I don't know if I am adding anything useful here but anyway, here goes.

You mention Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and Dr Jim Rieuwerts, I understand that
the latter is a descendant of the former and also I am the very proud
possessor of his excellent book "History and Gazetteer of the Lead Mine
Soughs of Derbyshire" which was a limited publication by subscription in
1987.

The problem is that a lot of eminent historians are not on the internet, I
am trying my best to gently coax certain parties in this direction.

Cornish mining was governed by Stannary Law and was an advantage up to the
passing of the Joint Stock Companies Act in 1844 and the later Limited
Liability Act of 1855. Cornish mines could operate as companies in the sense
of being independent entities whose shares could be bought and sold as with
any other commodity. Prior to those acts mining companies outside of
Cornwall could only be formed by act of parliament or royal letters patent
and the early Mining Journal is seeded with references such as "the bill for
the formation of our company has now received royal assent".
Unfortunately, even after the passing of those acts they did not apply to
Cornish mining until ratified by the Stannary parliament, and the final act
of 1856 which brought the earlier 2 acts together was not ratified by the
Stannaries until a year later. 
Mining companies formed under early Stannary Law where forced to continue as
Cost Book Companies even in the later part of the 19th century, the only way
out being to wind up and transfer all the assets to a new company formed as
Limited Liability. The Basset Mines for instance had to follow this route.
The whole legal position of mining companies in the 19th century is quite
involved and I will be submitting an article on this following some research
I have done for the WMS newsletter. If it receives favourable response I
shall make it available wider. I feel it is a matter little understood.

Hope that this is of some interest.


Roy Fellows 

-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
sougher
Sent: 18 August 2008 18:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Marquis of Winchester and Cornish mines

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