Short title: Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster v Gould, otherwise Trustees...

Short title: Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster v Gould, otherwise Trustees of the Dowager Queen Catherine's Jointure v Gould.

Plaintiffs: Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster on behalf of Queen Dowager at the relation of Sir James Butler her Attorney General, [Philip Stanhope] Earl of Clarendon and her other trustees, Thomas Eyre and George Shaw.

Defendants: Henry Gould, Powell, Orme, Goodwyn and others.

Documents: depositions concerning Taddington, Derbyshire.

Taken in 1686.

Deponents for plaintiffs: Thomas Brethnor of Taddington, yeoman, aged 30, deposed that 5 or 6 years ago, Thomas Eyre, lessee of lands in Taddington, held a meeting with the inhabitants of Taddington and Priestcliffe. It was proposed to Thomas Eyre that he should take action for the recovery of title and rights against the inhabitants of Bradwell, Wormhill and other towns in High Peak to gain a third of the worth of the commons of the townships. However, he believes that Mr Eyre's maps do not extend to take in the whole boundaries of the common; Thomas Stephenson of Hope, yeoman, aged 75, deposed that he remembers the great snow which decimated the red deer of the Peak Forest and led to its disafforestation in 1634. Most of the deer were killed in one day on which occasion the Earl of Devonshire met the Earl of Newcastle with 'a great number of persons of quality and ladies in their coaches' and 20 brace of greyhounds were released where 'each person kiled as could kill'. He remembers the minister of Hope drawing up the petition of the inhabitants of the lordship of the High Peak to petition Charles I in 1634 to destroy all the deer in the Peak Forest; William Heathcoate of Flagg, yeoman, aged 64; Edward Butler of Chelmorton, yeoman, aged 59 years and more, John Lowe of Edale, husbandman, aged 65, deposed that 'ancient men' have told him about the depredations of the deer in the Peak Forest. 'before the late warrs' in the time of Charles I he recalls that there was a petition to the king from the inhabitants for the disafforestation of the Peak Forest. He also remembers the great hunt that followed; George Shirt of Bowden Head, Chapel-en-le-Frith, yeoman, aged 81 years and more, [recites the forest laws that the 'ancient inhabitnats' had told him when he was young] deposed that he remembers the great hunt to which 2,000 people came. He remembers seeing the Duchess of Devonshire shoot a stag with a crossbow in the dam within the forest; John Wright of Perry, Peak Forest, husbandman, aged 78 [recites the boundaries of the Peak Forest]; Robert Mycock of Fairfield, husbandman, aged 92; George Birds of Stanton, gentleman, aged 51; John Downes of Chapel-en-le-Frith, yeoman, aged 63; Richard Beresford of Rowter, gentleman, aged 56.

Deponents for defendants: John Heathcoate of Bakewell, yeoman, aged 77; William White of Sheethorpe, Bakewell, yeoman, aged 62; Thomas Jackson of Taddington, husbandman, aged 81, deposed that 14 or 15 years ago there was a dispute between the inhabitants of Priestcliffe and Taddington v Chelmorton and Flagg regarding the right of way over the common. The case went to common law and to Chancery and was finally settled through the arbitration of Sir John Gell. The agreement was put into writing and signed or marked by most of the tenants; George Berry of Blackwell, husbandman, aged 50 years or more, whose memory goes back 'always' [to 1637]; Raphe Humbleton of Blackwell, miner, aged 78; George Charlesworth of Monyash, husbandman, aged 90, whose memory goes back 80 years [to 1607]; Anne Chapell of Flagg, widow, aged 86, deposed that there was never any division of the commons and wastes in the time of Charles I 'for if there had shee should have knowne or heard thereof, she going soe frequently over the said comons and amongst the neighbors and inhabitants of those Towns and so bee much with the better sort of people there' [for if there had she should have known or heard thereof, she going so frequently over the said commons and amongst neighbours and inhabitants of those towns and so be much with the better sort of people there]. She knows the new barn and stable of Mr Powell and has known the land on which they were built for 80 years; Thomas Staden of Sterndale, yeoman, aged 76, whose mmeory goes back 54 years [to 1633]; Richard Taylor of Otladden, butcher, aged 85.