PART VI. CLASS XIX. Game.* * In the following Series of the Statutes relating to Game, I have availed myself of the assistance of Mr. Chitty's Treatise on that subject. The Statutes of which the Contents are given seem to include all those of a general nature, which are referrible to the existing practice of the Law, with the exception of those relating to Game Certificates; and which, in conformity with the general principle of the Work, as not comprising matters of Revenue, I have thought it requisite to exclude. But several of the more ancient Statutes, of which the Titles only are here inserted, are still in force, although they have fallen into disuse. [No. I. ]-CHARTA FORESTE.-As made A. D. 1215, and confirmed by 9 Henry III. 28 Edw. I. and 52 Hen. III. c. 5. [ No. II. ] Stat. Merton, 20 Hen. III. c. 11. A. D. 1235. [Lords shall not imprison Offenders at their own Wills, for Trespasses in their Parks and Ponds.] [ No. III.] Stat. Westm. 1. 3 Edw. I. c. 20. A.D. 1275. [The Punishment for Offences committed in Parks and Ponds.] [ No. IV. ] Stat. de Malefactoribus in Parcis, Anno 21 Edw. I. Stat. 2. A. D. 1293. [ No. V. ] Ordinatio Forestæ, made 33 Edw. I. Stat. 5. Anno Dom. 1305. [ No. VI. ] Ordinatio Forestæ, made Anno 34 Edw. I. Stat. 5. Anno Dom. 1306. [ No. VII.] 1 Edw. III. Stat. 1. c. 8. A. D. 1327. [How he shall be used that is taken for any Offence in the Forest. Stat. 3 Ed. I. 20. St. 9 H. 3. st. 2. c. 10. 11. & 16.-A Remedy for the Prisoner if the Warden of the Forest will not bail him. St. 7 R. 2. c. 4. Regist. p. 80. Carth. 78.] [ No. VIII. ] 1 Edw. III. Stat. 2. c. 1. Anno Dom. 1327. [A Confirmation of Charters, Perambulation of Forests. Charters hereof. 16 Čar. 1. c. 15.-Using of Woods within the Forest.-The Temporalities of Bishops.] [ No. IX. ] 34 Edw. III. c. 22. Anno Dom. 1360. [In what sort one Man's Hawk taken up by another shall be used.-Stealing a Hawk. Enforced by 37 Edw. 3. c. 19. which makes the Offence Felony.] [ No. X. ] 37 Edw. III. c. 19. Anno Dom. 1363. [How each Person shall use a Hawk of another Man's that he taketh up.-The concealing or embezzling of a Hawk is Felony.] [ No. XI. ] 7 Richard II. Anno Dom. 1383. [General Protection of Juries relating to Forests.-None shall be taken or imprisoned by the Officers of the Forest without Indictment, &c. Regist. fo. 80. 9 H. 3. st. 2. c. 10. 11. & 16. 1 Edw. 3. st. 1. c. 8.] [ No. XII. ] 13 Richard II. Stat. 1. c. 13. A. D. 1389.— None shall hunt but they which have a sufficient Living. [ No. XIII. ] 1 Hen. VII. c. 7. A. D. 1485.-An Act shewing the Penalty for hunting in the Night, or with Disguising. [No. XIV. ] 11 Hen. VII. c. 17. A. D. 1494.-The Forfeiture for taking of Fesants or Partridges, or the Eggs of Hawks or Swans. [ No. XV. ] 19 Hen. VII. c. 11. Anno Dom. 1503.-For Deerhayes and Buckstalls, [ No. XVI. ] 14 and 15 Hen. VIII. c. 10. A. D. 1523.— The Penalty for unlawfully hunting the Hare. [No. XVII. ] 25 Hen. VIII. c. 11. A. D. 1533.-To avoid destroying of Wild-fowl. [No. XVIII. ] 5 Eliz. c. 21. A.D. 1562.-An Act for punishing of unlawful taking of Fish, Deer, or Hawks. [I. How Persons for unlawful Fishing, hunting in a Park, and taking of Hawks or Hawks' Eggs out of another's Ground, shall be punished.] [III. The Penalty for breaking of a Park, and hunting of Deer. 3 Jac. I. c. 13. Co. pl. 361.-The Penalty for taking of Hawks or Hawks' Eggs out of another's Ground.] [IV. A Park inclosed without Licence of the Queen, &c.] The other Sections are inserted ante, title Fish. [No. XIX. ] 23 Eliz. c. 10. A. D. 1581.—An Act for the Preservation of Pheasants and Partridges. [No. XX. ] 1 or 2 James I. c. 27. A. D. 1604.-An Act for the better Execution of the Intent and Meaning of former Statutes made against shooting in Guns, and for the Preservation of the Game of Pheasants and Par tridges, and against the destroying of Hares with Hare- No. XX. pipes, and tracing Hares in the Snow." 1 or 2 James 1. c. 27. 1 or 2 James I. c. 27. Penalties for FORASMUCH as there be divers good and necessary laws and statutes which do inflict and impose divers great and heavy penalties ⚫ punishments and forfeitures upon such as should with any guns nets • cross-bows or other instruments or engines spoil or destroy the game ⚫ of pheasants partridges hearn mallard and such like, and upon such as kill or destroy hares with hare-pipes cords or other engines, or should kill any hare by tracing and coursing them with dogs in the snow: And nevertheless of late years the several games above-mentioned destroying of have been more excessively and outrageously spoiled and destroyed tridges, Pigeons, Pheasants, Parthan hath been in former ages, especially by the vulgar sort and men Hares. of small worth making a trade and a living of the spoiling and de⚫stroying of the said games, who are not of sufficiency to pay the said ⚫ penalties in the said statutes mentioned, nor to answer the costs and charges of any that should inform and prosecute against them in any of his said Majesty's courts of record at Westminster upon any of the ⚫ said penal laws and statutes; by reason whereof few suits have been attempted upon the said laws, and for the said forfeitures whereby the good thereby meant and hoped hath not succeeded, and thereby great scarcity of the said games in all or in the most parts of this realm ⚫ hath followed, and presently is and so is like to be if some remedy be * not in that behalf provided." II. Be it therefore enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, Burn, v. 1. That all and every person and persons which from and after the first day 485 and 490. of August next following shall shoot at kill or destroy with any gun cross-bow stone-bow or long-bow any pheasant partridge house-dove or pigeon hearn mallard duck teal widgeon grouse heath-cock moregame or any such fowl or any hare; or after the said first day of August shall take kill or destroy any pheasant partridge house-dove or pigeon with setting-dogs and nets, or with any manner of nets snares engines or instruments whatsoever; or shall take the eggs of any pheasant partridge or swans out of the nests, or willingly break spoil or destroy the same in the nests: or after the said first day of August shall trace or course any hares in the snow, or at any time take or destroy any hares with any hare-pipes cords or with any such instruments or other engines; and the same offence or offences being proved by the confession of the party or by the testimony of two sufficient witnesses upon oath before two or more justices of peace of the same county city or town corporate wherein One Witness the offence shall be committed or the party offending apprehended, shall sufficient. be by the said justices of peace for every such offence committed to the 7 Jac. 1. c. 11. common gaol of the said county city or town corporate where the offence. 8. shall be committed or the parties apprehended, there to remain for three months without bail or mainprize unless that the said offender do or shall forthwith upon the said conviction pay or cause to be paid to the churchwardens of the said parish where the said offence shall be committed or the party apprehended, to the use of the poor of the said parish the sum of twenty shillings for every pheasant partridge house-dove pigeon hearn mallard duck teal widgeon grouse heath-cock moregame or any such fowl; and for every egg of pheasant partridge or swan and for every hare which any and every such person and persons so offending and convicted as aforesaid shall take kill or willingly destroy, contrary to the true purport and true meaning of this statute; or after one month after his commitment, together with two sufficient sureties, become bound by recognisance in the sum of twenty pounds a-piece to the King's Majesty's use his heirs and successors, with condition that he the said party so offending shall not at any time hereafter shoot at kill take or destroy any of the said games before-mentioned by any of the means aforesaid: which said recognisances shall be taken by any two or more justices of peace of the said county city or town corporate where the offender shall Quere whether this Act, as to killing Game, be repealed by 22 and 23 Car. 2. c. 25. Rex v. Harris, 7 T. R. 238. No. XX. 1 or 2 James I. c. 27. The Penalty for keeping a Greyhound, a Setting-dog, with Nets to take Pheasants, &c. The Penalty for selling or buying to sell again Deer, Hare, Partridge or Pheasant. No Punishment this. may hear Who may take be so imprisoned as aforesaid, and shall be returned to the then next quarter session and there to remain of record as other recognisances taken for the peace. III. And for the better preservation of deer hares and other the games aforesaid, be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and every person and persons which from or after the said first day of August shall have or keep any greyhound for coursing of deer or hare or setting-dog or dogs or net or nets to take pheasants or partridges, except such person or persons which shall be seised in their own right or in the right of their wives of lands tenements or hereditaments of the clear yearly value of ten pounds by the year or more over and above all charges and reprises of some estate of inheritance; or of lands tenements or hereditaments in his own right or in right of his wife for term of life or lives of the yearly value of thirty pounds over and above all charges and reprises; or be possessed of goods or chattels to the full value of two hundred pounds to his own use; or be the son or sons of any knight or of any baron of Parliament or of some person of higher degree or the son and heir apparent of any esquire; and being thereof convicted as aforesaid, shall by the said justices of the peace be committed and imprisoned in manner and form as in and by this present Act before is expressed specified and declared; except such person and persons so offending and thereof convicted as aforesaid do forthwith pay or cause to be paid to the churchwardens of the said parish where the said offence shall be committed or the party apprehended to the use of the poor of the said parish the sum of forty shillings of good and lawful money of England. · IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every person and persons which at any time after the said first day of August shall sell or buy to sell again any deer hare partridge or pleasant (except partridge and pheasants reared and brought up in house or houses or brought from beyond the seas), shall forfeit for every deer so bought and sold forty shillings; for every hare ten shillings; and for every partridge ten shillings; and for every pheasant so to be bought and sold twenty shillings of all which forfeitures the one moiety shall be to him or them that will sue for the same by bill indictment or information, and the other moiety to the poor of the parish where the said offence or offences shall be committed. V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no by any former person or persons shall or may after the said first day of August be Law where it is punished by force of any former statute or law for any of the said ofinflicted by fences for which by force of this law any punishment shall be inflicted: And that all justices of assize in their several circuits and all justices of Which Officers the peace in their general quarter sessions, and any two justices of peace or more together out of any sessions shall and may by force of this and determine present Act have full power and authority to examine hear punish and these Offences. determine all offences to be committed against this present statute, and to administer oaths as aforesaid and perform and exccute all and every act and thing fit or requisite for the due execution of this present Act. VI. Provided always, That it shall and may be lawful for every person Pheasants and or persons which have or shall have free warren, and to and for every Partridges with lord of a manor and to every freeholder which is or shall be seised in Nets, and when. his own right or in the right of his wife of lands tenements or hereRepealed by ditaments to the clear yearly value of ten pounds or more by the year 7 Jac. 1. c. 11. over and above all charges or reprises of some estate of inheritance; or of lands tenements or hereditaments in his own right or in the right of his wife for term of life or lives of the yearly value of thirty pounds over and above all charges and reprises; or be or which shall be worth in goods or chattels two hundred pounds; by him or themselves or by his or their menial servants (sufficiently authorised from his or their master for that purpose) to take pheasants and partridges in the day-time only with nets in and upon his and their own or his and their masters free warren manor and freehold or on any part of them betwixt the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel and the Feast of the Birth of sect. 6. |