Grant of pardon to the tinners of Cornwall, 1508

Anno 23 Henry VII (1508)

The King to all to whom, &c., greeting. Know ye, that we of our special grace, and of our certain knowledge and mere motion, have pardoned, remised and released, and by these presents do pardon, remise, and release, to Robert Willoughby, Lord de Broke, John Mowne, of Hall, in the County of Cornwall, Esq., (and then follow about 1500 names,) and to every of them, otherwise called tinners, bounders, or possessors of works of tin, and to the bounder or possessor of any tin-work in the County of Cornwall, who have not or hath not introduced the names of new possessors, or a new possessor of any tin-work newly-bounded, with the names of the works, in the next court of stannary after the bounding aforesaid, showing the names or name of the possessors or possessor of the same works or work, of tin, with the metes and bounds of the said works or work as well in length as in breadth, to the possessors or possessor of any houses or house, called blowing-houses or a blowing-house, in the County of Cornwall, who have not or hath not introduced the number of all and singular the pieces of tin in the Exchequer at Lostwithiel, yearly, at the time of every coinage, with the names or name of all and singular the possessors or possessor of the same houses or house, called blowing-houses or a blowing-house, with the names or name of all and singular the blowers or workers, blower or worker of the same pieces or parcels of tin blown or wrought in the same houses or house, called blowing-houses or blowing-house, at the time of the coinage there, to the tinners or tinner, buyers or buyer of black or white tin, and to the makers or maker of white tin, who have not or hath not introduced the marks or mark of the possessors or possessor of the said tin, in the said Exchequer at Lostwithiel, to be impressed, put, or written in a certain book of signatures or marks, being in the said Exchequer, before the same possessors or possessor shall sign the said tin with the said mark to the tinners or buyers, tinner or buyer of black or white tin, to the changers or changer of the marks or mark of any possessors or possessor so impressed, put or written to the said book of marks, being in the said Exchequer, to the tinners or buyers, tinner or buyer of black tin, to the blowers or workers, blower or worker of false or hard tin, as well with the letter H; as without the letter H; and to the blowers or workers, blower or worker of white tin from their own black tin, and to every of them, by whatsoever other means or additions of names or occupations they or any of them are or may be known — all transgressions, contempts, impeachments, forfeitures, concealments, fines, pains, imprisonments, amerciaments, debts, and losses adjudged or to be adjudged, abuses, retentions, and offences, against the form of any statutes, ordinances, provisions, restrictions, or proclamations, by us or by our progenitors, &c., whatsoever authority before this time made, &c. (This charter then proceeds to the following effect) — that no statutes, acts, &c., hereafter issuing, to be made within the county aforesaid nor without, to the prejudice or exoneration of the same tinners, workers of black and white tin, &c., or of any persons or person whomsoever meddling with any black or white tin in the county aforesaid, their heirs, or successors, &c., unless there be first thereunto called twenty and four good and lawful men, from the four stannaries within the County of Cornwall, to be elected, &c.

So that no statute, ordinance, provision or proclamation, hereafter to be made by us, our heirs or successors, or by the aforesaid Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall for the time being, or by our council, or the council of our said heirs or successors, or of the said Prince, be made, unless with the assent and consent of the aforesaid twenty and four men, so to be elected and named, &c., and the parties aforesaid, their heirs, &c., shall be hereafter otherwise charged, &c., towards us, our heirs or successors, with any customs, subsidies, or licenses of any tin issuing out of this our Kingdom of England, unless only as other merchants in the same county may be charged, &c., towards us, or have been towards our progenitors, in time of which memory is not, within our ports of London and Southampton, for any customs, subsidies, or licenses of tin issuing Out of this our Kingdom of England; but we will, &c., that the aforesaid Robert, John, &c., and every of them, merchants of tin, and all other buyers, venders, &c. shall be exonerated, &c., by these presents, from all new impositions, &c., so that the said Robert, John, &c., shall not hereafter be charged in any manner for any customs, &c., of tin out of this our kingdom of England, unless as other native buyers, venders, and merchants are charged, or any native merchant is or hath been charged, towards us and our progenitors, within our said ports of London and Southampton aforesaid; and further, that all pardons, &c., by us pardoned, &c., to the aforesaid Robert, John, &c., and to all other offenders or offender, breakers or breaker, of any statutes, ordinances, proclamations, or provisions, made, edited, or ordained by us or our progenitors, &c., touching any tinners, bounders, possessors, blowers, workers, buyers, venders, merchants of tin, or any other meddling with tin as aforesaid, may and shall be in our next Parliament, &c., authorised; and that all grants by us granted, and all annullings of all statutes, acts, &c., aforesaid, by our grants aforesaid annulled, at the petition and request of the said Robert, John, &c., shall be confirmed in the said Parliament, that as well the same Robert, John, &c., may enjoy all our said grants and annullings, so that all statutes, &c., before made, shall be revoked, annulled, and made void, according to the advice and council of the advisers or adviser of the aforesaid Robert, John, &c., to their best profit and greatest advantage as to them shall seem best to be done, &c.

And further, &c., we have granted, &c., to the aforesaid Robert, John, &c., that no supervision of our customs and subsidies in our County of Cornwall aforesaid, nor any searcher of the same customs and subsidies in the said county, from henceforth and hereafter, shall take for the weighing of any tin issuing out of this our kingdom of England, for his fee, by reason of the weighing of the same tin, so issuing out of our kingdom of England aforesaid, only the same as is given to him, and to all other weighers, by a certain statute, edited in the Parliament of the Lord Edward, late King of England the Third, our progenitor, holden in the fourteenth year of his reign, (that is to say) for every weight of forty pounds, one farthing; and from the weight of forty pounds unto the weight of one hundred pounds, one halfpenny; and for every weight of one hundred pounds, unto the weight of a thousand pounds, one penny, and no more, as in the said statute more fully appears.

And further, we grant that every weigher of tin, in our town of Southampton, for the time being, shall take from every merchant of tin in our County of Cornwall, for the weighing of his tin, brought or hereafter to be brought into our town of Southampton, the same as is given to him by the said statute, and no more.

In witness whereof &c., Witness the King at Westminster, the twelfth day of July, in the twenty-third year of the reign of King Henry the Seventh. By writ of privy-seal, and of the date, &c. “.