Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/532

 412 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. It is remarkable that the deed speaks sometimes ia the first, and some- times in the third, person. The next instrument is an inquest, 14 Ed. 2, 1320-21, held on the occasion of a wreck happening at Clovelly. " Inquisitio capta coram Roberto Beudyn, vicomite Devon' apud Ilal- londe die martis prox' post festum Sancti Dionis' anno regui regis Edwardi filii regis Edwardi xiv^^ per sacramentum Rogeri Bernheus, John Biryman, Rieardi le Sangere, Henrici Bleynch, Rogeri Cotelle, Walteri Eger, Stcphani Buteworthi, Alani de Clyfford, Rieardi de Dodeuesford, Nicholai Dalyau et Roberti de Wellesford, qui dieunt per sacramentum suum quod quidam battelhis venit de alto mari cum viii" viron[ibus] super terram Johannis de Staunton domini de Clofely in deceunaria de Clofely et est wrekum maris ut dieunt. Et dicuut per sacramentum suum quod Johannes de Dynham dominus de Hertillond habebit wrekum maris in hundredo pre- dicto per precium domini Regis respondendum in initinere {sic) de precio. In cujus rei testimonium huic inquisitioni predicti juratores sigilla sua apposuerunt. Dat' die et anno supradictis.'' The " virones " are oars. The word occurs in that sense in instruments respecting Saltash and the manor of Trematon, which are cited in Blount, in his Jocular Tenures, who translates it " boatmen." There appears to be some error in the original record in the last part ; but the substance of the verdict seems to be that the lord of Hartland manor is entitled to take wreck in the Hundred of Hartland, subject -to an appraisement for which he is to answer to the King's justices in eyre. It is certain that the lord of Hartland always claimed the hundred as appurtenant to his manor (Rot. Quo Warranto, p. 173, printed ed.) ; and I have before me court rolls of the hundred, temp. Ric. 3, Henry 7, and Ehz., showing that the lords have continually held hundred-courts for pleas, both civil and criminal ; but the lord of that manor and hundred does not appear to have always claimed wreck ; for on the well-known inquiry in the reign of Ed. 1, the jury returned nil to the question whether any one claimed wreck against the Crown in that hundred (Rot. Hundred, vol. i., p. 73) ; nor does he appear to have been called upon by Quo Warranto to show his title to that royalty, when proceedings were afterwards adopted against him. It is therefore probable that at this time his title to take wreck was only a qualified one, either as bailifi" or as farmer of the Crown, or was an abso- lute right as against every one but the Crown, to whose justices in eyre the lord was responsible for the assessed value. I believe that the lords of manors or hundreds on this coast usually claim floating wreck as far as human sight can discern a cask or barrel ; a vague and singular claim, but one which is incidentally recognised botli by Lord Chief Justice Coke aud by Sir Matthew Hale. The manor of Clovelly was found by the Hundred inquest, 3 Ed. 1, to be a " free manor," held as parcel of the old fee of the Earl of Gloucester, and does not appear to have been held as of the manor of Hartland ; so that the claim of wreck within it was only in right of the hundred. The annexation of the various hundreds in Devonshire to certain manors is, I believe, of immemorial antiquity. Clovelly came to the Stauntons by marriage with an heiress of Gitfard. The sheriff called Beudyn in the above inquest is named Beaudyn in Pole's Collections, p. 94.