Hi Ian,
As a Derbyshire "exile" now living in Hampshire I was intrigued by your enquiry about the Marquis of Winchester and Cornish mines. I know very little about Cornish mines and their mining laws, I made a brief visit to Cornwall way back in 1964 to visit the site of the Great County Adit, which with the aid of directions sent to us by our friend Nellie Kirkham, the Derbyshire lead mining historian, we were able to locate. I do, however, know a lot about the history of the King's Field/Queeen's Field leadmining area of Derbyshire's Peak District and it's perculiar industrial courts the Barmote courts which stretch back to the 13th century, it's laws, methods of working etc. etc. So being curious I've done some research for you, as Hampshire, apart from the suggestion that ironstone mining occured in the New Forest between Beaulieu and Lymington in the 1600 and 1700's, as far as I am aware is devoid of any mines, it only has opencast workings for sand, ballast and of course it's chalk pits. I may be wrong and I'm sure I will be corrected if any mines exist.
The family name of the Marquis of Winchester was Paulet later Pawlett, and is a Hampshire/Berkshire family. The main family seat was Basing House in the north of the county which was besieged and destroyed in the English civil war. Charles Paulet was the writer of the letter, he was the 6th Marquis of Winchester. He was born in 1625 and died 27/2/1699. Charles supported the claim of William and Mary to the throne in 1688, he was restored to the Privy Council and created the lst Duke of Bolton in April, 1669. His father John Paulet the 5th Marquis of Winchester (1598-1675) represented St. Ives, Cornwall in the House of Commons as MP, being elected on 7/12/1620 until 1622. Through the Genuki website of Cornwall I discovered that a co-heiress, one of two daughters of Sir Robert Willoughby, 2nd Lord Broke, by her marriage into the Paulet family during the reign of Henry VIII brought with her as division of his estate the senior St Ives Manor of Ludgvan Lese, this encompassed lands in Ludgvan, Lelant, St. Ives and Towednack. Another reference refers to "The Court Baron held at the Guild Hall in St.Ives on 20/05/1724 - John Davy for making encroachment on his Grace the Duke of Bolton's land in Trevalgan, in St. Ives - informant Paul Stevens". So with this information of the location of the family's estate in St. Ives, anyone who is familiar with the mining areas around St. Ives could investigate this enquiry futher. There are records about this family held both at Hampshire and Berkshire Record Offices and also two deposits of Bedford Papers at the Cornwall Record Office.
Very interestingly I also found a letter on the internet dated October, 1630 written to John Paulet (5th Marquis of Winchester) at Winchester by a friend Robert Weasenham from Downham Market, Norfolk (from a modern magazine called Grantville Gazette). He writes "However, mainly I write of the King's Commission at Lynn this past week. Attending on behalf of our family's trading and estate interests, my brother and I heard that the proposal from the King's embankment engineer Sir Cornelius Vermuyden to drain the Great Fen has finally been agreed at the Privy Council, but in detail I have some suprising news. Lacking capital to the satisfaction of the Drainage Commissioners, Veymuden is no longer undertaker of the venture. Representations (and we are sure some monies) persuaded the commissioners that future capital is required to complete the works".
Sir Cornelius Vermuyden the Dutchman greatly intrigues me, he is a fasinating character and was reponsible for draining many parts of England, including the Isle of Dogs, a waterway south of Sheffield, the Bedford Level in the Fens and he had a lot of money troubles. He is, however, famed in Derbyshire for driving the first drainage level to dewater a lead mine. In Derbyshire we call them soughs (pronouned "suffs"), in Cornwall they are called adits. The sough was driven between 1631 to 1651 through Cromford Hill to the Dovegang mines in Wirksworth mining liberty which at this time were troubled by water problems. (See "Glossary of Derbyshire Lead Mining Terms" by J. H. Rieuwerts 1998; "The Tumultuous Course of Dovegang" by Nellie Kirkham in Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society's Journal 1953, and "Old Drowned Work in Derbyshire" by Nellie Kirkham in Derbyshire Archaeolgical and Natural History Society's Journal 1950 for further information). (My Coates ancestors from Cromford worked on this sough and the Dovegang mines at this point in time). Therefore, may I suggest because of the link through this letter to Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and the Paulet family, that the Paulet owned mines in Cornwall were perhaps experiencing similar problems through water in their mines (?presumably copper was being mined at this date) as the Derbyshire mines were. Gunpowder was used in the Ecton Copper mines in Staffordshire just over the Derbyshire border in about 1670 or possibly earlier, this allowed rock to be broken up much quicker and easier than the earlier hand methods of driving. From the website (www.cornish-mining.org.uk) I found that Thomas EPSLEY was asked to demonstrate the use of gunpowder to the miners at Breage district in 1689. These were the times before "fire" engines were introduced into mines to dewater them (1718 at the Yates Stoop Mine, Winster was the date of the first Newcomen engine installed by the Quakers of the London Lead Company in Derbyshire). Therefore, with Charles Paulet's knowledge as a mine owner of drainage and gunpowder could not the "Levills" mentioned in his letter refer to drainage levels? By draining the mines more efficiently deposits of ore were found at greater depths.
I trust that this information assists you in finding the "Levills" referred to in this letter of 1686/87, it would be interesting to discover more. Incidently with finding reference to this letter in the North Yorkshire Records Office is there a possibility that the Paulet family also owned mines in the Northern Pennines, just a thought.
Kind regards,
Margaret Howard
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