Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

He had made inquiry, and was very credibly informed, that the same lease should be very hurtful in diverse ways, and especially unto the inhabitants of the town of Sutton: for that the same poor inhabitants had, out of the same, hedge-boot for fencing in of their corn fields, and other usual fences; and also a great part of their fire-boot of the tops and lops of such runt-oaks as grow in the said two hundred acres: which oaks, as well as the thorns in that forest, were called by the name of carramel mentioned in the particular. Besides, that it was accounted the usual, best, and in a manner the only good pasture that the said inhabitants had for their draught oxen and milch-kine: for that in four acres of that ground there was not the quantity of one acre of thorny or wood ground, the rest being plain ground and good pasture. So that if this two hundred acres (being accounted but for six score acres) should be all enclosed according to the said particular in six years, the said inhabitants (as he was informed) should be then in great distress.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

Does anyone know who prevailed? Carramel puzzles me. It is surely not related to the American Carmel oak (Quercus agrifolia), and I can’t see a connection to the colour caramel.

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Original

The Queen had a forest in Yorkshire, called the forest of Galtres, where stood the town and lordship of Sutton; herein were by estimation two hundred acres of carramel and thorny ground. One Mr. Barwike desired of her Majesty liberty to enclose forty acres of the said thorny ground by the space of six years, and to spring the same according to the statute; for which he would pay her 10l. a year. Whereupon an inquisition was taken in York by Gargrave, Fairfax, Dawbeny, and Sygrave, Commissioners appointed by the Queen; who certified that he might have and enclose the said acres, and that her game would be better preserved. Upon the return of this inquisition, the matter, for the further speeding of it, lay before the Lord Treasurer, and Sir Walter Mildmay, the Chancellor of the Exchequer; who, before they would proceed in that matter, sent a letter to the Archbishop of York, dated Feb. 29. to know his opinion, what wrong or hurt he thought might ensue, if Barwike should have such a lease. To which our Archbishop very honestly gave this answer; (which I mention the rather, because hereby he shewed his unbiassed mind, and his fatherly care of the poor people in all respects, when it lay in his way to do them service):

That he had made inquiry concerning the same, and was very credibly informed, that the same lease should be very hurtful in divers ways, and especially unto the inhabitants of the town of Sutton; with whom Mr. Barwike was noted to have dealt very hardly: for that the same poor inhabitants had, out of the same, hedge-boot for fencing in of their corn fields, and other usual fences; and also a great part of their fire-boot of the tops and lops of such runt-oaks as grow in the said two hundred acres: which oaks, as well as the thorns in that forest, were called by the name of carramel mentioned in the particular. Besides, that it was accounted the usual, best, and in a manner the only good pasture that the said inhabitants had for their draught oxen and milch-kine: for that in four acres of that ground there was not the quantity of one acre of thorny or wood ground, the rest being plain ground and good pasture. So that if this two hundred acres (being accounted but for sixscore acres) should be all enclosed according to the said particular in six years, the said inhabitants (as he was informed) should be then in great distress, during the time that the same might be kept enclosed by the statute; and Mr. Barwike in that time should have great commodity of the herbage thereof. And that it was greatly feared of the inhabitants there, that if it were once enclosed, he would by suit obtain that it should always continue several.

The Archbishop added,

that he was further informed, that it was lately moved at a Justice Court holden at York for the said forest, to know what hurt could come by enclosing the said parcel of ground. And thereupon, within two days after, there came to the officers of that Court great numbers of people, to shew that it should be hurtful to them, and to make suit for the stay thereof. And as he was informed, there was a supplication exhibited to the Lord President, to pray his Lordship to be a mean for the stay thereof. And lastly, that he was further informed, that the same thorny ground was near unto the lawnd of the forest, and was a very good covert: and that the enclosure of it would be hurtful, as well to the Queen’s game in that forest, as otherwise.

Such was his seasonable intercession for the poor commoners.

646 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Elizabeth I (1533-1603) (15), ruled 1558-1603, established an English Protestant church ·
• Enclosure (6) ·
• 📌Forest of Galtres (3), royal Norman hunting forest, north of York and extending to its walls, and with as main settlement Easingwold ·
• Grindal, Edmund (ca. 1519-1583) (5), Calvinist Puritan, refugee from Mary, then under Elizabeth I successively Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, Archbishop of Canterbury ·
• Hunting (10) ·
• Royal forest (1) ·
• 📌Sutton-on-the-Forest (1) ·
• Walter Mildmay (1) ·
• 📌York (164) ·

All tags.

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