Читать книгу English Industries of the Middle Ages - L. F. Salzman - Страница 7

Table of Contents

The lead-mining industry in England is important and interesting from its antiquity, the value of its produce, large quantities of silver being obtained from this source during the medieval period, and the organisation of its workers. Although lacking the completeness of organisation which rendered the tinners of Cornwall and Devon almost an independent race, the lead miners of Alston Moor, Derbyshire, and the Mendips, the three great mining camps of England, were more highly organised than the iron miners of Dean, who form the lowest class of privileged 'free miners.'

The lead mines of Britain were worked by the Romans from the earliest days of their occupation of the island, pigs of lead having been found in the Mendips stamped with the titles of Britannicus (A.D. 44-48) and Claudius (A.D. 49).[123] Mines of this period exist at Shelve and Snailbeach in Shropshire and elsewhere, and smelting-hearths have been found at Minsterley in the same county and at Matlock.[124] Nor was the industry discontinued after the departure of the Romans. Lead mines at Wirksworth in Derbyshire were leased by the Abbess of Repton to a certain Duke Humbert in 835,[125] and a 'leadgedelf' at Penpark Hole in Gloucestershire is mentioned in 882,[126] though that county was not a great centre of lead production at a later date. In the time of Edward the Confessor the Derbyshire mines of Bakewell, Ashford, and Hope yielded £30, besides five wainloads of lead, but in 1086 their yearly value had fallen, for some reason, to £10, 6s. Besides these three mines Domesday Book alludes to others at Wirksworth, Metesford, and Crich.[127]

During the twelfth century the output of lead was considerable. The 'mines of Carlisle,' that is to say of Alston Moor, on the borders of Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Northumberland, occur on the Pipe Roll of 1130, and were farmed during the reign of Henry II.[128] at an average rent of £100; during the same reign large quantities of lead from Derbyshire were carried across to Boston and shipped to London and the Continent: the Shropshire mines were also active, one hundred and ten loads of lead being sent down to Amesbury in 1181 alone. King Stephen granted to the Bishop of Durham certain mines in Weardale, probably of silver-bearing lead, as the non-precious minerals already belonged to the bishopric, and during the vacancy of the see of Durham in 1196 considerable issues of silver were accounted for.[129] A similar grant of lead mines in Somerset was made to Bishop Reginald of Bath by Richard I.[130] How soon the three great mining camps acquired their privileges and organisation cannot be definitely stated: some of the regulations seem to have been traditional from very early times, even in the case of the Mendip mines, of which the laws were largely based upon the Derbyshire code. So far as the northern mines are concerned, we find Henry III. in 1235 confirming to the miners of Alston the liberties and privileges 'which they used to have.'[131]

Of the regulations in force at Alston Moor[132] we have but few details, but of the laws of Derbyshire[133] and the Mendips[134] we have ample information. In each case there was a mine court, known in Derbyshire as the 'berghmote' or 'barmote,' of which the ordinary meetings were held every three weeks and special sessions twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas. The 'body of the court' consisted of twelve, or in the 'great courts' twenty-four, miners of good standing and the presiding officer was in Derbyshire the barmaster and in Somerset the lead-reeve: at Alston[135] he appears as bailiff, 'king's serjeant,' and steward. Associated with this official was the coroner:[136] the two offices indeed seem to have been combined at Alston during the thirteenth century as in 1279 complaint was made that the coroners of the Scottish king's liberty of Tindale (that portion of the present county of Northumberland which adjoins Alston Moor) were acting in the mine 'where the serjeant of the mine appointed by the English king ought to exercise the office of coroner in all things':[137] by 1356, however, it was the custom for the Alston miners to elect a coroner separate from the bailiff or king's serjeant.[138] The exact degree of independence possessed by these mine courts is difficult to determine. During eyres in Cumberland it was customary to send special justices to Alston to hold the pleas of the Crown. This was already an old-established custom in 1246,[139] and we find that Robert de Vipont, who about the beginning of the reign of Edward I. had formed a manor out of what had been moor and waste, had usurped the right to try thieves in his manor court, when they ought only to be tried in the mine court.[140] Even in Derbyshire there was a tendency to use the courts of the Duchy of Lancaster instead of, or to overrule, the mine courts, at least in the sixteenth century.[141]

By the Derbyshire mine law a small trespass was punishable by a fine of 2d., but if this was not paid at once the fine was doubled each successive day until it reached the sum of 5s. 4d. This same sum of 5s. 4d. (doubled in a similar way up to 100s.) was the fine for bloodshed, or for the offence of encroaching upon another man's claim underground. For a thrice-repeated theft of ore the offender's hand was pinned with a knife to the uprights of his windlass, and if he succeeded in getting free he had to forswear the mine for ever. A similarly savage and primitive measure of justice was meted out to the Mendip miner who stole lead worth 13½d.: his property was forfeited, and the bailiff was to bring him 'where hys howse or wore [i.e. ore] hys, hys work and towlls with all instruments belongyng to that occupacyon and then put hym in hys howss or working place and set fyer yn all together about hym—banyshe hym from that occupacyon for ever by fore the face of all the myners there.' Both methods of punishment are clearly of early origin, and it seems probable that they originally involved the death of the thief, though a later and more humane generation connived at his escape while retaining the ancient form of punishment. If the burnt thief did not dread the fire, but returned and stole again, he was handed over to the sheriff's officers and committed to prison, being no longer one of the privileged community. It is worth noting that the great mining camp on the borders of Cornwall and Devon, though not apparently possessing any mine court, had, as we might expect, certain control over the excesses of the miners, as in 1302 there was made 'a pit in the mine by way of prison to frighten (ad terrorem) evildoers and bad workmen.'[142] The Devon miner, as we have just said, had no code of laws or privileges; at Alston the code applied only to the miners actually living in the collection of 'shiels,' or huts on the Moor; in Derbyshire the full system of regulations was confined to the royal 'field,' though a few private owners of mining fields established barmotes on similar lines;[143] but the customs of the Mendips appear to have applied throughout the district, whoever might be lord of the soil.

By mining law the miner had the right to prospect anywhere except in churchyards, gardens, orchards, and highways; on the Mendips, however, he had first to go through the formality of asking leave of the lord of the soil, or of his lead-reeve, who could not refuse their permission; he might then pitch where he pleased and break ground as he thought best. In Derbyshire, when the prospector had struck a promising 'rake' or vein, he cut a cross in the ground and went to the barmaster, who came and staked out the claim into 'meers,' each being four perches of twenty-four feet: the first two meers were given to the finder, the third to the king, as lord of the soil, and the others to those miners who first demanded them. Within three days the owner of a meer must set up a 'stow,'[144] a wooden frame with two uprights joined by a bar or spindle placed at the top of the shaft, and serving as a windlass. If the claim was not then worked, the barmaster nicked the spindle, and if this were done three times, and the claim was still unworked, it was declared forfeit and granted to the first applicant. The regulations in use on the Mendip field were rather different. There the pitches or claims, instead of being of one standard size, were decided by the throw of the 'hack' or small pick, weighing 3 lbs. 14 oz. 'Every man when he doth begyn hys pyt, otherwyse callyd a grouff, shaull have hys haks throw ij weys after the rake,[145] so that he do stand to the gyrdyl or wast in the gruff'; while this decided the limits of the pitch along the line of the vein the pitcher had always eighteen feet on either side of his 'grooffe or gribbe.' The hack, however, was not thrown unless another party wished to pitch in the neighbourhood; in that case the newcomer, or 'younger pitcher,' could demand that the hack be thrown by the 'elder pitcher' and his partners, 'when they have their chine, rake or course,' that is to say, when they have struck the vein. The lead-reeve then proffered the hack to one of the elder pitchers, and if they failed to throw it within fourteen days the younger pitcher had the throw.[146] The rules for reserving a claim were probably founded on those in use in Derbyshire. 'The first pytcher in any grounde muste make yt perfecte wyth a caddel of tymber and a payre of styllyngs within fowre and twentie howers next after the pyching.' Although this was the strict law, custom seems to have been content with the making of the 'caddel,' some sort of framework of timber, the first day, and to have allowed a month for the 'styllyngs,' or stow. If a claim lay unworked for four weeks, the lead-reeve caused proclamation to be made, and if the old partners did not turn up within fourteen days, it was forfeited.

Besides the right of prospecting where they chose, the miners had right of access to the nearest high-road, and in Derbyshire if this were refused them the barmaster and two assistants might walk abreast with arms stretched out, and so mark out a way direct from the mines to the road, even through growing corn. They were also privileged to take timber from the neighbouring woods for use in the mines, and in Cumberland, where fuel was scarce, they might even prevent the owners of the woods from cutting them until they had obtained a sufficient supply for the furnaces. Their proprietary rights in their mines were recognised, and they could dispose of them, wholly or in part, without licence. They might also take their ore to what 'myndry' they pleased, to be smelted, and the only restriction upon the sale of the ore or lead was that in some places the king, or other lord of the soil, had 'coup,' that is to say pre-emption, the right of buying the ore at the market price before it was offered to any other purchaser, and in 1295 we find the Derbyshire miners paying 4d. a load in respect of 'coup' for licence to sell to whom they pleased.[147]

The terms upon which the miners held their mines varied. On private lands, when the owner did not work the mines himself by hired labour, he usually bargained for some proportion, an eighth, a tenth, or a thirteenth, of the produce. On the Mendips the lord of the soil received the tenth part as 'lot'; on the royal field of Derbyshire the king had the thirteenth, and at Alston the ninth dish of ore, the dish in the latter case being 'as much ore as a strong man can lift from the ground.'[148] At Alston the king had in addition the fifteenth penny from the other eight dishes, but had to provide at his own expense a man called 'the driver,' who understood how to separate the silver from the lead.[149] This method of paying a proportion of the produce was clearly the fairest to all concerned, for, as the Cumberland miners said in 1278, though they knew that there was ore enough to last to the end of time, no one could tell the yearly value of the mines, as it depended upon the richness of the ore they struck,[150] and in the same way when Robert de Thorp was made warden of the Devon mines in 1308,[151] it was expressly stated that no definite sum was to be demanded of him, because the silver-bearing ore, the refined lead, and the reworked slag all had 'diversetez de bonntez et quantitez de respouns.' In addition to the payment of lot ore, the miners had to give tithes to the Church. In some cases these tithes originated in a definite grant, more often they seem to have been regarded as compensation for the tithes of crops which would otherwise have grown on the ground taken by the mines; but the strangest reason for claiming them was that lead was itself a titheable crop, because it 'grew and renewed in the veins.'[152]

While many small mines were worked by parties of free miners under these conditions, for their own profit, and at their own risk, there must have been from very early times a large number of poor men who worked for the king, the lord of the soil, or capitalist adventurers, receiving wages either by piece or by time. The regulations for the payment of these hired miners in the royal mines of Beer Alston, in Devonshire, drawn up in 1297 are of considerable interest.[153]

'As to the piecework of the miners, those who can find ore in their diggings shall receive for piecework as before, that is to say 5s. for the load,[154] as well of black as of white ore, if the white cannot reasonably be put lower. And those who are engaged in "dead" [i.e. unremunerative] work, and cannot find ore in their diggings, and yet work more, for some dead work is harder than (digging in) the vein, shall be at wages (a lour soutz) until they reach the ore, so that all piecework be undertaken by two or three gangs who divide the profits between themselves, as well to those doing dead work as to the others.'

That the price of 5s. a load was calculated to pay the miners for their preliminary unproductive 'dead' work, may be gathered from the fact that 'tithe ore,' that is to say the ore paid to the Church, was bought back from the rector of Beer at 2s. the load, and a further 9d. was deducted from this sum for washing the ore.[155] At the same time it is clear that where the 'dead' work was exceptionally heavy or the eventual yield small this system of payment would not work; and in 1323 we find that the 'dead work' of clearing, searching, and digging into an old mine in Devon was paid at the rate of 3s. 4d. the fathom, and that two gangs of six men were paid at the daily rate of 7d.-9d., about 1½d. a head, for searching for the vein and for piercing the hard rock to follow up the vein in hope of finding a richer vein.[156]

By the Ordinance of 1297 wages were to be paid every Saturday, though as a matter of fact we find that they were constantly falling into arrears.

'All the ore of each week shall be measured before the Saturday and carried to the boles or other places where it is to be smelted. And knowledge shall be taken each Saturday or Sunday of the issues of each week in all things. And the payments shall be made to the miners and other workmen the same Saturday. And no miner shall remain in a market town under colour of buying food, or in other manner after the ninth hour on Sunday, without leave.'

Besides their wages the miners received such iron, steel, and ropes as they required, free of charge, and had the use of a forge for the repair of their tools.[157] At Beer, in 1297, there were three forges, one for each of the three mines into which the field was divided,[158] and each worked by a man and a boy. In addition to the smiths[159] there would be, as auxiliaries, one or more candlemakers, carpenters, charcoal-burners, and woodcutters. In many mines it was also necessary to employ a number of hands in baling water out of the pits with leathern bodges or buckets; during April 1323 an average of twenty persons were so engaged at Beer Alston, and during one week the number rose to forty-eight.[160] So greatly did the accumulation of water in the pits interfere with work, that in early times the Devon mines were closed down during the winter,[161] and it was not until about 1297 that means were found of dealing with this evil. About that date the plan of draining the pits by means of 'avidods' or adits, that is to say horizontal galleries driven from the bottom of the pits to a level of free drainage on the surface, already in use in the tin mines, was introduced into the lead mines. The ordinances of 1297 arranged for one hundred tinners to work in 'avidods,' and the accounts of the working of these mines for the same year show payments averaging £12, 10s. to 'William Pepercorn and his partners,' and to six other gangs 'for making avidods.'[162] It was probably in the following year that Walter de Langton, Bishop of Chester, reported that the yield of the Beer mine had been doubled by the new method of draining, as they could now work as well in the winter as in the summer.[163]

The ore having been raised was broken up with a hammer, no mechanical stamps being used apparently before the sixteenth century, if then, though there is mention in 1302 of a machine (ingenium) for breaking 'black work' or slag.[164] It was then washed in 'buddles' or troughs, with the aid of coarse sieves, women being frequently employed for this process. The washed ore, separated as far as possible from stone and other impurities, was then carried to the smelting furnace. The commonest type of furnace was the 'bole,' a rough stone structure like a limekiln, with an opening at the top, serving as a chimney, and also for charging the furnace, and one or more vents at the base for the blast. These boles were usually built in exposed and draughty positions, and could only be used when the wind was favourable. At an early date they were supplemented by 'slag-hearths' or furnaces (fornelli) possessing an artificial blast and closely resembling blacksmiths' forges. The bellows of these hearths were usually driven by the feet of men or women, but a water mill was in use in Devon at least as early as 1295,[165] and at Wolsingham, in Durham, in 1426 water power was used when available, the footblast being used during dry seasons.[166] The fuel of the boles was brushwood, and that of the hearths charcoal, with peat and, for the remelting of the lead, sea-coal. In Devon mention is made of a third type of smelting house, the 'hutte,' the nature of which is obscure. The huttes are usually classed with the boles;[167] thus it was noted in 1297 that 'from each load of black ore smelted at the huttes and boles there come 3½ feet of silver-lead, each foot containing 70 lbs. of lead, each pound weighing 25s. sterling. And from a load of black ore smelted by the mill furnace come 3 feet of silver-lead. And from a load of white ore smelted by the furnace or elsewhere come 1½ feet of silver-lead. Moreover a pound of lead made from black ore smelted by the boles and huttes and by their furnaces yields 2 dwt. of silver; a pound of lead from black ore smelted by the mill furnace yields 3 dwt. of silver; and a pound made from white ore 1½ dwt.' In the same way the 'black work' or slag of both boles and huttes were reworked at the furnaces.[168] A possible hint is found in the fact that large quantities of refined lead had to be put into the hutte when it was first lit,'as the huttes cannot burn ore or smelt lead without the addition of sufficient melted lead at the start to roast (coquenda) the ore in the lead so added.'[169] This certainly suggests some sort of cupellation furnaces. Yet another type of furnace was the 'turn-hearth' used in the Mendips; the construction of this, again, is obscure, but it seems to have derived its name from some portion of the hearth being movable and adjustable to changing winds, while it would seem that the ordinary furnace could only be used when the wind blew from a particular quarter.[170] There are references in 1302 to a 'fornellus versatilis' used in the Devon mines, and one entry speaks of making the furnace 'upon the turning machine' (super ingenium versatile).[171]

The bolers and furnacemen, who were paid about 12d. to 16d. a week, their assistants receiving about half those amounts, having cast the lead into pigs and stamped it, handed it over to the wardens of the mine. The next process was the refining of the silver from the lead by cupellation. When an alloy of silver and lead is melted on an open hearth with free access of air, the lead is oxidized and, in the form of litharge, can be removed either by skimming it off or by absorption by the porous body of the hearth, leaving the silver in a more or less pure form. By adding more lead and repeating the process the silver can be further refined. In England it seems to have been usual to remove the litharge by absorption; in the case of the Romano-British refinery at Silchester,[172] the absorbent material used was bone ash, but in the medieval refineries at the Devon mines charred 'tan turves,'[173] or refuse blocks of oak bark from the tanneries, were used, and probably the same material was used in Derbyshire, the southern mines being largely worked by Derbyshire miners. A thick bed of this tan-ash was made with a dished hollow in the middle, in which was placed the fuel and the lead; the hearth was then fired and blast supplied from the side: when the whole was melted the fire was raked aside and the blast turned on to the upper surface of the molten metal, which was thus rapidly oxidized and so refined.

But first, as soon as the mass of silver-lead was in a fluid state, 'before the ash has absorbed any of the lead, the lead is to be stirred and mixed so that it is of equal quality throughout, and a quantity of the lead amounting to about 6s. weight shall be taken out, and this shall be divided into two parts, half being given to the refiner, ticketed with his name, and the date and sealed by the wardens, and the other half shall be assayed by the king's assayer in the presence of the wardens and of the refiner, and the refiner shall answer for the whole of that refining at the rate of the assay, as nearly as is reasonable, having regard to the fact that there is greater waste and loss in the big operation of refining than in the assay. And when the silver has been fully refined it shall be given by the refiners to the wardens for a tally (or receipt) of the weight, so that there shall be neither suspicion nor deceit on either side.... And the lead that remains in the ash after the refining shall be resmelted at a suitable time.'[174] These ordinances of 1297, just quoted, arranged for there being five skilled refiners at the Devon mines, and the account rolls show that they received from 18d. to 2s. a week.

The silver seems to have been cast into plates or ingots varying from ten to twenty pounds in weight and value (for the monetary pound was simply the pound weight of standard silver). Its purity probably varied, for while in 1296 the pound of refined silver was mixed with 14d. of alloy to bring it to the standard,[175] a few years later silver weighing £132, 5s. was worth only £131, 13s. 7¼d. in coined money,[176] and 370 lbs. of silver sent up from Martinstowe in 1294 had to be further refined in London before it could be made into silver vessels for the Countess of Barre.[177] In the case of the lead we have the usual medieval complexity of weights. An early entry[178] records that 'a carretate (or cartload) of lead of the Peak contains 24 fotinels, each of 70 lbs., and the fotinel contains 14 cuts[179] of 5 lbs. A carretate of London is larger by 420 lbs.' The London weight appears to have gained the day, as a later entry gives 13½ lbs. to a stone, 6 stones to a foot, and 30 feet (or 2430 lbs.) to a carretate 'according to the weight of the Peak.'[180] In Devon we find in 1297 carretates of 24 feet and 32 feet in use simultaneously, the foot being 70 lbs. here as in Derbyshire.[181]

In no other part of England had the lead-mining industry so continuous a history of steady prosperity as in Derbyshire. The Devon mines seem to have been richer and more productive during a short period, but the half century, 1290-1340 practically covers the period of their boom. During the five years, 1292-1297, these mines produced £4046 of silver, and about £360 worth of lead; next year the silver amounted to £1450. Then in April 1299 the king leased the mines to the Friscobaldi, Italian merchants and money-lenders, with whom he had many dealings.[182] They agreed to pay 13s. 4d. a load for the ore, but after about a year, during which time they drew some 3600 loads of ore,[183] they found that they were losing heavily, the ore not being worth more than 10s. a load, and the costs of working being higher than they had expected.[184] The mines, however, continued to yield well when worked by the king for his own benefit, as much as £1773 of silver and £180 from lead being obtained in 1305: this, however, seems to have been the highwater mark, the yield for 1347 being only £70.[185] After this the mines were let to private adventurers from time to time; but such records as we have do not suggest that many fortunes were made from them: in 1426 the yield for the previous two and a half years had been 39 ounces of silver,[186] for the year 1442 it was £17,[187] but for the six years, 1445-51, the average output rose to 4000 ounces.[188] At the beginning of the boom, in 1295, it was found necessary to recruit labour from the older lead-mining districts, and commissioners were appointed to select miners for Devon from Cheshire, Earl Warenne's liberty of Bromfield in Shropshire, the Peak, Gloucester, Somerset, and Dorset.[189] The ordinances of 1297 stipulated for 150 miners from the Peak, and an equal number of local men from Devon and Cornwall, though the accounts show that there were that year 384 miners from the Peak, and 35 from Wales.[190] On the other hand, in 1296, while we have over 300 miners coming from the Peak, a twelve days' journey, we also find four picked men sent from Devon to the king's court, and thence to Ireland to prospect on the king's behalf.[191]

The prosperity of the Devon mines caused an increase of activity in those of Somerset, where a number of fresh strikes were reported during the early years of the fourteenth century, about one of which an optimistic lead reeve wrote to the Bishop of Bath and Wells as follows:[192]—

'Know, my lord, that your workmen have found a splendid mine[193] of lead on the Mendips to the east of Priddy, and one that can be opened up with no trouble, being only five or six feet below the ground. And since these workmen are so often thieves, craftily separating the silver from the lead, stealthily taking it away, and when they have collected a quantity fleeing like thieves and deserting their work, as has frequently happened in times past, therefore your bailiffs are causing the ore to be carried to your court of Wookey where there is a furnace built at which the workmen smelt the ore under supervision of certain persons appointed by your steward. And as the steward, bailiffs, and workmen consider that there is a great deal of silver in the lead, on account of its whiteness and sonority, they beg that you will send them as soon as possible a good and faithful workman upon whom they can rely. I have seen the first piece of lead smelted there, of great size and weight, which when it is struck rings almost like silver, wherefore I agree with the others that if it is faithfully worked the business should prove of immense value to yourself and to the neighbourhood, and if a reliable workman is obtained I think that it would be expedient to smelt the ore where it is dug, on account of the labour of carrying so heavy material such a distance. The ore is in grains like sand.'

There is no evidence that this mine fulfilled the sanguine expectations of its discoverers, but about the same time, in 1314, we find Herman de Alemannia and other adventurers working a mine in Brushford, near Dulverton.[194] The Germans were for many centuries the most skilled miners, and English mining owes much to their enterprise. As an instance of their greater skill we may take the case of Thomas de Alemaigne, silver finer,[195] who being out of work petitioned the king to grant him the refuse and slag (les aftirwas et les remisailles) thrown aside at the mines in Devonshire, which had been refined so far as those at the mines could refine them: no one else would touch them, so the king would get no gain unless he granted them to Thomas, who was willing to pay 20s. a year for the right to rework them. This same Thomas de Alemaigne was appointed in 1324 to dig, cleanse, and examine the king's mines in Cumberland and Westmoreland.[196] Probably these mines had not been worked for some time previous, as in 1292 the total issues of the Alston mines for the last fourteen years were said to have been £4, 0s. 2d., possibly owing to the absence of fuel, which is given as the reason for an iron mine there being worth only 15s. a year.[197] Later, in 1359, Tilman de Cologne was farming the Alston mines, and in 1475, as a result apparently of a report by George Willarby[198] that there were in the north of England three notable mines, one containing 27 lbs. of silver to the fodder of lead with a vein half a rod broad, another 18 lbs. with a vein five rods broad, and the third 4 lbs. with a vein 1¼ rods broad, the mines of Blaunchlond in Northumberland, Fletchers in Alston, Keswick in Cumberland, and also the copper mine near Richmond, were granted for fifteen years to the Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Northumberland, William Goderswyk, and John Marchall.[199] The two noblemen were presumably sleeping partners, and appear to have abandoned the arrangement, as soon afterwards, in 1478, William Goderswyk, Henry Van Orel, Arnold van Anne, and Albert Millyng of Cologne, and Dederic van Riswyk of England, received a grant for ten years of all mines of gold, silver, copper, and lead in Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, paying one-fifteenth of the profits.[200]

Although gold is mentioned in this last entry and in a number of other grants of mines in the fifteenth century, and though Galias de Lune and his partners were licensed in 1462 to dig ores containing gold in Gloucestershire and Somerset,[201] gold does not appear to have been worked in paying quantities in England. In 1325 John de Wylwringword was sent down to the mines of Devon and Cornwall to seek for gold: he obtained from the Devon mines 22 dwt., of which he refined 3 dwt. at Exeter; this yielded 2½ dwt. of pure gold.[202] The remainder was sent up to the Exchequer and eventually refined at York; but this is almost the only note we have of gold being found, though no doubt small quantities were found from time to time in the Cornish stream tinworks.

In 1545 one St. Clere declared that certain gold called 'gold hoppes and gold oore' in every stream tinwork in Devon and Cornwall was by ignorance of the tinners molten with the tin, and so conveyed abroad; certain persons were appointed to test his statement.[203]