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 A HISTORY OF RUTLAND at seventeen marks over and above all reprises.' '* Edward IV in the latter part of his reign granted the manor of Leigh and the chief forestership to William Lord Hastings ; on his death in the Te"n of Richard III the estates were confiscated to the Crown. Henry VII on his accession granted the manor and office to Lord William's son and heir, Edward Lord Hastings. Robert Rokely was granted the office of ranger of the forest of Lee, co. Rutland, in 1474, with wages of I hti. daily and all customary profits ; but in the following year, when he was about to cross the seas ' in the king's company to France for the recovery of that realm,' the office was transferred to his son William, and the daily wage raised to 2(j'." Towards the close of the 15th century Rut- land Forest had become usually known as Leigh or Leighfield Forest, from the manor of that name, about the centre of the Leicestershire boundary of the forest, which was held with the wardenship. On the 10 September,'^ 1490, Pleas of the Forest were heard at Uppingham by Sir John Ratclifle Lord Fitzwalter and Sir Reynold Bray. Before them appeared Edward, Lord Hastings, as warden or master forester, Thomas Sapcote, the sheriff of the county, and apparently also Sir Maurice Berkeley as lieutenant to Lord Hastings. About this office, however, there was some dispute, as Everard Digby, esq., entered an appearance and claimed it as his right under letters patent from William, Lord Hastings, father of the actual warden. The forest justices accordingly fixed the morrow of Martinmas for the determination of the controversy at West- minster. Other officials present were Robert Rokely as ranger, and Christopher Paiker as bowbearer, as well as the two foresters from each of the bailiwicks of Beaumont and Braunston, the forester of Ridlington Park, and the two ver- derers. The five woodwards who attended re- spectively represented the Prior of Brook, the Bishop of Lincoln, the Earl of Warwick, Everard Digby, and Robert Maners, whose woods they kept in different parts within the forest district. There were also present fourteen regarders, eleven free tenants, a jury-panel of the king, juries of the hundreds of Martinsley (Rutland) and Gos- cote (Leicestershire), and of the soke of Oakham, together with the reeve and four men from each of the townships of Ayston, Belton, Braunston, Brooke, Caldecott, Liddington, Ridlington, Stoke, Dry, Uppingham, and Wardley. The justice seat at the Pleas was at that time at Uppingham instead of at Oakham as formerly. The claimants of forest liberties were the Bishop of Lincoln, the Abbot of Kenilworth, Sir "Wright, Hist, of Rut. (1684), 77; citing from Inq. p.m. 15 Hen. VI, no. 14. " P.it. 14 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. II ; 15 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 24. " Duchy of Lane. Forest Proc. bdle. 3, no. 33. Edward Hastings, Everard Digby, Sir Maurice Berkeley, John Cheselden, and Robert Maners. Among the presentments, it was stated that Thomas Parker, parker of Ridlington, and Robert Rokely, the sub-parker, had felled three lime trees [Le lynerey trees) worth 6;. 8rt'. each ; they had also killed, since the last eyre, eight deer when training their dogs [pro canihus suis ad arcum castigandii). The master forester or keeper had distributed eight bucks and ten does among the gentlemen of the district. Eight bucks and twenty-four raskells had died of murrain. There are a large number of verderers' certifi- cates of Elizabeth's reign pertaining to the ' Forest of Lieghfeld in the countye of Rutland ' at the Public Record Office. The verderers of 1567 returned 'that their is one Axe with a peculyer marke and a bagg provided for the same Axesealyd with the Scales of the regarders accord- ing to the tenure of thartycles annexed to the said Comyssion.' They had sealed and delivered ten dry maples and two dry oaks, viewed at five loads and four loads of windfalls to Thomas Overend, bowbearer of the forest ; and to William Atkinges, one of the keepers, two ' vermyn trees,' viewed at six loads. Anthony Digby, esq., ranger, took nineteen trees as his fee, valued at j^9 los. The township of Braunston received from the keepers of Braunston bailiwick forty loads of Thorley thorns according to the ancient annual custom, also tlie township of Brooke thirty- five loads, Belton thirty loads, Ridlington twenty- eight loads, Ayston twenty-one loads, and Upping- ham eighty loads. To the fencing of the forest ring of Leighfield and of Ridlington Park, the keepers delivered forty loads of thorns, and fifteen loads for the ring hedge of Beaumont. The ver- derers had also delivered to the bowbearer a tree for the repair of the bridge, six stubbs and five timber trees ' for the repayre of the raile in Lyegh- feld and plashing the hedge about Ridlington parke,' as well as another stubb for the repair of the pinfold. Further timber was supplied for repair of Ridlington Park lodge. Some of the later annual certificates of the verderers supply certain curious entries, of which the following must suffice as examples. Foresters or keepers were entitled, in the later forest days, to claim as perquisites those trees in the hollows of which they tracked and killed vermin.*' 1568. John Dyve, gent, parker of Ridlington Parke did take and felled one tree wherein xvas traysed one Foxe and kylled the s.ime in the tree, vewed at two loodes and praysed at iijf. William Atkyns one of the kepars of Brawnston Bailywyke, did take and fell one tree wherein was traysed one Catte and the same put out of the tree and so kylled, vewed at v lodes and praysed at viij/. iiija'. " In the accounts of the adjacent forest of Rocking- ham there are v.irious references to fox trees and vermin trees ; see Cox, Royal Forests, 251-2. 256