DL 391207-1844Duchy of Lancaster and Justice of the Forest South of the Trent: Forest Records
This series comprises the relatively few surviving forest records of the Duchy of Lancaster, relating to the Duchy's forests mainly in the north of England and north midlands, with only two outliers in the south.
The most numerous relate to Needwood forest in Staffordshire, from 1609 to 1844, with significant numbers from Braydon forest in Wiltshire (mainly swanimote court rolls, for the reign of James I only) and Knaresborough forest in Yorkshire. They include too some forest eyre rolls from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, swanimote court rolls, forest petitions to the Chancellor of the Duchy, and material on disafforestation and enclosure.
The series also includes a significant number of rolls, files and other materials deriving from the eyres of Sir Reginald Bray as justice of the forest south of the Trent between 1486 and 1503, at the same time as he was Chancellor of the Duchy.
Finally, there are some miscellaneous records, including a perambulation of the forest boundaries in Huntingdonshire and a thirteenth-century view of the groves of Ivo Malet in Devon.