The returns from Sir Julius Cæsar’s collection preserved in the Lansdowne MSS. recognise the above regulations, as well as the market for wood created by the Forest iron-works, now greatly enlarged; they possess considerable interest, and will be found in Appendix No. I.

Grants in the Forest to Earl of Pembroke—Mining restricted to the Foresters—Iron cinders of old workings re-smelted in the new furnaces—Last justice seat held in 1635, extending the limits of the Forest to those of Edward I.—Grant to E. Terringham—Forest surveyed in 1635—Sale of the woods to Sir J. Winter—Disturbances of the Civil War at Coleford, Highmeadow, Ruerdean—Adventures of Sir J. Winter at Westbury, Little Dean, Newnham, Lydney—Events on the north side of the Forest—Incidents of the Protectorate, riots and devastations of the Forest—Sir J. Winter’s patent restored—Effects of a great storm—Survey of the Forest in 1662—Mr. J. Pepys and Sir J. Winter on the Forest—The latter resumes his fellings—Inhabitants suggest replanting and enclosing the Forest—Act of 20 Charles II., c. 3—Sir J. Winter’s licence confirmed.

Such a scheme, if judiciously carried out, would have done much to secure the object in view, only it was connected unhappily with the entire sale made under the date of 20th February, 1640 (15th Charles I.), to Sir John Winter, of all the mines, minerals, and stone-quarries within the limits of the Forest, to work and use the same, together with all timber, trees, woods, underwood growing in any part thereof, in consideration of £10,000, and the yearly sum of £16,000 for six years, and of a fee farm rent of £1950 12s. 6d. for ever.  This bargain was equivalent to selling the Forest altogether, and the inhabitants of the district, being greatly dissatisfied, took advantage of the approaching civil distractions to throw down the fences which Sir J. Winter had already begun to make.

In the April following, Sir William Waller, retreating from Monmouth towards Gloucester through the Forest, narrowly escaped capture by Prince Maurice, who was at hand to intercept him with a considerable force.  Alluding many years afterwards to this adventure, he writes:—“Upon my march that night through the Forest of Dean, it happened through the sleepiness of an officer, that the main body was separated from the fore troope with which I marched, so that I was fain to make an halt for above half an hour, within little more than a mile of the Prince’s head-quarter, in broad daylight; the allarme taken, and not 120 horse with me.  Nevertheless, itt pleased God in his infinite mercy to direct the rest of my troopes to me; and, under the conduct of his providence, to grant me a safe and honorable retreat to Gloucester, in despight of the enemy, who charged me in the reare, with more loss to himself than to me.”

Emboldened to proceed, and anxious to take advantage of Sir John Winter’s absence at Coleford, Colonel Massy marched on forthwith to Lydney House.  He did not attack it, however, so well was it fortified and provided, and courageously defended, by Lady Winter, who, upon being pressed to deliver, answered—

“Sir,—Mr. Winter’s unalterable allegiance to his King and Sovereign, and his particular interest to this place, hath by his Majesty’s commission put it into this condition, which cannot be pernicious to any but to such as oppose the one and invade the other; wherefore rest assured that in these relations we are, by God’s assistance, resolved to maintain it, all extremities notwithstanding.  Thus much in Mr. Winter’s absence you shall receive from

“Mary Winter.”

Lydney House and Berkeley Castle remained the last strongholds of the Royalists in the county of Gloucester.  The restless proprietor of the former was perpetually engaged in attempts to restore the King’s declining cause, and in particular to reduce the inhabitants of the Forest, which was an object of some importance, as their iron-works, &c., afforded supplies to Bristol, then besieged by the Parliament forces.  The foresters had declined in their loyalty, through Sir John Winter’s occupying their woods, from which his enclosures excluded them.  Accordingly his name is rarely absent from the accounts given by contemporary writers, of efforts made in this neighbourhood for the Crown.  Most likely he assisted Prince Rupert in his first attempt made in the month of September, 1644, to fortify and establish a permanent guard on the promontory at Beachley, but from which they were quickly dislodged by Massy.  We know he was present when the same effort was renewed a month later, and had a second time to be relinquished, Sir John Winter only effecting his escape by hard riding, and making a desperate descent upon the river Wye, by which he was only just enabled to reach the Prince’s ships lying at its mouth.

Evelyn tells us that at this time Sir John Winter amused himself with a project for charring coal.  “July 11th, 1656.—Came home by Greenwich Ferry, where I saw Sir John Winter’s new project of charring sea-coale, to burne out the sulphure and render it sweete.  He did it by burning the coals in such earthen pots as the glasse-men mealt their mettal, so firing them without consuming them, using a barr of yron in each crucible or pot, which barr has a hook at one end, that so the coales being mealted in a furnace w^th other crude sea-coales under them, may be drawn out of the potts sticking to the yron, whence they are beaten off in greate halfe-exhausted cinders, which being rekindled make a cleare pleasant chamber fire, deprived of their sulphur and arsenic malignity.  What successe it may have, time will discover.”

The capture of Monmouth proved to be only temporary, as the place was again lost, thus exposing that side of the Forest to the incursions of the Cavalier troops.  To check these invasions, the garrison of High-Meadow was carefully kept up.  Ruerdean, six miles to the west, and well situated for guarding the Forest on the north, was made another military post, being intended to stop plunderers from the King’s garrison at Goodrich, and where there is a spot yet called “Shoot-Hill,” adjoining which many cannon-balls have been found.  Probably the site of the old castle at Bicknor was also converted into an out-station, guarding the two parallel valleys which there pass up towards the middle of the Forest from the Wye.  This station would likewise assist, from its relative position, in transmitting signals between Ruerdean and High-Meadow, or even from Gloucester, if the Beacon, which formerly stood on the crest of Edge Hill, were included in the range.  Such posts would be serviceable to the Parliamentary Colonel Birch, when engaged in the siege of Goodrich Castle, not more than four miles north of Ruerdean; for his supplies would be drawn chiefly from the Forest, as indeed appears from a letter dated 4th July, 1646, in which he says, “We have supplies of shells for our granadoes from the Forest of Dean.”

The ensuing years of the Protectorate, judging from the frequent notices in the Parliamentary Journals to that effect, appear to have been destructive to the timber of the Forest rather than to life or property.  Frequent orders were issued by the Committee of the House of Commons charged with the care of the Forest of Dean, forbidding the felling of any more trees whatever, and ordering that any which had been cut down should be sold for the benefit of the Government.  The gentlemen of the county were invited to assist herein, both by viewing any timber which had been felled, and also by causing any of it which they judged fit to be reserved for shipping to be brought into the stores of the Navy.  Sir J. Winter asserts that during the time of the Commonwealth above 40,000 trees were cut down by order of the House of Commons.

It would be interesting to know what was the disposition of the inhabitants of the Forest, and of the neighbourhood generally, towards the exiled Sovereign, as the way to his restoration began to open out.  A slight clue is afforded by Captain Titus’s letter, reporting to the King that “he had been in the Forest of Dean, and had found the gentlemen very forward; that several of them had engaged for considerable numbers.”

Here it may be noted, that there happened on the night of 18th February, 1662, a dreadful storm of wind, alluding to which Pepys writes:—“We have letters from the Forest of Deane, that above 1,000 oakes and as many beeches are blown down in one walke there;” and Mr. Fosbroke has recorded from some other source, that near Newent “the roads were impassable till the trees blown down were cut away, in some great orchards it being possible to go from one end to the other without touching the ground.”

The importance of the foregoing propositions appears from the use made of them, more than a century afterwards, by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 1788, who informed the descendants of those gentlemen who appended their names to the above document, that they had thereby lost all claim to any perquisite in the way of bark and windfalls; observing also, that the important Act of 1668 (20 Charles II.) resulting from it was approved by and obtained at the desire of the freeholders, inhabitants, and commoners then living.

Another proposition intended to further the preservation of the Forest woods was presented to the Lord Warden of the Castle of St. Briavel’s by the freeholders thereof, promising on their part to relinquish claims to wood and timber for so long a time as “his sacred Majesty” should resolve to suspend his iron-works therein, whom they implore to call in the patent granted to Sir John Winter.

First “Order” of forty-eight free miners in Court—8,487 acres enclosed and planted—Speech-house begun—Second order of the Miners’ Court—The King’s iron-works suppressed—The six “walks” and lodges planned out—All mine-works forbidden in the enclosures—Third order of the Miners’ Court—Enclosures extended—Fourth order of the Miners’ Court—Speech-house finished—The Forest perambulated—Fifth order of the Miners’ Court—Proposal to resume the King’s iron-works rejected—Sixth and seventh orders of the Miners’ Court—Riots connected with the Revolution—Eighth order of the Miners’ Court—Dr. Parsons’s account of the Forest.

Contemporaneously with the important Parliamentary enactments noticed in the preceding chapter, there took place, on the 18th of March (1663), the earliest session of a local but very significant court, that of “the Mine Law,” whose date and proceedings have been preserved.  It was held at Clearwell before Sir Baynham Throgmorton, deputy constable of St. Briavel’s Castle, and a jury of forty-eight free miners, and shows that the Forest Miners of that day were a body of men engaged in carrying on their works according to rule, so as to avoid disputes or unequal dealing.

The new Act of 1668 was soon brought into operation.  Immediately after it had passed, upwards of 8,487 acres of open land were enclosed and planted, the remaining 2,513 acres being taken in some time afterwards.  The following statement of Mr. Agar, then surveyor of the woods, shows that the cost of making the enclosures was raised as the Act directed.  He said that he “received several sums of money by the sale of cordwood to Mr. Foley and divers others, and of the timber that did happen to arise out of the old oaks and beeches felled for the cordwood and other uses, and of wood that I sold to the colliers for their pits, in the whole amounting to £5,125 8s. 9¼d., which money was expended in buying Cannope, &c., of Banistree Maynard, Esq., at £1,500; in setting up his Majesty’s Enclosures in the said Forest, of 8,400 acres, with gates, stiles, &c., and some reparations of them; in employing a sworn surveyor to admeasure them; in building part of the Speech House; in divers repairs at Saint Briavel’s Castle; in the charge of executing two several commissions, and other services in the said Forest.”

In allusion to the item of timber sold to the colliers, the commissioners, in their report of 1788, remark:—“Immediately after the passing of the Act of 1668, the colliers, who, it is said, now pretend to have a right to whatever timber they find necessary for carrying on their works in the Forest, without paying anything for it, then purchased it from the Crown.”  It seems also that “the Speech House” was then commenced, although it was not finished until 1682.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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