Durham Mining Museum - Local Records Extracts (original) (raw)

1723

Under the auspices of Bishop Talbot, of Durham, a bill was introduced into parliament to enable bishops to grant leases of mines. It was entitled "An act to enable archbishops, bishops, colleges, deans and chapters, hospitals, &c., to make leases of their mines, not having been accustomably letten, not exceeding XXI years, without taking fines on granting or renewing the same." The bill sets forth that there are divers mines of tin, lead, iron, coal, and other ores in the honours, manors, lands, and wastes and commons parcels of the possessions of the archbishoprics, bishoprics, &c., which, not having been commonly letten, the said prelates, &c., were disabled to make leases thereof to the great loss not only of the church but the public. The bill then goes on to enact and grant power to the said spiritual persons to make leases of all manner of mines &c., limiting the term to XXI years, without fines on renewal, and saving all timber, &c., as heretofore. This bill raised, as was natural, a great commotion amongst the copyholders and ancient leaseholders of the bishopric of Durham, of which the mineral riches out go the wealth of the surface. Up to the time of Doctor Talbot, it seems that the bishop and dean and chapter had been accustomed, whether legally or not, to lease out and receive and expend or appropriate the rents arising from the mineral wealth lying under their unenclosed moors or wastes. But to the minerals lying beneath the surface of bishopric lands help by copyholders or ancient leaseholders, they hitherto preferred no claim. This bill, therefore, if passed into a statute, would have settled a hitherto unsettled right to royalties of vast value ; and settled it by handing over to the bishops and deans and chapters, who had hitherto neither attempted to lease nor even made claim to the minerals lying under the surface held by the copyholders and ancient leaseholders of the bishoprics. This step seems to have alarmed the whole country ; and in the county of Durham especially the excitement was excessive ; for, although the enormous value of the coal royalties was not then dreamed of, nor the lead royalties estimated at their value, yet enough was known to assure the copyholders and leaseholders that the right to these royalties was worth any struggle in their power to make, and a determined struggle they made accordingly. The opposition seems to have been altogether conducted, in behalf of the Durham copyholders and leaseholders, by Sir John Eden, one of the members for the county. It was successful. So many alterations in the bill were made by the Commons, that its supporters deemed it best to abandon it for the time, and to trust to future policy for establishing the claim. [_LRS_]

• LRS — Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events by John Sykes, published in 1833 in two volumes