well as sea or pit coal was thus indifferently designated: not that the
latter was carried by sea, but only that it agreed in character with the
coal usually so conveyed. The first notice seems, however, to be that
supplied by the records of the Justice Seat held at Gloucester in 1282,
where it is stated that sea coal was claimed by six of the ten bailiffs
of the Forest of Dean.

The appellation of "Sea Coal Mine" as distinguished from "the Oare Mine,"
mentioned in the 29th section of "The Laws and Customs of the Miners in
the Forest of Dean," compiled about the year 1300, likewise proves that
sea-coal was known by name, and that a description of fuel closely
resembling it was then dug in this neighbourhood, to an extent entitling
it to be noticed "as free in all points" with the long celebrated iron
ore; that is, constituting the collier a free miner.

The original methods of getting coal in the locality probably conformed
to the modes then used for obtaining the iron mine, the veins of both
minerals showing themselves on the surface much in the same manner. So
that it is probable the old coal-workings, like those for iron, descended
only to a moderate depth, and for the same reason were frequently carried
on by driving levels, for which the position of several of the coal-seams
was highly favourable.

In the year 1610 "liberty to dig for and take, within any part of the
Forest or the precincts thereof, such and so much sea-coal as should be
necessary for carrying on the iron-works," was granted to William, Earl
of Pembroke, by James I. This is the earliest mention of coal being so
used, agreeably to the efforts then making by Simon Sturtevant and John
Ravenzon, Esqrs., to adapt it by baking for such a purpose. The same
grant, in omitting to mention coal amongst certain other productions
which "no person or persons were to take or carry out of the said
Forest," leads to the supposition that coal was then exported or carried
into the adjacent country, and that it was found desirable for this to
continue. Coal was included in Charles I.'s sale of the Forest timber,
iron, stone, &c., to Sir John Winter, who some years afterwards is
described by Evelyn as interested in a project for "charring sea-coal,"
so as to render it fit for the iron furnace. A scheme somewhat similar
was now tried in the Forest, Mr. Mushet tells us, by Captain Birch, Major
Wildman, and others, "where they erected large air furnaces, into whi