ji(j Qf ^}jg bailiff of the manor, was to prevent
H.;^ii^henu the pollarding of spear oaks,^ and the cutting below the
ifaf^tlg^Nov. proper height, which was six feet from the ground. But
1699- it -v^ras difficult to keep the men to that height, and the
distance was sometimes put as low as five, and sometimes
as high as eight, feet.
It was thought by some of the witnesses that the
E. F. Arbitn. ' /■«■, oaks intended to grow into timber trees. Before attaining
G^Banlfs"^ the dignity of a spear the young oak was a "sapling"; the young
1349— 1358. hornbeam before pollarding was a "second." In January, 1715-16,
Attachment thirteen persons were fined \d. each for heading such oaks ; and in
Roll, 27 June, jj^g following August, John Wooton was fined zoj-. for heading eight
spear oaks in Hainault. The spears were marked by the King's
woodward with the broad arrow.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 251
branches were allowed to be cut only at a certain height
above the ground, in order that cover might be left for
the deer. But it was considered by an experienced wood e. f. Arbitn.
surveyor, and by Henry John Hatherill, one of the w! j.°Beadei.
Epping Forest witnesses, members of whose family had ^^^^f'^°^
for many years been Forest officers, and who had himself
a great knowledge of the matter, that the object was to
keep the young shoots of the pollards beyond the reach
of the deer and the cattle, which would otherwise browse
upon them ; a reason which supports the conclusion that
the right of lopping was not dependent upon or connected
with the Forest law.
The wood was cut with an axe having a handle
about three feet long ; so that a man standing on the e f. AiWtn.
ground could conveniently lop the trees at the proper john Grant.
height ; the larger branches only were cut out, the e. f. com.
smaller being left to produce wood for lopping in future h. Bacon ;
years. It was, apparently, for not observing this rule ' ^'*^^"^'
that Richard Wolsey, a woodward, was presented in
1573 for spoiling the trees, "because those trees which
in one year he lops, in the next year he wastes, and he
names them starvelings."^
The customary mode of cutting, though not the e. f. Arbitn.
. 1 . , . 1 Evidence of
most economical, was very suitable to a district in which t. s.wooiiey.
wood was plentiful ; and the result was that there was
always a supply of branches sufficient for the fuel rights.
The lateral shoots cut from the lopped branches 5- .•^- -^t'?'
'■ ^ Evidence of
were left on the ground as food for the deer ; and there Hj.HatheriU.
' That is, trees which, being worn out, no longer produced branches
for lopping. The trunks, being the property of the lord of the manor,
were then often applied to his use.
252 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
are many entries in the Loughton rolls about their
E. F. Arbitn. improper removal. The branches themselves mieht not
Evidence of ^ ^ . °
John Free. be fagfe"oted on the Forest, but were made into heaps
Rolls, 25 Aug. , ^ . . ^
1718; 14 May, about six feet hieh; which were to be drawn out of the
'753; 21 Juiy> -r^ . .
1579; 21 Forest, neither with draft oxen nor in carts, but only
and many ' With two horses or gcldings,* and a sledge — which was
E.F. Com. ' a frame of wood shod with iron, and originally without
H. Bacon; whecls. Later, this rule was neglected, and wheeled
J.' M^attews. Carriages were used; but the name of the ancient carriage
i7'i8^and "^' was transferred to its burden, which was called a " slid."
many others.
Through a space of almost 260 years, viz., from
1570 to 1828, the rolls of the manor of Loughton contain
orders made for the regulation of the lopping ; and it is
remarkable, that while attempting to limit the right to
tenants of the manor for their estovers, these orders
constantly recognized its exercise by "inhabitants,"
"cottagers," and "other persons"; and sometimes
Rolls, refer to it as " common " or " custom " wood. Thus, in
21 Sept. 1570. '
1570 there was the order, just mentioned, that no tenant
of the manor, or inhabitant within the manor (which is
coterminous with the parish), were to draw their customary
/rf. 23 0ct. wood with draft oxen or carts. In 35 EHzabeth no
tenants or inhabitants in certain houses built within the
memory of man, were to have any common of wood
under a penalty for each time of ij.^. Three years later
another order shows that this was not obeyed ; and in
' I was told by a very aged witness who gave evidence before the
Epping Forest Commissioners, that according to tradition, the first
load of wood cut in the season was formerly drawn out of the Forest
by white horses.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 253-
44 Elizabeth it was superseded by an order that tenants Loughton
111 ill 1 • 1 Rolls, 14 Jan.
who had new tenements should not carry wood with a 1602-3.
sledge, under penalty for every sledge of v.^. ; a recogni-
tion of the right of such tenants, which was inconsistent
with the ordinary right of estovers. The object, probably,
was to reduce tenants of new houses to the position of
cottagers; who, by several orders in the 17th century, /<?. zoSept.
were prohibited from carrying wood on a sledge; the izApni.iegV.
meaning being, that they might take only such a
quantity as they could carry themselves.
The history of the cottagers as a class, goes back to
a remote age. In the Hundred Rolls they are called
" cotarii," and in the Domesday sometimes "cotarii"
and sometimes " bordarii," under which name, corrupted charge of
into the misleading term "borderers," we find in the Hari'. ms.'
17th century that they were bound to assist the keepers camb. ms.
of the Forest to attach offenders.*
In the iQth century they were called "kotsetlan;"
and the nature of their services to their lord, and . their
rights, are fully set forth in the Rectitudines Singularum
Personarum. Five acres was the quantity of a cottager's
land, and more if it was the custom of the place ; and
the writer adds, that it would be too little if less, because
his work must be often ready.
But in later times his holding, which was only at st.Pap.Dom.
the will of the lord, was often only half-an-acre, or the vol.' 109,'
still smaller garden which belonged to his cottage.
' The reeve and fourmen of Nasing presented, on the 2 1 st September,
1630, that no complaints were made by this Forest officers of the want
of such assistance.
254
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
There were at the date of the Domesday survey five
of these bordarii on one, and four on the other, of the
two manors in Loughton then held by the monastery of
Waltham Holy Cross ; besides nine others on the estates
belonging to Robert Greno and Peter Valoniensis, but
which it is thought may have belonged to Leyton. In
one of the entries in the Loughton Court Rolls in the
9th January, year 1 66 1, they are distinguished both from the ordinary
tenants of the manor and from other inhabitants by the
description " tenant of the manor, Anglice, a cottager."
Their general right to lop wood, so long as they did not
carry the wood away on a sledge, is a distinct recognition
of their position in the ancient community ; and it will
hereafter be shown, that when the Forest Court of
Attachments attempted to make the yearly value of
each man's holding, the measure of his right to de-
pasture his cattle on the Forest waste, a special provision
was made in that case also, for the cottagers who held
less land than would entitle them to turn out a single
beast.
Reverting to the entries which by implication affirm
the right of inhabitants of Loughton to cut wood, we find
Loughton that inhabitants within the manor were forbidden to cut
Rolls,
7 April, any green tree, or to cut forest wood for trade pur-
5 Dec. 1670. ■' .. ^ \. . , . ^
6 and 19 poses ; if they did so they were required to pay 4o.y.
13 Apru, 1*721; for the use of the poor of Loughton; and in 1724,
others. notwithstanding the partial admission in 44 Elizabeth of
1-24. ^"' the rights of owners of new tenements, the so-called
right of estovers was denied to tenants or inhabitants
living in houses or cottages built within the memory of
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 255
man. In 1753, the order which fixed the day for cutting, Loughton
on the alteration of the calendar, affirmed the right not 1753!' * ^^'
only of tenants and under-tenants, but also of inhabitants
of ancient tenements within the manor, to lop in the
Forest ; and the rights of the latter were also clearly /d. 10 May,
recognized by another order made in 1773. ^^^^'
In 1 76 1 a formal presentment denied the right of z^?. 30 March,
certificate men to cut lopwood. These were men who,
by virtue of a certificate from the poor law officers of s & 9 w. 3,
, . c. 30.
another parish acknowledging that they were mhabitants 5 & ,0 w. 3,
of it, escaped the liability to be sent back to that parish, '^' "■
so long as they did not apply for relief in the place to
which they had migrated. They were, in fact, persons
who left their legal places of settlement in search of
work, and some of whom probably resorted to the Forest
in Loughton, for the purpose of lopping in the character
of inhabitants.
Another check on the cutting was attempted to be
enforced in the 17th year of Charles I., and was the
subject of many orders and presentments down to the
year 1828. It was stated that by the custom of the LougWon
manor the tenants were at liberty to lop the common s jniy, 1642 ;
wood only one day in the week, which was ordered to be 19 jan! 1657 •
Monday; and only by one man, and enough for one 12 Apr. 1699;
chimney ; but the number of orders made upon this Ld inany ^'^ '
subject shows that they were not obeyed, and the living °
witnesses declared before the Epping Forest Commis-
sioners that no such restriction was attempted to be
enforced in their time. In connection with this it was s July, 1642.
also ordered by the Manor Court that the wood cut
on the day fixed should be carried away to the dwellings
of the tenants before any more was cut.
256 ^ THE FOREST OF ESSEK.
Such regulations are exactly what we might expect
to find in a district in which the ancient rights of common
were exercised, whether they were made by the ancient
commoners themselves, or, as in the case before us, by
the lord of the manor and his court. The circumstances
under which they were made are precisely those described
by De Laveleye, in his chapter on the Swiss Allmends.
De la Pro- " When " (he says) " the population was small, relatively
p. 280. to the territory of which it disposed, it was not necessary
to make rules. Each cut wood in the Forest according
to his need, and pastured on the Alps all the cattle which
he possessed. It is only later, when the number of
coparceners becomes too large for an unlimited use, that
the rules come in, and they are only made in order to
preserve the ancient customs. These rules become
more precise and severe, as the wants of the community
increase."
id.zoe. The prohibition in the Swiss communities against
the sale of the wood of the communal forests out of the
commune, also has its counterpart in the Loughton rule,
that the lopwood was for the use and consumption of the
Loughton inhabitants ; and although one inhabitant might cut for
1596!' ' another, and might receive payment for so doing, it was
E^dence of Well Understood that the loppings were not to be sold
j.'spiceA' out of the Forest. This was observed until almost all
li^tziSept. the Forest regulations fell into disuse.
1570 ; II Dec.
1596 ; 23 Mar.
legg^lnd ^' Another likeness may be found between the exercise
others. ^f ^j^g Loughton right, and that of other ancient common
rights in England. The custom of the people to turn
out in numbers and begin their lopping immediately
after midnight on the eve of All Saints' day, and the
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. z^-j
tradition that the continuance of the right depended
upon their doing so, could have no connection with a
manorial right of estovers; but it has a strong family
resemblance to the custom which prevailed after the
gathering in of the harvest on the Lammas lands, when De Laveieye,
the people — often inhabitant householders — came forth, p. 125.
in what Sir H. Maine calls a sort of legalized tumultuary com. 86.
assembly, and threw down the temporary fences of the inci." 1844 °'"'
meadows. ' ^^°'*'
The time for lopping in Loughton being in the
winter, there was no interference with the fence month,
upon the observance of which, when there was no custom
to the contrary, the Forest officers insisted as strictly in
wood-cutting as in other respects : the infliction of fines Exch. Xreas.
Ill— /-I r -I • 1 • i'i of Rect. PI.
by the Forest Court for loppmg and carrymg wood m the For. 17 Ed. 2,
fence month in the hundred of Ongar and in Loughton, inquisition,
being recorded so far back as the 14th century. 1365. '
But in the Hainault division of the Forest we find a
group of adjoining parishes, in which, according to the
claims of 1670 (the testimony of which is not affected by
any presentments on the Forest rolls), there was a cus-
tom of lopping in the very middle of the fence month.
These were the parishes of Barking, Dagenham, and
Stapleford Abbots, in which the owners of many mes-
suages with land, and of the manors of Wangey and
Markes, claimed fuel under the name of estovers, to be
taken only of trees in the walk of East and West Hain-
ault ; or, as some of the claims have it, in Hainault and
Chappie Hainault; yearly to be assigned by the ministers
of the Forest or the keepers of the walk at the Feasts of
F. s
258 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
the Nativity and of St. John the Baptist ; and in the claim
of Carew Hervey or Mildmay, lord of the manor of
Markes in Barking and Dagenham, it is said that such
estovers were commonly called " A Christmas block and
a Midsummer bough." An exactly parallel case is to
Cod. Dipi. be found in a grant by Ethelwulf of Wessex, in 839, of
Cart.sax.426. freewood, according to ancient custom and ordinance, to
be taken in summer "in the common wood, which we
Saxons call ' gemennisse.^ " It is certain that such a
right could not have originated in a Royal Forest after
the introduction of the fence month, and that this right
in Hainault must have arisen before the district became
subject to Forest law.
The rights of cutting wood on the wastes of the
manor of Wimbledon, in Surrey, were of the same nature
^y|°'j'^^'^^- as those in the Forest of Essex. According to a survey
Surrey, p. 519. made in 1 61 2, there were 500 acres of wood in the
manor; and the regulations concerning the rights of
lopping strongly resemble those made in Loughton.
See the pro- The couttty of Surrey, part of the Forest of Windsor
ceedmgs set , ,
out in Man- in the reign of Henry III., was disafforested in the reien
v/ood, ch. 20. °
of Edward III. ; but the lopping rights, notwithstanding
the loss of the protection afforded by the Forest laws,
appear to have subsisted for more than 250 years later,
and were at last destroyed by the felling of the trees.
Extracts from The common woods in Putney and Roehampton were
■Wimbledon '^
Court Rolls, cut down about 1601, and there are very few entries in
Ed. P. H.
Lawrence,' the rolls respecting the cutting of wood after the reien
P-390. ° ^
of James 1.
ifJoiXoh' ^^ Wimbledon the customary tenants holding a
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 259
virgate of land were said to be entitled to common "7, 123, 163,
107, 207.
rights, each having a certain quantity for every virgate —
which he occupied, though it seems that the free tenants 91, 107.
also claimed the right. As in Loughton, the cottager
was a special .object of attention. In the reign of James I.
he was forbidden under a penalty to carry his estovers ^d. p. rgr.
from the common otherwise than on his back. But in 1 649 Survey of
,,,-,.,. , Manor, 1649.
it was declared, that the right of every cottager who was
a copyholder, was to have once a year one cartload of
crop wood from off the pollards of the commons.
Inhabitants and under-tenants, also called "under- Exeracts,
sets" or " inmates," are mentioned in the same manner 95' Jbs- '' ^'
as in Loughton. The height at which the trees might ' ^^' '^' ^^'
be cut was fixed at five, and later at nine, feet. The id. pp. 47, 79,
wood was not to be carried out of the manor, or used for ^^' '°^'
trade purposes. The trunks of the trees might not be id. pp. 122,
cut, nor .the *' spraye " left on the common, contrary '^'''
to the rule in Waltham Forest, where the Forest officers temf. Edw. 6.
required that it should be left for the use of the deer ;
but the Wimbledon rule was made long after the removal Td. pp. gr, 99,
A • • • 1 r 1 • r '27> '4°' 2°''
of the deer. At various times in and after the reign of ■ —
, . ,,,. . Id. pp. i6r,
Edward VI. the cutting was suspended during certain 179, 186.
periods ; and persons were appointed at one time to cut
the wood for the commoners, and afterwards to give
them directions as to the places from which it was to be
taken : a regulation which would have prepared the way
for setting aside permanent fuel assignments, like those
in Epping Forest, which I am about to describe.
Besides the Loughton and Hainault customs already
mentioned, there were at the time of the disafiforestations,
s 2
26o THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
both of the Epping and Hainault divisions of the Forest,
many private rights of lopping in the wastes in certain
parishes. These were known as fuel assignments, and
later merely as " assignments." In Epping Forest they
existed in Waltham, Sewardstone, and Upshire, and they
were once attached to ancient messuages, and the lands
held with them. They doubtless represented ancient
rights of lopping, to satisfy which the wood within
certain districts had been assigned; the assignments
having at first been temporary, and afterwards per-
manent.
Evidence of the existence of the ancient rights, for
which these assignments were substituted, is to be found
^•For-Proc. in the claims made in 1630 by the men and customary
6 Car. I. tenants of the hamlet of Sewardstone, part of the manor
of Sewardstone ; and in 1 670 by the men and inhabitants,
both free and customary, in the same manor, and the
customary tenants of the hamlet of Upshire, parcel of
the manor of Waltham, of rights of estovers to be
assigned by the ministers of the Forest; the Seward-
stone claim of 1670 specifying, that the right, like that
which prevailed in Loughton, was to cut from the Feast
of All Saints to that of St. George ; and that the wood
was to be carried away on a sled, with two horses for
each turn only.
In the 19th century, we find these or similar rights
enjoyed in Waltham, Sewardstone, and Upshire, in the
isth Rep. of form of permanent assignments ; those in Sewardstone
1793, App.' being known to have been created by agreement between
No 12 •/ <j
the lord of the manor and the owners of ancient copyhold
tenements, in lieu of the right of the tenants to take fuel
from the waste woods of the manor.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 261
In Waltham Holy Cross, including Upshire, there
were 32, and in Sewardstone orig-inally 33, of such 15th Rep. of
, L, R, Com.
assignments ; each being marked and distinguished by 1793, No. 12.
one or more letters on the parish map. 1878,'sche'd.r.
The Hainault assignments were identified in the
same manner. There were 34 of them in Barking, and is* Rep. of
. L. R. Com.
39 m Dagenham, each containing 5 loads or 500 of 1793, No. 10,
fs-g'gots, cut only from the loppings of pollard trees ; of e. f. Arbitm.
which an immense number were cut down after the
disafforestation.
The assignments in this part of the Forest had not
at that period, like the assignments in Epping, become
absolutely permanent. So late as the year 1829, they Attachment
1 . T\ 1 . 1 /-111 1 Rolls, 28 Apr.
were made yearly in Barking, on or about Candlemas day, 1829.
by the delivery through the Steward of the Forest, of a
ticket bearing the distinguishing letter of the assignment.
At the time of the disafforestation, the practice was for
the Crown keepers, in the month of November, to mark e. f. Arbitn,
off the place of the assignment from which the fuel was
to be taken ; and when the faggots were set up, the
keeper checked the quantity before they were carried
away. Such an arrangement evidently tended towards
the adoption of permanent assignments. These were
said to have come into use in the Epping division to id.
save the expense of marking off the assignments every
year ; and it was doubtless under similar circumstances,
that the once temporary allotments In open fields and
Lammas lands became permanent.
The fuel assignments were not inclosed ; their ^d- chailes
° ' . Hatherill,
boundaries were roughly shown by marks cut or painted a. Ruddock.
on the trees, and sometimes by posts. The loppings
2 62 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
originally were not allowed to be sold ; and in a notice
issued by the Court of Attachments in 1787 it was said
that great damage was done to the Forest by the sale of
assignments to strangers, who cut wood under pretence
E. F. Arbitn. of the assignments contrary to ancient usage. But in
153 ; ' later times the assignments were dealt with by the owners
Salmon, 579. . , - -
at their pleasure. They were let for terms of years,
annexed to any property, or held, sold, and conveyed
H.j.Hatheiiu, Separately ; and though originally granted only for fuel
■ — ■ for particular houses, the produce was used for all pur-
saimon, poses, and was sold either in or out of the parish.
G. Banks. -n 1 r • • n 1
— But the manner of cuttmg was practically the same
Symondsou, . _ , ^ , . , . , . ,
Barrett, as lu Loughtou. It began at midnight on the nth
Hunt, ' November, and ended on the 23rd April. The branches
Hj.Hatheim. of the trecs, oak, elm, hornbeam, and beech, were to be
Syra^on, cut at the height of six or seven feet from the ground,
Taylor. all that grcw ' lower being Crown property as food and
Attach^nt cover for the deer ; the trunks of the pollards belonged
S°5j. '^•^™'' to the lord of the manor ;i and it was forbidden to head
ijthR^ of spear oaks and crabs, and to lop bushes ; the transgressor
^79^"no°'"io. against this rule being liable to have his assignment
Attacwnt Suspended for three years.
f6°3';''c^mb: ^^ Hainault the assignments were set out at Candle-
Ms. fo. 27. i^as (Feast of the Purification) ; the Christmas wood was
to be carried away before that day, and the livery wood,
free wood, and spray by the ist June, on pain of for-
feiture. Afterwards the general rule was to make the
assignments before the 29th January, and to cut and
^ They were sometimes taken by the owners of the assignments ;
but this was one of the results of the general anarchy which prevailed
in the Forest.
WOODS AND WOOD RIGHTS. 263
carry them away between the ist of February and the Notices by
5 th April. Attachments,
^ 18 June, 1787,
and by
rr-ii . . 1 Steward,
1 here was yet another kind of wood right m the circa 18 12.
form of so many cartloads, or other fixed quantity of
wood out of the Forest. Grants of such rights, attached SeeCod.Dipi.
to certain estates, were common in the Weald of Kent 292! cirt.
and other forest districts, and may be traced back as far
as the 9th century. So far as can be judged from the
claims, they were not very common in the Forest of
Essex. Claims were made in 1630 and 1670 by the 1630, No. 70.
•' 1670, No. 66.
owners of the manor or farm of Pyenest in Waltham (a
former owner of which was found in 1632 to have sold Xreas.ofRect.
■^ Misc. For.
little oaks and underwood to the value of 4012^.) of 10 i^oHs. b. 153,
. R0U37.
cartloads of wood and underwood for fuel, in Waltham
Great wood, by view and livery of the Ministers of the
Forest ; besides the ordinary right of pollarding. These
rights were probably represented by one of the assign-
ments already mentioned, which was held with Pyenest
Farm.
There was also a custom in Halnault Forest, that 14 ^ 'S Vict.
. , c. 43,
every poor widow in Barking and Dagenham within the e. f. Arbitn.
• • I'lTrii 111 Evidence of
Forest, not receiving parochial relief, and whose husband a. Saviu.
had been dead for one year, should have one load of
wood yearly on Easter Monday, from the King's Forest
or King's woods; or in lieu of it 8^. in money, to those
who could not procure a team to carry the wood on that
day.
I have found no document which throws light upon
the history of this custom ; but grants of logs and dead
264 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
trees to widows are recorded in the rolls of the Court of
Attachments in 1718, 17 19, and 1720. It may possibly
have been the remnant of a custom analogous to that
De Laveieye, which, it is Said, Still prevails in the canton of Glaris, in
De la Pro- . . .
priete, p. 288. Switzerland, by which the rights of deceased members of
the community are continued to their widows.
The rights of lopping in the Forest of Essex have
been thus minutely examined, because it is only by
studying them that we can understand their connection
with the right of common of pasture, which was, and still
is, exercised over the great waste of the Forest, and the
light which they throw upon its nature and origin.
The consideration of that right and of the right of
pannage, will form the subject of the next chapter.
( 265 )
CHAPTER VI.
The Pasture and Pannage Rights.
"Wee saye and p'sent, that time out of mind, all persons Inhabiting
" wthin the Forest of Waltham, which have right of Comoning bye theire
" lands messuages or tenements, have had comon of pasture upon the
" said Forrest and Wast Soyle with all Comonable Cattell,"'
I HIS presentment, made by the Regarders of the
Forest at the Swainmote of 1630, may be con-
sidered to have been the charter of the Forest com-
moners, until their rights were more exactly defined by
the decree pronounced by Sir George Jessel in 1874.
The existence of rights of pasture in woods in
England as early as the 8th century, is shown by the
record of a synod held at Clofeshoas,^ a.d. 825, at which cod. Dipi.
there was a discussion about a forest pasture at Sutton, CMtf s^.
in Worcestershire, where the swainreeve had driven the "' ^ '
pasture and the wood, which was alleged to be subject
to ancient right ; and reference was made to a decree
about the same matter in the time of Ethelbald, who
reigned in Mercia between 716 and 757.
' Regard Roll, 14th September, 1630, Chancery Forest Proceedings,
6 Car. I.
' Commonly supposed to be Abingdon. See Pearson's Historical
Maps of England, ed. 2, p. 39.
266 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
SeeCod.Dipi. In ancicnt charters, also, we read of pasture for
Nos. 86, 179, . .
198, 281, 420, sheep, for swine, and for all kinds of animals, in common
432, 1003, ■^ ,
1041. woods, marshes, and other places ; of plam and wood to
Cart. Sax. ,
160, 407, 496. be enjoyed in common pasture, and often of rights of
feeding for a fixed number of swine or cattle.
At the remote period to which these rights have
been traced back it is probable that almost all the culti-
vated lands in England, except parts of the lords'
demesne lands and of the assarted lands, were held by
Seebohm, Communities, which for some time before the Conquest
Engl. Village , .
Communities, appear to havc been already in a state of villenage under
a superior lord ; the lands held by the communities being
managed and cultivated under arrangements, which
Lawsofine already existed in England in the 7th century, and which
(Mercia), § 42. "^ , ° •'
are not yet extmct.
The lands were divided into open fields, of which
several — usually three — lay together, being only separated
by a strip or balk of turf. Each field was divided into
acre or half-acre strips ; every strip in the same field, was
cultivated at the same time and in the same manner, and
was fallow in the same year ; and on a certain day —
usually Lammas day — the temporary fences of dead*
wood, which were placed round the cultivated open fields,
were removed, often with shouting or other ceremony ;
and the cattle of the owners of the strips, and in some
places of the other inhabitants of the vill, were allowed
' The reader will observe the special force of the term "quick
hedge " in this connection as opposed to a fence made of dead wood ;
and the transfer of the word " quick " from the hedge to the plant of
Which it is formed. The right to cut wood for fences is often mentioned
in ancient records.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 267
to pasture upon the land in common, until the following
3eed time, or during the year of fallow.
There was also, as we have seen, common of wood
in wooded districts ; there were meadows, divided like
the arable lands into strips or lots, and which in the same
manner were open to the cattle of the commoners (who
in some cases were the owners of the common field strips,
and in others the inhabitants of the parish) between hay-
harvest and the time when they were shut up ^ for the
growth of the next crop ; and there was common of pas-
tui-e in the uncultivated wastes, some of which, under
the name of lawns, appear to have been specially used
for the pasture of sheep.
There were several such lawns ^ in Waltham Forest.
' We still speak of " shutting up " a field for hay ; but the old
meaning of fencing it round has become narrowed to the locking of
a gate.
* The word " lawne " was used to denote an open space in a wood.
In the romance of Ywain and Gawain, supposed by Warton to have History of
been written in the time of Edward VI, we have the lines — Poft^, vol. 3,
"A faire forest sone I found P- l°4-
« * • *
Oway I drogh me, and with that
I saw sone wliar a man sat,
On a lawnd, the fowlest wight
That ever yit man saw in syght."
The original meaning of the word is in danger of being lost in these
days of surburban villas and elaborate gardens, though in many parts
of the country it is still rightly used; as it was by Gray in the "Elegy,"
and by Milton in speaking of —
"Russet lawns and fallows gray
Where the nibbling flocks do stray."
Of that which is now best known as a lawn he says —
" And missing thee I walk unseen
On the dry smooth shaven green,"
268 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Claims of Each of the vills of Leyton and Loug-hton had one, and
Toby Wood . . -^ °
and of Tenants a right was claimed to depasture sheep upon the latter.
1630. ' There were also lawns in Stapleford Abbot and in Lam-
ma^™i67^^'^' bourn ; and one in the 17th century, called the New
LaA?me, near Chappie Hainault. The term "plain" was
used to a late period in Hainault Forest.
There were also in many, and probably in all, of the
Forest vills, open common fields and meadows. In the
grant by Edward the Confessor to the monastery of
Waltham, the district of Waltham and each separate
lordship, including Woodford and Loughton, was con-
veyed with all its appurtenances, '* fields, feedings,
meadows, woods, and waters" ; ^ a form of words which
may safely be assumed to refer to the agricultural
arrangements which I have described.
Among the lands in Waltham granted by Edward
VI. to Joanna Denny, and which formerly belonged to
the monastery of Waltham, were the Cobbfield con-
taining 280 acres ; Sheepcote field 244 acres; Northfield
1 1 2 acres ; Eastfield 200 acres ; and other smaller fields ;
with the Ton [town] meadow, Northmead, and other
open meads and fields. Of these Cobfield and the Town
mead, with Patty pool mead, the Runnings, Broken
marsh, and Chingford mead still remain. They are
divided, as is usual in such lands, into narrow strips, the
boundaries of which are marked by stones and posts;
' The words " campis, pascuis, pratis," and others used by the old
school of conveyancers, and often supposed to be the fruit of their
love of tautology, had a very respectable pedigree of upwards of 1,000
years ; and each word even down to modern times, had a separate and
distinct meaning.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 269
some of these strips are of freehold and others of copy-
hold tenure; and from the 12th August to the 6th April
in each year they are used as common pastures ; in the
case of the Town mead by all the ratepayers of the
parish, and in the case of the Cobfield and the other
meads by the owners of the strips of which they are
composed. The arable common fields called Honey Lane
Common, and Broomstick Hall Common, also in Waltham,
were inclosed in 1864.^
As to Waltham Marsh, a long account of the contest
about the right of pasture over it, between the people of
Waltham and Simon the Abbot, in the 13th century, is
given by Fuller; who tells us how in 1245, the men of chuchHU-
Waltham came into the marsh which the Abbot and Abbey, p. 9.
Convent formerly enjoyed as several to themselves, killed
four mares worth 405. sterling and drove away the rest ;
how in the next year on the Thursday before Easter they
went to the Abbot in the name of the whole village, and
demanded of him to remove his mares and colts out of
the marsh ; how the Abbot refused, adding withal that if
his bailiffs had placed his cattle otherwise than they
ought, they might do well to have it amended ; but
deferred the matter till the Tuesday after Easter ; how
the men and women of the town then came to the gate
of the Abbey to receive his answer, and were told that
he was going into Lincolnshire, and desired them to be
patient until his return ; how, neither respecting his
spiritual holiness nor the temporal greatness of the
' For information as to these common fields and meadows, I am
indebted to Mr. Hubert Gough, of Waltham Abbey, who has the
custody of the parish map upon which they are marked.
2-jo THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
King's brother Richard, Duke of Cornwall, who was
present, they railed at and reviled the Abbot, drove out
his mares and colts, drowned three of them worth 20s.,
spoiled ten more to the value of 10 marks, and beat the
keepers who resisted them, " even to the shedding of
bloud."
Then on the Abbot's return from his journey the
townsmen desired a "love day," submitted themselves,
and offered to pay him damage ; but the next day they
went with their wives and children to the King in
London, accusing the Abbot that he would disinherit
them of their right, bring up new customs, take away
their pastures, and eat them up to the bones.
The Abbot then excommunicated them ; whereupon
they impleaded him at law for appropriating their com-
mons ; but the Abbot, after much pleading, made his own
right, and the townsmen's not, to appear; who at last,
at the King's Bench, were glad to confess that they had
done evil, and were amerced 20 marks, which the Abbot
remitted, and assoiled them from excommunication.
Exch. Queen's In 1512, however, it was found by inquisition that
brancer, all the tenants and inhabitants within the manor of
Essex and ' Waltham had common of pasture in the Great Common
3&4H.'8. Marsh for their cows and geldings; and the marsh is
still used in common by the ratepayers of the parish
throughout the year, the marsh wardens being appointed
by the Court of the lord of the manor, who is the owner
of the soil.
Lyson'sEnv. Again, in Walthamstow' there were in the i8th
vol. 4, p. 204. century 350 acres of open field land, mostly pasture;
PASTURE RIGHTS. 271
and 246 acres of such land in the same parish, consisting
of Higham Hills Common Field, Mark House Common Parliamentary
Papers,
Field, and Church Common Field, were inclosed about vof 24, 1846,
the year 1846.
The existence of common fields and of a common claim of Lady
, _ EleanorRowe,
mead m Woodford is shown by a Forest claim in 1670, Court Baron,
7 May, 1683.
and by the Court Rolls of the manor in 1683 ; and there Grant to Rob.
,.,.._' Wrothe, li
were common meadows in the reign of James I. jas. i. cit. st.
In the 19th century there were inclosures under the jas.i,voi.202,
Inclosure Commissioners of 700 acres in Chigwell; 350 '^°*_l.
in Chingford; 534 in Epping; 360 in Leyton ; 166 in inciosuresin
Holyfield and Upshire, hamlets of Waltham ; 667 in i March,
Wanstead, and 396 in Woodford ; and as all the open patnkmentary
wastes in those parishes and hamlets were forest wastes 1848^1^0. 3^25^
subject to the Crown rights, and (with the exception of P' ^^'
the unlawful inclosures) still remained open at the time
of the recent litigation, the lands so dealt with by the
Inclosure Commissioners must have been common field
and meadow lands.
There were also large common fields and meadows
in Nazing and Roydon, which were inclosed in 1854
and 1855, and of the rights over which we have full
particulars. So much of them as lay in Nazing and
the hamlet of Roydon were within the Forest ; but other
parts in the parish proper of Roydon were beyond it. The
arable field called Stoneshot Common Field, and the
meadow land called Nazing Mead, lay partly in one and
partly in the other of the two parishes, and were not part
of the waste of any manor. Stoneshot Field, containing Driver's Rep.
more than 130 acres, with several other smaller common and °^' ' ^'^'
272 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
WethereU's fields in Roydon, were in the harvest years stocked with
Corami°- "^ ' cattle by the occupiers of the parishes from the gathering
isjme, 1855. in of the harvest till seed-sowing (6th November to
13th February), and also during the whole of the fallow
year. In Nazing Mead, which contained more than
260 acres, the part owners mowed their strips of land,
holding them in severalty from 14th February (Old
Candlemas) to 13th August (Old Lammas); from which
time the same commoners who stocked Stoneshot Field,
also stocked the mead with cows till 12th November
(Old All Saints) ; being the same day upon which the
wood-cutting began in Loughton on the Waltham assign-
ments, and in other Forest vills; and then with sheep till
14th February.
Another tract of land called Nazing Marsh was sub-
ject to 669 cowleazes, i.e., rights of cow pasture (A. S.
"Iseswe"^), some of them belonging to the persons who
stocked the other commons. These cowleazes gave
rights of pasture from the 13th May (Old St. Philip) to
6th July (Old Midsummer Day, the "Nativity"); after
which the same commoners who stocked the field and the
mead (except the tenants of the three manor farms) turned
in their cattle till nth or 13th January (the old day of
the Circumcision). From that time the owners had ex-
clusive possession until May. The Forest Reeve had no
jurisdiction over any of these lands, and they were not
affected by the fence month. In the two parishes there
were also various pieces of uncultivated pasture upon
Cod. Dipl. ' Hence leasowe among the general words in old conveyances.
No. 86. Grants of feed for a fixed number of cattle were in use among the
Anglo-Saxons as far back as the 8th century.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 273
which the same commoners and the copyhold tenants of
the manors had ordinary rights of common for cattle
levant and couchant,* except during the fence month, or R. c. Driver's
(as in the case of Broadley Common) a stinted right of June, 1855.
pasture. These pieces were no doubt originally con-
tinuous with the great Forest wastes, but had become
separated by inclosures ; for Nazing parish and Roydon
hamlet were within the bounds of the Forest as settled
in 1641 ; and the fact that each of them had its Forest 5«2>ra, p. 179.
Reeve and Fourmen, and a Forest cattle mark, shows Roik, ™™
conclusively, that these like the other Forest vills, had I9 Aug.'irgg.
pasture rights over the great Forest waste.
These two parishes, therefore, had their own agri-
cultural system : the large arable field and some smaller
fields for corn ; the great mead for hay ; both for common
after harvest and during winter : for summer pasture the
669 cowleazes on the marsh (this number having been
probably fixed at some time when it was found necessary
or desirable to prevent any further increase of the com-
moners) ; and in addition, the right of pasture upon the
uncultivated Forest waste.
Nazing Wood was originally inclosed in 1229 by the Piac. For.
Abbot and Canons of Waltham Abbey Cross under a charter of '
licence granted by Henry III., with a little ditch and a Waitham.
low hedge, so that the wild beasts might go in and out ;
' The meaning of this phrase is, that the right of the commoner
■was.limited to such cattle as were rising up and lying down upon the
land which gave him the right of common. According to legal inter-
pretation, it denotes the number of cattle which that land would
■maintain during the winter months.
F. T
274 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
and when, in 1285, Edward I. allowed them to make it
into a park with a deep ditch and a high hedge, it was
Ch. inq. post ascertained by an inquisition that it was then subject only
13 Ed. I. to the rights of common of Sir Robert Fitzwalter, the
lessee of the Abbot, and of the tenants of Nazing who
were his villeins, and who no doubt were the representa-
tives of the ancient community.
We have, therefore, all the circumstances necessary
to account for the origin in the Forest of Essex, inde-
pendently of the Forest laws, of the general right of
common over the wastes.
We find one belt of vills, bordering upon and sur-
rounding the great waste of the Epping division of the
Forest; each vill using its own common woods, and turn-
ing its cattle upon its own open fields and meadows after
harvest : and another belt of vills similarly placed as to
the Hainault waste ; and, if we may believe the evidence
of the claims, lopping in the Forests during the forbidden
month. The people of these vills must have used the
wastes which adjoined their lands for pasturing their
cattle during the summer ; and even if the share of each
vill in these wastes had been fixed, which is very un-
likely, it is certain that the boundaries would not be
fenced.
Each vill would naturally appoint a Reeve to look
after the cattle of its own people ; and the result, with the
slight modifications caused by the introduction of the
Forest laws which will presently be described, would be
precisely the state of things which, under the protection
of those laws, continued to our own time.
JfeUcsviell
The aacient. Vills and
Hio wastes roniaiiiing iii
1774.
SbtO/hid
Ic Bow
m
Tn face page Zl'l:
Anc-ieTit' Vills and Remiiiiis i>r
llJTcnf coinmoii Pdsfurcin
A'riitti ('<u\''':Ada-s,
1807.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 275
It is observed by Nasse, and the writers whom he Nasse, Agi.
•' ' Community
Cites, that Kemble was unable to prove the former exist- of Mid. Ages,
ence in Eng-land of the ancient Teutonic association seeicembie's
° A.-S. ch. 2.
called The Mark : and that there is but one English
document, and that of doubtful authenticity, which ex- Cod. cipi.
pressly states that several villae and villatae had a share p. 179° voi. 3,
in the common pasture. This document refers to the CMt° Sax.
^^ ymene morlese" {Anglicl common moor pasture) of the °" ^"
vill of Ewelme, in a meadow with the three other vills of
Somerforde, Pole, and Kemele.
There is, however, the case of the pasture in the
hundred of Colneis, in Suffolk, which was common to all
the men of the hundred.* This pasture must have formed
the central part of the hundred. A belt of vills of Anglo-
Saxon date, all mentioned in Domesday, lie around the
sides of it, which are bounded by the river and the sea,
and surround the centre, just as the Waltham vills sur-
round the Forest pasture. Whether and to what extent
the communities which shared these common pastures in
Suffolk and Essex were under a common government we
have now no means of knowing ; for such jurisdictions See De
have long since been merged in the manorial courts, and ^Tiil^'
even in the parish vestries, as the nomination of the
Forest Reeves by the latter, may serve to remind us. But
it is worth while to call attention to the fact, that the use
in the district of the word "mark" is not confined to
' "In hundret de Colenes est quedam pastura comunis omnibus Domesd. Suff.
hominibus de Hundret." fo- 339^.
" Men " was equivalent to tenants. " Pro se . . . et hominibus, Hund° Rolls
sive tenentibus suis," &c. vol. 2, p. 197.
Cod. Dipl.
T 2 No. 420.
276 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
boundaries ; it also occurs in the name of the manor of
Markes, in Hainault, which lies partly in and partly be-
yond the Forest ; and the Markhouse Common field was
the name of an open field in Walthamstow. Parts of
Cod. Dipi. the boundaries of Upminster and of Lambhythe, in the
Confessor's grant to Waltham, and of the Royal Forest
in Hainault, were Markdykes ; and these last were
perhaps only used in the simple sense of boundary marks.
But something beyond a physical boundary is suggested
by the description in two places of the limits of the estate,
as running along the mark — andlang mearce.
I have not met with any records which mention the
right of pasture in the Forest of Essex, either during the
Anglo-Saxon period or for many years after the Con-
quest. But evidence of its existence may be found in
the numerous gates or hatches, traces of which have been
preserved in records and old maps, and sometimes in the
names of places. These were particularly numerous in
and around the ancient Forest district. They were used
to prevent the cattle which pastured on the Forest wastes
from straying on to the roads. Of those mentioned in
the note^ the nine which are printed in italics were
' Becontree hundred. Waltham hundred.
Abney hatch. ' Chingford hatch.
Albright hatch. Epping hatch.
Alderman's hatch. Freeman's hatch.
Kin^s hatch. Ongar hundred.
Fulwell hatch. ^ffa's hatch.
Mark hatch. Kelvedon hatch.
Potter's hatch. Newport hatch.
Suflfeilde hatch. Old hatch.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 277
boundary marks of the lands given by Edward the Con- Cod. Dipi.
fessor to the monastery of Waltham in 1062 ; and may
be taken to show the existence at that time of a right of
pasture over the wastes, protected by regulations made
either by the authority of the communities which owned
the cattle, or by the officers of the Forest, if it was then
established as a Royal Forest.*
The laws attributed to Canute, state that oxen, §xxvii.
cows, and the like were within the Forest, and under the
care of its officers, though they did not belong to it ; a
phrase which exactly describes the position of the com-
moners' cattle through the succeeding centuries.
These laws do not mention the fence month, which
was probably introduced into the English Forests during
the Norman period, and which materially affected the
rights of the Forest commoners. Its object was to
preserve the deer from disturbance in fawning time, but
originally it does not appear to have compelled the exclu-
sion from the Forest of the ordinary commonable cattle.
Ongar hundred — conid. Chelmsford hundred.
Stanway hatch. Oldwood hatch.
Ward hatch. Barstaple hundred.
West hatch. Fox hatch.
ChafTord hundred. Lexden hundred.
Pilgrim's hatch. Kingswood hatch (Colchester).
How hatch. Uncertain.
^Isige's hatch.
' Orders for the repair of some of the Forest gates were made by
the Court of Attachments in 1717, 1750, and 1751. Complaints of
their bad state of repair were made to the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests in 1839 ; and it was proved before the Epping Forest
Commissioners that they had been allowed to decay, and were gone.
2 7 8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
wiiiins'Leg. The law of Richard I. provided that no cart should
Coy ?CI-2
leave the highway in the King's Forest; and that there
should be no swine there in the time of fawning (Foinesun,
¥r./ao7i), i.e. during fifteen days before and fifteen days
after the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (Old Mid-
summer day). It was at the beginning of the first of
these fifteen days that the third Swainmote was ordered
§ 8. by the Charter of the Forest to be held, " pro feonatione
bestiarum nostrarum."
Skene's The prohibition in Sir John Skene's Code includes
MafesStem, both men and cattle, and contains some curious regu-
cap"^.". ^^^' lations : "It is defended and forbidden that anie man
Ang?-Noim! ' dweland within the wood, or anie other sail enter within
vol. 2, p. 563. ^j^g close or hanite parts of the Wood, with their beasts
or cattell ; except they have licence fra the Forester,^
be fifteen days before the feast of Saint John the Baptist,
and be fifteen days after the said feast, under the paine
and vnlaw of aucht kye (cows). And after that time is
by past, the aucht kye sail nocht be payed : except the
beasts be found be the keiper of the Forest with ane
present keiper, haueand fire, ane home, or ane hound.
Or gif they be found in the Forest in time of nicht lyand,
haueand ane home, or ane hound, quhilk is called
Warset : in that case lauchfall witnes being brocht, aucht
kye sal be payed." The meaning seems to be, that a
keeper or shepherd with any of these things, might be
' Houard in his translation has mistaken the sense. He makes it
appear that permission to enter the Forests could be given only during
Diet, de la the fence month — " permission qui ne peut etre accordee que pour
Coutume de un mois," &c. — whereas it was only during that time that permission
Forets! ' was necessary.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 279
supposed, because he had fire, to be camping out in the
Forest ; to be making a noise with his horn to summon
his cattle, by which the deer would be scared; or to
intend to chase the deer. In the same manner it was
forbidden by the English Forest law to any person
to follow the cattle while depasturing on the waste,
which was called " Staff herding ; " because it prevented sirw. jones'
the deer from feeding with the cattle, which were driven
into the best grounds, so that the deer only got their
leavings. There was a complaint of it in Waltham
Forest in 1344, against one Nicholas Hyndman, of i8Ed. s.Pre-
Barking ; who (say the jurors) depastures his beasts by inquisition.
night in Munchenfricht within the covert of the Forest,
and is accustomed at day break and also at other times
by shouting, to drive his same beasts ; chasing away the
wild animals of the lord the King by his clamour out
of the Forest.
The consequence of this regulation of course was,
that the beasts strayed to all parts of the Forest, and
the general practice of feeding over all the wastes was a
necessary result. But the Forest gates, of which such
early evidence is extant, prevented the cattle from
straying into the lanes and roads ; and as each beast
bore the mark of its own parish, the Reeves could and
did inform one another of the presence in their parishes,
of cattle which had strayed from a distance, so that the
owners had little difficulty in finding them.
The fence month is generally called the " forbidden excH. Xreas.
month" in the records of the Forest of Essex, in the For. 20 Ed." i;
13th and 14th centuries. Master John de Lucca, Canon
28o THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
of St. Paul's, London, amongst other persons, was pre-
sented in 1292 for entering the Forest in that month, and
cutting wood and furze ; and Master John was fined 205,
for his trespass.
In and after the 17 th century the notices of the fence
month are very common, though the commoners do not
Ch. For.Proc. appear to have always submitted quietly to it ; for it was
Inquiries, found in 1630 that " the Forresters have given warning
att the churches for the Comoners to forbeare to disturbe
the deare w*'' there dogges and hogges in the fence
month; and that the Comoners have then continued there
cattell, both in the playnes and coverte of the Forest as
at other tymes."
During the continuance of the fence month the right
of common of pasture in the Forests was entirely sus-
pended;^ the commoners' cattle were driven from the
wastes, and no strangers were allowed to enter the Forest
without the licence of the Forest ministers.^
The Norman kings, by means of their Forest regu-
lations, and apart from any title to the soil, had in fact
assumed an almost absolute control over the afforested
districts. The vert, as a general rule, might not be
touched ; the deer were the deer, and the pasture was
called the pasture, of " the lord the King." The cattle
of the commoners were driven off during the fence
^ The decree of Sir George Jessel in The Commissioners of Sewers v.
Glasse, provides for the fence month, by declaring that the right of the
commoners was exerciseable according to the assize and customs of
the Forest.
' In the New Forest there is also a time of suspension, from 22nd
November to 4th May, called the " winter heyning."
PASTURE RIGHTS. 281
month ; and at other times were branded with a mark, of
which a Crown formed part, by Reeves, who were sworn
in at the Forest Courts, and became Forest officers. It
is not surprising that under such circumstances the
nature of the ancient rights of pasture on the Forest
wastes should be forgotten, and that the commoners'
rights should be treated by the Forest officers as alto-
gether subordinate to those of the Crown. It was even Rep. of New
asserted by modern Crown lawyers, that the King had waiti^For.
absolute power over them, by virtue of his right to keep opiS'on'of
upon the Forest as many deer as would consume the fid'sif v"^"^
whole pasture. But the law, as stated by Manwood, was '^^^ '^''^'^
only that the commoners might put on such a number of ^^- ^4-
beasts that the wild beasts might have sufficient feed ;
and that upon complaint by the Forest officers of a sur-
charge, an inquiry should be made ; and so many beasts
should be apportioned to each commoner as he might
reasonably keep, after due provision had been made for
the deer.
Nor has any record been found of an attempt by the
Crown officers to interfere with the cattle depasturing
in Waltham Forest, except in cases of surcharge by
strangers or by uncommonable cattle. James I., who
stringently enforced the Forest laws, warned persons not Proclamation,
entitled to rights of common, i. e. inmates, servants, and camb.MS. '
strangers inhabiting out of the bounds of the Forest, to Directions for
take their cattle out of the wastes ; and those who had thamForest,'
rights of common to forbear to surcharge the wastes. " ' "
And when, in 1 6 1 5, he found it necessary to take measures
for preventing the entire loss of the deer by reason of the
great frost and snow of the previous winter, he did not
282 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Proclamation, attempt to interfere with the cattle of the commoners,
i6 Sept. 1615. ^ '
but only directed that there should be no surcharge or
wronging of the grounds, and (perhaps referring only to
the King's woods) suspended the pannage for swine.
The pasture commoners did not, like the wood com-
moners, merely exercise their rights on sufferance, but
were protected in doing so by the Forest laws; which made
Charge of c. J. it part of the duty of the Regarders, and of the Grand
inWalthara ^ ... r 1 •
Forest, 1634, Jury, to mquire whether any Forest officer for his own
§ 84. Camb. ,
MS. fo. 24, gam had suffered those who were not commoners to put
their cattle into the Forest ; had taken gifts or rewards
to suffer strange cattle to take their common there ; or
had permitted men to surcharge the commons to the
prejudice of the deer or the injury of the commoners.
And while all other claims to exercise rights in a Royal
. Forest must have been made and allowed at the Justice
Rep^9i°°^^' Seat, it was admitted that no such allowance was neces-
sary by the Forest law for the right of common of pasture;
although the exception was said to arise from the circum-
stance that it was a matter of common right, because the
deer fed on the commoners' lands.
It appears, in fact, to have been the policy of the
Crown to interfere as little as possible with the ancient
customs of the districts which were subject to the Forest
laws. The presence of the cattle, unaccompanied by
herdsmen, tended to the quiet of the deer; and as there
were many Royal Forests scattered over England, in
most of which there were probably ancient customary
rights, any serious interference would have greatly in-
creased the complaints against the Forest laws, and the
difficulty of enforcing them.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 283
Another regulation in Sir John Skene's Code pro- Skene's
vided that if any man dwellinsr near a Forest had been Majestatem,
•' ° Forest Laws,
accustomed to allow his cattle to enter the Forest, he cap. 2.
Houard, Gout.
should for each of three times pay the Forester \d. On AngL-Norm.
proof of the fourth offence the fine was eight cows. And
if the Forester were alone when the beast was found, it
was his duty to make a cross upon the earth, or upon
a tree, and to blow his horn* thrice. And afterwards
he was to drive the beasts to the King's castle, and so
the eight cows should be paid.
This corresponds with the regulation which became
part of the English Forest law, that only those whose
lands lay within the Royal Forests, and could be fed
upon by the deer, were entitled to use the Forest pasture.
The charter of the Forest had saved the rights of certain
commoners ; whether of those whose lands were dis-
afforested, or of those who had common in Crown de-
mesnes, is not clear. But an ordinance of 1305 declared Ord.For.
that " In right of them whose lands and tenements are dis- st. 5. '
afforested by the perambulation, and who demand to have
common within the bounds of the Forest, the intention
' Houard's equivalent for the horn is " manelum," a little horn made
of wood, used by shepherds to assemble their flocks, and giving a
strong and harsh sound.
This is another instance of the ancient use of the horn in enabling
a person placed in a doubtful position to justify himself. The laws
of Wihtred, King of the Kentish mea in the 7th or 8th century, also
provide, § 28, that " If a man from afar, or a stranger, goes off the
road, and neither shouts nor blows a horn, he shall be reputed a thief,
to be slain or put to ransom." See also the laws of King Edgar
concerning the holding of the hundred : " § 8. An ox's bell, a dog's
collar, and a blast horn ; these three be each worth a shilling, and
each is held to be an informer."
284 ^-^-^ FOREST OF FSSEX.
and will of our lord the King is, that since by the per-
ambulation they claim to be quit of the pasture of the
Forests, and that the beasts of the King cannot have
their haunt or repair on the disafforested lands, as they
had when the same lands were within the Forests, that
such people ought not to have common nor easement
within the bounds of the woods, nor of the lands which
remain in the Forest."
" But if any of them which are disafforested by the
purlieu wish to be rather within the Forest as they were
before, than to be out of it as they are now, it pleaseth
well the King that they shall be received into it ; that
they may remain in their ancient estate, and have com-
mon and other easement as they had before."^
Considering the bitter complaints against the Forest
laws by which the owners of the disafforested lands had
procured their discharge from the Forests, the King's
proposal to receive them back if they desired to enjoy
their old rights of pasture, reads more like a grim piece
of irony than an offer made in good faith.
A.-G.v.Hyde, The right of pasture was therefore made dependent
Giiiingham upon a Corresponding liability to the burden of the
Manwood, Forest laws.
In the Forest of Essex, this rule was in full force, as
appears not only from various entries, but from the fact
that when the Forest boundary divided a parish, only
16 Car. r, ' In the Act passed in 16 Car. i, for settling the bounds of the
c. 16, s. 9. Forests, it was provided that the owners and occupiers of lands left
out of the Forests, should enjoy the same rights of common within the
Forests which they had formerly enjoyed, notwithstanding the ordinance
made in 1305.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 285
that part of the parish which was within the boundary-
had Forest pasture. It was so in Roydon, the hamlet of
which only and not the rest of the parish, had a Reeve
and pasture ; and it was only those lands in Theydon
Boys situate within the Forest, which were entitled to the
right of common.
Presentments were often made of breaches of this
rule. In 1374, William Ermytte, of Lattone (Leyton), Treas.of
who held no lands or tenements within the Forest, sur- For. koUs,'
charged the common of the Forest to the banishment of 46— 48 Ed. 3.
the wild animals of the lord the King with five draught
horses and colts, price i^s. ^d., and ten heifers, price 20s.,
against the assize of the Forest.
And in 1594, it was presented at the Swainmote, Bodleian Lib.
that John . Raymund and seven others, all of Rumford,
" being menn dwellinge in the purlieus, havinge noe
interest of Comon w*in the fforest, had thare Cattle
gooinge w^'^in her highnesse wast of henholt w*''in the
sayd fforest in the xxxv* yeare of Her Ma*'^' raygne."
The directions for ordering Waltham Forest issued Camb. m.s.
by James I., which declare that no inhabitant in the
purlieus may common in the Forest (except for lands he
holdeth within the Forest), any usage or prescription to
the contrary notwithstanding; and the presentment in ch.For.Proc.
1630, of a number of persons being all " purly men" ecar. i".
within the liberty of Havering for the like offence, by the
Reeves and fourmen of Barking and Dagenham, prove
the continued observance of the rule. The liberty of
Havering appears at this date to have been considered
in the same position as to rights of common, as the
districts which were strictly purlieu. But the vill of
286 THE FOREST OF ESSEX,
Navestock, which was partly in and partly out of the
Registnimde Forest in 1 30 1, is recorded in 1222 to have paid to the
Visit Maner . i/-. r tt • r
s. Pauii, King at the Court of Havering, from ancient times, ibd.
Lond. Nastok. - . ^ . , . , ,
for common of pasture, Havering being ancient demesne
of the Crown and then part of the Forest. Traces of this
practice are found so late as the i8th century. In 1739,
Court of the Reeve of Navestock was ordered to mark several
Attachments, . , . , ,.,
14 July, 1739; beasts for two farms withm the liberty, but only for the
year ; and application was ordered to be made every
year to the Verderers for renewal of the permission.
Court of And in 1770, when the people of the liberty were pre-
Attachments, ' ' r f J f
8 June, 1770. sented by the Reeve of Barking for having agisted their
cattle in the Forest of Heynault without having a right
thereto, because the same were not marked, the Reeves-
men of Dagenham answered, that it had been a custom
for sixty years, for the people holding lands within the
liberty of Havering and without the Forest, to be per-
mitted to agist their cattle on the Forest on payment of
6d. per head.
The same practice of payment for the right of
pasture in the New Forest, occurs in some of the parishes
adjoining, which were probably included in its ancient
purlieus.
Many entries recognize the right of holders of
land in the Forest to depasture a number of beasts
in proportion to their holdings ; the usual presentment
being, that some persons had surcharged the pasture,
or the common of the Forest, or of the lord the King,
to the banishment of the wild animals, or whereby they
could not be sufficiently depastured, with so many
beasts, of such a price, against the assize of the Forest ;
PASTURE RIGHTS, 287
it being sometimes added that the offender had no
common or had surcharged beyond his tenure. An
early instance of such a presentment is that against the 3s.ega.rd of
Abbess of Caen in 1369, for surcharging the wood of iiq-atHat-
Blackholley, part of her own possessions. 43 Ed. 3.' •
The lords of the manors generally acquiesced in the
Forest right of common. But about the middle of the
1 6th century, an attempt to dispute it seems to have
been made by Lord Chancellor Rich in his manor of
Wanstead. On the 29th December, 1550, the jury at
the Manor Court presented, that John Wyberd and others
overburthen the common with so many cattle to the
grievous injury of all the tenants thereof within the
manors aforesaid, and they are none of them tenants thereof.
An inquiry was directed by what right they claimed
common of pasture there, and it was presented that
the inhabitants of Plaistow, Upton, and Stratford, had
common there without right or title. The first and
second of these places were beyond the legal Forest; .
but it will be remembered that by the presentment of the Su^ra, p. 35.
Forest Court in 1323, the Thames was declared to be
the southern bouhdary of the Forest, and the true limits
were in dispute until the year 1641.
In 1563, like presentments were made as to persons
belonging to Upton, Little Ilford, Ilford, West Ham,
and East Ham; and again in 1574, it was presented
that all the tenants and inhabitants of the manor from
time immemorial, had and ought to have common of
pasture upon the green or vert called Wanstead Heath,
for all cattle, goats only excepted ; which was contrary
288 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
to the rule that sheep were not commonable within the
Forest.
But in 1630, the Regarders of Waltham Forest made
the presentment placed at the head of this chapter, and
ch For.Proc. which, with manv othcrs, was confirmed at the Swainmote
Waltham For. ■'
6 Car I, held at Stratford Langthorne, on the 14th September
'43- in the same year ; and was repeated at the Swainmote
Id. 10 Car. I, •' ^
140. of 15th September, 1634. In accordance with it, were
the numerous claims made at different times by the
Exch. Treas. owncrs of Forcst manors and lands. Such claims were
of Rect. Plac.
For. 17 Ed. 2, made at the Justice Seat m 1323, by Edmund Earl of
Arundell, Lord of Wolfhamston, and John le Palmer,
monk, and guardian of the chapel of the lord the King
of Berewe.
The first relates to Hainault and the other to
Writtel. Another entry ten years later, shows, like the
Writtel claim, that the detached as well as the main
parts of the Forest were subject to the Forest right of
Presentments pasture. On this occasion it was presented that William
on Inquisition, 11, 11 10 iir it-.
7 Ed. 3. de Impshall, and others, on the baturday before the Feast
of St. Michael in 7 Edw. III. came into the covert of
Kyngeswoode (Colchester), with bows and barbed
arrows, and then, against the assize of the Forest, made
a certain drift of the catell of John Attewode and other
tenants of Ordelye [Ardleigh], and La Milende, who
claim common of pasture within the Forest aforesaid ;
and which cattle the aforesaid William and others chased
to the Castle of Colchester through the middle of the
covert of Hyneholt, to the detriment of the Forest afore-
said and the injury of the wild animals of the lord the
King.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 289
In the Epping division, in 1630, not only the
successor of the lord of the manor of Wanstead, who
disputed the general Forest right in the previous century,
but also twenty-three other lords of manors and sub-
manors; and in 1670, twenty-two lords, besides on each
occasion a great number of commoners, claimed the
right of common of pasture through all the wastes of the
Forest ; and the claims in Hainault are almost all to the
same effect. Only the lords of a few manors and sub-
manors in each division, viz., Loughton, Pyenest, Wan-
gey, Wolfhamston, and Markes, with several commoners
in Epping and a larger number in Hainault, claimed a
right of pasture in their own manors or parishes, and by
reason of vicinage^ in the other wastes of the Forest.
The variety in the form of these claims shows an
uncertainty as to the real nature of the right. Some are
on behalf of the men and tenants, and some of the free
tenants and copyholders of manors ; others on behalf of
' Common by reason of vicinage is the right of the tenants of two
vills or manors, the wastes of which adjoin, to allow their cattle,
turned out on their own waste, to wander and feed upon that which
adjoins it. It is considered to be an excusable trespass, which the
lord of either manor may stop by fencing off his own waste from the
other. It was held by Sir George Jessel in The Epping Forest Case, l.R. 19 Eq.
that the right was confined to the tenants of two adjoining vills or i^°-
manors, and could not therefore account for the general intercom-
moning which existed in Waltham Forest. And it may be added,
that inasmuch as the putting up of fences in the Forest without licence
was illegal, the power of each lord by this means to stop the inter-
commoning, which is one of the principal incidents of the right of
vicinage, was wanting. The right no doubt originally arose from the
intercommoning of several communities upon the same waste, which
has been already described ; and was not then affected by the artificial
rules which afterwards governed it.
• F. U
290 THE FOJREST OF ESSEX.
tenants, freehold, copyhold or customary ; or of the men?
free and customary tenants, and inhabitants of vills,
towns, and parishes, or the men and inhabitants of
ancient messuages in parishes. There are also many
separate claims by the owners of ancient messuages and
lands, or which expressly exclude the owners of new
But see Direc- cottages and buildings ; an exception, however, which
Ordering was possibly inserted with reference to the right of cut-
Waltham . . .
Forest, temp, ting wood, commonlv included in the same claim.
Jas. I, Camb. ° -^
MS. After 1630, there seems to have been no active
opposition to the right of Forest pasture, though an
occasional entry on the manor rolls, such as a complaint
in 1653 against a Stratford man for keeping his cattle on
the waste of Ruckholt manor, was perhaps made by way
Commrs.of of protest. The right was finally established in 1874,
Sewers v.
Giasse, L. R. m the great suit mstituted for that purpose by the Com-
missioners of Sewers on behalf of the Corporation of
London.
It will be observed that the presentment of the
Regarders, in 1630, only asserted a right for all common-
able cattle ; but did not state what kinds of cattle were
commonable. The omission was doubtless intentional,
because at this very time the question whether sheep
were commonable in the Forest was pending in the Court
of Exchequer. Otherwise it was well understood that
the commonable cattle were " horse beasts, and neat
beasts," the latter consisting of oxen, cows, heifers, and
calves.
There is no mention of sheep in the Forest laws of
Canute ; but the provision that the cutting of the knees
PASTURE RIGHTS. 291
of sheep dogs was unnecessary, is some evidence that Const.de For.
sheep were then permitted in the Forests ; and a charter cod. Dipi.
by Canute, contains a grant of a right to feed a flock of ^^ '
sheep in the woods.
At the date of the Domesday survey there were
1,452 sheep in the parishes of the Forest of Essex, for
which Reeves were appointed from the end of the 15th
century to modern times, and which appear to have ^"P- p- 177.
always been part of the Royal Forest.
Of these sheep, 252, being the largest number in Domesday,
any of the Forest vills, belonged to West Ham, then held
by William or Ralph Peverell and Robert Gernon, whose
descendant, William de Montfichet, founded the Abbey Morant, 1. 13.
of St. Mary, Stratford, in 1145.
The monks largely increased the flock, and ob-
tained a grant from Richard I., which was confirmed by Exch. Treas.
Edward II., of a right to depasture 800 sheep by the pieasT "
greater hundred (120) on the pasturage in the under- ^^
wood, extending in length between the Frith, which was
of the fee of Richard of Mountfichet, and Welcomestow
(Walthamstow); and this right was claimed by the monks
of St. Mary in 1323 and 1489, and by their successors, Exch. Treas.
. of Rect. PI.
the owners of the manor of Woodgrange, viz. Dame J oyce For. 17 Ed. 2.
Carewe and others in 1630, and Sir Harry Cambell in MiscRec
4H.7.
1670.
Henry de Hodeing, another landowner in Wanstead
and Ham in the reign of Henry III., had also feed for Morant, 1.29.
200 sheep in the Forest.
I think it may be inferred from these facts, that at or
before the time of Richard I, the Crown, probably in
V 2
292 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
conformity with the Norman Forest laws,^ had forbidden
the pasturing of sheep in the Forest without licence.
Information, Except a grant by Queen Elizabeth to Sir George
Fuller. Hervy and his heirs, of a right to common with sheep
Exch. Bills ^ ' ^ . , ^^^ ^^ . f
and Answers, upon the wastes of ChappcU Hamault and West Hamault
Car. i'. No. 31. walks, and which is said to have been repurchased by
James I. for 600/., I have found no notice of any other
licences to feed sheep upon the Forest wastes.
But they were sometimes fed there without licence.
Exch.Treas.of In I2Q2 it is recorded that Roger le Gaunt, of Wantham,
Rect. PI. For. . , , . , 1111 1 , 1
20 Ed. I. a professed monk in the abbey, had surcharged the pas-
ture of the King in his Forest, with his sheep, during
half a year. Therefore he was in mercy one mark,
whereof the Abbot was to answer by the pledge of Vin-
Presentments cent the portcr. And in 1333, Adam, the smith of
on Inquisition, - ,- ,
7 Ed. 3. Chigwell, surcharged the pasture of the wild animals of
the lord the King in the wood of Hyneholt with 220
sheep, to the injury of the wild animals aforesaid. In
other complaints of overloading the commons, sheep are
mentioned with other animals ; but It Is not clear whether
the objection was to kind or number. In 1489 one
Duch.ofLanc. Aldertou, a citizen of London, is said to have surcharged
piac.For. " the common of pasture of the King in the Forest with
Waltham, , 777-, ^ • ■. . 1
3 H, 7. sheep beyond ms ienure contrary to the assize, which
seems to imply a right to a limited number of sheep ;
but other presentments state that it is against the assize
of the Forest. A few more presentments against sheep
Skene's Reg. ' " Anent schiep found in the Forest before witnes quhither there
Laws, cap. iv. ^^ ^"^ keiper or nocht, the forester may take ana scheip to his awne
Houard, Cout. vse of the flock." Of sheep of the King's husbandmen or bondsmen
2 "i^)?' °""' '■^^ forester was to have one penny.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 293
were made between this time and the end of the century.
Then, in consequence of the loss of the proceedings of
the Forest Courts, we have no more information about
sheep in the Forest until the 17th century.
During the interval, the breeding of sheep in the
country had greatly increased ; and the putting of lands
to pasture in order to feed them, was considered to be a
principal cause of the distress of the poor. A statute of
Henry VIII. states that some persons had 24,000 sheep,
some 20,000, some 10,000, some 6,000, some 5,000,
some more, some less ; and it was provided that from
Michaelmas, ISSS, no person except as is mentioned in 2sh. 8,0.13,
^.j^i jT sr ss. 1, 12, 1535.
the statute, should keep more than 2,000 sheep by the
great hundred, i.e., 2,400 sheep.
In 1616, James I. issued a commission of inquiry ch. Pat.Roii,
(the return to which has not been found) into the sur- '+J^*=-''P- ^•
charges of Waltham Forest. The commissioners were
Sir William AylofF, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir Edward
Coke, Thomas Fanshaw, and others. It was stated that
the wastes and commons in the Forest, "being a Forest
very near to our palace of Westminster, and many other
of our mansion houses, and situate and lying as it were
under our eyes," were surcharged and spoiled with
cattle, as well commonable as not commonable, of divers
kinds ; that is to say, with oxen, cows, heifers, horses,
geldings, sheep, lambs, pigs, and geese, as well of the
tenants and dwellers in the Forest as of strangers.
In the directions for ordering Waltham Forest, which Camb. MS.
were probably issued by the same King, it is declared
that neither sheep nor swine were commonable in the
294 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Forest by the Forest laws ; but, as they had been long
tolerated in this Forest, the laws were not to be pressed
till some course had been taken about it.
This course was taken in 1628, when Sir Robert
Heath, the Attorney- General of Charles I., proceeded in
Exch. Bills the Exchequer aerainst Henry Fuller, of Chigwell, and
and Answers, , . . , i t^ ^ t^
Essex, Car. I, Others, for pasturing sheep on the i^orest waste. It
appears from the information filed by the Crown, that
the contest upon this question had then gone on for
many years. It was alleged, in accordance with the law
4tii Inst. 298 ; as it was laid down by Coke and Manwood, that no man
ch?°i4?° ' without a special grant can claim to common with sheep
within a forest, the reason given by Heath being, that
it is in respect of the dislike " which the Redd and
fallowe Deare doe naturallie take of the sent and smelle
of sheepe ; as also for that the sheepe do vndereate the
Deare, and hurt and spoyle the coverte, and thereby
prejudice and wrong the deare both in their feeding and
layer."
This was flatly denied by Fuller and his co-defen-
dants, who said that " dayly experience p'veth the
contrary ; and y' it is an usuall thing to see a deere and
a sheepe feed together in one quillet of ground, even
upon one molehill together ' ' !
The history of the matter, as given by the Attorney-
General (which being ex parte must be received with
caution), was " that the Inhabitants were restrained from
commoning with sheep as contrary to the Forest laws
during the reign of the late King Henry 8th of famous
memory, and of all other preceding Kings which took
delight and pleasure in hunting. But afterward that
PASTURE RIGHTS. 295
Royall and Princlie pleasure being not so much esteemed
by the late King Edward the Sixt (by reason of his
minoritie), and by the two succeeding Queenes (by reason
of their sexe), the lesse care of the due execucon of the
forest laws consequentlie ensued, and the keeping of
the Courts of Swainmote and Justice Seate became
almost totallie neglected and disvsed ; whereof the in-
habitants of the said fforest as also the inhabitants of
Enfield Chase (adioyning to it) taking advantage, did by
degrees, especiallie towards the end of the raigne of the
late Queene Elizabeth, encroach uppon the said fforest
laws by comoning with sheepe . . . and the same
so contynued untill the raigne of our late Soveraigne
Lord of most happie memory. King James ; in whom
that Royall pleasure ^nd delight in hunting and particular
and speciall esteeme of the fforest of Waltham, being
again revived," the King ordered the forest laws to be
enforced ; which the inhabitants opposing, and the records
of the presentments and other proceedings of the Courts
of Swainmote and Justice Seats being lost, recourse was
had to the office of the Duchy of Lancaster for the forest
proceedings relating to Enfield Chase; from which it
appeared by recorded judgments and from legal proceed-
ings that sheep were not commonable in forests : to which
decisions the inhabitants of the Duchy forests and chases
submitted.
He then states that proceedings were taken against
offenders in the Court of Attachments for Waltham
Forest, to which they submitted ; but afterwards repent-
ing, in the 1 8th James L preferred a bill in the House of
Commons to have their pretended right of commoning
296 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
with sheep established ; " the successe whereof was, that
that wise, grave, and just house . . . upon the first
reading thereof in a very full howse, without one negative
voyce did reiect the Bill ; and in detestation thereof,
ordered and caused the same to be torne in pieces in the
open howse then sitting in full Parliament."
The offence charged against Fuller and the other
defendants was, that in a contemptuous and presumptuous
manner they put their sheep into the open and uninclosed
grounds, wastes, woods, and coverts of the Forest, and
particularly into those which lay within Chappell Renault
and West Renault; which were " his Majesty's own soyle
and inheritance, and parcell of the possessions of his
Crowne of England, and the very Gardeine of the said
forest in respect of the delight and comodiousnesse
thereof for the hunting and chasing of the Redd and
fallow deare."
Fuller and his friends claimed, as from time imme-
morial, common of pasture for horse beasts and neat
beasts in all the wastes of the manors of which their
lands were held ; and for sheep on the lawns, part of the
manors, every year at all times of the year, and pasture
and pawnage for their swine at all times of the year,
except during the fence month. They said that common
for sheep might be claimed by prescription in a forest ;
they denied that the deer refused to feed with them, and
declared that if the inhabitants were debarred of the
right, it would tend to the utter subversion of the poor,
and to the impoverishment of those of better ability,
whose chief profit consisted of sheep, and who were at
continual charge for the provision of the King's house-
PASTURE RIGHTS. 297
hold, and for his carriages and other services ; * and the
tithes and other profits thereof being a chief part of the
maintenance of the ministers within the Forest, besides
the loss to the King's revenue of the customs on wool.
At the Justice Seat held on 21st September, 1630, chancery For.
Fuller was presented for commoning with twenty sheep 6 Car. i, '
on Loughton walk in the Forest, the jurors submitting to °' '^°'
the Court the question whether this was against the laws
and assize of the Forest. The Court, consisting of the
Earl of Manchester Lord Privy Seal, Lord Newburgh
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Sir Thomas
Edmondes Treasurer, as Commissioners,^ after taking
counsel with Sir Thomas Richardson Chief Justice of the
King's Bench, and the Barons of the Exchequer, decided
that it was, and Fuller was fined ^13 6s. 8d., being the
value of the twenty sheep at 135. 40^. each. Several other
persons were fined at the same time for like offences, but
in sums much smaller in proportion to the value of the
sheep ; whence it seems that the Court intended to make
an example of Fuller as the chief offender. John Allen
of Chigwell, one of the persons fined for sheep, was also
separately fined 10/. for having (as he acknowledged)
said to Siggens, one of the jury, " that if any bill came
to their hands concerning sheep, that you should be
careful of them, for it was a thing that concerned all the
county, and now it was upon the tryall."
This decision appears to have practically settled the
rule that the commoning of sheep was illegal ; for except
' This refers to the Crown's right of purveyance, abolished in 1660
(12 Car. 2, c. 24).
* Sir Humphrey May was joined in the Commission, but did not sit.
298
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
that in. 1653 and 1670, Mildmay and Barefoote, lords of
the manor of Lambourne Hall, claimed common for sheep
in Hainault Forest; and that in 1789, a person was pre-
sented for driving 100 sheep or more to feed in the
Forest lanes (on which complaint they were ordered to
be impounded), I find no further entries on this subject.
It will be observed that the claim of Fuller to pasture
sheep in the Forest was confined to the lawns, as were
almost all the other forest claims to this right. The pro-
bable explanation of the whole matter is, that these lawns
were the home pastures of the ancient vills, upon which
the inhabitants fed their sheep before and at the time of
the Domesday survey ; and afterwards, either because the
landowners put their sheep upon the other wastes, or
because the sheep were obnoxious to the deer, the claim
was only allowed when a charter or long user could be
shown to justify it.
The right to pasture sheep in the Forest was not
claimed on behalf of the City of London in the action of
The Commissioners of Sewers v. Glasse.
It was always unlawful to turn out goats and geese
upon the Forest wastes; to suffer them was ^'^ ad mag-
num, nocumentum ferartim, foresta^'' because by tainting
the pasture they banished the deer. The Scotch law of
Sir John Skene provides that if goats be found three
iiouaVd, Gout, times in the Forest, the Forester may each time hang
Toi. 2°.™' one of them by the horns on a tree ; and the fourth time
he may slay one of them, and leave his bowels in the
place, in token that they were found there.
Manwood,
ch. 14, s. 3.
Regiam
Majestatem,
Leg. For.
cap. V.
O Ui
nf^
A — Waltham Holy Cross. B — Nazing. D — Theydon Bois. £ — Epping.
a
G — Chingford. H — ChigwelL K — Barking K — Barking
\Maypole). (Crooked Billet).
L — Dagenham. M — Woodford. N — Leyton. — Walthamstow.
P — Navestock. Q — Wamtead, R — Stapleford Abbot.
To face page 29d
PASTURE RIGHTS. 299
Goats are seldom mentioned in the Forest records, Exch.xreas.of
but when found on the waste they were ordered to be \^%a. 2.
pounded if not removed by the owner. Several persons Roii^e'Aug.
were presented at the Justice Seat of 1323-4, for keep- ^'^^^'
Ing goats (56 in all) on the Forest contrary to the assize.
A licence to keep a goat in a Royal Forest is to be
found in an 8th century grant by OfFa to the Abbot of Cart. Sax. 293.
Canterbury.
It was the duty of the Reeves of the Forest parishes
to mark with the Forest mark, the cattle belonging to
their respective parishes which were entitled to feed
upon the Forest wastes. The mark consisted of a letter
surmounted by a Crown, for each parish, the letters
running consecutively from A to R, without regard to
the position of the parish on one or the other side of the
river Roding, which separated the Hainault from the
Epping division. A list of the marks in the Cambridge
MS. book relating to the Forest corresponded, with the
exception of some obvious errors, with the arrangement
which was found to exist at or shortly before the com-
mencement of the suit by the Corporation of London.
The original marks are for the most part eight
inches in height, but in a few instances nine, and in one,
only seven inches. Copies on a reduced scale of im-
pressions from all the marking irons which could be
found,* are given on the opposite page.
^ Evidence was produced before the Epping Forest Commissioners
that the lost irons contained the letters C, F, and I, for Roydon
hamlet, and for the parishes of Loughton and Lambourne. The SeeAttach-
originalmark for Stratford or West Ham could not be found. The '"o^j^^°|;'' g
mark substituted by the lord of West Ham is given on page 179. 7' 4 •
300 THE fOREST OF ESSEX.
There was commonly but one iron for each parish ;
but in Barking, by reason of the size of the parish,
there were two marking places and two irons ; one of
Attachment which marked the letter in its proper, and another in a
6 Sept. 1718 ; reversed position. The iron of each parish was ordered
30 July, 1748: 1 1 1 1 T-. 1 1 • 1
8 July, 1749; to be kept by the Reeve only, no markmg except by
7Nov.'i7'6i.' him or his assistant being legal. A report by a
Rep^annexed Walthamstow Reevc in 1809, mentions a suspected
Minute'of forgery of a Forest mark by a person in Hackney.
^^?'^'i.°*^ . In addition, each commoner was directed to have a
Attacnments.
Camb. MS. mark of his own besides the parish brand ; and the
Reeves were ordered to keep a book, in which were to
be entered the number and several kinds of all such
cattle as they should mark, with the names of their
owners. Many such accounts are among the records of
the Forest, but the Reeves often neglected to bring
them before the Court of Attachments.
Camb. MS. In 1630 and 1632, the bailiff of the Forest was
directed to warn the constables of the Forest parishes, to
inquire out the parish brand mark used and appointed
for the branding and marking of cattle within the parish,
and the book for booking the cattle marked ; and it was
probably in reference to the first of these orders that at
cii. For. proc. the Swainmote held in 1631, William Cromphorne and
Waltnam, ^
No. 140, Pre- William Wheeler, both of Sewardstone, were presented
sentments 8 '■
and 9. for keeping cattle on the waste at Chingford not marked
with the parish mark, and for obstructing and refusing
to allow the fourmen and Reeve to mark them, " in
contempt of certain instructions by the late Chief Justice
of the Forest aforesaid given by way of command in that
/i. Present- behalf." A more serious offence was charged against
PASTURE RIGHTS. 301
the same persons for violently repulsing and maltreating
the fourmen and Reeves, in doing their duty by over-
seeing that all the beasts depasturing in the wastes of
Chingford within the Forest, were marked with the parish
mark.
The usual practice was for the commoners to bring
their cattle to be marked at a place within the bounds of
the Forest and of the parish to which the cattle belonged.
In Stapleford Abbotts there was no fixed place, and the
marking was done at the residences of the owners.
After being marked the cattle were turned out at the Com. of
places most convenient to their owners, and might cuLl^iM..
then roam over and feed upon any part of the Forest judgment,
wastes. ^ii^a.'^'^'^-
The time at which cattle marking began in the
Forest is unknown ; but the above orders appear to
show that the practice was then revived after having
been for a time neglected. And something may be
gathered from the marks themselves, the designs of
which are by no means uniform. This may have arisen
from clumsy repairs, though the original irons would be
copied as closely as possible. But the position of the
cross above the Crown in the letters A and Q, makes
it likely that these letters, which belonged to Waltham
and Wanstead, the property of great monasteries, were
originally made before the reign of Henry VIII. And
the absence of a mark for the liberty of Havering, and of
any gap in the alphabetical arrangement, which might
have been filled by such a mark, as well as the fact that
the letters apply only to the parishes of the present
302 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Forest and of Hainault, shows that the present arrange-
ment is probably not older than the reign of Edward IT.
during which Havering was separated from the Forest,
and ceased to have a free right of pasture.
Auactment The marking originally took place four times in the
Roll, 12 Mar. . ,,,,,,
1723-24. year, viz., on the ist and 2nd May, the loth and nth
July, the 2nd and 3rd September, and the 7th and 8th
November ; which days were changed, after the alteration
7<f. 2Aug. of the calendar, to the 12th and 13th May, the 21st and
22nd July, the 13th and 14th September, and the i8th and
19th November, or the Monday following any of those
days which might fall on a Sunday. But many years
Id. 2 June, before this change," John Taylor, the Reeve of Wanstead,
an advanced thinker in his day, had been ordered to
attend the Court to answer a complaint for marking
according to the new style.
/<;. 29juiy, Later, the 13th and 14th May and the 22nd and
23rd July, with the other days in September and
November, were considered to be the proper days for
marking.
See Attach- It was sometimes complained that the Reeves
ment Roll,
14 Oct. 1754. marked irregularly, and for persons who had no right
of common; which, as they had a fee of 3«'. for every
head of cattle marked, they were strongly tempted to do.
The right of the commoner was properly measured by
the capacity of his holding to support in winter, the
beasts which he turned upon the waste in summer, and
of this capacity the Reeves were likely to take a liberal
view. In order to check this tendency the Courts of
Attachment adopted the plan of measuring the right by
PASTURE RIGHTS. 303
the rental, or as the practice was in Hainault at the Hainauit
time of its inclosure, by the rating of the commoner. n. s.
The first notice of this arrangement appears in an Attachment
account of cattle marked by the Reeve of Barking in 1713!
17 13. The Court of Attachments was at this period
very particular, in requiring such accounts to be laid
before it by the Reeves after each marking, and fined u. 17 May,
and threatened to dismiss those who neglected to bring 1723,' and
them; and in 17 15, the commoners' rental appears jn ■^'""'""
some of the accounts in a separate column.
It cannot be made out from the accounts whether
any particular scale of rental had then been fixed. But
in 1790 the following order was made: — " This Court Rolls, 2nd
observing, and many complaints being made against
divers persons for storeing the Forest that have no right
of Commoning, and many Irregularities committed by
the Reeves and Four Men, It is ordered by this Court,
that the Reeves, within their limits, shall mark for every
person that hath right of Commoning on the said Forest,
Two Cows for Four Pounds per annum Rent, or one horse,
and no more, and so proportionable for a greater Rent.
But such Reeves may mark for every poor Cottager,
having a Family and right of Commoning as aforesaid.
One Horse or two Cows, although such person does not
hold Four pounds per annum." The Reeves were also
ordered to give notice of the marking days in their
respective parish churches on the previous Sundays ;
and to return at the next Court after each marking day,
an account of the cattle marked, and the names of the
owners and the value of their rents ; and no person was
304
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Camb. MS.
to pretend to mark any cattle other than for the tenants
inhabiting within their respective precincts.*
In that part of the above order which relates to poor
cottagers, we see a recognition, corresponding to that
which occurs in the Loughton regulations concerning the
Su:P. p. 254. common wood, of the right of every occupier in the
parish to an interest in the common pasture.
The directions for the ordering of Waltham Forest
issued in the time of James I. contain a provision that
the officers were to take into consideration who had been
commoners of ancient time, and to proceed towards them
with more favour.
When the Forest system was in an advanced stage
of decay, another order, probably made necessary by the
continued abuse of common rights, negatived the claims
of persons who only rented houses, and ordered the
Reeves not to mark for them.
Attachment
Roll, ir June,
1848.
JLectures on
Rights of
Common,
1880, p. 157.
Camb. MS.
' The late Mr. Joshua Williams, in discussing the subject of stinted
commons, states that the number of cattle which the tenants might
put on was limited according to the rental of each tenement ; and,
mentioning the scale fixed by the above order, says that the stint was
proved in The Epping Forest Case (L. R. 19 Eq. 134, 161). This
is quite a mistake. The question of the existence of a stint was not
proved or in issue in the cause. The above order made by the Forest
Court was in evidence, and was referred to by Sir George Jessel, not
for the purpose of showing that it created a stint, but for disproving
the theory of common of vicinage, with which it was inconsistent.
The Court of Attachments had, in fact, no power to create a stint.
The directions for ordering Waltham Forest provide that all commoners
in the Forest are to be so proportioned in their commoning, as the
King's game be not prevented of sufficient and plentiful feeding ;
which shows that in the time of James I. no fixed proportion, other
than that of levancyand couchancy implied by the law, was in force.
PASTURE RIGHTS. 305
These marking arrangements had an important
bearing upon the question which was decided in the
great litigation carried on by the City of London, as to
the right of common in the Forest ; the effect of the
decision being, that every commoner had a right to
pasture his cattle upon any part of the great Forest waste,
and not merely to turn them out upon that part of it
which lay within his own manor or parish, with a right
of stray over the rest arising from the absence of fences.
The latter suggestion derived some weight from the fact
that the Commissioner who had charge of the disafforesta- Rep. 9 c. b.
tion of Hainault Forest, found that the rights of common
over the wastes of Navestock and Woodford were limited
to the wastes of those parishes; and that though there
was a general right over the wastes of Barking, Dagen-
ham, Stapleford Abbotts, Lambourn, and Chigwell,
(which lay together) for the cattle of each of them, he
did not find any intercommoning with Epping. This
in fact hardly existed, by reason of the interruption
caused by the river Roding. But the duties of the
Commissioner were confined to Hainault. If he had
been able to examine the arrangements on the Epping
side of the river, he would have found, as I have already
shown, that Epping and Hainault were one Forest,
governed by the same laws, administered by the same
Courts ; that the commoning was superintended by Reeves
appointed in the same manner and discharging similar
duties ; and that the letters which formed the cattle marks
of the parishes of the two divisions, ran in a single alpha-
betical series.
r.
3o5 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The Right of Pannage.
The Anglo-Saxons were great keepers of swine ; and
under the names of " Waldbaera," " Denbera," and
" Fearnlesuue," very extensive rights of feeding them
in the forests upon acorns and beech mast, were attached
to particular lands, either by ancient custom, or by direct
grants from the Kings ; and were sometimes enjoyed in
o?Weaidof" common woods, and sometimes in severalty. It has
Kent. 1—76. been suggested that " Waldbsera" was a general right
SecCod.Dipi. Qf feeding swine, and " Denbera " the right to feed in a
Cart. Sax. defined district ; but all the charters do not support this
distinction.*
At the time of the Domesday survey, swine were
still kept in the Forest of Essex, but in much fewer
numbers than the woods were able to sustain. In the
nineteen vills for which Forest reeves have been appointed
since the 15th century, there were, at the date of the
survey, but 774 swine, although there was wood enough
for 12,662.
Under what regulations these swine were kept there,
is unknown ; but it is certain that, at a later period under
the Forest laws, swine were allowed to be in the Forest
Cod.Dipl.1s2. ' "Ad hanc quoque terrain pertinent in diversis locis porcorum
Cart. Sax. 253. p^^^^^^ j^ est ' uueald bKra.'"
Cod.Dipl.281, " Pascua porcorum, quot nostra lingua Saxhonica 'denbera'
Cart. Sax. 496, nominamus."
507. " Adjectis iiij denberis in commune saltu."
Cod.Dipl.179. See also Cod. Dip!, and Cart. Sax. in many places.
PANNAGE RIGHTS. 3°?
only during the season called the time of pannage, and
for the purpose of feeding upon the acorns and beech
mast which had then fallen ; and they were not marked
by the Reeves.
They were not in any other way commonable in a
Royal Forest, and the directions already cited for regu-
lating Waltham Forest expressly state that they were
not commonable there by the Forest law. The rule,
however, was relaxed in modern times, as is shown by a
notice from the Court of Attachments, dated 19th June,
1809, which sets forth that the turning hogs or pigs on
the Forest is unlawful, swine not being commonable
cattle ; but it being of great benefit to the occupiers of
houses and cottages in and near the Forest, to keep
swine and suffer them to go " at Ley "^ in the Forest,
the liberty had been connived at, so long as the swine
had been rung, and prevented from doing damage to
the vert of the Forest ; the keepers and officers of the
Forest were therefore ordered to impound all hogs and
pigs unrung which should be found on the Forest.
According to the Scotch Forest law, it was the Skene's
custom to forbid in parish churches the entrance of swine Majestatem,
into the Forests ; and if found there by the forester he cap. vi. vii. '
might on each of three occasions take one of them for Angi.-Norm.'
himself; the fourth time they were all to be taken for the 55^7^'
King's use.
But if there was a great abundance of acorns in the
King's Forest, the forester was to summon the burgesses
and " landthwart men^'' to bring their swine so that the "Ruremanen-
tes" Houard.
' I.e., at liberty.
X 2
3o8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
King might have his pannage for them ; that is to say,
for each ten swine, the King to have the best, and the
forester one hog ; with specified remunerations where the
numbers were smaller.*
These regulations seem to imply that pannage was
originally the privilege of the King to derive a benefit,
either in kind or by the payment of money, from the con-
sumption of the acorns in his Forests, by his subjects'
swine ; and that the right of feeding the swine, also
called pannage, was the secondary sense of the word.
In that sense the word only implies a right for the swine
Speim. Gloss, to eat such acorns and beech mast as fall upon the
Pannagium. . ,
Per Sir G. ground, and not by shakmg or otherwise to take them
Jessel, M. R.
Law Rep". 7 ' off the trees ; much less to prevent the owner of the trees
Ch. D. 562. . , ,. ^ \ . . , ,
in the ordinary course from lopping or cutting them down
for timber.
Assh.For. Under the English Forest laws of Henry II., four
knights were appointed to see to the agistment, and to
receive the King's pannage, and for the keeping of the
woods. No man might agist his own woods in the
P''orest before those of the King were agisted, the time
for which was from fifteen days before, till fifteen days
after Michaelmas.
wiik. 372, The laws of John and the Charter of the Forest
provided that every freeholder might agist his woods at
his pleasure and have his pannage; and might freely
' A parallel provision, in a grant early in the 8th century by
j^thelweard Subregulus of the Hwiccas, contains another illustration
of the value which the Kings placed upon their rights of pannage.
Cod Dipl. 56. Whenever a larger crop than usual of mast was produced in a part of
Cart.Sax. 116. ,1 , , ^ 1 ^i t;-- , ,. . ^ ,
the land granted, the King, by way of exception from the grant, was
to retain his right of feed for one herd of swine.
PANNAGE RIGHTS. 309
drive his swine through the King's woods, for the
purpose of agisting them in his own woods or elsewhere,
with liberty to tarry on the way in the Forest for a
night.
The Epping Forest Commissioners found that the Final Rep.
owners and occupiers of lands and tenements within the
regard of the Forest, not being waste of the Forest or
inclosures from waste, had a right of common of pannage
for commonable swine within the Forest, viz., swine
levant and couchant on their lands and tenements afore-
said as appurtenant thereto, over all the wastes of the
Forest during the time of pannage according to the
assize and customs of the Forest.
The records contain scant evidence of the existence
of this right.
The Hundred rolls show that in the 1 2th century Essex, 1. 152,
pannage money was received by Richard and John of
Dover, and the Canons and brothers of the Monastery
of Hornchurch from their tenants in Havering ; and the
Abbot of Stratford Langthorne, founded in 1135, had Lyson-sEnv.
•r r 1 r i of London,
tithes of pannage by the gift of the founder. 4- 245-
The proclamation of James I. by which he stopped
the taking of pannage, as the principal means of saving
the deer after the severe winter of 1614, also shows that
swine were then fed in the Forest ; but as there is no
recorded instance of the stoppage of the Forest right of
pasture for cattle, and the proclamation itself did not
suggest any interference with it, the pannage mentioned
was probably only that which was In the demesne woods
then belonging to the Crown in Hainault and Loughton.
3 1 o THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Among the numerous claims which were made in
1630 only three in the Epping division of the Forest
include pannage; and of these but two, viz., those for
the manor of Leyton, and for an estate in the same
parish, claim pannage in the Forest wastes generally;
the Epping claim being confined to the woods of the
manor.
The claims of 1653 (which are of less value) include
claims for pannage by the lords of the manors of Epping,
Ruckholt, and Walthamstow Toney, the customary-
tenants of Woodford and Loughton, and the freeholders
of the parish of Barking, over the wastes. And in 1670
the lords of Epping, of Wanstead and Stonhall, of Wolf-
hamston in Chigwell, and of St. John's and D'Ewes
Hall, Lambourne Hall, and Cranebrook, in Hainault, all
claimed in the Forest wastes ; the last named extending
his claim to the King's demesne woods : while the lords
of Shyngylhall, and Chambers and Sills in Epping, and
of Waltham Holy Cross, confined their claims to their
own woods. The tenants, men, and inhabitants of Walt-
hamstow, Sewardstone, Stapleford Abbots, and Waltham
Holy Cross, and some of the men of Loughton, also
limited their claims to the woods of their own manors or
parishes ; but the claim of other men of Loughton seems
to be more extensive.
The difference in the form of these claims raises
much doubt as to the continuous exercise of any general
Forest rights ; and the entries relating to swine in the
records of the Court are very few, and only show that
their presence in the Forest was not unlawful, so long
as the owners observed the rules laid down in the charge
PANNA GE RIGHTS. 3 \ i
of the Chief Justice of the Forest, that persons not sworn
to the assise of the Forest should not come there to look
after swine in the fence month, when they ought not to
be in the Forest;* and that hogs should be ringed; a
conclusion which agrees with the notice of 1 809 already Supm, p. 307.
mentioned. For offending against the first of these rules E'cch. Treas.
in 1323 William de Coleworth of Epping, and Robert of For.
Baldwick of Theydon Boys each forfeited, or had to pay
the value of his swine found in the covert of the Forest
in the forbidden month. And at the Swainmote in 1634
William Nowne of Chingford was fined 20s. for damage, ch.For.Proc.
assessed at 55-., done by his swine unringed depasturing ^^^i^™'
in the wastes of the Forest, "and upturning the said '°Car. i.
wastes to the great banishment and nuisance of the wild
animals of the lord the King there, and the damage of
the pasture of the Forest."
Orders made at the Manor Courts of Ruckholt in
161 1 and 1 6 14 also imposed fines upon those who
should keep any " hogge, bore, sowe, or pigge " on
the commons, lord's waste, or highways in the manor
unringed for the space of one week ; and notices were
given to the Forest keepers to impound the swine which
were in the Forest unringed.
' " Neque porci sint in Foresta Regis tempore de Foinesun." Leg. For.
R. I.
Wilkins,
351-2.
312
TH]<: FOREST OF ESSEX.
CHAPTER VII.
Inclosures in the Forest.
" They gave up their whole leisure time to carving bits out of the
" Forest, and adding them to their own gardens; sticking up palings
" round these bits; here a cantle and there a snippet j here a slab and
" there a slicej a round corner and a square corner; a bare piece of turf
" or a wooded clump ) and all so neighbourly, encouraging each other the
"while with a ' Brother, will this be to your mind?' or 'Help yourself,
" ' neighbour ; ' and ' Let me recommend, sir, another slice ; ' or ' A piece
" 'of the woody part, dear friend,""
HE destruction of the woods and coverts in a
Royal Forest for the purpose of converting the
land to tillage, and the erection of fences and buildings
— the first being known as an assart,^ and the latter as a
purpresture — were forbidden from very ancient times,
whether the soil belonged to the King or to a private
owner. He who committed any of the numerous offences
' Walter Besant.
Dial.ofExchf. ^ Assarts are commonly said to be what by Isidore are called
bk. I, ch. xiii. occations, when, for instance, the groves or underwood of a forest
which are convenient for pastures and coverts are cut down ; upon the
cutting down and grubbing up the roots of which, the ground is turned
up and cultivated.
INCL OSURES IN THE FOREST. 3 1 3
against the vert of the Forest which are specified in the H'"^-)
laws of Richard I., and which included the assarting of SJi"^"^' t ^^
the wastes, was in the mercy of the King as to his per-
sonalty, unless he had the warrant of the Verderers or of
the King's Foresters. A curious exception to this rule Diai.ofExchr.
was made in favour of the Barons of the Exchequer ; and
we are told that Robert Earl of Leicester, having ob-
tained a writ from the King to be quit from assarts, in
order to save himself without trouble from the exactions
of the Forest officers, repudiated the writ and stood upon
his rights, upon being reminded by Nigel Bishop of Ely,
that his act would cause an inference that the writ of the
King was necessary for the quittance.
The charge of the Chief Justice of the Forest, by Hari. ms.
which the jurors were directed to inquire whether any ^^\ti%^be„
persons had inclosed ground bordering upon the Forest, ' ^^"
and so had encroached upon the Forest ; or set their
hedges and ditches further than they ought, and so
straitened the Forest ; and whether any man had newly
inclosed his several grounds or wood within the Forest
to the prejudice of the deer ; or had subtracted or ap-
propriated anything in the Forest that belonged to the
King, shows that the practice of inclosing small slices of
land, so graphically described by Mr. Besant as carried
on in Hainault Forest, was no modern invention, how-
ever it may have been kept under control by the strict
execution of the Forest laws.
As a general rule, inclosures in Royal Forests,
although made by licence, were subject to the condition
that they should still be accessible to the deer ; to which
3 1 4 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Charge to end they were only to be inclosed with such a small ditch
Jury, Wal- •' ■'
tham F. 1634, and low hedge, that a doe with her fawn might easily go
\ 34) Harl.
Mss. 6389, in and out over the fence. Such a fence ought not,
fo. 261.
Attachment according to the assize of the Forest, to be more
Ron, 28 Aug. ^^^ £q^j. ^^^ ^ j^^ji" £gg^ }\\^ ; and for transgressing
PI. For. this rule upon the inclosure of his wood at Fishyde,
Roger de Bello Campo (probably Roding Beauchamp)
was fined 20s. in 1277, and the hedge was ordered to be
destroyed.
Close Roll, The condition, however, does not appear to have
(R. c. p'. 148.) been always mentioned ; as a direction by King John to
have an inclosure made in the Forest of Essex for the
cattle of the Bishop of London, does not allude to it.
Sometimes leave was given to the owner of Forest
ju^'i^wS- ^^"*i to make it into a park ; and then he was not only
^^35,^5'^^'^' S'llowed, but was bound, if he would avoid the seizure of
S39' fo^fbi ^^^ P^^^ ^y ^^ King, to keep it well fenced against the
King's deer ; inleaps or deer leaps, sometimes also
called salteries, being strictly forbidden.
ch.For.Proc. It was presented in 1630 that there were four such
Answers" to contrivanccs in the pales of Wanstead Park, "by "w^
inqdries, meancs his Ma"^' deer go out of the said walks into the
°' '^^' sayd parke and cannot returne agayne."
It is probable that the most ancient of the Forest
parks was Harold's Park, which was already existing
1189-90. when Richard I. confirmed it to the Church and Canons
tiquEG, m. of Waltham as an inclosed park, with the right to take
all beasts that they might find therein, and to add to it
of their woods 30 acres towards the west and towards
the north.
INCL OSURES IN THE FOREST. 3 1 5
The Abbot and Convent were licensed by Henry III. gari. mss.
. No. 391, Reg.
in I2S7 to add 60 acres to the park from their demesne Cart. Abb. de
^' ^ . Waltham,
lands. And again, in the 14th century, when they desired p- s^d.
to add 120 acres of their demesnes to Harold's Park and
to Copped Hall Park (which had been given by Richard I. FuUer, Hist.
to Richard Fitzaucher to hold in fee of the Abbey, but Abbey, p. 8.
was now in their possession), an inquisition was held in Treas.'ofkect.
1374 before John le Foxle, the Chief Justice, and the Rolk, b."is3,
Forest officers, who certified that if a certain highway ° '**'
and footpath leading from Waltham to Epping were not
inclosed, the proposed inclosure of the 120 acres, the
true value of which by the year they said was 2d. per
acre, would be only a little to the injury of the Forest.
Probably this inclosure was not made; for in 1379-80 chancery
. IT-. <-ii 1 <-i->.TTiii Inqus. post
Baldwin de Hereford, the deputy of De Holand, then mort. 4Rd. 2.
Chief Justice, held another inquisition, upon which it was
certified that 162 acres of the demesnes of the Convent
might be inclosed for the enlargement of the parks, as
well as a lane adjoining Copped Hall Park, which was chy.Pat.RoU.
dangerous and hurtful to those passing, because it was "^
a receptacle for the robbers of the country,* and had
' The forests were always convenient lurking-places for robbers.
Macaulay tells us how in the time of William III. (1698) a fraternity Hist, of Eng-
of plunderers, thirty in number according to the lowest estimate, ^^^^ ^°1- 5i
squatted near Waltham Cross under the shades of Epping Forest, and
built themselves huts, froih which they sallied forth with sword and
pistol to bid passengers stand. A warrant of the Lord Chief Justice
broke up the Maroon village for a short time ; but the dispersed thieves
soon mustered again, and had the impudence to bid defiance to the
Government in a cartel, signed, it was said, with their real names.
The civil power was unable to deal with this frightful evil. It was
necessary that during some time cavalry should patrol every evening
on the roads near the boundary between Middlesex and Essex. In
3 1 6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
been in all times past an advantageous and secret place
for trespassers upon the King's wild animals ; and that
there was a secret and private situation in the lane for
the destruction of the lord the King's wild animals with
Duch. of bows, cords, snares, and engines. Leave was accord-
Rec?pia"a' ingly given to the Abbot and Convent to make this
ExcK TrJs. inclosure. Copped Hall Park was claimed by the Con-
Es^xfjiisc. vent in 1489, and it remained their property until 1533,
^l^u%l\(> when, by an agreement confirmed by statute, the
Monastery gave it up to Henry VIII. in exchange for
other lands.^ It was afterwards granted by Edward VI.
in 1547 to John Earl of Warwick, who in the same year
conveyed it to Sir Anthony Denny.
For. Proc. In 1630 this park, with Waltham Park and Nazing
tham,6Car.i. Wood Park, belonged to the Earl of Norwich, who
Exch. Treas. claimed them as free parks inclosed with pales ; as did
of Rect. Plac. '^ . r 1 ^
For. Essex, the Earl of Manchester m right of his wife, the Countess
1670, cl. 88. . . °
of Carlisle, in 1670.
In Speed's map, dated 1662, Harold's Park, Copped
Hall Park, and a park on the north of the town of
Waltham Abbey, which may have been Waltham Park,
are all marked as inclosures ; as are the two latter, but
not Harold's Park, in Norden's map of 1594. But in
1766 Harold's Park Is not marked as an inclosure. In
Chapman and Andre's large map of 1776, the district
Celebrated the next century Dick Turpin (who was executed in 1739) and his
(1821;)'. ' associate, King, took up their quarters in the Forest in a cave between
Loughton Road and King's Oak Road, large enough to receive them
and their horses, and from which they Could see what passengers went
by either road, and could issue forth and rob them.
' It was the residence of the Princess Mary in 1551. See i St.
Trials, 549.
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 3 1 7
bearing the name of this park is only occupied by several
detached woods ; and the inclosed park on the north of
Watham has disappeared.
As to Nazing Wood Park, the right to inclose and Pat. RoU,
1 1 r 1 • 1 /• -KT • 1 T^ • 10 H. 3, m. g.
make parks of their woods of Nasmg and Eppmg was close rou,
granted by Henry III. in 1225 to the Abbot and Convent m!%r"'
of Waltham during the King's minority, in consideration
of the woods of the Monastery at Debden, Loughton,
Alewarton, and Woodford, which had been disafforested
by the perambulation, being allowed to remain forest ;
with a stipulation, that if the King revoked the grant on
coming of age, the inclosure of the park should be thrown
down, and the disafforested woods should again be put
out of the Forest. A corresponding grant of the woods
was at the same time made by the Monastery to the King.
In 13 Hen. III. the right to inclose the woods of pi. For.
Nasing and Epping with a little ditch and a low hedge, " ''
so that wild beasts might go in and out, was confirmed ;
and in 1324 Edward II., on account of reverence for the ExcK Treas.
Holy Cross and for the benefit of the said Church, wish- For. i7'Ed.'2,
ing to do a special grace to the said Abbot and Convent,
licensed them to cause the wood to be inclosed with a deep
trench and a lofty hedge, so that the King's wild animals
should not be able to enter or go out of the wood, and
to hold it without burden or impediment of the King,
his heirs, justices, foresters, verderers, or other ministers
of his Forest. Application had been made for this grant inqn. post
_ ■ mort. 13 Ed. i,
m 1285. 1285.
The charter was produced, and the claim founded Duch.ofLanc.
upon it was allowed* at the Justice Seat held in 1489. piac.For.'
4H. 7.
3 1 8 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
ch.For.Proc. At the Justice Seat in 1630, it was presented that
Justices' the Reeve of Nasing- and three of his fourmen having
Inquiries, ^ . ,,
memb. 17. been required by the under keeper of Eppmg Walk to
assist him in driving the Forest, "went along with the
said keeper until they came to Naseing Wood, and then
refused to goe any further with him, or to helpe to drive
the wood (there being sheepe and cattell in it) ; pre-
tendinge the same to be no pte of y® Forrest." A note
in the margin stated that it was adjudged to be within
the Forest, but no further action appears to have been
taken.
Ch.For.Proc. At the Swainmote held in 1634 a similar occurrence
ViTaltham, ^^
No. 140. is recorded. The Reeve was fined 20s., but as the fine
10 Car. I. . _, .
was discharged by the order of the Court, it may be
inferred that he was found to be justified in his refusal.
There was also a park in Leyton, anciently called
Corbicum or Corpechum, but in the 15th century Wally
Wode, and later, Wallwood.
26 Feb. As in the case of Nazing Wood Park, the first licence
(1247-8). which was granted by Henry III. merely empowered the
owners of Gorbicum, the Abbot and Convent of Stratford,
to inclose it so that the King's wild beasts might still pass
14 May. in and out ; but by another charter in 1253, they were not
only allowed to make it into an Inclosed park, and to
assart and till it, but it was declared to be disafforested.
Ifch Treas. '^^^^ charter was enrolled in 1277, and confirmations
For^2t':^^'i *^^ ^* made in 1284, and 1319, were enrolled in 1292 and
™7Ed2 1323-4; and claims founded upon it were allowed in
Duch.ofLanc. 1 489 and on subsequent occasions.
PI. For. ' After several changes of ownership it became vested
4 Hen. 7. o i
37 H. 3.
PI. For,
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 3 1 9
in the Crown, as appears by a suit in the Exchequer in buis and
1596 against Ralph Colston, the woodward, for taking Exch.Qiiein.
more than his allowance of fee wood : and by another No. 154.
. , . 1 Entry Book,
suit during the Commonwealth against Skynner Ryder, Exch. Dec. &
then lord of the manor of Leyton, for quieting the euz. vol. 22,
_, . , . - , . ' ^ , 7 fo. 189S.
Protector in the possession of this wood; and a decree Exch. Dec &
was made accordingly in Trinity Term, 1655. The Common-
park was probably a small one, as it is not shown on the 36^, 246d.
maps.
In 1277, Sir Alexander de Goldyngham was licensed '^^'^^- -^"s-
, . •' ** mentations,
by Edward I. to inclose his garden and fifty acres of land Cart. Ant.
in the Forest contiguous to his manor of Chigwell, and to s Ed. i.
make a park of it, but I have found no other entries
relating to this inclosure.
Wanstead Park appears by a grant made by 36 Hen. 8.
Henry VIII. in 1545 (from which it is excepted) to have
been then lately imparked and inclosed. It was after-
wards granted with the manor of Wanstead, to Lord
Chancellor Ryche by Edward VI, The claims of Sir S ^^- ^■
Henry Mildmay'in 1630, and of Robert Bloyse in 1670, ch.'waitham
show that the park' then contained about 300 acres. b'. 129, m.6i,
Exch. Treas.
ofRect. Plac.
Wintry Wood was sometimes called a park, but I (c°aim4).
have found nothing to show that it was so in the strict
sense. The head of the wood called " Old Wyntre" was
one of the Forest boundaries in the perambulation made
in 1301 ; the name must therefore be of great antiquity.
In the manor of Wolverston in Hainault, the Earl of Pat. r.
17 Ed 2
Arundel, lord of that manor, and Alice his wife, had 94b (r. c.).
licence to impark fifty acres in their own manor in the
320 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
time of Edward II. There were also several parks in the
outlying districts which had been illegally afforested,
besides those of Havering and Writele, which were Royal
demesne ; and Pirgo, which adjoined Havering. -
PI For. Adam de Kaylli had one at Little Waltham, in the
S Ed. I. -' _
hundred of Chelmsford, which had been seized into the
King's hands in 1277, because it was so badly inclosed
that the King's wild beasts could pass in and out.. In
Exch. Treas. 1323-4, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's showed at
ofRect. Fl. -> J t> ^ r ^
For. 17 Ed. 2, the Justice Seat a warrant to inclose the wood called Le
m. 52. .
Frith, at Leyndon, in the hundred of Barstaple,^ and to
Exch. Treas. make a park of it. And in 1368-Q, John Wade, Canon
ofRect. Misc. ^ ^ •:>■> J ■> .
For. Rolls, of St. Paul's, had letters patent to enable him to inclose
B- 15s, ^
Roll 26. the park of High Ongar during the King's pleasure.
A claim to hold this park exempt from the Forest
was made in 1630, in which year the Ranger complained
Justice Seat, at the Justice Seat that Sir Richard Munchstow pulled
memb. 19. ' dowu the rails and let the deer into the park, and would
not suffer the Ranger to hunt it as Purley ; but " sayes he
will shoutte my dodges, and sue me in the Star Chamber."
Bk. 3, ch. 3. Parks at last became very numerous. Polydore Vergil
complained that " now thei be euery where vsed ; but
most commonly in Englande to' the greate damage of
good pastures that might fede other cattel."
H. 2, § 10, Inclosures of large tracts of the Forest wastes for
Ben. Pet. 2, . ^ ,
cixiii. (M. R. the purpose of Cultivation, also began at a very early
R. I, §§ (xi.), period, and were not only the subject of special regula-
(xvi.). J J 1. o
Hoved.chron tious Under the Forest laws of Henry II. and Richard I. ;
4.65(M.R. ■'
S )
■'■ ' Barstaple had been put out of the Forest by the perambulation of
zg Edw. I,
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 321
but if Thorpe be right in considering the article " De ^'^^^'^tit'utTs
placito Forestarum," and other articles included in the of England,
laws ascribed to Henry I., as a compilation of ancient
Saxon laws, they must have been dealt with by Forest
laws before the Conquest.
In a grant by Richard I. to the Abbey of Waltham inspex.
Holy Cross in 1189-90, he acquitted the monastery of charter RoU,
111 /- iTr i 1 Essex.m. 17a.
many hundred acres of assarts ; at Waltham, 300 acres ;
at Nasing, 1 60 acres ; at Epping, 60 acres ; at Suwar-
deston, 140 acres; atWudeford, 32 acres ; at Alewarton
(Alderton in Loughton), 80 acres, and of waste made in
the same vill before the arrival of the Canons ; at Luke-
ton (Loughton), 40 acres ; at Tipedene (Debden in
Loughton), 39 acres; at Walde, 40 acres; at Upminster,
104 acres ; at Passefeld (Passelow), 60 acres ; and at
Nettleswell, 40 acres ; ^ and the acquittance was confirmed
by Edward L, so that the monastery should assart no
more out- of the King's woods ^ without the consent of
him or his heirs. It is shown by later entries that these
lands were not afterwards treated as assarts.
"When application was made for leave to assart or See inquiry as
• to Nazing,
mclose, the course was to direct an mquiry by the Ch. inquis.
11-11 1 P°^' mortem.
Foresters, Verderers, and Regarders, and twenty- four 13 Ed. 1,1285;
Jurors, before the Justice of the Forests, whether the St. Paul's,
proposed inclosure would be to the injury of the Forest; n h. 3! p. i,'
n. 7, and to
■ If these quantities were measured by the Forest perch, which was Ch. Pat. Roll,
twenty-four feet, they would be nearly a third greater than the present ^' -^^ 3> P- i.
standard measure. The lesser perch was, however, sometimes used in Ch. inq. p. m.
the Forest. i3 Ed. r.
^ The King's wood in the sense in which the Forest was the King's. 20 Ed. i
The soil was in the Abbot and Convent. 1292.
3 2 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Peter deTany, that is, whcthcr it would disturb or interfere with the
Ch. Inq.
4S H. 3, haunts of the deer : and if the report was favourable a
No. 33 ; Ch. ' ^
Pat. Roll, licence was granted, subject to the condition already
n. 20. ' ' mentioned as to the manner of inclosing.
When the land was assarted without licence it might
be seized and held by the King until it was redeemed by
payment of a fine ; and a yearly rent was exacted for
liberty to keep it inclosed and cultivated.
Ben. Pet. 2, The Forest laws of Henry II. and Richard I. pro-
Hov. 2. 243, vided minutely for the inspection of assarts both old
wiikins,' and new ; of purprestures and wastes of woods, whether
of the King's demesnes or otherwise; the fenced
grounds of the King, the mines, the eyries of hawks, and
the forges in the forests, were ordered to be inspected,
and were all to be separately registered ; and the new
assarts, and such of the old assarts as had been sown
with grain since the last Regard, and the corn or pulse
with which they were sown, were to be noted.
The new assarts were to be taken into the King's
Ibid. hands ; each acre of the old was to pay to the King, from
its produce, 1312^., if sown with winter or summer corn ;^
and 6d. if sown with oats, barley, beans, peas, or other
Bk. I, ch. xi. pulse. But according to the Dialogues of the Exchequer
the payments were i^-. per acre for assarts sown with
wheat, and 6d. per acre for oats ; and this agrees with the
payments demanded for the assarts in the Forest of
Essex in 1277.
' " Fmmento vel siligine." The authorities are not very clear as to
the exact meaning of the words ; but I think it is as stated. There
appear to have been crops of winter and summer corn in succession,
with an occasional crop of oats.
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 323
The jurors were accordingly charged at the Justice See charge at
Seat to inquire into all new assarts; who made and Seat of 1634,
§5 47. 48.
held them, their contents, and yearly value, what Hari. mss.
wood or pasture had been tilled, and the value of the
corn.
At the Justice Seats held in 1277 and 1292, forHac. For.
Waltham Forest, the payments for old and new assarts 20 Ed. i.
were duly fixed in obedience to these regulations ; and
if the entries represent correctly the quantities of the
assarted lands, the laws must then have been fairly effec-
tive in preventing inclosures.
In 1277 the arrentations comprised about 10 acres Piac. For.
of assarts in Theydon Bois ; about 20 acres of old and
new assarts and purprestures in Chigwell ; 10 acres in
Epping ; between 3 and 4 acres in Roothing Aythorp ;
in Chingford about 24 acres belonging to St. Paul's, and
of which it was quit by charter; and over 4 acres in
Theydon Gernon. All these, except the Chingford
assarts, and such as were /rise {i. e. fresh or fallow), for
which the law exacted no payment, were entered as
having been so many times under winter corn, and so
many times under summer corn, and were rated accord-
ingly, by the scale mentioned in the Dialogues of the
Exchequer.
During the relaxation of the Forest laws after the
death of Henry VIII., the practice of inclosing lands Patents,
without licence appears to have increased ; and to have • > p • •
been allowed, provided that a certain part of the land
was sown with corn, to which the deer could have access.
y 2
324 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The proclamation of Edward VI. in 1548, states that
" div's greedye psones having in their hands sundry
closes and pastures within our said Forest where manye
of our seid Deare have accustomably used to feede under
the colo" and p'tence of sowying of some little p'cell
thereof withe corne, have for their pryvate gayne and
proffett so enclosed the seid closes and pastures withe
such unreasonable hedges and dyches, as our seid Deare
have been utterlye defraudyed and hyndryed of their
feeding and lybtye, contrarye to our Lawes, and to the
great famyshing and distrucyon of our said Deare" ; it
was therefore forbidden to inclose with any such un-
reasonable hedge or ditch any of the said closes or
pastures, unless the more parts thereof were sown with
corn.
Two instances are recorded in which Queen Eliza-
ch.For.Proe. beth discharged obligations to her servants by making
m. 18. ' grants of land in her manor of Barking in the Forest.
One of these, a grant of nine acres, was made in 1583,
to Andrew Tuggell " Armorer, for the perilous service
of the said Andrew heretofore to the said lady the Queen
and her predecessors done in war, he now being old and
ch.For.Proc. decrepit." And in 1602 William Hunt, one of the
m. 1 6'. ' Queen's Trumpeters, and Susan his wife, were licensed
to inclose and build a house upon five acres of the waste
in the same manor. The reason for this grant was, that
one Egham, the former husband of Susan, had discharged
the duty of keeper of Walthamstow walk for two years
without pay, and had died before a patent had been
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 325
granted to him for the place; so that Her Majesty
remained in his debt for his service 24/. unpaid ; "to the
greate losse and hinderance of the said William Egham,
his poore wife and many children."
At the Swainmote of 1594, among many present- For. ofWai-
. . 1 , - tham, 36 Eliz.
ments for offences agamst venison, there were only a few (Bodi.).
relating to purprestures committed by felling groves, and
making unlawful inclosures and hedges. But it seems
that many inclosures must have been allowed by the
Forest officers to pass without notice, or that the Crown
had always kept account of the old assarts ; for James I.
soon after coming to the throne empowered commissioners
to sell the assarts, wastes, and purprestures in some of
the Forests, and to grant discharges of the mesne profits ;
doubting not, as he said in a later proclamation, that his
loving subjects "whom it did concerne, and who have st.Pap.Dom.
. . Procln. 12
bene long in possession of the sayd landes at very low May, 1605.
rates, would have taken care in time to have provided for p. 104.
their own profit, safetie, and peace therein." But as
few of them came in, and strangers offered to com-
pound with the King, he declared that if the possessors
of the lands did not come in and compound before
the I St October, 1605, the lands would be disposed of
to others.
Fifteen years later James renewed with better success ExcH. Spi.
Comns.Essex,
his attack upon the holders of the assarted lands by issuing 17 Jas. i,
• • r.- -NT- 1 1 ^ 1 i , No. 3822.
a commission to bir Nicholas Coote and others ; autho-
rizing them to perambulate and map out all his forests,
parks, and chaces in Essex, and their ancient metes and
3 2 6 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
boundaries, and to survey all buildings, grounds, and
lands enclosed, incroached, or erected out of or upon his
wastes or commons ; and to inquire concerning all assart
lands, wastes, and purprestures in the soil of the King or
his subjects; who were the tenants; what estate they
had ; of whom they held ; by what rents ; to whom paid ;
how many acres ; the state of cultivation, and the reason-
able value for letting.
St.Pap.Dom. . xhe Commissioners reported that there were in
Jas. I, vol.203, ^
No. 20(11 Chingford, Wanstead, and West Ham sixty acres of
May, 1620). a ■> J
assarts, and in the same parishes and in Walthamstow
and Epping other lands assarted and inclosed within
the last forty years, and held by different landowners ;
but which, because of the ambiguity, uncertainty, and
decay of the metes and bounds, could not be distin-
guished.
13 Feb. 1620- In the following year the King, on payment of 349/.,
of pt- of granted these assarts to Thomas Boothby, Robert Symond,
Earls. Edward Atkins, Richard Searle, and Edward Searle, five
of the land owners (probably as trustees for the whole
body of them), at small rents, subject to the Forest laws
and to tithes.
Ch.For.Proc. The Certificate of the regarders of the Forest at the
Waltham, P
6 Car. I, Regard held in 1630 shows that during the end of the
1 6th and the early part of the 17th centuries, an extra-
ordinary number of houses and cottages were built in the
Forest; some upon unauthorized incldsures from the
wastes, and some on the old inclosed lands ; small
gardens, pightles, or other inclosures being attached
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST.
to many of them. The numbers presented were as fol-
lows : —
327
On Waste.
On Old Inclosures.
Walthamstow
7
>3
S
I
8
25
6
4
I
II
3
S
2
Woodford
Wanstead
+
2
Westham
Leyton ,
C
Barking
10
Dagenham
7
Chingford
Waltham
12
and
21 ?
Nazing '.
2?
EoDiner
%
Lambourn
5
Chigwell
s
Theydonboys •
Loughton, position doubtful . ... 24
98
Total.,..
86
98
24
208
The presentments also included, in most of the
parishes, separate . inclosures of small pieces of land,
seldom exceeding half an acre in extent ; and in several
of them inclosures both of waste and inclosed land ; brick
kilns, and brick and gravel pits ; forges, walls and pales ;
woods felled, stubbed, and left unfenced ; conygrees or
rabbit warrens ; groves, coverts, and fences spoiled by
tressling ; and forest ways uncleared and choked up.
Many presentments of the same kind were made in
1634; ^-iid i'^ 1640, on the petition of John Wroth, the st. Pap.Dom.
ch. I, vol. 384,
lord of the manor of Loughton, and of the rector of the
328 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
parish and others, the Earl of Holland, Chief Justice of
the Forests, desired "Sir William Hix " [Hicks], the
Lieutenant of the Forest, to forbid the proceedings of
three persons, who, as the petitioners complained, were
seated in several habitations, yet were building them-
selves dwellings on the common of the Forest, contrary
to the laws of the Forest and kingdom ; and to the im-
poverishing of the parish, the destruction of the common
of woods, and the evil example and encouragement of
others, " there being at this tyme many houses empty
and to be hyred."
Exch. Treas. At the Tustice Seat in 1670, there were also many
ofRect. Plac. -' ' ' ^
For. County presentments of inclosures and buildings. The smaller
Bags, Essex, .
No. 8, inclosures were for the most part arrented, but some were
22 Car. 2. ^
ordered to be pulled down. One man, who had enlarged
his house, had the choice of paying a fine of 20/., or of
pulling down his building, and paying a fine of 5/. for the
trespass. He chose the first alternative. In the case of
a large inclosure of 1 50 acres, the fact of the offence was
Exch. Treas. Ordered to be tried. Another inclosure of 80 acres, part
For. Essex,' of Knighton Wood in Woodford, had been thrown down
by the inhabitants. The offender submitted to a fine of
6/. 135. 4^., and the inclosure was again ordered to be
destroyed. But it seems doubtful whether this was done.
st.pap.Dom. There are drafts of licences by the Chief Tustice to Tohn
Car. 2,1670-1, . ,
fo. 229, 231, Hayes, the owner of the wood, to fell and inclose it ; and
M^Dec. of a respite of the order of " prosternation " ; and of a
]oo,°fo^"3"c^'.^ petition by Hayes, praying that the "prosternation" of
his fences might be respited, on the ground that he was
a very honest and loyal person as to the King's interest;
that he was at Chelmsford to serve His Majesty when
INCLOSURES IN THE EOREST. 32O
Sir William Hicks and Mr. Boroughs were there and
others, and appeared in arms to receive commands for
the King upon the Colchester business; that he was
plundered of his plate and horses to the value of 500/.
and upwards ; had always refused to send out a horse
against the King ; was fined 200/. several times, and had
been a sufferer by many thousands of pounds for several
persons of great quality, that had suffered by the late
usurped power.
In 1666, Sir Henry Wroth, lord of the manors of
Loughton and Chigwell, applied to the Crown for a st.Pap.Dom.
licence to inclose no less than 1,500 acres as his share to^i'e?©' ^"^
of the 4,000 acres of which it was said that the wastes of no^'^s. ''
these manors then consisted. Sir Edward Turner re- st.Pap.Dom.
Ceir 2 vol. civ.
ported that if the inclosures were made according to the No." 2!
Forest laws, the King's interest in the land would not be
impaired ; and the Calendar of State Papers contains a
warrant dated i6th July, 1666, to the Attorney-General st.Pap.Dom.
• 1 1 . Warrt. bk.
to prepare a licence to inclose the 1,500 acres with small 1665-610
hedges and ditches, and to convert the same into tillage Entry bt.
free from the Regard of the Forest. The inclosure was
never made, or, so far as appears, even attempted ; and
there can be no doubt that it would have been prevented
by the commoners and other inhabitants, who were
already beginning to resist large inclosures.
A few licences to inclose are recorded between the
dates of the last Justice Seat (1670) and the commence-
ment of the regular series of extant rolls of the Court of
Attachments (17 13). One was a licence to make a road zDecsAnne,
and avenue, leading from the Epping highway to Copt Record
330 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Office, Hall Park, on the report of the Surveyor-General that
E^oiments, there were no deer or timber there ; and that it was
fo!T'^°' ' desirable to use the land thereabouts for nursing up
Lett^okz, young trees, and improving the soil.
p. 267, Office
of Com. of W.
Revenuer'^- The records of the Court of Attachments from the
year 17 13 to 1848, show that during this period an
almost continuous series of inclosures of parts of the
Forest waste took place. At first they were but few,
were usually made by licence of the Chief Justice, and not
without attention to the rights of the persons interested.
The consent of the lord of the manor, and of the inhabi-
tants of the part in which the land was situate, and who
may be supposed to have been consulted as commoners,
was required, as well as a report by the Verderers that
no harm would be done to the rights of the King. About
80 acres were inclosed in this manner between 17 14 and
1724, one piece consisting of 20 and another of 40
acres, and the rest being very small plots. A few
licences continued to be granted till the middle of the
century, and during this time there was little or no notice
of unauthorized encroachments. But in 1751, 1752,
and 1753, a great number of presentments were made of
inclosures and fences, of the digging and destruction of
pits, turf, and bushes, and other nuisances. It is not
likely that all these were new occurrences ; and I am
inclined to attribute the sudden activity of the Forest
Auachment officers to the appointment of a new verderer, Mr. —
Rolls, 2 1 Aug. afterwards Sir — Crispe Gascoyne. An entry on the
rolls soon after this time, shows that the lords of the
manor of Barking insisted upon a right to authorize
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 33 1
inclosures made outside the Forest gates, which kept
the cattle from straying into the lanes ; a claim which
was probably founded upon the neglect of the Forest
officers to interfere with such inclosures.
During the third quarter of the i8th century very
few licences to inclose were presented ; but many pre-
sentments were made of unlawful inclosures and other
depredations, including one by the parishioners of
Romford ; who were accused of removing the Forest :^",?<='i™ent
" _ Roll, 8 Jime,
boundary marks, and thereby of encroaching upon 1770.
it to the extent of 60 acres : and, not long after. Attachment
. » » fe > Rolls, 29 July,
the stoppmg of seven different roads, " which were 1771-
Ancient Riding Ways for all his Majesties Leige Sub-
jects to pass and repass on Foot or Horseback," was
presented.
Another encroachment proved very costly to the
incloser, although he took the precaution of obtaining
a lease from the Crown. The land was Knighton Wood,
in Woodford, and as it then contained only 42 acres, it
may be inferred that part at least of the inclosure which
was destroyed by the inhabitants in 1670, when it was
said to contain 80 acres, had been replaced. On the
present occasion the wood was inclosed and grubbed q^-^^'?-^°
up ; but the fences were pulled down by the direction, works.
it was said, of the steward of Earl Tylney, who probably
refused to recognize a permission to inclose, not made
by the Forest authorities. The owner of the land, having
failed in an action of trespass, was put to costs, which,
with the useless outlay on the land, he said amounted to
1,095/. > ^^^ the Treasury granted him 300/. by way of Treasury
compensation. This wood was afterwards the subject i3May,'i78i.
33 2 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
of the action of The Attorney-General v. Hallett, which is
mentioned later..
The effect of the suspension of the Courts during
Supra, p.103. the dispute which ended in 1785, about the right to ap-
point a Steward, was, as is recorded on the rolls, that the
Forest was open to the depredations of all who chose to
rob and trespass on it ; and many illegal inclosures were
doubtless made at this time. When the dispute was
settled on the accession of Sir James Tylney Long to the
ofifice of Warden, vigorous attempts were made to stay
the spoliation. Thirty-one inclosures were presented at
the Courts of August and September, 1785; and such
was the zeal of the new Warden, that he visited with the
Forest officers twenty encroachments in Theydon, Lough-
ton, and Chigwell, began to pull down the fences round
some of them, and ordered the rest to be abated. Some
of these inclosures were in the purlieus, over which the
Forest officers still continued to assert the ill-defined
rights of the Crown. ^
In 1796 the verderers refused their assent to the
inclosure of the wood called The Sale wood, in Waltham-
stow. The fences were thrown down and the ways, which
had been interrupted, restored. Many small encroach-
ments were again ordered to be thrown down by the
under keepers when the offenders refused to obey the
orders of the Court ; and after further presentments
' In 1793 the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state
and condition of the woods, forests, and land revenues of the Crown,
presented to Parliament the valuable report, from which I have made
many extracts.
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 333
another order was made, in 1796, that the under keepers
should throw down the fences of twelve persons who re-
sisted, and should continue to do so as soon and as often
as they should be put up again. The subjects of these
and other orders were " cantles," and "snippets," of
land, mostly measured by the rod, sometimes by the
yard, and seldom exceeding a quarter of an acre ; and it
would probably have been difficult for the Forest officers
to note them all, even if they did not sometimes overlook
them from an unwillingness to interfere with their neigh-
bours, or for other reasons. It does not appear at this
time that the right of the Forest Court to prevent in-
closures authorized by the lords of the manors, was
disputed by them ; and an entry on the Court rolls of the Court RoUs,
- i 13 May, 1788.
manor of Sewardstone, expressly admits that a grant by
the lord of five acres, became abortive in consequence of
the refusal of the Forest officers to consent to the in-
closure. But the Court of Attachments, in the beginning
of the 19th century, wearied perhaps by the prolonged
contest with the inclosers, who still persevered in their
work, became more lax in their opposition, and allowed
many of the fences to remain ; on the grounds that some Draft letter of
. . ,, , . 1 , the steward of
of the pieces taken m were small and unimprovable spots the court to
i-ii'i r • 11 Secretary in
of ground ; that the inclosure of some improved the Eyre, 10 Aug.
roads ; and that some were granted for the building of
cottages, which might be a protection to the roads and
to the Forest ; in other cases they were allowed to
those who from long residence, or as large owners of
property in the Forest and contributors to the expense of
protecting its rights, were thought to be entitled to such
an indulgence.
334 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
See Rep. of In the vcar 1805, the Commissioners of Woods and
Com. of 1863. .
Pari. Pap. Forests, actingf upon the recommendation of the Com-
1863, vol. 6. , . b f
missioners of Land Revenues in 1793, adopted a course,
the repetition of which in later years greatly increased
the general confusion. This was the sale of the manor
of West Ham with its wastes, (then vested in the Crown)
and the forestal rights of the Crown, by way of extin-
guishment in the soil.* The grant of the forestal rights
in the manor was confirmed in 181 1.
Bouicott V. The sale was followed, in 1 807, by an action (which in
Camp. 261. the opinion of Sir George Jessel, M. R., was collusive) by
the owner of a piece of the inclosed waste of this manor,
against a person who was alleged to have destroyed the
fences of, and to have trespassed upon the inclosure ; to
which a right of common being pleaded, the plaintiff set
up a grant of the land by the lord of the manor under an
alleged custom, and on the trial obtained a verdict.
The plaintiff denied that the land was within the Forest,
intending I suppose to rely upon the grant of the Crown
rights as a disafforestation. The judge before whom the
question whether the custom was compatible with the
Crown rights was argued, assumed however that the land
was in the Forest, and held that the question depended
upon the nature of the inclosure ; that if the fences were
higher than the Forest law permitted, the Forest officers
might still break them down ; and that the custom,
' A general power to sell Crown lands was given by 42 Geo. 3,
c. 116 ; and by 57 Geo. 3, c. 97, s. 4, and 1 & 2 Geo. 4, c. 52, s. 12,
powers were given, first to sell the franchises, and then the rights of
forests, free chase, and free warren, to the owners of lands affected by
them, so that the rights might be extinguished. The duties of the
■ Commissioners were further regulated by 14 & 15 Vict. c. 42.
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 335
which he held to be proved, only affected the rights of
common.
The judgment seems to have been given in ignorance
of two facts, neither of which was mentioned to the
judge; viz. that all unlicensed inclosures, whether with
high or low fences, were contrary to the law of the
Forest ; and that the forest right of common was not a
manorial right, and therefore could not be taken away
under a custom of the manor.
Acts of Parliament passed in 181 2 and 1829, show 52^60.3,
■^ -^ ' c. 161, ss. ir,
how the orders of the Courts of Attachment, both in this 13, is ;
repeated
and other Forests, were set at naught by the land in- lo Geo. 4,
c. 50, ss. 100,
closers. They state that although the fences of many of 104.
the unlawful inclosures, and also the houses and buildings
erected thereon, had been thrown down by the Forest
officers, they had been again reinstated by the trespassers
or by others. They directed that all unlawful encroach-
ments should be inquired of by the verderers in the
Court of Attachments ; that the persons who made or
continued them should be prosecuted in the same Court,
and might be fined by the verderers for every such
offence in a sum not exceeding 20/., to be recovered
before a Justice of the Peace; and that the encroach-
ments should be abated. The Forest officers were also
required before every Court of Attachments to take
account of and present at the Court all encroachments,
and make oath that to the best of their knowledge there
were no others ; and the Court was empowered to fine
the Forest officers for neglecting to prevent encroach-
ments. But the Act of George IV. provided, that if it lo Geo. 4,
was alleged that the place in question was beyond the '^'^°' ^' '°°"
Works.
336 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
limits of the Forest, the verderers had no power to
decide the case, but were to certify it to the Attorney-
General.
Rep. of Sei. The defence suggested was of course frequently set
Evid. pp. 22, ' up, and many certificates were sent to the Attorney-
General ; but as he very rarely advised the Crown to go
to the expense of prosecuting the offenders, they retained
possession of most of the inclosures. In consequence,
however, of the first Act, 47 presentments of encroach-
ments were made in September, 181 2 ; and 80, of which
59 were in Epping, in June, 18 13.
Mr. Long At this time, Mr. Long Wellesley, who had assumed
Wellesley's ' ° •'
statement, the ofifice of Warden, consulted several of the Forest
22 Feb. 1813,
Office of officers as to the prevailing abuses, and why they were
permitted. Here is the Warden's description of the
state of the Forest. Gravel and sand pits were open in
all directions, and the materials removed without restraint;
large spots of ground from which the turf had been
removed ; rods of ground dug up, and the soil removed
for use in gardens both near to and distant from the
Forest ; bushes and underwood cut and removed at
pleasure ; deer-stealers so numerous, that there was
hardly a small house in and for miles round the Forest,
which did not contain one or more ; greyhounds and
lurchers kept by most of the poor inhabitants, and. by
unqualified farmers round the Forest ; encroachments by
incldSures and buildings in various parts ; workpeople
trespassing in all directions, and at all seasons ; oak
timber shamefully destroyed; young trees and tellers
wasted ; and pollards and underwood lopped and carried
away.
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 337
The officers questioned, accounted for these excesses
by stating that they had at considerable expense taken
trespassers before the magistrates, but having been re-
peatedly disappointed in obtaining convictions for want
of the support by the Warden or his Steward, they were
obliged at last to decline proceedings, and to overlook
misdemeanors.
Mr. Long Wellesley proceeds in his statement, to
set forth how he had stopped the wasting of the Forest by
giving notices, presenting encroachments, and prosecuting
those who unlawfully kept dogs ; and he boasts not a
little of the good effect of his exertions.
The Rolls of the Court show that, in truth, a few Roiis,28june,
convictions were obtained for various offences in the
Forest. But the lessons taught by the case oiBoulcott v.
Winmill, and by the grant of the forestal rights in West
Ham, had not been thrown away. In June, 18 13, we id.
find the steward of the manor of Barking, setting up a
right to make grants under the custom of the manor;
and at the next Court, the, steward of Loughton, pointedly RoUs. 9 Aug.
referring to the decision, asserted the power of the lord
of the manor, to make grants of the waste for inclosure
before applying' to the Forest Court, though admitting
that the Court could throw open the fences, if they were
prejudicial to the forest rights.
At the same time the Court of Attachments virtually id.
surrendered the whole position to the inclosers and the
lords of the manors, by passing resolutions that It would
not interfere either with past or future small encroach-
ments on the sides of public roads or lanes, or in any
other places within the legal boundaries of the whole
338 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Forest where the deer did not usually depasture or come
to feed ; provided that the inclosers produced to the
Steward of the Court, copies of the grants by the lords or
ladies of the manors, in order that they might be enrolled
as encroachments on the Forest. But encroachments
made without grants from the lords, or the grants of
which were not produced, were, by the order of the
Court, to be thrown open. Encroachments in places
where the deer did usually depasture, were to be presented
to the Court, which would proceed in such manner as they
should judge most proper for preserving the rights of
the Crown and the jurisdiction of the Forest ofificefs.
These and other resolutions concluded with a provision,
which might serve as a model for some modem adminis-
trators of the law, that the Steward should carry them
into effect with as little inconvenience to the parties as
was practicable. The roadside strips of grass land,
which were of much value to the small commoners, and
which added so much to the beauty of the Forest roads,
were thus left at the mercy of any who chose to take
them with, or subject to very slight risk, without the
consent of the lords of the manors. As might be ex-
pected, only a few of the old encroachments were brought
for inrolment, and many new inclosures continued to be
made, of which some only were stated to be with the
consent of the lords.
Annual Re- A proposal is Said to have been under consideration
p.^8T'(I°6i).' in 1 761, for dealing with the whole Forest by cantoning
it into inclosures (which were to be planted with oak),
for the benefit of fattening lean cattle for the use of the
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 339
navy : the underwood and timber being sold to defray
the charges, or burned into charcoal for the use of Her
Majesty's powder mills.
Nothing came of this scheme: but in 181 7 the Attachment
. . - Roll, 22 Sept,
Commissioners of Woods and Forests gave notice of 1817.
their intention to apply to Parliament for an Act to vest
part of the Forest in the Crown ; to extinguish the rights
of common ; and to disafforest the whole Forest,
Their proposal was that two-thirds of the King's circular issued
woods in Hainault Forest, containing about 3,278 Comrs. 6Nov.
acres, and the soil of which belonged to the Crown,
should be allotted to the King; the other third, with
the forestal rights over it, being relinquished to the
commoners ; the Crown retaining a right to cut and
remove the timber and underwood, unless the land was
allotted in severalty : in which case the owners of the
allotments should have a right of pre-emption over the
timber and underwood.
Of the remaining waste, computed to contain about
9,000 acres, ten fifty-second parts were to go to the
Crown, free from rights of common and other rights ;
and the rest to the owners of estates and other persons
having rights of common.
These proposals created great alarm through the Haii's letter,
Forest. Public meetings were held in opposition, and
memorials signed by more than i ,000 persons were sent
by twelve parishes, and also by a general meeting of
lords of manors, verderers (of whom three out of four
opposed the plan), and other Forest officers, landowners,
and occupiers.
The Rector of Loughton, Mr. Burgoyne one of the Letters,
° •' 25 Nov, 1817;
A 2
340 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
i8 Api. 1818 ; Verderers, and Mr. Risrsf the Riding- Forester, are the
26N0V. 1817. °° . °
— only persons whose opinions in support of the scheme are
19 jmie, 1819. on record; but the Lord Warden in 18 19, stated his
approval of a general disafforestation.
The effect of the opposition, however, was that
30 March, another circular was sent out by the Office of Woods and
Forests, stating that they never intended to urge a general
inclosure of the wastes contrary to the wishes of the
majority of the freeholders, but only wished to obtain
separate allotments for the Crown in respect of its
interests ; and to leave the rest for the landowners free
from the Forest Courts, the pasturage of the deer, and
Heads of Biu. the Other forestal rights of the Crown. Adhering to the
original proposal as to the proportions in which the
Hainault wastes should be divided, they now put the
Crown rights in the Epping division at nine thirty-second
instead often fifty-second parts; proposing that the timber
should be taken by the owners, or be paid for by the
Crown, that the deer should be removed, and the Forest
disafforested at the end of two years.
Resolutions, The amended scheme was also vigorously opposed
II and 14, and . . .
letter, 15 Api. by the committee appointed by the Forest parishes and
commn. on the landowners ; the latter of whom, however, acquiesced
wdtham in the disafforestation and the removal of the deer, and
Party! plpe°s', the former in the inclosure of the King's woods. The
Sec-^Rep. bill passcd the House of Commons in 1818, but from
pp- 62> 63- vvant of time to carry it through the House of Lords, it
was withdrawn.
RoUs,i8Sept. The Court of Attachments again met in 1830, after
an interval of thirteen years, and its records contain
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 341
seventy-three presentments of inclosures, for the most
part of the same character as those made in former years.
One contained twenty-two acres, another over six, another
five ; and there were four containing two acres each.
The contents of the rest were expressed in rods and
yards, and the whole amounted to over sixty-six acres.
No action was taken by the Court, and the presentments
were again made with others in July, 1831. But the RoUs,24Sept.
Court agreed to take no further proceedings, but to seek
the co-operation of the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests in preventing further inclosures in the Forest.
Nothing came of this, and in the next year about twelve RoUs,i6june,
more acres had been stolen.
In March, 1836, the Commissioners suddenly showed 14 March,
signs of life by giving notice that they intended to enforce
the rights of the Crown in all proper cases, and to pro-
ceed in the Court of Exchequer against all persons who
in future should make inclosures without licence; and
they did in fact abate some encroachments, and brought
several informations ; of which one, viz., A.-G. v. Brown,
after dragging its slow length along for several years,
stood over to wait the result of another — A.-G. v. Hallett —
relating to the inclosure of fifty acres in Knighton Wood,
in which the Crown ultimately succeeded. But in the
meantime, the pendency of the case against Brown was
used by the inclosers and their sympathizers in the Ver-
derers' Court as an excuse for staying proceedings there
against other encroachers.
In 183 1, the Lord Warden, who now openly supported RoUs, 9 July,
the inclosures, appointed the steward of his own manor
of Wanstead, to be Steward of the Court of Attachments ;
342 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
and the Steward, Mr. Cutts, actually appeared in that
Court, of which he was an officer, and the duty of which
was to preserve the Crown rights in the Forest and to
abate illegal inclosures, and contended, on behalf of a
person summoned for making such an inclosure, that the
land having been granted by the lord of the manor, the
Forest Court had no jurisdiction.^
The inclosures presented at the Court held in July,
1 83 1, were 136 in number, and comprised more than 240
acres. Three of the inclosers were lords of manors, and
one of them had inclosed to the extent of about 50
acres. The Court was pressed to certify the case de-
fended by the Steward, to the Attorney-General for
prosecution ; but after taking time to consider, two of the
Verderers voted one way and two the other, and the case
was therefore dismissed. Of the four Verderers three
Rep. of were lords of manors. Oneof the Verderers admitted that
Commn7p°6s, he votcd against certifying inclosures to the Attorney-
voL xxx.^^^'^^' General, because he thought it hard to put a lord, who
alleged a right against the Crown, to the expense of a
lawsuit to establish his right.
The other inclosers soon took the hint given them
Attachment by the Steward of the Court. In April, 1843, out of
many cases before the Court, about twenty were undis-
posed of, the Verderers being divided as to some, and
postponing or coming to no decision as to others. In
Shorthand ' When examined before the Epping Forest Commissioners he
wnter's Notes g^jj . « jf ^^^ ^f ^jjg u^jgr keepers at Wanstead made a presentment
ings, p. 4394. of an inclosure at the Court of Attachments, I should have laughed at
him, and kicked him out of the Court of Attachments, and stuck by
my manor."
INCLOSURES IN THE FOREST. 343
two cases it was contended that the manors had been
disafforested. At the next Court several cases were RoUs,iiMay,
ordered to stand over until the decision of the Attorney-
General's proceeding against Brown ; in others the right
of the Court to interfere against grants by the lords was see Petn. of
denied, and although some of the inclosures were ordered H.*of con> "
to be thrown down, the orders were not obeyed. "'°"^' ^^°'^'
A struggle which now arose about inclosures made
by the lord of the manor of Theydon Bois, shows
how the verderers neglected their duties. The inclo-
sures were presented in February, and some of them
which the incloser admitted to be illegal, were both Attachment
Rolls.
ordered, and promised by him to be thrown open in
April, 1843.
This not having been done, he was required by the
Court, at the request of some of the freeholders in July,
1843, to abate the inclosures forthwith ; and in December
it was ordered that they should be knocked down. In
August, 1844, it was reported by the under keeper that
they still remained; upon which, by the order of the
Court, the Steward wrote to inform the solicitors of the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests of the fact, and
requested that the under keeper might be instructed to
prostrate the fences; who answered that they had informed
the Commissioners, and could not interfere without their
instructions. During all this time the verderers had
ample statutory powers to abate the inclosures ; but
upon being requested by several of the freeholders to
give effect to their own order, they would only agree to
do so upon receiving an indemnity said to have been
promised by the Commissioners. This indemnity had
344 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
not been received in February, 1845, at which time the
Court adjourned until the case of the Attorney-Generals.
Brown (begun in 1836!) had been decided, or until
further notice.
Office of I" 1845 a number of inhabitants of Woodford and
^°''''^" other parishes, both on behalf of themselves as commoners,
and of the public who resorted to the Forest for recrea-
tion, petitioned the Commissioners to require the removal
of the encroachments which" the verderers neglected to
abate ; but the Commissioners (who were busy in obtain-
ing from the keepers a census of the deer in the Forest
do not appear to have complied with this request. The
encroachments still remained, and others continued to be
ja. made ; and in 1 848 the landowners presented a petition
to the House of Commons, in which they stated that the
verderers refused to hold a Court, and besought the
House to compel the Forest officers to perform their
duties, to protect the rights of the Queen and the peti-
tioners, and to preserve the Forest as a place of
recreation.
After the Courts had ceased for three and a half
years an attempt to hold another Court was made in
Id. August, 1848, but the Steward and one of the Verderers
agreed that it was not legally summoned, and said that
the decision which had now been given in favour of the
Crown in the action against Hallett relating to the inclo-
sure of Knighton Wood, was the result of a compromise,
and was therefore of no authority.
Courts were however held in October and November,
1848, at which further encroachments were presented;
INCLOSURHS IN THE FOREST. 345
and with the last of these, the sittings of the Court of
Attachments practically ceased, although, as I have already
stated, there are notes of the holding of another Court on Note in
the 15th January, 1849; ^-t which the Warden claimed works.
to be the sole judge, and refused to allow the Steward of
the Court to act ; while one of the Verderers used violent
and abusive language about the Commissioners. This
was in fact the conclusion of the business. " Finding Evidence
nothing done," said Mr. Copeland, one of the Master comfi863,
keepers, " we gave it up in despair." But another Court ^' ^^1
at which the verderers were present was held at the sweannglf"
King's Head at Chig^ell on the ist August, 1853 ; and ma^offi^of
it is said that Courts continued to be held until 1854. ^denceof
Thus the last of the Forest Courts became extinct, be°fore sS"
after an existence, with some intervals, of at least 700 com. of 1863,
years, and, probably, of a much longer period ; its
actual destruction being due to the inefficiency and
selfishness of its own judges, and not to any attack
from without. But the primary cause of the extinction
of this and of the other Forest Courts, arose many years
earlier. Originally established for ministering to the
King's pleasures in a cruel and half-barbarous age,
the gradual disuse or suspension of those pleasures took
away the principal object of the Forest laws ; and from
the time of the discontinuance of the Court of Justice
Seat, and of its satellite the Swainmote, the Chief Justice
became little more than a figure-head. He could not
summon a Court without the King's writ ; and without
a Court he had no power to punish offences.
The principal occupations of him, and of his suc-
cessors the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, appear
346 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
to have been the granting of licences to cut down woods,
to inclose Forest lands, and to sport ; while the Court of
Attachments registered these licences in the morning,
Attachment and (if we may judge by its order, that every holder of a
RoUs, 3june, \ ,. , ,/ , ' , r •
1723. sporting licence should supply three dozen of wine to its
officers,) made merry in the evening.
If the duty of preserving the deer had become of
less immediate consequence, that of guarding the right
of the Crown to prevent inclosures remained ; and the
Verderers, who, either from timidity or selfishness, first
neglected, and then refused, to enforce the statutory
power which had been given them to abate the in-
closures, and to punish the neglect of their officers ; and
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, who, by
refusing to authorize the prosecution of offenders, made
it impossible to stop the inclosures, and then, as will be
seen in the next chapter, sold the Crown rights over a
great part of the Forest wastes, must be held responsible
for the loss which ensued, not only to the Crown and the
commoners, but to many innocent purchasers of the
inclosed lands. It was fortunate for the people of London
that a time was coming when another public body, which
was neither selfish nor timid, had the wisdom to use its
great resources to remedy much of the mischief.
( 347 )
CHAPTER VIII.
How the Wastes were Disafforested and
made Places of Recreation,
" Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
On this side Tyber : he hath left them you,
And to your heirs for ever j common pleasures.
To w^alk abroad, and recreate yourselves." ^
j A YING thus attempted to trace through many
centuries the history of the Forest, its laws and
customs, and the doings of its Ministers, it remains for
me to describe the events of the next thirty years ; at
the end of which, after many hard fights, the confusion
which had caused the breaking up of the Court of
Attachments, and had been increased by the action
of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in one
direction, and by that of Parliament in another, was
terminated by the full establishment of the rights of the
commoners, and by the purchase, and dedication to the
use of the people, of the soil of the waste lands.
In 1849, ^'^ -A-ct of Parliament was passed, under i2&i3Vict,
• c 81 '
which a commission, commonly known as Lord Portman's
■ Julius Caesar.
348 THE FOREST OF ESSEX
Commission, was appointed to inquire into and to report
upon the rights or claims over the New Forest and
Waltham Forest ; to ascertain the bounds of the Forests,
and of the lands of private owners in them ; to inquire
into purprestures, encroachments, and unlawful inclo-
sures, affecting the forestal rights of the Queen, and the
claims of common and other rights in the Forests ; their
origin, nature, particulars, and probable value ; to con-
sider proposals for extinguishing them ; and to inquire
into the nature and jurisdiction of the Forest Courts, and
the expediency of remodelling or abolishing them.
A great number of persons interested in the Forests
sent in claims^ to the Commissioners, who, in 1850,
presented a report, to which was annexed a very long
sub-report by their secretary ; the latter very inaccurate
as to facts, and both containing many doubtful state-
ments of law, supported for the most part only hy ex parte
opinions which had been given on behalf of the Crown.
The Commissioners made the amazing suggestion that
the Crown should recoup itself for its losses caused by
unlawful inclosures of the wastes (which had happened
by the negligence of its own officers), by making further
inclosures from the remaining wastes without regard to
the rights of the general body of the commoners.
They further proposed that the deer should be
removed, and the Forest disafforested, if the lords and
the owners could agree to settle their disputes ; otherwise,
that the Crown should consider whether it ought to incur
the expense of maintaining its rights over the non-
^ Abstracts of these will be found in the "London Gazette" for
1852.
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 349
demesne parts of the Forest, for the benefit of the local
owners, and without advantage to the Crown or the
public. As to the Crown demesnes, they proposed that
allotments should be made to the commoners of part of
the soil, and that the remainder should be reserved in
absolute severalty to the Crown.
Pending the inquiries under this commission, the Crown
officers did not consider it advisable to incur any expense
in prosecuting cases certified by the verderers under the
Act of 10 George IV., although eleven presentments
were so certified in January and April, 1 849.
In accordance with the advice of the Commissioners,
an Act was passed in 1851, for the disafforestation of i4&isvict.
■ c. 43.
Hainault Forest.
The wastes of this part of the Forest contained ReHainauu
about 4,000 acres, of which 2,842 acres were Crown gcis.'^N.s.
property, known as the King's woods. Of the rest. Rep. sei.
1,104 acres lay in one tract on the north of the King's Evidence,'''
woods, and in the manors of Chigwell and West Hatch, P^' ^^' ^^'
Woolston Hall, Barringtons, Lambourn, and Battle
Hall ; and other detached parts of the waste were in
Navestock and Woodford, and at Tom at Wood's Hill,
on the west of the King's woods.
There were also within Hainault Forest about
13,000 acres of inclosed lands.
About 1,917 acres of the King's woods, upon which
were upwards of 100,000 trees of oak, hornbeam, and
other woods, were allotted to the Crown ^ imder this
* The Crown out of this allotment was to satisfy certain rights
claimed by the lord of the manor of Barking.
350
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Act by way of compensation for its rights of forest, soil,
Report of Sei. timber, and underwood: and the residue remained un-
Com. 1863, - 1.11
Evidence, allotted, the timber upon it being sold to discharge the
p. 59,
expenses incurred under the Act.
The value of the fuel rights of the poor widows of
■Sa/ra, p. 263. Barking and Dagenham, which I have elsewhere men-
tioned, was invested for their benefit; the deer were
removed, and the right of the Crown to keep them taken
away ; and the offices of the Lord Warden and of the
other ministers of the Forest, so far as regarded Hainault,
were made to cease, the holders being compensated.
Rep. of Sei. The Lord Warden received for his compensation
Com. 1863,
Evidence, ^,2^0i.
No provision having been made for disposmg of
the fuel assignments, or for ascertaining the nature of
the rights of common in the unallotted parts of Hainault,
2t & 22 Vict, another Act was passed in 1858, by which it was directed
c. ^7.
that the assignments should be valued and compensated
out of the unallotted lands ; that it should be ascertained
what was the nature of the pasture rights, and whether
they existed indiscriminately over all the commonable
lands within the bounds of the • late Forest, or were
limited, to the particular parish or place in which the
lands which gave the right were situated ; and that the
commonable lands should be apportioned accordingly.
Suj>ra, p. 305. I have stated the result of this inquiry in the chapter
which relates to Common of Pasture.
Sei. Com. of As to the Crown allotments, the expenses of clear-
pp^-jsf 59.' ing, draining, fencing, making roads, and erecting farm
buildings, amounted to 42,000/., which was paid for by
the sale of the timber on the allotments; and in 1863
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 351
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests were able to
boast of a rental of more than 4,000/. per annum received
from the Crown allotments, in lieu of a former precarious
income of 500/. per annum, derived from the occasional
cutting of timber.
It will be remembered, that in 1805 the Commis- Sup-a^-^.^y,.
sioners of Woods and Forests sold the manor of West
Ham, with the wastes and the Crown rights of Forest.
No further sale of these rights was made until 1821,
when the lord of the manor of Higham Hills bought the
forestal rights of the Crown in his wastes. After another
long pause, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests,
under warrants from the Treasury in 1855 and 1857, Rep. ofSei.
continued the sale of the Crown forestal rights down to App. No. 2.
1863 ; and not content with pressing them upon the
lords of the manors, they in effect sanctioned and en-
couraged the illegal inclosures, by inviting those who
held them to buy the Crown rights in the encroachments;
threatening, in one case, to cause the inclosures to be i^.
abated in case of non-purehase ; and justifying their id. Ev. of
action upon the ground that they were bound to deal Howard,
. ... pp. 20, 21.
with the Crown rights in such a manner as to produce
the greatest benefit to the taxpayers, without any regard
to the convenience of the people of the locality, or of any
other less portion of the public. The subject of con- Case sub-
veyance was "All the rights of forest of the Queen's counsel by
Majesty"; but the legal advisers of the Crown refused
to state what would be the effect of the grant.
The average price at which the rights were sold
352
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
was about 5/. per acre ; the entire sums paid being as
follows •} —
1821. Higham Hills /'1.Z32 o
1856. CannHall 232 S
1856 and 1862. Woodford, Ruckholt, and Wanstead .. 1,910 9
1857. Theydon Bois i,3S3 10
1858. Chigwell and West Hatch 1,147 ^
1859. Chingford Earls 9°° • o
i860. Loughton 5,468 13
1863. Sewardstone 3.349 10
/'IS.S93 14
Besides which, in the case of Higham Hills, the
Lord Warden had 352/. as compensation for the loss of
his rights in the manor.^
Hansard, In February, 1863, the House of Commons sent up
vo . I 9. 309. ^^ address to the Crown, praying that directions might
be given, that no sales to facilitate inclosures might be
made of Crown lands or Crown forestal rights within
fifteen miles of the metropolis. And in the same year a
Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to
* I take the figures from the answers of the lords in the suit of
The Commissioners of Sewers v. Glasse. According to the report of the
Select Committee of 1863, the sum was 15,795/. i6j. 6d. Mr. Fawcett,
in moving for an address to the Crown in 1 870, put it at j 8,603/. ' ^^- 3<i-
Perhaps purchases of the rights in encroachments were included.
" This appears to be the only instance in which the Lord Warden
Com. of 1863, ^^g compensated on the sale of forestal rights. Afterwards the Crown
A.A. Collyer officers only took their own purchase-money, and left the Warden's
Bristow.p. 71. trustees without remedy for the loss of their rights, telling them that
they might go and exercise them if they pleased.
Hansard,
14 Feb. 1870.
Rep. of Sel,
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 353
inquire into the condition and management of the Royal
Forests in Essex, and into any inclosures therein since
the report of the Commissioners of 1850, and to consider
whether it might be expedient to take any steps for pre-
serving the open spaces in the Forests, reported, that
Waltham Forest, which anciently comprised a large
portion of the county of Essex, appeared to have been
gradually diminished by inclosures,* and at the time of
perambulation in 17 Car. I. was considered to contain
60,000 acres, of which 48,000 were inclosed private pro-
perty, and 12,000 acres uninclosed woods and wastes,*
and that 2,000 acres mor6 had since been lost to the
Forest by inclosures ; that Hainault had been disafforested,
and that the remaining uninclosed part of Epping Forest
then consisted of about 7,000 acres ; that the forestal
rights of the Crown recommended to be sold by the Land
Revenue Commissioners in 1793, though producing
nothing to the revenues of the country, and an incum-
brance to the owners of the soil, had contributed to keep
in a state of wild forest .land a considerable space of open
ground in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, which
had been a source of health and recreation to many of
its crowded population ; that the forestal rights of the
Crown over 3,5 13 acres had been sold, and that a consider-
able extent of ground had been inclosed without purchase
of the Crown rights over it ; and it was recommended
' It will be seen by perusal of my first chapter that this statement
gives a very inaccurate impression of the facts.
" This quantity tallies somewhat too closely with the report of
1793) which makes the acreage to be then 11,939. But the last
chapter shows that much land was inclosed between the two periods.
F. A A
354 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
that immediate steps should be taken by the Crown to
assert its rights, and to abate the inclosures.
The notices issued from the office of Woods and
Forests inviting encroachers to purchase the Crown rights,
were declared to have had a tendency to encourage en-
croachments, and to have affected injuriously the rights
of the Crown ; and the Committee were of opinion, that
to employ the forestal rights of the Crown to obstruct
the process of inclosure to which the lords, commoners,
and copyholders of the Forest manors were entitled, in
common with all other persons similarly situated, would
be of doubtful justice,- and would probably fail in effect.
They also pointed out that no part of the Crown estates
in Hainault could have been allotted for recreation, but
regretted that when nearly 1,900 acres were allotted to
the Crown, no application was made to Parliament for an
allotment for that purpose. They recommended the ob-
taining the sanction of Parliament for the inclosure of
the residue of the Forest ; the ascertaining the rights of
the parties interested ; and the providing "partly by these
means," and partly by purchase, for securing an adequate
portion of the Forest for the purposes of health and
recreation, for which the Forest had from time imme-
morial been enjoyed by the inhabitants of the neighbour-
hood and the metropolis.
See Hansard, No action was taken on this report, the Committee
vol. 172, _ . . .
col. loss. having failed to point out how their advice was to be
carried into effect.
They were evidently embarrassed by the claims of
those who sought to keep open the Forest wastes as
recreation grounds, without providing compensation to
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 355
the owners of the soil ; it being clear that, except in the
case of village greens and lands dedicated to the public
enjoyment, the people cannot acquire a legal right to
take their recreation at pleasure over the lands of any
person. And although the use of the Forest for recrea-
tion, to which the inhabitants of London had been accus-
tomed for a very long time, might fairly be urged in
support of the argximent that the lands should be pre-
served for public pleasure, it was a very bad reason for
taking it without recompense to the owners ; many of
whom, under pressure from the agents of the Crown, had
been induced to buy, for large sums of money, rights
which they might fairly suppose would give them com-
plete dominion over the land.
In the meantime, the effect of the sale of the Crown
rights was, that the lords of the manors, relieved from
the restrictions imposed by the Forest laws against the
cutting the woods, and inclosing the wastes, very naturally
began to recoup themselves for their expenditure, by
granting portions of the wastes to purchasers, and by
making large inclosures on their own account.
The commoners, a scattered and feeble folk, were
very little considered. The nature of their rights being
ignored, or not understood, it was contended that they
could only turn out their cattle upon the wastes of the
manors in which their lands were situate, and that the
absence of boundary fences alone, was the foundation of
the right or practice of allowing them to stray over the
wastes of the other Forest manors. In some manors the Rep. of Sei.
Courts were held very irregularly; and if any one attended Evidence, '
A A 2
356 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
for the purpose of objecting to grants of the waste, the
Court at which they were to be made was not opened
till eight or nine o'clock at night, when the wearied
objectors had departed. In one manor the homage
summoned consisted of persons who were to receive
grants of waste ; when it came to the turn of one of them
to receive a piece of land he retired from the homage
and another took his place; and when the grant had
been made to him, he returned to his post and assisted
in granting land to others. Thus the rights of the com-
moners were overridden by collusive acts which in theory
were done according to the custom of the manor. In
other manors, with an exception to be presently mentioned,
the commoners were left to take any remedy which they
could find.
Answers of The foUowing inclosures were thus made, for the
Com. of most part at or shortly after the purchases of the Crown
Giasse. ' rights in the manors in which the lands were situate.
In Wanstead, between 1852 and 1869, there were
102 inclosures containing over 286 acres. Two of these
contained 46 acres each, and another 18 acres; but the
general average of each was only about 2f acres.
In Woodford, in and between the same years, 146
inclosures, containing over 205 acres ; the largest piece
being only 6 acres.
In Ruckholt, in and between 1857 and 1869, 22
inclosures, containing more than 4 1 acres.
In Aldersbrook, in 1852, one inclosure of over 9
acres.
In Westham, in 1856, all the waste.
In Higham Hills, 4 inclosures in and between 1 85 1
now THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 357
and 1 866, containing more than 96 acres ; besides many
small inclosures.
In Chingford Earls, in 1859, 67 acres with some
small pieces.
In Chigwell and West Hatch, in and after 1851, 69
inclosures, besides in the Epping division of the Forest ;
one containing 75 acres, and another 85 acres, the rest
being small pieces.
In Sewardstone, in and between 1859 and 1870,
over 271 acres, of which the lord had 238 acres.
In Loughton, in and between 1851 and 1871, 167
inclosures or grants, of which the lord had 8, amounting
to about 939 acres ; the rest being mostly very small
pieces granted as compensation for rights of common.
In Theydonbois, after 1857, over 305 acres.
In Epping, 3 or 4 acres.
In Waltham Holy Cross, 12 or 13 acres.
In Chingford St. Paul's, about 1853, more than 190 Rep. ofSei.
acres. Evidence,
pp. 44, 49-
It was only in the manor of Loughton, that an
attempt was made to compensate the commoners as a
body, for the loss of their pasture rights, by grants of
small portions of the waste, or by the payment of
money.
It will be remembered that this was the manor in
which the right of lopping still subsisted as a common
right ; and the inclosure and attempted sale of parts of
the waste, upon which there were pollards subject to be
lopped, was the cause of the earliest attempt to stay the
destruction of the Forest by a suit in the Court of
358 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Chancery. This was begun in 1866^ by Thomas Will-
ingale, a Loughton labourer (who was supported by
some members of the Commons Preservation Society),
L.R. 3Eq. against the lord of that manor. A preliminary legal
'°^' objection was decided in favour of the plaintiff, but it
was afterwards found that the origin of the right claimed
had been mistaken; and neither this, nor another suit
brought against the lord of the same manor, by a plaintiff
named Castell, were ever brought to a hearing.
Hansard, As iuclosures Still Continued, a motion was made
vol. 199,
c. 246. and carried by Mr. Fawcett in the House of Commons
in 1870, for an address to the Queen; which, as altered
according to a suggestion made on the part of the
Government, prayed that Her Majesty would take such
measures as in her judgment she might deem most
expedient, in order that Epping Forest might be pre-
served as an open space for the recreation and enjoyment
of the public.
In accordance with this resolution a Bill was pre-
c^'1272' ^°^' P^^^d by the Government in the same session, by which
it was proposed, that of the 3,000 acres which then
remained uninclosed, the lords should give up 1,000
acres to be vested in three commissioners, with power
to sell 400 acres in order to provide compensation for the
commoners; and the remaining 600 acres, with any part
of the 400 acres which the Metropolitan Board of Works
might think fit to purchase, were to be for the use of the
public : the Crown rights which remained being given
Hansard ' ■'■'^ ^^^^ J'^^'' ^^^ Forest was transferred from the Commissioners of
vol. 208, Woods and Forests to the Commissioners of Works,
c. 1645.
BOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 359
Up, and the costs of the Bill being borne by the Govern-
ment. The Bill was too late for the session, but it was
announced for reintroduction in the following session.
As the Government did not intend to buy the rights
of recreation for the public, who had no legal rights of
their own, the proposal was certainly not unreasonable
on the part of the lords ; but it failed to satisfy those
who desired to keep open the whole Forest. And in
April, 1 87 1, a motion by Lord Mount-Temple, then Hansard,
Mr. Cowper Temple, in the House of Commons, was coi. 1852.
carried, against the opposition of the Government, "that
it was expedient that means be adopted in accordance
with the address presented to the Queen in February,
1870, for preserving as open space, accessible to Her
Majesty's subjects for purposes of health and recreation,
those parts of Epping Forest which have not been in-
closed with the assent of the Crown or by legal
authority."
This led to the passing of the Epping Forest Act, 34 & 3S vict.
• C. 93,
1 87 1, by which Commissioners were appomted to con-
tinue as to Waltham Forest the inquiries, and to exercise
the powers given by the Act of 12 & 13 Vict, as regarded
it and the New Forest; to prepare a scheme for dis-
afforestation, and for preserving and managing the
waste lands ; and to suggest how the expenses of com-
pensating the persons whose rights were affected by the
scheme, and of managing the waste lands, and other
expenses, should be defrayed.
But on the 14th August, 1871, which was exactly
a week before this Act received the Royal assent, the
360 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Corporation of London began the proceedings, by means
of which the difficulties which had beset the matter for
so many years, were at last overcome.
The Corporation, being entitled by prescription and
charter, to certain dues in respect of the compulsory
35 & 36 Vict, metage of grain imported into London, obtained an Act
of Parliament in 1871, by which a small fixed duty, pay-
able for thirty years, was substituted for the metage
dues ; and was directed to be held by the Corporation
for the preservation of open spaces in the neighbourhood
of London, but not within the metropolis ; and power
was given to the Corporation, to borrow for this purpose
on the credit of the duty and of their estates and revenues,
sums not exceeding ;^90,ooo.
It was determined to apply these resources in rescuing
the wastes of Epping Forest from inclosure, by asserting
the rights of the commoners against the lords of the
manors ; a course which in several manors in the neigh-
bourhood of London had already been adopted with
success.
It happened that the Commissioners of Sewers of
the City of London, a body closely connected with the
Corporation, were the owners of about 200 acres of land
within the Forest, and situate in Aldersbrook, in the
parishes of Little Ilford and Barking, and in the manor
of Wanstead. Part of this estate had been converted
into a cemetery, but the rest was used as a farm from
which cattle were turned out upon the Forest waste in
Wanstead ; and it being still assumed that the rights of
common were manorial rights, it was proposed that the
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFEORESTED. 361
Commissioners should proceed in the Court of Chancery
against the lords of that manor, to restrain the inclosures
of its wastes ; and that suits should also be brought for
the same purpose, against the lords of the other Forest
manors who had inclosed, by some of their commoners.
The event showed that even if this mode of proceeding
had succeeded in some of the Forest manors, it must have
failed in others, on the evidence ; and for another reason
to be presently mentioned, it would probably have been
entirely abortive.
Being requested at this time to advise the Corpora-
tion as -to the best mode of attaining its object, I came
to the conclusion, after examining a number of ancient
documents relating to the Forest which were submitted
to me by Mr. Robert Hunter, acting as agent for the
City Solicitor, that the rights of the commoners were
neither of a manorial character, nor confined to the
wastes of the particular manor in which the lands which
gave the rights were situate; but that each commoner
had the right of pasture, which I have described in a
former chapter, over the whole waste of the Forest;
that this right being, according to the Forest laws
or regulations already mentioned, founded upon the
situation of the commoners' land within the Forest,
was not affected by the sale of the forestal rights
of the Crown over the wastes, to the lords of the
manor or other purchasers ; and that the Corpora-
tion could proceed against all the lords, in respect of
their inclosures made within the last twenty years in
one suit; each inclosure being an infringement of the
362 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
general right of all the commoners throughout the whole
Forest.^
It was necessary, in order to stop the inclosures
which were rapidly proceeding in Wanstead, to com-
mence the legal proceedings without waiting to ascertain
if the practice of the Forest commoners agreed with this
Com. of view of their rights f in accordance with which, on the
Sewers v. _, .
Giasse. 14th August, 1 87 1, a bill was filed in the Court of
Rep. of Chancery by the Commissioners of Sewers (who were
and Finance indemnified by the Corporation) on behalf of themselves
p. s. ' and the other owners and occupiers of legally inclosed
lands in the Forest against the lords of sixteen manors,
the Attorney-General, and (by amendment) against two
purchasers of illegally-inclosed lands, to establish the
rights of the owners of lands in the Forest and their
occupiers, to pasture their commonable cattle on the
Forest wastes, and to restrain the inclosure and digging
up of the soil.
In the next session of Parliament an attempt was
made to get rid of the suit of the Corporation by means
' It was impossible at that time to sue a number of persons in one
action, for the purpose of establishing distinct rights against each of
them ; but a general right might be claimed against a number of
persons who infringed it, though the rights of the latter were distinct.
^ This was effected, under the superintendence of Mr. Hunter, by
the late Mr. George Mickelwright, by whose industry, patience, and
acuteness in ascertaining the facts from a great number of aged resi-
dents, the ancient practice of the Forest within living memory and by
tradition, was found entirely to bear out the inference drawn from the
entries on the rolls of the Forest Courts, and from the ancient claims.
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 363
of an Act for enlarging the powers of the Commissioners
appointed in 1871. Several other actions relating to the Epping Forest
. *^ _ ' ° Amendment
illegal inclosures were then pending, and it was proposed Act, 1872.
to stay proceedings in all of them. But in consequence
of a strong opposition, led by Mr. Cowper Temple, the
Bill was withdrawn from the House of Commons and intro-
duced into the House of Lords, and by it referred to a
Select Committee ; which, after hearing counsel, excepted
the suit of the Corporation from the provision by which
all legal proceedings were to be stayed, and further pro-
ceedings, without the consent of the Commissioners, for-
bidden, until after their final report. This was done upon
the ground that the suit of the Corporation had already
raised the questions of law, the determination of which
would probably be necessary or convenient, before the
Commissioners could report.
It can hardly be doubted that if the Corporation
had proceeded separately against the lord of each
manor, as originally proposed, the enormous litigation
would have been stopped by Parliament, and the whole
matter would have been left to the Epping Forest
Commissioners.
About this time the Forest Court of Attachments
was revived for a short time. Colonel Palmer being the
only surviving Verderer, a writ for an election of three
Verderers to fill the vacancies, was issued to the Sheriff of
Essex ; and Sir Antonio Brady, Mr. Thomas White, an
Alderman of London, and Mr. Wythes were elected.
The Verderers held Courts at the Castle Hotel at Woodford,
364 THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Rep. of Coal, oti the 1 6th September and the 26th October, 1871;
&c. Com. of , . . , , , ^ ft
Corpn. 1876, and It was determined at the latter Court to refer the
^' ' presentments which had been made of unlawful inclosures
of nearly 3,000 acres of waste to the Swainmote, in order
that they might be there tried by a jury according to the
Forest law. It is not probable that any advantage would
have been gained by this proceeding ; for even if the
attempt to restore the Swainmote had succeeded (which
could not have happened without the assistance of the
Lord Warden, who presided at it), that Court had no
power to abate the inclosures. But the result was,
that after an attempt by the lords to dispute in the
Queen's Bench the powers, such as they were, of the
revived Court of Attachments, its proceedings were
suspended by the Epping Forest Act, 1872, already
mentioned.
The Epping Forest Commissioners of 1871 carried
out their duties by perambulating the bounds of the
uninclosed wastes within the regard of the Forest'
adopting, so far as they could be ascertained, the bounds
laid down in 16 Charles I., but omitting Nazing Park,
which had become an inclosed limited pasture ; and they
ascertained what parts of the wastes had been inclosed,
within twenty years ^ before the passing of the Act from
which they derived their powers.
' Adopting in this respect the principle followed in the suit of the
Corporation, that having regard to the then Statute of Limitations, it
would be useless to dispute inclosures which had practically been
undisturbed for twenty years.
134-
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 365
They also heard elaborate argnments by counsel
for all parties who claimed an interest in the Forest, in
the course of which they sat for 102 days, and heard Rep. ofCoai,
and recorded 21,853 answers to questions put to 239 Finance Com.
. . to Court of
witnesses ; besides examining the immense mass of Common
Council,
documents relating to the Forest, its Courts, and the 28 June, 1875.
proceedings and correspondence of the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests.^
On the 24th November, 1874, pending these in-L. r. igEq.
quiries, a decree was pronounced by Sir George Jessel,
then Master of the Rolls, in the suit of the Corporation
against the lords of the Forest manors, the arguments
and examinations in which — conducted for the Cor-
poration by Mr. (now Justice) Manisty, Mr. (now
Lord Justice) Fry, the late Mr. Joshua Williams, Q.C.,
and myself, and by a great number of counsel for
the different defendants — had occupied twenty- three
days. The decree declared, that the owners and
occupiers of lands (not being waste) in the Forest, were
entitled in right of their lands within the Forest, to
common of pasture on the Forest wastes for all manner
of cattle (that is to say, neat beasts and horses)
commonable in the Forest, levant and couchant upon
their lands, according to the assize and customs of the
Forest.
The Corporation, waiving their right to an injunction,
' Such of the documents as were in the possession of the Crown
were produced under the advice of Mr. P. H. Lawrence, who was
then solicitor for the department.
366 THE FOREST OF ESSEX
in respect of lands which had been actually built upon
or used as gardens or curtilages of houses before the
commencement of the suit, or which had been actually-
inclosed for twenty years, were also declared to be
entitled to an injunction to restrain the other inclosed
Forest wastes from remaining inclosed or built upon.
And the future inclosure of or building upon the Forest
wastes, was also forbidden.
In March, 1875, the Epping Forest Commissioners
made their preliminary report. They found that the
inclosures made within twenty years before the passing
of the Act by which they were appointed, were unlawful
against the Crown and the commoners where the Forest
rights had not been, and against the commoners where
they had been, released. As to the rights of the com-
moners, they reported in accordance with the decree of
the Master of the Rolls.
They also found that the wastes within the regard
of the Forest contained t,02\a. or. 28|-/., of which
3,oi4<a;. ir. 6f/. were open waste, and 3,006(3:. 3r. 2\\p.
were inclosed {i. e. unlawfully) ; that the forestal rights had
been released over 3,558«. ir. lof/., and remained over
2,462(2. 3r. ij^p-; and that although the public had long
wandered over the Forest wastes without let or hindrance,
the Commissioners could find no legal right to such user.
Soon after the date of this report, the Corporation of
London began to purchase the soil of the open waste
lands of the Forest manors.
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 367
In 1875 they bought those of Chingford a. r. p.
St. Paul 275 3 II
In 1876 those of Loughton .... 992 3 36
Waltham Holy Cross . 768 025
Higham Hills and
Woodford . . . 122 2 33
Sewardstone . . . 674 i 20
Cann Hall .... 72 3 35
Chingford Earls . . 141 2 9
3,048 2 9
together with the forestal rights of the Crown, in those
manors in which the lords had acquired them.
In 1877 the Epping Forest Commissioners, whose i March, 1877.
powers had been extended by further Acts passed in
1875 ^"^^ 1876, signed their final report; in which, after
dealing with several subordinate matters, including a
report that they were unable to find evidence sufficient
to establish the claim of the Corporation to hunt in the
Forest, they presented their scheme for the disafforesta-
tion of the Forest, and the preservation and management
of the waste lands as an open space for recreation.
It is not necessary to state the details of this scheme,
which was superseded by the Epping Forest Act, 1878.
But a strong objection was made to their proposal that
the grantees of inclosures declared to be illegal both by
the decree of the Master of the Rolls, and by the prelimi-
nary report of the Commissioners themselves, should be
allowed to keep them on payment of rent-charges. A
result of this proposal was that Mr. George Burney, one
368
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
Report of
Epping For.
Com. of Con-
servators
(■883), p. 32.
of the Forest commoners, assisted by a number of work-
men, removed the fences of several of these inclosures.
The consequent Htigation involved him in heavy expenses,
a considerable part of which was repaid to him by the
Corporation, on the ground that his action materially
influenced the Government, in disregarding the recom-
mendation that these inclosures should remain.
cap. ccxm.
The Government, with the assent of the Corporation,
now proceeded to a final settlement of the matter by
41 & 42 Vict, passing the Epping Forest Act, 1878; a great part of
which (excluding the arbitration and some other clauses)
is in the words of the scheme prepared by me for the
Corporation of London, and submitted by them to the
Epping Forest Commissioners.
The Act disafforested Epping Forest, and put an
end, as regarded it, to the Crown rights of vert and
venison, the Forest Courts and offices, and the burdens
and restrictions of the Forest laws and customs. The
words " Epping . Forest," were however limited in
meaning, to the lands delineated on the plan annexed to
the final report of the Epping Forest Commissioners, as
ascertained by them ; and as these only consisted of the
waste lands, the inclosed lands within the regard of the
Forest are still technically Royal forest, and subject to
the Forest laws and customs ; and in respect of them,
the commoners may perhaps still claim their rights, as
well as under this Act, by which they were expressly
continued. The Act does not in any way deal with the
Crown rights in the Forest purlieus, and these may in
fact be considered to be obsolete.
Sect. 4.
Sect. I.
Sect. 5.
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 369
Power was given to the Queen to appoint a Ranger ; Sect. 2.
which she exercised by appointing the Duke of Connaught
and Stratheafn, K.G. The only duties attached by the Sects. 33, 37,
Act to the office, are the approval of the scale of rental
for the commoners, the appointment and removal of
some of the officers of the Conservators, and approval of
the amount of their fees or salaries and pensions; the
allowance of bye-laws, and matters relating to the police.
The Corporation of London were appointed Con- Sects. 3, 4, 8.
servators of the Forest. The deer were transferred to
them as objects of ornament in the Forest, and Queen
Elizabeth's Lodge, as an object of public and antiquarian
interest. Their duty is to keep the Forest unbuilt upon sect. 7.
and otherwise to protect and manage it (with large powers. Sect. 33.
of regulation) as an Open Space for the recreation and .
enjoyment of the public, and to preserve its natural
aspect, its ancient remains, and its timber and underwood ;
and to make bye-laws for its regulation. Sect. 36.
The illegally inclosed lands, except such as on 14th
August, 1 87 1, were already built upon, or inclosed, and
used as gardens and curtilages, and some others, were
directed to be thrown open ; the value of the soil, Sect. n.
minerals, and timber being paid for by the Conservators ;
who were also required to purchase such of the wastes
actually lying open, as had not already been acquired by Sect. 12.
the Corporation.
The Conservators were also to buy up or compensate Sect. 13 and
the owners of the lopping rights over the Loughton and 2. '
wastes, and of the fuel assignments, and rights of
digging gravel ; the holders of the office of Lord Warden,
and some other small rights.
F. BB
3 7o THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
The owners of the waste lands not thrown open
were to pay for the quieting of their titles, such sums as
Sects. 10—13, should be fixed by Sir Arthur (now Lord) Hobhouse, the
16, 18, &c. . •' ^ '
Arbitrator appointed by the Act, by whom all disputed
questions were to be settled, and whose awards were
made absolutely conclusive upon all persons, including-
the Crown.
Sects. 29, 33 The Act also preserved the right of the Forest
parishes to nominate Reeves, whose appointments are to
be completed by the Conservators.
Sect. 30. It appointed Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., Sir
Antonio Brady, Mr. Thomas Charles Baring, and Mr.
Andrew Johnston to be Verderers until the 25th March,
1880 ; and provided that succeeding Verderers should be
appointed by the registered commoners ; the qualification
being residence in one of the Forest parishes, or mem-
bership of the Court of Common Council of the City of
London. The Verderers hold office for seven years, and
casual vacancies are filled up by the Conservators. But
the duties of the modern Verderers, like those of the
modern Ranger, have very little connection with the
duties attached to the ancient offices.
Sect. 31. The Conservators act by a committee of twelve,
called the Epping Forest Committee, selected by the
Court of Common Council. The Verderers are members
of this Committee, but have no special powers.
Rep. of Epp. The labours of the Arbitrator occupied four years.
For. Com- . . ■'
mitteeof On the 24th July, 1882, he signed his final award, and
Dec. i'882. the map of the Forest wastes, which were thenceforth to
constitute Epping Forest. For the purposes of the arbi-
HOW THE WASTES WERE DISAFFORESTED. 371
tration he held 114 public and many private meetings,
and made 787 orders ; and heard counsel, and received
the testimony of a great number of witnesses on the
many questions in dispute.
In accordance with his judgment, the fuel assign-
ments in Waltham Holy Cross and Sewardstone, were
extinguished on payment by the Corporation of
12,922/. 13^. as compensation, increased by the costs Rep- of Epp.
•' For. Com.
and other expenses to about 15,000/. ; and the rights of of corpu.,
lopping in Loughton on payment of the value of 7,000/. j^ p jg.
Consols; of this amount, 1,000/. was distributed among
the cottagers who had exercised the rights, and the rest
was paid to trustees as the foundation of a charity, to be
called " The Lopping Endowment," for which a scheme
was prepared by the Arbitrator. The sums to be paid
by the holders of such of the illegally inclosed wastes as
were not thrown open, in order to quiet their titles (the
fixing of which involved questions of great difficulty),
and by the Corporation for the purchase of the soil of
those which were thrown open, and for the yet un-
purchased open wastes with the timber upon them, were
also ascertained : and the compensation for the remaining
rights of the Lord Warden was fixed at 300/., and for
certain rights of digging gravel in the manor of Leyton
at 800/.
In the whole, the Corporation paid out of the metage id.,
of grain duty for the purchase of the soil and timber of pp. 36, 37.
the waste lands, and for the extinction of the wood
and other rights, including interest and the costs of the
conveyances, no less a sum than 227,117/. 16^. %d.,
reduced, however, by somewhat more than 21,000/.
B B 2
372
THE FOREST OF ESSEX.
received for land sold, the quieting of titles, and other
sources. And they paid besides nearly 33,500/. for the
expenses incurred in Parliament, in the litigation before
the Epping Forest Commission and the Court of Chancery,
and in the protection of the Forest pending the proceed-
ings ; without reckoning the costs of improvements and
management, down to the completion of the arbitration.
The Forest was thrown open to the public by the
Queen at High Beech in the presence of a large assem-
blage of people, on the 6th May, 1882. And thus, by
the exertions and at the sole cost of the Corporation of
London, a district originally taken from the ancient folk-
land for the exclusive use of the Sovereigns, was, after
many centuries, dedicated by the hands of their Successor
to the use and enjoyment of her Subjects.
( 373 )
APPENDIX.
THE YERDERERS.
1250. Hundreds of Tendring and Lexenden at Alrefen.
Dominns Johannes de Boxstede.
Thomas Neward.
Hundreds of Turstapele and Wensetri, and half hundred
of Lexenden at Tiptre.
Robertus de Wintreflod, in the parts of Lexenden.
Ricardus de Andhonte, in the parts of Wensetri.
Ricardus filius Ada de Legera, in the parts of Turstapele.
Half hundreds of Wyham and Felstede.
Galfridus de Slaunundeshoe.
Radulphus de Stentone.
Hundreds of Chelmersford and Danesei.
Chelmersford.
Johannes de Bedelestede.
Bartolomeus filius fulconis.
Danesei.
Johannes de Walflet.
Radulphus de la Haya.
374 APPENDIX.
1250. Hundreds of Berdestaple and Chafford.
Chafford.
Dominus Henricus de Helehetone.
Dominus Willelmus Toral.
Berdestaple.
Simon de Duntone.
Thomas de Mockinge.
Half hundred of Chelmersford, in the parts of Writele.
Bertolomeus filius fulconis.
Hundred of Aungre and half hundred of Wantham.
Aungre.
Elija de la Frit.
Gregorius de Taydene.
Wantham.
Gilbertus de Eppinge.
Rogeras Levenoth.
Simon Sakesper.
Before 1277 Hamo, the Clerk.
1277, Half hundred of Lexenden.
Richard Baynard.
Half hundred of Wesentre.
Richard de Gilbeerake.
Half hundred of Thurstapele.
Luke de Aldeholte.
Hundred of Aungre.
Nicholas de Bruera.
William de Marny.
THE VERDERERS. 375
mi. Hundred of Wantham.
Adam le Gaunt.
Roger Levenoth.
1285. Regards of Chelmersford and Aungre.
Hubert de Waleys.
William de la Haye.
William de la Laneshende.
Walter de la Grane.
William Baudewin.
John Gobynn.
Robert le Norris.
Jeffery le Rous.
Adam de la Claye.
John Den.
Edmund de Nastok.
Adam le Gaunt.
John de la Mere.
John de la Donne.
Richard Bassingbourn.
1292. Regard of Aungre.
Adam le Gaunt.
Walter de Halefield.
lS23-!t. Half hundred of Wantham.
Vincent of Hertford.
Walter of Halyfield.
For the Forest.
1366. Radulphus Asselyn.
Thomas Smyth.
lJj.89. Robert Plomer.
William Wything.
Edward Waren.
Thomas Broke of Berkyng.
Ilfi5, Richard Barley.
Edward Waren.
376 APPENDIX.
For the Forest — continued.
1590. Francis Stonard.
1594. Thomas Colshill.
Barnard Whetston.
Francis Stacye.
Before 1630 Clement Stonard.
Edward Elrington.
John Barefoote.
William Cooke.
Barnard Whetstone.
John Pennington.
John Haies ■) Removed by the King's writ as unfitted
William Roe j for the office.
1630. Sir Thomas Fanshawe.
Tobie Wood.
Carew Hervy, otherwise Mildmay.
1631. Sir Nicholas Cooke.
Sir Thomas Fanshawe.
Toby Wood.
Edward Elrington.
Carew Harvy, otherwise Mildmay.
1634. John Wood.
Henry Elrington.
Charles Hervey, otherwise Mildmay.
William Conyers.
1637-8. Toby Wood.
Edward Keighley.
William Conyers.
1638-9. Charles Hervey, otherwise Mildmay.
John Wood.
William Conyers.
John Goulding.
I64I. Charles Maynard.
Edward Keighley.
Carew Harvey, otherwise Mildmay.
Edward Palmer.
THE VERDERERS. ill
For the Forest — continued.
leip.. Toby Wood.
Carew Hervey, otherwise Mildmay.
William Conyers.
Edward Keighley.
1Q^0. Carew Hervey, otherwise Mildmay.
George Scott.
Henry Wollaston.
William Maynard.
1670-1. Sir William Holcroft.
ni$, William Scott.
William Nutt.
John Wroth.
Carew Hervey, alias Mildmay.
ni8. Sir Thomas Webster, Bart., vice Wroth.
1721. Sir John Eyies, Bart., vice Nutt.
1725. Sir Henry Maynard, vice Scott.
1739. William Harvey, vice Maynard.
171^3. William Harvey, vice Harvey.
John Conyers, vice Carew Hervey, alias Mildmay.
171^5. John Goodere, vice Eyles.
1751. Crisp Gascoyne, afterwards Sir C. Gascoyne, vice Webster.
1757. Richard Lockwood, vice Goodere.
1762. Bamber Gascoyne,' vice Sir C. Gascoyne.
1767. Sir William Wake, Bart., vice Harvey.
1771. William Harvey, vice Conyers.
1779. John Conyers, vice Harvey.
1785. Eliab Harvey, afterwards SirE. Harvey, K.C.B., vice Wake.
1792. Sir William Smyth, Bart., vice Gascoyne.
1798. Montagu Burgoyne, vice Richard Lockwood.
1812. William Joseph Lockwood, vice Smijth.
1830. Henry John Conyers, vice John Conyers.
1831. William St. Julien Arabin, vice Harvey.
* His daughter and heiress married the second Marquis of Salisbury.
He appears among James Bayer's political caricatures, under date
6th March, 1782.
378 APPENDIX.
For the Forest — continued.
Before 18li3. J. P. Lockwood.
William Whitaker Maitland ; and
George Palmer, Junr., who survived his co-Verderers.
Appointed [ ^'^ Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart.
byEpping J Sir Antonio Brady.
Forest Act, \ „, , , 1
2575, ( Thomas Charles Baring.
Andrew Johnston.
THE FORESTERS.
Chief or Riding Foresters.
1250. Hundreds of Tendring and Lexeden at Alrefen.
Robertus de Musso.
Adam de ToUeshunte.
Hundreds of Turstapele and Wensetre, and half hundred
of Lexeden at Tiptre.
Wilhelmus del feu.
Half hundreds of Wyham and Felsted.
Johannes de Aungres.
Hundreds of Chelmersford and Danesei.
Radulphus Hotot.
Hundreds of Berdelstaple and Chafforde.
Rogerus Elis.
Half hundred of Chelmersford, in parts of Writele.
Robertus Page.
Jordanus de Rammesden.
THE FORESTERS. 379
1250. Hundred of Aungre, and half hundred of Wantham
Holy Cross.
Petrus filius de Johannis.
Bailiwick of Alrefen and Kingswood.
Alouil25S. Symon Norman | .^^ ^^^
1^92. Ralph de Mareschall )
1285. Regard of Aungre.
Richard de Hurst.
Roger Levenote.
Regard of Chelmsford.
Roger Bolle.
John de Wolanston (in fee, Horsefrith).
Hubert de Mamy.
John Scurel.
1^92. Hundred of Bekentre.
John de Chigwell.
and 1292. ] ^^^^ hundred of Waltham.
Henry Fitzaucher (in fee), vested in the Abbot of
Waltham in the 14th century.
The Forest.
1366.
Simon Wynd.
John Colfr.
John Burghers.
Richard Leyton.
Riding Forester
1flS9.
John Froste.
1589.
Robert Wroath.
1641.
Endimion Porter.
1707.
Francis Harvey, alias Mildmay.
38o APPENDIX.
The Forest — continued.
1720.
Carew Mildmay.
1723.
Baron Suasso.
17It3.
Vacant till—
17VI.
Hon. Josiah Child.
1760.
Charles Raymond, afterwards Sir Charles Raymond, Bart.
1788.
Vacant till—
17H.
The Rev. Thomas Abdy Abdy, Clerk.
1800.
John Bullock.
1808.
William Bosanquet.
1813.
John Rigg.
Aioutl817.
John Wright.
Chief Foresters or Master Keepers.
U89. Bailiwick of Stratford.
John Pagynton.
Bailiwick of Inholt.
Matthew Sharden.
Bailiwick of Waltham.
Thomas Austyn.
Bailiwick of Ongre.
Christopher Stubbys.
U95. Half hundred of Waltham.
Robert Cot.
Hundred of Ongar.
Reginald Moore.
East or Chappie Hainault Walk.
1590. Sir Henry Graye.
Before 1630. Sir Gawin Hervy.
THE FORESTERS. 381
East or Chappie Hainault Walk — continued.
1630. Sir Henry Edmonds.
16J^. Anthony Eyres.
1707. John Cross.
1713, William Graham.
1724. Sir John Eyles, Bart.
1726. Lord Castlemain, afterwards Richard Earl of Tylney.
17 Ag, John Earl of Tylney.
1771, Andrew Moffat.
17S5, Samuel Pole.
17S8. John MoiFatt.
27gQ, William Raikes.
ISOl. William Matthew Raikes.
ISIJ^. Jeremiah Harman.
Lamborne and Chigwell Walk.
1590. Robert Wroth.
1707. William Harvey' (Lamborne).
1725. Lord Castlemain, afterwards Richard Earl of Tylney.
1749, John Earl of Tylney.
1771, Charles Raymond, afterwards Sir C. Raymond, Bart.
17S5, John Williams.
Job Mathew.
1802. ' John Rutherforth Abdy.
Epping Walk.
15Q0, Sir Thomas Heneage.
161/1, James Earl of Carlisle.
1707. Sir Thomas Webster.
1725, Whisler Webster.
1753, Godfrey Webster.
1782. John Conyers.
1830. Henry Jqhn Conyers.
' In several of the Rolls the names of William Harvey and of
William Harvey, Junr., keeper of Loughton Walk, appear to have been
transposed by mistake.
382 APPENDIX.
Fairmead or New Lodge Walk.
lesif. Edward Earl of Norwich.
1101. Late Robert Sotherby.
niS. .... Southerby.
nii2. William Sotheby.
1744. Edward Southerby, sworn 1747.
1188. William Southeby.
1823. W. Sotheby to October, 1848.
18It.8. Charles Sotheby.
Woodford Walk.
1590.
Robert Lee, or Leigh.
hforeieSO
Sir Robert Wroth.
William Earl of Pembroke (with Loughton).
1630.
Sir Robert Hatton.
Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery (with Loughton)
1707.
Robert Bullock.
1713.
Robert Chester.
1733.
Sir Joseph Eyles.
17IfO.
Sir Joseph Hankey.
1770.
Charles Foulis.
1785.
Samuel Bosanquet.
1803.
John Rigg.
1813.
Sir Robert Wigram, Bart.
1831.
Peter Mallard.
Walthamstow Walk.
1590. William Roe.
Before 1630 Sir Robert Wroth, with Loughton, Woodford, and Leyton.
163J^&16^1 Sir Thomas Hatton.
Sir Henry Rowe.
1707. Late Sir Josiah Child.
ni3. Rowland Wifine.
1718-19. Christopher Crow.
1737. William Hunt.
THE FORESTERS. 383
Walthamstow Walk — contintted.
nifi. John Earl of Tylney.
2750. Theophilus Salway.
1160. Peter Newman.
1771. Anthony Bacon.
1779. John Bristow.
11182. George Biggin.
1186. Thomas Grosvenor.
1795. George Bowles.
About 1811. Charles Callis Western.
18S1. Thomas Baucutt Mash.
1851. Alderman W. T. Copeland.
Loughton Walk.
1590. Robert Wroth, with Chingford.
Before 1630 Robert Wroth.
William Earl of Pembroke, with Woodford.
In 1630 ) ^^^ Thomas Lake.
and 1641. ] Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, with Wood-
1707. William Harvey. ford.
1714. William Harvey, Junr.
1743. James Langston and
James Haughton, and the survivor of them.
1750. James Langston, formerly James Houghton.
1711. James Houghton Langston.
1795. William Mellish.
1857. . . . Marsh.
Chingford Walk.
ISgO. Robert Wroth, with Loughton.
1634. Edward Earl of Norwich, with Epping.
1101. Robert Boothby.
113S. Thomas Boothby (Frances his wife and Robert his son
for their lives and the life of the survivor).
2135. Frances Boothby.
384 APPENDIX.
Chingford Walk — continued.
1737. Benj" Moyer [in right of his wife late widow of Thos.
Boothby.]
1760. Robert Boothby.
1777. John Heathcote.
1785. Frances Moyer, widow.
1812. Lydia Heathcote.
1857. .... Whiteman.
Leyton and Wanstead Walk.
1590. Thomas Powle. \-r .
_159Ji. Ralph Colston. ) ^^'^^'
Before 1630 Sir Robert Wroth (with Loughton, Woodford, and Walt-
I634. Sir Robert Quarles (with West Hennalt). hamstow).
1709. • • • Doleman.
1713. Jeremiah Gough.
1716. Sir Richard Child.
1'}'17. John Letheiulier.
1737. Richard Earl of Tylney.
1749. John Earl of Tylney.
1785. Sir James Tylney Long, Bart.
1796. William Bullock.
1813. Charles Danvers.
1831. William Richard Arthur Long Wellesley, afterwards Earl
of Mornington.
West Hainault Walk.
1590. Sir Henry Graye, with Chappie Haynault.
Before 1630 Richard Hart.
Christopher Hamond.
^^^^- Sir Robert Quarles.
^^^- Francis Petre.
^'^07. George Smith.
^'^^^- Sir Richard Child, afterwards Viscount Castlemain, and
1720-21. John Prince. Earl of Tylney.
^'^^9- John Earl of Tylney.
■^' '•^- Charles Raymond, afterwards Sir C. Raymond, Bart.
THE REGARDERS. 385
West Hainault Walk-
-continued.
1785.
John Williams.
1790.
Donald Cameron.
1797.
James Hatch.
1807.
Charles Smith.
1812.
John Maitland.
1831.
Charles Sotheby.
THE REGARDERS.
1250. Hundreds of Turstapele and Wensetri and half hundred
of Lexenden at Tippetri.
Ricardus de Wiremundeforde, in the parts of Turstapele.
Rogerus de Ponte, in the same 'parts.
Willelmus de Oxstone, in the parts of Wensetri.
Stephanus de Cheriton, in the same parts.
Hubertus de Beccingham, in the parts of Lexenden.
Radulphus Olivere, in the same parts.
Half hundreds of Wyham and Felstede.
Dominus Luccas de Terlinge.
Petrus de Redlege.
Hundreds of Chelmersford and Danesei.
Johannes de Lindwode.
Willelmus de Laundre.
Adam Mercater de Ginge Laundre.
Willelmus Henvard.
Hundreds of Berdelstaple and Chafford.
Robertus de Fonte.
F. C C
386 APPENDIX.
1250. Half hundred of Chelmersford, in the parts of Writele.
Willelmus de Alneto.
Hundred of Aungre and half hundred of Wantham Holy
Cross.
Hundred of Aungre ?
Johannes Clericus de Taydene.
Hamo de la Heg de Bolbingworpe.
Willelmus filius Galfridi.
Ricardus gumeter(?) de Lakefare.
Half hundred ofWantham.
Adam de Mapeldere.
1211. Regard of Colchester.
Sewalas de la More.
Robert le Paumer.
William de la Holtc.
Roger Neward.
William de Samaunestone.
William John.
Rotehinius de Leyre.
John le Nevon.
Bartholomew de Mora.
John de Netinge.
Nicholas, son of Ralph.
Richard le Vein.
Regard of Aungre.
Maerus de Theydene.
John Clerk.
Thomas le Walays.
Nicholas de Fishyd.
Elias de Camera.
Hugh, son of Benedict.
William Champeneys.
John, son of Ivon.
THE REGARDERS. 387
IWlii. Regard of Aungre — contimied.
Nicholas Burde.
John Olive.
Walter de Molendino.
John de Ecclesia.
n92. Regard of Colchester.
William de Samantone.
John Oliper.
Roger Neward.
Richard le Paumer.
William, son of John.
John de R^
Roger Bakum.
William de Leys.
Richard de Rowe.
John Noven.
Roger de Onefaye.
Bartholomew de la More.
Regard of Aungre.
Saer de Theyden and others.
Ralph Marton and others.
isee. Hundred of Chelmsford ?
Edward Warner.
Nicholas Clerk.
Robert Bolton.
Peter atte Hyde.
Richard Lambekyn.
Walter atte Lee.
Richard Blake.
William Bedel.
Thomas Belhous.
Thomas Hughe.
John de Kent.
Thomas de Benyngton.
C C 2
388 APPENDIX.
Hundred of Chelmsford — continued.
1489. Philip Cooke.
John Symondys.
John Brewster.
Thomas Trappys.
Reginald Garston.
John Hale.
Henry Lover.
Thomas Froste.
John Grene.
Richard Jenyn.
William Okelee.
William Johnson.
Thomas Harewell.
John Legge.
Thomas Broke of Layton .
John Frensh.
William Stondon.
John Hedges.
1495. Hundred of Aungre.
William Cooke.
John Grene.
1594. Half hundred of Waltham.
Thomas Rampstone.
William Scott.
George Nodes.
Edmund Winch.
Thomas Barnes.
Thomas Taverner.
Henry Palmer.
George Broocke.
James Atkin.
Edward Searle.
THE REGARDERS. 389
159k. Half hundred of Waltham — continued.
John Cheyney.
Andrew Fuller.
1630, 1631, & 1634.' Richard Searle.
Thomas Winch.
Edmond Cooke.
'John Gooldinge.
Thomas Stocke.
William Yonge.
William Stanes.
' Thomas King.
Richard Maynard.
* William Gilsthroppe.
William Finch.
Robert Shurley.
Richard Waylett.
1638. Richard Searle.
" Edmond Cooke.
William Stone.
" Richard Maynard.
William Millington.
" Ralph Barker.
Nicholas Spackman.
" John Goulding.
" William Waylett.
Philip Capper.
John Winche.
Richard Haddon.
John Searle.
* But at the foot of the Roll the name of Thomas King is replaced
by that of William Waylett.
' Omitted in the list for 1631.
* Omitted in 1634.
* John Peachie in his place in 1631 "for this turn only.'
" Only these Regarders signed the Roll.
390 APPENDIX.
leijl. Hundreds of Waltham and Becontree.
Richard Searle.
Thomas Winch.
William Stanes.
Richard Maynard.
John Goulding.
Edward Cooke.
Ralph Barker.
Nicholas Spackman.
' William Millington.
William Waylett.
Richard Hadden.
William Johnson.
Hundred of Chelmsford.
Jacob Maldon.
' William Aylett.
' John Crush.
Thomas Sorrell.
' William Burchard.
Thomas Rochell.
Ralph Coker.
William Pond.
' Jessey Polley.
' John Chalke.
' William Crush. '
Thomas Say.
Hundred of Colchester.
William March.
Edward Neale.
Lucas Bennold.
William Ballard, in place of Thomas Ham \
William Armstead „ Thomas Turner P'O.hac
I vice
John Stevens „ Thomas Porter /
Andreas Damyon.
' These signed the roll.
THE REGARDERS.
39'
161(1.
1670.
Hundred of Colchester — continued.
John Harrington, in place of John Hasler
Edward Fulham „ Richard Sheppard I pro hac
Richard Stock „ William Clarke f vice.
Robert Bird „ Thomas Bacon J
Jereniiah Eades.
Bailiwick of Ongar.
' John Aylett.
' RofFe Pettus.
' John Convers.
* John Stocke.
John Glascock.
' Christopher Searle.
■ William Collyn.
' Isaac Davies.
Abraham Croshier.
' Samuel Coleford.
Zacharias Bell.
' Nathaniel Addams.
GeofFry Lee.
' John Searle.
" Thomas Pearle.
" Edward Wallmer.
» Richard Waylett.
Richard Stephens.
» Henry Webb.
» Martin Trott.
'^ John Davis.
Benjamin Finch.
Walter Pellinge.
' Edward Goldinge.
'Thomas Haselfoote, sworn in the place of , Thomas
Caunt, absent from sickness.
' These signed the roll.
* Only these Regarders signed the roll. Contrary to the usual
practice, there were thirteen, instead of twelve, Regarders on this
occasion.
392 APPENDIX.
The King's Woodwards.
1630.
Robert Barefoote.
John Holmes.
163k.
Gerson Holmes.
1707.'-
Gilbert Jones.
1713-U.
Henry Foster.
17U.
George Waters.
1733.
William Mason, Junr.
1736.
Richard Arnold.
1753.
John Brookes.
1755.
Edward Meredyth.
1761.
Richard Pater.
1770.
Edward Meredith.
1785.
John Fuller.
1791.
Richard Hould.
1810.
James Tomlins.
1830.
William Turner.
1831.
James Sherman Spering.
' From the schedule to the conveyance of the Stewardship to Sir
Richard Child in 1709, Pen. Trustees of Lord Mornington. The
names after 1709 are from the Attachment Rolls.
( 393 )
The Perambulation of the Forest of Waltham, in
THE County of Essex ; made in the 28th and
CONFIRMED IN THE 29TH YEAR OF EdWARD I.
(1301).
The King, to all to whom these presents shall come, Ch. Misc.
greeting. Know ye that whereas the Commonalty of our 27°to'z9Ed.i.
Kingdom have granted us a fifteenth of all their move-
able goods which they shall have at Michaelmas next to be
then assessed, which fifteenth, after the same assessment,
ought to be collected, raised, and faithfully paid to us, we
desire and grant for us and our heirs that the perambulations
made before our beloved and faithful Ralph de Hengham and
his associates, for this purpose assigned by our writ, concern-
ing our Forests in the county of Essex, be held and observed
by the metes and bounds asserted in the same perambulations,
the tenor whereof, word for word, is as follows : —
Perambulation of the Forest in the county of Essex, made
at Chelmsford, on Friday, the morrow of the Ascension of
our Lord, in the 28th year of the Reign of King Edward, son
of King Henry, before the Lords Ralph de Hengham, William
Tressell, Stephen de Graveshend, and William de Sutton,
Justices of the lord the King assigned to make the said
perambulation, videlicet by the Lords Robert De St. Clare,
Hugh le Blund, Thomas de Moundevill, Walter le Bandj
William de Hanyngfeld, John Heron, Ralph de Hemenhale,
William de Horkeleye, John de Preers, John de Sutton,
Knights ; John Dewe, John Malegraffe, Matthew de Branketre,
Sewall de Waleton, Edmund de Badewe, Richard de Clovill,
39+ APPENDIX.
Roger Bokscyn, Richard le Dick, Robert le Waleys, Thomas
de Seven Springs, Warren Code, William de la Rokele, John
de Slamondeshey, Luke Morel, and Thomas de Ulting, Jurors,
who commenced the aforesaid perambulation the day afore-
said at the bridge of Stratford called La Bowe, under which
runs the river of Luye ; and so going in the hundred of
Bekentre by the King's highway even to Hyleford [Ilford],
and from Hyleford straight by the same King's highway which
leads towards Romford as far as a certain Cross set at the
head of a certain lane called Wytheslane in the town of
Havering ; and from that Cross returning towards the south,
by the hedge which is the boundary between the land of Gilbert
Godebold of the fee of the Abbess of Berkyng, and the land
of John Atte Wythe of the fee of Havering, which hedge is
the boundary between the vills of Havering and Dakenham ;
and so by that hedge as far as the ditch of John le Franssch
and Agnes atte Wythe of Dakenham. And by that ditch as
far as the King's highway which leads from Yleford to the
Homed Monastery [Hornchurch], as a certain water runs from
across the same highway, which water is called Wytheden-
broke, and is the boundary between Havering and Dakenham.
And from that water as far as a certain place called la Berwe
with all the piece of land in which is the aforesaid place called
la Berwe, as the boundary extends between the vills of
Havering and Dakenham as far as a certain stream of water
called the Borne, which water runs down from a certain
spring called Haveringwelle as far as a certain place called
Dakenhambeem, and from that place as far as the line of the
water of the Thames by a certain ditch called Markedyke,
between Havering and Dakenham ; and so by the Thames as
far as the fleet called Wadeflet, extending itself as far as a
certain bridge called Reynhambeem, which fleet separates the
vills of Havering and Reynham in the hundred of Chafford ;
and from that bridge called Reynhambeem, straight as far as
the bridge called Dellebrigge, as the water runs which is the
THE PERAMBULA TION OF 1301. 395
boundary between the hundreds of Bekentree and Chafford ;
and from the same bridge as far as a certain other bridge
called Weldebornbrigge always by the stream which divides
the vills of Havering and Welde Albatis ; and from that bridge
by the same stream as far as a certain boundary called Marke-
thorn which divides the vills of Havering, Welde Abbatis, and
Nastok, in the hundred of Aungre ; and so in the hundred of
Bekentre remain wholly in the Forest the vills of Havering
with its appurtenances, "Wansted, Leyton, Welcomestowe, and
Wodeford ; and the vills of Stratford in Westhamme, East-
hamme, Hyleford Parva, Berkyng, and Dakenham, in part
remain beyond the Forest, and in part remain within the
Forest as by the metes and bounds they are above more fully
bounded. And so going from the aforesaid boundary Marke-
thom always by the said stream as far as the house of Robert
the Tanner, of Nastoke, in the hundred of Aungre ; and from
that house as far as the messuage of William son of Hugh de
Nastok ; and so from thence to a hedge straight as one goes
to the house of Edmund de Nastok, and from that hedge as
far as a certain messuage of Henry de Wykeham of the same
[vill] and from that messuage as far as a certain place called
Frythstigele in the same [vill] ; and from that place as far as
the land of John de Stodeley ; and from that land as far as the
divided stream ; and so always by the same stream as far as the
bridge called Pyssyngfordebregge by the mid-stream ; and
from the said bridge by the mid-stream as far as a certain
bridge called Affebregge ; and from that bridge going straight
to the church of Theydon Boys ; and from the same church as
far as the messuage of John de Russelep, opposite the mes-
suage of the rector of the church of Theydon Boys ; and from
that place returning by the side of the wood of the said rector
and Gilbert de Theydon as far as the messuage of the same
Gilbert, and from the said messuage again returning by the
hedge of the said Gilbert, as far as the messuage of John
Sprigg ; and so from that messuage by the lane lying before
396 APPENDIX.
the messuage aforesaid called Sprigges' Lane, as far as the
house of Roger atte Fryth ; and from that house direct to the
house of William le Gardiner in the same vill, lying upon the
side of Eppyngheth; andfromthat house returning by the boun-
dary which separates the half hundred of Waltham and the
hundred of Aungre straight even to the head of the wood called
Old Wyntre; and from that wood by the King's highway
which is the boundary of the aforesaid hundreds of Aungre and
Waltham extending to the wood called Gemonneswode in the
vill of Theydon Gernon ; and from that wood as far as the oak
called Markoake, which is the boundary between the lands of
the Abbot of Waltham and Robert the son of Walter, and
William Gernon ; and so returning by the King's highway
which extends between the lands of the aforesaid Abbot of
Waltham and Robert the son of Walter, straight even to a
place called Reodegate in the vill of Welde ; and so in the
hundred of Aungre remain entirely within the Forest the vills
of Loketon, Chygewell, Lamborn, and Stapleford Abbatis.
And the vills of Nastoke and Theydon Boys in part remain
within the Forest, and in part beyond the Forest, as above by
the metes and bounds they are more fully bounded ; and
all the rest of the vills in the hundred of Aungre aforesaid,
ought to remain beyond the Forest. All the half hundred of
Waltham remains wholly within the Forest without excep-
tion. All the half hundred of Herlawe remains beyond the
Forest, except the villate of Hatfield Regis with its appur-
tenances, which wholly remains in the Forest, because
it is ancient demesne of the lord the King, as also the
hamlet called La Walle, and the wood called Monckenewod,
with their appurtenances. All the hundred of Chelmsford
remains beyond the Forest, except the villate of Writell which
wholly remains in the Forest with its appendages, because it
is ancient demesne of the lord the King.
Item, it [the Forest] begins at Colcester at the bridge
called Northbregg, going by the King's way leading to'
THE PERAMBULA TION OF 1301. 397
a certain Cross called Mylandecrouche placed at the
head of a certain heath called Kynggeswodeheth, and
so from thence before the house of Richard Martyn, even
to a certain hedge before the house of William Waryn
of Colcester; and so going by the ditch of the said heath
as far as a certain open space called Kynggeswodehach,
which is the boundary between the vills of Horkeleye and
Kynggeswodeheth ; and so straight by the ditch of Phillip
at Hacche, as far as the house of William le Herde of Horke-
leye, formerly of Edmund atteHache ; and so by a certain ditch
extending between Horkeleye and Kynggeswode even to a
certain boundary which dividesthe vills of Horkeleye, Bexsted,
and Kynggeswode ; and from that boundary by a certain ditch
which divides Bexsted and Kynggeswode as far as a cer-
tain other boundary which separates the wood of Ralph de
Bexsted and the wood of John le Breton ; and so going by
the ditch which separates Kynggeswode and the wood of the
aforesaid John le Breton, as far as the ditch of the park
of Lengham ; and so by the aforesaid ditch as far as a
place called Kynggeswodebregg at the side of the said park ;
and so returning by the King's highway which leads towards
Colchester, as far as the bridge called Estbrigge ; and from
the said bridge of Estbrigge as far as a certain Colchester
gate called Estgate, with all the aforesaid vill of Colchester
within the walls, with all the demesnes of the lord the King
to his castle of Colchester belonging. And so in the hundred
of Lexeden remains wholly in the Forest the vill of Myland,
with the wood of Kynggeswoode with its appurtenances.
And they say also that the hundreds of Westhodeleford,
Esthodeleford, the half hundred of Frossthewell, and the half
hundred of Clavering are wholly beyond the Forest, and were
so from time out of mind.
Item, they say that the hundreds of Dunmowe, Henge-
ford, and Lexeden from the north part of the Stan-
strete which leads from Storteford to Colchestre, are beyond
398 APPENDIX.
the Forest by the purchase of Alberic, formerly Earl of
Oxford.
Item, they say that so much as is on the south of the said
Stanstrete in the aforesaid hundreds of Dunmow, Lexeden,
and Hengeford, ought to remain beyond the Forest, except
that which is above mentioned in the hundred of Lexeden in
the vill of Colchester, and except the vill of Felsted with the
wood of Blakholehey with their appurtenances in the hundred
of Hengeford ; which same manor of Felsted with the wood
of Blackholehey aforesaid, with the appurtenances, the Abbess
of Caen holds by gift of King William the Conqueror of Eng-
land, and claims to hold it as freely as the same manor and
wood were held in the time of St. Edward King of England.
But notwithstanding we say that the aforesaid manor with
the aforesaid wood with their appurtenances, ought wholly to
remain within the Forest.
Item, they say that the hundreds of Tendryng and
Rocheford are wholly beyond the Forest, and were so from
time out of mind.
Item, they say that the hundreds of Chafford, Berdestapel,
Daneseye, and the half hundred of Wytham, and the half
hundred of Thurstaple, and the half hundred of Wenestre
ought wholly to be beyond the Forest according to the tenor
of the Great Charter of the Forest, because they were afforested
after the coronation of the lord King Henry, grandfather of
the lord King Henry, father of the now lord King Edward,
and by the Kings Richard and John.
Which appointed perambulation is so far made clear
and evident according to our intelligence and good con-
science, as we have learned from our ancestors, and by the
oath of honest knights and trustworthy ancient men now
living and deliberating by reason of the great length of
time passed since any such other perambulation in the
county of Essex has been made. And better and more fully
upon the perambulation aforesaid we desire that it be cer-
THE PERAMBULA TION OF 1301. 399
tified as well for the right of the lord the King as of his
people. If the same lord the King had any other clear proofs
it should have pleased him to have given them in charge to
us and to others in his kingdom within the limits of his Forest
as in the last Parliament at Westminster he promised and
granted. In witness whereof to this present perambulation
we, the aforesaid Jury, have set our seals.
Dated at Chelmsford the day and year aforesaid.
So that whatever by these perambulations is placed beyond Mamvood.
the Forest, let it remain beyond the Forest, and let the rest
remain in the Forest according to the said metes and bounds
for ever. In testimony of which we have made these our
letters patent. Witness ourself at Lincoln the 14th February
in the 29th year of our reign.
400 APPENDIX.
Abstract of Perambulation of the Forest of
Waltham, in the County of Essex, in the lyxH
YEAR OF King Charles I.
P^tyBag Inquisition taken at Stratford Langthorne on Wednesday,
i6 August, 8th September, 1 7th Charles I., &c. —
Before Sir Thomas Bendish Bart., Sir Benjamin AylofF
Bart., Sir William Roe Knight, Sir Henry Holcroft Knight,
Sir William Martyn Knight, Sir Gamaliel Capell Knight,
James AUham Esq., William Conyers Esq., Thomas Fan-
shaw Esq. ; Edmund Keightly Esq., Carew Hervey otherwise
Mildmay Esq., and Edward Palmer Esq., three of the Ver-
derers of the Forest ; John Wright Esq. and William Alwood
Esq., Commissioners to inquire into the boundaries of the
Forest according to the tenor of the Act for the certainty of
Forests.
The persons summoned., who, except one Esquire, all had
the rank of Gentlemen, were Thomas Manwood, Peter Whet-
combe, John Sorrell, John Levett, William Gray, Thomas
Aylett, Francis Nicholson, George Thorowgood, Thomas Lake,
Robert Brage, Samuel Plume, George Gittens, John Wright,
William Lake, William Finch, Robert Dawges, Lany Rous,
Edward Fulham, John Meade, George Sames, Samuel Free-
borne, George Saville, Henry Smith, Edward Digbie, and
Edward Humfrey.
They appeared, and in the presence of the Commissioners,
and of Thomas Coke, Steward of the Forest ; Richard Searle,
William Stanes, William Waylett, John Gouldinge, Thomas
Winch, Richard Maynard, William Johnson, Ralph Barker,
William Millington, Richard Haddon, and Nicholas Spack-
man, Regarders of the Forest ; and of John Betts, Richard
THE PERAMBULA TION OF mi. 40 1
Belch, William Wills, Idwain Knight, John Cox, Henry
Breame, William Games, Edward Hoy, and William Sawdery,
Sub-foresters (Breame being also Sub-ranger of Havering,
and Wills Sub-ranger of Epping, and Woodward of Seward-
stone and Woodridden fee) ; and of George Floade, Sub-ranger
of Leyton, and Edward Batty, Sub-ranger of West Hainault,
and John Knight, Sub-forester, riding the whole Forest ; the
Jurors were sworn and charged to inquire into the metes and
bounds, which were the metes and bounds of the Forest in the
2oth year of King James.
They returned the bounds' as follows : —
From the bridge of Stratford, called The Bow, into the
hundred of Becontree by the King's highway to Great Ilford,
and thence direct by the King's highway towards Romford
to the Whalebone at the "four Wonds," and thence along
the highway to Havering Stone at the head of Beamesland
Lane, and along the lane unto and in the way leading from
the four ways towards Collier Row, near the mansion house
of the Manor of Marks to an elm tree marked with a cross at
the right of the way where there is a gate leading into Mark's
Warren, and a stone called Mark's Stone ; and thence to the
warren eastward, by the boimdaries between Dagenham and
the liberty of Havering, to the Warren Stone at the comer
of the warren ; and thence by the said bounds to the Collier
Row Stone near the messuage called Captious; and from
thence by the same bounds to Park Corner Stone at the
west corner of Havering Park ; and thence by the park pales
to the Bourne Brook, and along its banks to the Navestock
Stone near the house of Robert Makin in that parish ; thence
to the right by the side of Navestock Common to Richard's
Stone near Richard's Gate, and by the hedge of Robert
Makin's land to Overmead Gate ; thence to and along the
river of Roden to the bridge of Aybridge, and across it by
the highway past the church of Theydon Boys to the house
' See map opposite p. 50.
F. P D
402 APPENDIX.
of the rector, to Theydon Green Gate ; and thence by the
purlieu hedge to the corner of the hedge called Piershorne
[Priorshorne] Corner, and by the purlieu hedge to the end
of Hawcock Lane, and so to the bank near the end of the
town of Epping called "Purlieu bank," and by it to Bennett's
Corner, according to the bounds of Epping and Theydon
Gernon ; including in the Forest the whole parish of Epping,
and excluding the whole parish of Theydon Gernon ; and so
by the bank to the end of Duck Lane, and to the corner of
Thornwood Common, and by the Purlieu bank near the hedge
on the south side of the common, to a brook which runs from
a ditch below that hedge and the Purlieu bank, near an elm
tree which is the boundary between Epping and Northweald
Bassett, and between the half hundreds of Harlow and
Waltham ; and further by the brook, to the ditch before the
mansion of William Sprangers upon the side of Thornwood
Common ; and thence returning by the ditch to the mansion
of Daniel Hudson by the side of the same common, and so
by the bounds of the said half hundreds to a free hedge
called Linceley Gate, including within the Forest the piece
of Thornwood Common within the brook, and the house
of Daniel Hudson, and Halye's Grove, and the lands there
within the half hundred of Waltham ; and so by Linceley
Gate to the land called Linceley Merles, and from thence
over the bank of Millmeade Brook by Eastfield hedge to
Lyme Holes Corner, and over the highway leading to the
church of Epping to Pincroft, leading to Pymbridge, and
thence by the Purlieu hedge to Cloggett's Gate entering into
the highway leading to Siviar's Green and descending in
Kennett's Lane to Bradley [Broadley] Common, and by the
side of it round the hamlet of Roydon, to the river of Lee ;
and thence to a corner of Ody Marsh, and so passing over
the Lee, including in the Forest HoUyfield Marsh, to and
over a meadow called the Frythie at the Shire Lake, to
Hooke's Marsh ; including in the Forest Hooke's Marsh and
THE PERAMBULATION OF Uljl. 403
Normarsh; and so by the Lee including Waltham Great
Marsh, and over the ditch there to and by the side of Smalley
Bridge, by the brook, to the right of the highway leading to
Waltham Abbey to Coldhall; and beyond Coldhall by the
brook which divides Essex and Hertfordshire, to the river
there, including in the Forest the marsh called Canwards ;
and from thence to Cobbin Mouth, and from thence by the
Lee to Spencer's Mead, and by the river to Sywardstone
Ford; and from thence over Ware Marsh to Marditch, and by
it to the Lee, and by the Lee to Broadmead in Walthamstow;
and thence to Lock Bridge broken up, where for passage is
used a ferry, and thence by the Lee to the bridge of Stratford
Bow, called Bow Bridge. It was also found that in the
hundred of Becontre there remained within the Forest, the
towns of Wanstead, Leyton, Walthamstow, and Woodford,
and that of the lands and woods of the towns of Stratford
Westham, Eastham, Ilford Parva, Ilford Magna, Barking,
and Dagenham, the parts which lay to the right of the high-
way leading from Stratford Bridge to Romford were without,
and the parts to the left were within, the Forest. The liberties
of Havering-att-Bower and Havering Park, with the lands
in Homchurch, Rumford, and Haveringe, and other parishes
and members appendant to the liberty, were wholly out of
the Forest. In the hundred of Ongar, the towns of Lucton
or Loughton, Chigwell, Lambome, and Stapleford Abbotts
were within, the towns of Naverstock and Theydon Boys
partly within and partly without, and all the residue of the
towns in the hundred without the Forest. The whole half
hundred of Waltham (except any lands disafforested by
charter) was within the Forest ; and the whole half hundred
of Harlow, and the hundreds of Uttlesford, Hinckford, Lexden,
Tendering, Dengie, Wytham, Chelmsford, Dunmowe, Claver-
inge, Freshwell, Chafford, Barstaple, Thurstaple, Rochford,
and Winstree, were wholly out of the Forest,
DD 2
INDEX
Abjuration, form of, for offence against forest laws, 205.
jElfric, probable date of MS. of his Colloquies, 186, note.
Afforestations, bounds of early, in Essex, unknown, 162.
Agisters for king, in Waltham Forest, 73.
Alcuin, the instructor of Charlemagne, 54.
Aldersbrook, late inclosures in, 356.
Alderton, acquittance of assarts in, 321.
Alehouses, nuisances in Forest, 86, 87.
licence of Chief Justice necessary for, 87.
numbers of, in Forest, id.
conditions of licences, id.
Alrefen and Kingswood, district of a forester in fee, 140.
Ancient demesnes of crown, what were, 32 and note.
in forests made free chases and warrens, 33, 34.
remains in Forest to be protected by Conservators, 369.
Arbalest. See Crossbow.
Articles of attachment of forests, probable date of, 72.
Arundel, Earl of, claim to have his dogs free from lawing, 229.
Assarts, meaning of term, 3 1 3 and note.
forbidden from ancient times, 312.
penalty for, 313.
exemption from rule, id.
perhaps dealt with by laws before Conquest, 321.
acquittance of, by Richard I. to Abbey of Waltham, id.
confirmed by Edward I., id.
how applications to assart dealt with, id.
unlicensed, how dealt with, 322.
inspection of, under laws of Henry II. and Richard I. id.
new assarts taken by king, id.
old, arrented, id.
4o6 INDEX.
Assarts, duty of jurors to inquire into, 323.
payments for, id.
arrentations of, in 1277, id.
entries of crops grown on, id.
no payment for, when fallow, id.
proceedings by James I. to compel purchase of, 325, 326.
AssECOTS, Richard de, a perambulating- knight, 26.
Assignments. See Fuel Assignments.
Attachments, Court of, its constitution, 75.
its original powers, 76.
kept in 17th century, id.
rolls of in i8th and 19th centuries, id.
held at Chigwell, 95.
its cellar at the King's Head, id.
presided over by one or more Verderers, 123.
claim of Mr. Long Wellesley to preside at,' 124.
dispute and result, 124, 125.
jurisdiction of, over reeves and fourmen, 181.
receives powers to prevent inclosures, 335.
resolves not to interfere with small inclosures, 337, 338.
meets in 1830. .341.
takes no action against inclosures, id.
Steward of, denies jurisdiction of his own Court, 342.
and ridicules presentments of inclosures in it, 342, note.
meetings of, in and after 1848. .344.
extinction of, 345.
causes of, id.
nature of duties of, in modern times, 346.
attempt to revive it in 1872. .363, 364.
proceedings of, suspended by statute, 364.
Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, a Forest Justice, 16.
Badger, vermin in law, 187, note.
Badue, Walter de, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
Barcham, his remark about ladies' head dresses, 194, note.
Baring, Thomas Charles, M.P.; a verderer under Epping Forest
Act, 1878. .370.
Barking, part only in Forest, 13.
Abbess of, litigation about cutting an oak in her woods, 74.
had woods, beyond regard, 155.
her fee deer, 200.
her right to cut wood, 243.
forest manors of, 231.
right in parish to cut wood in summer, 257.
INDEX. 407
Barking, wood-assignments'in, 261.
fuel rights of poor widows in, 263.
compensation given for, 350.
claim of lord to authorize inclosures beyond Forest gates, 331.
to make grants by custom of manor, 337.
Barones, meaning of, in Canute's code, 64.
Barons of Exchequer exempt from rule against assarts, 313.
Beadle of Forest, 184.
antiquity of office, id.
early mention of, in Forest, id.
oath of, id.
duties of, 184, 185.
Beasts of chase, what were, 187.
of forest or venary, what were, 186, 187.
Beaufittz, Henry, a Forest Justice for Havering, 16.
Becontre Hundred, district of a Riding Forester, 137.
Bees, ancient cultivation of, 57, note.
farmers of, id.
claim of Crown to, in forests, 58.
Bentry Heath, purlieu of, 161.
Bermondseye, prior of, fined, 73,
Berners, Ralph de, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
Betoigne, Alexander de. Steward of Forest, 117.
Bishops and nobles, exemption of, from Canute's laws, 64.
Blacks, Essex, 212, note.
Blackthorn, special vert, 234.
Blount, Sir James, Lieutenant of Forest, 118.
Bocland, nature of, 11.
Bordarii, or Borderers. See Cottagers.
Bosanquet, Samuel, Lieutenant of Forest, 122.
Botes. See Estovers.
Boulcott v. Winmill, action of, 334.
opinion of Sir G. Jessel about, id.
judgment in, 334, 335.
consequences of, 337.
4-08 INDEX.
Boundaries of Forest in 1225, .20, 24.
claimed by Crown and inrolled in 1277 and 1292. .27.
in 1323. .35-
in 1630.. 37.
attempt to enlarge by Charles I., 37 — 48.
established by jury in 1634. .43.
act for restoring old, used in 20 Jas. I., 49.
old, presented in 1292. .89.
Bov Bridge, presented at Justice Seat, 86.
by whom built, 86, note.
Bows and arrows, complaint of use of, in forests, 212, 214.
licences to keep, 214.
inquiries as to, at Justice Seat, 214.
Brackets, dogs which hunted by scent, 223, 224.
sent to Saladin by Richard I., 224.
used with greyhounds, id.
used as pet dogs by ladies, 225.
Brady, Sir Antonio, a verderer, 363, 370. •
Brakenbury, Robert, Custodian of Forest, 1 1 8.
Brentwood, district of a Riding Forester,. 137.
Briclinges, Alexander de, a perambulating knight, 26.
Briennus de Insula, a Forest Justice, 20.
Broadley Common, stinted rights in, 273.
Brocket, a name of the red deer, 193, 195-
Browsing wood, what it was, 127, note.
Brus, Robert de, appropriates serjeanty of Forest at Writtle, 141,
Buck, •.
Buck of the ist head, > names of the fallow deer, 195.
Great Buck, '
Buildings in Forest in i6th and 17th centuries, 326, 327.
new, forbidden by Earl of Holland, 328.
Bullock, Colonel, Lieutenant of Forest, 122.
Burney, George, removes fences round inclosures, 368.-
legal expenses of, repaid by Corporation, 369.
Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, a verderer under Epping Forest Act,
1878. .370.
Caen, abbess of, claims Felsted in 1301. .31.
Calf, a name of the red deer, 193.
INDEX. 409
Cann Hall, purchase of Crown rights by lord of manor of, 352.
purchase of wastes of, by Corporation, 367.
Canute, his supposed code of forest laws, 7, 59.
animals mentioned in, 7.
dispute as to its authenticity, 59.
opinions of Coke and Freeman as to, id.
its arrangement and contents, 60 — 64.
Freeman's objections considered, 62.
officers named in, their duties, position, and perquisites, 61, 62.
. punishments ordained by, 63.
severity of, as to offences against venison, 64.
partial exemption by, of bishops and king's thanes, id.
supposed punishment by flaying, 64, note.
classification of wild animals in, 64, 187, 188.
Coke's objection to, 65.
freemen's right of hunting under, id.
supposed origin of, 66.
compared with Norman laws, id.
probably written by a Norman, 67.
composition like that of other ancient documents; id.
not more severe than Norman forest laws, 68.
lawing of dogs under, 226.
does not notice fence month, 277.
Carleton, William, Steward of Forest, 117.
Carn, H. de, a Forest Justice, 20.
Castlemain, Viscount, Lieutenant of Forest, 121.
Cattewad Bridge, claimed as Forest botmdaiy, 28, 43.
Cattle, sale of pounded, 183.
reference to, in Canute's forest law, 277.
Cattle Mark, a mark for each parish, 300.
modern mark for West Ham, 179.
kept by Reeve, 300.
private marks, id.
presentments for refusing to allow marking, 300, 301.
manner of marking, 301.
probable date of commencement of marking, 301, 302.
days fixed.for marking, 302.
irregular marking by Reeves, id.
checked by marking according to rent or rating, 303.
directions as to, 303, 304.
remarks of Mr. Joshua Williams as to rental marking, 304, note.
effect of marking arrangements upon general right of pasture in
Forest, 305.
Certificate men, who were, 255.
not allowed to lop, id.
410 INDEX.
Channele's Bridge, presented at Justice Seat, 86.
by whom built, 86, note.
Chappell Hainault, lawn in, 268.
Charlemagne, his forest regulations, 53.
his correspondence with Offa, 54.
forbids bishops and clergy to keep dogs and hawks, 204, note.
Charter of the Forest, disaiforestations under, 19.
quashed by Henry III., 24.
restored, id.
confirmations of, 35.
remarks on authenticity of John's charter, 7 1 , note.
John's, compared with that of Henry HI., id.
Chelmsford, Hundred of, not in ancient part of Forest, 9.
linked with Dengie as district of a Riding Forester, 9, 138.
inquisitions at, and relating to, 34, 35.
Cheminage, claims of foresters to, 139 — 142.
Chief Foresters. See Foresters.
Chief Justices of Forests, dispute as to duties of, settled by King and
Council, 56.
oifice of, 84.
their powers, 87.
names of, 109 — 113.
duties of, 112.
office abolished by statute, 113.
powers of, vested in Commissioners of Woods and Forests, id.
their licences to cut woods, 242, 243.
how obtained, 243.
their position and occupation after discontinuance of Justice Seat,
345. 346-
Si&Q Justices of Forests.
Chigwell, claim of lord of, to cut wood, 244.
common fields in, 27 1 .
arrentations of assarts in, 323.
purchase of Crown rights by lord of manor of, 352.
late inclosures in, 357.
Child, Sir Josiah, his planting at Wanstead, 121.
Child, Sir Richard, purchaser of wardenship, 121. See Tylney,
Earl of.
Chingford, common fields in, 271.
arrentations of assarts in, 323.
Chingford Earls, purchase of Crown rights by lord of manor of, 352.
late inclosures in, 357.
purchase of wastes of, by Corporation, 367.
INDEX. 411
Chingford St. Paul's, late inclosures in, 357.
purchase of wastes of, by Corporation, 367.
Clare, Thomas de, a Steward of the Forest, 1 16.
his successors in his family, 117.
Clergy, keeping of dogs and hawks by, forbidden by Charlemagne,
204, Ttote.
Clerk of Iter of the Forests, appointment of, loi.
Clerk of Session of the Forests, 102.
his fee deer, 92.
Clifford, Rogeb de, a Forest Justice, 108.
CocKBURN, Sir George, last Lieutenant of Forest, 122.
CoGGESHALL, Cistercians of, allowed to inclose their woods, 27.
Coke, Sir E., denies right of king to afforest lands, 13.
CoKYNTONE, Henry de, a Steward of Forest, 1 16.
rights claimed by him, 126.
Colchester, what part of, in Forest, 17.
remained in Crown till Henry VIII., id.
Richard de Mimfichet, keeper of castle of, 116.
CoLLYER Bristow, A. A., devisee of office of Lord Warden, 126.
Colneis Hundred, common pasture in, 275.
CoLUMBARiis, Bartholomew de, a Forest Justice, 108.
Commissioners of Sewers, arrangement for litigation by, on behalf of
Corporation of London, 360, 361.
Commissioners of Woods and Forests. See Woods and Foresls.
Common fields in forest, 268 — 271.
meadows in forest, 268.
of pannage. See Pannage.
of pasture. See Pasture.
woods, De Laveleye's remark upon, in France, 245, tiote.
in Loughton and other parishes, 245, &c.
Common Hunt of London, presented for hunting in purlieus, 169.
Commonable animals, what, in Forest, 290, 293. See Sheefi ; Pasture;
Forest.
Commoners, suit on behalf of, in name of Commissioners of Sewers,
362.
rights of, under Epping Forest Act, 1878. .368.
Commons, House of, petition to, about neglect of Forest officers, 344.
address of, to Crown to stop inclosures, 352.
report of Select Committee of 1863, .353.
412 INDEX.
Commons, House of, recommendations of Select Committee of, in
1 863.. 354.
not adopted, id.
addresses of, for preservation of Forest, 358, 359.
Commonwealth, use of forests in, 2.
Communities, how lands held by, were arranged and cultivated, 266,
267.
CoNNAUGHT, Duke of, appointed Ranger of Forest, 369.
Conservators of Forest, Corporation of London appointed, 369.
duties and powers of, 369, 370.
Copped Hall Park, ancient history of, 315, 316.
Coppice, conversion of woods into, 241.
CoRBicuM or Corpechum, wood of, beyond regard, 156. See Wall-
wood.
CoTARii. See Cottagers.
Cottagers, rights of, to lop wood, 253, 254.
their history, 253.
bound to assist forest keepers, 253 and note.
their ancient services and holdings, 253.
their number in Loughton according to Domesday, 254.
their right to common pasture, 254, 303, 304.
restrictions of, compared with those in Swiss Allmends, 256.
rights in Wimbledon, '258.
Coursing in Forest. See Hunting. '
presentments against Bishop of London for, 213.
Courts Manorial, manner in, of overriding commoners' rights, 355,
356-
Courts of Forest. See Forest Courts.
Crab, special vert, 233.
Cromwell appoints commissioners to deal with forests, 5 1 ,
Crosshow, whether used in England in time of Canute, 61, 62, note.
much used in Forest, 214.
Custodian of Forest. See Lord Warden.
Dagenham, part only in Forest, 13.
right in, to cut wood in summer, 257.
fuel rights of poor widows in, 263.
compensation for, 350.
Dagobert I., his forest regulations, 53.
his laws about dogs, 225.
Daneseye, part district of Riding Forester, 138. See Dengie.
INDEX. 413
Debden, acquittance of assarts in, 321.
De Burgh, Hubert, his advice to Henry HI., 24 .
Deer, grants of, by Kings, 199.
of live deer, 200, 201.
regulations on finding dead, in Forest, 205, 206.
devices for killing, 215 — 217.
killed by cold and murrain, 217.
proclamation in consequence of, id.
increase of, in 17th century, 218.
destruction of, when stopped, 218, 219.
proportions of red and fallow, in isth, i6th, and 17th centuries,
219, 220.
in 1 8th and 19th centuries, 220, 221.
fallow, transferred to conservators, 369.
red, removal and restoration of, 220.
See Fallow Deer; Red Deer.
Deer Leaps, what they were, 217.
presentments of, id.
Deer Stealers in 16th century, 210.
how they destroyed the deer, id.
Act to prevent their combinations, 211.
the Black Act and why so called, id.
origin of name of Waltham blacks, 211, note.
other Acts against, 212.
powers of Court of Attachments against, id.
sometimes ordered by verderers to be prosecuted, id.
De Laveleye, his remarks upon alleged claim of Dagobert to the com-
mon woods, 245, note.
upon the wood-cutting in the Swiss All-
mends, 256.
Denbera, a right of feeding swine, 306.
Dengie Hundred, ancient name of, 7.
meaning of, 7, note.
not within ancient Forest, 9.
linked with Chelmsford, id.
when afforested, 22, note.
Deor, in A.-S., applies to all wild beasts, 4, note.
Deputies of Forest Justices, 109, no, in.
statute authorizing appointment of, no — 112.
their fee deer, &c., 1 1 3.
Deputy of Steward of Forest. See Lieutenant.
De Veer. See Veer.
D'Ewes, Sir SiMONDS, his remarks about Tendryng hundred, 28.
about the enlargement of the Forests, 45.
414 INDEX.
DiSAFFORESTATiONS, districts put out of Forest in 1301 . .29 — 31.
bounds of early, unknown, 162.
doubts as to effect of, by Edward I., 163.
proposed by Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 18 17. .339.
opposition to, id.
by whom supported, 340.
amended proposal of Commissioners, id.
bill for, passes House of Commons but is withdrawn, id.
of Hainault, 349 — 351. S&e Hainault.
by Epping Forest Act, 1878. .368.
DoDDERiDGE, Justice, his remark on the drawing of badgers, 187.
Dogs, what must be lawed, 222, 227.
penalty on owners of mad dogs, id.
penalty for keeping, in forests, id.
different kinds of, used in Forest, id.
Dagobert's laws about, 225, note.
different breeds of, used by the Franks, id.
fines for destruction of different kinds of, among the Franks, 226,
nole.
See Hounds ; Lawing.
DowNE, or Dune, Thomas de la, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
Driving forest pastures, 181, 182.
object of, 181.
time for, 182.
Driving Warrants, form of, 182 note.
DuNMOW and Harlow, district of a Riding Forester, 138.
Dyne, Hugh de. Deputy Warden of Forest, 1 1 6.
East Ham, part only in Forest, 13.
Ecclesiastics, indulgence to, by Canute's laws, 64.
allowed to hunt in passing through forests, 205.
Edmonds, Sir Thomas, Lieutenant of Forest, 119.
executes office of Warden, id.
Edward the Confessor, supposed charter by, to Peperking, 5 — 10.
copy of, s, 6.
reasons for supposing it to be a forgery, 6 — 10.
Edward VI., his proclamation about the forest laws, 36.
subsequent neglect of them, 80.
his complaints of destruction of deer, 197.
Elizabeth, neglect of forest laws during reign of, 80.
INDEX. 41 s
Epping, former names of Forest of, i. And see Waltham Forest;
Forest of Essex.
purlieu of, 161.
common fields in, 271.
grant of right to empark woods of, 317.
acquittance of assarts in, 321.
arrentations of assarts in, 323.
late inclosures in, 357.
Epping Forest Acts.
Act of 1871, contents of, 359.
Amendment Act, 1872.. 363.
Acts of 187s and 1876. .367.
Act of 1 878.. 368.
disafforested wastes, id.
did not notice pjirlieus, id.
powers given by, to the Queen, 369.
Corporation appointed conservators by, id.
how Forest and inclosures dealt with by, 369, 370.
Epping Forest Commissioners, appointment of, in 1871 . .359.
proceedings of, 364, 365, 366, 367.
preliminary report of, 366.
final report of, 367.
scheme of, id.
objection to proposal for continuance of inclosures, id.
Mr. Bumey's proceedings in consequence of, 367, 368.
Essex, what part probably afforested by Conqueror, 18. See Forest.
Estovers, modified form of ancient wood rights, 245.
different kinds of, 245, note.
Ewelme, common pastures in, 275.
ExPEDiTATiON of dogs. See Lawing.
Eyserewas, Steward of Forest, 117.
Fallow Deer, Gwillim's remarks about, 194.
whether indigenous in England, 195.
names of, id.
colour of species, id.
of Essex variety, id.
antiquity of, 196.
Fawn, a name of the fallow deer, 194.
Fawcett, Mr., his motion for preservation of Forest, 358.
Fearnlesuue, a right of feeding swine, 306.
Fee Deer, to whom granted in 1489. .92.
of Abbess of Barking, 200.
41 6 INDEX.
Fee Deer, of abbot of Stratford, zoo.
of Abbot of Waltham, id.
of Chief Ranger, i66.
of Foresters, 147.
of Freeholders, 78, note, 92,
of Justices, 113.
of Lieutenant, 129.
of Regarders, 159.
of Verderers, 133.
of Warden, 129.
Fee Wood, claim to, by warden, 129.
Felstead, property of Holy Trinity of Caen, 31, 32.
before Conquest, of Earl Algar, 32.
Fence Month, not mentioned in Canute's code, 65, 277.
nor in Articles of Attachment, 72.
pounding cattle in, 182.
generally enforced with respect to wood cutting, 257
probable exception in Hainault parishes, id.
its object, 277.
its original operation, id.
regulations of Richard I. as to, 278.
time of operation of, id.
regulations of Skene's code, id.
called forbidden month, 279.
early records of, 279, 280.
evaded by commoners, 280.
pasture rights suspended during, id.
suspension provided for by decree in suit by Corporation of
London, 280, note.
Fences, of quick and dead wood, 266 and note.
Fern, whether vert, 234 and note.
Ferryman at Locke Bridge presented at Justice Seat, 85.
Finch, Sir John, his claim to the old boundaries of Forest, 38.
his proceedings at the Justice Seat, 40.
his complaint against one of the grand jury, 43.
delivers opinions of judges about bounds of Forest, 44, 45.
his character, 47, note.
Fines for offences, affeered by Swainmote and enrolled, 83.
inflicted by Forest Courts, 97 — loi.
affeered by Swainmote, 99.
amounts of, 99, 100.
value of, 10 1.
FiREBOTE, meaning of, 245, note.
FrREWOOD, distinguished from tallwood, 239 and 240, note.
INDEX. i^i-j
Fishing, rights of, in Forest, 58.
FiTZACCHER, Henry, a forester in fee, 141.
FiTZBERNARD, Chief Justice of Forests, 105.
FiTZSTEPHEN, his list of the forest animals, i8g.
Folk land, its nature, 1 1 .
royal forests probably formed from it, id.
Forbidden Month. See Fence Month.
Forest Courts, where held after 1301 . .35.
restoration of, proposed during Commonwealth, 52-
revival of, in 1670, id.
did not interfere with manorial jurisdiction, 73.
but forbad holding forest pleas, id.
description of, and their proceedings, 78 — loi.
early records of holding of, 84.
powers of, when offenders escaped beyond bounds of Forest, 97, 98.
Steward of, lo.i.
See Attachments ; Justice Seat; Swainmote.
Forest of Essex, names of, i. See Waltham Forest zndEpping Forest.
time of settlement of, iz.
district held as, by Henry III. under reafForestations in 1 3th century,
26, 27.
districts disafforested by John and Henry III., 19 — 24.
districts found within, in 1 301. .31.
attempt of Charles I. to enlarge boundaries, 37 — 45.
how far judgment for extension of, enforced, 48.
heavy sums paid for compositions under, id.
the king abandons the enlargement, id.
former bounds restored, 49.
Act of Long Parliament for vesting in trustees, 50-
ordinance of Cromwell concerning, 5 1 .
proposals of his Commissioners as to, id.
inhabitants of, sworn to peace of hunting, 75.
prison of, 97.
grant of right to, by James I., 128.
grantee to provide keeper, izg.
claim to, by Earl Lindsey, 128.
taken down, 129.
granted out in manors, 230, 231.
acreage of, in 1793. .232.
Mr. Long Wellesley's description of state of, in 1813. .336, 337.
- reasons by officers of, for excesses in, mentioned by Mr. Long
Wellesley, 337.
convictions for offences in 1813. .?(/.
report of Select Committee of 1863 as to state of, 353.
bill in 1870 for dealing with, 358, 359.
addresses by House of Commons for preservation of, 358.
F. EE
41 8 INDEX.
Forest of Essex, sales of Crown rights in, by Commissioners of Woods
and Forests, 351, 352, and note.
perambulation of, under Epping Forest Act, 1871 . . 364.
proceedings of Corporation of London for rescue of, from inclo-
sure, 360—365.
costs of preservation of, by Corporation, 371, 372.
opened as place of public recreation by the Queen, 372.
Forest Justices. See Justices of the Forests.
Forest Laws, -when forests made subject to, 3.
probable date of Canute's, 7.
probably existed before time of Canute, 12.
neglected in reign of Edward VI., 36.
of Prankish kings preserved by Dukes of Normandy, 54.
possible origin of, in England, id.
whether submitted to King alone, id.
how far in position of general laws of England, 55, 56.
made by advice of King's councillors, 55.
often altered by Parliament, 56.
punishments under Norman, 68.
cruellies not conlined to forest oifences, 68, 69.
responsibility for cruelties of, 69.
cruelties of, abolished by Richard I. and John, 70.
laws published by Skene attributed to 13th century, 72.
by what courts administered, id.
unqualified persons could not deal with offences against, 74.
neglect of, in 16th century, 80.
abjuration for offences against, 205.
Forest Mark, duty of reeves to mark cattle with, 299.
nature and size of marks, id.
copies of, id.
marks on lost irons, 299, note.
See Cattle Mark.
Forest Officers, arbitrary regulations of, 56.
complaints as to, by John of Salisbury, 57.
Forestal rights, vested in Crown, 2.
sale of, by Woods and Forests, 334, 351, 352.
condemned by Select Committee, 1863. .354.
purchase of, by Corporation of London where already sold, 367.
the rest extinguished by Epping Forest Act, 1878 . . 368.
Foresters, their oath, 135.
delivery by, of horn to Chief Justice, 39, note.
number of, 135.
appointed by Stewards and Wardens, 136.
except Foresters in fee, id.
number of Foresters in fee in Essex, 140.
their duties, 136.
INDEX. 419
Foresters, originally Riding and Yeomen Foresters, 137.
afterwards Master and Under keepers, id.
their duties, id.
number of, in 1 3th century, id.
number and districts of Riding Foresters and Yeomen Foresters at
end of 13th century, 137 — 142.
their rights to cheminage, 139.
their oppressions, 142 — 144.
inquiries as to, 143, 144.
few complaints of, in Essex, 144.
names of their districts, 145.
distribution of, and of under foresters in 1 7th century, id.
entitled to fee deer, 147.
salaries of, in i6th century, id.
other perquisites of, 148.
ordinary duties of, performed by under keepers, id.
list of, 378—385-
Forests, Royal, antiquity of, i.
uses of, id.
ownership of, 2.
probable origin of, lo, 12.
management of, by Commissioners of Woods and Forests, 3.
ancient names of, 4, note.
derivation of word, id.
mistake of Coke and Spelman as to, id.
formed from folk land, 11.
plan for extending by Charles I., 37.
extension of, a national grievance, 46.
divided into districts by Henry II., 105.
control over by Norman kings, 280.
Forges inspected under Forest laws, 322.
Forty day Court. See Atlachments, Court of.
FouRMEN, assistants of reeves, 177.
s-wom officers, 181.
Foxes, beasts of chase, 187.
vermin in Waltham Forest, id.
under Canute's laws, 188.
hunting of, by licence, 201.
excluded from licences in 19th century, 203.
Frampole, right of, in Writtle, 243, note.
Franks, their different breeds of dogs, 225.
Free warren, grants of, in Forest, 202.
E E 2
420 INDEX.
Fuel assignments, 260.
in what parishes, 260, 261.
represented old lopping rights, 260.
how rights of, exercised, id.
number of, 261.
not absolutely permanent in Hainault, id.
how made there, id.
how assignments distinguished, id.
how loppings dealt with, 262.
mode of cutting like that in Loughton, id.
when assignments set out, id.
rules as to lopping and as to livery and spray wood in, id
how dealt with by Epping Forest Act, 1878. .369.
terms of extinction of, under arbitration, 371.
Gascoyne, Sir Crispe, his activity as verderer, 330.
Geese, unlawful to turn upon wastes, 298.
Genuiscissio, what, 226. See Lawing.
Glasse, R. B., Q.C, devisee of office of Lord Warden, 126.
Glastonbury Abbey, supposed charter to, 3.
Goats, unlawful to turn upon wastes, 298.
presentments against, 299.
ancient licences to keep, id.
GitANTS of lands by Anglo-Saxon kings, 11.
Grease time, meaning of, 221.
Great Soar, an ancient name of the red deer, 195.
Great Stag, a name of the red deer, id.
Greenhue. See Vert.
Grevyll, Sir Fulke, his letter about inclosures, nearWaltham Forest, 37.
Greyhounds, who might keep under Canute's law, 204.
used for taking deer in Forest, 222, 223.
confused with harriers, 223.
description of, 224.
how dealt with in forests, 222.
Lord Lytton, on name of, 223, note.
Gun, first mention of, in Forest, 2 14.
Gwillim, his remarks about deer, 194.
Hainault, formerly part of Forest of Waltham, 15.
original forms of the name, id.
same name borne by wood at Colchester, id.
INDEX. 421
Hainault, right to cut summer wood in, 257.
fuel assignments in, 261. See Fuel Assignments.
commissioner's report on disaiForestation of, founded on imperfect
knowledge, 305.
disaiForestation of, 349.
quantity and distribution of wastes in, id.
quantity of inclosed lands in, id.
King's woods in, id.
acreage of, 232.
allotments to Crown, extent of, 349.
sale of timber for expenses, 350.
further Act for ascertaining and compensating fuel and pasture
rights, id.
clearance and cultivation of Crown allotments, id.
increased income from, 351.
Hauling. See Lawing.
Hare, a beast of forest, 186.
its position under Canute's law, 188.
is venison, 192.
classed with vermin in 1634. . 192.
beast of warren in 161 1, td.
hunting of, by licence, 201.
Harlow, part district of a riding forester, 138.
Harold's Park, history of, 314, 316.
Harriers, used in Forest, 222 — 224.
description of, 223.
Hart, \
Hart Royal, > names of the red deer, 193, 194.
Hart Royal proclaimed, )
Harvey, William, Lieutenant of Forest, 121.
Hatches in Forest, evidence of ancient pasture regulations, 276, 277.
names of, 276 and 277, nole.
allowed to decay, 277, note.
.Hatchet or hammer, symbol of woodward's office, 176.
Hatfield, ancient Crown demesne, 15, 24.
Hatfield Regis, history of, while in Crown, 17.
Havering, formerly part of Forest of Waltham, 15.
ancient Crown demesne, 15, 24, 320.
formerly part of hundred of Becontre, 15.
probable meaning of name, 16.
given to Queen Isabella for dower, id.
afterwards a separate liberty, id.
422 INDEX.
Havering, its position in the 17th century, 16.
custody of house and park annexed to Stewardship of Forest, 1 14,
US-
sold with Stewardship to Earl Lindsey, 119.
not included in sale to Sir R. Child, 121.
liberty, Purlieu of, 161.
Hawks, claim of Crown to, in forests, 58.
eyries of, inspected under forest laws, 322.
Hawthorn, special vert, 233.
Haybote, allowed to be taken, 232.
Hayes, John, his reasons for being allowed to inclose Knighton
wood, 328, 329.
Hedgebote, meaning of, 245, note.
Henniker, Sir John (afterwards Lord), Lieutenant of Forest, 122.
Henry H., disafforestations by, 19.
his assise of Woodstock, 71.
his laws against weapons and dogs, 204.
Henry III., disafforestation by, under Charter of the Forest, 19.
quashes Charter of Forest, 24.
restores it, id.
his device for restoring the forests, id.
cancels former disafforestations, 26.
Herst, 193.
a name of the red deer, 108.
Hesketot, Richard de, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
Hicks, Sir William, Lieutenant of Forest, 1 20.
Pepys' account of him, 120, note.
ancestor of Sir M. E. Hicks-Beach, id.
HiGHAM Hills, purchase of Crown rights by lord of manor of, 35 1, 352.
late inclosures in, 356, 357.
purchase of wastes in, by Corporation, 367.
Hind, \
\ names of the red deer, 193.
Hind Calf, i
HisPANiA, William de, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
HoBHOtrsE, Lord, appointed arbitrator under Epping Forest Act,
1878.. 370.
duration of arbitration, id.
his award, 370, 371.
HocKSiNEWiNG. See Lawing.
INDEX. 423
Holland, Earl of, presides at Justice Seat of 1634. .38.
and at adjourned sitting, 44.
goes to Stratford in Royal carriage, id.
announces abandonment of enlargements of forests, 48.
forbids new buildings in Forest, 328.
Holly, special vert, 233.
HoLYFiELD, common fields in, 271.
Honey, claim of crown to, in forests, 58.
Horn, symbol of forester's office, 148.
sounding of, by persons allowed to take beasts, 205, 206, note.
an ancient practice, 205.
what calls sounded on, when deer killed, 206.
person who killed or found dead deer bound to sound horn, id.
ancient use of, to prevent concealment, 283, note.
HoRSEFRiTH, district of a forester in fee, 141.
its situation, id.
Hounds, licences to use, in Forest, 201.
limited rights for, 200. See Dogs.
Housebote, meaning of, 245, note.
allowed to be taken in woods, 232.
HoxiNG. See Lowing.
HuNTERCOMBE, Thomas OF, claims to have his dogs free from lawing,
229.
Hunters, king's, formerly supplied venison for king, 198.
quartered upon landowners, 198, 199.
their retinue, 199.
their character, id.
their payment, id.
Hunting, nature of right of, granted to landowners, 8.
rights of, under Canute's code, 65.
ancient rights of, claimed by Kings, 66.
in Wales, 66, note.
in Royal forests forbidden, 196.
punishments for, under assise of Woodstock, id.
under laws of Richard, John, and Henry III., 204.
by Kings in Waltham Forest, 197, 198.
Corporation of London, its claim to, 202.
penalties for, in Canute's law, 204.
clerics might not offend against king's rights, id.
how far allowed by Skene's code, 204, note.
in passing through forests, allowed to bishops and nobles, 205.
rule probably brought from Normandy, id.
form of, in Forest of Ardenne, id.
4*4 INDEX.
Hunting used as cover for political meetings, 207.
statute to prevent, id.
by night or in disguise forbidden under penalty, 208, 209.
presentments for, 209, 210. See Poachers; Deer Stealers.
seasons for,' under Forest laws, 221.
Ilford, Little, part only in Forest, 13, 178.
scanty population of, in 1630. . 178.
Imprisonment, illegal. Acts to prevent, 79, 80.
when inflicted by Forest Court, 97, 99.
Inclosures. See Assarts.
inquiries as to, in charge of Chief Justice, 313.
licence for, subject to land being accessible to deer, id.
how condition effected, 314.
proper height of fence, id.
for park. See Park.
for cultivation, antiquity of, 320.
regulated by laws of Henry II. and Richard I., id.
of the King inspected under Forest laws, 322.
increase of, after death of Henry VIII., 323.
then allowed under conditions, id.
evasion of conditions, 324.
numerous in i6lh and 17th centuries, 326 — 328.
attempted inclosures of Knighton Wood, 328, 331.
application of Sir H. Wroth to inclose 1,500 acres of waste, 329.
licences for, between 1670 and 1713, id.
from 1713 to 1848, almost continuous, 330.
at first made by licence and consent of lord and inhabitants, id.
number of, in various years, id.
many presentments of, after 1751, but few licences, id.
effect upon, of suspension of courts before 1785. .332.
attempts of Sir J. T. Long to stop, id.
fences of Sale Wood and other inclosures thrown down, id.
under keepers ordered to throw down fences, 333.
small size of inclosures at this time, id.
right of Forest Court to prevent, not then denied, id.
opposition of Court of Attachments becomes lax, id.
its reasons for allowing inclosures, id.
Acts of Parliament to prevent, 335.
when beyond Forest to be certified to Attorney-General, 336.
consequences of provision, id.
claims by lords of Barking and Loughton to make grants for
inclosure, 337.
of whole Forest proposed in 1761. .338.
presentments of, in 1830 and 1831.. 341.
Commissioners of Woods and Forests threaten proceedings for, id.
INDEX. 42s
Inclosures, number of, presented in 1831 . .342.
effect of encouragement of, by Steward of Forest Courts, id.
Verderers refuse to certify, to Attorney-General, id.
treatment of, by Verderers in 1843. .342, 343.
proceedings as to, in Theydon Bois, 343.
responsibility for non-abatement of, 346.
no prosecutions for, pending Lord Portman's commission, 349.
continued by lords after purchase of Crown rights, 355 — 357.
how dealt with by Epping Forest Act, 1878. .369, 370.
Inge, William de, his remark about Forest tithes, 70.
Inquisitions as to Forest, where held in 14th century, 35, 36.
James I., his inclosures at Theobalds, 36.
his hunting in Forest, 197.
his angry declaration and threats, id.
his care for beauty of woods, 239.
his proceedings to compel purchase of assarts, 325, 326.
Jessel, Sir George, decides case as to commoners' rights, though
formerly counsel in it, 44 and note.
his opinion of the case oi Boulcott v. Winmill, 334.
his decree in suit of Commissioners of Sewers v. Glasse, 365.
John (King), early disafforestation by, 19.
confirmation of, id.
later disafforestations under agreement with barons, id.
abolishes cruelties of forest laws, 70, 204.
John of Salisbury, his description of forest oppressions, 57.
his opinion of hunters, 199.
Jurors for the king at Swainmotes, 78.
Justice Seat, Earl of Warwick's description of, in 1634. -S^-
proceedings at, id.
adjourned sitting of, 44.
proceedings of Court of, 45.
powers of Court of, 83.
manner of holding, 38, 84.
time of establishment of, 84.
by whom attended, id.
how often held, id.
the jurisdiction of, 85.
discharged duties like those of court leet, id.
records of courts of, in 13th and 14th centuries, 88.
proceedings at, 88, 89.
records of Court of 1489. .90.
proceedings at, 90 — 93.
426 INDEX.
Justice Seat, record of Court of 1558. .93.
infrequent in beginning of 1 7th century, id.
cost of holding, objectionable, 94.
proceedings at Courts of, in 17th century, id.
Courts of, not held at Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, 95.
Justices of Forests, their visitations of forests, 84.
perquisites of their deputy, 92.
appointed by Henry II., 105.
title and duties confused with those of Warden, 106.
duties of them and of King's bailiffs defined, id.
four Justices in 1277. .108.
afterwards one, assisted by common law Judges, id.
names of, 107 — 113.
Judges assigned to assist them, iii.
entitled to fee deer, 113.
See Chief Justices.
Keeper of Forest. See Lord Warden ; Foresters.
his duty, 143, note.
King's Head Inn, Chigwell, Court of Attachments held there, 95.
its cellar for the officers' wine, id.
King's Woods, Hainault. See Hainault.
King's Woodwards, appointed in Hainault, 1 74.
holders of office, 174, 175, and Appendix.
by whom appointed, 175.
how long office existed, id.
their duties, id.
their perquisites, 176.
list of, 392.
Kingswood (Colchester), ancient Crown demesne, 15, 24.
and Alrefen, bailwick of a riding forester, 116.
Knighton Wood, attempted inclosures of, 328, 331.
lessee of, when inclosure thrown down, compensated by Treasury,
331-
Knights Templars, had grants of deer, 199.
L^N Lands, their nature, 13.
probable hunting rights of kings over, 14.
Lamborne, lawn in, 268.
Lammas Lands, ceremonies on opening of, 266.
compared with opening of wood-cutting season, 257.
Land, value of, in Forest in 14th century, 315.
Langeran, hoimds, so called, 225, 226.
INDEX. 427
Langley, Geoffry de. King's bailiff, 106, note.
Chief Justice of Forests, 108.
Langrich, William, Deputy-Steward of Forest, 118.
Lawing of Dogs, what dogs must be lawed, 222.
antiquity of practice, 226.
different modes of, id.
by expeditation, id.
directed by Henry II., id.
process in time of Henry III., 227.
how performed, according to Manwood, id.
■what dogs subject to, id.
Rufus' stirrup said to be used as gauge in New Forest, id.
Sir F. Palgrave's account of, id.
presentments for neglect of, 228.
inquiry or Court for, id.
fine for neglect of, 229.
grants of freedom from, id.
Lawns in Waltham Forest, 268.
used for pasture of sheep, 267.
claim of a right to pasture sheep on, 296 — 298.
former meaning of word, 267, note.
Leasowe, meaning of, 272 and note.
Leicester, Robert Earl of, his conduct as to assarts, 313.
Lepers' House, flesh of deer found dead to be sent to, 207.
Manwood's remark upon meaning of rule, id.
Lethieullier, Smart, Lieutenant of Forest, 122.
Levant and Couchant, meaning of, 273, note.
Leyndon, licence to make park in, 320.
Leyton, purlieu of, 161.
lawn in, 268.
common fields in, 271.
terms of extinction of rights to. dig gravel in, 371.
Licences, wine provided for Forest officers on entry of sporting, 95.
LIET7TENANT of Forest, his fee deer, 92.
his old titles, 1 14.
names of lieutenants, 1 1 6 — 122.
LiNDSEY, Earl of, buys office of Warden, 119.
rights claimed by, 128.
sells to his son, afterwards Earl Montagu, 120.
Earl Montagu's successors, id.
Marquis of Lindsey sells to Sir R. Child without Havering, 120,
121.
+28 INDEX.
Locke Bridge, presented at Justice Seat, 85.
Loggers. See Poachers.
London, Bishop of, dogs free from lawing, 229.
London, Corporation of, its claim to hunt, 202.
commence proceedings to stay inclosures, 359, 360.
powers of, under Metage of Grain Act, 360.
exercised for rescue of Forest from inclosure, id.
proposed mode of proceeding, 361.
advice to, as to nature of commoners' rights and course to
be adopted, id.
suit by, of Commissioners of Sewers v. Glasse, 362.
failure of attempt of lords of manors to stay proceedings
in, 362, 363.
decree in suit, 365, 366.
their purchases of wastes and forestal rights, 366, 367.
appointed Conservators of Forest, 369.
their duties and powers, 369, 370.
their expenditure for preservation of Forest, 371, 372.
Long, Catherine Tylney, Warden, 123.
marries William Wellesley Pole, id.
their titles, id.
Long Parliament, Act of, as to forests,' 50.
Long, Sir J. T. (father and son). Lord Wardens, 123.
Long, Sir J. T., his attempt to stop inclosures, 332.
Long Wellesley, Mr., his description of the Forest in 181 3. .336.
supports inclosures, 341.
appoints steward of Wanstead Manor to be Steward of Forest
Court, id.
Lord Warden, delivers his horn to Chief Justice, 39.
his ancient titles, 1 14.
held office in fee, id.
custody of Havering, how annexed to office, 1 14, 115.
names of holders of office, 114 — 126.
right of, to appoint foresters, 115.
pecuniary value of right, id.
right of appointrrient to, granted to Henry VHI. by John de Veer,
1x8.
office held by Crown till time of James I., id.
sold to Earl Lindsey, 1 19.
to Lord Willoughby, 1 20.
to Sir R. Child, 120, 121.
compensation for in respect of Hainault, 125.
in respect of Epping, 126, 371.
rights claimed by, 126 — 128.
INDEX. 429
LOUGHTON,
wood rights in, 245.
nature of, 246.
surveys of manor, id.
discussions as to validity of, 246, 247.
decision of Commissioners and arbitrator as to, 247.
tradition as to grant of, by Queen Elizabeth, id.
an ancient customary right, 248.
not interfered with by forest oflBcers, 249.
regulated by court of manor, 249, 252.
times of exercise of, 249.
commencement of season, 250.
manner of exercising, id.
precautions of forest officers as to, id.
height at which trees lopped, id.
object of restriction, 251.
how cutting effected, id.
disposition of lateral shoots, id.
and of branches, 252.
tradition as to removal of first load of season, 252, note.
by whom allowed to be exercised, 252 — 255.
rights of cottagers to, 253, 254.
not allowed for trade purposes, 254 — 256.
attempted restriction to tenants of ancient houses, 255.
denied to certificate men, id.
attempted restriction to one day in week, id.
order to carry cut wood before further cutting, id.
resemblance to other ancient common rights, 256, 257.
how dealt with by Epping Forest Act, 1878. .369.
terms of extinction of, under arbitration, 371.
lawn in, 268.
acquittance of assarts in, 321.
lord of manor claims right to make grants for inclosure, 337.
sale of Crown rights in, 352.
late inclosures in, 357.
compensation of commoners in, id.
inclosures in, cause of suits in Chancery, 357.
purchase of wastes of, by Corporation, 367.
Louis the Debonnaire, his Forest regulations, 53.
Ltmer, a hunting dog, 223.
Mandut, Gilbert, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
Mandut, William, a perambulating knight, id.
Manetum, a shepherd's horn, 273, note.
Manner, meaning of being taken with the, 79, note.
430 INDEX.
Manors in Forest, many belonged to Church, 231.
some to private owners, id.
See Wood Rights ; Pasture Rights.
Mareschall, Ralph le, a Riding Forester in fee, 1 1 6, 140.
Mark, possible existence of Teutonic .institution in England, 275, 276.
use of term in Essex, not confined to boundaries, 276.
Markes, claim in manor of, to cut wood in summer, 257.
Marten, a beast of chase, 191.
called vermyn in Waltham, 1 87.
Martial, his opinion of the hare, 192.
Mary (Queen), neglect of forest laws in reign of, 80.
Master Forester, office combined with that of Chief Justice, 84, 105.
Master Keepers, list of, 380 — 385. See Foresters.
Mastiffs in 1594. .225.
ordered to be lawed, 226.
said to be the only dogs subject to lawing, 227.
rule apparently not followed in Waltham Forest, 228.
presentments of unexpeditated, in 1630, id.
hunting beast, if expeditated, owner was quit, 229.
not to be brought by mower at night, id.
See Dogs ; Lawing.
Mediocres, might not keep greyhounds, 204, 222.
were freemen, 204.
See Canute.
Metage of grain Act, 1871, provisions of, 360.
MiCKELWRiGHT, George, his investigation into exercise of com-
moners' rights, 362, note.
Mines, inspected under laws of Henry II. and Richard I., 322.
Ministers of the Forest, titles of the different, 73.
to be punished for surcharging, 78.
MoNTEFiCHET. See Munfichet.
Montgomery, Sir Thomas, Custodian of Forest, 118.
MORNINGTON, Earl of See Wdlesley, Long.
succeeded in wardenship by his son Earl William Richard Arthur,
I2S-
Earl W. R. A. receives compensation in respect of Hainault, id.
devises to trustees, 126.
Mount Temple, Lord, motion of, for preservation of Forest, 359.
opposition of, to provisions of Epping Forest Act, 1872. .363.
INDEX. 431
Mower not to bring mastiff by night into Forest, 229.
might bring little dogs, id.
MuNFiCHET, family of, eariy holders of Stewardship, 1 14.
Richard (the son) a rebel, id.
deprived of, and restored to office, id.
a landowner in Forest, id.
the re-grant to him, 115, note.
titles of his office, ij6.
sheriff of Essex and keeper of Colchester, id.
takes profits of a forester, 140.
Murrain, deer killed by, 217.
Musket. See Gun.
Mutilation of dogs. See Lowing.
Nasing, common fields in parish, 271.
rights in, described, 271 — 273.
not affected by fence month, 272.
within Forest, 273.
had reeve and cattle mark, id.
its agricultural system, id.
wood, history of, id.
acquittances of assarts in, 321.
purlieu of, 161. Sta Purlieu.
Nasing Wood Park, ancient history of, 317.
Reeve of Nasing refuses to drive it, 318.
omitted from perambulation under Epping Forest Act, 1871..
364-
Navestock, part only in Forest, 13.
Nettleswell, acquittance of assarts in, 321.
Nevill, Hugo de, Justice of Forest, 20, 23, 105, note.
Alan de (father and son), Chief Justices and Master Foresters, 105.
Hugh de, and his son held same offices, 107.
John de, fined and removed, id.
New Forest, winter heyning in, 280, note.
claims in, by lord of manor of Minestead, 151, note, 176, note, 206,
note.
Norman, Symon, a Riding Forester in fee, n6, 140.
his receipts and claim, 140.
Oak, process against person who cut, beyond king's demesne, 232,
233-
. spear, not allowed to be pollarded, 250. See Spears.
432 INDEX.
Oath of inhabitants of forests, 75.
Ongar, High, licence to inclose park of, 320.
claim and complaint against owner of, id.
Ongar Park, purlieu of, i6i.
Ox, not to be taken as fine for non-lawing, 229.
Palgrave, Sir F., his remarks on lawing of dogs, 227, 228.
Pannage, king's right of, 77.
swine allowed in forests in time of, 307.
meaning of term, 308.
provisions as to king's pannage in time of Henry II., id.
rights of freeholders to, under Charta Forestas, 308, 309.
right found by Epping Forest Commissioners, 309.
slight evidence of, in records, id.
temporary stoppage of, by James I., id.
claims for, in 17th century, 310.
their doubtful nature, id.
regulations as to ringing of swine, 307, 311.
Parks, licences to make, 314.
imperfect fencing of, caused forfeiture, id.
salteries or deer leaps in, forbidden, id.
names of, in Forest, 314 — 320.
opinion of Polydore Vergil as to, 320.
Passefeld, acquittance of assarts in, 321.
Passelewe, Robert de, Chief Justice of Forests, 107.
his other offices and position, id.
removed and afterwards restored, id.
shows king how to raise money by fines, 108.
his death and character, id. '
Pasture, presentment of right of, 265.
antiquity of, in forests, 265, 266.
origin of right in Forest of Essex, 274.
instances of pasture associations in England, 275.
compared with forest arrangements, id.
evidence of antiquity of common of, in Forest, 276, 277,
absolute power over, claimed for Crown, 281.
no record of interference with, by Crown, id.
protected by forest laws, 282.
allowance for, at Justice Seat not required, id.
policy of Crown not to interfere with, id.
how surchargers dealt with by Skene's code, 283.
right belonged only to forest lands, id.
offer of Edward I. to give right of, upon reafforestation, 284.
instances of rule in Waltham Forest, 284, 285.
INDEX. 433
Pasture, Forest, reserved to disafforested persons by i6 Car. I.. ,284,
note.
presentment for surcharge of, 286.
generally acquiesced in by lords, 287.
objection to, in Wanstead, id.
presentment as to, by Regarders, 288.
claims for, id.
prevailed in detached parts of Forest, id.
claimed by lords of manors and commoners in 17th century, 289.
claims of limited rights, id.
variety in forms of limited claims, id.
not actively opposed after 1630. ,290.
established in 1874, id.
kinds of commonable beasts not mentioned by Regarders, id.
question as to sheep then pending, id. See Sheep.
what other beasts commonable in Forest, 290.
imperfect knowledge of Hainault Forest Commissioner as to
rights of, 305.
rights of, supposed to be only manorial and by vicinage, 355.
rights of commoners overridden by collusive grants, 356.
Pear, special vert, 233.
Peperking, or Peverell, Randolf, supposed charter to, 5 — 10.
his estates in Essex, 6.
his descendant, 10.
Pepys, his remarks about Oliver St. John, 102, note.
his account of Sir W. Hicks, 120, note.
Perambulations, under Charter of the Forest, 20, 21, 23.
of 1228. .25.
of 1298, 1299, and 1300.. 28.
of 1301, contents of, 29 — 32, 393.
doubts as to meaning of, 33.
objections to, on behalf of Crown, 34.
for restoring bounds used in 20 James I., 50, 400.
of Forest under Epping Forest Act, 1871 . .364.
Perch, forest, size of, 321.
PiccHEFORD, Geoffry de, a Forcst Justice, 108.
PiRGO, park of, 320.
Ploughbote, meaning of, 245, note.
Plumbereway, or Plumberge, Thomas de, a perambulating knight,
24, 26.
Poachers, in 1 6th century, 2 1 o.
their devices for killing deer, 215.
F. FF
43+ INDEX.
Political hunting parties, statute against, 207.
PoLYDORE Vergil, his opinion about parks, 320.
PoRTMAN, Lord, his commission, 347, 348.
claims under, 348.
report by, id.
proposals of commissioners, 348, 349.
disafforestation of Hainault in pursuance of, 349.
Pounding cattle, in fence month, 182.
fees for, 182, 183.
Powle, Thomas, Steward of Forest, 118.
Propositus, ancient title of reeve, 177.
Prickett, \
\ names of the fallow deer, 1 94.
Prickett s sister, )
Provost, ancient title of reeve, 177.
Public, have no legal right of recreation over private or forest lands,
3SS. 366.
Punishments,, abolition of death and mutilation, 70.
slightness of evidence as to infliction of, 96.
object of severe, id.
probable circumstances of infliction of, id.
later system of, under Forest Courts, id.
Purlieus, their history, 159-
effect upon rights in, of disafforestation by Henry III., 1 60.
probable date of afforestation of, 161.
external boundaries of, unknown, 162.
titles of officers of, 163.
by whom officers appointed, id.
names of chief rangers, 163 — 165.
mention of, in perambulations, 162.
remains of, 163.
laws of, 166.
qualifications for hunting in, 166, 167.
niles as to hunting in, 167, 168.
regulations as to, in Skene's laws, 168.
their facilities to poachers, 169.
rarity of presentments for breaches of laws of, id.
examples of presentments, 169, 170.
men of, not entitled to forest pasture, 285.
exceptions on payment for liberty, 286.
same rule in New Forest, id.
not noticed in Epping Forest Act, 1878. .368.
INDEX. 435
PuRPRESTURES, meaning of tenn, 3 1 2.
forbidden from ancient times, id,
inspected under laws of Henry II. and Richard I., 322.
presentments against, in 1594. .325.
Purveyance, right of, in 17th century, 241.
allusion to king's right of, 297 and note.
Putney, destruction of common woods in, 258.
Queen Elizabeth, her Forest lodge not used for courts, 94.
her hunting in Forest, 197.
her supposed grant of lopping rights, 247.
her grants of land in Forest to her servants, 324.
lodge transferred to Conservators, 369.
Rache, a name for the bracket, 224.
Ralph de Hoodenk, his right to hunt, 8.
Ralph son of William, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
Ranger, appointed under Epping Forest Act, 1878. .369.
Ranger of Purlieus, names of chief, 163 — 165.
number of under-rangers, id.
duties of both, 166.
salaries of, id.
chief, had fee deer, id.
oath of, 1 66 and note.
where office exerciseable, 162.
Rann, probable meaning of, in Colloquies of ^Ifric, i86, note.
Raskalls, what beasts were, 1 87 and note.
Rayleigh Castle, built by Sweyn of Essex, 9.
Rayleigh, Purlieu of, i6i.
its position, id.
Red Deer, names of, at various ages, 193.
Reeves, originally parish officers, 176.
became officers of Forest Courts, 177.
summoned to Forest Courts, id.
early notices of, as provosts, id.
from what parishes summoned in isth, i6th, and 17th centuries,
177— '79- ^ „
how appomted, 180.
oath of, id.
only related to Crown duties, 181.
jurisdiction of Court of Attachments over them and fourmen, id.
F F 2
436 INDEX.
Reeves, duty of, to drive forest pastures, i8i.
presentment of Regarders as to, in 17th century, id.
duty of, to mark cattle, 299. See Cattle Mark.
appointment of, under Epping Forest Act, 1878. . 370.
Regard of the Forest, when held, 151.
some of the Forest wastes beyond, 155, 156.
effect of this, 155.
searching regard in 1630. .157, 158.
oifences presented at, 158.
date of last regard, 159.
Regarders, their return presented at Swainmote, 83.
their fee deer, 92, 159.
duties of, under laws of John and Henry III., 151-
who were, id.
their claim to represent the Mediocres, id.
set in motion by sheriff, 152-
their return, how made to Swainmote, id.
their oath, id.
their inquiries, 153.
their instructions in 17th century, 153, 154.
offences which were inquired after, 154.
history of, in Essex, obscure, 156.
numbers of, from 13th to 17th century, 156 — 159.
their presentment as to driving the Forest, 18 1.
list of, 385—391.
Restraint on killing deer, 218, 219.
Rhyming Charter, reasons for supposing it to be a forgery, 6 — lo.
Rich, Sir Richard, Lieutenant of Forest, 118.
objection in his manor of Wanstead to forest right of pasture, 287.
Richard I., abolishes worst cruelties of forest laws, 70.
his forest laws, 7 1 .
his laws against weapons and dogs, 204.
Richard II., his statute against political hunting parties, 207.
Richard de Tany, his right to hunt, 8.
Richard, Earl of Cornwall, obtains restitution of Charter of Forest, 24.
Richard son of William, a commissioner to perambulate, 23, 26.
RiDELiNGS, Alexander de, a perambulating knight, 24.
Riding Foresters, Master Keepers originally so called, 137.
number of, in Essex, id.
their ancient Bailiwicks, 137 — 144.
only one after 1489. . 144.
his duties, 144, 145.
appointed by Warden, 144.
INDEX. 437
Riding Foresters, vacancies in office, 145.
entitled to fee deer, 147.
salary of, id.
list of, 378 — 380.
Rifle, use of, in Forest, 215.
River, when a forest boundary, was the King's, 57.
Roadside Strips, inclosure of, not prevented, 338.
Robbers, forests infested by, 315 and note.
settlement of a body of, in 1 698 ..315, note.
Turpin and King, their residence in Forest, 316, note.
RocHFORD, beyond Forest time out of mind, 22.
Rockingham Forest, payment to Verderers in, 133, note.
Roe, remains found at Walthamstow, 191.
reintroduced into Forest, id.
a beast of chase, 187.
why not of forest, id.
why not venison, id.
Roehampton, destruction of common woods in, 258.
Roger God Save the Ladies, grantee of part of Felsted, 33, note.
RoKELE, or Rupela, Philip de, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
RoMES, Nicholas de, a Forest Justice, 108.
RooTHiNG Aythorp, arrentations of assarts in, 323.
RoYDON Hall, right of gallows in manor of, 8.
RoYDON Hamlet, common fields in, 271.
rights in, described, 271, 272.
within Forest, 273.
had reeve and cattle mark, id.
Ruckholt, right of stocks and gallows in, 8.
account of Sir W. Hicks' house at, 120, note.
claim of lord of, to cut wood, 244.
sale of Crown rights in, 352.
late inclosures in, 357.
RuFus' Stirrup, said to have been used as gauge for dogs not
subject to lawing, 227, 228.
St. John Baptist, feast of, time of fawning of deer, 77.
St. John, Oliver, Steward of Forest Courts, 102.
his argument against Strafford, illustration in, id.
Pepys' remarks about him, 102, note.
438 INDEX.
St. Martin's, feast of, time for receiving king's pannage, 77.
St. Mary, Stratford, forest manors of, 23 1 .
right of monks of, to pasture sheep, 29 1 .
claims of them and their successors, id.
St. Michael's, time for agistment of king's woods, 77.
St. Paul's, London, forest manors of, 231.
rights of cutting wood, 242.
St. Peter's, Westminster, ancient owners of Wan stead, 231.
Saladin, brackets sent to, by Richard I., 224.
Sale Wood,' Verderers refuse assent to inclosure of, 332.
Salteries, in parks forbidden, 314.
presentments of, in Wanstead Park, id.
See Deer Leaps.
Sapling, technical meaning of, 250, note.
Scotale, meaning of, 143, note.
Seconds, meaning of, 250, note.
Senaunce, Robert de, a perambulating knight, 24, 26.
Sewardstone, claim of lord to lop woods, 244.
claim of inhabitants to lop, 248.
acquittance of assarts in, 321.
sale of crown rights in, 352.
late inclosures in, 357.
purchase of wastes of, by Corporation, 367.
Sheep, question whether commonable in Forest, 290.
not mentioned in Canute's code, id.
number of, in Forest parishes mentioned in Domesday, 291.
grants of right to pasture, 291, 292.
presentments for pasturing without licence, 292.
great increase in breeding of, 293.
inquiry by James I. as to surcharges by pasture of, id.
declared to be uncommonable, id.
long tolerated in Forest, 294.
Information by Attorney-General v. Fuller as to, id.
said to be obnoxious to deer, id.
statements by Attorney-General as to pasturing of, in Forest, 294,
295-
claims set up by Fuller and other defendants, 296.
decision against right by Justice Seat in 1630. .297.
Fuller and his co-defendants fined, id.
practical effect of decision, 297, 298.
claim of Fuller confined to lawns, 298.
probable explanation of claim, id.
right to pasture not claimed by Corporation of London, id.
Sir Tristram brought in the terms of hunting and hawking, 193.
INDEX. 439
Skene, Sir John, forest regulations published by, 72.
how far they agree with Articles of Attachment of Forests, id.
Sledge, a carriage for lopped wood, 252.
Slid, the load carried by a sledge, id.
Smijth, Sir William, Lieutenant of Forest, 122.
Sore, )
„ I names of the fallow deer, 194, 195.
Spayad, a name of the red deer, 193, 195.
Spears, what they were, 250, note.
marked by woodward, id.
Sporting, licences for, in Forest, 201, 202.
granted by Chief Justices, 202.
effect of, id.
objections to, 203.
number of, id.
granted by Commissioners of Woods and Forests, id.
Staff herding, in Forest forbidden, 279.
complaint of, id.
illegality of, led to straying of beasts, id.
Stag, Gwillim's remarks upon, 194.
Staggard, a name of the red deer, 193, 195.
Stanway, or Stanstrete, district north of, disafforested by John, 19.
claimed as forest boundary by Edward I., 28.
Stapleford, Purlieu of, 161.
Stapleford Abbot, claim of lord to lop wood, 244.
right in, to cut wood in summer, 257.
lawn in, 268.
Starvelings, what they were, 251.
Stephen, his oath as to wasted woods, 235,
Steward of Forest. See Lord Warden.
rights claimed on behalf of, 126, 127.
Steward of Forest Courts, loi.
his duties, id.
his title, 102,
names of Stewards, 102 — 104.
office filled by Oliver St. John, 102.
dispute as to right to appoint, 103.
consequent interruption of Courts, id.
result of dispute, 104.
refuses to deliver Court books to Lord Warden, 125.
440 INDEX.
Stint, remarks of Mr. Joshua Williams as to supposed, in Forest,
304, note.
Stob and Stock, supposed meaning of, 8 and note.
nature of right, 8.
Stratford, part only in Forest, 13.
Stratford, Abbot of St. Mary, had fee deer, 200.
Straying of beasts in Forest, how it arose, 279.
how inconvenience of, prevented, id.
Sturgeon, right of king to, 57, note.
Sturtt, William, sub-steward of Forest, 117.
Sub-Steward. See Lieutenant.
Sunday, hunting on, in Purlieus forbidden, 168.
ancient rule against, 1 68, note.
presentment for hunting on, 208.
Surcharges, inquiry into, by James I., 293.
Swainmote, probable meaning of word, 73.
constitution and duties of court, 77.
direction as to, in Charta Forestse, id.
its possible origin, id.
not held in all the forests, id.
how often to be held, id.
times for holding, id.
by what officers attended, 77, 78.
rules of Edward I. and Edward III. as to presentments of
trespasses at, 78.
to inquire into surcharges of ministers, id.
records of holding of, 80 — 82.
mode of proceedings of, 82.
presentments at, 80.
directed to be held by James I., id.
neglected in times of three next sovereigns, id.
discontinued in i6th and early in 17th century, 80, 81.
revived by Charles I., 81.
officers present at Court of 1630. .81, 82.
dates and places of holding of, 80 — 83.
manner of proceeding against persons indicted at, 83.
roll of, ought to be on parchment, 83, note.
return of regarders presented at, 83.
province of, id.
suggestions as to returns of, in 1610. .94.
clerk of, had fee deer, 92.
where held, 95.
proposal to revive, 364.
INDEX. 441
SwEYN of Essex distinguished from the son of Godwin, 9.
Swine, uncommonable in forests, 293, 307.
long tolerated there, 294, 307.
many kept by Anglo-Saxons, 306.
numbers of, in Essex at time of Domesday, id.
allowed under forest laws, id.
only in pannage time, id. See Pannage.
required to be rung, 307.
forbidden in forests by Scotch law, id.
except for King's pannage, 307, 308.
Swiss Allmends, restrictions on wood-cutting in, resemble those in
Loughton, 256.
Tallwood, long and short, what it was, 239, note.
Tegg, a name of the red deer, 194.
Temple •RoYDON, right of gallows, in, 8.
Tendring, excepted from writ of re-afforestation in 1228. .25.
when re-afforested, 26, 28.
when disafforested, 28 and note.
Terefeld, Brian de, forestership of Horsefrith held under, 142.
Theydon Bois, part only in Forest, 13.
claims of lopping by inhabitants of, 248.
arrentations of assarts in, 323.
struggle about inclosures in, 343.
sale of crown rights in, 352.
late inclosures in, 357.
Theydon Gernon, arrentations of assarts in, 323.
Theydon Hall, claim of lord of, to lop wood, 244.
Timber, use of forests as nurseries for, 3.
for navy in Hainault, 240, 241.
cause of scarcity of, in Epping Forest, 241.
Tithes, of venison in forests, 70.
how justified by Bishop of London, id.
remark of William de Inge as to, id.
Tolls, complaints of taking, at Stratford, 140, note.
Trees. See Vert.
not to be cut without licence, 232.
fruit-bearing, fine for cutting, id.
Trespasser in Forest, when forest officer not liable for killing, 196.
rules as to in Skene's laws, 196, note.
442 INDEX.
TuRBERViLLE, his remarks on night hunting, 2og.
Tylney, Richard, Earl of, Warden of Forest, 121
holds lieutenancy, id.
John, Earl of, Warden, 122.
devises office to Sir J. T. Long, 123.
Under Foresters or Keepers, 137 — 139, 140 — 142, 145, 146.
chief executive officers of Forest, 148.
their duties, 148, 149.
they and assistants of, sworn officers, 150.
by whom appointed, id.
by whom removable, id.
their wages, id.
their perquisites, 150, and 151, note.
Underwood. See Vert.
not to be cut without licence, 232.
Upminster, acquittance of assarts in, 321.
Upshire, common fields in, 271.
Valance, Aymer de, a forest justice, 16.
Veer, Matilda de, acquires wardenship, 117.
grants it to Aubrey de Veer, id.
Aubrey de, Warden of Forest, id.
John de, deprived of and restored to wardenship, 118.
Edward de, has regrant of office, 119.
grants to Lord Norris and Sir Francis Veer for eleven years, id.
rights claimed by as warden, 127.
Henry de. Warden, 119.
empowered to build forest prison, 128.
See Ver; Veres.
Velteres, hounds so called, 225.
Venison, what beasts are, 187.
roe not, id.
wild boar is, 188.
warrants to supply for King or for fee deer, 198.
formerly supplied by King's hunters, id.
Ver, Aubrey de, exact office held by, doubtful, 107. See Veer; Veres.
INDEX. 443
Verderers, Court of, 75. See Attachments.
were judges of Court of Attachments, 76.
their fee deer, 92.
their right to preside at Court of Attachments, 123.
disputed by Mr. Long Wellesley, 124, 125.
judicial oflScers, 130.
proper number of, id.
number in 13th and 14th centuries, 130, 131.
when number fixed, 131.
how elected, id.
cost of election, 131, note.
where sworn, 131.
their oath, 132.
from what class chosen, id.
their duties, id.
keepers of forest rolls, 132, 133.
heirs of, bound to bring in rolls, 133.
entitled to fee deer, not to wood, id.
no other remuneration, id.
their powers, id.
finable for exceeding powers, id.
statutory powers of, 1 34.
not efiectual, id.
directed to certify inclosures beyond Forest to Attorney-General, 336.
result, id.
refusal of, to certify in 1831 . .342.
neglect of their duties, 343.
their conduct at courts in and after 1848. .344, 345.
their responsibility for state of Forest, 346.
appointment of, under Epping Forest Act, 1878. .370.
qualification of, id.
members of Epping Forest Committee of Conservators, 370.
list of, 373—378-
Veres, De, Earls of Oxford ; Alberic, 2nd Earl, procures disaflforesta-
tion of hundreds north of Stanstrete, 30. See F^^r; Ver.
Vermyn, what beasts are, 187.
Vert, what it included, 233.
what special, id.
obscure definitions of, 233, note.
definition in charge to Grand Jury, 234.
special, excepted from claims of wood rights, id.
cut by keepers for deer, id.
destruction of, greater oflFence than of common, id.
penalty for cutting, id.
complaints of destruction of, in Essex, 236, 237.
punishments for, 237.
connection of, with loss of wood rights, id.
participation in, of forest oflficers, 237, 238.
444- INDEX.
Vicinage, nature of common by reason of, 289, note.
principal incident of, wanting in Forest right, id,
origin of, id.
ViLLS in Forest, existed before Conquest, 12.
population of, at date of Domesday, 13, note.
Waldb^ra, a right of feeding swine in forests, 306.
Walks of the Foresters and Master Keepers, 145, 146.
Wallwood, beyond regard, 756.
disafforested, id.
woodward of, when belonging to Crown, id.
history of park of, 318, 319.
Waltham, by whom settled, 12.
half hundred of, district of a Forester in fee, 141.
office claimed by Abbot of, id.
common fields and meadows in, 268, 269.
regulations as to use of, 269.
acquittances of assarts in, 321.
late inclosures in, 357.
dispute as to common rights in marsh of, 269, 270.
rights of inhabitants and tenants found, 270.
marsh still used by them, id.
purchase of wastes of, by Corporation of London, 367.
Waltham, Abbot of, had grant of deer, 199.
Canons of, house dogs free from lawing, 229.
manors belonging to, 231.
rights of wood-cutting, 242.
Abbot Simon, dispute with, about marsh rights, 269, 270.
Waltham Blacks, origin of name, 211, note.
Waltham Forest, when so called, i.
description of, in 17th century, 2.
Waltham, Little, park of Adam de Kaylli in, seized by king, 320.
Waltham Park, claimed as free park in 1630. .316.
Walthamstow Common, fields in, 270, 271.
Walthamstow Toney, claim of lord to cut wood, 244.
Wangey, claim in manor of, to cut wood in summer, 257.
Wanlace, duty of a Waltham forester in fee to make, 141.
Wanstead, common fields in, 271.
sale of crown rights in, 352.
late inclosures in, 356.
INDEX. 44S
Wanstead Park, history of, 319.
salteries in, 314. " ■
Warden of Forest bound to admit offenders to bail, 79.
attended Swainmote, 82.
not judicial officer, id.
office in Hainault abolished and compensated, 350.
compensated for loss of rights on sale of Crown rights in Higham
Hills, 352.
treatinent of, by Crown officers on sale of other manors, id.
See Lord Warden.
Warren, fowls of, 7.
Warwick, Earl of, his account of proceedings at Justice Seat in
163+.. 38.
Waste of woods, what was, 235.
abuse of rule as to, id.
wastes inspected under laws of Heniy II. and Richard I., 322.
See Woods.
Way, claim of crown to, in forests, 58.
Weald, acquittance of assarts in, 321.
Weald Side, Purlieu of, 161.
Wellesley, Long, marries Catherine Tylney Long, 123.
assumes office of Warden, id.
becomes Earl of Momington, 124.
See Momington, Earl of.
Wells, Sir Robert de, part owner of Wardenship, j 17.
West Ham, part only in Forest, 13.
modem cattle mark of lord of, 179.
sheep in, 291.
sale of fore?tal rights of Crown in, 334.
inclosure of waste in, 356.
Whale, right of king and queen to, 57, note.
Whetstone, Sir Bernard, his account of his losses from Forest
rules, 59.
White, Mr. Thomas, elected a verderer, 363.
Whitethorn, special vert, 233.
Widows, poor, their rights to fuel in Hainault, 263.
possible origin of, 264.
compensation for, 350.
446 INDEX.
Wild Boar, a beast of forest, 186, 188, 190.
flesh of, is venison, 187.
in Forest when Fitzstephen wrote, 189.
remains of, abundant, 190.
no mention of, in Forest records, id.
Wild Cat, grants of right to hunt, in Forest, 191.
possibly the marten, id.
hunting of, by licence, 201.
Wild Cattle, not mentioned in Forest records, 191.
their position under forest laws, id.
WiLLiNGALE, Thomas, his suit to prevent inclosures in Loughton,
358.
WiLLOUGHBY, Lord, buys wardenship, 120.
Wimbledon, rights of wood-cutting in, 258.
regulations compared with those at Loughton, 258, 259.
Windsor, disafForestation of Forest of, 258.
Winter Heyning, in New Forest, 280, note.
Wintry Wood, called a park, 319.
antiquity of name, id.
WiTBRicTESHERNA, ancient name of Dengie hundred, 7.
meaning of, 7, note.
WiTHAM, district of a Riding Forester, 138.
WoLANSTONE, JoHN DE, a Forester in fee, 141.
Wolf, a beast of forest, 186.
not under Canute's laws, 188.
no entries about, in Forest records, 1 89.
reference to, in grant to Waltham Abbey, id.
in tenures of land, 1 89, 1 90.
evidence as to late existence of, 190.
WoLHAMPTON, claim of lord to cut wood, 244.
WoLVERSTON, licence to make park in, 319.
Wood, right to fixed quantity of, from Forest, 263.
antiquity of such rights, id.
instances of, in Essex, id.
rights of poor widows to, in Hainault, id.
See Fuel Assignments ; Loughton ; Woods.
Wood Cat. See Wild Cat.
INDEX. 447
Woodford, claim of lord to cut wood, 244.
common fields in, 27 1 .
acquittances of assarts in, 321.
sale of Crown rights in, 352.
late inclosures in, 356.
purchase of wastes of, by Corporation, 367.
WooDMOTE, a name for Court of Attachments, 73. See Attachments,
Court of.
Woods, cutting and selling of, in king's demesne forbidden, 232.
process against persons cutting beyond demesnes, 232, 233.
waste of, 23s.
wasted, seized by king, 235.
kept by Henry I., id.
Stephen's oath as to, id.
practice as to, in Essex, id.
fines for continuous, 235, 236.
neglectto fence, 238.
rules as to fencing of, when cut, 238, 239.
James I. provides for ornamental character of, 239.
devastation of, during Commonwealth, 239, 240.
proposal to prevent, 240.
licences for cutting, 241.
great cutting of, in i8th century, 241, 242.
special rights of cutting, 242.
by ancient charters, 242, 243.
perhaps confirmations of customs, 243.
rights of cutting, remains of ancient common rights, 244.
instances of ancient wood rights, 245, 258.^
existence of, in Loughton, 245, 246.
in other parishes, 257.
claims of lords of manors to cut, 244.
by freeholders, copyholders, and inhabitants, id.
rights of cutting in Wimbledon, 258. See Fuel; Loughton;
Wimbledon.
Woods and Forests, Commissioners of, sell forestal rights in Waltham,
334-
powers of, to sell Crown lands, 334, note.
propose disafForestation in 1817. .339.
threaten proceedings, 1836.. 341.
commence informations, id.
petition to, in 1 845 to prevent inclosures, 344.
their responsibility for ruin of Forest, 346.
their sales of forest rights of Crown, 351.
invite lords and encroachers to buy Crown rights, id.
proceedings of, deprecated by Select Committee of 1863. .354.
Woodstock, Assise of, 71.
Woodward delivers his horn to Chief Justice, 39, note.
448 INDEX.
Woodwards, directed to be appointed by owners of woods under
name of Foresters, 171.
sworn at Forest Courts, id.
their oath, 171, 172.
entries respecting, 172.
woods seized for non-appointment of, id.'
number of, in Forest, 173.
acted in the Forest walks, id.
lords'claimed right to appoint, 173, 174.
ancient perquisites of, 176 and note.
their symbol of oflSce, id.
their duty at the Justice Seat, 176.
See King's Woodward.
Works, Forest transferred to Commissioners of, 358, note.-
Wright, John, Warden of Forest, 1 19.
Writtle, forester of, named in Domesday, 3.
ancient Crown demesne, 15, 24.
history of, while in Crown, 17, 18.
rights of tenants in, to lop trees, 243.
Writtle Park, royal demesne, 320.
Wroth, Sir Henry, his application to inclose 1,500 acres of waste, 329.
WyTHES, Mr., elected a verderer, 363.
Yeomen Foresters, an old name for the under foresters, 137.
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