eighbourhood, and about thirty other persons, any two of whom, under the
presidency of one of the former, should form a Court, and decide cases of
debt from 10s. to 10 pounds, with power to direct payment of the debt by
instalments, or levies upon goods on failure of payment, there being no
imprisonment of the person except for fraud, which should then take place
in the county gaol at Little Dean, where, or at Coleford, the Court
should meet the first Monday in every month. Such was the purport of the
Report the Commissioners made to Parliament on the 7th July in this year.

[Picture: Court Room in St. Briavel's Castle]

The Fourth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods, &c., dated the
28th of August, 1832, states that Messrs. Hill had obtained the
permission of the Crown, under a lease for thirty-one years, and a rental
of 25 pounds, to remove all that they could find of the slag, cinders,
and refuse of the ancient ironworks; thus resuming an occupation which
had been discontinued for many years. The new Fancy Pits were now
furnished with two engines and we also find that for a time timber ceased
to be supplied from this Forest to the Royal Dockyards.

The Dean Forest Commissioners resumed their sittings the next year (1833)
on the 12th of April at Newnham, and proceeded to hear further evidence
"as to the rights and privileges claimed by free miners;" but the only
important occurrence which ensued was the presentation of a "Memorial,"
by Mr. Mushet, on behalf of parties not free miners, specifying the
claims which such proprietors and occupiers of coal and iron mines in the
Forest had to the support of Government in maintaining their position in
the district. The Memorial states that "foreigners" had possessed coal
and iron mines time out of mind, as appeared by the case of several
gentlemen and freeholders of the parish of Newland, who, as long since as
the year 1675, claimed the right to open certain works without any
objection being made by the free miners, a liberty which, whenever it was
acted upon, seems always to have benefited the public; that none of the
documents of the Mine Law Court appear to exclude foreigners from working
the mines; on the contrary, the Resolutions of that Court, passed 1775,
establish such a right, allowing the free miner to sell or bequeath his
property in the mines to any persons he may think proper; that the old
gale-books contain the names of many persons not f