Welsh Journals

of the assays were to be made near the mine. Finally, the Court ordered that two hundred weight of ore be taken up out of the mine in the presence of John Phillips, Hugh Lloyd, Evan Price, and John Morris, complainants on behalf of their Majesties, and Daniel Brattle, Stephen Blackburne, Simon Pryse and Hugh Owen, on behalf of the defendants, and conveyed to London in boxes secured with several locks and seals, to be placed in the custody of Thomas Hall. Sir Robert Lawyer, Counsel for the defendants, complained on 23 October, that by an order of the Court dated i July, wherein a verdict passed to the defend- ants with costs, they were taxed £ 180, but that this sum had not yet been paid. Counsel further declared that by a previous order of the Court counsel who were named on both sides were appointed to be present at the taking of the ore out of the mine at Esgair Hir for making assays to be made use of at the next trial. The defendants' Counsel had accordingly on 2 September met counsel for the prose- cution, who, it was alleged, being called out of the mine by the prosecutors' agents, refused to proceed with the execution of the Court order or to join with the defend- ant's Counsel in securing and sealing the ore that was taken up. The defence therefore pleaded that the several orders placed on the defendants restraining them from removing the ore already raised might be set aside. The question of the taxation levied on the costs was referred to Mr. Baron Lechmere for examination.1 One of the chief reasons for the lengthy trials that ensued, according to Sir Humphrey Mackworth, 'was that different proofs were made of the value there- of in silver which varied from 601 per Tun of Metal, to 3 or 41 a Tun, which occasion'd very great Censure of Perjury on one side or other For it's certain, that in most Veins, there is small Ribs and Knots of Oar vastly richer than the other parts thereof, and [A,B.] might pick choice pieces for the Patentees, and [C,D.] the worst he could meet with near the Surface of the Ground for Sir Carbury Pryse; whereby all that Matter seems to be reconciled: And I presume, I may modestly compute between the two Extreams, that these Mines (I mean the hard Oar) besides the Profit of the Lead may yield one with another about 141 in Silver per Tun of Metal .2 The second trial which was before a jury of Hertfordshire gentlemen, and lasted twenty-four hours, commenced on 27 November. Again a verdict for Sir Carbury Pryse and his friends was returned. Nevertheless, his adversaries were prepared even to have this second verdict set aside if possible, and so in the following spring they set about seeking a third trial. Fearing that his powerful opponents would stop at nothing, Sir Carbury petitioned the Crown and was granted a writ of nolle prosequi in the suit that was then beginning against him.3 The case for the prosecution was that the title to all mines and ores of gold and silver commonly called Royal Mines were vested in the Crown. On or about 10 March 1690 a mine rich in silver and silver ore was discovered in a common called Esgair Hir in the parish of Llanfihangel Genau'r Glyn, Cardiganshire. It 1 P.R.O. 127/17. 2 Mackworth, Sir Humphrey, The Mine-Adventure (London, 1698), p. 13. 3 Luttrell, Narcissus, A Brief historical relation of State Affairs (London, 1857), ii, 255-6, 258, 309.