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law it appears to have been the right of the king to make a forest where he pleased, provided that certain legal formalities were observed. The king having a continual care for the preservation of the See also:

REALM

realm, and for the See also:

peace and quiet of his subjects, he had therefore amongst many privileges this prerogative, viz. to have his See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place of recreation wheresoever he would appoint.' See also:

LAND

Land once afforested became subject to a See also:

PECULIAR

peculiar See also:

SYSTEM

system of laws, which, as well as the formalities required to constitute a valid afforestment, have been carefully ascertained by the Anglo-See also:

Norman lawyers. " A forest," 1 See also:

Coke, 4 inst., 300. says Manwood, " is a certain territory of woody grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for See also:

WILD, JONATHAN (c. 1682-1725)

wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase, and See also:

warren to See also:

REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest, and abide there in the safe See also:

PROTECTION

protection of the king, for his delight and See also:

PLEASURE (through Fr. plaisir from Lat. placere, to please; Gr. rlbovii)

pleasure; which territory of ground so privileged is mered and bounded with unremovable marks, See also:

MERES, FRANCIS (1565-1647)

meres and boundaries, either known by See also:

MATTER

matter of See also:

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

record or by See also:

PRESCRIPTION

prescription; and also replenished with wild beasts of venery or chase, and with See also:

GREAT

great coverts of vert, for the succour of the said beasts there to abide: for the preservation and continuance of which said place, together with the vert and See also:

VENISON (pronounced venzon)

venison there are particular See also:

OFFICERS

officers, laws, and privileges belonging to the same, requisite for that purpose, and proper only to a forest and to no other place."' And the same author distinguishes a forest, as " the highest See also:

FRANCHISE (from 0. Fr. franchise, freedom, franc, free)

franchise of princely pleasure," from the inferior franchises of chase, See also:

park and warren—named in the See also:

order of their importance. The forest embraces all these, and it is distinguished by having laws and courts of its own, according to which offenders are justiceable. An offender in a chase is to be punished by the common law; an offender in .a forest by the forest law. A chase is much the same as a park, only the latter is enclosed, and all of them are distinguished according to the class of wild beasts to which the See also:

PRIVILEGE

privilege extended. Thus beasts of forest (the " five wild beasts of venery ") were the See also:

hart, the See also:

HIND

hind, the See also:

hare, the See also:

BOAR (0. Eng. bar; the word is found only in W. Ger. languages, cf. Dutch beer, Ger. Eber)

boar and the See also:

wolf. The beasts of chase were also five, viz. the See also:

buck, the doe, the See also:

fox, the See also:

marten and the See also:

roe.

The beasts and fowls of warren were the hare, the coney, the See also:

PHEASANT

pheasant and the See also:

partridge. The courts of the forest were three in number, viz. the See also:

court of attachments, swainmote and See also:

JUSTICE (Lat. justitia)

justice-seat. The court of attachments (called also the See also:

wood-mote) is held every See also:

FORTY

forty days for the foresters to bring in their attachments concerning any hurt done to vert or venison (in viridi et venatione) in the forest, and for the verderers to receive and See also:

mark the same, but no conviction takes place. The swainmote, held three times in the See also:

YEAR

year, is the court to which all the freeholders within the forest owe suit and service, and of which the verderers are the See also:

JUDGES, THE BOOK OF

judges. In this court all offences against the forest laws may be tried, but no See also:

JUDGMENT

judgment or See also:

PUNISHMENT (from Lat. punire, to punish, from poena, punishment, Gr. 7rocvil)

punishment follows. This is reserved for the justice-seat, held every third year, to which the rolls of offences presented at the court of See also:

ATTACHMENT

attachment, and tried at the swainmote, are presented by verderers. The justice-seat is the court of the See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief justice in See also:

eyre, who, says Coke, " is commonly a See also:

man of greater dignity than knowledge of the laws of the forests; and therefore where justice-seats are to be held some other persons whom the king shall appoint are associated with him, who together are to determine omnia placita forestae," _ There were two chief justices for the forests See also:

INTRA

intra and ultra Trentam respectively. The necessary officers of a forest are a steward, verderers, foresters, regarders, agisters and woodwards. The See also:

VERDERER (O. Fr. verdier, Med. Lat. viridarius)

verderer was a judicial officer chosen in full See also:

COUNTY (through Norm. Fr. comae, cf. O. Fr. cunte, conk', Mod. Fr. comae, from Lat. comitatus, cf. Ital. comitato, Prov. comtat; see COUNT)

county by the See also:

FREE

free-holders in the same manner as the See also:

CORONER

coroner. His See also:

OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")

office was to view and receive the attachments of the foresters, and to mark them on his rolls. A forester was " an officer sworn to preserve the vert and venison in the forest, and to attend upon the wild beasts within his bailiwick." The regarders were of the nature of visitors: their See also:

DUTY (from " due," that which is owing, O. Fr. deu, dil, past participle of devoir; Lat. debere, debitum; cf. " debt ")

duty was to make a regard (visitatio nemorum) every third year, to inquire of all offences, and of the concealment of such offences by any officer of the forest. The business of the agister was to look after the pasturage of the forest, and to receive the payments for the same. by persons entitled to pasture their See also:

CATTLE (Norman Fr. catel, from Late Lat. capitale, wealth or property, a word applied in the feudal system to movable property and particularly to live stock, and surviving in its wider meaning as " chattel " or " chattle ")

cattle in the forests.

Both the pasturage and the See also:

PAYMENT (Fr. paiement, from payer, to pay; Lat. pacare, to appease, pax, peace)

payment were called " See also:

AGISTMENT

agistment." The See also:

woodward was the officer who had the care of the See also:

woods and vert and presented offences at the court of attachment. The legal conception of a forest was thus that of a definite territory within which the code of the forest law prevailed to the exclusion of the common law. The ownership of the See also:

SOIL

soil might be in any one, but the rights of the proprietor were limited by the laws made for the protection of the king's wild beasts. These laws, enforced by fines often arbitrary and excessive, were a great grievance to the unfortunate owners of land within or Manwood's See also:

TREATISE

Treatise of the Forest Laws (4th edr'tion, 1717). in the neighbourhood of the forest: The offence of "purpresture " may be cited as an example. This was an encroachment on the forest rights, by See also:

BUILDING

building a See also:

house within the forest, and it made no difference whether the land belonged to the builder or not. In either See also:

case it was an offence punishable by fines at discretion. And if a man converted woodlands within the forest into arable land, he was guilty of the offence known as " assarting," whether the covert belonged to himself or not. The hardships of the forest laws under the Norman See also:

KINGS, FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF

kings, and their See also:

EXTENSION (Lat. ex, out ; tendere, to stretch)

extension to private estates by the See also:

PROCESS

process of afforestment, were among the grievances which See also:

UNITED

united the barons and people against the king in the reign of John. The Great Charter of King John contains clauses See also:

RELATING

relating to the forest laws, but no See also:

SEPARATE

separate charter of the forest. The first charter of the forest is that of See also:

Henry.. III., issued in 1217.

" As an important piece of legislation," said See also:

Stubbs,2 " it must be compared with the forest See also:

ASSIZE

assize of 1184, and with.44th, :+7th and 48th clauses of the charter of John. It is. observable that most of the abuses which are remedied by it are regarded as having sprung up since the See also:

ACCESSION (from Lat. accedere, to go to, to approach)

accession of Henry II.; but the most offensive afforestation have been made under See also:

Richard and John. These latter are at once disafforested; but those of Henry II. only so far as they had been carried out to the injury of the landowners and outside of the royal See also:

DEMESNE (DEMESNE, DEMAIN, DOMAIN, &c.)

demesne. Land which had thus been once forest land and was afterwards disafforested was known as See also:

PURLIEU

purlieu--derived by Manwood from the See also:

French pur and lieu, i.e. " a place exempt from the forest." The forest laws still applied in a modified manner to the purlieu. The benefit of the disafforestment existed only for the owner of the lands; as to all other persons the land was forest still, and the king's wild beasts were to " have free recourse therein and safe return to the forest, without any hurt or destruction other than by the owners of the lands in the purlieu where they shall be found, and that only to See also:

hunt and chase them back again towards the forest without any See also:

FORESTALLING

forestalling " (Manwood, On the Forest Laws—article " Purlieu ") The revival of the forest laws was one of the means resorted to by See also:

Charles I. for raising a See also:

revenue independently of See also:

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

parliament, and the royal forests in See also:

Essex were so enlarged that they were hyperbolically said to include the whole county. The 4th See also:

EARL

earl of See also:

Southampton was nearly ruined by a decision that stripped him of his See also:

ESTATE (through O. Fr. estat, mod. flat, from Lat. status, state, condition, position, stare, to stand)

estate near the New Forest. The boundaries of See also:

ROCKINGHAM, CHARLES WATSON WENTWORTH, 2ND MARQUESS OF (173o-1782)

Rockingham Forest were increased from 6 m. to 6o, and enormous fines imposed on the trespassers,—Lord See also:

Salisbury being assessed in £20,000, See also:

Lord Westmoreland in £19,000, See also:

Sir See also:

CHRISTOPHER, SAINT (Christophorus, Christoferus)

Christopher See also:

Hatton in £12,000 (Hallani's Constitutional See also:

HISTORY

History of England, c. viii.). By the See also:

STATUTE

statute 16 Charles I. c. 16(1640) the royal forests were determined for ever according to their boundaries in the twentieth. year of See also:

James, all subsequent enlargements being annulled. The forest laws, since the Revolution, have fallen into See also:

COMPLETE

complete disuse.

End of Article: FOREST LAWS

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