If they were crown manors (administered by the Exchequer), you will
probably be able to find something in Exchequer records. I spent some time
about 10 years ago looking at the inclosure of certain forests in
Worcestershire. These were confirmed by orders of the Court of Exchequer,
which I found in entry books of orders. At the time I did not know that
some one had already written about the subject: see several chapters in
R.W. Hoyle estates of the English crown 1558-1640. Exchequer records are
not too impenetrable, as they are usually arranged by county, but the
indices are frequently not on the open shelves at PRO, being IND1 volumes
that have to be ordered from the stack. This applies for example to bills
and answers in equity proceedings (E112), which often are at least as useful
as the depositions that are often suggested as a means of entry to the
material (because there are printed lists of them).
If (on the other hand) they were Duchy of Lancaster manors, I suspect you
will find references to it in the Duchy of Lancaster records in PRO, DL
classes. I am not particularly familiar with these, but Charles I's need
for money during his personal rule meant that the Duchy estates suffered a
similar fate.
If they were not crown manors at all, any records are more likely to be
Chancery documents but they will be much harder to trace, indeed almost
impossible unless you know the name of the plaintiff or first defendant.
I think the returns of inclosures were supposedly illegal ones which it was
hoped to prosecute. This (I think) usually refers to the conversion of
arable to pasture, whereas what I have referred to above is more concerned
with the conversion of waste (heath, moor, marsh) to inclosed pasture or
arable
Peter King
49, Stourbridge Road,
Hagley
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY9 0QS
01562-720368
----- Original Message -----
From: "steven may" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Peter Wickham King" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2003 8:15 PM
Subject: Early Enclosure in Derbyshire
> Hi,
> I have been trying to find the original information that the paragraph
> from these two paragraphs from volume two of Derbyshire's Victoria County
> History.
>
> "It is clear that in the 150 years from 1500-1650 a good deal of
reclamation
> work had been done, though it often met with opposition from those who
> thought their interests were encroached upon, and more would have been
done
> if the civil wars disturbances had not prevented it.
>
> Common land, probably waste had been enclosedfor use as several pasture at
> Belper, Duffield, Scropton, Alderwasley, Bowden, Spondon, Mellor, Parwich,
> Buxton, Fairfield, Tunstead, Bonsal, Priestcliff and Wirksworth."
>
> Joan Sinar at the Derbyshire Record Office notes that the 1630 Returns
about
> enclosures are amongst the State Papers Domestic and that before the
> statement about early enclosures the information seems to have been taken
> from the Duchy of Lancaster's documents which are at the Public Records
> Office in London.
>
> I hope that one of the list members knows the answer. I am particularly
> interested in Spondon
>
>
> Steve May
>
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