hen and William James, Esqrs.,
Deputies.

On this occasion certain previous orders were cancelled, and in their
stead it was determined that no one living out of the Hundred of St.
Briavel's should convey any coal out of the Forest unless he belonged
to the Forest division of the county, and carried for his own private
use. A penalty of 5 pounds was imposed upon any person under
twenty-one years of age carrying ore or coal. All traffic in coal,
either up or down the Wye, was to stop at Welch Bicknor, between
which and Monmouth Bridge no coal was to be pitched. At Monmouth,
fire-coal was to be sold at 9s. the dozen bushels; smith's-coal at
8s.; and lime-coal at 5s. 6d. Above Lydbrook, on the Wye, fire-coal
was to be sold at 8s. a ton, or the dozen barrels; smith's-coal at
6s.; and lime-coal at 3s. One free miner was not to sell any
fire-coal to another under 5s. per ton of 21 cwt. Roynon Jones and
Edmund Probyn, Esqrs., were made free miners. Lastly, any former
orders in private hands, together with all writings relating to the
Free-miners' Court, were to be delivered to William James, Esq., to
be kept in the said miners' chest, at the Speech-house. Perhaps this
direction was, with few exceptions, complied with, not, it would
seem, in every case, as several of those alluded to in the existing
orders of the forty-eight cannot be found. Nineteen signatures made
by the parties themselves occur at the end of this Order; the rest
are only marks.

Nine years passed away before another full Mine Law Court is recorded.
This was on the 12th November, 1728, by adjournment, at the Speech House,
before Maynard Colchester, Esq., and William James, Gent.

The following gentlemen were made free miners:--Thomas Wyndham, of
Clearwell; Maynard Colchester, of Westbury; William Hall Gage, son
and heir to Lord Viscount Gage; William Jones, of Nass, Esqrs.;
William Jones, of Soylewell, Gent.; Robert James, of the same place,
Gent.; Thomas Wyndham the younger, of Clearwell, Gent.; Thomas Pyrke
the younger, of Little Dean, Gent.; and William Lane, Deputy Clerk.
A forfeit of 10 pounds was laid upon any miner who had received a
"forbidment" from another, if he persisted in carrying on his work in
that place. The distance of 300 yards, which, by a former order,
made in 1692, protected every pit from interrupti