Stannaries

Stannaries (Lat. stannum, 'tin'), the mines from which tin is dug. The term is most generally used with reference to the peculiar laws and usages of the tin-mines in the counties of Cornwall and Devon. By an early usage peculiar to these counties, the prerogative of the crown, elsewhere reaching only to gold and silver mines, is extended to mines of tin, which are the property of the sovereign, whoever be the owner of the soil. A charter of King John to his tinners in Cornwall and Devonshire, of date 1201, authorised them to dig tin, and turf to melt the tin, anywhere in the moors, and in the fees of bishops, abbots, and earls, as they had been used and accustomed—a privilege afterwards confirmed by successive monarchs. When Edward III. created his son, the Black Prince, Duke of Cornwall, he at the same time conferred on him the Stannaries of Devon and Cornwall, which were incorporated in perpetuity with the duchy. Their administration is committed to an officer called the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, who has two substitutes or vice-wardens, one for Cornwall and one for Devon. In former times representative assemblies of the tinners (called parliaments) were summoned by the warden under a writ from the Duke of Cornwall, for the regulation of the stannaries and redress of grievances: the last of them was held in 1752. The Stannary Courts are courts of record held by the warden and vice-warden, of the same limited and exclusive character as the Courts-palatine, in which the tinners have the privilege of suing and being sued. They were remodelled and regulated by a series of acts of parliament. Appeals from these courts are now taken to the Court of Appeal, and there is a final appeal to the House of Lords. In Cornwall the right to dig tin in mencllosed or 'wastrel' lands within specified bounds may be acquired by one who is not the owner of the lands, on going through certain formalities, the party acquiring this right being bound to pay one-fifteenth to the owner of the lands. An ancient privilege, by which the Duke of Cornwall had the right of pre-emption of tin throughout that county, has long fallen into abeyance.