We now come to the consideration of a considerably later series of maps, which are done roughly to scale, of various townships within the Peak forest. Derbyshire is exceptionally fortunate in having such a series of carefully-preserved early plans. A list of the records of the Duchy of Lancaster preserved at the Public Record Office was printed in 1901. One section of this list is headed, “Maps and Plans”; they consist principally of those made in the elucidation of the claims of parties in disputes pending in the Court of the Duchy Chamber. The three to which we have just referred are of the end of Elizabeth’s reign, but otherwise they are almost entirely of various seventeenth century dates. There are 116 items calendared as maps and plans at the Public Record Office, of which Derbyshire has a large share, viz., 32, or more than a quarter of the whole number. The reason for the making of all these Derbyshire plans, save the three already mentioned, was the enclosing or disafforesting of the Peak.
No. 7.
During the reign of Charles I. many unhappy efforts were made to raise funds for the Crown by re-establishing the almost extinct forest courts. This was chiefly the work of Noy, the King’s Attorney-General, styled by Carlyle “that invincible heap of learned rubbish.” The revival of these courts, with all their costly and obsolete formalities, accompanied by the imposition of absurdly heavy fines, created bitter resentment wherever it was carried out, as in Surrey, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire, and was, beyond doubt, one of the causes that led to the Commonwealth trouble. In other parts of England where there were royal forests, after the reimposition of forest law had been so strenuously resisted, another line of action was adopted. Attempts were made, occasionally with success, to secure money for the Crown by the enclosure of forests, the Crown claiming a half, or thereabouts, of the land, and selling them as soon as a title was gained. This action led to continuous disturbance in Duffield, in the south of Derbyshire, where the resistance made to enclosure by the commoners and tenants was eventually successful.
No. 8.
In the Peak, however, the destruction done to the crops by the small remnant of the once vast herds of red deer was so persistent that the commoners and others were only too ready to assent to any just scheme of disafforesting. In 1635, various of the landowners and commoners of the Peak petitioned the King, complaining of the severity, trouble, and rigour of the forest laws, and praying that the deer, which were still in sufficient numbers to do no small damage to the crops within the forest and its purlieus, might be destroyed, and asking to be allowed to compound by enclosing and improving the same. Thereupon a commission of enquiry was issued, and two juries were empanelled, with surveyors to assist them. The first jury viewed the whole forest and its purlieus, and presented that the King might improve and enclose one moiety in consideration of his rights, and that the other moiety should be enclosed by the tenants, commoners and freeholders. The second jury was empanelled to specially consider the case of the towns within the purlieus, and they presented that the King, in view of the largeness of the commons belonging to the towns of Chelmorton, Flagg, Taddington, and Priestcliffe, might reasonably have for improvement and enclosure one-third, and the remaining two-thirds for the commoners and freeholders. A like division was to be adopted in several parts within the forest. After some delay the commons were measured, and surveys made of the different townships, dividing the land into three sorts—best, middle, and worst, and the King’s share in each was staked, and maps showing the results were drafted. The surveys were not completed until 1640, and when all the preliminaries had been adjusted, the King caused all the deer to be destroyed or removed, and from that date onwards red deer were unknown within the High Peak. The extirpation of the deer was, however, almost immediately followed by the beginning of those “troublous times” which preceded the outbreak of the Civil War. The whole of the proceedings towards enclosure fell into abeyance. Soon after the restoration of the monarchy, much discussion arose as to the revival of these projects, but it was not until 1674 that the proposals for disafforesting the open or waste portions of the Peak Forest, and enclosing the portions that were capable of cultivation or good for pasture, were completed. The Commissioners appointed for this purpose were Sir John Gell, Sir John Cassy, and fifteen others, including such well-known Peak names as Bagshawe, Eyre, and Shallcross. The third portion assigned absolutely to the Crown was almost immediately granted by letters patent to Thomas Eyre, of Gray’s Inn, who speedily entered upon and enclosed the same, notwithstanding certain futile opposition in the duchy court.
No. 9.
It must have been a great assistance to the labours of these commissioners to find that the maps of the time of Charles I., showing the exact measurements and the three sorts of land, were still extant. These maps, though of rough execution, are of the highest interest.[78]