Short title: Earl of Dover v Heath. Plaintiffs: Henry [Carey] Earl of Dover, Sir...

Short title: Earl of Dover v Heath.

Plaintiffs: Henry [Carey] Earl of Dover, Sir Abraham Dawes, Sir Robert Sharpey, John Curzon, George Drywood, Richard Carrier, Nathaniel Sayers, Thomas White, John Bartholemew.

Defendants: Robert Heath, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, Thomas Alsopp, John Moranus, Anthony Coates.

Documents: depositions concerning Wirksworth, Derbyshire.

12 Charles I.

Deponents for plaintiffs: Geoge Paysor of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 54, deposed that he has worked in the Dovegangs, which were laid dry by Sayers and the other defendants, for 20 years. It cost Sayers and others £8000 to establish an engine pit forty fathoms deep to drain the mine. 'There are many thousand' employed on the mines. It is lawful to buy mine workings but miners cannot be cast out from this works by 'new comers' unless by agreement to sell. The defendant 'living in London and far remote from the said works' at the Dovegang sent work men into the mines at winter time resutling in the drowning of John Spenser. After this conflicts arose over the access to the Dovegang; John Halsey of Derby, yeoman, aged 38; John Mather of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 28; Thomas Bradshaw of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 31; Raphe Tomlinson of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 36, deposed that he had worked constructing the 34 fathom shafts for the engine. Sir Robert Heath's servants came to the workings and pulled up the stows marking possession and destroyed the engine house and rebuilt it. All of this was illegal; Anthony Vallance of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 34, deposed that the barmaster refused any trial to the complainants following the removal of their stowes; Lawrence Stoakes of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 29, deposed that Heath and other defendants illegally seized mine workings. In a working in Bonsall the miners have got 140 loads of ore in a year. It is believed that if they were able to work the plot at Dovegang, as custom dictates, they would get four or five hundred loads of ore in a year; William Hardy of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 40, deposed that the defendants 'did threaten and terrfie severall poore mynors' [did threaten and terrify several poor miners] living within the wapentake and ordered them to attend London. One poor man pawned his clothes to cover the costs of travel; William Rowland of Chaddenden, gentleman, aged 30; Raphael Bradbury of Youlgreave, yeoman, aged 30; Anthony Wood of Riber, yeoman, aged 35; Thomas Abell of Cromford, miner, aged 60, deposed that he was summoned to London along with 15 other miners where he had a Star Chamber case brought against him by Anthony Coates. Robert Heath was 'terrifying' the miners; Thomas Godbehere of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 44; Robert Flint of Cromford, yeoman, aged 37; Edward Ragg of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 33; John Wright of Cromford, yeoman, aged 28; Robert Cotton of Wirksworth, yeoman, aged 50; William Spenser of Wirksworth, shoemaker, aged 30; Thomas Buxton of Wirksworth, miner, aged 40.