Short title: Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster v Cadman. Plaintiffs: Attorney...

Short title: Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster v Cadman.

Plaintiffs: Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster [at the relation of Thomas Eyre].

Defendants: John Cadman and Richard Hawley.

Documents: depositions concerning Winster, Derbyshire.

Taken 2 September, 15 James I.

Deponents for plaintiffs: John Mycocke of Tideswell, husbandman, aged 77, whose memory of Winster goes back 40 years [to 1577], deposed that he heard that John Greaves had procured a grant to keep a Court Leet at Winster for the last 33 years. The inhabitants of Winster have appeared at the Court Leet and Court Baron for High Peak Manor. About 30 years ago he was bailiff for the High Peak Court and served for 7 years, knowing many of the freeholders of Winster [recites barmote laws and office of barmaster]; Edward Jackson of Winster, husbandman, aged 64, whose memory goes back 'always' [to 1553], deposed that about 30 years ago Mr Eyre, then barmaster of High Peak, tendered a dish to measure lead ore within Winster but was denied by one Greytrixe the servant to the Earl of Shrewsbury. [Dish measure of lead ore based on a standard brass dish, usually oblong in shape]. The defendant John Cadman is currently barmaster of Winster and had been for 16 years. About 30 years ago the officers of the Earl of Shrewsbury obtained a licence from freeholders to build an 'oare house' [ore house]. This was built by the 'licence and consent' of the freeholders. His father was one of the freeholders. Save for the ore house, the Countess of Shrewsbury has no lands in or power over Winster; Robert Eyre of Highlow, esquire, aged 54, deposed that 25 years ago he was barmaster of the High Peak under his uncle Robert Eyre, esquire, of Edale who was steward of various courts under the Earl of Shrewsbury. His uncle sent him to measure ore in Winster and be barmaster there but an officer of the Earl of Shrewsbury refused him to do so; Robert Hall of Winster, miner, aged 67, whose memory goes back 50 years [to 1567], [supports the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Lancaster in the High Peak barmote]; John Robinson alias Clarke of Elton, miner, aged 74; George Bagshawe of Flagg, yeoman, aged 28; Edmund Evans of Winster, miner, aged 58; Mark Stone of Winster, miner, aged 44; Raphe Halley of Winster, husbandman, aged 50; William Cocker of Castleton, yeoman, aged 33.

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Manors

Crown lands and estates